18 ms·

I'm not an experienced coder myself, and I'm also working on a start-up. stop wasting the precious hours of your life

unalone 18y ago
"Wasting?" I have a brilliant idea, I'm good with visuals, and I've got a cofounder. And I can't think of anything else I'd want to spend my freshman year on.
- crabapple 18y ago
  and I've got a cofounder good god please bury this term, the yc fanboys have turned the "startup" lexicon into such a shallow cliche that its almost at the point of parody. you don't have a "cofounder", what you have is a guy down the hall in your dorm I can't think of anything else I'd want to spend my freshman year on. try your homework, it'll pay dividends unlike yet-another pointless website
  - unalone 18y ago
    No. I've got a bright friend who's similarly looking to do something outside of college, who has abilities that I don't. We complement each other. I'm maintaining straight A's, partly because I'm in a set of programming-intensive classes. I do both at once. My site won't be pointless. It appeals to a niche that hasn't been appealed to yet, and we've got a non-community driven revenue plan. The goal is that even if our community doesn't start off strong, the technology driving the community will.
  - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
    When hiring, example projects are more important than grades.
    - crabapple 18y ago
      only if your company is trucking in low-iq monkey work...which covers 99% of the "startups" today
      - unalone 18y ago
        Yeah? Why are grades that important? They show that you can do things after a professor tells you how to do it, and that you're good at busywork. Project work shows initiative at the very least. But again: I'm not doing it for a resume. I'm going it because I have a good idea and I want to realize its potential.
        crabapple 18y ago
        Why are grades that important? They show that you can do things after a professor tells you how to do it, and that you're good at busywork why are you telling me this? just drop the fuck out now and save the money you are pissing away on tuition if you are convinced its all just a waste of time but get used to being self-employed, because without that degree you won't even get through filter0 for any recruiter or hiring dept. hard to tell a cto how smart you are when the HR staffer shreds your resume because your last education is high school
        pg 18y ago
        I don't think any of the startups we've funded care whether someone finished their degree. We certainly don't ourselves. This is not to say grades are entirely meaningless, though. I've definitely taken a few classes where getting an A took more than obedience.
        strlen 18y ago
        it's the knowledge that matters, not the grades. i am more concerned that a project like this could make 'unalone' work more for the grade (or the degree) vs. for the knowledge. there were also many cases where i've felt that getting a higher grade would mean i'd end up learning less - as in, i'd focus on completing projects/assignments/memorizing what's needed immediately for the test vs. focusing on truly understanding the material and how it would apply to the real world. this quarter of graduate school i'm also taking twice my normal load while still working full time: reason is one of the courses i am taking is only offered once every few years. this could mean a lower grade, but i'd end up walking away with greater knowledge.
strlen 18y ago
the comment is combative and in poor tone, but i'm upmoding it. there's more to your education than knowing how to make a dynamic web-site. take something away from undergrad: if you want practical experience work on business-wise pointless but technically interesting projects (just for yourself) or open source projects. take the time to learn mathematics (calculus, calculus-based statistics), electrical engineering and physics: web fads come and go, but solid scientific knowledge stays with you.
- unalone 18y ago
  This semester I've been really focusing on web development. We want to apply to YCombinator over the summer, and I want to make sure that I'm more than capable of handling the aspects of the site I'm running. My co-founder (apparently that term's inappropriate now) is very much a math-and-science person. I'm not averse to them - I took calculus in my junior year of high school - but at the same time, that's not what interests me. I'm much more an arts person: writing, music, theatre. It's a good combination, because we look at what we're developing in different ways. At the same time, I'm learning how to program, I'm in a digital arts course, and next semester I'm taking an upperclassmen programming course. I'm not planning to throw my life away on a project. But if I've got a good idea, I'm going to try to implement it. I'm young: I can risk failure.
  - strlen 18y ago
    > But if I've got a good idea, I'm going to try to implement it. I'm young: I can risk failure. Sure but don't risk your undergrad. Graduate school is a much better time for this. And to quote DHH, don't treat your life like a planned waterfall project: "I want to do web development, so I will do X, then I will do Y."
    - unalone 18y ago
      Worst comes to worst, I leave college for a year or two, and come back after I've tried everything a bit older and a bit wiser. I don't think that web development is my big thing. I'm interested in the web, but I'd hate to have to work on ideas I don't love. My current project is something for writers, so it has practical uses for myself as well. And YCombinator summer happens in Boston, which happens to be the place I want to go, so I told my cofounder and we agreed we'd give it a good try.

