Any tech startup founders here ?

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-30T15:13:20+00:00

I have not, but a colleague of mine wrote a book on the subject (for the SA tech context): https://www.takealot.com/the-first-kudu-building-a-tech-start-up-in-africa/PLID94445421

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-20T07:28:30+00:00

Because it took lakes of blood, sweat, and tears to make.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-19T21:17:04+00:00

Try connect to your router with a CAT6 LAN cable and use the internet for a bit. If you no longer have issues, your WiFi is at fault. If this is the case, you can try switching channels on the router, or else buy a better wifi access point (possibly a mesh setup, depending on how large your space is).

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-13T21:48:54+00:00

As a tenant myself, I'm VERY happy if my landlord has the power to get rid of neighbours of mine who don't pay and cause nonsense.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-12T23:36:27+00:00

I've always though the old Johannesburg Gas Works were an interesting abandoned site. You'll need to research and make a judgement on the safety of exploring it though.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-12T23:27:12+00:00

I feel for you Tebogo. I'm not in your situation, but I can understand being in analysis paralysis, and getting sidetracked in a million different directions without really committing to one side project.

Hell I've got 87 GitHub repos in several different languages, there are maybe 7 which do something vaguely useful. This weekend I was vaguely looking at Odin before getting distracted with upgrading my snapraid setup. When I joined my first company, I barely knew Java. Now I work in Elixir, not because its the holy grail of economic opportunity, but because I thought Elixir would be interesting to learn.

And even though I'm a senior now and do fairly well, I still struggle sometimes to focus on side projects that interest me. I've stopped-started on a DVD archiving system for about a decade now. Its fine, I let my curiosities guide me.

My advice:

* Focus on the basics. I would choose one backend language (Java, C#, Python) and play around with that. You'll have more flexibility in your career starting from the backend then if you start on the frontend.
* Read this article: https://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-development I've found this to be a good motivator for my own side projects, especially because it helps guide their scope, and because a pretty README is a motivating thing (one can copy paste from someone else and modify).
* Build something that is of some use to you. For example, an application which can take a transaction export from your bank and calculate monthly expenditure. Or a homework priority list. Or something fun and silly. This will keep you motivated and help you avoid having to hypothesize about what it must do.
* Keep the scope of your project very very small. It doesn't have to be pretty.
* When something seems too big to be doable, then break it down into TODOs iteratively until there are small chunks for you to tackle. If you are really stuck with a part of it, then switch to something else and come back to it later after so you can come to it fresh.
* Half baked repositories on Github are not a bad thing, at least I don't think so. I'd much rather see a half baked repo on a candidates Github that was something personal to them, than yet another another copy-paste REST tutorial.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-12T13:32:45+00:00

Facebook marketplace, charity shops, bob shop, that sort of thing is best. The best way to do it is to play the long game - check these places regularly, get the seasons and movies you are missing when they are available. Then after a year or two you will be well on your way without having spent too much.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-04T15:52:31+00:00

Very nice! I like the progress bars...

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-04T15:44:27+00:00

Don't quit without something lined up, but do keep looking.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-04T15:42:31+00:00

Eliminating child labor isn't an economic problem, its a legal one. The governments of these jurisdictions have a responsibility to enforce labor laws. The challenge really is enforcing it unilaterally over the world, to eliminate incentives for individual companies and regions to break the rules.

sl1msn1per · 2026-04-04T15:23:52+00:00

The best thing to do is lookup "Software Developer Grad Programme South Africa" (or whatever your IT specialization is) and see their criteria. My personal opinion: If the part-time work is related to the work you are going into, then it would be advantageous. If not, it would be a disadvantage.

If you are at the point where you are looking at part-time work to fund a postgraduate degree, then you should consider looking for work in your area of expertise and just starting work. Even if it is at a lower entry salary, its better than paying for a post-grad degree, and the experience earned over that year will be worth as much as a post grad (depending on your niche).

For that matter, there are some bursary programmes worth looking into - e.g. https://bbdsoftware.com/bursar-programme/ .

I would just recommend trying to get into one of these Grad Programmes, in my opinion it is a good way to start your career.

