skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
MY STORY

1) Do good work for your current employer.

2) Left to do a startup full time. It stalled. (Still working on it)

3) Second job opportunity came along while I was full time on my startup.

4) Went back to original company first, negotiated contracting position

5) Went to second job opportunity, negotiated contracting position.

MY ADVICE

1) Do good work for your current employer.

2) Find second employment opportunity.

3) Negotiate contracting position with current employer

4) Negotiate contracting position with second employer.

* Every time you get a new client, try and charge a higher rate.

* Always do good work for your employer/client

THE BEAUTY

The beautiful thing about contracting is you have multiple revenue streams. So if one stream is not providing you with the opportunities that you need, you are always in a position to renegotiate or trade up. You never feel trapped in a position. You'll also naturally gain a better understanding of what you are worth as a developer.

THE PAIN

There is a learning curve to becoming a contractor. But once you learn the tax system, automate what you can for time tracking, invoicing, and taxes, it is not a big deal.
I haven't taken my pedestrian survival skills that far, but I've always felt that if I'd ever be hit, that would be at an intersection. I felt that there are too many moving objects to keep track of at a typical intersection to be able to control your fate.

So, when in developing countries, I prefer to cross the street in the middle of a block (with no alleys in sight). This way there are only two directions I need to be wary about.

Now, that I've taken up road cycling, I'm at the mercy of other drivers and I'm afraid there are no hacks I could use (except of being extra careful at intersections).
> Turkey has been a successful majority Muslim but very secular and democratic state for a very long time. Maybe that’s changing …

Uhm. Military coups in: 1960, 1971, 1980, as well as substantial intervention in the succession of power in 1997 that many considers a coup.

The secular nature of the Turkish state has largely remained as secular as it is because the Turkish military has a tendency to conduct coups whenever they deem someone is trying to introduce religiously motivated laws, coupled with a legal system that is frequently used to shut down political parties that mix politics and religion.

Turkey does not exactly have a very solid democratic tradition yet.

We have yet to see if the "Memorandum" issued in 1997 and allowing the current government is a sign the military has softened it's stance, but it's very clear that so far at least, the elected Turkish governments serve at the mercy of the military.
You actually raise an interesting parallel: poor communities and planning organizations had railed against the bulldozers of Robert Moses for decades, but in the media he could do no wrong. That was before he tried to build in Central Park. When his policies finally threatened a beloved playground to build private parking, a group well-to-do mothers on the Upper West Side stood up and it triggered the beginning of his downfall.
You talk as if you care about uncovering the truth, then in the face of:

* The original claim on the blog

* Some research a poster here helpfully did using Google maps and web searches to verify

* Stories from multiple people who have visited Istanbul in person and can compare to other european cities

... you are still banging the drum of "You can't answer a question just by checking the internet!"

I wonder: what kind of evidence would get you to the point where you might believe such a claim?
It's my understanding this thread is to help freelance developers find work.

That's the sole focus of matchist.com. We're built for developers by a developer.
Have a look at some places where the social safety net (unemployment benefits and so on) is pretty strong. The answer is no, and typically the minimun income is tied to a cost of living index. Prices are a little higher compared to a neighbour country with no such net though.
The UK is a democracy with a state religion and a monarch. Weird.
How good are you? I started contracting at 22, but had been programming since a young age, and could back it up. If you think you'll be one of the top devs at most places, you're probably ready, if not ... You'll be one of these contractors complaining they're out of work half the time! :-)
That's a bit too subtle for this place these days, colleague
While the human suffering, abhorrent work conditions, slave wages and environmental issues related to Chinese industry may indeed be everything the article states, I don't think this video proves anything (as I noted in my other comment here).

If you want to make a point regarding any or all of these subjects, the proper way would be to cite statistics to show how working conditions, safety, pay (and cost of living) etc compare in the various countries.

Yes ... it was a horrific way to die. They may or may not have known the dangers (though it doesn't seem that any of them were looking up which leads me to think they had no idea they even needed to be careful) but regardless of the facts of this incident, one accident doesn't show a trend.
All that's left when you're done with the first 90% of development is the other 90%[1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule
That, in at least one case (and, AFAIK, all cases) wasn't commercial, but ideological: http://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/769/in-collection/2582/i...

Also, I would not call that surgery.
Today the apartment complex I in which I live in Beijing sent some guys out to fix a water leak my landlord reported. There are two: one guy with a big rope attached to a safety harness he is wearing, the other guy holding the rope with one hand. The first guy opens the window, climbs through it onto the 1-foot ledge on the 16th floor (the window only opens about 30 degrees, so this is a little challenging). He caulks a few places, with his companion holding onto the rope with his one hand, right above the (unclipped) harness clip. You can be sure that if the first guy slips, he's a goner, there's no way the second guy is going to catch 150 lbs with his one hand.

