I kept expecting it to turn into some kind of message-retention quiz. The kind that would prove we only absorb 10% of what we're shown, or some other counterintuitainment.
My team and I run a boutique production studio in NYC and we love composing music to visuals. Shoot me an email at "josh at soundassociation dot com" and let's discuss your project!
I'm looking for a talented, self-managing back-end PHP developer who has experience with the Lithium PHP framework. Communication skills and fast learning are a must.
Our site is a fast-growing pet product discount site with thousands of active members and real revenue every day. We've built the site solidly and with growth in mind, and now it's time to make that growth happen and I need more dev resources!
Tech stack on this project is Lithium on PHP 5.4, MySQL, Apache, on EC2 with ELB, etc. We are open to embracing additional AWS (and other) solutions as we scale up.
I'm a back-end developer myself, and our small team has a terrific designer/front-ender and another back-ender. Compensation can be hourly or by monthly retainer, and there will be performance-based bonuses as we hit deadlines and deliver terrific features.
Please shoot me an email at joshchurgin at g mail dot com if this interests you. Looking forward to hearing from you!
"Exciting new challenges that allow me to maximize my potential!"
As an introvert, I'm wary of requests to articulate such things on demand. I'm probably not going to tell an interviewer that my greatest pleasures include cooking with my girlfriend or getting baked and playing with synthesizers.
I used this a few years ago while working for a startup and I got a full plan (comparable to the average full-time job's plan) for half price (at that time, around $250 a month).
Worth a look. They are always expanding and trying to provide more and more benefits for the W2-challenged.
I'd want to hear about the intricacies of their new audio advertising program.
What have they learned about listener preferences through tweaking the length, frequency, and targeting of audio ads? Are they making demographic inferences based off of music genre?
I'm also really curious about the creative on those audio ads. Do ad buyers know alongside which genres their ads will be broadcast? Do they adjust creative appropriately, i.e. hip-hop audio ad creative on a station of hip-hop music? I realize that each "station" is really an instance of user preferences, but still...
I could go on and on... I wonder if there is a cool side-business opportunity for supplying their ad buyers with creative (via a network involving independent commercial musicians/producers). This could help their ads become more effective and turn into something interesting itself.
On that note, it's interesting that pandora.com, the website, serves ads but the Windows Sidebar gadget does not. Does the iPhone app serve ads? Those might be an interesting place to wander into...
I was introduced to Catan during college and we quickly had a weekly game going. The interplay of luck and skill is intrinsically woven into the gameplay, which kept things very dynamic. The "wheeling/dealing" aspect of the bartering keeps things interesting when it isn't your turn.
Just when things would get boring on the skills side (someone was far ahead of everyone else), luck would rush in to make things interesting. Just when things would get boring on the luck side (a series of bad rolls), there would be opportunities to strategize around it.
I haven't played it in years, though (not near that group of people anymore), so it was a pleasure to see this pop up on HN. And it is pretty relevant insofar as the "programming" and game loop is quite clever.
There are some great online versions too (asobrain, jsettlers, etc... would provide links but I don't know what the best online versions are today).
Maybe there's a connection between the narrator's struggle and an entrepreneur's struggle. Both seem to enjoy the fight to overcome mediocrity and strive for their goals despite hardships and constraints, but the narrator's hardships and constraints are entirely of his own making. Check this quote:
"I loved the feeling: Floating slightly above everything but still able to cope with the world, sensing that I was somehow special, or at least different, that I belonged to a secret and exclusive club."
Couldn't that apply to a hacker? At least in the abstract?
Well, all I know is I enjoyed the article and that I believe I can find value and knowledge from disparate sources regardless of their topical relevance.
I also realize that HN is trying to remain topically focused.
To much of the world, the thought of making life more difficult by forging your own path/company/livelihood/etc, as opposed to settling for an easy job, seems akin to choosing make your life more difficult through addictions. I know it may appear I'm stretching it, but it's a fun mental exercise.
