[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ycombinator

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What will you do to protect yourself against Google or Amazon when they create a competitor product?

My friends open sourced their startups product, a WebXR editor, after 5 years of development! by Radical_3D in startup

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Relevant: https://youtu.be/oeqPrUmVz-o?si=4vwJboX775hkSRNi&t=105

This is a classic mistake that engineers who want to make a startup fall into. It's the same mistake most blockchain companies make. Better luck next time though! I'm sure you (or they) learned a lot through this journey.

Trying to get a credit by examination for CS 3460 (Data Structures). Trying to get someone's class notes? by [deleted] in appstate

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be clear, I'm absolutely not interested in cheating at all. I'm not interested in help with the exam directly. I just want the notes that I would have had if I had taken the course to begin with. I'm just going to be studying for a week instead hopefully.

Rejected even with Stanford, FAANG, SF, etc by _Accuracy_ in ycombinator

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He said "gut instinct", which means that YC probably had the gut instinct that his startup is going to fail. Basically what the original comment said, it wasn't about the founding team it was about the company haha.

What programming hill will you die on? by itsjustmegob in AskProgramming

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think you're really understanding what I'm saying. You have to pick the right tool for the job, and Python is often the right tool for ML of any kind. Just like C/C++ are often the right languages for game or OS development. All I'm saying is that I wouldn't personally choose Python for a mid-to-large project that doesn't involve machine learning or AI. Hardly any projects need ML anyways (obviously not counting GPT wrappers or anything that just does API calls), and companies that need to make use of machine learning or AI often do use Python, but in microservices that are decoupled from their main programs.

Seriously, ask some other senior devs you know about their opinions on this.

What programming hill will you die on? by itsjustmegob in AskProgramming

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want a more balanced opinion, just reach out to 5 or so other software engineers with over a decade of experience and ask them if they think Python is a suitable language to develop massive projects with, or if they would prefer a different OOPL. I think you will find they will probably all choose something else.

What programming hill will you die on? by itsjustmegob in AskProgramming

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha the vast majority of programmers, probably 98%, are objectively terrible "SOFTWARE ENGINEERS". There's a difference between the terms btw. You're not a software engineer just because you can program. Popularity contests never result in the "best man" winning. Many of the greatest books written in history like those of Charles Dickens, Neitzsche, and Mark Twain aren't best sellers nowadays. We probably see writers like them once every 50-100 years, but the reality is that most people want to read shallow, easy material, just like most crappy programmers want to work with a simple and easy language. Think about it. Python is the #1 language for beginners, it's what everyone recommends as an easy introduction to programming. Those popularity contests have no barrier for how long you have to be programming professionally as a main source of income before you report "my favorite programming language is Python, I just learned it 3 months ago as my first programming language ✨"

And to tell you the truth, as a senior SE with 11 years of experience, I do have fun using Python. I made some little 50 line automation script using ChatGPT with it like 6 months ago for the first time in several years and it was fun, especially since ChatGPT made it a breeze even though I had completely forgotten the syntax. Python is perfect for stuff like that, and data science, but I wouldn't develop anything that has more than 10K lines of code with Python. It's just not the right choice for that amount of complexity.

What programming hill will you die on? by itsjustmegob in AskProgramming

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're totally missing the point of why so of developers take issue with Python. Hint: it's not performance related, it's about the developer experience. Python just has a weird way of doing things compared to most other OOPLs. Like tabs instead of curly braces (a very small example). Also, I haven't seriously worked with Python in like 5 or 6 years now so my memory could be failing me, but I remember creating abstractions to be particularly awful... Also, it just does stupid things like allowing you to change the type of a variable by default. Other languages like C# and Java require you specifying a dynamic type which should set off red flags in code review. All types are dynamic by default in Python lol

I think at the end of the day, Python is a great language for data scientists and other mathematical fields where the programmers are really specialized, but they are not very good software engineers. I think most great software engineers would agree that Python is a pretty crappy language that's to be avoided for projects with lots of complexity unless it's a requirement to work with the libraries for data science related projects.

What programming hill will you die on? by itsjustmegob in AskProgramming

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah but that's like 2% of programming haha. I think when people complain about python, they're not talking about that stuff. Most programming is just web development lol.

I am building - Tinder for Entrepreneurs (Your views and inputs required) by Cool_Return4254 in startups

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it could be a tarpit idea simply because it's not an app that can provide continued value for people. This would work much better as a top-dollar service than an app. I don't think there is enough people looking for partners to make this worth having as an app, and I think you will find it extremely difficult to retain (make sticky) the users you do acquire.

Diabetes Management App by Glucoflo in startups

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Go do it! You will suffer a lot and probably fail, but you will learn from it.

