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georgebonnr's comments

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Fog Creek’s Remote Work Policy

I think the only thing that would dissuade me from working at this company is the poor communication of these rules.

There is an easy way to communicate clear goals and principles without sounding passive aggressive and authoritarian. This writer obviously wasn't aware of it didn't care. I can handle high expectations. But I would be miserable somewhere where poor communication was the norm.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: The Dark Side Of Software Development That No One Talks About

I tend to agree with the article... while people can be mean anywhere, seems like there's a certain confluence of characteristics and circumstances that allows "jerks" to have an outsize place in the tech industry.

But I suppose to look on the bright side, I'd rather have somebody be a jerk to my face, even if it is subtle and insidious, than have them pretend to be my buddy and then stab me in the back.

I'll take being surrounded by jerks over trying to navigate some of the intricately constructed, intensely political environments that are common in the business world.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Yahoo reveals its new logo

I would think they would need more than anybody right now to broadcast a fresh and youthful design. This doesn't seem to be either. Odd...

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: Am I good enough for a developer internship/job?

Terminal (bash shell) and git are comparatively easy to learn. You can learn very basic functionality with those in a weekend... so no real downside to picking those up -- http://gitimmersion.com is good for git. CS fundamentals like algorithms and data structures are obviously another can of worms. Luckily, while knowing them will give you a far higher ceiling as a developer, they are not always required to contribute to a project in an employable way (depending on the company). So you could definitely get hired as an intern and then dedicate yourself to going back and learning the CS fundamentals over time. I'd say you would want to make it one of your primary personal goals over the first couple of years if you want to really get the most out of your potential in the industry. But it's not a barrier to entry.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Thinking bigger: a free engineering school

This is really cool. A lot of his analysis on the learning process (and what separates a good one from an unhelpful one) are spot-on. These are pretty much the same reasons why I'm doing Hack Reactor (Learning the right way with useful things to show for it in a very selective environment). In fact I'd say this program pretty closely mirrors what Hack Reactor (and some of the other top-tier bootcamps) are trying to do. The main difference of course being that this one would be free, and that it's for experienced developers, as opposed to new developers. But the principle is pretty much the same.

Looks like a great idea!

Only question I have is how they plan to attract the best simply by offering the highest quality classes. Does highest quality mean most difficult, or will they have some sort of standard for admission? For instance, admission at Hack Reactor is pretty selective (under 3%). I'd be interested to see what their specific plan is to prevent developers who may not be the best or who may turn out to have limited commitment from claiming some of what I assume are limited spots in the class.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: How to keep focused and working

If you don't feel like working on one of them at any given moment, do you feel like working on the other? Having two ideas can be a lot more forgiving in that way than just having one.

If they are complex ideas can you break them down into a "buffet" of subtasks? The idea is that hopefully on any given day/evening at least one of those small tasks will appeal to you. Doing something peripherally helpful is at least better than doing nothing helpful... as long as you have the energy to tackle the hard stuff every few days.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: You Can't Fix People

What's a problem solver to do? To put it crudely, stop being so judgemental. And stop viewing people as problems. Stop defining persons' entire identities by one (admittedly awful) behavior or attitude they exhibit. People are more complex than that. And you're not just a "problem solver." You're many other things... Some good, some bad. Some probably as bad as being a sexist or a racist, depending on how you look at things. Life is not math. In all seriousness the best suggestion I have is to try to maintain an attitude of extreme charity towards all people, and to constantly re-focus on the things that you and they hold in common as human beings with needs, wants, intentions, and desires.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: ShowHN: improve your learning efficiency

p.s. standard disclaimer: as always, congratulations on doing something / building something. That's worth something. But my honest reactions is that neither the concept nor the execution on this is set up for success (depending on what your definition of success is).

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: ShowHN: improve your learning efficiency

The tool to save content looks like, to be blunt, an intentional ripoff of the Evernote web clipper (the visual elements seem to be intentionally similar, as well as the functionality). So that's not cool. Also, whether it was meant to be a ripoff or not, what functionality does this offer that Evernote doesn't? I already have the flexibility in an Evernote clipper to choose whether I am saving just the URL, the full page HTML, an automatically detected portion of the page (like a text article) or, like what you show here, a manually highlighted portion of the page. How does this improve on any of that?

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Do I Really Want All This Stuff?

I thought that as well about the leaving Google post. Sometimes it can be helpful in life to experience a financial non-abundance (I would hesitate at least in my case to call it a lack) so that if you then do really well financially you are able to properly appreciate the flexibility it allows. Money won't solve your problems... it definitely can "grease the wheels" to get thing done more quickly and efficiently in your life, though. I don't find my identity or my happiness in the amount of money that I have... I can be happy earning $20k a year or less. But I do aspire to do cool, helpful, and meaningful things for others and for my family. Money can be an asset in getting things DONE.

georgebonnr | 12 years ago | on: Hospital Denies Black Teen A Heart Transplant Because Of Trouble With Law

From reading the details it looks like the reason the administrators gave was a history of unreliability in taking his medication and showing up for doctor's appointments, which is something they consider before letting somebody onto a transplant list, due to the severely limited amount of transplants available. That may seem incomprehensibly harsh, but from what I gather that's standard consideration.

The family is saying that it has to do with his criminal record, but they don't really provide any evidence to support that, and they don't anywhere deny that he has sometimes not taken his medication / missed appointments in the past.

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