No, I don't agree, as I am not in the wrong here. I know you are the admin. You should see all my messages. Also you must investigate, if a single hostile user downvoted me from mutiple accounts earlier. I made one mistake of calling him "idiot downvoter" (for which I expressed my regret), perhaps it made him angry. And that comment of mine was rightly downvoted. But in all the other comments I have been perfectly civil, in fact couple of replies have been insulting.
I want this account to be deleted. I know this feature is not there yet. But please do it, as and when you add the delete feature. Or manually if possible.
Now, now. Don't get preaching to me, on what I should be writing on. This was a very impact full dream to me. And I wrote it then (more than an year back), with no intention that time of putting on HN one day.
And why do you have such a narrow idea of expressing one's love - either totally tragic or a "strong and positive". The present frailty could remind one of the earlier strength in a loved one. Also that, that we still cherish the life that we have although dimming away. Meaning, in that dream I was cherishing that she still remembers that I am her son. Although she is too frail, and wets her bed. And I was so sad for her, that I felt breathlessness.
And again, just like that other insensitive person, you also make the same mistake as the other person by putting mummy in quotes. My friend, this is the way so many people address their mothers across the Indian sub-continent. Its sort of a hybrid word evolved out of the British Raj here, and the Indian way of addressing. And that is true for so many words.
At the same time, I admit, that I could have worked on that story a bit more, to convey its general significance to others. But as I said, earlier, I wrote it an year back. And today, I just thought some people could enjoy reading it, by being thankful that they have their mothers around (close or remote, or even in their memories).
I must say, that some guys have been very insensitive today. At the same time, I am happy, that few others got something from that crude text. So be it. Peace.
Thanks! Respect you for using your routine account and giving a reason.
I personally rarely use down-votes, and would just ignore a comment, if I sense that its written in an earnest way, even though bad in quality. I agree its not very high quality writing. But I believe, that it does hit its mark with many people. Many more people upvoted it, than those that down voted it.
I do. You display your prejudice by asking the question in such a way. Also your total ignorance about other cultures.
>You say it's a "near true account of my dream". Well I could give you a near true account of the shit I had this morning, but you wouldn't be interested.
You also can, if what you share is in context of the discussion. If you care to note, I wrote this piece more than an year back. And seeing the topic here, thought it may be relevant. And it sure is, as more number of people seem to like it. Then those that don't.
Even if you don't like it. Can't you just ignore it. I would expect trolling or something off topic or irrelevant to be typically down-voted.
In any case, thanks, for replying. Even though, it took a throw away account for you to explain it, and then attack me back again, by commenting on the way, I address my mother.
Can somebody please explain. Why is the parent comment short story inappropriate, as a top level comment on this page?
Also it seems to trigger a reaction. I have seen it go upto +6 points and now it is at 0. Means people either like it or hate it. I don't get it, whats in that that people have to react strongly to it.
Downvote! Care to explain, why? Its a near true account of my dream, and I thought it could be therapeutic for some people to read who visit this HN page, as people are discussing Mother's day.
I won't care about downvotes on another topic. But seriously either you are heartless or out of your mind to downvote me on this. Get a life, Idiot downvoter!!
Edit: I see several others have compensated, for that enough. Thanks! Sorry for being harsh. But downvoting this made me angry.
It was late in the afternoon and we were late. I was thinking to myself ‘Oh God, let today not be the day’. I started to walk faster as I thought this. My wife was accompanying me to the place where my mother was staying. We passed down the corridor and reached the room. I knocked at the door, but there was no response from inside. I moved a bit to the left raising myself on my toes, such that her bed was visible from over the cabin’s wall. I could see her there, ‘Oh God please…’. “Mummy”, I shouted “Mummy uthiye..”. Normally, she would getup at our knocking and move feebly to open the door.
After shouting a few times, I got impatient and tried to open the door ourselves. Thankfully it opened. She began to move slowly, as we got in. Thank God she was there! She half rose from her bed, and sat in a confused state. I could see that she had wet her bed. Sad at that, but relieved that she was alive.
How she had raised me and my sister so caringly when she was young and had lot of energy. But now she was in her twilight, and had lost control over many of her functions. But she still could recognize us, and so retained the most important part of her brain function. I was filled with emotion and could not breathe properly. There was less air in the room I thought. ‘Oh God, please cure her of this, and I will be nice I promise’, I thought and continued to breath forcefully.
