Quotes

Funny.md

“It would have taken twice as long to build it properly” - http://developerexcuses.com

Interviewing.md

Rather than just asking questions, provide an absolutely terrible solution to the problem as an ice-breaker and ask how it can be improved. (from HN)

Productivity.md

I feel like this point needs to be stressed a whole lot more than it is, as there’s a whole mythology that’s grown up around 10x developers that’s not all that helpful. In particular, people need to realize that these developers rapidly become 1x developers (or worse) if you don’t let them make their own architectural choices - the reason they’re excellent in the first place is because they know how to determine if certain work is going to be useless and avoid doing it in the first place. If you dictate that they do it anyway, they’re going to be just as slow as any other developer

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5496914

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I had this experience working at Google. I had a horrible time getting anything done there. Now I spent a bit of time evaluating that since it had never been the case in my career, up to that point, where I was unable to move the ball forward and I really wanted to understand that. The short answer was that Google had developed a number of people who spent much, if not all, of their time preventing change. It took me a while to figure out what motivated someone to be anti-change.

The fear was risk and safety. Folks moved around a lot and so you had people in charge of systems they didn’t build, didn’t understand all the moving parts of, and were apt to get a poor rating if they broke. When dealing with people in that situation one could either educate them and bring them along, or steam roll over them. Education takes time, and during that time the ‘teacher’ doesn’t get anything done. This favors steamrolling evolutionarily :-)

So you can hire someone who gets stuff done, but if getting stuff done in your organization requires them to be an asshole, and they aren’t up for that, well they aren’t going to be nearly as successful as you would like them to be.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3018643

Startup.md

Aspiration

Automate everything. Nothing should be manual.

If you can even get close to doing that then you either have the world's best development team or you aren't trying to do enough. In a perfect world we would have time to automate everything, but time pressure makes us go for the minimal thing that will work.

– pg (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6043830)

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Stop looking at social media websites, and instead work out what contribution you can make to the world, and go and do it.

Find your niche, find what you are good at, and focus on that. And be a good person along the way - if you try to take shortcuts it will just come back and haunt you.

– Thomas Flohr (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23959197)

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[…] goal-oriented people exist in a state of nearly continuous failure that they hope will be temporary.

• Scott Adams (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304626104579121813075903866.html#!)

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In the middle of the dark night, sometimes the worst part is not the darkness but the feeling that it may never end.

Work — Life.md

And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don't want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. [...]

They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work. [...]

– Charles Bukowski (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/10/people-simply-empty-out.html)

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It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves. […] If I've learned one thing from being a cartoonist, it's how important playing is to creativity and happiness.

[…]

At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you’ll have to find the inner motivation to search for new ideas on your own. With any luck at all, you’ll never need to take an idea and squeeze a punchline out of it, but as bright, creative people, you'll be calledupon to generate ideas and solutions all your lives. Letting your mindplay is the best way to solve problems.

[…]

So, what's it like in the real world? Well, the food is better, but beyond that, I don't recommend it.

[…]

A REAL job is a job you hate.

[…]

[…] a friend used to console me that cream always rises to the top. I used to think, so do people who throw themselves into the sea.

I tell you all this because it’s worth recognizing that there is no such thing as an overnight success. You will do well to cultivate the resources in yourself that bring you happiness outside of success or failure. The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few.

[…]

To make a business decision, you don't need much philosophy; all you need is greed, and maybe a little knowledge of how the game works.

[…]

Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you’re really buying into someone else’s system of values, rules and rewards. […] In short, money was supposed to supply all the meaning I'd need.

[…]

We all have different desires and needs, but if we don't discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success. […] But having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another.

[…]

You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.

— Bill Watterson (http://www.angelfire.com/wa/HOBBES/info/speech1.html)

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“the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

— Thoreau