So yes, factory conditions on average are probably better than the video, but no, this is not an isolated incident. I'm sure these guys cherish human life, but they've probably been doing this all month (at least) without a problem, why worry? Accidents always happen to the other guy. And there's nowhere to clip onto, so doing it the right way would be very mafan, whereas this way they got it done in 5 minutes. Quick and cheap, probably $10 max. The American way would be safe, take 30 minutes getting the harness set up, 5 minutes caulking, and cost at least $100.
It sounds like you're describing freelancing, rather than contracting.
I can quickly enumerate a list of things that impressed me from other developers. If others in the HN can do the same would be a better answer to this article.

- http://bellard.org/jslinux/
- Google: impressed from the engineering and scale side.
- Demo scene
- Exploiting difficult security vulnerabilities
So this is a cold and callous sentiment, but perhaps the reason human life is valued so little over there is the same reason anything has value: supply and demand.
Greenlight Trading (Chicago, ???) -- Full Time, Intern

We're one of the many, many HFT startups in Chicago; we're looking for C/C++ people who love sockets (TCP/UDP not wrenches). Hardware design skills are a plus. (Verilog/VHDL/OpenCL not hammers)

If you instead feel more comfortable talking about multivariate time series, subspaces, manifolds, volatility surfaces, or just general data analytics, we'd also love talking to you.

Financial industry and/or low latency experience are not musts. Drop me an email if you're interested: green at glt-llc.com
Or, you know, those countries could have factories that satisfy their markets, and we could have factories that satisfy ours. All without having to kill people in the process or burning dirty fuels shipping goods halfway around the world.
What you need to do is go to the Edit screen for this post, hit Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V into your blog editor, with some SEO-friendly headline like, "From salaried jobs to contracting: benefits and tradeoffs"

I've never done freelance (at least, not as a complete replacement for a full-time job) but the logistics and hidden "Misc." work-hours of what you have to do besides the actual contract work falls into that dangerous "unknown unknowns" category of things that people like me fail to consider, so your lengthy post is extremely helpful.
Oh OK, now that I see what you're actually doing, that sounds like a reasonable idea that people could definitely want to use.

Especially the people who are looking to add more value to their channels...You should definitely reach out (with a polite, well-worded email) to 1 or 2 high traffic users (I really mean send to a bunch, and maybe some small amount will respond/have feedback for you) - and push your product as a "extended content distribution platform" -- also, make sure it has a good name, maybe one that makes it really clear what it does.

Then, ask them if they're interested -- they can put links to their "spaces" in their videos/profiles, assuming they have extra content to share.

I think your idea is a little different, because you don't need to pitch to other devs, and you don't need to pitch to VCs, but instead you need to pitch to successful/unsuccessful youtube users. Also, don't stop with youtube, offer some Vimeo integration -- alot of early adopters, and generally open-minded people (I'd like to think) post videos there, and even relatively serious ones.

To be honest, I think you should even open this up to a pure content distribution network. A lot of the time, people put up trailers for work they're doing on places like Vimeo/Youtube, and if you gave them a way to sell their final product (and collected VERY low fees), that would be amazing -- I don't know that there's anything like that now. But maybe that's more of a future move, if you choose to, focusing on people with successful youtube channels is a good start.

[EDIT] - Also, be very careful, because a service like youtube could instantly create an integrated competitor that would make it very hard for you to compete. There IS however, value in being multi-platform, that way, no single platform's integrated competitor could take you out of the picture.

I'm no seer, but in the future, I think
content distributors will want to distribute content over as much networks as possible. As youtube is rolling out paid channels from distributors, I think the creators of that content (or any content for that matter) will look to even make more money (obviously) by being involved in more than one distribution platform. I don't work in the financial sector, but more platforms pretty much looks like more income for any content creator.

I say that to say this: the more platforms you support, the more attractive your product looks as a general solution to the problem -- "I put my extra content in one place, and all my viewers can access it, no matter how they view my work"

[EDIT 2] - I just took a look at your site (dug through your submissions) -- in my honest opinion, you should build that site out. slap a bootstrap theme on it, and make a proper landing page out of that (though KEEP the super easy upload -- fast examples/usage is awesome, maybe just give people the option of making accounts after you give them the link, if they're going to be doing it often)

I see a ton of places this could go, but it all depends on what you want the service to look like -- I'm just spouting stuff out
Walks And Walking - Isle of Wight Long Distance Walkers Association
Thanks for writing that. I was dispirited by how blithely and blindly callous some of the comments are.
It sounds like the lessons were already learned. Why are workers still being endangered? Just because they live in a different country?
Were you really getting between 1 and 4 hours sleep a night, or was that an exaggeration?
>> Once you find product market fit and start thinking about business model, I suggest you take a step back and work with your team (and investors) to develop a crisp and well formed strategy for your business.

