Back in 2005, Fog Creek produced a documentary called "Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks", about their internship program. There are lots of great interviews in there, including Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston from the early days of Y Combinator (as well as interviews with Aaron Schwartz, Alexis Ohanian, and Steve Huffman).
This is amazing. Even as someone who has been vaguely around for a while (e.g. attended the first couple Startup School events), it's easy to forget that this is how it was. It really puts a lot of things in context.
I remember when Fog Creek first announced that series and it cost a jillion dollars. A Fog Creek sales rep at the Fog Creek World Tour in 2010 in Atlanta gave me an "extra" copy of the DVD set and I felt like I had stolen something.
I was surprised that the JSONView Chrome extension wasn't working when I opened a tab with JSON that didn't get reformatted. When I checked chrome://extensions/, there was a note: "This extension contains a serious security vulnerability." The extension had been automatically disabled in Chrome.
When I googled the extension, opening the extension's page in the Chrome store returned a 404. I haven't been able to get more information about what the vulnerability is.
1) Being in debt sucks. Become incredibly passionate about the idea of never being in debt again. If you don't have a giant student loan weighing around your neck, you are far more free to pursue work that interests you. So what to do? Come up with a plan in your favorite evolution of Visicalc, complete with how much debt you're going to pay off each month so that you can put a date on the calendar about when you're going to be debt free. Even if you're doing soul-draining work, knowing that that work is getting you one step closer to being free from debt should help.
2) Your current situation isn't as bad as it seems. I work with a ton of devs for whom working at a cool startup was their first real job. Awesome for them! Also totally not in line with most people's reality. Most people start in some version of "the bottom," whether that be in terms of low salary or poor culture, and then they maneuver their way through a couple of jobs until they find work they really enjoy. If you are smart and get things done, you'll do this too.
So your interviewer lied to you, exposing a toxic part of the company culture. They'll probably lose you over it and you'll eventually end up in a place you prefer to work.
Just come up with a plan to get out of debt. That can move your career a lot closer to freedom than you may think.
From what I gather watching the video, you only need the xlwing.bas module and the supporting VBA code if you plan to invoke python from within the Excel file. If you're only manipulating an Excel file with Python externally, which was covered in the beginning of the video, it doesn't appear you need the module and VBA code.
My favorite reference is the VBA Developer's Handbook by Getz & Gilbert from 2001.
You can probably learn everything you need from Googling for solutions to problems, but that book was great when I was committed to working with Excel and Access for a while. It covers a lot of things you're not going to think to search about.
While Fog Creek doesn't announce features and services prior to shipping, we do keep a fairly public account of what we're working on at http://trello.com/dev. Note the cards labeled "Trello Power-ups" in green.
After OWS forgives random debt, is it also going to help teach people how to avoid debt again? By avoiding keeping a balance on credit cards? By saving up an emergency fund for a rainy day? By saving for retirement?
A one-time forgiveness of debt is a generous gift to be received, but unless you have the habits to avoid debt again, it will just grow back again over time.
~62% of all bankruptcies in the US have a direct medical cause. Credit card debt and debt from overconsumption is certainly a problem, but if 62% of the debt forgiven arises from unexpected medical bills, I'd call that some pretty good work.
Though I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the everyman shouldering the fiscal brokenness of America's thoroughly inhumane and downright barbaric health care system.
Then set up a charity where people with medical bills can submit them and ask for some assistance. That way they stay out of debt/bankruptcy, have a cleaner credit report, and can focus on their health issues not financial issues.
An organization that receives all your medical bills, keeps you out of debt/bankruptcy, and charges you an amount that it determines would not cause undue hardship? Like insurance, except everyone qualifies!
Slight side note: this whole discussion is somewhat depressing, but I've come to expect this from HN lately. This whole thread is divided into two rough parts: people addressing legitimate questions about the legalities of this venture, and people clucking derisively at the stereotypical straw man of the poor.
Whether it's sexism in tech, racism around the world, or the plight of the American poor re: medicine, there are always a ready army of the privileged ready to attack people for imaginary and insultingly intellectually lazy stereotypes.
So I'm clucking derisively. And the nice ad hominem touches about sexism, racism, privilege etc.
This isn't LN, it's HN. Where both the methods and the motives can be discussed. My opinion is that OWS is aiming more for a political statement with this program as opposed to helping people. They may believe that this political statement will do more to help people than just acting as a charity; I'm not ascribing cynical motives in any way.
I'm also not advocating that a charity charge in any way. For example, when I had cancer, my church, without any prompting gave me a cash payment to help with my bills. I had been fired two days before Christmas, and unable to work during my surgical recovery and post-op chemo. It was immensely welcome, though as many are, I was intensely embarrassed to need the $$.
For a hobby, I kept all my bills and tallied up the cost I'd be responsible had I not been covered by my wife's group policy. I stopped after it hit the $600K mark. So I know first hand how staggering my debt would have been.
But I could have discharged all that medical debt in bankruptcy. But that wouldn't have put fed my daughters, nor helped keep a roof over my head. That check from my church did. I know the fine line between being privileged and being out of work and afraid of dying. The old straw about the difference between middle class and poor being one paycheck is really one malignant cell.
So be careful when you start calling people privileged or sexist, or racist. And when you start to decide whether a question is "legitimate" or not.
I apologize - my post was unclear. It wasn't my intention to label you as "clucking derisively" - that was more of a footnote re: the rest of this thread, and other users whose posts are as ignorant as they are judgmental.
Once again - my post was written poorly, please separate the two halves, the latter of which was not in any way intended to be aimed at you.
Specifically regarding your medical history - the difference between a universal health care system and charity in this case seems like luck. You were fortunate that in your hour of need someone extended their hand to pull you up - universal health care takes the guesswork out of this. The hand is available to everyone.
I am unconvinced that relying on charities is an acceptable alternative to government assistance in areas such as medicine and poverty. The stakes are far too high for people to receive help via dice roll.
Yeah, I took it the wrong way. No worries, I should have a thicker skin.
I was very lucky with my medical stuff. My wife has excellent, I mean excellent group insurance. Even with that, I still had a lot of out of pocket/copay expenses; and getting canned sure didn't help since I was the primary breadwinner. Universal healthcare wouldn't have helped me with my lost job however; only something like a short-term disability plan (which I have now) would. So I think there's a place and need for charity and non-governmental aid. The US is population is pretty generous, but it's hard to know where to ask for help, and if you can count on it when needed.
National government using its superior capacity for organized action to ensure that its most vulnerable citizens are taken care of is truly the greatest crime of this century.
All government action is backed up by the threat of coercion. Singling out health care is disingenuous. The anti-war crowd doesn't like seeing their taxes go to fighting in Iraq and elsewhere, but they too have a gun put to their heads.
I really like how the LookBook is viewed as a way of "increasing customer happiness." You're essentially helping the customer validate how great they feel about themselves for doing business with you, which I would expect goes a long way to keep them around as a customer.
Yes, exactly. It's one of the best ways we've found to differentiate ourselves in the wedding space — I'm really dedicated to being personal and real with our vendors, and promoting them as much as possible (like the lookbook, the blog is also primarily a promote-good-feelings-for-vendors tool). It just makes sense, since it more than pays off for our company and our bottom line in the long run.
https://youtu.be/0NRL7YsXjSg?t=2946