
How Hacker News Completely Changed My Life - thestoicjester
http://stoicjesterstudios.com/2012/08/how-to-use-hacker-news-to-completely-change-your-life/
======
patio11
As long as we're on the love boat: I've met at least three good friends here.
Y'all have collectively pushed my career in a quite different direction than
it was probably on when I started. I think I'd probably have ended up quitting
ye olde day job and putting the BCC phase of my life in the "That was fun and
I learned a lot, but time to get serious, what is next?" bucket. Then I would
have done what everyone other than the Internet always suggested I do: get a
job at a megacorp. I think I literally know the exact office I'd be working at
in Tokyo. It is a nice office, and a nice megacorp, but it is still a
megacorp.

I'd probably be a lot less happy doing that, because my current gig is pretty
much everything I could ask for in a job. More importantly, the most
consequential thing to ever happen to me was meeting my future wife. It is
likely that I would have been in a soul-deadening crunch in Tokyo rather than
at the BBQ where that happened.

So, thanks.

~~~
zio99
It would be interesting then to do a Hacker News meetup, at least in Toronto,
and we can reminisce on the recent HN front page articles. How great would
that be? Thanks for the inspiration patio11. +1. Any one here from Toronto?

~~~
patio11
The Tokyo meetups -- which take me about 3 hours to get to -- generally are
some of the most fun I have all month. I strongly recommend starting something
like that for your area if there isn't anything -- meeting people in the flesh
is very worthwhile, too.

~~~
tlear
I was visiting Tokyo last February and ended up coming to the meetup, was a
ton of fun! Really interesting mix of people

------
kkowalczyk
Seems like a massive mis-attribution error and I worry people will learn the
wrong lesson here.

The OP's story is:

1\. learned to program iOS (hard, completely under OP's control)

2\. wrote and published iOS app (hard, under OP's control)

3\. the app failed so wrote a blog post about his experience (easy although
often neglected by programmers, under OP's control)

4\. HN picked up the story which led to interview (total crapshot, not under
OP's control)

5\. a round of of interviews which led to job offer and "completely changed
life" (hard, under OP's control)

I understand why claiming step 4 ("HN picking up the story") was responsible
for "changed life" plays well on HN, but it's irrational.

The hard things that OP did and were under his control were: learning iOS
programming, publishing iOS app, writing a blog post about it and doing well
during an interview. Steps 1-3, 5 were necessary and responsible for his
getting a better job.

Step 4 is the only one that wasn't under OP's control, involved pure luck and
is not even necessary.

As an example, I get several interview inquiries every month but not because I
post on HN (I do) or because occasionally what I wrote ended up on HN (it did)
but because I have a website, github account and a portfolio of non-trivial
projects.

Step 4 is not necessary because in this market a competent iOS programmer can
pick and choose. The OP would be better off if he pro-actively applied for
several iOS positions in Silicon Valley (of which there are plenty) and picked
the best offer, instead of passively waiting and accepting the first offer.

I'm not saying that good things don't happen because of HN but in this
particular case the lesson shouldn't be "write a blog post, hope it ends up on
HN and then further hope someone will contact you with a job offer" but "learn
a marketable skill (like iOS programming), produce a proof of your skill
(write iOS application), market it a little bit (write a blog post about it)
and then go on a job shopping spree (by applying for iOS jobs)".