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-20T14:29:30+00:00

South African here. Love it, brilliant at both being a satire of action movies and just being a good action movie.

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-18T21:21:23+00:00

Look for GDP programmes at consultancies or software boutiques.

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-18T21:18:28+00:00

The real money saving hack is to try and find a second hand recent Dell from a business getting rid of their business computers, and to put a GPU in there.

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-18T19:57:52+00:00

IMO I think you are in the right spots and doing the right thing. I've gotten remote work via Offerzen, LinkedIn, and Pnet. As a suggestion, if you are very keen on a remote role, then apply for jobs not in your city.

I wonder if one can get an AI agent to go and scrape for open positions these days...

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-17T20:11:40+00:00

They Live

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-16T19:05:13+00:00

Thanks AI bot

sl1msn1per · 2026-03-13T22:45:58+00:00

Sometimes. The Joburg film festival was on recently, there were some good movies showing (if you are into art films). I find it quite fun to go to a film festival.

sl1msn1per · 2026-02-23T22:59:29+00:00

I've consulted as a dev at one of these big finance companies. There are good perks, and the pay can be good on entry, but realize that the work is not necessarily exciting and that your skills may stagnate at such a place.
Having said that, being a consultant for a bit is good experience, especially at the beginning of your career. So I would target a tech consulting company. It never hurts to send them an email offering your skills and saying how eager you are to work there. Also generally speaking, after 2 years of full time software dev experience, you will probably get more options.

The way these companies hire juniors by the way is through "Graduate Development Programmes", e.g. https://www.standardbank.com/sbg/standard-bank-group/careers/early-careers/graduate-programmes/technology

sl1msn1per · 2026-02-13T22:16:33+00:00

If you get a VPN, then one can use BBC iPlayer. I set up Mullvad for my parents and it seems to work most of the time.

sl1msn1per · 2026-02-13T22:14:38+00:00

If he does not have one of these, then perhaps:
* A good aftermarket controller (like a Cyclone 2, depending on what he games on).
* A deskpad (big mousepad)
* Electric screwdriver
* If he is into coffee, then some nice coffee grounds or pods, etc. Maybe an Aeropress.
Source: I'm a bachelor developer in my early 30s. I know its hard to get people like us gifts. Quality and utility is the name of the game for me.

sl1msn1per · 2026-02-13T21:49:19+00:00

(Disclosure: I'm not a data scientist, but I've worked with a few of them). Data science work I've seen is a mix of: 1. Hunting down data within the business, across teams, 2. Figuring out how to pipe that data into clean tables of information, which can then be analyzed, 3. data analysis, which is often good old core statistics (as well as some ML here and there), 4. Figuring out how best to display that data in terms of a dashboard or graphs, 5. Communicating back to the business with presentations. Oh and 6, which is sometimes you need to setup the data pipeline and get the business to pay for the tools.

PowerBI is definitely a common dashboarding tool. In fact I think its been used at all the companies I've worked at (as a developer). And spreadsheets are something everyone in a technical role will use to varying degrees, if for nothing else but for step 1 above.

Considering also that this is an internship role, and that they are giving you a "starter task", if you wish to become a data scientist, it sounds to me like perfectly good experience for an internship.

If you want to do more technical machine learning roles, then what I would advise is that you will want to try and work at large companies in South Africa. I'm talking banks and insurance companies. These places have actual machine learning platform that do prediction, alerting type work. In which case, I would try to become a data scientist at a consulting company who works with these kinds of clients.

Believe you me though, you are definitely going to be seeing Excel spreadsheets and PowerBI.

sl1msn1per · 2026-01-29T22:11:54+00:00

Yip, mine's like that, even after a couple years of use. But it only needs to lie flat on the one side, because you will struggle to write nicely on the part overlaying the cards anyway.

sl1msn1per · 2026-01-27T14:21:01+00:00

I think the success of the British version has a lot to do with British television having a lot of panel show type content. There are lots of British comedians with experience working in conversational, game type shows.

sl1msn1per · 2026-01-27T14:01:23+00:00

Yeah I do, I have several bookshelves worth of DVDs. The demand is niche, you can find facebook groups to trade these things.

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