gregjor

17 ms·

181.
by gregjor 2y ago
A few months ago I closed a long-standing account with a bank because they made their app unusable with pop-ups, unwanted "AI" chatbots, a painful start-up time (or timeout). Maybe they don't lose a lot of business but as lon
182.
by gregjor 2y ago
I envy his resume and accomplishments too. Especially since we started programming at about the same time, back in the stone age of mainframes.
183.
by gregjor 2y ago
Maybe not insightful to some, but I know from experience that plenty of people working as programmers do not think about this. It helps to remind them. Unfortunately the Venn diagram of programmers who might benefit from this information an
184.
by gregjor 2y ago
I don't use frameworks. I've had to extract customers from their over-commitment to frameworks when they inevitably hit a limitation, had to change the framework core, then got stuck at that version forever. Ironically PHP works f
185.
by gregjor 2y ago
Exactly. Great comment. Rob Pike (a few years older than me) didn't mention a few relevant facts. Those mainframes cost a small fortune, so their owners valued the computing resources. That pressure to control costs, along with the som
186.
by gregjor 2y ago
You describe FOMO -- fear of missing out. A lot of what gets announced and contributes to the illusion of constant change and "so much happening these days" amounts to fad and fashion, mostly short-lived and niche. You don't
187.
by gregjor 2y ago
Like so many things, it depends. You have to consider risk, to the data, to the user experience, to the other work going on. Changing some text or a button, adding a new report, sure, push to master and deploy. Low risk. Other kinds of chan
188.
by gregjor 2y ago
I think people in the business will understand that most of the people laid off lately didn't get axed because of low performance, at least not their own. Massive layoffs and ham-fisted announcements about cutting "low performers&
189.
by gregjor 2y ago
LinkedIn already has this feature: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1379064
190.
by gregjor 2y ago
You can read skills issue as an insult or call it gatekeeping. I meant it literally: not learning common and fundamental skills of the craft of programming. Worse, dismissing tools as arcane or poorly-designed rather than learning how to
191.
by gregjor 2y ago
Not transferable? In the context of the most widely-used server operating system? I have transferred Unix skills for decades, from one job and project to the next. Even Windows can run a Linux subsystem now. Having learned Unix/Linux a
192.
by gregjor 2y ago
You have a manky version or an alias over find somewhere. On my system Ubuntu 24.04: $ find --version find (GNU findutils) 4.9.0 $ find --help works $ find -help works $ man find then /help works
193.
by gregjor 2y ago
Sure. That's why --help and man and info exist, along with the volumes of online and printed documentation. The Unix/Linux shell and command line tools have to rank near the top of most-documented software in use. When I wrote &qu
194.
by gregjor 2y ago
Unix and the CLI tools represent a huge part of the foundation so much newer software sits on. No one can just change the commands and flags to make them less "arcane" or more "systematized" without breaking millions of
195.
by gregjor 2y ago
I meant that people who struggle to use basic CLI tools have a skills issue. The tools date from decades ago, got embedded in millions of scripts and workflows, and so their UI won't change. Like it or not we have to accept those tools
196.
by gregjor 2y ago
Probably more a matter of history and habit than something fundamentally different about perception. I didn't have a terminal or computer that could display colors until I was well into my career, already used to monochrome displays an
197.
by gregjor 2y ago
Tim Ferriss got here almost two decades ago. Allen Morgenstern came up with "Work smarter, not harder" back in the 1930s. Not an original idea. Did you mean to post this on LinkedIn?
198.
by gregjor 2y ago
I’ve tried many syntax coloring schemes and always end up back with (almost) none. I use a vim theme that shows black on white except for grayed out comments. I’ve turned off most colors in my shell and tmux too. I do have production server
199.
by gregjor 2y ago
A good catalog of mostly skills issues. Many of the points raised point to real glitches, cruft, and frustrations with using the CLI. Those get more frustrating for people who only occasionally use the CLI, and less so for those of us who l
200.
by gregjor 2y ago
I don't know why you mention Catholicism. It was the Hebrews following Moses out of Egypt who made the Golden Calf. That happened over a thousand years before Jesus and a little less than 2,000 years before anything you can call "
201.
by gregjor 2y ago
Has worked for Musk so far. And Trump. Seems like a path to success.
202.
by gregjor 2y ago
When does that age start? Secret tech doesn't stay secret for long now, in the age of organic regular intelligence.
203.
by gregjor 2y ago
That's a great description of your product and target market. You should put that on your site as the value proposition. I have tried a few times to set up portals for clients to review work and communicate on projects. Generally they
204.
by gregjor 2y ago
Rule 13 from The Elements of Programming Style : > Write first in easy-to-understand pseudo language; then translate into whatever language you have to use. [1] I write in a simplified version of C. Pseudocode helps you concentrate on t
205.
by gregjor 2y ago
I wouldn't base your assessment of the number of PHP jobs on what gets posted on HN. Most jobs don't get posted online at all. Of those that do only a small fraction get on HN. This site targets startups, few of which will choose
206.
by gregjor 2y ago
Optimizing your spot in the shallow end of a polluted pool... I don't see the point. LinkedIn already close to useless, this kind of thing just devalues it even more.
207.
by gregjor 2y ago
I see so many of these freelancer-oriented project management and time tracking/invoicing tools announced. Sincere question: what freelancers need things like this? I have worked as a solo freelancer (programming and systems admin) for
208.
by gregjor 2y ago
List all of BIG THINGS (by your standard) that happened in the last decade. Did you actually miss out by not learning about them soon enough? You can safely consume a lot less media and ignore most of it. You won't miss much.
209.
by gregjor 2y ago
Go to places where other people go: parks, pubs, restaurants. Make a habit of talking to at least one stranger every day. Just introduce yourself, smile, look curious. Stay open to meeting all sorts of people. Keep in mind that people in so
210.
by gregjor 2y ago
Ask any public school teacher and they will tell you that the number one determinant of success for a student comes down to parental involvement. They might also tell you that school administrations ignore and sometimes actively fight again

More ›