ddavidn

Gemini is good, but please remember that the value could always go down sharply. It is not usually best to buy at the peak of the chart. (opinion, not financial advice)

I liked the weapon storage for keeping certain useful/powerful weapons, especially since it took me forever to find Hestu's second location, and the bed is nice to have as well. Mainly just a fun thing to have, and I'm hoping they pop something house-related into the DLC.

Agreed. I've always wanted a useful house in a Zelda game. Now I have one. And the game just keeps getting better (albeit a little too easy so far)

Futurecommerce [0]

ShopTalk [1]

Recode Replay [2]

The Changelog (as you mentioned) [3]

Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots [4]

Those are a few that I listen to regularly. I have too many podcasts (but I have a feeling I'll pick up some more from this thread...)

[0] http://futurecommerce.fm/

[1] http://shoptalkshow.com/

[2] http://www.recode.net/recode-replay-podcast

[3] https://changelog.com/podcast

[4] http://giantrobots.fm/

Edit: [4]

Sorry I can't shed much light on how to get through this. I'm stuck in the middle of it as well, ending my weekend being frustrated and angry that I wasted it. I don't believe that lack of enthusiasm is necessarily at play here. However, I used to be very good at this, putting in several hours of work and several hours of learning/projects over the weekend. Things that I believe (but haven't tested) helped me then: Feeling accomplished during the week, not sleeping in on Saturday, optimizing my home work environment for productivity, and setting very small/realistic goals.

To that last point, I believe both of us could benefit from the "GTD" (David Allen) approach. In particular, utilize the "Clarify" step to write out 1-3 small things you want to do each day. Instead of setting yourself up to "build a small thing" or "learn a subject," split the day's tasks into easy stuff like "init git repo" or "read first chapter of intro to Go."

But, if your week burns you out (my main motivation for a lack of will on the weekends) you may be better off resting. Schedule your downtime in addition to your learning/project time. Give yourself time before and after your project to zone out and click links aimlessly. And, if it suits you, get a buddy to be accountable with. Someone who's going to ask you on Sunday evening if you've taken at least one step toward your goal. Hope this comment helps.

Similarly, we hooked up the N64 in the motorhome on a tiny CRT TV and played split-screen (Tony Hawk, mostly). Great times, terrible hardware.

I think this is the only reason any of us landed here...

That's pretty similar to what I was asked over the phone in an interview for API support (I forget exactly what the title was) for Google Maps, I believe. I got the SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK answer; questions about sorting algorithms; and stumbled a bit on random Linux questions, even though I use it daily as my desktop OS and have administered various Linux web servers for years without issue. I guess I use the man pages too much. The recruiter didn't cut my phone interview short, but did tell me that the technical interview was going to be WAY harder and that I needed to study my Linux, low-level networking, and algorithms. It was a good interview experience to have, but left me feeling like I'd never have the knowledge to pass a technical interview there.

Interesting. I'll have to try it and see how it compares to my current gaming AMI where I just use Steam or Remotr to stream things like Dirt and ARK.

Flux has been awesome for me, I've been using it for a long time. Redshift more recently, but does a good job too. Twilight for Android is a very nice counterpart for my phone.

They may not be able to accurately answer the question, but that doesn't prevent if from being a helpful question. If your answer to this question is "no, not at all," you should be aware of that fact and use it to guide decisions you may be able to make.

I asked myself (now 27) this question when I was only one or two years older than 20, and realized I needed to make a change from what I was doing. My mind has certainly changed several times since then, and I expect it to change several more, but the initial "no" answer was crucial to getting me out of what was essentially a career in tech support.

Yes, that seems about right. I also do not get paid nearly that much, but the location (San Francisco), caliber of required employees and the overhead of benefits certainly adds up.

This has been my main HN client for several weeks. It works well.

I liked them about equally, but Atom is really slow on my work computer and crashes on my laptop. VSC is much more stable.

Definitely do this. I'd say even $15/month would be a good price point for a hosted version.

I'm young. I also think this is "weird." I am happy, however, when I'm alone and I remember that my phone has this functionality.

Allegedly, they have gone on some banhammer-binges recently for VPN users, as well as blocking many forms of VPN. Even spinning up a VPS in a datacenter in your own state and using a VPN may not work for you. I assume copyright holders have prompted this regulation, because I doubt Netflix cares too much what you watch.

If I made $100k, I'd move to a place where I didn't need my car any more. Good public transit is very convenient. Car maintenance is not.

I'm definitely going to buy this, start reading three books and finish none.

