40 comments, not one trace of "Congrats", who cares what Obamas intentions were, for any founder out there you know this is exciting -- HN is becoming difficult to read.
Congrats guys, it has to feel great having something like this go so well!
Seriously, it's a huge accomplishment, and they deserve to be proud of it. When the president uses your product (even if it's not good) you know you've made it.
There are plenty of great places to build your startup. I don't think SF is one of them, but I'd live on the street in SF before living in Miami (again).
As Miami as the Miami Dolphins.. are you suggesting that Miami is drastically different than it's surrounding area.. the city limits of Miami are quite large, and have many different types of neighborhoods. I love that everyone that lives in Miami thinks they are different, and never want to be grouped with 'outsiders' (folks that live in neighboring counties), but anyone that doesn't, considers all Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach the same. It's always referred to as SFL, South Florida.. All the startups, investors, etc mentioned in articles like this are not located IN Miami.. they are spread across SFL.
"However, the reality is that you need engineering more than they need you."
Whatever. I like the article, it makes some good points.
It's hard to write an article explaining one side of a situation like this without 'taking sides'.
I think the the PM role/title has become such a generic position that articles like this one are really taking a stab at anyone non-engineering, not that I am upset by it.
As a startup founder, meshing technical teams and non-technical teams is extremely difficult to do. The work environments, thought processes, personalities, etc. are so different.
I think side projects are very important. It's funny, a lot people have a hard time distinguishing between free time and work, without realizing that for some of the best engineers out there, they are the same. Just because my laptop is open, doesn't mean I have to be working. In the evening, on the weekends, or whatever you consider your free time to be, YOU go to movies, go out for dinner, go to the gym, go skiing, etc. But, as someone who really likes to build things, the time I would be doing those things (yes, I do those as well), I'm writing code.
The key is to hire people you trust to make good decisions when it comes to side projects, and the amount of time they spend on them.
But also on the employers, have you created and maintained an environment that someone wants to work for?
One of the things I think about most often while hiring, because it is true for me is that, I would be half the developer I am without side projects. My college degree and job I had out of college taught me nothing but concepts and theory, and how to be micromanaged. I WANT to hire people that have side projects because it means they ENJOY what they do, they dont just do it because someone is paying them to.
Problem is the agreements were discussing typically have a 'non-compete' for a period of time. So you can't create anything that resembles work you were doing at your employer for typically 2 years. For this reason :)
If you really wanted to pursue it, you could probably force them to explicitly define what the mean by 'compete' (thereby narrowing what they can come after you for), or else give you compensation for the period that they want you to be excluded from working. It might take some legal maneuvering though.
"unsafe experimentation with new technologies" love this, couldn't agree more with this statement.
It's likely a different way of thinking, possibly an old vs. new. For me, if I work with people that are hacking on cool stuff, publicly, its a great recruiting tool, its reassurance that you've made a great hire, and its confidence that they code going into production is battle tested in more than just localhost.
This is very common. I think the key is that most of them wouldn't bother acting on it, UNLESS you were successful and for me, that was the biggest reason I was afraid it -- it scared me to start anything at risk for success.
Of course its a red flag, but when you're coming out of college, being told that jobs are hard to come by, do you really have balls to throw out red flagged opportunities? It's up to us as individuals to know and accept it as a stepping stone rather than a career.
I have features I've built, and entire products for that matter, that were nothing more than a Frankenstein of things I've picked out of side projects. Sometimes I learn 2 things completely separate from each other, and then 6 months down the line have a realization that those two things would be amazing together in application.
Product focused or not, there is no reason that you should prevent yourself from learning just because it doesn't have a TLD.
Congrats guys, it has to feel great having something like this go so well!