swecker's comments

Until now I don't think I have ever thought of the idea that greed could be applied to anything non-materialistic.

I fall into the same category as the OP and many others who replied here: I'm in my mid twenties, have all my needs covered, yet feel as if I've been missing out on some greater destiny that has been set for me.

My life is good, I have accomplished many things and I can and should be happy about them, but I find myself being "greedy" for more. I find myself looking for happiness in things (experiences and accomplishments in this case) that I don't actually possess rather than just enjoying the things that I do have.

Thank you for the insight.

Another thought to the difference in email and news aggregators; If I want to read a blog post later (but am busy now) I need to mark it in some way to remember to get back to it later. My email inbox, on the other hand, keeps it there for me till I read it.

I don't consider any of those things as shortcomings, simply aspects of anything involving human minds using a creative process. You're right that it's the same as all other forms of engineering, but I would also consider most of that art as well. With that I mostly just mean; despite the laws/science/logic involved, creating something new is usually a creative process.

I think of software development more as an art than a science. If those questions were asked of a professional painter I think we would hear similar responses. It's all by hand, colors shapes and textures can be amazingly complex in their combinations, standards would only inhibit a true artist, and a painter usually has no idea at all when a masterpiece might come forth. So my answer to "Why is is so hard?" would be, "because it's art." And "why do we keep doing it?" "Cause we're artists, and people enjoy art."

I've had dinner with many people in their homes, and at my parent's house my mom hosts a home-made dinner every Sunday in an open invite sort of fashion like this, so I am familiar with and really like the idea, but I have a question that a lot of the clients might have.

In this situation (possibly complete strangers meeting for the sole purpose of eating) what is the norm for after dinner socializing? I think it'd be fair to say that some people would just leave after they're done eating, but how does a host go about inviting their guests to leave? Or would hosting such a dinner automatically entail at least a round of talk afterwards?

If you can keep it simple, than it'd be easier to host. I just say this cause my mother's dinners usually last all evening long, and that isn't something I'd personally be willing to host, although a small dinner would be much easier for me to manage.

Not that you should try to regulate it by any means, but would you have readily available advice to users?

It does not mean that you aren't leading people, if you aren't trying to lead people. There are many great leaders who never intended to lead anything. And aren't pioneers leaders? They were the first and the others followed. If people are following that promotes the unbeknownst pilgrim to leader.

I agree that if you aren't leading people that you aren't a leader, but I don't think that is what the author implied. There are many many great leaders who are never seen as or talked about as "leaders."

Leadership definitely means leading people, and there are different ways to lead. I think of livestock. One can stand in front of the livestock and call them, pull on a rope attached to them, get behind them and push them, or get behind them and scare or whip them. Those are all different ways to 'lead' the livestock and can all technically be effective if done with the right skill sets. The author is talking about the "Stand in front and call" type of leadership.

"I know of a few businesses that build these internships into their model as a way of keeping costs down."

According to those regulations posted we see that a business can't legally have an unpaid intern to keep costs down. The pros for an unpaid intern would be; 'Intern gets experience,' and 'business has potential future employee.' Whereas the pros for a paid intern would be; 'Intern gets experience plus compensation,' and 'business gets profitable labor, and has potential future employee.'

Many people have a misconception about this. An intern is a hired position (albeit temporary), and working for free is simply volunteering. There are unpaid interns, but there are probably more misconceptions about that. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?_r=...

At the beginning of this article I was reminded of Paul Graham's "Hackers and Painters." If women tend to have broader interests, leaning towards the arts, than I would say that those that also lean towards coding would have the largest potential as innovative hackers. Although that's not the same issue as fitting in with a cs crowd... just my thoughts.

I like this article, but the title is deceiving. I read it expecting to find project milestones that hint to it's readiness to take off. I think a more appropriate title would be "How To Know You Are Ready To Make Your Side Project A Startup" All in all thanks for your advice.

I've been reading about genetic algorithms, and playing with some game ideas recently, and this game brings up some very interesting ideas of what one could do with a game...

I only get on hacker news once every couple of days and usually read only a couple of articles. I thought it a huge coincidence that I read two articles by the same person.

My thought process were as follows; "Oh great, it's just an ad for a book." to "It's a future book, could be interesting." to, "Hey this is the guy that wrote that article on Monet's use of black!" I guess it's a really good idea to give a good sample of what you have to share. I really love implementing more real art into design, rather than simply following web trends. I'm looking forward to reading more.

I think the point this author is making is not, "These ideas won't work, so don't do it." but rather, "You might think these ideas are unique, but they're not." So he's not shooting down the ideas per say, but warning people that if they undertake such a project they need to be honest to the fact that your "variant" needs to be something special and/or you have to execute seamlessly to get ahead of the crowd.

From a technology perspective that's pretty cool. From an ethics perspective, I don't think it really makes a difference, or will impact the future of war. It will definitely impact the art of war, but not on how much war we'll have. There were technically arms races throughout all of history and technology cannot change that about us. I can imagine a bunch of Englishmen sitting around thinking about the ethics of war because their buddies just made the Longbow. I'm pessimistic in believing that no matter what technologies we find there will always be humans that act like animals, but I'm optimistic in believing no matter what technologies we find there will always be people who will stand up for the right. I don't think this will really impact most of our lives at all..., but they do look really fun.

I feel so timid. Posting on Hacker News for the first time. I'm working on a new project, so it would be great to accept this challenge and join a pseudo-team of App-launchers. Count me in.