As far as what my coding zone looks like, ours are very similar.
I have found working at night is the best for me.
When I'm coding I find that interruptions don't bother me, because I usually become hyper focused and I block out everything around me.
Strangely enough, I like to watch movies while coding. Preferably ones that motivate me like Limitless, or V for Vendetta, or the Social Network.
Turns out, if I have music or tv playing in the background that works just as well.
I try to eat health and, I don't drink pop or coffee (they make me crash hard once I break out of the zone.)
Finally, once I start coding I must finish what I sat down to start. That way each time I code, when I'm done I feel like I have accomplished something. Which in turn makes me want to do it again.
Here are quotes that I refer to when I'm feeling down
"There will always be obstacles in life but, they are only stepping stones to a great future" -me
" The Man who thinks He can!
If you think you are beaten, you are: If you think you dare not, you don't! If you'd like to win, but think you can't, It's almost a cinch that you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost. For out in the world we find. Success begins with a fellow's will; It's all in the state of mind!
If you think you're outclassed you are; you've got to think high to rise. You've got to be sure of yourself before you can win the prize.
Life battles don't go always go
to the strongest or fastest man;
But sooner or later the man who wins Is the man who thinks he can!
-a poem by Wlater D. Wintle taken from "Launching a Leadership Revolution"
"If you wait for all the lights to turn green before you set off on a cross-country trip, you'll never leave."
"If we feel afraid, it isn't what we don't know that frightens us, it's what we think we do know. The problem is.... our ideas about what we don't know."
-Allen G. Johnson
"Our purpose in life is to find purpose in life"
"Every man should be embarrassed to die until he accomplishes something great in this world" -Douglas MacArthur
"Whether u think u can or u think u can't u r right" - Henry Ford
"Seek... the counsel of those who have achieved the goal for which you strive: for in all matters, the words of the one who has prospered are far better then the words of one who has not." -Author Stevenson Willis
"Study while others are sleeping: work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing." -Willam A. Ward
"A leader is driven to change the status quo...." -Chris Brady
"Nearly all men can handle adversity but if you really want to test a man's character- give him power" -Abraham Lincoln
"To become a leader worth following you must give time and attention to the inner man. To leave a legacy that goes beyond accomplishment alone, a leader must devote himself to matters of he heart." Andy Stanley
"What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how much you put in the hours." -"Anonymous
"We don't control where we start our journeys, but we do control what we do once we've started"
"Success is always located on the other side of inconvenience"
"Remember, no one one ever does anything worthwhile for which they are not criticized."
"Great leaders learn to find defeat in every victory, and victory in every defeat." (There's always room for improvement, always!)
Every great and every great person has had moments where there seemed to be no looking up. But, have faith and keep your head up bc time heals all things. I routing for you!!
I submitted my application within the first week. However, this link (http://news.ycombinator.com/susrsvp) is saying that YC has no record of my application. Yet, the another page says that it has been submitted. What's going on?
I submitted my application within the first week. However, this link (http://news.ycombinator.com/susrsvp) is saying that YC has no record of my application. Yet, the another page says that it has been submitted. What's going on?
W3school.com is great of beginners. Youtube is a great way to see development in action, it really comes together that way. Blogs, I like blogs because you get the lastest of everything. All you have to do is check the date of the blog. Find people that you like and follow their blog. Finally, friends, if you can make friends with a descent developer that you can call when you get stuck that's the best resource you can have to becoming a good web developer.
Oh and dont forget firebug. Firebug is a tool that allows you to look at the html, css, and javascript layout of most sites. So if you see a site that you like and you wonder how they did it. Click the firebug button and it opens up the layout of the site. Then you can look and learn how they did it. Just firebug and download it. You can miss it.
I turn to books more as like a dictionary then anything else. Usually, you can find what you need online for free. Stackoverflow is a good site too.
That's what I'm doing whether we get into YC or not we're planning on moving to Cali just bc there's better opportunities for programmers. We're selling most of our stuff and saving money like crazy. Also I have an online job that allows me to work from home. If you find something like you could move and still work while in Cali.
I call this pulling a zuckerberg. I don't think so. I personally believe there is no such thing as an original idea. We are made up of other people thoughts and ideas, that we choose to either accept and make it apart of us or not.
No. I'm very passionate about the topic of whether not school is necessary. My conclusion is that it is not, yet I still finished 4 years of school. Now that I've graduated I found out I love programming a lot!! I wish I would have started younger. I'm sorry you lost your passion for it, but it may not be your passion that is lost but your direction in life. I would recommend reading a book the magic of thinking big.
It's unfortunate but we live in a world where society tells us to go to school, get good grades, get a good job, and then live that life style. However, if you look at the result of that you will see it's a bad plan. Most people go to school both time and money poor. When they graduate they get a job around about 21-24yrs of age. If they keep that job they're their income goes up steadily until about the age of 32-34. That is the age when most people's income levels flat-line. However, they don't only flat-line but they take a small decrease because raises are usually around 3% when inflation is around 4%. Then round about the age of 60-65yrs of age you retire. However, the retirement age is now around 75 (I think the current life expectancy age is 74 for men).
