[HN Gopher] I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built...
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       I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own
        
       Author : plondon514
       Score  : 632 points
       Date   : 2021-10-28 12:44 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (codeamigo.dev)
 (TXT) w3m dump (codeamigo.dev)
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Good luck!
       | 
       | I tend to have a similar reaction to being excluded.
        
       | inaseem wrote:
       | Hi Philip, Its great to see codeamigo come to life. Definitely a
       | platform I would use myself to learn more. I am following you
       | from radon's riju project.
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Hey! Radon's project is great and powers the languages not
         | executable by the browser! Check us out on discord as we grow
         | the community there: https://discord.gg/UUgEe5MH
        
       | SebastianKumor wrote:
       | Way to go! Very inspiring. Website looks like a good start
        
       | bingohbangoh wrote:
       | hug of death?
        
       | javier10e6 wrote:
       | What brought me into the coding world was its novelty. In those
       | days an electronic games were: Merlin, Simon and Mattel Football.
       | Today, there is nothing novel about coding and its crushing and
       | relentless.
        
       | 9387367 wrote:
       | Fantastic work.
       | 
       | Would you have anything to help a kid build a blog and learn by
       | doing it?
        
       | 0xbadcafebee wrote:
       | If ya can't join 'em, beat 'em.
        
       | shakey_mcshake wrote:
       | I suppose the people who get rejected by every company just need
       | to build an entirely new internet to redeem themselves.
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Everyone responds to rejection differently ;)
        
       | justinzollars wrote:
       | nice work!
        
       | sithlord wrote:
       | I applied to codecademy earlier this year, recruiter never showed
       | up to our intro call, and then never emailed me back. Took it as
       | dodging a bullet!
        
       | yewenjie wrote:
       | Really like what the site is doing, however the styling needs
       | some work though.
        
       | cardosof wrote:
       | Congrats! That's very inspiring.
        
       | SadWebDeveloper wrote:
       | Oh nice fainlly a place to test my sandbox escapes... get ready
       | to pwn!
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | throwaway158497 wrote:
       | Hey, great work. I have a small feature request. I want to be
       | able to give feedback on code to my students, just like in
       | github. Click on a particular line(number), a text box pops up
       | and then I can type in my comments. Is it possible to build the
       | feature?
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | I love this idea!
        
           | hanniabu wrote:
           | Small fix: when you click next it should bring you to the top
           | of the page instead of staying at the bottom. It gets
           | annoying needing to scroll up every time and really takes you
           | out of focus.
        
             | plondon514 wrote:
             | Mobile friendly strikes again, been meaning to tackle this
             | one, facepalm
        
       | m00x wrote:
       | I'll be honest, this is a great start and a good app that not a
       | lot of people would achieve and deliver. Hopefully this feedback
       | can be constructive.
       | 
       | It does not feel like a modern "professional" app though, the
       | design is extremely lacking and not something you'd see from an
       | intermediate+ frontend dev.
       | 
       | The "New lesson" part doesn't work because it's behind an auth
       | check, but there's no error message and it's displayed as an
       | unauth'd user.
       | 
       | There's a bunch of console errors everywhere for undefined
       | objects.
       | 
       | It's basically a reskinned version of this https://riju.codes/,
       | so nothing of major complexity was done here.
       | 
       | That said, delivering this is impressive, especially for a more
       | junior developer. This is major step towards building up your
       | career and I'm looking forward to see more!
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Appreciate the feedback and I don't disagree! I definitely
         | would love to work more on the design and general "smooth-ness"
         | of the app. I've been focused on functionality and driving
         | towards something that works. Time to tighten some screws!
         | 
         | PS, did you interview me last year at Codecademy? ;)
        
           | m00x wrote:
           | I didn't, I never heard of the company before this.
        
         | albertgoeswoof wrote:
         | The design is fine, it's totally functional, perfect for a
         | developer focused site and quite refreshing actually.
         | 
         | Great that you've pointed out a couple of bugs but I've seen
         | "senior" developers who couldn't conceive of, build and deploy
         | anything close to this.
         | 
         | There's enough here to build a SaaS business out, and the OP
         | can be CEO, CTO or whatever title they want
        
         | kome wrote:
         | > It does not feel like a modern "professional" app though
         | 
         | True, it feels better that the standard "modern professional"
         | design that you see nowadays, that it is just boring. Here you
         | see some personality and functionality.
        
         | pageandrew wrote:
         | I disagree about the design. The layout of the app is fine, and
         | its very functional and easy to use. The only problem is the
         | colors. That blue has to go.
        
           | plondon514 wrote:
           | If you sign up you can change the theme in settings!
        
             | mixmastamyk wrote:
             | Agreed, more neutral color is needed. Also, the
             | contrast/thickness of the borders is way too high. Funny,
             | because I usually complain contrast is too low for typical
             | sites.
             | 
             | I also had trouble reading the About... tooltip. I'd
             | probably move that to the sidebar?
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | aspencer8111 wrote:
       | Good on you man! You:
       | 
       | 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone
       | with this level of passion).
       | 
       | 2. Created your own product (which you seem even more passionate
       | about)
       | 
       | 3. Did all the heavy lifting to make it interesting out of the
       | gate (provided content).
       | 
       | Wishing you all the success!
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | > 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject
         | someone with this level of passion).
         | 
         | Passion is a double-edged sword: When a person's passions align
         | closely with the company's needs, it's wonderful.
         | 
         | But if a person's passions conflict with what the founders
         | want, the passion can amplify the conflict.
         | 
         | That's why it's important to understand exactly what the
         | candidate is passionate about. If they're passionate about
         | helping the company wherever necessary, that's one thing. If
         | they're passionate about something tangential and they expect
         | the shift the company in that direction by joining, that's
         | something else.
         | 
         | Codeamigo appears distinctly different than Codeacademy in some
         | key areas, as the author explains, so I wouldn't assume that
         | his passions aligned exactly with what Codeacademy was hiring
         | fire. I think it's best to give the benefit of the doubt to
         | Codeacademy in this case.
         | 
         | Remember: Being rejected from a job doesn't mean someone is
         | unqualified or a bad developer. There's more to matching
         | candidates to a team and not every candidate is a good match
         | for every team.
        
           | beepbooptheory wrote:
           | Is there any room left for someone to just be good at
           | something and a company pays them to do that thing.
        
           | mylons wrote:
           | Why is it best to give Codeacademy the benefit of the doubt?
           | They likely hire by committee, like any tech company. In that
           | scenario it's entirely dependent on who the committee is.
           | It's not like Codeacademy, or any company for that matter,
           | has some idempotent interviewing process. If you changed the
           | interview panels, or some of the questions, the candidate may
           | likely have received an offer.
        
