

Cook something or get out of the kitchen - petenixey
http://peternixey.com/post/21437829768/cook-something-or-get-out-of-the-kitchen

======
simonsarris
As soon as I finished reading this I hit the back button and my eyes scrambled
across the HN frontpage list looking for the article I just read so I could
upvote it. I've never been so stupidly excited to upvote something.

This analogy and article are perhaps the best I've heard on the subject
because its a metaphor that the ideas people in my life can actually
_understand._

The metaphor doesn't fret about engineering time, or how simple programming
might look but how hard it really is. Ideas people can't relate to those
rebuttals anyway.

Instead it brings a very concrete example that almost all humans can
understand right away. You want to understand the difference execution makes
in an idea? There's a difference between a 9 dollar steak and a 200 dollar
steak and its not just the meat, and lots of people understand _that._ And so
I'm going to forward this to a certain ten people in my life.

~~~
Skaught
I've always enjoyed creating analogies like to see why certain behaviors,
mindsets, and tactics are okay in some industries and others not. To wet your
palette a bit more here's a wonderful essay analogizing math education to
music (Famously, The Mathematician's Lament)
<http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf>

And a TED Talk comparing the use of patents and trademarks in the fashion
industry to software.
[http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashio...](http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html)

Both are quite insightful, and I think you'll enjoy them.

~~~
apu
FYI: "whet your palate"

------
davemel37
I have this great recipe for what I like to call Stone Soup. It's really quite
simple...

Wikipedia's version, "Some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more
than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to
share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. Then the travellers
go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and
place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they
are doing. The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup", which
tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve
the flavour, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with a
few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager
walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their
stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands
them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk
by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of
soup is enjoyed by all."

~~~
tripzilch
And thus, FRACTINT was born!

------
sophacles
Following the metaphor:

Sure, it sucks when you have to deal with a fop-cum-restauranteur trying to
convince you to sell blah. But you need to listen to the ideas anyway, to hear
what people are wanting, or your cuisine turns stale. You need to keep up with
the trends of what the customers want to eat, or you end up as a has-been,
with a restaurant the does business to the people who never got in when it was
the hot thing, slowly rotting to oblivion as eventually everyone who cares or
cared has been there, or decided to just resign themselves to never having the
experience.

~~~
div
If I'd want to hear what people are wanting, I would much rather listen to
people instead of the "fop-cum-restauranteur".

It's simple really, if you're not cooking, cleaning, waiting, providing the
building, providing money, marketing or anything BUT providing ideas, you
shouldn't be surprised if people find your ideas worthless.

------
grogs
I really like this analogy (as I've been actively developing my cooking skills
a lot over the past few years).

I mostly develop recipes through trial and error, or at the very least the
existing knowledge from my cooking skills. The idea that someone who doesn't
cook could come up with a good recipe is somewhat absurd.

Recipes which are created by people without any experience may sound good (a
good idea), but are actually pretty bad; e.g. the bacon explosion.

------
cgag
I feel like I've read like 20 variations on this same article in the last
couple months.

~~~
edabobojr
Which makes you wonder if they restaurateurs are writing just as many articles
complaining about all of the cooks running around looking for someone to build
and run a restaurant for them.

------
debacle
What we need is someone like Theo de Raadt to host a 'Coding Nightmares' show
where he goes in an lambasts failing companies for their lack of skillz (yes,
with a "Z").

------
tgrass
For those who want to become a celebrity chef, the writer says to "do
something else: marketing, renting restaurants, anything except the job you're
not qualified to do."

That's one bit of advice. The other advice, if given to someone who can afford
the change, is to take a job as a pantry chef in a small cafe and work your
way up.

~~~
Too
Your advice is the last sentence of the article ;)

~~~
tgrass
Am I missing a pop culture reference? Last sentence reads, "Get a job. You
numpty." I take that as get a job doing something else. I don't think it
unreasonable to train for the job you want.

~~~
saraid216
It says "Get a job." It doesn't say "Get a job doing something else."

~~~
tgrass
It also doesn't say, "Get a job under a chef as a prep cook." Whereas, above
in paragraph 5 he explicitly says to do anything except cook. For me to assume
the concluding "Get a job" is a continuation of the theme set forth in "do
something else - anything except the job you’re not qualified to do which is
to cook" seems reasonable.

~~~
saraid216
Right. Because he's _not_ telling you to get a job under a chef as a prep
cook.

He's telling you to get a job.

He's not telling you to get a job doing something else, though he would be
cool with that.

He's telling you to get a job.

------
aw3c2
i wish I could read this but the layout is all over the place and some menu is
jumping around in opera mobile.

~~~
RickHull
Blank page on FF with NoScript on. I enabled the primary domain and it's still
loading 5 minutes later. Just a grey background so far...

~~~
rhizome
late-loading content is a scourge that is especially noticeable on mobile.

------
jwoah12
I don't know what a numpty is, but I quite enjoyed this allegory.

~~~
saraid216
<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=numpty>

------
bejar37
Q

~~~
AznHisoka
word.

