hellohowareu

This idea of gathering deep domain knowledge isn't very realistic in my opinion. Not in slow moving, poorly managed companies at least, when compared to being a solo dev or working at a fast paced, well-organized startup.

I built a full stack app in about 6 months, at one point, 5 years ago. (frontend js framework, backend js framework, SQL framework)

I now work for a company whose applications aren't much more complex than what I built, in terms of systems and complexity. Though the apps are definitely much more polished and with many more complete UX & usage options. It makes millions of dollars.

At least at most large companies which are lumbering, slow moving, where 60% of people contribute and 40% of people barely hang on by pretending to work

(largely because A. they don't know what's going on due to poor documentation and poor requirements gathering, and B. they aren't qualified in the skills needed for currently under development work).

As a solo developer, I move much faster and learn much more on my own, than I do at my current job. Why? Because I direct my own work, on my own projects. I don't have someone who has never built an application, who has a project/product manager title, trying to gather requirements for something they've never done before.

Not to mention that they've never founded an organization and led it to success. So, they don't understand how Apps are built, and the don't understand how Organizations are built and guided efficiently...

Combine this with a company that has a bunch of legacy applications and is now moving into somewhat over-hyped frameworks...

Yeah... Don't get me wrong-- I like the people I work with. I see a lot of under-qualified people in management who are slowing down the system because they can't efficiently organize people to do what they don't understand-- they have too many unknown unknowns in their ability to parse out upcoming work. Unfortunately, most of them were hired for currently-fashionable political reasons.

Posts like these remind me to stay away from Google for Business.

Google doesn't seem to care about their users-- This is a common problem with Google: There's no way to get in contact with a human-- unless you create a viral twitter post about the problem.

I liked classes to-- their lifecycle methods were so clear to work with.

That said, learning how useEffect replaces lifecycle methods is pretty quick to pickup. As is useState.

The lesser known hooks are what are difficult for me to understand. useRef is pretty clear. useMemo? I'm not quite sure what it's for, but I imagine it's not too tough to figure out if I spend a bit of time learning & experimenting with it.

So, although I liked the simplicity of class components, functional ones aren't too bad. They bring in some additional complications, but with a bit of effort it seems to all be learnable to me.

The shouts of vendors in the street is why I avoid cities in Mexico, especially CDMX. The noise levels in Mexico are so abrasive to me.

" The APA doesn't seem to be under the delusion that they can control how masculinity is viewed in society, anyway."

The APA-- the professional org. which represents the field of psychology in the USA--[1] literally instituted a definition of "toxic masculinity".

If that isn't an attempt to control masculinity in society, I don't know what is.

[1] "APA is the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, with more than 133,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students as its members." https://www.apa.org/about

I'm afraid I can't give any credence to a politically divisive & politically-fashionable concept as "toxic masculinity". Especially if "toxic femininity" isn't commonly referenced in the same context-- because without it, a concept targeting only masculinity is biased in my view.

Masculinity kept humanity alive in the face of various dangerous precipices facing a group of social animals seeking to survive during the course of their evolution.

Just because it has become recently politically fashionable to discount it, does not mean it is harmful.

Nor do I believe any absolute-ist interpretation that boys suppress emotions, or that society forces them to suppress emotions. It varies across time & space-- relative to culture, which fluctuates.

To make a blanket statement on the concept is just plain silly, in my view. Human emotions, cultures, and societies are not static.

Therefore any sort of claim by any institution that their <some number> of years of study results in <some outcome> which speaks for <some absolute phenomena> in my opinion, again, is just plain silly.

And it attempts to gatekeep healthy masculinity-- again, pure silliness which demonstrates the nanny mentality of those who attempt such gatekeeping.

a course on a topic does not dictate what policies in a society should or should not subscribe to.

Given that scientific discourse and outcomes fluctuate, we can assume the same is true social science.

Furthermore, social science is much more dependent on current fashionable political trends. This can be seen in the example of the American Psychological Association accepting recent political topics such as "toxic masculinity" [1] as new definitions in psychological phenomena.

Check out this PhD's work to show how usage of bombastic identity politics terminology increased in mainstream journalism in a non-organic way. It seems driven by top-down institution-based entryism. [2] & [3]

[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/ce-corner

[2] "Many trends develop over decades but I’ve never seen change so rapid as the breathtaking success of what one might call social justice concerns. Beginning around 2010-2014 there appears to have been a inflection point. Here from Zach Goldberg on twitter are various words drawn from Lexis-Nexis." https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/06/th...

