pcsanwald

8 ms·

31.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
this kind of thing happens over and over in SV. the east coast equivalent is hedge fund managers who continue to blow up or just not produce, yet, always manage to raise new funds.
32.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
Did you find it harder to raise VC outside the bay area? We definitely did when we were raising for our Baltimore based company. Whereas now that I live in the bay area, I see companies get funded all the time and think to myself they would
33.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
on the one hand, it's hard to read too much into this statement: what else is Larry going to say? but if you assume it's accurate, you've really got to wonder who's driving the bus. A few months ago it's "let&#
34.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
The job market for good software engineers has generally been very tight for employers for the better part of the 20 years I've been in the industry (and I say that having worked for a dot-com through the '00 bubble and for Goldma
35.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
Sure. The basic answer is that I use a good running backpack and it's easy for me to carry all that stuff. When I first started, I was sparring (boxing) in the morning before work, so I used a eagle creek overnight hiking pack. it was
36.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I don't know about HN, but, I moved to NYC after college because I'm a jazz musician, and NYC is that jazz capital of the world. I've also always worked a day job as a software engineer. moved to SF last year for work. Both N
37.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I think it's rarely that straightforward. Think about how all the different ways software evolves: one way is, code is written when the company is first getting going, and before you have users or revenue or any kind of product/ma
38.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I don't think you're being too harsh, but the point is that a lot of the worst problems are relatively recent: This past year has apparently been horrendous, but I lived in NYC from 2000-2016 and the subway was consistently way mo
39.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I'm a longtime NYer who recently moved to SF. for the past 10 years I've commuted by running each way, ~3-5 miles each way. plenty of experience with bikes and cars in urban areas. Biking on the sidewalk is WAY more common in SF t
40.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
Kinda tagential to the thread, but what's the best book for an introduction to audio programming for an experienced, language agnostic coder (java, c, c++, obj-c, etc)?
41.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
upvote isn't enough: I love swinsian! Switched over to using it after iTunes introduced a bug where an annoying popup happens if you turn off wifi and try to play a song.
42.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
Rental prices in the Excelsior district seem comparable to many neighborhoods in Oakland.
43.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
This just isn't always the case, as others have said. Particularly with interest rates as low as they have been, it's often completely rational to pay off your mortgage as slow as you can. Also, you might not want all your money t
44.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
Most people I know that don't have white collar jobs don't have any expectation they will ever be able to retire. I'd be very surprised if the majority of americans were in a position to be able to retire.
45.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
The industry has definitely changed, but a CS degree has never completely prepared anyone to be a professional software engineer. There have always been a large set of practical skills that aren't really taught as core CS curriculum, b
46.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
The author states it's about 100GB of data.
47.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I third this recommendation. I've worked on a ton of data intensive applications on all kinds of stacks over the years, and this book gives you lessons learned as well as a very valuable historical perspective on relational databases t
48.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I agree, but I also think that if your product isn't where the VC thinks it needs to be, and you've got plenty of money in the bank, that VC isn't going to tell you to take all the time you need: they are going to tell you to
49.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
All this, as well as integrations: if a company is paying 100k for your software, they are going to expect it to integrate with their existing stuff in various ways and you've gotta support that, and a lot of times that involves hiring
50.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
The author uses several musical examples, and I've worked as a professional musician for a long, long time. Waiting for a music exec or manager to somehow hear your work is a terrible strategy. On average, if you wait around to be disc
51.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
thank you very much for listening! it's from an album I'm releasing in the fall.
52.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I'll make an observation that no one else has in this thread: Effectively managing an organization that is at least partially remote is more difficult, and my experience in the Bay Area is that management skill is often overlooked and
53.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
Everyone I know who has moved upstate has done it because they can work remotely as a software engineer, and they are either from there, or just like the quality of life / cost of living balance. So, I would say the availability of rem
54.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
The jazz guitar form of bikeshedding is discussing right hand picking technique. There is endless amounts of discussion on consecutive picking, alternate picking, sweep picking, gypsy picking, benson picking, etc. Have a look at Tuck Andres
55.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
There's also Mick Goodrick's masterpiece, "The Advancing Guitarist". which is still probably the single most inspirational guitar specific book I've ever read. I've had it for 25 years and still find it inspiri
56.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I honestly think the best thing to do is to take lessons, and ask your teacher if they have other students who'd like to play with you. You can also go to jam sessions if you live in an area that has a good music scene; I live in SF an
57.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I played electric bass for 6 months or so, then rented an upright for 6 months, and then bought an upright. I've been playing about 3.5 years, there's a recording of me here: http://paulsanwald.com/music Definitel
58.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I've been a professional guitarist since I was a teenager, and switched to upright bass about 3 years ago (I'm 40). The biggest advantages to learning as an adult is on average you are going to have money to pay for lessons and a
59.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
I'd highly recommend the "singing against a drone" exercises in "the harmonic experience" by W.A. Mathieu. You can do them with an acoustic guitar, and they will improve your ear immensely. The first exercise is sim
60.
by pcsanwald 9y ago
- Scaling down a company is generally hard and (lately) not done as often. It's pretty difficult to spend 6 years where hiring is your biggest priority (from executive level on down) and then all of a sudden it isn't. - It's

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