[HN Gopher] Tell HN: How you changed my life trajectory
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Tell HN: How you changed my life trajectory
HN has a few idiosyncrasies, but to me it's the last bastion of
high-quality discussion on the internet with a shared front-page.
For years I've kept a tab open and refreshed a dozen times a day.
But what I didn't expect is that this community would actively
change the course of my life. Over the years, I have amassed a
graveyard of side projects, and in 2021 I launched a new one. The
MVP had zero users, and my finger was hovering over the big red
button once again... I posted to Show HN just for kicks, and
braced for the onslaught. But to my astonishment, the constructive
and energizing feedback I received went on to power my indie dev
journey over the past two and a half years [0] And now... I just
officially quit my day job to work on that passion project full-
time! [1] Historically I have not thought of myself as an
entrepreneur. Nor a risk-taker. I have worked a stable mid-tier SWE
job for nearly a decade, abiding all the stand-ups, bureaucracy,
and revectoring. I'm just a guy that likes to make things in my
free time, and who never dared to believe one of those projects
could grow into something real. But after building on nights and
weekends for the past 2.5 years and reaching 2,500 paid customers,
I realized that even in the worst case, I would rather fail
pursuing a dream than let a promising small business die on the
vine and always wonder what might have been. So although this jump
to full-time is earlier than my personal financial modeling showed
a robust chance of success for, it's time to set aside a few of the
worries and risk mitigation tactics, and take a step into the
unknown. I never imagined my career taking this course, and
without that early support and encouragement from this community...
it simply would not have. So I'd like to say a thank you to HN.
Not just for being my favorite news source, or for being one of the
only platforms not chalk full of formulaic engagement-optimized
posts, but for helping me personally find the courage to leave the
corporate world, set out on a new path, and chase a dream :) [0]
most recent Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36849502
[1] https://x.com/_knolan/status/1724142406352646601?s=20
Author : scubakid
Score : 87 points
Date : 2023-11-16 16:20 UTC (6 hours ago)
| mcsniff wrote:
| Congrats!
|
| I used to use Firefly III, this _looks_ similar but more
| polished.
|
| Am I correct, self-hosting is only possible with the $520
| lifetime license?
| scubakid wrote:
| Hey thanks! And yeah that's currently the case.
|
| Most of the folks who initially asked for a self-hosted version
| wanted a way to pay once and then know their deployment could
| operate offline indefinitely. I hoped there might be a bit less
| piracy risk that way too.
|
| If others would be more interested in a recurring model for
| self-hosting though, I'd definitely consider it.
| aaronscott wrote:
| I would be very interested, depending on cost.
|
| For pricing models, JetBrains (PyCharm) has a nice setup,
| although it could be more user friendly. After 12 months of
| payments you get a perpetual fallback license[0].
|
| The more user friendly version would be getting perpetual
| access to the current version of software after 12 months of
| payments, rather than the backdated version. But I understand
| their reasoning.
|
| 0 - https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-
| gb/articles/207240845-What...
| mcsniff wrote:
| This is backwards to what I am used to; self-hosting is
| normally the free option and hosted is paid, this is common
| among many projects.
|
| We also certainly hear about companies or individuals looking
| for an easy way to send money for FOSS projects they rely on,
| so hopefully it works out for you!
| mindcrime wrote:
| Very cool! Congrats on the success. :-)
|
| I wonder how many other people have had similar experiences
| thanks to using HN?
| golergka wrote:
| Hey, me too.
|
| I've started reading HN around 2012, when I was more of a game
| designer than developer. Throughout the years, I've changed into
| developer stack, grew professionally, changed game dev for
| fullstack web development, grew to love functional programming
| and embraced a lot of things doing "the HN" way. I even switched
| from regional companies to working for american companies
| remotely -- thanks to "Who's hiring threads"! And when I'm
| talking to my american colleagues now, we share a lot of the same
| culture -- SICP, "considered harmful", "just a monoid of
| endofunctors", all of which I learned here. Now I'm working on my
| O1 visa application, and once again, I wouldn't be here if not
| for HN.