             | pkrotich wrote:
             | Have you hired anyone? Asking because your comment make it
             | sounds like there's science to it. I don't like the
             | committee hiring as well but team or manager level hiring
             | can segment the company culture. Also individuals can be
             | biased and hire based on vibes or who is like them etc. -
             | committee brings a check to that, that's why it's common.
             | 
             | The truth is - you'll miss some great candidates because
             | they simply interview poorly and of the flip side sometimes
             | get a professional interviewee that cannot deliver once
             | hired.
             | 
             | You can also get a brilliant 10x candidate but a complete
             | asshole (e.g CEO wanna be) that will destroy your team once
             | hired.
        
               | dimitrios1 wrote:
               | Hiring is hard. We, as an industry, simply cannot
               | interview.
               | 
               | We don't know how to accurately gauge a candidates
               | experience, personality or knowledge. We can only make
               | them perform monkey-see-monkey-do on a whiteboard or
               | through stupid, asinine puzzles and leetcode style
               | exercises.
               | 
               | To make matters worse, we often place our most senior
               | software developers on interview circuits. For better or
               | for worse, engineers trend towards more anti-social
               | traits. It makes the whole process of understanding one's
               | personality, how they think, and whether or not they'll
               | be a fit for the company a complete crap-chute. This is
               | literally the only industry I have been apart of that
               | sucks _this bad_ at a process that is so fundamental to
               | professional life.
               | 
               | I would rather interview at McDonalds or for a call
               | center (having had both of those jobs).
        
               | boneskull wrote:
               | it's "crapshoot" as in the game of craps, meaning "it's a
               | gamble" but crap-chute is pretty good too. just not for
               | this sentence
        
               | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
               | It's a crapshoot whether or not you end up in a crap
               | chute of a company.
        
               | a1369209993 wrote:
               | > > the whole process of understanding one's personality,
               | how they think, and whether or not they'll be a fit for
               | the company
               | 
               | It's a chute you shovel crap into (or out of), with no
               | justifiable expectation of useful results. The _interview
               | process as a whole_ is a crapshoot, but the process of
               | understanding the candidate is a crap chute.
        
               | KerryJones wrote:
               | I have -- quite a few times in quite a few different
               | jobs. There actually is a lot more science to it than we
               | usually take credit for. There have been studies that our
               | typical interview process gives us 17% predictability of
               | how they will perform, but if we do a contract-to-hire
               | (of just one week) that improves to 80%.
               | 
               | We have proven time and time again that certain times of
               | interview questions are not helpful.
               | 
               | If you look at the best investors, their job is similar,
               | I would say that most notably as YC being crazy
               | successful and found similarly in my own hiring is that
               | passion for a given space is one of the best predictors
               | of success.
        
               | PragmaticPulp wrote:
               | > There have been studies that our typical interview
               | process gives us 17% predictability of how they will
               | perform, but if we do a contract-to-hire (of just one
               | week) that improves to 80%.
               | 
               | The pool of candidates interested in full-time jobs is
               | not the same as the pool of candidates interested in
               | doing contract-to-hire positions.
               | 
               | Contract-to-hire selects for people with the ability to
               | risk working for a company for a period of time without a
               | high risk of near-term unemployment if it doesn't work
               | out. The people willing to take those jobs are usually
               | more qualified to begin with because they have more
               | career options open to them if the contract-to-hire
               | doesn't turn into a contract job.
               | 
               | So you're basically pre-selecting your candidates.
        
               | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
               | So, you're agreeing that it works, then.
        
           | maximp wrote:
           | > Codeamigo appears distinctly different than Codeacademy in
           | some key areas
           | 
           | I imagine that building and releasing _the exact clone_ of
           | the product from a company that rejected you would be petty
           | and legally dubious.
        
           | bitwize wrote:
           | This is why it's important, in the corporate world, to
           | cultivate a VB programmer's or PHP programmer's mindset, no
           | matter what language you're working in: your passion should
           | be with the business and solving exactly the business problem
           | at hand, and treating your programming tools strictly as
           | tools in service of the business.
        
           | opan wrote:
           | Small note: It's "Codecademy", not "Codeacademy". Like a
           | mash-up of words rather than just two whole ones squished
           | together.
        
           | matheusmoreira wrote:
           | > If they're passionate about helping the company wherever
           | necessary, that's one thing.
           | 
           | Why would anyone be passionate about any specific
           | corporation? Sounds like a great way to be exploited. People
           | are passionate about enjoyable activities such as
           | programming, not companies. They help companies with their
           | problems because they get paid for it.
        
             | javajosh wrote:
             | _Why would anyone be passionate about any specific
             | corporation?_
             | 
             | Speculating that it's perceived risk mitigation. If you're
             | perceived as loyal, helpful, and even somewhat capable,
             | they'll keep you around! This is in fact the perfect role
             | for that person who gets a lot of juice out of supporting
             | someone else achieve their goals. It is also probably a
             | personality thing.
             | 
             | Of course, you have to answer a generalization of your own
             | question: why be passionate about anything? It doesn't seem
             | to be a necessary, or indeed very useful, to improve
             | darwinian fitness.
        
         | hellbannedguy wrote:
         | I sometimes think the most brilliant/creative people are often
         | overlooked in hiring, and admittance to programs.
         | 
         | Whomever you are--you will do well in life.
         | 
         | I've know some brilliant people who seem to suffer from
         | anxiety, and depression. Don't push yourself to hard.
         | 
         | I love the simplicity of your site.
         | 
         | I will now signup.
        
         | q-big wrote:
         | > 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject
         | someone with this level of passion).
         | 
         | Considering what he writes on
         | https://docs.codeamigo.dev/blog/why-codeamigo, I would assume
         | that he has a somewhat different vision on the product than
         | Codeacademy.
        
           | codingdave wrote:
           | Agreed - passion is great when aligned with the business
           | direction, but can be downright toxic when in conflict.
        
             | samstave wrote:
             | Its where "mac fanbois" or "BOFHs" come from...
             | 
             | I worked with a guy who was so mac focused he was blind to
             | other tools/perspectives and it was often a friction point
             | between team-members...
        
               | rpmisms wrote:
               | So many people like this just need a little dose of
               | pragmatism. It helped my worldview immensely.
        
             | masklinn wrote:
             | I can only concur, having someone who's extremely
             | passionate about a project but whose vision diverges
             | drastically from the project's leads is hell all around.
             | 
             | Given GP seems to indeed have quite divergent opinions
             | about the product's focus:
             | 
             | > What bothered me about the platform was that I didn't
             | know or connect with my teachers. I wanted to connect with
             | members of my community and learn from them, instead of
             | just digesting information from a black box.
             | 
             | then it's probably a better thing that they went and
             | created their own version focused on what they think is
             | important.
        