~~~
ecaron
I think the largest point the OP makes is that he wasn't intended to find a
new job, but the HN community (mentality & philosophy) brought that
opportunity to him. That's the key piece in #4, and the linchpin for the whole
experience.

~~~
Ingaz
Yes. Not even "mentality & philosophy", he explains distinctly that his
problem was communication and HN gave him auditory. Auditory that interested
about his findings and problems. And even auditory that can solve part of his
problems

(Excuse my runglish, I don't remember what I must write: "who" or "that" or
"which")

------
azylman
This post really spoke to me - all my life, I'd lived in the Midwest - first
in Minnesota (coincidentally enough) then in Illinois for college. In October
last year (the beginning of my senior year in college) I received a nice, safe
offer as a Software Engineer at Google and that was my plan: do the 'Google
thing' and see how I felt two, three, or four years down the road.

Fast forward to May of this year, I saw a job posting here on HN for a YCS12
company that was looking for a summer intern. I sent them a short email, not
knowing really what was going to happen - one thing led to another, and before
I know it I'm flying out to San Francisco the day after I graduate to begin my
internship!

I can honestly say that this summer has been the best summer of my life - I've
learned more than I thought possible, worked more than I thought possible, and
had more fun than I thought possible.

And that safe job offer from Google? Well, I'm not doing that anymore - I'm
the first hire at a very promising YC startup that I'm in love with.

------
duck
Great to read things like this and gives us a reminder that there is a person
behind everyone of these "Show HN" posts and every comment written (at least
besides the few bots and spammers on HN). Love the advice on how if you
"actually finish your side projects", you'll be well ahead of the pack - very
true.

~~~
ecaron
Another good take-away, though not directly mentioned in the post, is befriend
HN users both in the real world and online.

~~~
knz
Following this advice... If any other Minneapolis/St Paul based HN users are
lurking out there and are interested in meeting up (or know of any similar
events) then please reply here or email.

~~~
johns
Between me, you, aaronbrethorst and azylman that's a pretty good MN expat in
CA contingency already represented in this thread.

~~~
knz
I wish! I meant people IN the Twin Cities.

------
archildress
I'll jump on this too; thanks a lot for this post because one line really
changed my outlook on something that I am working on:

"Everyone knows that the last 20% takes 80% of the effort."

I guess I'm outside of "everyone" because that line is really going to make a
difference for me. :)

Reading HN has changed my life as well - college student in the Appalachians
and I get so little exposure to startup culture in my business education. I
can sit in class all day and feel uninspired about corporate strategy, but
seeing so many bootstrapped ventures and learning about how to make it all
work is what is driving me these days.

As cliche as it may be, I'm developing a real passion for the startup culture
and some of the companies I spend all day reading about. Between the app on my
iPhone and browsing online, reading HN articles (and perhaps more importantly,
the comments) is contributing to the best hours of learning I get all day.

Six months ago, I didn't know the first thing about entrepreneurship,
startups, or bootstrapping a venture. Now, I'll be Show HN'ing my first
project within a few weeks' time. Thanks so much to everyone here.

~~~
jdswain
I'd also say that the last 20% provides 80% of the learning. If you're always
leaving projects unfinished then you don't really learn what works and what
doesn't.

There's also a real learning experience when you make something public. Other
peoples reactions are often (normally?) quite different to your own. That kind
of feedback is really valuable, both good and bad. The bad because it provides
an impartial view, and the good because it validates your views and encourages
you to continue.

------
markerdmann
thestoicjester, this is one of the funniest blog posts I've ever read. This
line is especially good:

"A 'co-founder of a mobile development startup in SF' was a humorous creature
I’d read all about on the internet — I may as well have been replying to a
hobbit."

What's the name of the company you're working at now?

~~~
thestoicjester
<http://daemoniclabs.com/>

~~~
robryan
Just a note on the site, for an app website it doesn't look great on an iPhone
currently.

------
Schwolop
This sounds like it could be me, a year from now. I'm literally in the middle
of an interview* with a SF startup that came about because they read my blog
post (via Hacker News) about failing at my own startup.

HN is undeniably awesome.

(*One interviewer was pushed forward an hour, the others are in 15 minutes...)

------
mingmecca
This resonates with me. HN has definitely altered how I see the startup
culture.

I started out in Michigan writing 3D games (by hand, no hardware
acceleration!), and after my wife and I took a vacation out to northern
California I just had to live there. This was during the dotcom days of 1999,
and it took less than a week to get multiple job offers. So we packed up our
stuff and did a cross country move. It was awesome, and exciting, and the
future was wide open.

