Ask HN: What have you learned in 2014 so far?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7397165

by JacksonGariety • 12 years ago

13 14 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Anything at all.

Mine: You rarely need to under-estimate the time it'll take to do something. Over-estimate and deliver early, you'll earn a lot of credit from people by doing so.

trustfundbaby2• 12 years ago

All the time you hear about smart, gets-shit-done types that can take your company to the next level, or the opposite, the non-productive, not as smart, jerks or assholes that could be detrimental to your startup.

What is 1000 times more insidious is very smart, insecure people. You hire people like that and they'd destroy your company from the inside, because they're (probably) affable, do good work and are so good at navigating internal politics that if you're not paying attention they can chase off the type of people you need and quietly toxify your culture without you noticing it.

The problem is that they are out of their depth, but are not used to failure, so they will do anything to avoid looking like they have failed at anything, including abiding criticism, or engaging in things they're unfamiliar with. If you put them in positions of power. Good Night, and good luck.

Fenicio• 12 years ago

As a smart and insecure person now i feel more insecure about trying hard

andrewcooke2• 12 years ago

meh. op is just a generic, post-hoc, bitter whine because someone pissed them off. you could replace the whole thing with "stinky brad with a stupid beard" and it would be as useful.

also, read anti-fragile and fail more often.

trustfundbaby2• 12 years ago

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about http://www.inc.com/barry-schuler/3-reasons-good-employees-br...

scorpioxy• 12 years ago

A few things so far:

Be careful who you trust. Expect the worst from people, most probably that's what you're going to get.

Most people have no clue what they're doing and are simply reacting to situation.

As for the more technical:

Best practices are mostly bullshit. There is no such thing as doing it right.

Analysis paralysis is a silent killer. I've spent the first decade of my professional life learning how to be a better programmer. Seems like I am going to spend the next one learning about compromises and getting shit done.

lumpysnake• 12 years ago

Amen to the more technical part.

meerita• 12 years ago

I have learned Sketch in general enough to produce my own work without the need of Illustrator.

davyjones• 12 years ago

I am still learning that the business side of things is tough, very tough. A finished product will not just 'take-off' on its own.

Sales and marketing is just as important as the tech side of a product.

vorador• 12 years ago

You should not build a product before being sure there's a market for it. Even if "it's just 200 lines codes". Scope creep is a real thing.

lsiebert• 12 years ago

You can provide power to both an anode and cathode so that turning off the power to the cathode completes the circuit by grounding it. Useful for common anode displays (seven segment and otherwise).

andrewcooke2• 12 years ago

a lot about julia, jenkins (and ci in general) and docker (partly i think, and inspired by anti-fragile (below), because i've decided it's ok to be wrong more often).

on the non-technical front, i've learnt i have a problem communicating in the culture i live in (chile) and that this has become critical (because it's affecting my health care). i'm not sure what the fix is yet. though.

also, reading anti-fragile has helped solidify some ideas i've had for a while, but which seemed unconnected.

and today i just learnt that you can't convert raid 1 to 5 and expect the volume group you had layered on top to survive. but i also learnt that my backups worked, so there's that ;o)

stevekemp• 12 years ago

* Being unemployed isn't so bad.

* Working in an open-plan office is hard, but not impossible.

* Markdown is even better than I thought it was.

ishbits• 12 years ago

That Scala and Akka are overrated.

alexgaribay• 12 years ago

Could you elaborate on this please?

Ask HN: What have you learned in 2014 so far?

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