         | 0xFACEFEED wrote:
         | > 1. Dodged a bullet
         | 
         | I'd argue that Codecademy dodged a bullet. Calling them out by
         | name is in really bad taste IMO.
         | 
         | Let's be honest: if he had launched a coding tutorial website
         | thing and it didn't have the "comeback story" marketing
         | narrative then no one would care.
        
           | notsureaboutpg wrote:
           | Huge disagree.
           | 
           | Companies call each other out by name all the time. Why can't
           | he build his personal brand by calling CodeAcademy out by
           | name but they can do so with their corporate brand?
        
           | ironmagma wrote:
           | What kind of harm does this actually do to Codecademy? I
           | would argue none. There is no downside to calling them out.
        
             | 0xFACEFEED wrote:
             | Just look at the comment above mine: "booo on any company
             | that". Some people will perceive his rejection as bad
             | hiring practices on Codecademy's part.
             | 
             | Every comeback story needs a bad guy that rejects or pushes
             | down the hero before they rise. That's what makes this post
             | interesting.
             | 
             | It's certainly not the content; creating a web app of
             | stitched together NPM packages isn't exactly a major
             | challenge these days. Especially if you're copying
             | something else feature-by-feature.
        
               | ironmagma wrote:
               | > Some people will perceive his rejection as bad hiring
               | practices on Codecademy's part.
               | 
               | FTR, I have no opinion for or against Codecademy.
               | 
               | Whether it's a bad or good hiring practice depends on
               | what you think of this guy. The information on whether
               | any company hires or rejects a certain applicant is not a
               | trade secret. If you read this and think, "this guy's a
               | douchebag," then yes, the company looks sane and
               | reasonable, the opposite of bad. If you read it and
               | think, "this guy is perfectly reasonable," then yes, the
               | company looks bad.
               | 
               | This poster isn't saying anything about whether
               | Codecademy is good or bad, they're just stating the
               | facts, which were created as a result of the company's
               | hiring decisions. If the facts make them look bad, that's
               | on the company for making the choices they did. If they
               | make them look good, the same applies. Again, I have no
               | horse in this race.
        
           | jgwil2 wrote:
           | If it's so easy to build a coding tutorial website, then what
           | advantage does Codecademy have beyond name recognition? So
           | you're not competing with their tech, you're competing with
           | their marketing. You say bad taste, I say good marketing.
        
             | splistud wrote:
             | Content? Seems like a good advantage to have for a tutorial
             | website.
        
             | 0xFACEFEED wrote:
             | I don't think it's objectively good marketing. But then I
             | guess it depends on what your philosophical stance is on
             | "succes de scandale" (a logical extreme; there isn't much
             | controversy here).
             | 
             | My stance on the ethics of marketing is that "anything
             | goes" until you start tarnishing the names of others to get
             | ahead. This is why trash talking past employers/coworkers
             | has always been an insta-no-hire in my book for example.
             | 
             | Now I don't know to overstate what this guy did. Obviously
             | he's not outright trash talking here. But I think once you
             | form a company and start marketing then you should be held
             | to some ethical standard. If you mention other people or
             | companies by name then consider how what you're saying
             | could be perceived.
        
       | johnmato wrote:
       | This is great; Code Academy fueled the desire in you and made it
       | as inspiration to create your own. I have watched some videos,
       | and I do love your byte-sized coding tutorials.
        
       | KronisLV wrote:
       | Here's the link with more information, from the linked blog at
       | the bottom of the page: https://docs.codeamigo.dev/blog
        
       | VWWHFSfQ wrote:
       | Why don't they just call it Code Academy. why does it have to be
       | some weird little made up word that doesn't even make any sense
        
         | the_only_law wrote:
         | Can't tell if this is a joke or not.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jrowley wrote:
         | Amigo means friend in Spanish. No more of a made up word than
         | academy.
        
           | macintux wrote:
           | I believe the parent was referring to Codecademy itself.
        
           | ThaJay wrote:
           | cademy is not a word though. code cademy.
        
         | neur4lnet wrote:
         | I had never realised that codecademy wasn't codeacadamy. Oops.
        
           | ThaJay wrote:
           | I always have issues spelling it
        
         | ModernMech wrote:
         | Say Codecademy and Code Academy out loud. Also in general,
         | weird little made up words are more defensible in terms of
         | trademarks.
        
           | consumer451 wrote:
           | And better for SEO as well, is it not?
        
             | ModernMech wrote:
             | Yeah and urls for that matter, but actually I just checked
             | and codecademy owns codeAcademy.com
        
               | bryanrasmussen wrote:
               | probably purchased after they started making money.
        
         | slowmotiony wrote:
         | If it was 15 years ago it probably would have been named
         | "Codr.io", so there is progress
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | Codebedandbreakfast with the YC founders saying "no that's
           | not quite right, how about..."
        
             | RNCTX wrote:
             | Don't for get the xylophone, ukulele, and middle aged white
             | guy with a beard to play the mime in all the marketing
             | material.
        
         | onion2k wrote:
         | Codecademy was filed as a trademark on September 6, 2012. When
         | they did that there were some pre-existing similar names around
         | (eg CA Code Academy filed on September 7, 2011). It's probably
         | the case that they couldn't get a "Code Academy" based .com
         | domain or something too. Plus portmanteau names for startups
         | were trendy back then.
        
         | CapitalistCartr wrote:
         | So they can copyright their name.
        
           | fabianhjr wrote:
           | Names are not copyrightable; do you mean trademark?
        
           | ModernMech wrote:
           | *Trademark. Copyright protects creative works.
        
           | bogwog wrote:
           | You own the rights to copy something you made, you don't
           | copyright something you made.
        
       | maximp wrote:
       | Oh hi, Zach!
        
       | petee wrote:
       | What does 'rejected' mean, I thought they let you sign up free?
       | 
       | Either way, it's always nice to see alternatives, thanks for
       | sharing
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Hey! I was rejected as a frontend engineering job applicant 3
         | times. The most recent application led to an on-site. After
         | that rejection I started working on codeamigo, it's been a ton
         | of fun!
        
           | petee wrote:
           | Ah thanks! I didn't know if you meant as a student, thus
           | wanting to make your own classes. Looks great!
        
         | camillomiller wrote:
         | I think he means as a teacher?
        
         | efbbrown wrote:
         | I think OP probably means he was rejected from working for
         | codecademy. Their loss judging by codeamigo.
        
           | m00x wrote:
           | Really? I don't want to be rude, but that site is really
           | awful-looking and looks like something a bootcamp grad would
           | do for their final project.
           | 
           | The complexity though of making something like this though is
           | definitely intermediate+.
        