[3] "1/n Spent some time on LexisNexis over the weekend. Depending on your political orientation, what follows will either disturb or encourage you. But regardless of political orientation, I'm sure we can all say 'holy f*** s**'"

https://twitter.com/ZachG932/status/1133440945201061888

I purchased the "Carson MicroBrite Plus 60x-120x Power LED Lighted Pocket Microscope"[1] for $15 on Amazon.

I love it for its portability and durability-- I can pop it in my pocket or backpack and check out stuff on nature trails.

...Checking out its amazon page I also see this related, more powerful product for $20: "Carson MicroFlip 100x-250x LED and UV Lighted Pocket Microscope with Flip Down Slide Base and Smartphone Digiscoping Clip" [2]

And a search for 1000x microscope yields this $60 one "LCD Digital Microscope,4.3 Inch 1080P 10 Megapixels,1-1000X Magnification Zoom Wireless USB Stereo Microscope Camera,10MP Camera Video Recorder with HD Screen" [3]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LAX52IQ?psc=1

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015MS8O48

[3] https://www.amazon.com/PalliPartners-Microscope-Magnificatio...

I'm more concerned about plastic fibers getting into the air via laundering (or simply regular activity of wearing them and little bits of plastic occasionally coming loose) than I am about the use of oil in the clothing.

I believe there should be more restrictions on the use of plastic in society, seeing as "Plastic Fibers Are Found in 83% of the World's Tap Water, a New Study Reveals"[1]

[1] https://time.com/4928759/plastic-fiber-tap-water-study/

"The issue is no one has any place scrutinizing or judging another because it is hypocritical."

Just curious-- do you mean that in absolute terms?

For example: Can a teacher/parent/manager scrutinize or judge a student/child/employee? Certainly this is expected virtually all cultures.

Or, if you hire someone to do work on your house, or to build a car, train, or airplane, let's say. You cannot scrutinize their work?

There are entire industries & occupations devoted to this very practice-- Inspections.

So, I very much disagree. I think observable premises in reality demonstrate a different reality from what you claim.

Saying something is real, does not make that thing real.

You are not the gatekeeper of what is and is not "misogyny".

Leave women alone? Are women somehow ordained with a shield against any criticism? No one can ever criticize a woman-- following that logic... women are always correct?

That sounds authoritarian to me.

Definition of authoritarian

1 : of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority 2 : of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people an authoritarian regime.

__________

The logic in: criticism != hatred is quite sound.

a definition of criticism: the expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes.

a definition of critique: a detailed analysis and assessment of something

a definition of hatred: intense dislike or ill will

_________

TLDR: disapproval does not equal intense dislike

I agree. I think as long as you have an acceptable degree of financial security, that it is very healthy to face new challenges.

As someone who has taken a few sabbaticals--including leaving an apartment to live in a tent for months at a time in order to reduce expenses while traveling-- the fear, I think, of a sabbatical, is a fear of two things:

1. leaving comfort

2. facing the unknown

Both of these are growth experiences. You'll learn what you can live without, and you'll learn various new things through new experiences with the people you meet, new ideas you develop, and beautiful new places & experience you have.

"misogyny"

Uh, no.

Criticism does not equate to hatred.

And the more the word "misogyny" is misused by being thrown around frivolously, the less useful it is as an accurate descriptor.

You do our language and society a disservice by conflating the concepts of hate vs critique.

CRUD is just one of an application's layers. It allows adding/removing/updating data. This is simply a data-foundation for an application.

Of course it feels the same across apps and industries-- it's a concrete slab upon which you build things.

Add layers on top of that, such as:

- Data visualizations. You have data from your CRUD, so do something creative with it. If you're familiar with ReactJS, check out open source, free libraries such as: https://nivo.rocks/ and https://charts.ant.design/

- Data integrations. Depending on the business you're in, experiment with integrating your CRUD app with external data sources via REST API or GraphQL. For example, a CRM like Salesforce or Marketo. Or a REST API in a particular business domain. Or a Google product which a customer might use, such as google drive.

Same here— in the east bay (Milpitas). I was alarmed by how much silt built up on any outdoor surface. I assumed it was due to nearby highways and busy roads. Left that living situation after 2-3 months due to the concern.

I tried learning programming off and on for about 3-4 years. Sometimes while working full time, sometimes while unemployed.

How to create an full stack web app didn't click until three things happened:

1. I took two statistics courses (one at a community college, one at a university. the university one involved programming in R). This really helped me understand that there are tons of different types of data, with different shapes, sizes, purposes.

2. I took a "Database Management" course at a university. This helped me understand how databases are designed and how they're used within the context of an app.

3. I looked up "What is a REST API" and "how does http work"-- specifically, coming to terms with what diagrams and code for these things means.