Great points here. Counterpoints to consider:

1 & 2 are different for everyone. I get an energy boost from working a certain amount of really productive hours during the week. Be self-aware, meditate, and identify the symptoms leading up to burnout. Err on the side of caution when it comes to preventing exhaustion, but let yourself binge on productivity if you're excited about the work you're doing. After you're done with that project, if you have a chance, take some time off and do something completely different. Surround yourself with people, opportunities and environments that make you excited to take a break.

I'm 27, have had a great job for three years and very recently dropped into this weird "stuck" state that feels similar to what you're describing. I feel like a robot that gets up every day, goes to work, goes to bed, repeats.

I don't think the answer is the same for everyone, but my best times have been when I was helping someone accomplish their dream company/project/etc. Self-employment wasn't fulfilling for me in the way I had hoped, but sticking with someone who has a great vision for something and being their support really helped me to feel momentum for myself. Doesn't matter if I was making lots of money, or just following the project and offering my opinion when asked.

My advice would be to seek out an opportunity, however small, to find something that has meaning and momentum. Mentally put your office work on autopilot, use your energy on the nights and weekends to find interesting people and offer your unique perspective on what they're doing. I'm not out of the woods yet, so take my advice (and all the other posters') with a grain of salt. Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

Edit: The thoughts Derek posts over at sivers.org have been very inspirational to me as well. He'll even answer your email if you ask him some questions.

I've got a lot of blog post outlines saved, and I'm no longer so worried about posting something to the internet and receiving critique. However, no matter how good my intentions are, I always find something 'more important' to do with 2-3 hours on a weekend. E.g. sleeping, extra work via side projects or freelancing. I just need to find a way to break it down into half-hour blocks of time, or to lock myself in my office for a few hours on a Saturday night.

I use Evernote. There are better tools for organization and prioritization, but I find that I get distracted by those things. So, I take it down in Evernote (or a Field Notes book if I'm AFK) so that my thought doesn't get interrupted by shiny things, then I copy it to Asana if it's work-related or just leave it in Evernote if it's a personal thought.

I've used Paribus, and although I'm not usually a fan of letting services connect to my email (even the one I use for shopping), I like it. I've received a few refunds from products that I have pre-ordered and then watched the price drop the day after it came out. Amazon has been happy to honor all these requests so far.

I think if you have the drive to become an entrepreneur, you will. My experience, really quickly, is: Intern programmer, two years college, two years working, one year entrepreneur, at my current job for three years. I spent one year doing freelance consulting and development, and it was a blast. I had fun, but didn't make quite enough money to live on, and found a job I was happy with. I freelance on the side now. But I'd do it full-time again in a heartbeat if I could save up some money and line up some steady monthly work. I don't think starting your own business is everyone's plan. From how you're presenting things, I personally think it's very likely that you will leave the "comfort zone" you mentioned. My reasoning: It won't be your comfort zone. I've never felt comfortable just doing a 40-hour week, and I think that underlying entrepreneurial spirit keeps me from being comfortable with the mediocre and ordinary (which my job isn't).

I also hang out with a couple people that bootstrapped their own product/service while working a full-time development job and they now run successful businesses by themselves, after running it "on the side" for 1-2 years.

As others have said, the key points are that you should ask for at least a barebones salary and you will likely be replaced if this company takes off. However, this could be a great opportunity and you shouldn't let fear or self-doubt drive your decision.

One thing I'd like to add, assuming the financials work out and everyone is happy, is that moving from CS/programming to a CTO position is going to require quite a different skillset. You probably won't be programming all the time, at least not after whatever project they have in mind is in a stable place. You will potentially be responsible for reporting/BI/analytics, systems architecture and administration, tech support (Yes, everyone is going to ask you for help with their computers), and anything else tech-related that comes up along the way. If you want to stay in good shape as a programmer, you'll be responsible to find the focused time to code, keeping your skills sharp and current, and staying motivated to do so. At this time, you'd normally go work with an established development team who can guide and mentor you, as well as balance the team so that you have time and resources with which to further your skills.

The only thing in your post that makes me think this may be a good opportunity to explore is when you mention entrepreneurship as your long-term goal. This is likely going to be a great crash-course in how difficult that can be. My advice, though, would be to get great at what you know and learned, spend a couple years on a great dev team, save some money, and I bet there will still be opportunities for you to get into a startup for all or mostly equity.

Hope this helps. I'm just a young guy who's seen some different sides of the equation.

FreeBSD was my first and longest-standing OS love.

Are we just here for the memories?

Yes, this is very important for my BUDR plan as well.

I wouldn't call myself an engineer or senior dev, but I have been doing networking and LAMP work for years and I still haven't qualified to get past Math 98. For some reason, certain types of math come easily to me (I'm great with subnet calculation and website stats) but basic things can be very difficult. It is definitely a goal of mine to go "learn math" from the ground up, even now. I just haven't made the time for self-study yet.