That's a totally valid and useful way to validate an idea. After a few months of manual labor they will have a good idea of how/what to build and if it is even worth building.
There's a reason Amazon's Mechanical Turk exists.
Readit NewsSteeeve commented on Show HN: Strix - Open-source AI hackers for your apps github.com/usestrix/strix... · Posted by u/ahmedallam2
Steeeve commented on Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app cnbc.com/2018/09/05/faceb... · Posted by u/octosphere
That's a big misleading headline.
26% of 3400 respondents to a survey in May had deleted the app from their phones at some point in the preceding year.
Steeeve commented on De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds money.cnn.com/2018/05/29/... · Posted by u/bkohlmann
"Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond sector by offering consumers a lab-grown product they have told us they want but aren't getting: affordable fashion jewelry that may not be forever, but is perfect for right now"
This is clearly a play to devalue the image of man made diamonds. "May not be forever" my ass, it's the exact same thing. Their goal is probably to try to quickly drive the price of man made diamonds down to the price of Moissanite, and create a artificial distinction between natural and man made dimaonds. All of this so the price of man made diamonds doesn't bring down the price of the natural stones with it.
Ahh... the old Tab Clear strategy. Brilliant when you can pull it off.
Steeeve commented on US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data zdnet.com/article/us-cell... · Posted by u/voctor
It's funny to me that this is news to anyone. This has been going on for quite some time - at least the length of my career. For the longest time it was wide open for anyone to access who had an inkling of knowledge about how mobile devices worked.
Did this _never_ come up at defcon or in an issue of 2600? Are people really _that_ focused on web security?
Steeeve commented on I Got Catfished by a Candidate saastr.com/catfished-by-a... · Posted by u/imartin2k
I'm not really surprised at how heavily linkedin is used. It's an easy check for companies to carry out, so they'll make use of it.
As a candidate spending a bit of time connecting to people on Linkedin can help your chances of finding a role, so why not do it? Obviously, some people will have other better avenues of getting roles, but it's one avenue that can be used.
Personally I've never used Linkedin to find a role however I do find it handy just to get an idea of who works where in the industry and where pepople I've known in previous roles work now.
I suppose I phrased things a bit harshly. I see value in LinkedIn from a candidate/networking perspective. From a validation/reference perspective is where I see the issue.
This isn't the first I've heard of using it for back-channel references. I think that is pretty common in the bay area.
Steeeve commented on I Got Catfished by a Candidate saastr.com/catfished-by-a... · Posted by u/imartin2k
It's strange to me how much linkedin is valued in silicon valley because to me it's like the ugly stepsister of social networking. Expecting someone to have a fully built out profile and expecting that person to actively seek out contacts in their own company is strange. I typically seek out contacts either when I first meet them or not at all. The only rhyme or reason to when I do it is when I happen to have a reason to be on linkedin. People are very haphazard about what their contacts look like. Some people have 50% recruiters, some people it's all friends, some people it's work colleagues, some people it's potential clients. Just because you know somebody doesn't mean that you are linkedin friends, and just because you aren't linkedin friends, doesn't mean that that person knows much about you at all.
I wouldn't trust social profile hunting as a real gauge for anyone's abilities. I know plenty of good coders that don't have github accounts because they aren't involved in open source at all. There are plenty of recruiters that don't know linkedin because they have other sources that fill their pipelines. There are people that build out their profiles specifically for job searches. There are others that won't build out a profile at all.
As far as back-channel references go, I'm not a fan. I expect references to be minimal because giving a reference is odd territory. A bad reference can result in a lawsuit, so why would anyone ever give a bad one? A TMI good reference can result in a lawsuit. People should stick to the basics.
The danger territory as far as I'm concerned is hiring someone at the tail end of a long group of rejects. You peel back your instincts in order to get to the finish line.
I wouldn't trust this entry at all. The author did not do proper research to understand the why's behind the headers that he didn't understand or didn't know well enough.
Steeeve commented on Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now? · Posted by u/tinderliker
I couldnt get into any of the companies you mentioned and picked Amazon as a last resort. What should I do now? Ive contemplated suicide but i dont know if thats a wise choice.
There's no way to private message on HN, so I'm just going to leave this here for a little while and delete it.
Call me at -------. I will talk. I will listen. It will be private and not judgemental. I'm not a professional mental health specialist of any sort, but I do feel like when it gets to the point where you actually type out the words like this hearing a friendly voice might help. I'm awake. I'm ready for a call right now. If you don't want to talk today, call me tomorrow, next week, next month, whenever. Write down my number because I can't leave it posted.
1-800-273-8255 <- these people are professionals and can help too.
edit: If you didn't get the number and want it, leave a reply and I'll post again.
Steeeve commented on Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now? · Posted by u/tinderliker
I couldnt get into any of the companies you mentioned and picked Amazon as a last resort. What should I do now? Ive contemplated suicide but i dont know if thats a wise choice.
Suicide is not a reasonable choice. Quit. Reset. Declare bankruptcy if you have to. There's no dishonor in a personal struggle.
Money isn't the answer to most of life's problems. Getting in with the right company isn't the solution either.
These jobs are all just jobs. Garnering the approval of a hiring manager at one of these companies should be an ego boost, but not garnering it is no failure at all. It's not a measure of your aptitude or abilities. It's not a measure of you as a person.
It's very easy to get caught up in the moment and get caught up in the pressure of a work environment and lose sight of what matters.
What matters first and foremost is your own mental health. Take care of you. Nobody else can.
Steeeve commented on GDPR will pop the adtech bubble blogs.harvard.edu/doc/201... · Posted by u/mpweiher
For a long time I've been saying that we can do better with online advertising and revenue generation - and that there's a wide open market for the startup providing the solution.
There are a lot of practices that are distasteful that simply don't provide value that overrides their distastefulness.
But quite simply the revenue is there to be had, and nobody is going to venture off in a new direction when you can make easy money doing exactly what everybody else is doing.
The market may shift with GDPR, or it may just shift in europe. Or maybe the market doesn't shift at all, but some company policies change. I think in the end what causes the current incarnation of internet advertising to go away is going to just be a better idea.