However, like the author of this piece, I wasn't really prepared with how
lonely it felt. Sure, there was a lot of innovative tech happening, but
sometimes at the end of the day I just wanted to have a few beers with some
good friends. So, I moved away from the SF Bay area up to Portland, Oregon,
where I knew several friends from college, and have been here ever since.

Lately I've got the itch to return to California. Partly for the
opportunities, partly for the sunshine (it's freakin' dark and depressing
during Portland winters), and partly due to HN rekindling my love of startups.
Now that I'm a bit older I think I'd have a better go of it. Anyone have a
cool project that needs a iOS/Python/C++ tech director?

------
HeyLaughingBoy
_moving across the country to a state I’d never been to and a city in which I
knew nobody_

As someone who did just this, but in kinda the opposite direction: from the
East Coast to Minneapolis, I hope it works out for you as well as it has for
me. I basically rebuilt myself here. I love MN!

~~~
Andrex
Me too! CT to Boston, admittedly not as big a move but where I lived was
practically Nowhere, USA. There's so much energy here and Boston has exceeded
all my expectations. I'm now working at my third startup here _.

_ Since January. Laid off from the first along with most people there, and the
second one shut down literally the week I started working. But hey, technology
moves fast and so do startups. They have to. I'm actually grateful since it's
given me three entirely different viewpoints into how startups work.

------
zio99
Related to how Hacker News changes lives: _How a simple comment on Hacker News
motivated me to resign from my comfortable well paying job and launch my own
startup_ [http://blog.freshdesk.com/the-freshdesk-story-how-a-
simple-c...](http://blog.freshdesk.com/the-freshdesk-story-how-a-simple-
comment-on-h-0/)

The rest of our discussion on Hacker News/startup lessons here:
<http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4426093> (An interesting take on addressing the
pain points of customers).

------
xiaoma
>" _In addition to my daytime job, programming had also crept into my nights
and weekends as I took up the hobby of iOS development. The interesting thing
about this hobby is that not only did it help use up my spare time, it also
helped use up my spare dreams. I didn’t have to aspire to a bigger job in a
bigger city, because at any moment one of my apps was going to hit it big and
then everyone would be working for me._ "

This passage really resonates with me. The concept of dreams as a resource is
a useful one and I'd never thought of it. When I joined HN, I was in a similar
kind of situation. Running an EFL supplementary school in Taiwan, I had a
sense of accomplishment, some prestige and likely a solidly growing income for
as long as I chose to stick with it. But not only did it consume 60-70 hours a
week of my time, it also consumed my dreams. It would have been really easy to
stay there and not think much about doing anything more.

What changed my direction was PG essays, some of which I read on reddit and
some of which I read here. Since I was so heavily invested in my business in
Taiwan and nearly all of my best friends were there, it took me time to
finally take the plunge, end that chapter of my life and move into the tech
world. It hasn't been very easy, as some of you may have seen me post on here
before, but it is invigorating. The three tasks of hunting for work, working
and upgrading my work skills are using up my time, but not my dreams.

------
citricsquid
HN hasn't changed my life -- yet? -- but it has taught me that a lot of my
assumptions about new technology startups were wrong. I'd always assumed
"networking" was only something a specific type of person could do, that if
you wanted to _do_ anything you'd have to be really great at selling yourself
or get lots of media attention.

Through my usage of HN I've learned that this really isn't the case, sure
being able to sell yourself is a useful skill but if you can build great
things and put your work out there you can achieve a lot without needing to
focus on _people_. A good example I think is Gumroad founder Sahil
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=sahillavingia>), he's very talented, he
made cool stuff and people took notice and now he's doing really cool things.

HN has made me confident that if I ever build anything great that I won't need
to spend 12 hours a day cold calling every Techcrunch writer hoping that they
post nice words about me, I can let my work speak for me.

Now I just need to build something cool :)

------
Rulero
Congratulations on getting a job, I really wish you all the best.

It's finally good to see someone who writes something positive about HN. Yes,
there might be a lot of negativity around and the community might have lost
the quality that many of you complain about. However, it's good to know there
are still elements of this community that provide positive outcomes to those
associated to it.

------
MattGrommes
If not for an HN "Who's hiring" post I'd probably still have my safe job
writing internal apps for an insurance company in Albuquerque; instead I'm
back living in beautiful San Diego (my favorite city) and I get to see the
ocean every day on my drive to my current awesome job. So add me to the list
of people for whom HN changed their life. :)