"and investors"? This is what annoys me about the VC world. They talk like this but, from what I can tell few VCs will invest in you unless you have product market fit already.
"It's like saying that a company that provides paper, pencil, and mail delivery is building the greatest instrument for evil and authoritarianism, because it becomes a channel the government can intercept."

This is such an utterly disingenuous argument. I'm becoming more and more convinced as time comes on that analogies have no benefit whatsoever and just become a tool for people to warp the argument into something else.
Any half-competent political hack can spin anything so it's "pro citizen". A staggering proportion of citizens are in favour for the privacy/security trade off, it's just that We Know Better(tm). Of course Google and Apple should pay their fair share, I just can't get excited about it, I don't see how adding more money to the same semi-corrupt deeply immoral special interests buffet that brought you SOPA, and simultaneously distracting from the ongoing scandals of the political system, benefits anyone but the politicians.
I don't think giving up is the right choice. I just don't think it's a short-term solvable problem. As in, during the lifetime of the people being exploited or us. This is going to take generations to solve. And I feel like the solution is partially already beginning. As we shift more and more menial work to being accomplished through technology, fewer and fewer people will be needed for these jobs. Optimizations through software, robotics, and 3d printing will all but eliminate the need for humans in manufacturing and many other industries.

However, in our current state, we're seeing the repercussions of this type of shift in western countries: vast unemployment. To me this means we just have way too many people alive now. Clearly that isn't a quickly solvable problem (unless you are a genocidal maniac or something...), and so greatly reducing the birthing rates over coming generations (which hasn't really even been approached yet) is the only solution.

A much smaller global population, with largely technologically optimized labor, is the only solution that really would allow most of that population to live comfortable lives in relative luxury.

So you can see how I would view any argument about what needs to be done in the short term as moot, as in my mind it would just be a waste of effort
Customization: The Biggest Dilemma For Product Companies
Confusion about functional programming
Behind the 'Internet of Things' Is Android—and It's Everywhere
Turkey has long (before Erdogan) hewed towards secularism in public life despite being a majority muslim country, generally guaranteed by the force of the Turkish army. Kind of like how Americans hope that if the US government ever turns on its citizens (or more than it has already), our brothers and sisters in the military won't turn their guns on us and will disobey orders.
I really doubt that Steve made ipad as response to Microsoft >"Fuck this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be." here why http://allthingsd.com/video/?video_id=70F7CC1D-FFBF-4BE0-BFF... go to 0:37:12 min in this video Steve Jobs tell a secret how he got to build a tablet by one day he had idea to make screen without keyboard multi-touch.
It's more simple than you think. Build your reputation where you are, and every place you work. Eventually, if you are good (subjective) and can get things done (objective) then most likely you'll start running into folks that are doing contracting. The people they're subbing to will hear of you, and reach out to you.
I contracted for 3 years after my previous employer made the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket. Simply posted my CV on the various job sites, sent of a few applications and took a few short Rails/Python bits and pieces, then was lucky to get a couple of longer term ones. I recently went back to permanent after I was made an offer I can't refuse. Already feel a bit claustrophobic, I'll have to see how it pans out.
Yes, last time I saw one (in a video), it kept going about trying to find someone called Helen!
China: The electronic wastebasket of the world
San Francisco (SoMa). Sr. Front-End Engineer. Local. H1B Transfer.

PlayStation 4, JavaScript Expert.

Sony Network Entertainment (SNEI) manages and develops global cloud services, PlayStation Network, digital multimedia content distribution and UI platforms as well as designing and implementing cutting-edge front-end experiences.

We're looking for a talented, multidisciplinary front-end software engineer to join our team. You will be architecting and developing core system User Interfaces for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and future flagship Sony devices and services. This position offers the opportunity to directly impact millions of PS3 / PS4 customer experiences around the world.

Our UI team develops TV user interfaces, not traditional websites. There’s no cross-browser development. You will be free to use and advocate for bleeding edge technologies. We believe in simple data-driven front-ends with smart services driving the overall experience. We love open-source and web technologies. Our UI platforms are based around WebKit and OpenGL solutions to give us the best of rapid development and speed and fluidity of native graphics.

