What do you do for services where you are needed once, maybe twice a month, for 1-3 hours at a time?
Readit NewsPaul_D_Santana commented on The Definitive Guide to Project Billing planscope.io/blog/the-def... · Posted by u/jmduke
Paul_D_Santana commented on The perils of online college learning latimes.com/business/la-f... · Posted by u/petethomas
What kind of complete and utter idiocy is this?
50% of these brand new college students passed an entirely online course at a tiny fraction of the cost for the student, a tiny fraction of the cost for the university, at an infinitely increased level of convenience.
Does no one else see this as downright incredible?
Paul_D_Santana commented on In 8 months at Microsoft, I learned these things ahmetalpbalkan.com/blog/8... · Posted by u/philk10
I love my family, my health, and life more. Work, while important to me, isn't even near the top of my priority list. I work so that I can do the things and be around the people I truly care about.
My only real life regret is that I didn't realize it a bit sooner.
Wow, incredibly profound. THANK YOU. Upvoted.
It is an extremely difficult thing to accept that one should not think of one's identity and aim in life by their employment, isn't it?
Paul_D_Santana commented on Are coders worth it? aeonmagazine.com/living-t... · Posted by u/Libertatea
| put in long hours and do very good work
And in addition, you have to have the mental fortitude for this kind of career. Despite not being "well-known" there is an intense amount of competition from a group of the most ambitious people in the world. Being able to compete at that level is insanely hard, much harder than than being a software engineer.
I have had the fortune in my life to attempt both careers. I went to a top-tier undergrad, and got a job as an associate consultant at a strategy firm directly out of college. And guess what? It was terrible. Working every day from 9am-2am 6 days a week, no time for friends, family, hobbies, fun of any kind. After a few years of that life, I went right back to doing software engineering. Would I be richer now had I stayed in it? Probably. But happier? no.
I think it's important to remember in the end that very very few people in the world do work that matters, whether they make "something" or not. I think about this a lot while listening to stories about 14 year old Bangladeshi factory workers making $3 a month to support their families and being padlocked inside factories that are on fire so our clothes are cheaper.
We are all very lucky to be born into a country that gives us the opportunity to do comfortable jobs and complain about them freely. Use work to make enough money do the things you care about outside of work, and for god sakes, travel.
I like the way you think, especially with regards to happiness, and I would love to hear more about this part:
> and for god sakes, travel
I'm very fortunate to have a position where I work exactly 40 hours (some of which is programming). This has allowed me the freedom to pursue other activities, such as meeting and developing an extremely deep relationship with my girlfriend, being an active participant in my church, completing Financial Peace University, joining a local Toastmasters club, and joining CrossFit and getting in the best shape of my life.*
However, I have not yet done any major traveling. Why do you put such high importance on it?
I'm not asking why traveling is generally good, but why _you_ specifically are recommending it so highly.
* [Edit: After reading this, it sounds like bragging but sincerely that was not my goal. I just wanted to say I totally understand and agree about what you said with regards to work and happiness.]
Paul_D_Santana commented on The best founders are futurists josephwalla.com/the-best-... · Posted by u/arram
Let's sum up this article.
In order to be successful monetarily, you need to make something people want.
This guy is a savant.
Great. More middlebrow dismissal. [1]
Instead of just dismissing an article for the obvious points, try to identify at least one idea that could be considered novel or worthwhile. In this article, the suggestion of "X will inevitably be part of the future, so I will build it" is a novel idea, at least to me, and especially with the list of real-life examples he gave.
That is completely different than building what people want. For example, a different color phone case for a new smartphone is something that many people want, but not a "future" idea as the article suggests. Robot butlers like in The Jetsons [2] will inevitably be part of the future, so there's an idea.
Learn to think positively and see the potential of all things, including "obvious" articles. I'd certainly recommend The Magic of Thinking Big [3], namely the example about prisons.
[1] pg: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4693920
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Jetsons_characters#...
Sounds like sour grapes to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_grapes
Did that really need a Wikipedia link? Haha.
Also humorous:
My Girlfriend: What are you reading?
Me: I'm reading an article about this guy that turned down $300,000 from Microsoft to build GitHub.
