yarcob (u/yarcob) - Readit News

yarcob commented on Ask HN: How should I build my portfolio to land a job as a developer? · Posted by u/culopatin

yarcob · 4 years ago

I think the best, most reliable way to get a software engineering job is to get a software engineering degree.

If you want a shortcut, I would look for ways to complete your degree faster. Do more courses at a time, and make sure to finish them in the shortest time possible. It should be possible to complete a bachelors degree in 3 years.

I don't think there is anything you can do in a few weekends that will make your Github profile appealing. I also don't think you need an impressive Github profile to get a job as a developer. Most devs I know have boring Github repos.

yarcob commented on Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why? · Posted by u/noobhacker

yadaeno · 4 years ago

Pre-Covid much of my job satisfaction came from the sense of comradery of working on a team. Even as an introvert I enjoy interacting with coworkers, and being intune with the needs of the group and generally helping other people succeed.

When we transitioned to full remote, all of this was stripped away and I was left to focus purely on a product that on its own I was not passionate about (think ad-like product). I was met with a sudden loss in motivation, burnout, and decided to take 9 months off to pursue a tech unrelated hobby.

9 months after leaving, I have accepted a position with a 50% raise over to my previous job.

I think covid was a splash of cold water that's caused many of the people in my circle to re-evaluate how they spend their time. Tech workers are so in demand that we can freely change jobs so it follows that many people would availing that option.

yarcob · 4 years ago

> much of my job satisfaction came from the sense of comradery of working on a team

I think this is a seriously undervalued factor and something I was completely unaware of.

I used to always judge job opportunities either by how well they pay, or how interesting the work is. But in reality, the social factor is just as important.

So some time ago, I was trying to hire my first employee. I paid a lot of money for job ads, and got very little applications. I offered the same salary as the other tech companies in my city, and I really tried my best to attract people.

I couldn't understand why people instead only applied to work for boring consultancies or even for an online gambling company -- why would people prefer such mind numbing or even morally questionable jobs?

I realized that the social situation at work is really important. When I met people who worked at the online gambling website, they weren't talking about the actual work; they just told me about their awesome boss, and how they had fun with their team mates, etc. It didn't matter how interesting my project was, nobody wanted to sit all day in an office just alone with me.

yarcob commented on Fastmail, Runbox, and Posteo under DDoS extortion attack therecord.media/ddos-atta... · Posted by u/conjuredbytes

muttantt · 4 years ago

The latest attacks on VoIP providers resulted in a SIP/VoIP specific solution from Cloudflare.

I expect we will see Cloudflare mail protection soon enough...

Makes you wonder.

yarcob · 4 years ago

I first learned that someone cracked my app from a company that offered to help me fight cracked downloads of my app. I was immediately suspicious.

yarcob commented on How is bamboo lumber made? (2016) bambooimport.com/en/how-i... · Posted by u/tomthe

lostapathy · 4 years ago

Birch plywood and baltic birch plywood are completely different animals.

Regular birch plywood is indeed often the cheap stuff.

Baltic birch will be void-free and of a very consistent quality and made from thinner veneers. It's much more stable and high quality product, although you're correct that it probably won't be as pretty on the surfaces.

yarcob · 4 years ago

Too be honest I've never heard of "baltic birch" before so I can't comment on how different it is from the normal birch plywood we get here in EU.

I just googled it and saw that it looks exactly like the birch plywood I have been using, so I assumed that it has similar properties.

I consider birch to be "good" plywood, it's very easy to work with, strong, and seems somewhat resilient to warping. However, because the layers are so thin you often end up breaking bits off when working on it with a router, and the surface somehow doesn't get as smooth when sanding.

The 3-layer boards (not sure what they are called in English) seem to be easier to sand smooth, easier to finish with oil, and are not as finicky when routing.

Just from looking at pictures, I'd assume the bamboo boards are closer to the 3 layer stuff rather than the 13 layer stuff.

yarcob commented on What do people want in a co-founder? blog.ycombinator.com/what... · Posted by u/sandslash

waprin · 4 years ago

Well even if I want to find someone local, doesn’t mean I can just walk outside and find them, especially since the pandemic shut down most events in the Bay Area. Dating apps seem pretty popular and I think vast majority of people on those platforms are looking for someone local.

yarcob · 4 years ago

It took many years before dating platforms became viable. I remember trying some dating websites early on, and there just weren't any people in my area at all. It was fun looking at the profiles, but it wasn't actually useful for meeting people yet.

