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Unless you have a paying customer willing to pay you with just a promise of something to be delivered (see kickstarter et al, Steve Blanks's customer discovery, etc.), you don't. If it solves a problem you have and in a better way for you than other solutions then you personally get immediate value from it. From there, it's possible others may have the same problem and will be willing to pay for it. It's not guaranteed but the number of people getting value from the software will be at least n = 1.

I pretty much have the same perspective, until unless it doesn’t solve my issue, I don’t really want to work on it

What’s the virtue signal in not wanting to travel to a country that might arbitrarily decide to illegally deport you to a different country other than your home country or detain you indefinitely?

For Canadians it’s even worse

While Venezuela and Colombia only get bombing threats, this US administration was actively advocating to take over the Canada and turn it into the 51st state

They talked about taking over Greenland and Panama and even sent out diplomatic missions to that effect


It's apparently been done, but the amount generated was very small and it's not clear it could be scaled up to any useful amounts.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/earths-magnetic-field


Excellent! I like it when experimentalists and technologists prove some significant set of theoreticians wrong!


Interesting read, thank you for finding it.


"I know it’s not going to cancel because it’s a robot"

I won't be at all surprised when they start calculating their profits in real-time, if they aren't already, and cancelling or delaying trips that are deemed unprofitable in the moment. They are robots after all.


Waymo already does that through its surge pricing mechanism and limited availability of cars at busy times. And if they really don't want to serve you they'd just not let you book.


No 3rd party arbitrage, much reduced pressure to accept fares they don't want (there's probably still some).


Living cheaply is relative though. I have no idea if this person’s living cheaply is doable on my current savings so it’s meaningless to me until I have some hard numbers.


The trick is living cheaply while earning. Not starting living cheaply only once the money-hose dries up. Obviously, this advice is too late for many people.


I think you're talking about parental leave which is a different thing and another area where the US falls short compared to other developed countries. This is to provide care for your kids after you would have gone back to work in any regular scenario until the kids are old enough to start school.


Maybe he should try to publish a game on his own or with some friends for iOS/Android or on something like Steam? The act of getting something out there can inspire further ideas and may open other doors.


I don't know where it's going but as of this moment Meta at least is still using them and it doesn't look like they're going to change anytime soon. Source: I have an upcoming interview with them. If I'm to believe what they tell me, you're not just scored on how well you can implement a solution, but how well you can explain in real time what your approach will be before you start coding and how well you communicate during the implementation. I was told to overcommunicate if anything even to the level of correcting typos. I don't think LLM's can do that yet.


"Do you want to be a surgeon? = Do you want to do the same procedure 15 times a week for the next 35 years?"

Compared to trying to implement vague feature requests with no clear solutions under arbitrary deadlines and for probably a lot more pay and respect in general? Yes.


I wouldn't mind doing the exact same thing over and over every day, if it alleviates someone's pain or suffering.


I got a colonoscopy last year and the doctor was pretty proud of the fact that he did more procedures than any other doctor in the state for the past few years running. The guy was very likable and was clearly dedicated to his job and being the best at it that he could be. How can you not respect that?


The tech equivalent would be having companies line up to meet you, so that you can perform some particular upgrade of their system. The exact same each time. Then having every one of them praising and thanking you profusely after. Hell yeah.


I'd ask more questions, but I wouldn't want to probe...


you're one of the crazies


Just to unpack a bit more; Would you inevitably be willing to stand in front of the family of one of your patients and tell them there had been unforeseen complications and that their loved one has died?

Knowing a few people who work in surgery rooms, this kind of thing can happen with most surgeries. It is getting rare, but still possible.


Yes. One of the particular features of engineering and especially software is that you don't usually solve the same problem twice. You just use the previous solution. That kind of thing can make you dream of having a job where you can just do fairly routine and well understood tasks as well and as efficiently as possible instead of spending days going "WTF" and "how is that possible".


Yeah the OP critique doesn't even sound bad. There are some types of surgery that are routine and easy after you get it and doing such a thing 15x a week to earn a top 1% salary sounds pretty good. The vast majority of jobs are routine and involve doing the same task at least 15x a week, probably many more times than that.


No, but it can set the stage for being lucky later on. Warren Buffet calls it winning the ovarian lottery.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/warren-buffett-says-the-key-...


Well no, because again, luck is just about seizing opportunities, so it’s all relative. Someone lucky in America may not fare well in Cambodia and vice-versa.


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