~~~
thomasf1
Glad you changed your life and are happy with it... What was special about
post that captured your attention?

~~~
MattGrommes
It was that it was in San Diego doing Java at a company doing cutting edge
wireless stuff with their own hardware. San Diego + Java + doing something new
== whoohoo! :)

------
SoftwarePatent
HN changed my life too! I went from soul-crushing job writing patents for
Amazon to ruby hacker in NYC. [1] I'm a self-taught coder hacking RoR for
Pivotal Labs. I used to hate my job, now I can't wait to go to work!

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754917>

------
polyfractal
I quit my job as a biologist, became a freelancer, working for clients found
on HN, and was eventually hired full-time by one of those clients, who I had
previously interviewed for a side project that I was working on so I could
show Hacker News.

So basically, Hacker News is pretty awesome, regardless of whatever people
say.

------
datalus
This article gives me hope. I've been at a megacorp soul sucking job (I
realize not all are soul crushing) for the past three years after my comp.
sci. degree.

I'm going to make the jump as soon as possible. HN has really been both an
inspiration and a great place for sage advice.

------
karatehammer
Great post and great story. I've lived in the Twin Cities for 10 years now and
we got a pretty good set of tech companies running around this area. I'm glad
you were able to find a good home out in San Francisco man.

~~~
thestoicjester
Yeah, absolutely there is a great tech scene in the TC area. I tried to paint
MN and my former employer in as good of a light as I could while concurrently
throwing them under the bus and using them as the bad guy in the story.

------
aaronbrethorst
OP: I'm curious to know whether we've ever crossed paths. It looks like we're
about the same age (assuming the age you listed on some game website I just
found is accurate).

I was born and raised in Minneapolis, graduated from the U of MN with a
Computer Science degree in 2003, and pulled up stakes to move to Seattle as
soon as I could.

If you were ever in debate, speech, or quiz bowl in high school between 1997
and 2000, or if you attended the U of MN between 1998 and 2003, I'm guessing
we did at some point.

In any case, congrats!

~~~
thestoicjester
Hmmm, I don't think so. I did a pretty good job of avoiding... everyone during
that period of my life. It's only in recent years that I've realized that
there are better ways to operate than being a complete hermit-weirdo.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Well, better now than never :)

------
_feda_
I guess what I love so much about HN is the generally high amount of content
that is relevant to me, which seems to be hard to find elsewhere on the vast
expanses of the internet. I can read articles from HN all night, but it
doesn't feel like a waste of time. 99% of the time I'll have learned quite a
lot by the end of the night.

~~~
re_todd
Agreed about the relevant content. I have no interest in joining a startup,
but I spend more time on HN than any other site. Discussions on CSS, Rails,
cryptography and dozens of other interesting subjects are always interesting
and keep me learning something new.

------
pnathan
Hacker News has provided me a much-needed view into the business tech world
that it is nearly impossible to get elsewhere.

------
pkamb
I think the best reminder here is that it's tempting to "Show HN" your
project's App Store homepage. But like his _Bullseye Factory_ submission,
you're going to get a couple comments at best.

Write _about_ your hacking experiences, what you learned, and how others can
avoid your mistakes and you'll have much more luck.

