The ideal of a self-effacing tool that disappears in every way physically manageable. A weightless window that is, physically, almost not there at all. The antithesis of a heavy brick that never lets you forget its physical dimensions. That is the ideal Apple inches toward.
Many people use these devices without cases, as they were designed to be used. Some don't, for reasons that make sense for them. Many will appreciate the less obtrusive dimensions. Others will never give a crap. Can you explain an obsession with sweets to someone without a sweet tooth? As usual in threads like this, people argue about idiosyncratic tastes.
Rather than naysay your efforts, I prefer to support. pg has opened up YC to people without ideas, so contrary to other comments here, I don't think you're violating the spirit of YC to request an interview without an idea. But your open-ended way of asking might give pg too much to think about. So that could be a reason why he hasn't got back to you yet.
One idea: pg wants to invest in more entrepreneurs who don't have ideas yet, and in some cases, perhaps even people without much history of success on paper. Applicants like yourselves need ideas to build. Create a system that makes it easy for YC's problems to be discovered by applicants, so applicants can use these problems as product ideas. Another tip: think beyond YC's problems to the problems of YC companies. The problems of YC companies are also YC's problems.
Another idea. I read that YC has trouble scaling their demo days each year. One article quoted a guy saying that the growing lunch line is actually one of Demo Day's bigger problems. Make YC Demo Day food service better for guests. Or instead, make it easier for YC to coordinate. I'm sure pg doesn't like thinking about it.
"Apparently the most likely animals to be left alive after a nuclear war are cockroaches, because they're so hard to kill. That's what you want to be as a startup, initially. Instead of a beautiful but fragile flower that needs to have its stem in a plastic tube to support itself, better to be small, ugly, and indestructible."
By the way, you go girl! Best of luck. I admire and applaud your persistence. Keep going. I believe you can do it.
I think you've deluded yourself into thinking you can read minds. Vic knows better then you or any of us exactly how much G+ is getting it's ass handed to it and not just by FB.
Django's lack of Python 3 support is big reason Python 3 adoption is slow, at least in the web dev faction of Python's community.
Why get comfy with Python 3 when you must remain attuned to the conventions and quirks of 2.x in order to use Python's most popular web framework? Folks keep talking about Python 3 because they really want to use it, but have reservations about adopting 3 when 3 isn't supported by useful frameworks.
Once Django supports Python 3, that reservation vanishes. Python 3 will be adopted by more people and get support from more frameworks.
tl:dr; Django's popularity holds dev community captive to Python 2.x, slows adoption of Python 3. Django team announces Python 3 support not in distant future but near future. Folks get excited. "About damn time."
I don't understand your statement. Numpy has been ported on python 3 more than 18 months ago, and scipy followed quickly afterwards. Our download stats show rather little interest for python 3, BTW.
The numpy and scipy core may have been ported, but many of the Scikits (add on libraries to scipy), third party libraries and surrounding tools haven't. So most people will still go with python2 just in case they might need to use one of those tools or libraries later down the road.
Personally the only reason that I am not using Python 3 right now is that Django doesn't support it, as that is the main library that I am supporting and using everyday.
Other libraries I use are smaller, can be replaced, or I could rewrite them.
+1
I had started learning Python 3. But my job now is on Django, so I am forced to use Python 2. I know a good number of people who had the same problem.
Toggl.com is a great service. It was launched after being prototyped at a hackathon in Europe. Can no longer find the link.
According to this TechCrunch article (http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/biz-stone-steps-back-from-t...), Twitter started as a side project at Odeo that came out of a hackathon. "Among the assets of Odeo was a little side project created during a hackathon, called Twitter."
I'm considering. My passion is for Python and Django, though some people say I should go with PHP and Wordpress because it's easier to learn, and to get paid. CodeIgniter comes up too. I've already invested some time with Python/Django, enjoy it, and wonder if it would still save time to learn PHP which I have no prior exp in? Perhaps the bigger issue is that there's more noob-friendly PHP work out there. Thanks for the link, checking it out right now.
Thank you for taking the time to share your advice. Let me see if I can summarize your main points, and reply to them under my summaries.
1) Think of yourself as a startup, not a freelancer preparing for a startup.
Agreed! I think on hacker news people get touchy if you call yourself a startup when you're really just starting consulting. However, in my mind, I see my company's product as myself, and I'm trying to create a minimum viable product this year.
2) Don't grok HTML/CSS or Linux, but do learn enough to get by. Do learn JS really well.
Point taken.
3) Move somewhere cheaper.
I might be wrong on this, but I'm determined to make it while living in SF. Others have done it, I will too. If I am wrong, I will go back to temping, save again, and maybe consider moving to Tahiti the second time around.
I'm curious to know your story of starting up in SE Asia, what you did, what it was like, how things worked out.
4) Consider ditching Python web apps, learn PHP and how to configure CMSes like Wordpress, Drupal, etc. It's faster route to getting paid.
Half the people I've talked to say "PHP + CMS!". Half say "Python and Framework!". I suppose I have some time to think about this more, while I get focus on building the fundamentals of my site.
6) Hustle, not programming language, influences pay most. So hustle.
Definitely.
7) Consider skipping portfolio-building, start making and selling small products to turn immediate profit instead.
Definitely keeping that in mind. My ultimate goal is to build products anyways, but I don't yet have the confidence to trust that I can build my ideas, let alone than anyone will want them. However, I do feel like I can build little websites for people, and sell those. So that feels like a safer option. But I am keeping myself open to other approaches, my plan is merely an outline and a starting point. I'm sure as I become more proficient, I'll start seeing product ideas within my means to execute that might be worth risking a little time to build.
8) Be flexible and creative with business models e.g. consider outsourcing.
I understand what risks I'm comfortable taking, and which I'm not. I'll only feel comfortable outsourcing work that I can do myself. That way I can take responsibility in case the work isn't done correctly, by fixing it myself, esp when there isn't money to hire someone to fix the mistake for me. But that is a quibble. There would be situations where such an arrangement could work out, and I agree with the spirit of what you're saying.
9) Consider joining a web dev shop
That's an interesting suggestion. Would a web dev shop would take someone without a portfolio? Honest question, I've never tried to join one.
There are temp agencies in SF that specialize in placing web developers. I've considered going to my current temp agency later this year, and asking them to place me in whatever work they can find, on the basis of my fledgling portfolio. Not the same as joining a web dev shop, but similar idea of joining an agency that finds clients and matches my skills to projects in exchange for a cut.
Thanks again for all your advice, I really appreciate you taking the time.
Thanks for writing this up. Read the whole thing, took it to heart. Right now I'm making the leap to web developer in a year, without prior experience.
Was wondering what milestone achievements I should hit in Linux, given my goals? Goal details here:
Many people use these devices without cases, as they were designed to be used. Some don't, for reasons that make sense for them. Many will appreciate the less obtrusive dimensions. Others will never give a crap. Can you explain an obsession with sweets to someone without a sweet tooth? As usual in threads like this, people argue about idiosyncratic tastes.