Something else I keep thinking about: Would it make sense to have a platform where students could:
buy projects to learn from,
get mentorship/teaching to understand them deeply,
and eventually sell their own projects once they gain skills?
I’m curious what the HN community thinks:
Is it still possible for someone like me to turn things around?
And would such a platform actually be useful, or is it solving the wrong problem?
Jugurtha•5mo ago
Yes.
Your very first full-time job now is to get a job in the field. Take a look at MIT's "Missing Semester". It'll expose you to a panoply of tools that will get you "semi-operational". This will not make you "stand out", but it is much better when new hires are already familiar with common tools of the trade.
Be humble, courteous, curious, helpful, reliable, diligent, patient, grateful, industrious and you'll progress fast.
When you get the job, here are a few pointers that will help you ramp up fast:
Understanding codebases:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100
Testing pipelines, scaffolding, issue templates:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26591067
Making the most out of meetings and leveraging your presence:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103
Product development:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841
Giving a damn:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222
If I disappear, what will happen:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223
Consulting, understanding the problem your "client", who can be your manager, has:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611
On taking notes. When you're told something, or receive a remark, make sure to make a note and learn from it whether it's a mistake, or a colleague showing you something useful, or a task you must accomplish.. don't be told things twice or worse. Be on the ball and reliable:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518
Product, architecture, and impact on the team:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365
Onboarding new hires to a codebase, what if it were you, improve code:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716
Tips to learn from videos:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586
Communication with the team:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372
Reduce information asymmetry, template for taking minutes of meetings to dispatch to the team:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886
More meeting notes. Reply to a person who had trouble talking in corporate meetings:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660
Communication, alignment:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646
Useful things for the team and product that add leverage:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439
Management involvement as a spectrum:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971
Researching topics:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120
Keeping up with a firehose of information:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502
Fractal Communication: communication that can penetrate several layers of management and be relevant to people with different profiles and skillsets:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017
Remote work, use existing tooling and build our own. Jitsi videos, record everything, give access to everyone so they can reference them and go back to them, meetings once a week or two weeks to align:
-https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539
Write better. Always.