I'm a digital marketing guy who is probably nerdier than most engineers I know (for example, I can claim to have spent a portion of my youth playing D&D with the Gygax family in Lake Geneva, WI every weekend).
As I've developed in my career, I've gotten more and more technical. I used to actually do some basic web design back when I was younger and things were super simple, but since then have gone on to refresh my HTML/CSS/JS skills and go from there. I wanted to learn how to make an actual web app with a database, so I started learning RoR, then backtracked and learned more foundational Ruby before continuing.
I love reading the technical articles here because it has done wonders to teach me new concepts, point me towards new resources and in general grow that part of my brain.
HN is also great because I'm pretty deep on the ad tech and analytics side of things, and I love talking shop with people who have similar experience when those articles come up. It is also good to continually immerse myself in opposing viewpoints. I'm not in favor of all advertising by any means, but there can be some pretty solid dialogue around that here beyond the typical "all advertising is bad" mantra you come to expect from many technical people.
The signal-to-noise ratio is also relatively high compared to some other forums I'm on, and I've actually had some great business contacts come from simply commenting on posts here.
I ended up at the Game Guild (game store in Lake Geneva) by chance on a school trip for a small group of people who had various social issues (I was in it because I had bad social anxiety in HS). Saw people playing D&D in the back room and as I started talking to them realized it was several of Gary's children and grandchildren and friends. So I would make the hour-long drive from the Chicago suburbs every weekend to play with them for a few years. It actually ended up being one of the biggest drivers for me getting past my social anxiety such that you'd never know I used to have it if you met me now. I ended up founding my own D&D group back home as a result and later in college. Both led to meeting lifelong friends and becoming confident in social situations, speaking, organization, etc. since I was DM most of the time.
A couple of my favorite stories...
- Bringing my best friend and watching him start arguing with Gary (without knowing who he was) about how Dwarven women don't have beards. Kicked him under the table and whispered "he made the f-ing game, if he says they have beards, they have beards!"
- Joking with some people about the various named spells like the spell lines for Bigby, Tenser and Mordenkainen and being confused why some of them seemed to be talking as if the spells were theirs. Turns out I'd been playing with the people who originally created and played Bigby, Tenser and Mordenkainen, so yes, they were their spells.
- Having Gary teach me a harsh lesson in physics and volume calculations when I cast a high-level fireball in a smallish space and incinerated half the party. He was not the most forgiving when it came to interpreting the rules.
- Being listed as an official playtester in the Lost City of Gaxmoor book.
Unfortunately, the Gygax family had a somewhat tragic history with businesses, and beyond what went down originally with TSR, the Game Guild itself (which his son Luke bought out at one point) seems to have fallen on hard times and is no more.
On a side note, I work at SmugMug right around the corner from you guys (we're near Evelyn and Pioneer right off the 85 exit), so if there's any interest in a HN D&D group, I might be convinced to dust off my dice bag!
As I've developed in my career, I've gotten more and more technical. I used to actually do some basic web design back when I was younger and things were super simple, but since then have gone on to refresh my HTML/CSS/JS skills and go from there. I wanted to learn how to make an actual web app with a database, so I started learning RoR, then backtracked and learned more foundational Ruby before continuing.
I love reading the technical articles here because it has done wonders to teach me new concepts, point me towards new resources and in general grow that part of my brain.
HN is also great because I'm pretty deep on the ad tech and analytics side of things, and I love talking shop with people who have similar experience when those articles come up. It is also good to continually immerse myself in opposing viewpoints. I'm not in favor of all advertising by any means, but there can be some pretty solid dialogue around that here beyond the typical "all advertising is bad" mantra you come to expect from many technical people.
The signal-to-noise ratio is also relatively high compared to some other forums I'm on, and I've actually had some great business contacts come from simply commenting on posts here.