VS Code for editing.

Points to Ponder

-> Use the basic Astro template for blogs. It is basically enough for a self-hosted blog needs. Using any of the third party themes/templates with a list of features has a bunch of disadvantages. It takes more effort to customize and upgrading to newer versions totally breaks the setup, sucking in hours of your time.

-> VS Code has plenty of Markdown Extensions. Markdown Preview and Frontend Masters come to mind.

I still prefer the original version of the classics to abridged versions.

The next step is to talk to prospects. May be talking to customers was part of your role in your current or previous work? If not, then there are some learnings to do. If you cannot contact your prospects before you build the product, you cannot sell to them after you build. If I were you I would start by reading Mom Test. It will change how you look at things. But it is not a cure-all. There will be lots of learning to do even about how to contact prospects, how to talk to them to get actionable insights and not genial confirmation etc. (I am currently here). If you already have a product, it is still ok to do that. You can ask ppl in your target group for testing your product etc. That is also a great learning experience and can lead to rapid development of your product. You will truly believe you have thought through a lot of UX flows and would have done a great job and still uncover a lot of blindspots.

It also helps to learn to market and sell. This will shape how you build your product and how you talk about it. Are you currently working? Does your current company or your previous ones have sales and marketing roles? Do take them out to lunch, talk to them about their product goals, their day to day activities etc. These are some stuff you will be doing when your product is ready to market.

If these make sense to you and need someone to chat with, ping me. Would be happy to compare notes.

Anecdotally, I have seen and `read` multiple founders' posts and comments detailing the mistakes they have made, year after year, month after month.. and I went and made most of the mistakes all over again. I still see others follow the same path.. But why don't we apply the advice we read so often and makes so much sense?

I believe while the reading the articles, the advice resonates and makes sense but when we go into real world, it gets messy.. It is harder to notice the patterns. But one thing is true, when we do make those mistakes, we can then hark back to that advice and realize the wisdom in them. Atleast after that, it gets easier to not fall into those traps again and the advice is internalized.

So, what is the use of writing about your hard-learned advice, you ask?

1. We start noticing the patterns earlier thanks to the memory of the advice humming there at the back of your mind and so the learning is faster. 2. It gives one courage and confidence to get up, dust oneself off and try again, cause others have done that before me or you.

* Very few startups, probably a infinitesimal number, are overnight successes. Startups are actually a long grind. There are a lot more lows than highs and the lows tend to be really low. The effect is even worse when you go solo. It took the author 5 years to breach the 5K MRR ceiling. That's a long timeframe and it takes a great amount of fortitude, patience and persistence to stay focused, keep learning and handle uncertainty in the face of lack of visible progress (you are actually learning even in failures but it often doesn't feel good).

https://onlineornot.com/articles

https://maxrozen.com/onlineornot-diaries-14

Google sheets takes forever to load (Just 150 records on the biggest sheet. 9 other sheets with paltry records). Any keypress or scroll takes 10 seconds or more to take effect. I am torn between getting work done and being annoyed by how I am forced to use Chrome. Didn't yield, yet.

Have you considered some form of mentoring of young people who are willing to learn? It could be in the course of your work or could be related to some hobby.

I believe it could be a rewarding experience to share your experiences with someone who could benefit from it and see them thrive.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39665150

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

I would like to share how I handle mint-unaware software systems.

As a kind of workaround, to get Docker to work, you would find the equivalent of Ubuntu for your Mint Version. Mint itself is based on Ubuntu LTS versions.

For ex: Linux Mint 21 is based on Ubuntu 22.04. So packages for Jammy Jellyfish work pretty well for Linux Mint 21. You can add the apt repo for Jammy Jellyfish in Mint.

Considering Mint has had a significant mindshare in Linux for quite sometime, it would be great if the major software providers make it easy to install on Mint.

But it would be too much of a stretch for minor players or open source providers to support so many flavours. The above workaround is a win-win all around.

Every 3 months, I have to pay the school fee for my 3 kids. The amount is almost the same for all three. The first payment always goes off without a hitch. But, when I go to pay for the second kid, bam, it locks up the account. Our local branch is utterly clueless. Then we will have to jump through multiple hoops to get the account activated. This whole drama happens like clockwork every three months. It doesn't matter that it's just a school payment, and doesn't matter that thousands of parents are making payment around that time.

Friends holding accounts in other banks face the same issues. So, it is not isolated to my bank and changing banks will not help.

So, now, we've decided to take the one-kid-a-day approach. It's a bit more work, 'cause I have to remember to make those payments over three days, but it sure beats the headache of reactivating the account every time.

There seems to be a lot of negative view about managers here.

If I had to judge managers by my experience at my first job, I would be first in the line decrying them. But, now I see that is the result of faulty processes, promoting too early and for all the wrong reasons.

In my second job, my manager was my strength. We didn't have much meetings, rather lots of one-on-ones or 3-4 people discussing. Most of us were just out of college. So, when we had strong opinions on the product features, they not only heard us, but helped formulate a proper argument that we could present. He was also a good mentor, helping me reframe my viewpoint, when I didn't agree with one of my very senior colleagues (Later turned out the senior colleague was right. In retrospect, I really pity that colleague for he had to work with a big bunch of naive college graduates with no coding discipline :) )

It helps that the whole environment in the company was one of openness, camaraderie and a real desire to make a difference. But a good manager can always make a great difference in your work and happiness.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37510595

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Except, it is not `a few seconds` anymore. When I search for basic technical reference, google gives me 5-10 spam blogs before the actual documentation site. Some of them are absolutely useless (GeeksforGeeks). You need to spend precious minutes parsing the results to find the one you need.

One would think, considering Google is built by developers, the results for developer-related queries would be good. If this is so bad, what about the result for searches for people in other unrelated streams?

Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin goes in deep about the challenges of leading a company. It felt honest and truthful and talks about the implications of each choice they made in tech and marketing.

PBS Eons https://www.youtube.com/@eons

Action Lab - https://www.youtube.com/@TheActionLab

MinuteEarth - https://www.youtube.com/@MinuteEarth

MinutePhysics - https://www.youtube.com/@MinutePhysics

SciShow - https://www.youtube.com/@SciShow

Real Science - https://www.youtube.com/@realscience

Brain Scoop - No long active, but there are some real gems here : https://www.youtube.com/@thebrainscoop

Recently started watching:

Eddie Woo - https://www.youtube.com/@misterwootube

At an younger age:

Sid the Science kid: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FWtHft4ijzk&feature=share

Super Why: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xu9MkyxZIZM&feature=share

Dinosaur Train: https://youtu.be/peBl3lrKglU

Magic School Bus: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLhOnau-tupQCt22fUPj3...

Regarding your product/website, I concur with the feedback given by the other commenters here.

To truly understand what they are trying to say though, I would recommend 2 books:

Obviously Awesome, by April Dunford. This talks about how to position your product to your customers.

StoryBrand : It will specifically help you how you tell you & your customer's story on your landing page

Both of these are really short books. You can read each in a day but totally worth 10x for the time you put in.

This should help you get on to the next step! All the best!