Her: What in the heck is a GitHub?
Me: A website that acts as a hub for coders to share their Git repositories.
Her: Git repositories? My god, that sounds disturbing!
> Everything is insipid for me. I have no hobby, no programming idea, no desire to meet people, travel whatever. When I try to get a hobby, I m fed up after a few try. When I go to nice tech event, I'm bored.
Join a local church.
This what I have done recently and it has been amazing. Friendly people who are extremely caring, a welcoming environment, and a call to a higher purpose. I've instantly gained some new friends that I care about. You may find value in doing the same.
Stop worrying about startup ideas, hobbies, etc. Just get to know people and care about them. Find ways to help them. I guarantee everything will work out by following this simple rule.
Paul_D_Santana commented on Pricing Principles insideintercom.io/four-pr... · Posted by u/craigkerstiens
Ironically, our target market is actually folks who are the top 60% income earners in the US. Debt and income are directly related, and higher earners have a majority share of the debt in the nation[1]. It makes sense intuitively because these are the people whom are more likely to have tertiary education degrees and a mortgage. So, I'm really trying to find the sweet spot of households with low debt-to-income ratios (high ability to repay), but also large amounts of debt (high need for a solution).
Lower income earners, with primarily unsecured credit card debt for example, are basically faced with two options - spend less or earn more. There's no panacea that software can provide, other than increasing awareness of costs and consequences.
Thanks for the link - I'll check it out.
[1] http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2012/pdf/scf12.p...
Ah, interesting. I was not aware that debt and income were related favorably in that way.
So how do you attract high earners with a lot of debt (but still low debt-to-income)? That sounds extremely difficult.
Paul_D_Santana commented on Pricing Principles insideintercom.io/four-pr... · Posted by u/craigkerstiens
One of the biggest problems I face is determining when the time is right to shift from free to paid. I originally slapped a subscription page on my app[1] thinking "we'll see how this goes". But after a few weeks of 0 conversions, I had a tough time justifying turning down folks who would have at least signed up if there wasn't a payment required - so I made it free.
The way I look at it is that any feedback with a free plan is better than zero feedback with a subscription. I gain a lot of valuable insight observing how users actually use the service. I'm hesitant to give that up by switching back to a subscription plan and watching new signups die again.
I know there's no magic bullet. I suppose this could be solved quickly if I had more time to devote to selling and marketing - admittedly I've been slacking in that department.
Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.
It could be that your target market (people in debt) is one in which people have a lower ability (or willingness) to spend. (Google Ramit Sethi's Pay Certainty test.)
In that case, perhaps an alternate revenue system can be found. Maybe something like Mint.com.
I read (listened) to Chris Anderson's book Free: The Future of a Radical Price [1], which tackles this very subject of creating revenue from free products. (Chris Anderson is the founder of Wired.com and this book debuted as #12 on the New York Times Best Seller List.) You may find his book useful too. I highly recommend it. Best of all, the book is priced appropriately: Free.
Then again, this is pretty much the way I felt when I joined Commerce Bank in 2002. They were leaps and bounds above any other bank in everything from their down-home attitude to their evening and weekend hours. Then they got acquired.
Things weren't too different with ING Direct. Joined up for their interest-bearing checking and used them as my savings account. Had wonderful experiences. Then they got acquired.
Tangential, but relevant, I got HostGator as my hosting provider many years ago—they were a little company in Texas with great service and great people. I'm leaving them this month. They got acquired, and everything changed.
I hope this goes well for Simple. I really do. But I'm preparing myself. I know the signs to watch out for. First they'll get an automated phone tree, and I'll have to tell the robot what I want. Then it will get just a little longer to wait for a person. A couple fees will show up, nothing much, just little stuff. Tiny, unobtrusive, totally defensible, annoying policies will start taking hold. And soon, it'll be just another online bank—albeit one with a very pretty iPhone app.
I hope that doesn't happen. But I'm bracing myself anyway.
I just wish they offered Two-Factor authentication for "360" accounts.
Relevant link: https://www.facebook.com/CapitalOne360/posts/101515573342295...