|
| And for the point of comparison, there's been this other social
| app, which I won't name, that requires a tech company email to
| access. For a long time, while I didn't work for a recognised
| american company, I thought of it as an exclusive closed club and
| assumed that there should be much better content there. But once
| I finally got access to it, it turned out to be a complete anon
| cesspool of bragging about TC, cheating on interviews and other
| things from people who came to tech just for the money, without
| any glimpse of love for the craft.
|
| After using that other app for a couple of weeks, I've deleted it
| never to log on again and now even more surprised to see how
| great a community HN turned out to be.
| oneepic wrote:
| I had a _very similar_ experience with a toxic app like that :)
| I must say that I found a handful of valuable threads /comments
| that helped me, so perhaps it's not all bad.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Blind is a toxic cesspool of greed and frankly, ignorance, that
| is surprising for the supposed selection effects.
|
| However, there are still certain aspects of it where the
| insider info on companies is better than HN. You can find out
| certain crappy aspects that happen or how high of compensation
| a role is, that many people on HN will flat out deny or only
| collectively acknowledge years later.
| oneepic wrote:
| Congrats!
|
| I have HN to thank for exposing me to a ton of new tech/trends,
| but I think more importantly exposing me to smart, passionate
| people coming from very different perspectives, who I'd have
| never met otherwise. It's so valuable to know what's really out
| there and what's possible with a little time outside the comfort
| zone.
| scubakid wrote:
| The shared homepage experience on HN is one of the most
| underrated aspects IMO.
|
| With other platforms, the algorithmically curated and
| individualized feeds just feel like these claustrophobic little
| echo chambers to me.
|
| There's a ton of interesting stuff out there on the internet,
| but it's hard to actually encounter it when you have to fight
| against the feed algorithms to get exposure to new concepts and
| ideas.
| JCharante wrote:
| I really like the politeness rules that Dang enforces. I think
| it's a wonderful place that fosters respectful discussions and
| makes many people not afraid to somewhat link their real life
| identities to their HN profiles. I recently saw an old
| coworker's username on an unexpected comment and smiled to know
| they're still on this Earth.
| oooyay wrote:
| > after building on nights and weekends for the past 2.5 years
| and reaching 2,500 paid customers
|
| Huge accomplishment! Hats off to you for pursuing what makes you
| feel fulfilled.
| scubakid wrote:
| Thanks! There are times where burning the candle at both ends
| for that long started to wear me down. But I really love the
| project, and after growing a community around it, I knew I had
| to push through.
|
| I also put an exercise bike next to my desk, and that's helped
| to keep the blood pressure under control.
| LVB wrote:
| Excellent! Love to see these sorts of posts since this is also a
| goal of mine. (Though I'm in the situation of having quit first
| due to other reasons, I'd very much like to build a sustainable
| product vs returning to a W2 job.)
|
| One specific question, and pardon my ignorance, having not dug
| into the product: are you beholden to a financial data provider
| (Plaid, etc.), or is all data self-entered? I've read a few times
| that upstream data providers (financial, weather, etc.) can
| really put a damper on indie products.
| scubakid wrote:
| Good luck, I'll be rooting for you!
|
| Currently balance updates are manual. The idea of account
| linking is actually a bit of a contentious topic in the PL
| community. Initially I wanted to steer clear of that notorious
| support/maintenance/cost tar pit and design a tool where the
| focus is more on long-term projection rather than fixating on
| the latest daily stock price fluctuations and possibly missing
| the forest for the trees.
|
| Later this year I do plan to take another look at those
| services though.
| LVB wrote:
| There was a fairly recent, well-upvoted blog post shared here
| about a guy who worked for a few years polishing his iOS
| stocks app and ultimately gave up due to the data feeds
| becoming untenable. Excellent article... that I can't find
| :-(
| denvaar wrote:
| Awesome, I ended up purchasing your app, which is saying a lot
| because I hardly ever do stuff like that. It's been helpful in
| weighing out different financial decisions recently.
| scubakid wrote:
| Thanks so much, I'm glad to hear it! That means you're one of
| the people who has helped to make this step possible :)
| shunyaekam wrote:
| Congrats on your project!
|
| I am also pursuing a dream of mine: standup comedy.
|
| I believe strongly in the same thing: it's better to work on
| something you're passionate about and possibly fail than just
| continue doing non-engaging work for a monthly salary.
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