------
robinduckett
I got a job through one of the monthly job posting threads and getting the job
has completely changed my life, however I interviewed and impressed and got
the job myself. Without hacker news, I probably would never have heard about
the job, but everything after that point was under my control and my own
doing.

------
johns
From another MN to SF transplant with a similar story, congrats on making the
leap. :)

------
sneak
Thank deus for readability.com.

~~~
winter_blue
Yes, indeed. Dark backgrounds aren't good on your eyes, when everything else
has a light background. Besides that, great post! (The article by Jake.)

------
SoftwareMaven
HN has changed my life, too. Ironically, moving from a pre-seed stage startup
(where I was more of an entrepreneur in residence) to one of the biggest tech
companies out there.

More importantly, it is continuing to push me on my own projects.

------
mariusz331
this is awesome! please do write more about your new life in san francisco.

------
guynamedloren
Add me to the list as well. This worked:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2600264>

(not at airbnb, but with another awesome YC startup in sunny CA and loving it)

------
lectrick
I think everyone should live on the West Coast (ideally SF) or the East Coast
(ideally near NYC) for a while in their life. Or both, like I did.

~~~
Ingaz
Is it really so?

In Moscow a humorous proverb exists: "There is no life outside
MKAD(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Ring_Road)>

When I read PG (and others) about "there is no opportunity for [startups ...
interesting productive life] except SF" - I think it's the same. Not true

~~~
anovikov
I think this is a good point. Both are about equally true. Around half of
Russian economy lives in Moscow region, formally or informally. About half of
the world's startup ecosystem is in North California. Everyone else just makes
do with what remains, or moves.

~~~
Ingaz
I remember from "Founders at work" something like: "West Coast is the land of
dreamers" and something about how it totally opposite with Boston and NYC (I
don't remember who said this)

And I suppose that this is possible.

But: There is "life outside MKAD"

Even with: "Around half of Russian economy lives in Moscow region, formally or
informally" - I remember that 75% of all money in Moscow

------
bjorn2404
Thanks, I found this post inspiring and as a web developer living in a
Minneapolis suburb in a bit of a rut, it really hits close to home.

------
tejask
The first advice you give is a good reminder for people like me who have tons
of unfinished projects.

------
jfb
Minneapolis isn't exactly nowhere.

~~~
thestoicjester
True. But the suburb I was living in was pretty close.

------
jamesjguthrie
I love this story. I hope I can get similar success from my experiences here.

------
JacobIrwin
HN inspired my move to the Bay Area too. Thanks for sharing your story.

------
jawr
Internal Server Error :(

~~~
ecaron
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:stoicje...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:stoicjesterstudios.com/2012/08/how-
to-use-hacker-news-to-completely-change-your-life/)

------
praveenhm
Very interesting, good luck with your new job.

------
michaelochurch
I actually like Minnesota and really enjoy the seasons there-- the winter's
not _that_ bad-- but I'm going to chime in with a +1 for Hacker News. The
quality, for an internet community of this size, is unparalleled. That doesn't
mean there aren't a few useless posts here and there (shit, I've probably
written a couple of those) but the overall quality remains high... and I
haven't seen any evidence for a drop.

One thing I really like about the HN-sphere is the optimism. I'm naturally a
cynical, dark person, as opposed to the Silicon Valley optimism and positive-
sum outlook I see here. Neither is superior; both perspectives are needed. Too
much optimism and you make bad choices (hence the engineers joining pre-
funding startups for 1% equity) but too much pessimism and you lose your
courage. It's best to have a splash of each.

It's refreshing coming to a place where people have faith in the ability for
smart people to take back the world. Looking at recent improvements in
compensation and autonomy for solid engineers, that might actually happen.
There are a lot of bad startups too, but it's the good startups that are
driving that.

------
flowctrl
How Hacker News Completely Crashed My Webserver