From there, I set my sights on building a full stack app in javascript. NodeJS (ExpressJS) on the backend, and initially jQuery on the frontend-- then I realized my jQuery project was turning into a mostly unstructured mess. I had heard about ReactJS, so I decided to take 1 month to learn it via Udemy.com (Stephen Grider's course). THen I re-did the frontend, and kept grinding on the project.

At various points, I lived in a tent in California, on a friend's ranch in Texas (did landscaping in exchange for rent), drove back to CA but failed to land a job (app was only halfway built), then I realized "You know what? Instead of living out of this tent in California, I bet I can rent a place for cheap in Mexico"-- Drove to Rosarito, Baja California, stayed at a hostel & made friends with its owner who rented me a cheap house for 3 months. Then went back to ranch in Texas, and 3 months later I finished the app.

All in all, most of the app was created part time in 6 months of part-time work (usually about 4 hours a day) (Prior to that I did some exploratory & design work on it for about a month).

The day after I finished it, I made a diagram about it. And a web portfolio featuring the project. And it's on github as well of course.

I applied to about 15 jobs. Landed one two weeks later, working with Clojure/ClojureScript-- I had never used it but the company gave me 2 weeks to pick up the basics.

So yeah--

- It takes sacrifice

- It takes focus

- It takes marketing strategy

It doesn't have to be a fantasy. That first job was $80k on contract. About 3-4 years later I'm at $180k on salary (that number includes stock & bonuses)

What helped me was:

- The mentality of "If you really want it, you'll do whatever it takes to make it happen"

- Motivational music & speeches

- Help from developers on IRC (Especially the #nodejs and #reactjs channels -- these days on Libera server). And Udemy.com / Youtube / StackOverflow. But IRC is a chatroom where you can chat in real time w/ devs.

Open Source Ecology is currently on its 7th generation prototype of open source tractor:

https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/tractor/

"LifeTrac is a low-cost, multipurpose open source tractor. It serves as a workhorse backbone for many of GVCS technologies. We are currently on the 7th prototype – see LifeTrac Genealogy.

The highlight of our design is that it is a modular design that allows for a high degree of modification and flexibility – such as scalable frames, interchangeable power units, quick connect wheel drive, and plug-and-play hydraulic power that allows for a driver and remote."

"8k-ish" I read this as k8s-ish... which makes me thing maybe 8k-ish could be your product name, as a play on k8s-ish. That said... ive been learning kubernetes lately and it doesn't necessarily relate to AI.

Thanks!

I was just curious about your perspective-- When do you mean by Helm is pretty bad? Could you elaborate? Also, how does it compare with alternatives?

The headline reminds me of an organization with a similar mission--

Open Source Ecology

"...currently developing a set of open source blueprints for the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – a set of the 50 most important machines that it takes for modern life to exist – everything from a tractor, to an oven, to a circuit maker."

We’re developing open source industrial machines that can be made for a fraction of commercial costs, and sharing our designs online for free. The goal of Open Source Ecology is to create an open source economy – an efficient economy which increases innovation by open collaboration."

https://www.opensourceecology.org/about-overview/

I am trying to learn Kubernetes for work-- Docker + K8s + Helm.

Does anyone have recommendation(s) regarding books, video courses, or live in-person trainings?

This is awesome.

He mentions not having a mentor... "“I didn't have a mentor to help me, really,"

But I am skeptical about that claim-- I think good guidance by good parents is arguably mentorship.

A quick google search yielded a family run HVAC company, Sasone-AC in St. Lucie, Florida, which is essentially a suburb next to Fort Pierce, Florida, where Robert Sasone resides. Nicolas Sansone is an owner & Vice President of Sansone-AC. Nicolas Sansone who is related to Robert Sansone.

I think it's likely this kid's father, mother, uncle, etc. is an engineer and/or entrepreneur/business person (or engineer/scientist of sorts) and mentored him.

https://www.spokeo.com/Joseph-Sansone/Florida/Fort-Pierce--P...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-sansone-25111132/

https://www.sansone-ac.com/about/meet-the-team/

That said, Robert's Sansone's accomplishment here is really awesome.

My dad was an alcoholic doctor and all I turned out to be is a software engineer (I say this with sarcasm and jokingly :P). All kidding aside though: I think having parents who offer good guidance does make a difference.

I think the claims in this article are dubious.

For example: "Research papers are considered higher quality the more they are cited by others."

This may be true in general, but what if there was a "hack the system" effort whereby academics colluded to promote each others' research... say... in a highly corrupt country.

There has been a long term battle against corruption at universities in China.

For example, a quick search for: china university research corruption

yields several articles. If I had more time today, I'd search for one in particular which compares retracted articles due to discovery of corruption in research, in China, compared to other countries. China's rate was astounding.

