DocSavage (u/DocSavage)

DocSavage commented on Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell · Posted by u/cvbox

Soupy · 9 months ago

I run https://pastmaps.com as a lil' solo bootstrapped labor of love. Think Google Maps, but for OLD maps. It has 185K+ fully georeferenced high-res maps covering all of America, as well as satellite, LiDAR, and 3D layers to enable exploration through space and time.

History is cool yo. And apparently lucrative - it currently makes ~$5000/mo and is slowly but surely growing through word of mouth

DocSavage · 9 months ago

Nice collection. I'd suggest adding an unsubscribe option to your initial email, particularly if people reflexively login via Google, etc.

DocSavage commented on Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell · Posted by u/cvbox

nspeller · 9 months ago

I built an interactive Music Theory course 8 years ago over a winter break and it continues to bring in enough to pay my rent each month.

I just thought there had to be a more intuitive way to learn music theory than the very boring and jargon-heavy alternatives.

It uses Tone.js to include little interactive pianos, guitars, and other demos.

I've done no marketing, it hit the HN front page for a day, and after that initial spike in traffic has been fairly consistent over the past 8 years.

It uses Stripe for payments and for the first few years it was only Stripe. 3 years in I decided to add PayPal support... revenue doubled overnight, mostly from international customers.

https://www.lightnote.co/

DocSavage · 9 months ago

Very nice. I'd suggest adding another deluxe bundle for non-Guitarists without the guitar theory. I'd pay extra for the ear training + the base package.

DocSavage commented on Modern Computer Architecture and Organization - Second Edition (2022) packtpub.com/product/mode... · Posted by u/teleforce

hashtag-til · 2 years ago

Does anyone know/recommend the author?

Sometimes I feel Packt books are not the highest quality. Happy for anyone to disagree and tell me a different impression.

I was reached out by Packt a few times on LinkedIn with something like: "hey, if you want to write about stuff, let us know".

DocSavage · 2 years ago

Packt is hit & miss but some have decent authors and good reviews.

"Machine Learning with PyTorch and Scikit-Learn" by Sebastian Raschka et al.

"In-Memory Analytics with Apache Arrow" by Matthew Topol.

DocSavage commented on A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work latimes.com/science/story... · Posted by u/pseudolus

zw123456 · 2 years ago

Hi there, old person here. Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. I had vowed to myself that I would completely and totally retire, Finally, at 65. But then, this "thing" cropped up and the day after tomorrow, I am pitching my 3rd startup to investors. I wonder, am I crazy. But I feel passion for this project. So, I am throwing myself into the fray again, there is no logical reason to do so. So, Rudy, I understand.

DocSavage · 2 years ago

65 is the new 45 :) Sounds like there's a perfectly logical reason to do the 3rd startup: you're passionate about it. Best of luck!

DocSavage commented on A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work latimes.com/science/story... · Posted by u/pseudolus

mgaunard · 2 years ago

Well it's unlikely he's as productive as he was in his prime.

DocSavage · 2 years ago

He's a professor at Caltech and did Nobel laureate-level work. He might be less productive than his prime and still be competitive with other professors, particularly since he brings deep understanding of the history of approaches in his field.

DocSavage commented on Closure, from why the lucky stiff (2013) github.com/steveklabnik/C... · Posted by u/rchaves

throwanem · 2 years ago

I'm not missing your point, but I don't see where it constitutes the counterargument that context and framing suggest you mean it to be.

What you're describing here is your perspective from within the small and insular group busily developing and advocating new technology, always focused on the next new thing that was cool and interesting and succinct and powerful. What I'm describing is my perspective from well outside that pale. Both can be true at the same time.

DocSavage · 2 years ago

Then maybe you shouldn’t generalize your one viewpoint to say that early Ruby/Rails was not a worthy community for professionals or of use to people who practice jointly valued skills like entrepreneurship.

It’s also odd to see your long rant of whimsical vs professional when some of the most well-known companies were built with that community of so-called non-professionals. We have a difference in opinion on what constitutes “professional”.

DocSavage commented on Closure, from why the lucky stiff (2013) github.com/steveklabnik/C... · Posted by u/rchaves

throwanem · 2 years ago

I mean, it's usually preferable to be part of an ingroup than of its outgroup, sure. Otherwise, what value in the distinction? But the iron law applies here, too.

I wouldn't be so quick to claim Twitter, either, even among zero-interest-rate phenomena more generally. It might be easy to forget these days, but that's been harmful to society on net since long before Musk bought it.

DocSavage · 2 years ago

I think you're missing my point. The early Ruby and Rails community I remember was a collection of very smart and explorative programmers who wanted to build cool stuff with this interesting language. People were trying out DSLs -- sure they could've used LISP -- but Ruby's metaprogramming was inviting and was a reason for the succinct Rails syntax which was a selling point compared to say Java's cumbersome approach.

The speed of trying stuff out (even if it wasn't super efficient) why startups used it. So it was a community of highly productive people sharing their love of building new things. That's my memory of that time period.