There are two ways to looking at old code: "I can't believe I wrote this code" and "I can't believe I wrote this code."

I recently tabled a small module for about a month. I came back to it and had trouble remembering what I was trying to do. Why did I name my variables that way? What was the point of this function? How could this ever work? If anyone else had ever seen that code, I would have just crawled into a hole and died.

OTOH, I recently wanted to build a new UI gadget in javascript and remembered once writing something similar in VB years ago. As I went through that code, I thought, "This is really clever! Was I really that smart back then? Why haven't I written anything this cool lately? Am I losing it?" (The answer for me and everybody else is, "If you did it once, you can always do it again.)

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1896338

Ask your customer, not us.

I'm not trying to be abrupt, but it sounds like you've already done all the right things and your relationship with your customer should have reached the point where you can ask them exactly this question.

Dealing with institutions can be it's own animal. The best way to learn how their buying process works is to ask them! In a perfect world, you may still be 6 months away from a sale. You wouldn't agonize over it if you knew, and you'd know if you asked.

In dealing with institutional customers, I even take it a step further. Before I invest any time in the sales cycle, I have them teach me what it takes to get a sale, exactly what I have to do, and how long it will take. Real buyers will be happy to tell you all of this; in fact, they may think you're sales amateurs if you don't bother to ask. Lots of times the buyer may be frustrated by their own organization and will coach you to be more successful so that they can get what they want.

There are millions of potential tips: "You have to talk to Joe Smith first." "Never call Fred on Monday." If you filled out Form XG7-B first, you'll save 6 weeks." "Mary only buys from people she meets through Bill or her Business Group." "You have to be a preferred vendor of XYZ.."

I hope you get the picture. Like I said, it sounds like you've done all the right things so far. No one here at hn knows what else you need to do. Your customer does. Ask them. Today.

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1897543

Hey you kids, get off my lawn!

  1960s: 
  Happiness Language:    Lisp
  Hack-it-out Language:  Assembly
  Bread and Butter:      COBOL
 
  1970s:
  Happiness Language:    Lisp
  Hack-it-out Language:  FORTRAN
  Bread and Butter:      BASIC

  1980s: 
  Happiness Language:    Lisp
  Hack-it-out Language:  C
  Bread and Butter:      QBasic

  1990s:
  Happiness Language:    Lisp
  Hack-it-out Language:  C++
  Bread and Butter:      Visual Basic
 
  2000s:
  Happiness Language:    Lisp
  Hack-it-out Language:  C#
  Bread and Butter:      PHP

  2010s:
  Happiness Language:    Lisp
  Hack-it-out Language:  Python
  Bread and Butter:      Ruby

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1893000

Nice, but still waaay too technical for my mom and dad...

Dear Dad,

My customers are small business people (retailers, wholesales, doctors, lawyers, etc.) who own computers that have replaced their file cabinets and some of their clerical employees. Those computers came with lots of stuff in them but need more as their business changes or they discover stuff they forgot. I upgrade their computers with the stuff they need. We call that stuff "software". They pay me. Well enough for me to buy you dinner Sunday night and take you to the Steeler's game. What do you say?

Love, Eddie

Dear Mom,

I sit in an office writing all day long. I have a fridge and a microwave and occasionally go out to lunch with people down the hall. When it gets cold I wear the sweater you bought me last month. I love what I do. I write stuff, kinda like Stephen King or Danielle Steele, but business stuff, not fiction. My customers love what I write for them and they pay me well, so you never have to worry about me again. I showed Uncle Lenny what I was working on and he thought it was great. I'll pick you up for lunch and a trip to the mall at noon on Saturday. See you then.

Love, Eddie

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891310

Investor: What are you building?

Entrepreneur: Artificially intelligent software that automatically builds sophisticated business applications based on the enterprise's business rules.

Investor: Your competitors are too entrenched. What can you do that's simpler?

Entrepreneur: Small business software that ties all a company's applications together.

Investor: You'll never compete with Microsoft. What else?

Entrepreneur: Tiny apps that all kinds of people can use to run their stuff.

Investor: 37signals will kill you. What else?

Entrepreneur: Social software that enables your sales people to understand what's happening in the global marketplace.

Investor: It'll never work. Can you do something more practical?

Entrepreneur: An intelligent e-commerce system that guarantees the consumer the best value.

Investor: You'll never compete with Amazon or Ebay. Got any other ideas?

Entrepreneur: Recipe software.

Investor: OK, if that's the best you can do, we'll go with it. Geez, I just wish you guys would dream a little bigger.

Original thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=829189

"To the right of where I sit, is my boss, the son of one of the Managing Directors of this company."

100% of the gigs I've ever had working for a child of the founder were absolute hell. Looks like you're there, too. Run, don't walk, in the other direction!