At SNEI San Francisco, all of our cloud services, visual design, platform and UI teams all reside under one roof. We aspire to maintain a SoMA start-up culture of passionate, agile development, close collaboration and rapid prototyping. We also offer highly competitive San Francisco salaries and benefits.

Core Requirements:

- Expert in JavaScript
- HTML5 / CSS3
- Node.js
- Git

Beneficial Requirements:

- TypeScript / CoffeeScript
- WebGL / OpenGL
- Canvas2d
- C# / Python

Qualities:

- Driven and passionate about producing amazing software
- Works above and beyond set expectations.
- Is able to work independently and contribute wherever possible.

Education:

- 5+ years of relevant experience and a bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent

You can send resumes directly to me:

alex {{dot}} bustin
{{at}}
am {{dot}} sony {{dot}} com
"We"?

And no, working practice are not tremendously unsafe in China, even if they are less safe than in the west in some industries.

Chinese people have a much deeper relation with mother nature than in the west in many regards, their art and culture and literature and gardens are a proof of that. They are extremely concerned with environmental issues, thanks.
Google's New Disclosure Policy: Helpful, or Who Cares? - eSecurity Planet
I was curious to learn the current status, so I looked through Turkish news sites. According to Hurriyet Daily News, the project to demolish the park has been suspended:

"Court suspends planned Artillery Barracks project to replace Gezi Park. An administrative court has suspended the conversion project in the lung of Istanbul."

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/court-suspends-planned-arti...
officially religious but not effectively.
20 Simple Questions to Check Your Software Testing Basic Knowledge [Online Quiz]
A 17 Year Old with Severe Autism and His Six Completed Coursera Courses
I tried to find the commission rate on their website but failed, which makes me suspicious? How much do you actually have to pay for their services?
I'm not saying it as a statement of fact. But rather as a plausible explanation for what OP experienced.

But if I were google I would definitely give people free tools with which they could perform, with actual human intelligence, tasks I had found difficult.
You'll want to rephrase that to "How many years experience would you recommend before 'taking the leap.'?".
"However, I think the OP being concerned about this is great, but you can't force change onto another culture nor should you"

We can, however, stop buying products made in such dangerous factories, and make it clear why we are doing so. Why should we demand that factories in this country adhere to certain safety standards, then buy cheap goods from factories in other countries that do not adhere to the same standards?
I wouldn't dismiss the advice so quickly! I've known several promising young computer scientists (one now at an illustrious and wealthy tech company, one hopefully entering a graduate program at a famous university, etc) who would hide in their companies' offices and take naps.
Yes, but it's actually quite common in many countries. China has had something similar since the Communist revolution (though it has significantly died down over the years). North Korea still has a very strong "revolutionary tradition" in its propaganda.
A couple of weeks ago, we realized, that
current smartphones lack 1 critical feature:
we tried a few, but we could not make
any of them spin. We remembered that some
of the earlier phones were better at it,
some worse, but most could be made
to spin at least a few times.

Current idle lying smartphones are a
nice piece of metal and plastic, but
are useless when lying idle.

Instead of sadly admitting the truth,
we decided we change that: we wanted
to have fun with newer phones, just
like we had with earlier ones.

We built a few prototypes from wood
and pieces of plastic and
realized, that it's actually doable.
Spiniot was born.

3 weeks ago we decided we share the
fun and prepared a crowdfunding campaign.

TL;DR
Smartphones are bad at spinning.
We wanted to change that, hence: Spiniot.

Please visit us at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/spiniot
Do you have any advice for someone who would want to pursue that industry now that is in their early 20's? I agree you should strive to do what you love, but if the pay you could potentially get is also good for it then there is no harm trying? Would you not say that the hard work you put in your early years allowed your wife and kids to lead a comfortable life now?
We can also educate consumers and show them they really should be buying garments made in America or at least in better conditions/wages than the average. I happily pay more for my clothes knowing that the extra money goes towards that.
Obviously, because fewer people read HN on Saturday morning than do on Monday morning.
I didn't even know it was down haha. I've been pushing to a private GitHub repo all morning with no problems.
> It's the Western equivalent of let them eat cake since they're used to eating grass. Underpaid labor is better than no pay is an excuse of the privileged; and only the privileged.

...and only an excuse.
The way I see it, the advantage of your approach is that you'll get a lot more interest on your money. The disadvantage is that you might take longer than you expect, and if you take too long you might be too old to fully enjoy your retirement.
The Theoretical Limit of Copyright Compromise
What if you die at age 44? And what if there is hyper-inflation?