"Wasting?" I have a brilliant idea, I'm good with visuals, and I've got a cofounder. And I can't think of anything else I'd want to spend my freshman year on.

crabapple 18y ago
and I've got a cofounder good god please bury this term, the yc fanboys have turned the "startup" lexicon into such a shallow cliche that its almost at the point of parody. you don't have a "cofounder", what you have is a guy down the hall in your dorm I can't think of anything else I'd want to spend my freshman year on. try your homework, it'll pay dividends unlike yet-another pointless website
- unalone 18y ago
  No. I've got a bright friend who's similarly looking to do something outside of college, who has abilities that I don't. We complement each other. I'm maintaining straight A's, partly because I'm in a set of programming-intensive classes. I do both at once. My site won't be pointless. It appeals to a niche that hasn't been appealed to yet, and we've got a non-community driven revenue plan. The goal is that even if our community doesn't start off strong, the technology driving the community will.
- aaronblohowiak 18y ago
  When hiring, example projects are more important than grades.
  - crabapple 18y ago
    only if your company is trucking in low-iq monkey work...which covers 99% of the "startups" today
    - unalone 18y ago
      Yeah? Why are grades that important? They show that you can do things after a professor tells you how to do it, and that you're good at busywork. Project work shows initiative at the very least. But again: I'm not doing it for a resume. I'm going it because I have a good idea and I want to realize its potential.
      - crabapple 18y ago
        Why are grades that important? They show that you can do things after a professor tells you how to do it, and that you're good at busywork why are you telling me this? just drop the fuck out now and save the money you are pissing away on tuition if you are convinced its all just a waste of time but get used to being self-employed, because without that degree you won't even get through filter0 for any recruiter or hiring dept. hard to tell a cto how smart you are when the HR staffer shreds your resume because your last education is high school
        pg 18y ago
        I don't think any of the startups we've funded care whether someone finished their degree. We certainly don't ourselves. This is not to say grades are entirely meaningless, though. I've definitely taken a few classes where getting an A took more than obedience.
        strlen 18y ago
        it's the knowledge that matters, not the grades. i am more concerned that a project like this could make 'unalone' work more for the grade (or the degree) vs. for the knowledge. there were also many cases where i've felt that getting a higher grade would mean i'd end up learning less - as in, i'd focus on completing projects/assignments/memorizing what's needed immediately for the test vs. focusing on truly understanding the material and how it would apply to the real world. this quarter of graduate school i'm also taking twice my normal load while still working full time: reason is one of the courses i am taking is only offered once every few years. this could mean a lower grade, but i'd end up walking away with greater knowledge.

strlen 18y ago

the comment is combative and in poor tone, but i'm upmoding it. there's more to your education than knowing how to make a dynamic web-site. take something away from undergrad: if you want practical experience work on business-wise pointless but technically interesting projects (just for yourself) or open source projects. take the time to learn mathematics (calculus, calculus-based statistics), electrical engineering and physics: web fads come and go, but solid scientific knowledge stays with you.

unalone 18y ago
This semester I've been really focusing on web development. We want to apply to YCombinator over the summer, and I want to make sure that I'm more than capable of handling the aspects of the site I'm running. My co-founder (apparently that term's inappropriate now) is very much a math-and-science person. I'm not averse to them - I took calculus in my junior year of high school - but at the same time, that's not what interests me. I'm much more an arts person: writing, music, theatre. It's a good combination, because we look at what we're developing in different ways. At the same time, I'm learning how to program, I'm in a digital arts course, and next semester I'm taking an upperclassmen programming course. I'm not planning to throw my life away on a project. But if I've got a good idea, I'm going to try to implement it. I'm young: I can risk failure.
- strlen 18y ago
  > But if I've got a good idea, I'm going to try to implement it. I'm young: I can risk failure. Sure but don't risk your undergrad. Graduate school is a much better time for this. And to quote DHH, don't treat your life like a planned waterfall project: "I want to do web development, so I will do X, then I will do Y."
  - unalone 18y ago
    Worst comes to worst, I leave college for a year or two, and come back after I've tried everything a bit older and a bit wiser. I don't think that web development is my big thing. I'm interested in the web, but I'd hate to have to work on ideas I don't love. My current project is something for writers, so it has practical uses for myself as well. And YCombinator summer happens in Boston, which happens to be the place I want to go, so I told my cofounder and we agreed we'd give it a good try.