             | johnwheeler wrote:
             | Oh, you don't want to be rude? Really? Why just come in
             | here to shit on the devs project? I saw your previous
             | "constructive" criticism. Do you know how hard it is? How
             | many fine details are involved in launching something?
             | Please display some of your solo work, so we can see the
             | merits of your valuable "feedback"
        
               | m00x wrote:
               | I definitely know how hard it is, I have 10 years of
               | experience and I'm now staff eng and team lead at a 50B+
               | MC company.
               | 
               | I had my own startup, and built many projects first-hand,
               | but I'm not going to de-anonymize myself for the sake of
               | argument.
               | 
               | In my opinion, it should _always_ be hard. OP had a good
               | launch and delivered, which is something that 's
               | incredible and that only < 1% of devs do, especially by
               | themselves. The design is terrible, but the idea and
               | execution was great.
               | 
               | I also love the fact that he did this out of wanting to
               | prove that he could do the work, and not taking the L
               | from the rejection.
        
               | ojr wrote:
               | The design doesn't need to be great for an educational
               | site. More frontend tasks can be done to change the css
               | with a library like tailwind ui and it will look better,
               | doing css from scratch is harder but cheaper than the
               | $200 tailwind download. The hardest part of this
               | application is done.
        
               | rpmisms wrote:
               | I hope I never work on your team, the attitude you're
               | displaying would me an instant no-go from me. Junior devs
               | need encouragement, guidance, and positive feedback.
               | You've managed to wrap semantically positive feedback in
               | a negative mantle. Please leave this guy alone and allow
               | him to continue kicking ass.
        
           | duxup wrote:
           | Possible loss, on the other hand "this guy wants to build his
           | own site / make the decisions" might not be a great hire if
           | you're trying to hire a worker drone to build a given widget.
           | 
           | Lots of different situations could apply.
        
             | officialchicken wrote:
             | The only possible situation here is "A-types hire A-types;
             | B-types hire C-types". If a single applicant can replace
             | your entire engineering team (which definitely happened in
             | this case) why wouldn't you hire them to build a widget?
        
               | duxup wrote:
               | >If a single applicant can replace your entire
               | engineering team (which definitely happened in this case)
               | why wouldn't you hire them to build a widget?
               | 
               | Because possibly that's not what they want to do, build a
               | widget.
        
               | playpause wrote:
               | Haven't you answered your own question? Because they
               | don't want to build the widget you want them to build.
               | They want to replace your whole engineering team.
               | 
               | What about hiring them to replace the whole engineering
               | team, saving on salaries? Then you're fucked when that
               | person gets bored and leaves.
               | 
               | Hyper passionate individuals don't make good hires. They
               | might make good founders though.
        
             | plondon514 wrote:
             | I would've been very happy to contribute on any level. I
             | have a desire and passion to be in the ed-tech space.
             | Eventually I just figured that the lowest barrier to entry
             | was building my own site.
        
               | wila wrote:
               | Cool site and congrats on a successful launch!
               | 
               | Tip: Add it to your HN profile.
        
               | plondon514 wrote:
               | Thanks for the tip!
        
         | smitop wrote:
         | Their job applications were rejected:
         | https://docs.codeamigo.dev/blog/why-codeamigo
        
         | Marcus316 wrote:
         | Hey actually explains in a blog entry here:
         | https://docs.codeamigo.dev/blog
        
       | chrisabrams wrote:
       | Very nice job!
       | 
       | One small request: add an option to move the step/info column
       | from the far left to the far right.
        
       | Closi wrote:
       | Well it looks like you are down, apparently the 'HN Hug of Death'
       | still occasionally exists.
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Yeah does seem to be struggling a bit...
        
       | stoned wrote:
       | Rejecting someone three times from something that isn't the
       | Rhodes Scholarship or what have you is pretty brutal. How bad
       | could this candidate have been? Is Codeacademy like the Rhodes
       | Scholarship or something? One of my luckiest breaks was when a
       | college that rejected me the first time around accepted me the
       | second time I applied. Really grateful for that opportunity.
        
       | FractalHQ wrote:
       | Can I request a Svelte tutorial?
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | You certainly can! And thanks for reminding me, I need to add
         | an interest form on the site. BTW the svelte tutorial on the
         | official docs site is really great!
         | https://svelte.dev/tutorial/basics
        
       | tac0_ wrote:
       | This is awesome! Love the focus on short practical tutorials and
       | not leetcode style questions. Are you planning on iterating this
       | further?
        
       | mtc010170 wrote:
       | Way to be! It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just
       | really want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that
       | make for excellent teammates.
        
         | alexashka wrote:
         | > People with that make for excellent teammates.
         | 
         | I agree, sort of. All things being equal, you want someone who
         | has that sparkle, that enthusiasm.
         | 
         | But things often aren't equal and people are really prone to
         | hiring who they _like_ , over who will get the job done and
         | it's a real problem.
         | 
         | It's tough, really. There are many highly disagreeable software
         | developers I've met who are good at their job, but you just
         | want to get away from, and then there are starry eyed social
         | people who are _fun_ but terrible at their job.
         | 
         | A software dev that's good and still has some sparkle in them
         | after being in the industry for a decade is like a unicorn in
         | my experience. I don't know what it means but it does make me
         | sad.
        
         | xtracto wrote:
         | It's complicated. At my last startup (web application) I was in
         | charge of hiring for the technical team. I've got an
         | application from a guy who _really really_ wanted to work
         | there. But the truth is that he didn 't have basic coding
         | skills (in that, he couldn't do FizzBuzz level of coding). I
         | really tried to get him in but in reality we would not have
         | been able to put him in any position.
         | 
         | I was sad because he sent the best "cover letters" I have read
         | ever. And I almost never care about cover letters.
        
           | LordKano wrote:
           | Someone that passionate can probably be mentored into the
           | skill set necessary to do the job.
           | 
           | I spent a year at a TA at a University and in that time I had
           | two students who were really stellar. They were outstanding
           | programmers. They paid attention detail and wrote elegant but
           | easy to read code that worked. I took the time to offer both
           | of them my assistance if they needed any help after
           | graduation.
           | 
           | I play video games with one of them. The other one got out of
           | CS and changed her major to something art related.
        
             | slingnow wrote:
             | What does the conclusion of your comment have to do with
             | supporting your argument?
        
           | mtc010170 wrote:
           | Oh wow, that it sad.
           | 
           | Based on the responses, I think I should clarify:
           | 
           | People that show that they want to be there _often_ make for
           | excellent teammates, because they actually care (the old
           | missionaries vs mercenaries idea), and will often be willing
           | to put in the effort to fill whatever gaps they lack, while
           | creating a positive work environment.
           | 
           | Plus, they might have a really good feel for the product and
           | market, because they're genuinely interested in it. You want
           | people like that on your team.
           | 
           | Now, of course - businesses are not a charity that _only_
           | employ people because they want to be there. There is a
           | minimum bar of skills required and plenty of other traits
           | that matter. And on the employer side, there 's a ton of
           | factors there too (budget, existing skills of the team, etc
           | etc).
           | 
           | So yes, I was generalizing. But in general: I'd take someone
           | who wants to be there with high aptitude who has things to
           | learn over someone who has skills but doesn't actually give a
           | crap about the product or company any day of the week, for
           | the types of companies I'm trying to build. That doesn't mean
           | my or your companies needs/goals are the same.
        