Now I'm not saying that all children of founders are like this, just that it's my overwhelming experience. I don't know why this is, but I have many guesses. Perhaps they feel entitled, as if they actually built the business. Perhaps they have stunted social skills because they never needed them. Perhaps they feel superior to everyone else because they landed in a pot of gold having earned it only by being born.

You are not the problem. Your situation is. If your work is good, it's because he thought of it. If it's not, it's because you suck. You can't win. Get out.

Once you're in a more normal environment, two things will happen: you'll feel much better and you'll wonder why you took so long to do it.

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1842719

"...but how would it actually work?"

Exactly as I propose in grandparent. Reread it if necessary.

"...they usually want to know about the work relation you had with the reference."

I will tell them that we are colleagues on-line. Although we have never met in real life, we participate in Hacker News together. Believe me, I know much more about lots of people here than many I know in real life. For example, I would heartily recommend patio11, kirubakaran, iamelgringo, or tptacek over some guy down the hall who I know nothing about except sports conversations at the coffee machine. It is 2010: in our industry, virtual relationships can easily carry as much weight as physical ones.

"Just inventing something is dangerous and ethically questionable, recruiters or not."

There is nothing ethically questionable about my offer. I will tell the truth. I will also include this thread. Recruiters have created an artificial roadblock to keep people from working by protecting their turf. This is just a handy method to turn that roadblock into a speed bump. If they are required to collect professional references, this helps them satisfy their requirement.

I operate under the assumption that everyone is telling the truth until I find out that they aren't. Then I have nothing more to do with them. So, your CV and a phone interview should be more than enough for a recruiter to qualify you. It they can't (or won't), then one of two things must be true: either they are mining CVs or they are incompetent.

"Then, what if the hiring company actually contacted you?"

I fully expect them to and I will tell them the truth, including this thread. AFAIC, your CV, phone interview, and participation on Hacker News deserves at least a minimal amount of respect from hiring people. Requiring references prematurely is unnecessary and insulting.

I (obviously) feel very strongly about this and stand by my original offer to anyone here.

A few asides:

1. I never give references until after receiving a job offer (contingent upon acceptable references). If a company is incapable or unwilling to make a preliminary decision based upon the interaction between me and any number of their employees, then I don't want to work for them.

2. I have a great deal of respect for competent and professional recruiters. But then again, you're probably not reading this because you were able to do your jobs without references in the first place.

3. To recruiters who are mining CVs, representing jobs that don't exist, or misrepresenting jobs to protect your listings, please understand that I (and probably most of the competent professional programmers here) want nothing to do with you. Please become professional or just go away.

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872671

"...i say to her that if the company likes the look of my CV then i'd be happy to provide references but i dont just hand out peoples details on a whim because i'd hate people to do that to me."

You are right. She is wrong. It's that simple.

To anyone here at hn:

Feel free to use me as a technical reference whenever you run into this illogical and ridiculous road block. Just email me one line of code to print "Hello World" to the screen. If it is correct, I will happily tell the recruiter that 100% of everything I've ever seen you program was perfect. My contact info is in my profile.

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872671

I know OP meant well, but I hated this. I hate the beads. I hate the jars. I hate the thinking behind all of this.

For the record, I'm almost as old as OP and this is all the opposite of how I think. I cherish every day. I can't wait to get to work. And to play. And to eat good food, drink good beer, and hang out with good friends and family. Yesterday, I jogged through the woods, emailed 15 friends, had cake and ice cream with my mother, hung out on hacker news, and wrote some really cool code. Today will probably be even better.

Moving a bead from one jar to the other is not only depressing, it's sick. Throw out those jars, OP, and get on doing what you love.

I don't care how old I am or how old anyone else is. I don't even want to think about my death, I just want to keep on living my life.

I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car.

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1868558

Take science to discover something you're good at.
Take humanities to discover something you may love.
Take at least one art or music class.
Take at least one advanced math class.
Join a fraternity.
Learn how to play bridge (and play all night sometime).
Learn how to play foosball.
Get drunk.
Learn how to play foosball while drunk.
Get laid.
Play an intramural team sport.
Get a part time job.
Eat something you never tried before at least once/month.
Get high.
Do original research.
Take a class you think you'll hate pass/fail.
Do 5 minutes at a comedy club on open mike night.
Hang out with a professor you like.
Get laid.
Do a web start-up on the side.
Make a few friends for life.
Go to at least one party each week.
Pick a major you love whether it makes career sense or not.
Get someone who has written one of your text books to sign it.
Blog about your college experience.
Get laid.
Go to Europe with nothing but a backpack for a month or two.
Enter a college talent show.
Meet as many interesting (and boring) people as you can.
Read good books.
Go without shoes for a week just for the hell of it.
Get laid.
Graduate.

If you don't go to college, exactly when do you expect to do all of this?

Original thread:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865673