Anyway you retire and my income level drops to a 1/2 or a 3rd of what you were making when you maxed you income. Your back at where you started.
Here's an example. When I started college I wanted to be a supply chain manager. My starting wage would have been $45,000 my income would be expect to max out at around $90,000. When I retired, lets say at 1/2 the income. How much will I be making? $45,000! I'm right back at where I started when I was 22! That makes no sense. (Stats from the USDL United States Department of labor)
Many people say well you can invest but I don't think I need to say anything about that. For the average person and the volatility of the stock market, lets not waste our time. Plus most people go into so much debt after graduating that the invest doesn't have time to mature.
So my tone has been very negative so far. Here's my message of hope. I heard once, find someone who has want you want and do what they did. What I took from that is you first need to write down what, you want, your life to look like. Do you like to travel? Do you want lots of kids? Do you want land? Do you want cold or hot weather? Do you want to spend time with your family (man I could really go on about how kids are losing their parents do to corporate America)? And yes I'm support capitalism I'm not a hippie, though I friends that are. I digress......
Once you have established want you want out life things tend to work themselves out to putting you in a place to getting them. Your mind has a way of wanting to make things come true. So once you put something in front of your mind that you want. Your mind begins to calculate a way to bring it to existence.
So I assume you're going to school because you want a job that can get you a better lifestyle. Take a moment and make a list of what you want in life. Then look for things that help you get it. You'll be surprised where it leads you.
"Life is like a map if you don't pick a destination you're going to end up nowhere."
P.S. look up on google "The Secret the law of attraction" it's a bit spiritual and pantheistic. However, there are some good points.
I don't know if they do this or not, but they could make an api like google offering developers a platform to make apps and features connected to the site. If I were yahoo I would call out to developers and use my name to attract them.
Google has laid claim to so must virtual real-estate by being the number one place where developers put all their work for free at that! Google has laid the way for yahoo why don't they just start copying some of those things. Us developers have helped google get huge and most of it was free. Look at chrome with all of it's extensions and apps. They offer a platform to develop give us "free space" with appengine then we code away giving them more power with every key stroke.
Now we have the "cloud", the one holding the most data has the most power. If I were yahoo I would get into the cloud game. People won't leave your site if you possess all of there music and other information.
I digress with, have people thought about what cloud computing will do long term. I'm not saying that these companies are out to get us, well they're out to get our money. But, don't I think they're plan anything malicious. However, anyone can be hack even google (China).
Some people are just not informed enough to not put personal information in these clouds. With data mining these companies will be able to infiltrate our personal lives so much more then we imagine.
Anyway I will stop, and don't get me wrong I love google that was not bash but more of a passionate thought.
So, if I were yahoo, I would build a cloud, develop an api, attract developers, and maybe create a news site ran by users.
I liked this post. I would say not only do developers need to dumb down their sites. I would say people are really really lazy you have to build everything to bring the content to the user. Ajax is a great way to do this. I try to design my sites like it's for kids. Almost no words and very pretty. Then anticipating where the user will look and what do they expect to happen.
I would have at one time agreed dumbing down is dumb. However, I heard once that it takes a more "intelligence design" (pun intended) to make something that is really easy to use. Then a design where people have to figure out what's going on.
Also there is always psychology when dealing with people. Take the McDonald's arches, they're yellow because it's believed the color yellow makes you hungry. Pink turns out to be a depressing color. Green and blue which you see a lot has ties to our innate senses. So I would say in response to the comments about colors, I think taking the time to think about it is important. Not only because you want to deal appeal inane user critiques but also because you're using every part of your SAAS design as utility.
This was a great post. I found as I was reading it that many of the characteristics he possesses as a leader can be found in John Maxwell's leadership series. A small book I reffer to regularly is John Maxwell's delegating leadership. THis article was dead on with how as a CEO that becomes you main job. I recommend it to all CEO'S.
For others looking for good leadership books here are some others I like:
- 7 habits of highly affective people
- how to win friends and influence people
- Launching a leader revolution (great book my friend gave me this!)
- Wooden
- Anything from John Maxwell or Dale Carnegie
I would recommend to groupon instead of forcing businesses to give deals. Set up a system that has the users bid to spend a certain amount for a good or service. Once you have enough people agreeing to it, there's no way a business would turn it down. You could cut the work force in half and let the users have control of where they get deals. That's my 2 cents.
I have found working at night is the best for me.
When I'm coding I find that interruptions don't bother me, because I usually become hyper focused and I block out everything around me.
Strangely enough, I like to watch movies while coding. Preferably ones that motivate me like Limitless, or V for Vendetta, or the Social Network.
Turns out, if I have music or tv playing in the background that works just as well.
I try to eat health and, I don't drink pop or coffee (they make me crash hard once I break out of the zone.)
Finally, once I start coding I must finish what I sat down to start. That way each time I code, when I'm done I feel like I have accomplished something. Which in turn makes me want to do it again.