sl4yerr

I see where you'e going with this, but I might change your examples a little bit. There's a very fine line between just a simple Google search and a lot of what you're showing there. It might make sense to demonstrate something that requires more human intervention. The file conversion example is a good one, and maybe expand more on assembling trip itineraries, etc. IOTW, things that actually would take up a lot of time, where the value of the site would be more clearly demonstrated.

At this point, mentioning gun legislation is almost an extension of Godwin's law.

This is a pile of conjecture - devoid of any useful analysis or data-driven conclusions.

If you have the Karma to, please vote this rubbish off the front page.

Your point would be more clear if the article wasn't troubled with spelling and grammatical errors. Just like a programming language, English has a syntactical and grammatical form for a reason: it makes it less likely to be interpreted incorrectly.

You forgot to include the picture of you charismatically laughing and showing how lighthearted and simultaneously laser-focused you are.

Ah yes, that is the problem indeed. I assume it's published by RonCo?

Passive income is a myth. It's the HN equivalent of an infomercial.

Cue stories of the masses who had wealth rained down on them by doing very little work:

Google's lack of customer service never ceases to amaze.

I think you mean

"No, others sources are available."

Works for me.

I'd like to discuss how so many NYTimes and WSJ articles (mostly mediocre) keep showing up on the front page of HN.

Maybe it's time to upgrade the intelligence that's monitoring for ballot-stuffing.

Then why aren't you busy moving blocks of binary information in and out of CPU registers?

The real-life crossover is fascinating, especially coupled with the API. Now you can make a software version of that cow that sits in the refrigerator and moos when you open the door.

Airbnb aside, it's nice to read articles about actual boot-strapped startups, free of the Silicon Valley VC infrastructure. The force-feeding from SV gets tiresome.

Does anyone have any real-world experience with this? It looks amazing, but I'd like to hear from someone who's lived with it (if you're out there)...

When The Oatmeal starts telling you what's wrong with your industry, it's time to shift gears:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

Yeah, I agree with @hsmyers - the question is extremely general.

I will say, however, that a CS degree does provide the basic programming and debugging skills necessary for a career in software engineering. The downside is that a 4 year degree is quite pricey, and much of the content of a CS degree is more theoretical and less applied.

I recently had an interesting conversation where a fellow programmer made the argument that CS was splitting into two branches, much like mathematics: applied CS and theoretical CS.

I think this is an oversimplification, but largely correct. A traditional CS degree is about 20% programming skills, and then lots of math problems to solve.

The time is ripe for a good software engineering degree (i.e. applied CS), which would be far more valuable in the job market.

Kind of cliche, but Ted might be worth considering.

This article should be titled "Former TechCrunch writer drafts poorly-written inflammatory post to draw pageviews to his new venture"