I got a call from a friend of a friend the other night. It was a fellow with whom I’d talked 11 months ago about a project he and his partner were looking to start. We established then that I wasn’t the guy for him, that I was likely too expensive for their big-dreams, small-means budget.Fast forward to present day: their project is still not launched, it’s still not right. They’ve paid for something between 600-700 hours of development with a firm in India, and they should have launched 6 weeks ago.Sure they’re only being charged $14/hour for that work, but ...

I got a call from a friend of a friend the other night. It was a fellow with whom I’d talked 11 months ago about a project he and his partner were looking to start. We established then that I wasn’t the guy for him, that I was likely too expensive for their big-dreams, small-means budget.Fast forward to present day: their project is still not launched, it’s still not right. They’ve paid for something between 600-700 hours of development with a firm in India, and they should have launched 6 weeks ago.Sure they’re only being charged $14/hour for that work, but ...

How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?For a while, I didn’t have a real good solution. Something would trigger me to remember “Oh yeah! I really wanted to learn more about that”. I would spend the evening doing busy learning - it seemed like I was learning but I really wasn’t.Instead of trying to do Deliberate Practice, I’d fool myself into thinking I was investing my time wisely by reading blog posts and examples but not actually doing much of anything.Soon, the enthusiasm would pass and my progress would stale. Rinse and repe...

Here’s an introductory quote from The Story of W&L, a tale of China’s great internet divide:China does not have one so-called “national internet,” instead there’s a great divide. It encompasses the elite with ThinkPad laptops and also the grassroots with MTK Shanzhai mobile phones. Our elites are on par with America, while our grassroots are on par with Vietnam. This is the story of W&L, two representatives of China’s great internet divide.The original post (Chinese-language) was written in July 2010 by Simon Shen (申音) and&nb...

Why do people chew gum? If an anthropologist from Mars ever visited a typical supermarket, they’d be confounded by those shelves near the checkout aisle that display dozens of flavored gum options. Chewing without eating seems like such a ridiculous habit, the oral equivalent of running on a treadmill. And yet, people have been chewing gum for thousands of years, ever since the ancient Greeks began popping wads of mastic tree resin in their mouth to sweeten the breath. Socrates probably chewed gum.It turns out there’s an excellent rationale for this long-standing cultural habit: ...

In my earlier 20s when I knew everything, I was a much bigger evangelist for my technology choices. I’m accused of fanboyism a lot more these days, but only because Hacker News keeps sending huge waves of people here who tell me I’m an idiot. But I used to be much more annoying with pushing my choices onto others.I’ve naturally reduced such evangelism as I approach 30 and realize I don’t know anything, but I’m now making a much more conscious effort to stop it.I spent Thanksgiving weekend in my hometown and visited my friend’s parents. They used to gen...

I originally assumed that open source was simply a means of producing technology.But technology is just a lovely byproduct, the real goal is social.Not all open source projects work this way, but perhaps they should.I stumbled upon this realization while maintaining fog as it grew and grew and grew.Leaving issues open seemed unbearable, but over time the volume far exceeded my ability to keep up.Over time I saw the promise of a better way, but my expectations of open source would need to adapt.I learned that if running a project means fixing bugs, you may never find time for anything else.Ever...

Side projects are important for a few reasons. Programming is a creative process. Side projects allow programming without deadlines or restraints. Side projects allow programming in an exploratory way.Explore new technologiesEvery day there are more and more bleeding edge technologies coming out. A side project is a great place to try them out. There’s no reason to worry about bugs or performance issues because it’s just a side project. You’re not depending on the project to pay your bills. It’s ok if the website crashes.Creating from scratchMost jobs I’ve ha...