Why this this story on the front-page of HN? This provides very little quality content and discussion. This just seems to be propaganda. Yes, Curebit was in the wrong, admit it, move on. I'm sure there are more interesting things in the world of technology and startups than this. To quote PG: "I think HN's initial population of smart, mostly apolitical nerds has been diluted by the arrival of a lot of new users who are not as smart, and are thus more excited by shallow controversies."
I'm curious, how did Begemann start his company in 2008? There is a note in there about him raising 5M in 2009 but that was after he had a 25-person company?
I don't think that quote is meant to be taken literally. It's more a commentary on how you can accomplish most things you can put your mind to; the only limits you place are those you impose on yourself.
And I don't know, but it might be possible to create a light-sabre. Who knows. I am sure that we live with technology today that seemed just as impossible 100 years ago.
I would recomend some social "stretching" techniques. Tim Ferris talks about them in his book 4-hr work week:
1. Make eye-contact. Make a conscious effort to do this. Pick one eye and stick to it. Make eye-contact on passer-bys on the street. If they cause trouble, just say "Sorry, you just look really familiar"
2. Get phone numbers. The goal will be to get numbers from attractive females/males. Remember the real goal is not to get the numbers but get over the fear of asking, so the outcomes are unimportant. A mall is a great place to try this. He recommends to get over the discomfort quickly, ask three people in a row within five minutes. Here's an example script he provides.
"Excuse me, I know this is going to sound strange, but if I don't ask you know, I'll be kicking myself for the rest of the day. I'm running to meet a friend [i.e., I have friends and am not a stalker], but I think you're really [extremely, drop dead] cute [gorgeous, hot]. Could I have your phone number? I'm not a psycho, I promise. You can give me a fake one if you're not interested."
3. Relax in public. Simply lie down in the middle of a crowded public place at some point. It can be a well trafficked sidewalk, the middle of a popular Starbucks, or a popular bar. There is no real technique. Just lie down and remain silent on the ground for 10 seconds. Then get up and continue with what you were doing. Don't explain it at all.
I've done the first two and it was a bit difficult at first, but over time it becomes totally second nature. At that point you can talk to anyone about anything without feeling timid. When that confidence builds up, I find that your passions come out naturally as you converse with that person since you don't have any insecurities hindering your thoughts.
Yep. I quit my job to start my own venture. It was scary but it was long overdue. For a while I had been doing the "working on the side project after work" but then I realized that if I do want to do this, there is no half-assing it. It's time to go big or go home.
I like how most languages now a days are trending back towards LISP-like functional languages by supporting constructs like closures, lambda expressions, etc. It's all about modularity and making the programmer most productive, which LISP seems to do quite well. I guess John McCarthy was on to something.
Safari's integration of bookmarks and reading lists over iCloud is just such a useful feature to have out of the box. I switched back to Safari just for that. Keeping all my devices in sync is a huge gain over slightly faster rendering times.
Ignorance definitely can be bliss. I think there needs to be healthy disregard for the impossible; it's what makes you do things that others normally would not dare to do or even think about. Most innovations come from either disregarding what they already know or not knowing better.
I'm not sure I agree. Yes to a certain degree, I think that programmers are self-taught, but I think like most things in life, most of the learning comes from your peer group. Working on a project in a small team with other motivated developers is a much more enriching learning experience than doing solo class projects or teaching yourself some new technology.
I think it is a bit silly to try to re-create OO with type classes or vice-versa. They are just two different modes of thinking and represent two different ways of architecting your program. Personally, I do find OOP a hoax, which leads to just horrendous code, but I'm sure either approach can be used to solve the problem at hand as long as you don't try to fit the round-peg in the square-hole.
I think GO is still experimental in app engine and doesn't support some services like OAuth, Google Cloud Storage, and XMPP. Also, "experimental" scares me for production use.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3105036