I Code to Procrastinate When I Should be Growing My Startup(blog.yumhacker.com)
blog.yumhacker.com
I Code to Procrastinate When I Should be Growing My Startup
http://blog.yumhacker.com/post/75911911404/i-code-to-procrastinate-when-i-should-be-growing-my
6 comments
This comment is really bad. There's nothing constructive here. All you said is "that's not good enough". But you have no idea where OP is in their development as a writer.
Maybe this is where they're at, in which case publishing it is GREAT and getting a couple good responses on HN is great, because that actual feedback is going to help them improve as a writer more than just leaving a note in their draft folder. And the way you get good at writing, like with everything else, is putting your shitty stuff out there. No one is born shooting diamonds.
But your post is no better than silence. And it's probably worse than silence because you we're mean in the process
I suspect you gleefully think you're being constructive, which makes it OK that you're being mean, but I think you're doing the exact opposite, which is the worst kind of contribution.
Maybe this is where they're at, in which case publishing it is GREAT and getting a couple good responses on HN is great, because that actual feedback is going to help them improve as a writer more than just leaving a note in their draft folder. And the way you get good at writing, like with everything else, is putting your shitty stuff out there. No one is born shooting diamonds.
But your post is no better than silence. And it's probably worse than silence because you we're mean in the process
I suspect you gleefully think you're being constructive, which makes it OK that you're being mean, but I think you're doing the exact opposite, which is the worst kind of contribution.
Sorry you don't like my post. I don't get how my post is "mean", i did not insult anyone other than offering my honest (but harsh) opinion. Your comment on the other hand is completely useless to both of us. Other than giving you a perverse feeling of self-rigteousness, what else does your comment offer?
(If you meant to offend/shame me, you failed at it)
(If you meant to offend/shame me, you failed at it)
I didn't mean to offend or shame you. If I was right and it was a kind of meanness then you'll hear it many more times throughout your life and you might some day decide it's a pattern you want to pay attention to. If I was wrong then you won't, and this comment will disappear into the wind and that will be that.
I have a similar issue with reading and writing (instead of doing more pertinent things). My current self assessment is that I'm adept at these things and they give me quick psychological rewards for delivering some kind of result/output. The tasks that are really important, require learning, or have a lot of ambiguity have long, big reward cycles, which I think make us averse to them by nature.
I think it's the immediate reward aspect of coding that draws me in. The more important tasks don't necessarily give a tangible result right away. With code, I can fix a bug and have something to point to and say 'success!'.
I feel your pain, that is me too most of the time. That said I'm the only technical person around to fix these things, so I often can't step back and spend time sorting out the big things, or even figuring out how to prioritize things in the most efficient way. I think a big part of the problem, for me, is that it's hard to switch between the focus of coding and other things like people management and creative thinking about marketing. Personally, my solution is to get a good project manager involved. Someone who has technical aptitude so they understand the issues, but also able to gauge and manage the priorities of the people and everything else that matter. That way it simplifies your time management around coding and that type of problem solving.
It really is hard to switch between different modes of thinking. I think that is why it's important to carve out chunks of time where you can really dig in and focus on getting stuff done.
Its after 2PM here and I was just saying to my lab-mate that I might as well head home since I haven't done anything useful yet today, but instead I opened up HN and found this!
I get that too. I think another reason is that I've been programming for so long that I have that defined as work in my head. I am good at it and I can make visible progress when programming. Taking meetings, doing marketing and similar tasks are much harder to quantify and thus I can do an entire day of that kind of work and still feel guilty about not having done anything.
This is exactly how I feel. It's nice to see I am not the only one who struggles with that guilt!
At least coding is improving the product. There's plenty of advice on what the critical path to success is - that isn't.
That is very true. Improving your product is a big part of growth. The trick is to not waste time working on code that doesn't matter.
Frank note to author: This is not the way to grow your startup. Hacker news visits are fun for getting a few comments, but they are useless in growing your startup. Even more frank note to author: the startup idea isn't quite appealing or even original.