         | xwdv wrote:
         | Sorry but anyone who comes with that attitude is extremely
         | naive and cannot be trusted. And is NOT a good teammate. How
         | can you want to be part of something when you don't even know
         | what it's like on the inside?
         | 
         | What happens when you are given a task you do NOT want to be
         | part of? What happens when a task has moral gray area? What
         | happens if you suddenly decide you really want to be part of
         | something else?
         | 
         | Fuck people like that, if you're hiring someone you want
         | someone with valuable skills who is ready to be of service,
         | ready to do whatever you ask, and will remain loyal so long as
         | they are paid. You don't want people to be nice, you want them
         | to be predictable. That's true value.
        
           | glenneroo wrote:
           | Way to generalize everybody who is ever enthusiastic to work
           | somewhere - they're all untrustworthy and horrible teammates.
        
             | deadbunny wrote:
             | By the sounds of it they just want robots.
             | 
             | "Moraly gray", "do whatever asked".
             | 
             | Sounds a lot like how we've needed up with the current
             | nightmare in big tech.
        
           | dgb23 wrote:
           | Ah yes, obedient workers. But also creative and open minded.
           | And autonomous. Well as long as they are autonomously doing
           | the thing I want. Scratch the creative part, I'm already
           | creative enough! Also loyalty is super important - for them
           | of course. I reserve the privilege to lay them off or fire
           | them - business is business after all.
        
             | aulin wrote:
             | I believe he put it in a wrong way but he has a valid
             | point. How can you be so passionate about working in a
             | place you never worked at? there's a big risk you're just
             | in love with the idea and you'll be deluded once you
             | experience it first hand. It's a risky hire if the day to
             | day job doesn't match his big expectations.
        
               | glenneroo wrote:
               | Isn't that what probation periods are for?
        
               | dgb23 wrote:
               | I agree with the point. Fully. I think this would be a
               | good thing to try and clear up during hiring if the
               | candidate is inexperienced or seems to have trouble with
               | commitment.
               | 
               | However when reading the above the tone seemed
               | ridiculously over the top, which is why I tuned in.
        
               | xwdv wrote:
               | > However when reading the above the tone seemed
               | ridiculously over the top, which is why I tuned in.
               | 
               | Mission Accomplished.
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | > It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just really
         | want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that make
         | for excellent teammates.
         | 
         | Every startup I've been a part of has picked up a few extremely
         | passionate but not necessarily fully qualified people along the
         | way. It's _hard_ to turn down an enthusiastic candidate who
         | really, really likes your company, so they 're often given a
         | chance.
         | 
         | Some of them turned out to be excellent teammates who did
         | everything necessary to grow into the role.
         | 
         | But sadly, many of them just wanted to be startup people
         | without doing the startup grunt work. Worst case, someone with
         | a lot of passion that goes in a different direction than the
         | founders can become a drag on the company or create a lot of
         | conflict. (NOTE: I'm speaking generally, not implying this is
         | the case with the linked author)
         | 
         | Passionate people are _generally_ good when their skills and
         | wants align with the company, but if they 're not well-aligned
         | then the passion just amplifies every conflict.
        
           | mtc010170 wrote:
           | Well said, and this is especially a great point:
           | 
           | > Passionate people are generally good when their skills and
           | wants align with the company, but if they're not well-aligned
           | then the passion just amplifies every conflict.
           | 
           | I'm starting to see where my original comment was definitely
           | oversimplifying the depths of this topic.
        
             | convolvatron wrote:
             | I agree completely. I have a pattern of joining projects
             | because I really love the idea and the concept, but upon
             | landing find out they are doing it _all wrong_.
             | 
             | and generally in these situations I find my criticism to be
             | too deep and cross cutting to really be accepted or be
             | really actionable.
             | 
             | so yeah, I think dialing up the passion just increases the
             | magnitude of the risk or reward.
        
         | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
         | > "I just really want to be part of/build this" factor. People
         | with that make for excellent teammates.
         | 
         | Not always. You want to be a part of something/build something,
         | and then you want to build it YOUR way. Or you see an obvious
         | hole and then an ugly battle between your ego and that of the
         | chief architect ensues.
         | 
         | Also, there may be cases when you want to be a part of
         | something, meet your heroes, and then it all goes pear-shaped.
         | Because you shouldn't meet your heroes.
         | 
         | And sometimes it's better to have mercenaries who don't
         | necessary believe in the same thing as you but care a lot about
         | their own reputation and take pride in having done a good job.
        
         | MattGaiser wrote:
         | I suspect that it often does not hold and people are not
         | completely honest about it.
        
           | Evan__ wrote:
           | I think it's less that it doesn't hold and more that many
           | people saying this are being disingenuous.
        
       | 40four wrote:
       | I don't understand the title? How do you get 'rejected' by Code
       | Academy? It's not a 'boot camp' with an application process. You
       | either do the free lessons offered, or pay up for one of the
       | 'Pro' level tiers.
       | 
       | This title seems sensational, and it's misleading to people not
       | familiar with Code Academy. Considering that, it doesn't sell me
       | on this product. In fact it makes me not even want to look at the
       | lessons offered, since the premise feels dishonest.
       | 
       | Edit: I don't think I'm the only one that read it that way based
       | in other comments. Honest mistake, it looks like English is not
       | the authors first language.
        
         | weswpg wrote:
         | > I don't understand the title? How do you get 'rejected' by
         | Code Academy? It's not a 'boot amp' with an application
         | process. You either do the free lessons offered, or pay up for
         | one of the 'Pro' level tiers.
         | 
         | From his blog:
         | 
         | > I've applied to work at Codecademy three times, once in 2014,
         | again in 2015, and most recently in 2020. I've been rejected
         | all three times. I wanted to prove to myself I was capable of
         | building something like it, so I decided to build my own
         | version.
        
           | 40four wrote:
           | Thanks, I didn't dig deep enough to find the _edit_ blog
           | buried at the bottom. That definitely clears things up.
        
             | weswpg wrote:
             | > Thanks, I didn't dig deep enough to find the boy buried
             | at the bottom. That definitely clears things up.
             | 
             | ...there's a boy buried at the bottom? i hope that's a
             | typo!
        
               | 40four wrote:
               | Lol, fixed it. But 'boy' was funnier!
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Si ingles es mi lengua materna, pero hablo Espanol tambien.
        
           | edgartaor wrote:
           | Oh. Es raro ver espanol en hacker news
        
         | HiroProtagonist wrote:
         | I think he applied to work there and was rejected, as opposed
         | to applying as a student.
        
