Hacker News: danjac

Django Studio: generator for modern Django projects

danjac — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:47:29 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/danjac/django-studio

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47411368

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by danjac in "Mistakes engineers make in large established codebases"

danjac — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 10:34:09 +0000

Whether you rewrite or refactor the code is not so much the point of my comment - it's more that you should first determine what you actually need, in consultation with the project stakeholders, get rid of whatever you don't need, and then you can decide whether you need to rewrite or refactor. Cutting away the bloat will give you a better perspective on that decision.

Personally, I would lean towards refactoring - a rewrite is the "declare bankrupcy" stage of technical debt and should only be considered in extremis. For example, the original codebase was written in ColdFusion and in 2025 you can't find any ColdFusion developers (or anyone in their right mind who wants to become a ColdFusion developer). But in any case, rewriting a trimmed down codebase is easier than trying to replicate features you don't need any more.

New comment by danjac in "Mistakes engineers make in large established codebases"

danjac — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 12:09:33 +0000

Often the problem with companies running the Feature Factory production treadmill too long is you have code supporting unused features and business logic, but nobody knows any more which features can be dropped or simplified (particularly after lots of employee churn and lack of documentation). So the problem is not so much technical debt, but product debt.

You can refactor, but you're also wasting time optimizing code you don't need. A better approach is to sit down with rest of the company and start cutting away the bloat, and then refactor what's left.

New comment by danjac in "After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code"

danjac — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 11:26:28 +0000

The problem is that once you take the VC coin, you are pushed towards hyper-scale. If you don't take the VC coin it's a much harder and longer path to self-sustainability, unless you have some way to fund yourself e.g. consulting. 37 Signals is the model here, but they are super-exceptional (they created Rails, after all).

Then having got there, a VC-funded competitor will just roll over you as they'll have better connections and funding.

New comment by danjac in ""Hetzner decided to cancel our account and terminate all servers""

danjac — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 12:53:47 +0000

They are great for throwaway hobbyist side projects where you don't want to worry about AWS billing horror stories or more expensive offerings like Digital Ocean or Linode.

I would not recommend them for a serious, money-on-the-table business.

New comment by danjac in "Leadership is a hell of a drug"

danjac — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 06:37:22 +0000

Normally I hate timesheets, but there is some satisfaction in putting "Company meeting: 4 hours" into a timesheet and knowing the managers will have a mild heart attack when those 4 hours are multiplied for every person across the company when they look at the end of the month report.

New comment by danjac in "Leadership is a hell of a drug"

danjac — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 06:37:21 +0000

You would terminate someone for...having an opinion? They didn't mention the company they worked for (if indeed it is their company and not some made-up example).

Little secret: outside of self-proclaimed "leaders" in the Linkedin bubble, most normal people think like the writer, if not put so eloquently. They have jobs to do, and know how to do them, and do not appreciate being dragged into a 4 hour meeting to listen to bullshit. Of course they'll do it if they are told to. But if you are a "leader" you would be conscious of their time and not waste it on self-congratulatory claptrap.

New comment by danjac in "React has grown beyond its original promise and it's causing more harm than good"

danjac — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 07:30:05 +0000

I have seen so many React code bases that are the polar opposite to "clean, manageable code" that I would strongly disagree with this premise.

That's not to say React is to blame, per se, but good code is the result of good developer practices rather than some framework.

New comment by danjac in "Show HN: Open SaaS – An open-source alternative to paid boilerplate starters"

danjac — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 07:41:05 +0000

hype

New comment by danjac in "Show HN: Open SaaS – An open-source alternative to paid boilerplate starters"

danjac — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 07:12:23 +0000

Honestly, what is the market for these SAAS starters these days? Is anyone making serious money, or even a modest side income, with some web app? It seems the low-hanging fruit is well and truly picked at this point and building something that will earn you decent money requires a lot of time and money investment in a vertical niche, not yet-another-project-management-tool you can put together in a week.

New comment by danjac in "Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?"

danjac — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 02:30:51 +0000

Then you have to rely on getting the job by other means than sending your CV. In other words networking.

Personally I don't apply to public job listings any more, even when I match all requirements. They are a waste of everyone's time. But networking has its limits.

New comment by danjac in "What the The end of 0% interest rates means for software engineers"

danjac — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 02:17:55 +0000

Only if you were in right place and time. As a junior dev back then I was earning about the same as any other junior office worker.

New comment by danjac in "What the The end of 0% interest rates means for software engineers"

danjac — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 19:19:46 +0000

Everyone laid off will be hanging their consulting nail. Whether there are enough gigs for them is another matter.

New comment by danjac in "What the The end of 0% interest rates means for software engineers"

danjac — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 19:06:25 +0000

What evidence is this?

New comment by danjac in "Show HN: Startup funding simulator"

danjac — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:52:57 +0000

Depends on your circle. Most of my peers have families and mortgages, and don't have inherited wealth or sufficient savings. They are fiscally responsible but bootstrapping a company requires more resources than just being sensible with your money.

New comment by danjac in "Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?"

danjac — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 07:46:06 +0000

That's funny, as I apply to Django jobs with plenty of experience and just get ghosted, to the point I'm moving away from Django as it feels more and more like a dead end (though what in tech other than buzzword-du-jour is not a dead end at this point?)

New comment by danjac in "Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?"

danjac — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 07:44:13 +0000

I would agree. Applying to every public job posting out there is a waste of time.

Either the postings are fake (there for legal reasons, or to make the company look like they are healthy and growing) or they will be spammed by so many applicants that even if your resume is a perfect match it will just get lost in the noise.

New comment by danjac in "Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?"

danjac — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:22:11 +0000

Same here. However I do not believe things will recover, at least in a reasonable time frame for my own career. My thinking is now if this current job ends I need to think about exiting the industry and doing something else.

Oh well, tech is a nice hobby at least.

New comment by danjac in "Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?"

danjac — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:19:21 +0000

I have zero faith that it is going to pick up again. There is no evidence this is going to be the case. Your time would be better spent retraining for another industry, if that is practical for you.

New comment by danjac in "Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?"

danjac — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:06:02 +0000

This is definitely why I am thinking about leaving the industry, if and when current gig ends.

Even with a resume tailored exactly to requirements, crickets.

Some copium going around - "it's just interest rates", "thinks will pick up soon". Nope. This is what the end of the industry looks like, at least for a great many developers.