…
Then I woke up. I had been asleep and it was a dream. Normally, when waking out of a bad dream, one is very thankful. But not today. I was still breathing forcefully. ‘Oh God, please cure her of her ailments and let me see her daily. Let today not be the day, and I will be nice I promise’.
If I look at some of the people I know and my own experience, can say that consulting folks get a better deal, when working for Western companies. Also it works out better, from a work from home perspective. As local companies, even if pay as well, have the the mindset of asking you to work from their facilities.
But local Startups typically are more flexible, with sites like HasGeek[1] showcasing some of the more suitable jobs from a work-from-home/free lancing perspective.
Now to answer the question of interesting work. That depends of course. One tends to pick up consulting work on some overall factors like rate etc. In my case consulting work was mainly to support my product. (Thankfully now product is in a shape, that it can support itself. So past few months I've had the luxury of working on my own stuff). And so the work I do, thankfully, looks very interesting to me.
Excellent piece. I have been working from home roughly for the past 4 years. Have worked on my own product alongside working on client projects.
I am not very disciplined by nature. If I am able to put in 4-5 hours of concentrated code in a day, then I am extremely satisfied.
Below are some highlights of my experience.
Exercise replaces commute:
In Indian metros these days, commute to work is a curse. And people suffer from it. On an average (anecdotal) people commute 1.5 hours a day. I am really really thankful, I don't have to do that. Rather I use that time for exercise, alternating between Cardio and Strength exercises on adjacent days.
Routine:
Wake up at 7:30. Go for exercise at 8:30. Breakfast at 10/10:30. Start work by 11/11:30 AM. But once I start work (which includes communication, sysadmin work, tax etc. work and of course coding), I am at it till roughly around 6 or 7 PM.
Distractions:
Social media is a modern day curse. And people who are able to conquer it, will rule the world. I have had my weak phases. But I have mastered it to a reasonable extent.
A simple rule 'No Facebook till 5 PM' has served me very well. I may check twitter some times during the day, but unless there is some true breaking news, or I am in my weak-easy-to-get-distracted phase, I am not much affected by it. One reason could be I post less on twitter. So have less post posting anxiety of counting RTs and reactions to it :-)
And BTW the rule for FB applies to HN as well. But somehow HN is far less addictive (and not at all in that bad way) than FB. Typically my evenings are for HN. And of course, I am so thankful I have it. As it offsets the effects of not being in the know of the tech Industry, because of not going to a place to work.
Family:
I don't have a very strict rules. So my family keeps on walking in all the time. Particulatly its summer now and kids have vacations. I don't mind it, if I am doing some communication kind of work, or (ironically) if I am too deep into my code. The way, I interact with family, does not put any pressure on me, when compared to say communicating very formally. So I could be answering them, while I am in the deepest recesses inside my mind, solving a coding problem.
On the other hand, If I am frustrated, by failed efforts of not being able to concentrate hard enough then that's another matter. Then I am quite irritable, and I share that with my family as well, and ask them not to disturb me.
I am very thankful to my wife here. Who has almost mastered the art of communicating with me during work with minimal impact :-)
Advantages:
Advantages are many. Main thing is that, your time is yours. You love the freedom. And would never want to trade it with commute-to-work if possible. All the ones which the Matt's essay mentions apply, e.g. afternoon show movies, kids can walk in with their codecademy.com doubts (that's one of their summer tasks BTW :-)), easily able to attend to a need by a family person (e.g. medical need, which happened last month).
Also the main thing i.e. work, also gets done very well. And if you can focus, you will be very very productive. As I said above, I am very satisfied if I have had a day of 4-5 hours of coding.
Disadvantages:
Self doubt - Occasionally I have doubts, if I am missing on something by not going to work. Especially was a bit concerned about my business communication skills suffering because of it. Written word over emails is fine. But was worried about the verbal discussions part. This was true for the initial year of working from home.
But now with the passage of time, I am more assured. I do have once in a few months face to face meeting with my co-founder. Also there are other business face to face meetings, with an approximate average of once a month.
I do socialize with people in the park, where I go for my runs. And I discovered some of them, also work in the same mode.
So if you can manage to be productive and are able to work, the disadvantages are not many. Even philosophically speaking, why should the information age workers work in the same way as that of industrial age workers?
Edit: Format. HN text area input does not deal with new-lines in an intuitive way - some times you have to give two.