           | 40four wrote:
           | Thanks, that makes more sense. Totally misread that. The blog
           | post was buried at the bottom didn't make it that far.
        
         | johnmaguire wrote:
         | I assumed he meant rejected as a job candidate.
        
       | csours wrote:
       | So this is completely unrelated to the YouTube Channel
       | amigoscode? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGDpanrc8U
        
       | grifball wrote:
       | >My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints
       | come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and
       | applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life.
       | 
       | >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For
       | example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade
       | in to the blank canvas!
       | 
       | I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is
       | the same conclusion I came to. There's something really cool
       | about starting with a blank page and coding in elements that
       | appear one by one and adapting the code to be what you want.
       | Maybe there's other ways to do it but programming seemed to be
       | the most powerful.
       | 
       | Just to be clear, it was video games, not photography that kinda
       | nudged me into programming, but same idea with a blank canvas and
       | having control of it.
        
         | duxup wrote:
         | That's kinda what did AND didn't work for me when it came to
         | programming.
         | 
         | In college my first class was a class about C, the instructor
         | read from the book (that appeared to be written about C for
         | people who already knew C...) and then you worked on the
         | assignment.
         | 
         | I didn't have the patience at that age to work that way and
         | dropped the class / decided programming wasn't for me.
         | 
         | I did some other tech things and decades later ended up working
         | with a bunch of engineers at a company and realized that we
         | understood each other / how we worked really well. Company was
         | bought out and I had time to think about what to do next.
         | 
         | By this time the world of web development and web apps had
         | taken off and there was so much information available / folks
         | sharing the land of programming seemed entirely different to
         | me. Attended a boot camp and everything just clicked, the
         | immediacy of producing something in a web app (even if it
         | broke) really drove home what I was doing and so on. I've been
         | happily coding since then.
        
           | albrewer wrote:
           | Similar thing happened to me. I had to take a C++ course
           | (with C++ 2008 on Windows) and hated the way it was taught. I
           | conflated that with hating programming. After I finished my
           | engineering degree, I got frustrated with repetitive tedious
           | manual processes, so I started automating them. As my skill
           | grew, I realized I liked programming more than I liked being
           | a mechanical engineer. Now I write code full time, but I'd be
           | way farther ahead if I'd just got the CS degree to start
           | with.
        
         | papito wrote:
         | For me, programming was like being a little god in my own
         | little world. For an introvert especially, it was exhilarating.
         | You write a command, and it obeys. When you see something on
         | screen is even more satisfying.
         | 
         | In fact, the all-night coding binges happen because in an
         | intense period of learning, you are producing a ton of
         | adrenaline, and that annihilates sleep. (Sorry, working, don't
         | care to look for the study right now). But it checks out.
        
           | satisfice wrote:
           | And when I was a kid, it was the only world that I COULD
           | control.
           | 
           | But then I went professional and that felt a little like how
           | the Old Testament God must have felt: overwhelmed and
           | irritable.
        
         | lukedoolittle wrote:
         | I feel like for a lot of us, at its most basic level, software
         | development is truly creative. It's not the activity that
         | people traditionally associate with the term "creative outlet"
         | but for me at least it's akin to combining human emotional
         | experience and music theory to compose a song or a flavor
         | inspiration and the 12 tastes in food to create a dish. Even
         | further as I've moved into a Machine Learning Engineer role the
         | creative aspect needn't even be sensual, like visual or
         | auditory, it could be totally abstract: I find the concept of
         | some of the tensorflow graphs I have created to be beautiful
         | even though they are way too complex to visualize (suck it
         | tensorboard).
        
           | jart wrote:
           | > suck it tensorboard
           | 
           | The poor little TensorBoard is crying right now because you
           | didn't love it.
        
           | squiggy22 wrote:
           | Completely agree. I wonder what it is about programming
           | something from nothing that still makes people think it isn't
           | a creative pursuit. The Venn diagram of writers, painters,
           | guitarists and programmers needs to be more heavily
           | advertised to get past this stigma of engineer meaning some
           | boring old fart typing mindless code at a keyboard.
        
         | susam wrote:
         | My introduction to computers was similar. I began by learning
         | turtle graphics in the Logo programming language during my
         | childhood days. It allowed me to be creative and draw pictures
         | on a blank canvas using code. Back then, for me, programming
         | was not about solving useful problems. Instead it was about
         | expressing whatever random ideas come to mind.
         | 
         | Quoting a relevant excerpt from my own blog post[1] that I
         | wrote sometime back:
         | 
         | > FD 100
         | 
         | > That is the "hello, world" of turtle graphics in Logo. That
         | simple line of code changed my world. I could make stuff happen
         | in an otherwise mostly blank monochrome CRT display. Until then
         | I had seen CRTs in televisions where I had very little control
         | on what I see on the screen. But now, I had control! The turtle
         | became my toy and I could make it draw anything on a 320 x 250
         | canvas.
         | 
         | [1] https://susam.in/blog/fd-100.html
        
           | madaxe_again wrote:
           | Similar sort of experience, although we had no turtle, so it
           | was BASIC on the MICRO for us.                 10 MODE 7
           | 20 PRINT CHR$141"A text adventure"       30 PRINT CHR$141"A
           | text adventure"
           | 
           | May as well have been the opening bars of Beethoven's 5th,
           | for the infinite and incredible possibilities which followed.
           | Anything. I could make _anything_. It was the most incredible
           | sensation and realisation - and still is.
        
             | type_enthusiast wrote:
             | For me, it was QBasic under MS-DOS.
             | SCREEN 13
             | 
             | is the start of endless possibilities!
             | 
             | I think this kind of experience is missing for kids now -
             | but I'd guess it's more about how ubiquitous computers are,
             | and how there's a lot more between the kid and the
             | computer. When a CLI is your interface, making even
             | rudimentary graphics feels like achieving magic. When your
             | interface is a cell phone or GUI, there's a much larger
             | leap from zero to "feels like magic" - OK, so I made a
             | circle bounce around the screen... there's already an app
             | that does that.
        
           | CreepGin wrote:
           | Me too. I learned LOGO in the 90's during 3rd grade. Now
           | thinking back, it was probably an important defining moment
           | in my life because it let me experience creativity through
           | coding and visual feedback (and also the constant discovery
           | of new ways of using the various commands).
        