I would assume that a cofounder matching platform with 16000 profiles has a similar problem, it's just too few people to bother looking for local matches.

yarcob commented on What do people want in a co-founder? blog.ycombinator.com/what... · Posted by u/sandslash

notenoughbeans · 4 years ago

I want someone that can sell what I've built.

yarcob · 4 years ago

I've met (and worked with) people who built something, and were looking for someone to sell it.

The unfortunate truth is that this usually doesn't work because of two reasons:

1) If you can't convince anybody to buy your product, you also won't be able to convince anybody to sell your product. You need to be able to at least sell your idea to the cofounder.

2) If you've never tried selling your product, and have never interacted with your customers, chances are that what you built doesn't solve anybodys problem. I've never seen a successful product that was a hit right away without any user testing and iteration based on user feedback, but some people are convinced their product is different.

yarcob commented on What do people want in a co-founder? blog.ycombinator.com/what... · Posted by u/sandslash

waprin · 4 years ago

I briefly floated a profile on there, though I decided to take a new full time job and focus on that for a while instead.

While on the platform, I was flooded with non technical people who didn’t have much besides an idea and an MBA. I guess if they could credibly raise money/sell product then maybe it would make sense but I was highly skeptical of the value add, and I got the feeling a lot of them were looking for a free dev to build some big product that they now get to shop around to investors, taking 50% of the equity for doing so.

The #1 skill I am always hoping to find someone with that I vibe with is design. No matter what you build, both UX design and a consistent visual aesthetic are very important. For some reason SWEs make more money than designers in industry but whenever you’re at startup network events it always seems SWEs outnumber designers 3 to 1. And likewise I didn’t see many people with design portfolios on this platform.

I’m surprised so few people care about where there cofounder lives. It seems YC is geared towards situations where you go all in, work hard full time on the project etc. That would be a situation where I would most care about a strong relationship that I think would be much easier to build in person.

yarcob · 4 years ago

> I’m surprised so few people care about where there cofounder lives.

If I wanted to find someone in my city, a global website would be the last place I'd look. Maybe the people who use a global matching platform are more interested in finding someone with specific skills / interests rather than someone who lives nearby.

yarcob commented on How is bamboo lumber made? (2016) bambooimport.com/en/how-i... · Posted by u/tomthe

lostapathy · 4 years ago

Baltic birch isn’t cheap plywood - it’s good stuff.

yarcob · 4 years ago

I'm not saying it's bad, I've used birch plywood myself and I like it.

But you can't compare the 13 layer plywood made from peeled wood with the stuff made from 3 layers of sawed wood. They are completely different types of product, and the cost is also very different.

Apart from mechanical properties, the 3 layer stuff is also much nicer optically usually (eg. they use camera sorted boards to achieve nice and even patterns). That's why it is more expensive.

yarcob commented on How is bamboo lumber made? (2016) bambooimport.com/en/how-i... · Posted by u/tomthe

leoedin · 4 years ago

Has anyone worked with bamboo plywood? How does it compare to other plywoods?

It doesn't appear (at least on the website linked) to be particularly cheap - a full sheet of 20mm bamboo plywood is almost €300! You could probably buy 3-5 sheets of 18mm baltic birch for that price - hardly the cheap material they're claiming.

I bought a cheap chair made of bamboo once and it was very soft - it didn't give me the impression it would hold up very long. Perhaps some of the processing steps for plywood improve that?

yarcob · 4 years ago

I've never worked with bamboo plywood, but the product on the website looks like it should be compared with 20mm 3 ply wood panels made from cut hard wood instead of the cheap ply wood made from peeled wood.

So a better comparison would be something like [1], which is a lot more expensive than standard birch plywood.

[1]: https://www.arbeitsplatten-shop.de/epages/61566463.sf/de_DE/...

yarcob commented on How is bamboo lumber made? (2016) bambooimport.com/en/how-i... · Posted by u/tomthe

123pie123 · 4 years ago

>Strand woven bamboo panels are available in a maximum thickness of 20 mm, otherwise they would become too heavy

Does anyone know what this refers to? too heavy for what??

yarcob · 4 years ago

I assume they just mean that they get too heavy for practical use. They stated that they offer boards with a thickness of 30-40mm, they just don't offer panels of that thickness.

At a density of 1200kg/m2 it's almost twice as dense as some other hard woods like walnut (~650kg/m2) or particle board (~700kg/m2).

I guess for a kitchen countertop it wouldn't matter (stone countertops are popular and even heavier), but for most furniture it would probably be just way too heavy to be practical. Someone needs to be able to carry your furniture :)