Hacker News: botswana99

New comment by botswana99 in "Guide to data tools landscape for developers"

botswana99 — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 17:24:28 +0000

Well, I find this post looks good, but a like lot of 'data for developers' posts it's just a list of tools. As if a collection of tools banded together actually makes your customer successful. What's missing? 1. There's nothing about deployment. How do I take this collection of tools and code and actually deploy it into production, or actually regression test it functionally? How do I make a small change in a database table and not have a massive regression? How do you do that automatically? How do you do it quickly? 2. It's cursory on testing. One of the biggest differences from a software developer to a data engineer is that your data providers give you crap data all the time. It could break. How do you test data? How do you get adequate test coverage? These things are essential for software developers and are actually doubly essential for data engineers and building analytics systems. 3. It's what success looks like. It's not just about a collection of tech; it's about making your customers successful. What does it mean to deliver good insight? How do you do it? How do you measure customer success, and measure your success? As a team, you wouldn't talk about software engineering without mentioning DevOps or DORA metrics. There's nothing here about that.

sigh

New comment by botswana99 in "The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI"

botswana99 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:50:15 +0000

I hope so, plumbers are damn expensive

New comment by botswana99 in "The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI"

botswana99 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:45:44 +0000

The SAT, like general intelligence, is half hard work and half inherited ability, from what I've read. Characteristics that you have no control over, like height, intelligence, race, or sex, should not determine your wealth. It should really be about hard work and character; that's fair. At least in the U.S., there are too many industries like law, venture capital, or VC-invested startup founders, where the pedigree of your school is what matters to your success.

New comment by botswana99 in "The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI"

botswana99 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:42:07 +0000

Neither statement is true, unfortunately. The reports that you read in the media don't reflect the state of the world. In the US, most plumbers and SWE make between 100-200K. The way to wealth is to start one's own business. Hence, hard work and character.

New comment by botswana99 in "The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI"

botswana99 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:32:14 +0000

The dude has obviously never met a multimillionaire owner of an auto body shop, a house demolition business, or a plumber. Did they do well in high school calc class? No. Are they richer than the author? Yes

Blowing up the cognitive hierarchy is a gift that AI gives us. Let's move into an age where hard work and character matter more than your SAT score at 17.

Claude's impact on older software engineers while listening to country music

botswana99 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:25:42 +0000

Article URL: https://suno.com/song/0d9b02a2-a709-4b2c-ba66-f62ff9306f79

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46982103

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by botswana99 in "10 years bootstrapped: €6.5M revenue with a team of 13"

botswana99 — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:06:04 +0000

Congrats from a fellow software boostrapper (12 years in, similar size).

For a laugh, here is our founder chat from this weekend:

GB: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/englishpaulm_just-heard-from-...

CB: I'm glad we don't have to deal with that shit.:hankey:

EE: arg. yeah. I think about the funding route at times, but then see threads like this, and it’s a lot of yuck.

GB: Terrible. They did invest, but they just squeezed the founder out.

CB: How is the new vacation home?

New comment by botswana99 in "Data engineering and software engineering are converging"

botswana99 — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 21:32:49 +0000

Many data teams often find themselves as 'tool jockeys' instead of becoming true engineers. They primarily learn some company data, and then rely on drag-and-drop or YML configuration functionality within the constraints of the tool's environment.

Their organization often insists they must use standard tools, and their idea of a good job is that the task works fine within their personal version. No automatic testing, no automated deployment, no version control, and handcrafted environments. And then they get yelled at when things break and yelled at for taking too long. And most DEs want to quit the field after a few years.

The real question is not that DE and software engineering are converging. It's why most DEs don't have the self-respect and confidence to engineer systems so that their lives don't suck.

New comment by botswana99 in "All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair"

botswana99 — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 14:24:25 +0000

My mantras in management:

Love Your Errors

It's not a failure, it's an opportunity for improvement

No shame, no blame

New comment by botswana99 in "Reflecting on my failure to build a billion-dollar company (2019)"

botswana99 — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 12:56:45 +0000

You should be proud…you’ve learn the difference between the pursuit of value vs. the pursuit of valuation. Congrats.

New comment by botswana99 in "Vera C. Rubin Observatory first images"

botswana99 — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:15:55 +0000

Jesus H Christ, the Universe is big.

New comment by botswana99 in "Age and cognitive skills: Use it or lose it"

botswana99 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 20:29:35 +0000

So, this explains the average aging Trump voter's cognitive impairment? Well, at least it's not leaded gasoline or reality TV.

New comment by botswana99 in "Repairable Flatpack Toaster"

botswana99 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 01:33:08 +0000

This is great. I have personally gone through a half a dozen toasters. It such a waste.

I want to buy one for my lifetime

New comment by botswana99 in "How Boston City Hall was born"

botswana99 — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:15:57 +0000

I like brutalist architecture. And I am not the only strange one: r/brutalist has 174K members and the original fuckyeahbrutalism on tumbler.

Think of it like being a fan of 486 PCs or pixel art.

I do hate this architecture, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowellism

New comment by botswana99 in "What happens if the NY Times tech staff strikes on election night?"

botswana99 — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 16:37:38 +0000

We'll check another website, no biggie

New comment by botswana99 in "1913: When Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in the same place"

botswana99 — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:10:58 +0000

There was also a lot of other cool stuff happening in Vienna in that time period - Math, Philosophy (https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/deep-roots-digital-era-five-v...), the Arts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Secession), music (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Viennese_School) and even physics (Boltzmann). Too bad they had to screw it all up by getting all nationalist, nativist, and anti-Semitic.

New comment by botswana99 in "Suica Technology and Strategy for Future Development (2016) [pdf]"

botswana99 — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 16:37:10 +0000

Why is Japanese software so bad? Chip shortage or not using the card purchase UI at train stations is confusing, even in English.

As a US software engineer, I can not figure out how a country that can make great hardware (e.g. high-speed trains), has a beautifully minimalist design aesthetic (e.g. wabi-sabi), and lots of talented artists and engineers can produce such crappy user interfaces. Or for that matter, beyond a few games is irrelevant in the world software markets. Does anyone have an idea?

The VC industry needs to rip up the playbook and start again

botswana99 — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 01:33:33 +0000

Article URL: https://www.ft.com/content/25dfb910-b40c-4fa0-b7cc-74c23e336768

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37951240

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by botswana99 in "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto"

botswana99 — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 21:52:51 +0000

read the book.

Overall, since the 1990s total global inequality (inequality across all individuals in the world) declined ...

In 1990, 36% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty. By 2019, this number had fallen to 9.2%.

It's not a fallacy ... it's reality

New comment by botswana99 in "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto"

botswana99 — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 15:33:05 +0000

This is too full of Silicon Valley VC language. ugh

Go to the source materials.

- Rational Optimist. Matt Ridley

- The Better Angels of Our Nature. Steve pinker

- Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future. Johan Norberg

- the capitalist manifesto: why the global free market will save the world. Norberg

- Wizard and the prophet. Charles Mann

- Factfulness. Hans rosling

Or, just look at the data

  http://ourworldindata.org/

  http://www.gapminder.org/