         | IggleSniggle wrote:
         | Yep, same same, but different. For me it was music and sound,
         | starting with a blank canvas and mixing in digital signals and
         | controls to build something out. Could have been with a DAW,
         | but programming was just a more flexible and free-form blank-
         | canvas for self expression.
         | 
         | ...although I also got a kick out of "remixing" Windows 95. And
         | "remixing" video games (Civ and Colonization were particularly
         | great because they were SO EASY to edit both assets and
         | configuration). So many custom mouse cursors, shutdown screens,
         | start-up sounds, etc etc.
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | as opposed to inheriting legacy goldberg machines or walking on
         | quicksand (by quicksand I mean constantly changing librarires
         | fatigue)
        
         | evilhackerdude wrote:
         | Reminds me of my first programming experience as a 10 year old
         | kid. My dad showed me the QBASIC IDE. He typed one line of
         | code:                   PRINT "Ach leck mich doch am Buerzel"
         | 
         | And hit Run - Start...
         | 
         | I broke out in laughter, realizing I can make _real_ grey-on-
         | black DOS programs just like that. It blew my mind and started
         | my programming career.
        
         | jrm4 wrote:
         | Old timer who had an Apple II as a kid, and the experience I
         | try to sneak into every class I teach is:                 10
         | PRINT "John is Awesome";       20 GOTO 10
         | 
         | This little gem is the beginning of it all. Little me is
         | understanding, okay, so if I'm willing to put in the time and
         | thought, the machine will obey and I I have the literal power
         | of infinity at my fingertips.
        
           | krumpet wrote:
           | 10 PRINT "You are correct, sir!"
           | 
           | 20 GOTO 10
           | 
           | * Edited for formatting
        
           | hasmanean wrote:
           | I once wrote my daughter a similar BASIC program...she
           | immediately changed it to her sisters name and wrote "S is
           | stupid" and said "see, the computer said so so it must be
           | true."
           | 
           | I tried to reach her programming but she schooled me in AI-
           | hype.
        
           | pickledcods wrote:
           | And then reading the manual to discover the other things it
           | could do
        
           | ct520 wrote:
           | Love it, in first grade I use to remove the 5 1/4 inch mid
           | game to get to the command prompt and do this. Thought it was
           | the coolest thing ever.
        
         | atomicnumber3 wrote:
         | This gets me too. In high school I called it "the power of a
         | blank text file." Something about knowing that this was how
         | every great software product began life was very empowering and
         | intoxicating to me.
         | 
         | When you open vim and look at the blinking cursor, you stand on
         | the precipice of greatness in the shoes of every programmer who
         | has ever lived, all of you united across space and time by that
         | peculiar feeling you get when you peer into the infinite
         | possibilities of your empty text file.
        
           | O_H_E wrote:
           | Wow, that is such a well written quote.
           | 
           | I hope to one day remember and shamelessly cite it around.
        
           | TeMPOraL wrote:
           | I suppose this is what "high self-effiacy"[0] means.
           | 
           | I've only recently learned this word/concept, but your quote
           | fits. You see a blank text file, you see an interesting
           | challenge, something you're sure will lead you somewhere
           | nice. I'm gonna admit - I'm the opposite. A blank text file
           | _scares me_. I don 't know what to do. I spend a lot of time
           | agonizing over what I want to write, trying to desperately
           | narrow the space of possibilities until I have the design[1]
           | sharp in my head, and _only then_ I 'm able to actually write
           | anything in that empty file.
           | 
           | I guess I'm the "low self-effiacy" kind of person.
           | 
           | --
           | 
           | [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-efficacy
           | 
           | [1] - Or at least the first iteration of it.
        
             | Jenk wrote:
             | This may come across as facetious and/or condescending,
             | despite my intentions to be to give actual advice here...
             | Learning TDD is what helped me get past this. It's surely
             | not the only way to do it but it really made it click when
             | I did.
             | 
             | In learning the craftsman style of TDD (i.e., the fluffy
             | altruistic style) helped me to grok breaking down tasks,
             | not because I wasn't able to have a detailed view of the
             | big picture in my head, but because I simply didn't need
             | to. It's also ok to change what you've already done. The
             | guidelines for code modularity and separation are there to
             | make this process of change and evolution easier, not just
             | to make the system arch and code pretty, but because it
             | should be expected to change and evolve your code as you
             | develop the system - in both the short and long term.
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | It doesn't come across as facetious/condescending. Thank
               | you for your advice.
               | 
               | I'm actually using a TDD-ish approach in my work, but I
               | never felt comfortable letting it actually drive design
               | decisions. I don't believe it works that way - I can
               | explore the design space up front and pick good solutions
               | faster than it would take me to organically arrive at
               | them through applying orthodox TDD.
               | 
               | I'd like to do more TDD-ish approach, because the design
               | process feels way too slow to me. The problem is,
               | refactoring involved in test-driven design discovery _is
               | even slower_. I constantly feel bottlenecked by the speed
               | of tooling we use - and not on the surface level (I have
               | my Emacs configured well, thank you), but at a
               | fundamental one. Programming languages are not expressive
               | enough. The whole approach of writing code as plaintext
               | document is not ergonomic enough.
               | 
               | When I'm sitting in front of an empty text file, staring
               | at the sea of infinite possibilities, all I feel is
               | _dread_ - the fear of how much effort I 'm going to spend
               | fighting tools to conceptualize my design, how much time
               | I'm going to waste dealing with infrastructure, build
               | systems, dependency management, constructing intermediary
               | layers, writing and rewriting tests...
        
               | ntonauta wrote:
               | This resonates well with me. I too have my Emacs well
               | configured and I dread the blank canvas. I think it also
               | might have to do with me being an avid procrastinator.
        
             | epolanski wrote:
             | I am like you too. I'm not fond of blank projects where I
             | can let creativity thrive. I would not know what to do. But
             | give me a piece of paper and an idea and I can roughly
             | detail all requirements for the project, create a backlog
             | and tasks for a week. I'm more interested into the coding
             | challenge offered by the work. I get more satisfaction in
             | finding the best solution than in the result.
        
         | matheusmoreira wrote:
         | I know that feeling. It's a godlike feeling. We start with
         | literally nothing and we create whole a universe inside the
         | computer. A personal virtual universe that reflects our minds
         | and our understanding. We are the gods of these realms.
        
         | notjustanymike wrote:
         | I've had to focus on accessibility in our product lately, and
         | learning to use a screenreader created a whole new version of
         | this concept.
        
       | indiantinker wrote:
       | Love them! Reminds me of Larry David opening a Coffee Shop in
       | Curb your Enthusiasm.
       | 
       | I call them spite-sites.
        
         | masterof0 wrote:
         | I just hope you can do number 2 there. ;)
        
           | z3c0 wrote:
           | I believe the internet equivalent of "going number 2" would
           | just be a comment section. Seems easy enough.
        
             | masterof0 wrote:
             | haha yes
        
       | diomio wrote:
       | with blackjack and hookers
        
         | nvr219 wrote:
         | In fact, forget the coding!
        
       | jason_zig wrote:
       | This is great - love the frictionless signup and onboarding
       | experience. I'm planning to teach my niece some basic programming
       | stuff (moving on from scratch) and this seems like a great way to
       | put together some mini-lessons that are quick and rewarding.
        
