You know what I'm most proud of? It's that I get a chance to work hands-on with and serve a lot of people. I answer pretty much every email I get, I reach out to help people whenever I can, I look to serve, and I do cool things with good people.
And yeah, my life is pretty good individually, too.
So seriously, next time you feel like calling names, why don't you channel the energy into reaching out to someone to help them? Or to building something? Or maybe start your own blog, and share your insights on there? Or go build a productive business? Or contribute to a nonprofit?
>"Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names."
I was civil, and I was marking the post for what it was. I've gone out of my way to explain my opposition to this charlantry and instead you saw it as an opportunity to paint me as unhinged, rather than merely concerned about the community.
You no longer deserve an explanation, you robbed yourself of that with your political games designed to make me look bad.
You may enjoy my summaries in silence, or you can keep drawing attention to me. It's up to you. You won't get any more effort at explication out of me though, no-how.
>You seem to hate me personally
Not at all, you're one instance of a class of plague that furthers the disinterest and apathy of talented people in startups and entrepreneurialism.
They will peruse HN or similar communities for a time, run into non-content such as you post, and run screaming.
Your existence and those of your ilk serve to harm the startup industry and give the corporations more leverage to hold onto the truly good hackers.
People like you have done more to make my efforts of making fellow hackers aware of opportunities in self-employment, startups, and entrepreneurialism more difficult than anything else.
Worse than the global financial crisis, in terms of how often I hear a given excuse/reason, for not considering alternatives to their current jobs.
I'll keep molding my bread, even if it isn't pretty.
I'm actually glad you replied with your perspective. Now I can see where you're coming from.
> Not at all, you're one instance of a class of plague that furthers the disinterest and apathy of talented people in startups and entrepreneurialism. They will peruse HN or similar communities for a time, run into non-content such as you post, and run screaming. Your existence and those of your ilk serve to harm the startup industry and give the corporations more leverage to hold onto the truly good hackers.
So, you're commenting is because you think my blog is harming the startup industry and giving corporations more leverage against hackers.
I don't think that's the case - I'm all for for self-employment and people doing their own thing. I pretty regularly encourage people to do just that, and offer to lend a hand to anyone who has questions or I can help, and I've done a fairly large amount of free work for people here to lend a hand.
Personally, I've contracted or ran my own company in 3-4 different fields, had employees, negotiated contracts, done large-ish deals, and lived/worked/traveled through 40+ countries.
I share those experiences. Also, I share what I'm learning on tracking time, building habits, I review books, write lots on history...
But you know what, I'm open to a dialog here. You've got a serious aversion to me, and I feel like it's really uncalled-for. I haven't done wrong by you, and I work to make myself valuable, serve people, and do my writing to the best of my ability.
But, what would you look for more of? What's missing? For instance, in this post here that you don't seem to like - I'm looking for the link that makes someone good at getting money in a self-employed/business context. I explored a few things, and I think one of the biggest is having no hangups - being willing to shovel snow even after being a multi-platinum selling artist. Or starting a valet parking company even though you know nothing about it.
I think there's some interesting stuff in this post. Apparently others agree, because it's at #1 here. But you disagree. What would you prefer differently? Share your take and I'll listen - maybe I can learn here and improve.
> I was civil, and I was marking the post for what it was. I've gone out of my way to explain my opposition to this charlantry and instead you saw it as an opportunity to paint me as unhinged, rather than merely concerned about the community.
I actually think you're sincere. At first, I thought you were just trolling - y'know, when you insult me personally without addressing any of the points in the article, I think that's kind of uncool.
But you just replied with your reasoning - if you want better writing on business and entrepreneurship from me, maybe I can do that. I'd like to write better. But can you be more specific than desiring more "Substance"?
What does more substance look like? More stories/anecdotes? Statistics? Context? More tactical stuff, like which terms of a contract are important to negotiate over and which aren't?
If you'd like me to step my game up, hey, maybe I can. I believe you're sincere about wanting a better community here, more resources for people to break from the corporate world and do their own thing. Me too. So, I'll listen to your feedback. What's more substantial writing look like to you?
I agree that his name calling has no place here. That said, there's a certain something about your site that leaves me non-plussed. The 'Victory.' bit seems kind of... hrm, I suppose I'd say 'cheesy', although I hope you don't take offense. I did like the article though: it really does seem like some people are money magnets.
"Whenever I compared myself to people similar to me, it wasn’t even close. I worked more, accomplished more, produced more, did more meaningful things, was traveling the world. I read more books, did more writing, was generally healthier and more disciplined, spent my time well. I was the top 1% for my age, and even better than that if you measured me against people from similar backgrounds."
>What's more substantial writing look like to you?
Here's a recent quote from IRC concerning this discussion, and this particular comment was aimed at your blog specifically.
19:54 < (name censored)> seems like a cheesy self-help blog
19:54 < (name censored)> 10 ways to get rich!!!!
Subject that said this is a brilliant embedded dev that I can't convince to consider the startup industry at all. There's a serious paucity of embedded people in the industry and it would be great to have somebody like him.
Too bad he's extremely skeptical of all of it because of people like you.
More comments from the same person:
Concerning your blog again:
19:57 < (censored)> i basically dislike any author that tries to simplify something difficult, undermining people that have put effort into it
Concerning hackerne.ws:
Someone (the stackoverflow asker) is bitter that someone released a competing product for free.
That's basically what i think of hackernews.
Full of people that are only interested in making money. Don't get me wrong, i want to be rich as well, but have some fucking pride.
/endquote
This community, the victory blog bullshit, all of it damns itself.
My erudition is a self-indulgence and attempt to put a mirror up.
Cheers, enjoy the cat picture.
Edit: Added comments from another programmer below.
21:03 < (name censored)> alnayyir: I just read some of that Sebastian Marshall tripe. Bleh, it made me vomit in my mouth a little bit. What a bunch of unscientific, psycho-babble nonsense.
If other non start-up hackers don't like advice such as this (business advice, which seems to be what you're saying), perhaps the problem is with them and not Lionhearted? They should be able to understand that it is a valid viewpoint and a general truth that these things exist, are useful, and are neutral in nature, and it doesn't make sense to ignore it.
Etiquette is an implementation of decency so that inequality is basically "truth > 0".
One can be truthful and decent without being a jerk. In fact, the most effective truthful and decent people are the "not jerks".
FWIW, I've found that folks who try to justify being jerks with "I'm just telling the truth" typically aren't that truthful. They're just passive-agressive mean, which makes them worse than straight-up jerks.
I'll stick with these summaries as they're far less time consuming and often more to the point.
Good luck with your 'victory'.