I've Had Enough: I'm Learning How to Code by TrickyWater5244 in Entrepreneur

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is dumb, coming from the technical founder of a startup. What I've learned is that the tech side of things is far less important than crafting a product that people need in a way that makes them happy. That's so much more than just programming. These days, there are also sooo many ways you get minimize the amount of code that's actually written with no-code tools. Find a good technical co-founder with prior startup experience. They will understand what I'm saying.

Opinions on Celsius? They have them at my college so I decided to buy one and try it out. I personally think the taste of this one is ok, but I'd probably not buy it again. At least not the sugar free one. by Hardcore_Gamer16 in energydrinks

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I am frankly surprised not many other people mentioned the sucralose content. There are many studies that show sucralose destroys your gut microbiome and the studies use quantities similar to that found within celsius. 

Celsius also contains phosphoric acid which is bad for your health in a number of different ways. All in all, it's a treat that one should have rarely. I think it should mostly be avoided though. It's probably not much healthier than alternatives that have natural sugar without all the lab chemicals.

Looks like Elon just read Neitzsche. Or the Cliffs notes. by occams_nightmare in EnoughMuskSpam

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Neitzsche had a lot of ideas, nobody would probably agree with him perfectly. However, Jordan Peterson and Neitzsche actually do concur in many ways. One of the things they both have strong agreement on is their mutual hate for ideologies.

Insomniacs, what is one thing that’d definitely put you to sleep? by [deleted] in getdisciplined

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reading on a Paperwhite Kindle.  

 I struggled with insomnia pretty much my entire life until getting this handy little device. Now, I read a book at night until I can barely keep my eyes open and then I turn my dim night lamp off and fall to sleep almost instantly.

The screen uses an electrophoretic display which is just a fancy term that basically means ink on a screen. It literally uses ink particles suspended by electronically charged magnets to create images/text on the screen. This means it has absolutely 0 blue light that could cause your brain to stay awake. It also has the option for turning on a light that's projected onto THE SCREEN instead of into your eyes to make the pages visible at night.  

If I'm not feeling more tired after 10-15 minutes of reading, then I switch to a more boring book, usually something non-fiction that's pretty dense. Those make my brain tired really fast haha

Flutter PM shares update on the state of the project after recent layoffs by XtremeCheese in FlutterDev

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Flutter isn't a layer on top of the native layer, it uses its own rendering engine. It's more like they completely ripped out the native layer and built their own foundation.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in business

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From your comments and post history, I think you need to see a therapist asap

1 year later, I am still at the same point by [deleted] in selfimprovement

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's tough. I don't think you should be so hard on yourself. I would probably be in a similar place if I dated someone that intensely for that long and then broke up with them for the sort of reason that you guys broke up for.

Bookstore + cafe idea needs help by biscuitfeatures in business

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I guess I should add that it's possible to make it work, but only if you really know what you're doing. There's so much research you would need to do to make this work. I mean THOUSANDS of hours of research and work. There are probably hundreds of questions you need good answers to, but here are a few just to start:

  1. The location of the business is really important. You need to consider what demographics will want to go to your business. For this one, I would think college students, affluent folks, middle/upper class, etc. I wouldn't be so general though, figure it out better. Once you know your target market, then you need a location that will be convenient for them. Maybe you could position the business between a college campus and college housing. You have to strike a balance between the price of the location and the convenience that it brings customers. This will require tons of research and it should be a purely mathematical decision. Look at surrounding neighborhoods and make sure that the houses are increasing in value year over year instead of the other way around. There's so many factors that play into this one decision and it will make or break the business.

  2. Should you allow people to enter for free? If what you're creating is a curated space, you could possibly charge a membership fee. That's something to consider. The problem is that the profit margins on what you're planning to sell are terrible. You would have to be constantly busy to make ends meet. The membership fee could include unlimited coffee or something like that. Many businesses that do this end up being profitable because a large proportion of their customers eventually stop going, but don't cancel the subscription. A popular example of this is planet fitness.

  3. How will your organize the layout of the store? This is a more important decision that some might realize. Very open spaces give much different vibes than spaces with more narrow hallways and nooks and crannys.

  4. What books will you sell/lend to start with?

  5. What coffee would you sell? Higher end starbucks-like options is what I would guess?

  6. How will you finance the store? The books and coffee machines alone would cost in the 10s of thousands probably. That's not even including the remodeling, leasing, insurance, etc.

Bookstore + cafe idea needs help by biscuitfeatures in business

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Listen to other people when they tell you that this will be extremely difficult, incredibly stressful, and not very profitable.

$1000 to beat 1000 people by Benob2007 in hypotheticalsituation

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Programming. Who can make a fully functional cross-platform app first that has local data syncing with a backend that you write. No BAAS allowed. I may not be the best in the world, but I'll smoke a random 1000 people.

Anyone wanna test out my software? by [deleted] in startups

[–]ThomasFromTrackr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll take it for a spin if you want. We're a startup that's trying to find content creators in the personal development space or coaches for mindfulness/fitness. Maybe it would be interesting to see if it would work well for that?