>But life itself is simply sunlight falling to earth if you think about it biochemically
Don't you think, that by same extension, car is just Gas/Fuel coming in from a Gas/Fuel station?
I am sorry, but I find most essays on the topic of 'meaning of life' escapist. Or rather answering a different question on how best to live life, with the assumption that the real meaning is unknowable.
None of these essays satisfy my need to know, what it is actually all about.
Talking about this essay, its excellent no doubt. But IMHO its misleading all the same.
Truly, exercise for Entrepreneurs can't be recommended enough. Before starting my Startup journey in 2006 I was 82-83 kgs (at around 6 feet, its sort of Okay). Went to 88 kgs, and felt bad in 2009. At present I am 80 kgs and feel much better.
My routine:
Runing: 7 kms on Tuesday and Thursday. 10 kms on Saturday.
Strength: Just body weight - push ups and pull ups and crunches - on Monday and Friday
Sprint runs: on Wednesday followed by some strength.
Overall time spend is about 1.5 hours each day (because I don't hurry, and a relaxed stretching session after running)
>There are more corners, more cars, more trains than aircraft combined at any given time. And the most important thing to consider is getting help. I have to press hard on this: if you are in the air, the chance of you surviving is low. Even on the ground after a serious car accident at a reasonable location, most patients could receive proper medical treatment within minutes.
You get it man. I've always found that statistical comparison with car accidents very lame and misguided. The sheer feeling of helplessness when you are in a plane, and think something is seriously wrong.
Read both your comments. My thoughts are very similar to yours in this matter. I am very afraid to fly. But of course its not always avoidable.
Due respect to the "technological marvels", but some times I wonder, why can't planes be designed in a way, that they are safe even if they fall. I have no freaking idea, how this can be done. Just a wish.
Man, I burn with envy when read such stories of monumental technical achievements. For some reason have always been fascinated by scalability. But so far life has given me the opportunity in a very limited way.
Have been reasonably proud of scaling my own micro (in comparison) service. But right now feel very small and humbled.
>$40 per user...That's an incredible cost. We can assume Facebook is paying for the userbase
I think FB's high profile acquisitions are driven by fear of survival first it was Instagram and now its Whatsapp, which was clearly a very great threat, I am sure, it contributed to at least some double digit percentage drop in daily time spend especially in India... unlike say Google's acquisitions, which are typically done to grow things think YouTube or Android or Robotics companies...
Sorry for the delay in replying. No I did not, actually. See I was coming back after a while, I had quickly shifted to C++ (after coding briefly in C) in my career, so did not remember using any libraries.
I am sure, my task would have been easier if I had used some lib. But my main concern (and goal) was performance and memory usage comparison.
This the reason, which stops me from going back to C. After coding in Java (mostly) for past 10 years. I wanted to switch back to C or C++. Mainly to save on ton of memory being used which I think is unwarranted.
So I experimented with a new service, and coded it in all three C, C++ and Java. When I did this I had not coded in C++ for 10 years, but it did not hurt at all. I could switch back easily with almost no great difficulty. There were some minor inconveniences of foregoing the Eclipse editor. I think, I might have missed Autocomplete the most.
But within hours after I started, I was getting my previous feeling of the Vi(m) editor coding of C++ back. And with the benefit of having STL (vectors, strings, etc.) I did not feel much discomfort.
But coding the same service in C was painful. And it was mainly because of not being able to basic things on strings easily like copy and concatenate.
But thankfully I still managed to do it. And on comparing the three services for latencies and memory usage, I found little difference between C and C++.
So eventually that service was deployed in C++ and still runs the same way.
This above episode happened about an year back, and recently I am using Go to do a lot of services (new as well as moving some old). Mainly I have been motivated by the promise of an easier C, which it seems to offer.
Some services, coded in Go, I have deployed and are already running very well. But even now, I need some more experience on the results side, to have a definitive opinion on whether Go is indeed C with strings lib (and other niceties) for me.
>As for achieving `generic' code through static generation using an external tool, I had had considerable success with it in some earlier projects
Exactly. I am reminded of Rogue Wave's[1] generics before STL became part of C++. I remember achieving that effect using a paradigm of macros and code generation provided by Rogue Wave libraries. It was during mid 1990s.
I want this account to be deleted. I know this feature is not there yet. But please do it, as and when you add the delete feature. Or manually if possible.