nhashem

23 ms·

91.
by nhashem 15y ago
I'm getting increasingly convinced that AdWords is basically a scam. I worked on SEM optimization tools for two companies in the mid-2000s and ROI was great. Then ROI started to erode as the years passed as other players in our vertical e
92.
YC Interview Advice From a Guy Who Got An Interview and Didn’t Get Accepted(plus.google.com)
125 points by nhashem 15y ago|21 comments
93.
by nhashem 15y ago
You're sitting in a meeting to talk about strategy next quarter. Ideas are flying. People are talking over each other. Every so often someone scrawls something on a whiteboard. Then they start talking about dates and "quick wins." Esti
94.
by nhashem 15y ago
Well, just a few counterpoints here: - I gave font size as very easy example, and there are dozens of products that make that very easy. But a lot of our testing ends up being very heavily backend-oriented (e.g. "let's try this new optimiz
95.
by nhashem 15y ago
The problem with 'Shadow Work' is that it rarely benefits the people who have to actually do the work. My company has a homegrown A-B testing platform. Without getting too far into the technical details, the process typically occurred as f
96.
by nhashem 15y ago
What really struck home for me was Steve's line, "I hate... plussing" because I actually think his entries like this one are a great niche for Google Plus -- it's basically a built-in blogging platform/RSS reader. Facebook and Twitter are
97.
by nhashem 15y ago
(getting a Page Not Found error now... Google Cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qu58iS1... ) This is the problem. The problem is you're a developer at your mid-sized company, working directly with sales or analyt
98.
by nhashem 15y ago
I hate ties and collared shirts in general. Any wedding or other formal event where I have to wear a suit, I'm constantly tugging at my neck and ripping off my tie within 5 seconds of getting back in my car to drive home after the event.
99.
by nhashem 15y ago
The problem is if me and Joe use Dropbox for personal use, and then we come up with a great startup idea and want to start hacking on it. On like day 5 of working on this idea, you'll want to start sharing/saving some PDFs or excel sheets
100.
by nhashem 15y ago
Am I missing something here? The article basically uses crime as a proxy for "social population density." I'm pretty sure you could also use "restaurant reservations" as a similar proxy, but then I guess you wouldn't get to use words like
101.
by nhashem 15y ago
I'm Fred. I've always been Fred. I wonder at times whether this has been more helpful or harmful to my career. As Fred, I've rarely hesitated to speak my mind, and so I've gotten ideas pushed forward that would have definitely been DOA i
102.
by nhashem 15y ago
For policies like this, your company culture and the examples leadership sets are going to dictate exactly how something like this, or anything else not explicit, is followed. If leadership often takes vacation and doesn't do more than basi
103.
by nhashem 15y ago
This is great. Seriously. I cut my teeth in the early 2000s writing the type of PHP code that would make your eyes bleed. Global variables everywhere. HTML/PHP/MySQL in the same file. Career-wise I ended up going down a backend/databas
104.
by nhashem 15y ago
Because it's Steve Jobs, this is a great anecdote. I'm sure we'll hear dozens of them in the next couple days and weeks, all examples of Jobs' attention to detail and design resulting in superior products and software. Yet imagine your bos
105.
Was Steve Yegge Right?(regularlyexpressed.com)
75 points by nhashem 15y ago|41 comments
106.
by nhashem 15y ago
There are some good prescriptive ideas in this article about how to avoid "iteration-itis." However, any leadership that implores their employees to give them more 'raw' ideas needs to be prepared to actually act on it. I was once in an or
107.
by nhashem 15y ago
Very interesting idea, but doesn't another YC company (ReadyForZero) already do something similar? It sounds like Debteye has more options to negotiate/restructure debt, but I see a lot of overlap here.
108.
by nhashem 15y ago
The wording of this blog post is very silly, but I think there's a valid point in here, and that is: the right full-time job can still enable you to work on your startup. That job probably isn't at Google though. There are lots of software
109.
by nhashem 15y ago
I used to play World of Warcraft and I used a separate email address for all my WoW activities on web -- emailing, blogging, commenting on blogs, etc. One day I was about to leave a comment on a blog when I got a message saying Google disab
110.
by nhashem 15y ago
As an LA resident engineer myself, my theory (backed by an extensive amount of no facts whatsoever), is that engineers are more likely to "end up" in LA than to deliberately move there. Almost every coworker I have had is in LA because they
111.
by nhashem 15y ago
I think another key point is that boredom is inevitable, at least at any company bigger than a startup. Software engineering is about solving problems. You get hired, and solve problems. Time passes and you get better at solving these p
112.
by nhashem 15y ago
It's probably true that starting a startup is the only thing that can prepare you for starting a startup. But consulting is still a lot better for experience than a typical full-time jobs. What FT job will teach you about provisioning equ
113.
by nhashem 15y ago
I tried filling this out based on a situation I was in earlier this year (never got off the ground, etc) but basically it came down to: Me (only technical person, responsible for implementing core product, not familiar with industry space):
114.
by nhashem 15y ago
While it's a theoretically cool concept, the actual implementation doesn't appeal that much to me as a consumer and I'm not sure it'll really appeal to businesses. Would I want to get $20 at a nearby pizza place for $10? Sure. But how us
115.
by nhashem 15y ago
Arash, man, I don't know you, but I think it's totally badass that you guys apparently deploy code on Sunday afternoons. This was a pretty terrible oversight, but whatever your 'safeguards' are, don't do silly things like "only production
116.
by nhashem 15y ago
So many successful startups began as two or three good friends kicking around some ideas at dinner or drinks, or relaying some spike of insight they had during a seemingly insignificant conversation. Whenever I think I have The Next Great
117.
by nhashem 15y ago
There's a good point in this blog post -- "it's unfortunate that dealing with certain types of clients puts my civil liberties at risk" -- but it's buried in a bunch of sensationalist drivel. Lines like "it makes me racist" or "it could eve
118.
by nhashem 15y ago
My partner and I got a YC interview last round (no luck this time, unfortunately) and one thing I'd like to caution is that if you have a "chicken and egg" situation ("Why would X users use your site until you have Y users and vice versa?)
119.
by nhashem 16y ago
It doesn't work because this is what happens. You're working for your mid-sized company, a couple hundred employees, and they had just a great 2010. The parent company is willing to invest in further growth, and at the top-level growth mea
120.
by nhashem 16y ago
All these "now you're the dishwasher, gg idiot" comments I think are taking this too literally. We've all probably been "the nice guy" in some situation that did some mundane/tedious task, ended up being that guy forever, and ended up resen

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