No offense, but your perspective does not sound open minded.

I'd recommend being open to other, unexplored (by you) possibilities, since one person cannot be everywhere at once, nor understand the experiences of everyone at Gigantic Mega Corp (100k+ people).

I think having a perspective closed to unexplored possibilities is arguably a good definition of naive.

"na·ive /nīˈēv/ Learn to pronounce adjective (of a person or action) showing a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment. "the rather naive young man had been totally misled" (of a person) natural and unaffected; innocent."

That said, I think you have good intentions-- You appreciate your employer. But that said-- this likely also results in certain biases.

I like programming in Clojure. My brain flowed pretty easily in it-- it felt very much like opening and collapsing computations-- in a natural way, like algebra.

I just don't like its enigmatic stack traces when an error occured-- it was difficult to understand the how/why/where of errors.

I did not like its relation to with Java. Nor the Java tooling. And ReAgent isn't exactly foolproof. ReAgent felt... buggy, and certainly not as easy to use as I felt ReactJS is. (ReAgent compiles to ReactJS)

Then again, it has been about 3 years, maybe I'll try it again sometime. Or at least another functional programming focused language.

I liked Clojure, but I was happy to return to NodeJS & ReactJS-- the latter being in higher demand, and felt easier to work with in terms of stack tracing, build system, and debugging. But yeah, as a language, Clojure itself is nice to work with.

Two annual quarters of negative growth has been the informal (maybe even formal?) definition for a while now.

Just because one party wants to change the definition to avoid hubbub to avoid losing political power does not change reality.

"the game is entirely rigged for those who have money. "

I'd say the game's outcome for an individual is determined by whether or not that individual puts in the effort to grow an in-demand skillset (i.e. development of competency), followed by marketing their skillset.

I used to live in a tent. But during that time I began teaching myself software development skills. Now I make nearly $200k, 100% remotely.

The only reason my career worked out:

- I went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and saw SWE as a top 20 fastest growing occupation, and as a field with a very high amount of job openings & among the highest pay rate. Yet requires no degree.

- While living in a tent in the US, and later got sick of living in a tent and drove into the developing country next door where I survived on a $5/day food budget (got malnourished, health declined a bit), I sat at a table and built my skills daily. Once I had decent skills, I marketed my skillset via open source projects, a web portfolio, and a linkedin presence

I literally just had a strategy which I knew was foolproof, and I knew the outcome was guaranteed because the data demonstrated such.

Eh, depends on where you decide to go.

Switzerland & New Zealand-- yes, to all that stuff.

But Mexico? You purchase a 6 month visa (which is just a paper receipt and a passport stamp) at the airport, border crossing, or immigration office, for about $40. Stay longer? No problem, just pay a small fine ($30? I forgot the exact price) when you leave.

Learn a foreign language-- Spanish is among the easiest to learn. And there are bountiful opportunities in the US to learn, between classes & native speakers.

partner/dependents-- of course, this depends

friends/family-- yes, but you can visit them, they can visit you. And if you're willing to be outgoing, you can build new friendships they sometimes even become like family (or actual family)

One can see it positively-- as a growth experience. Or one can see it any way they choose.

The level of ease depends on many factors, including how much a person invests in consumer objects-- such as expensive furniture or vehicles. Personally, I've always bought used furniture at goodwill, and cheap used vehicles. And so I'm not super attached to most of my stuff. There is storage available for some things as well.

I would want to analyze the inverse in order to see the issue from at least two different sides:

How does it benefit local Mexicans?

For example, having additional money in their economy: in the hands of tourist businesses, services businesses, industrial product (vehicle?) sales, grocery sales, etc.

Additionally, how does it affect the culture? For example, I'm a 100% remote software engineer. I love talking about Business & IT, and encouraging people to learn accounting & web app development, for example. And I speak Spanish, so I chat about it with locals. Most aren't interested, but occasionally I encounter some.

Where ever I go, I enjoy talking to people about how they can be self taught engineers (or self-taught in many domains, really). I encourage people to research the skills in high demand in their country, region, state, and city.

Why? Because it worked for me: Someone encouraged me to grow my skills-- So did research and saw I could become a software engineer without a degree, and lo and behold: I taught myself (mostly) via online video series, ebooks, chatrooms, forums, and 3-4 in-person classes (statistics, databases).

So, for me personally, I proactively intend to benefit the local economy where ever I go-- not just by buying what people are selling and thereby supporting their businesses, but also supporting them by encouraging their career & skill growth.

How timely for me personally. I am about to live in the Puerto Vallarta area for a while. I work remotely, and saving for cash for property.