       | pipnonsense wrote:
       | Ha! I have a kind of similar [0] story with Substack.
       | 
       | I couldn't get to work there (I really wanted to) so created a _"
       | read fiction on your email"_ side-project[1], which evolved to a
       | more ambitious _" substack for fiction"_ project:
       | https://www.confabulistas.com.br (for Brazilian market, so in
       | portuguese).
       | 
       | [0] "Kind of" because I couldn't even apply. Very early on I
       | exchanged a few emails with the founder and they wouldn't hire
       | remote. Then months later a recruiter reached out, but they
       | wouldn't hire remote still. Then they started to hire remote, so
       | I sent an email to the recruiter to apply, but they only hire
       | remote _in the US_. So I wasn 't exactly "rejected", but
       | prevented from applying.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.serialliterature.com It got to the front page of
       | HN when I launched.
        
         | agustif wrote:
         | If you're a freelance or equivalent, you should apply anyways
         | to those Remote (US) positions, YMMV, but since you can be
         | treated as an external provider, they don't care about where
         | you reside as long as it makes sense with timezones and such
         | for meetings etc...
         | 
         | That's my experience at least, have worked for some US
         | companies remotely from europe that way anyways
        
           | OJFord wrote:
           | I've wondered about that when I've seen it described as 'US
           | timezones' or similar, which on the face of it seems to just
           | mean the Americas (modulo I have no idea if maybe Canada or
           | somewhere South has an extra one not used in the USA) - but
           | maybe it suggests they're pretty open to anyone anywhere who
           | convincingly says they'll work Pacific (or whatever) hours.
           | Good to hear it's worked out for you.
        
             | officialchicken wrote:
             | Leading a team spanning more than 8 timezones is hard - but
             | what it usually means is they don't know how to manage
             | (read: trust) and have no leadership experience with remote
             | teams. The factory/assembly line of managing teams is still
             | common - they don't really understand how to asynchronously
             | build software itself. Many employers in the US are
             | particularly keen on NOT hiring in the EU because of the
             | significant difference in both contract and employment laws
             | in the two regions, whereas in Asia is cheap enough and
             | there are plenty of contracting or outsourcing firms to
             | help manage that requirement.
        
               | karaterobot wrote:
               | I've never been on a team where having people spread the
               | globe worked well. In fact, just this morning I got off a
               | 7 am (PDT) call with people at 7:30 pm (IST), and as
               | always I was thinking "this sucks for all of us". I don't
               | believe there's a clever hack that can optimize around
               | the circumference of the planet.
        
               | FredPret wrote:
               | Dig a deep hole and build a conference room in the middle
               | of the globe!
        
               | FredPret wrote:
               | ...we'll call it Central Time
        
               | convolvatron wrote:
               | the one caveat I've found is that if you _can_ get it
               | running you get a two or three stroke engine instead of a
               | single one. its absolutely fantastic to wake up and find
               | out that not only was the problem solved but we solved
               | another one and we're on the next.
               | 
               | that memory is pretty tarnished by all the other times I
               | couldn't even get very much done because the night team
               | is asleep and its completely unclear where we are - not
               | only did they not make any progress but they actually
               | left things in a bit of a mess.
        
             | smegger001 wrote:
             | I beleive Nefoundland Canada is in its own time zone
             | outside any the US has. but unlike most time zones it is
             | off by 30 minutes.
        
               | BenjiWiebe wrote:
               | Yes, Newfoundland has it's very own timezone, 2.5 hours
               | off from Central time.
        
           | pipnonsense wrote:
           | Yeah, I got this advice before and it makes sense. Even if I
           | was looking for more of a "full-time-like" position that
           | would happen to hire through a 1099 contract (not exactly
           | sure if it's that form exactly for foreign contractors).
           | 
           | I ended up finding a job exactly like that on a small
           | startup, so I am happy. But next time I am in the market, I
           | will for sure apply to those _" Remote(US)"_ jobs. Even
           | though, in Substack case, the internal recruiter that told me
           | that I couldn't apply.
        
           | mettamage wrote:
           | Wait, so how do you propose this in a way that they will take
           | it? Simply mention that you're a freelancer and then they
           | know it's fine, or how do you introduce this in a handy way?
        
           | rootusrootus wrote:
           | That works if they are willing to treat you as a contractor
           | (external provider as you say), but if they're hiring remote
           | employees it won't fly. The company generally has to have a
           | presence in the jurisdiction where the employee lives, and
           | that adds overhead.
        
             | anyfactor wrote:
             | That is my experience also. As a freelance dev, I am hired
             | as a foreign contractor.
             | 
             | Being hired as a foreign contractor makes tax and
             | regulations issues easier. If you are growing rapidly, You
             | can open an LLC in America then operate as a US contractor.
             | You can work with larger and established companies that
             | way. It would be easier if you have a business partner in
             | America.
             | 
             | Hiring contractor has its pros and cons for both parties
             | but usuaully it is quite different than hiring an employee.
        
               | pzo wrote:
               | I was always curious about this: Is there any reason why
               | you need LLC in America to work with larger and
               | established companies? Is there any law or limitation why
               | they wouldn't like to work with e.g. European Self-
               | Employed or LTD companies? Many of recruiters I talked to
               | and they offered perm roles they won't consider changing
               | to contractors.
               | 
               | Always thought that generally contractors are a better
               | deal for companies (less tax burden, no paid holidays,
               | easier to hire/fire, etc). Unless maybe when people here
               | word 'contractor' they assume they will have to pay 2x
               | more and that's why they prefer perm-employees? Or is
               | there are any law in US that make it harder for companies
               | to work this way?
        
               | agustif wrote:
               | I think the main problem is depending in your
               | jurisdiction, if all your employees are contractors, and
               | they are long time, which is actually masquerading-as-
               | contractors, you can get in trouble, in Germany for
               | example I think it's two years max.
               | 
               | Since this is a difficult subject, YMMV
        
         | Heliosmaster wrote:
         | This sounds a lot like Athens Research[1] vs Roam Research[2].
         | Jeff Tang wanted to get a job at Roam so he built a toy open
         | source version for themselves, and then continued and it's now
         | a YC company [3]
         | 
         | [1]: https://www.athensresearch.org/
         | 
         | [2]: https://roamresearch.com/
         | 
         | [3]: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/athens-research
        
       | yayr wrote:
       | the app for "build your own crypto wallet" is essentially:
       | 
       | const App = ( <div> <h1>Hello Bitcoin!</h1> </div> );
       | 
       | curious about version 0.0.2 ;-)
        
         | hstan4 wrote:
         | Think you're missing the "next" button at the bottom haha
        
         | plondon514 wrote:
         | Yeah that's definitely Step 1, but there are a few more steps
         | that dive into how mnemonics are created, their importance, and
         | how addresses get derived.
        
       | throw_m239339 wrote:
       | F. it! Build your own! congrats.
        
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