dasmoth

47 ms·

541.
by dasmoth 10y ago
I think that the microcomputer market of the 1980s perhaps came close in places. The modern industry -- with its emphasis on teams and process -- seems like a reaction to that era.
542.
by dasmoth 10y ago
Historically, plenty of projects have worked fine without 100% test coverage and lots of CI infrastructure. If you're saying that collective code ownership requires these things just to work at all, that sounds like a fairly powerful
543.
by dasmoth 10y ago
The UK doesn't have tax incentives for mortgages any more, but they're still popular. I think the big distinction is that -- unlike nearly anything else you might buy on credit -- houses don't really depreciate. Even without
544.
by dasmoth 10y ago
> > A paid off home is a social safety net against homelessness > Stocks and savings are equally a safety net against loss of primary income. Landlords and letting agencies can be kind-of funny beasts, they're not necessarily
545.
by dasmoth 10y ago
Government stats [1] suggest well over a million homeschooled children in the US. This is towards the low end of various estimates out there. Certainly not non-existent. It varies a lot from country to country, but the YC guidelines are
546.
by dasmoth 10y ago
This doesn't really seem to cover products aimed at homeschoolers or independent learners at all -- are those considered a separate field from "edtech"? And/or are these things YC aren't terribly interested in?
547.
by dasmoth 10y ago
>>> Nonetheless, the basic principles on human behavior I've encountered in various workplaces were the same as I dealt with in public schooling. Other people good at balancing various tradeoffs in the schools did well in the
548.
by dasmoth 10y ago
>>> Honestly, my takeaway from the experience was that the client/agency dynamic just kinda sucks, and it isn't a dynamic I enjoy working in. What do you prefer? Single employer + Salary?
549.
by dasmoth 10y ago
The real strength of QA people can be manual testing. There's a local maximum of "meets the stated requirements but horrid to actually use", and a singular focus on test automation seems to push projects in that direction.
550.
by dasmoth 10y ago
"Tests can make refactoring much easier" is a statement I could easily buy into. "If your code doesn't have tests then you can't refactor" is pure dogma and trivial to falsify (go on, refactor some untested c
551.
by dasmoth 10y ago
That's a great landing page -- hope your business goes well.
552.
by dasmoth 10y ago
>>> I still work pretty much as a solo programmer, but within a large organization. I work on an important component of a large software product, and I'm the only developer who works on (or even understands) that area of the c
553.
Ask HN: Whatever became of the solo programmer?
5 points by dasmoth 10y ago|6 comments
554.
by dasmoth 10y ago
I don't think we're going to agree on this one. Hackerspace vs. "own workshop" are completely different things. If objective convenience is your only metric, Hackerspace might well win, but living near one places a l
555.
by dasmoth 10y ago
Also brings to mind John Sulston (Physiology and Medicine 2002), working for many years in a relatively low-key "staff scientist" job before emerging to lead some of the early genome projects. Quotes from [1]: >>> JG: Yo
556.
by dasmoth 10y ago
>>> Why bother with owning a house or a car if not with the end goal in mind of supporting kids? That's an incredibly... urban...? [1] point of view. For me, the #1 argument for owning a car is flexibility -- knowing you&#x
557.
by dasmoth 10y ago
There's a lot of "doing things the Ops way" stuff that's clearly super-helpful, if not essential, if you're seriously shooting for "five nines". On the other hand, I've seen it go wrong: for example,
558.
The New Minimalism(prog21.dadgum.com)
2 points by dasmoth 10y ago|0 comments
559.
by dasmoth 10y ago
If I have to share, I'd rather it was with randoms from other parts of the organisation than with close colleagues. Less of a feeling that every conversation going on in the room is potentially important.
560.
by dasmoth 10y ago
Neither of those are quite strong enough, I think. Some organisations have a great reluctance to build anything new even when there's a clear need. Hence never invent.
561.
by dasmoth 10y ago
For the organisational form, I've heard "never invent here."
562.
by dasmoth 10y ago
I don't recall Joel being much of a pairing advocate. Actually, more the opposite [1]. Are you sure you aren't thinking of someone else? [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html
563.
by dasmoth 10y ago
It can depend on the situation. There have been a few small offices where I've felt moderately productive, but looking back they've tended to be filled with people from across the organisation, working on different things. The &
564.
by dasmoth 10y ago
The argument has shifted to "worse for individual productivity but what actually matters is teamwork." Plus a lot of claims, some of them coming from practising software developers, that you shouldn't trust the output of the
565.
by dasmoth 10y ago
Moving around is good Being kicked out of a room just as something is about to click is... not so good.
566.
by dasmoth 10y ago
I wish this were true -- it would make the argument for remote work easy. A non-negligible number of people genuinely do seem to believe that the loss of individual productivity is offset by "team cohesion" or equivalent.
567.
by dasmoth 10y ago
I'm not so sure. Driving (okay, maybe not big-city start-stop driving) is somewhat relaxing because there's a kind of flow state involved with your mind focussed on the road ahead. Once the self-driving cars come along, we'
568.
by dasmoth 10y ago
If introverts were really "in control" I predict we'd see many fewer open plan offices! Counter-thesis: factors in modern society such as hyper-collaborative working practices have caused people who'd once have just been
569.
by dasmoth 10y ago
"Not yet available in your country". (Although there's a "waitlist" button now which I don't remember from when this first appeared, so thanks for getting me to take another look). Note, also, that "fewer
570.
by dasmoth 10y ago
Note that your site currently doesn't work in Safari (desktop or mobile). A quick glance at the error console shows that you're using the Fetch API [1]. Polyfills are available. Have you tried running any adverts? Ultimately, I

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