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Stories from December 15, 2008
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1.
How Difficult is it to Write a Compiler? (tratt.net)
119 points by breck on Dec 15, 2008 | 48 comments

I sold my startup a few months ago for enough cash that I never have to work or worry about money again. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=341565

I went to the most peaceful spot I could find, and relaxed. I did nothing. http://www.vimeo.com/1292105

After only a couple days, it was never more clear that I was never doing anything for the money anyway, and the reason I'm always working, driving, pushing, learning, growing, and building companies is NOT about the future-goal but increasing the quality of my present moment. It's exciting! It's fun!

So, I started working again. Not because I have to, but beacuse I want to. It makes my brain spark in a way that not-working doesn't.

So here I am again, programming, excited about some new thing I'm working on, exactly the same as before I sold the company. I didn't buy anything because there's nothing I want. My debts were already paid off.

Philip Greenspun's article really does describe it best. http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/

So does Felix Dennis' book How to Get Rich. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591842050

Feel free to contact me directly if you have any specific questions you don't feel comfortable posting on the board here. http://sivers.org

- Derek


I'd actually be a little bit insulted to get that as a response. It reads like a load of over-dramatized crap.

Part of what's wrong with so many of these internet-marketers is that everything seems to be positioned as various degrees of "super rockstar ninja greatness". There is never any bad, unmarketable, stupid ideas. IE: no one wants to put their reputation on the line by making a potentially bad call. So, he won't say that your proposal was disagreeable, only that other proposals were even more "super rockstar ninja great".

IMO, if he actually had something great to offer and was bowled over-amazed-stunned at just how great an idea was, he'd find a way to nurture that, not blow it off.


It's not you. It's not me either! Isn't that aweseome? I mean, it's completely stupendously awesome that we're both so amazingly awesomely cool but somehow this thing just isn't working. I mean, we're not working. Together, that is. OK, so I found some other super-cool kids who are even more awesome, but that doesn't mean you're not, and it doesn't mean that I'm not, just that we're not quite so amazingly awesomely awesome as a team, which is why I've decided to dump you. Well, not dump you exactly, it's more like I'm deferring the joint awesomeness we could have had for another day, when it will be even better. Meanwhile, have a cookie.
5.
The Extraordinary Happenings At BitTorrent (techcrunch.com)
76 points by makimaki on Dec 15, 2008 | 27 comments
6.
Ask HN: you're rich, now what?
66 points by ryanwaggoner on Dec 15, 2008 | 152 comments
7.
Advice to Incoming Freshmen in Computer Science (colorado.edu)
64 points by brooksbp on Dec 15, 2008 | 49 comments

2 chicks
9.
Screencast on writing a ray tracer in Common Lisp (tum.de)
49 points by kirubakaran on Dec 15, 2008 | 3 comments
10.
Lawrence Lessig: The made-up dramas of the Wall Street Journal (lessig.org)
48 points by twampss on Dec 15, 2008 | 22 comments
11.
My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?
45 points by bkj123 on Dec 15, 2008 | 73 comments

Absolutely true store: I once knew a professional hatchet man (a person spineless companies hire to fire large numbers of employees -- usually to fire an entire building of people). He told me once that he was part of a team that had to fire everyone working at an office building that held two-to-three hundred people from the looks of it. They were doing a lot of secretive work, so it was important that both everyone find out at the same time and security guards must escort them to their desks -- both measures to prevent anyone stealing documents or information of any kind.

So here's what they did: They pulled one of the fire alarms. Everyone, thinking it was a fire or drill, exited the building. Then this man, from inside the building, put a bullhorn to his mouth and said "Attention! This is not a drill! You're all fired!" (thinking, of course, that it was a clever play on words). They then let people back in one by one to collect their personal items and that was that.

13.
If you have to lay people off, don't do it this way (infoworld.com)
44 points by ccraigIW on Dec 15, 2008 | 19 comments
14.
321 Vim colorschemes (cmu.edu)
41 points by mapleoin on Dec 15, 2008 | 12 comments
15.
Truck driver conducted a decade of research to build accurate replica of Hiroshima bomb (newyorker.com)
40 points by mhb on Dec 15, 2008 | 6 comments

Do it again.

Once is luck. Twice is skill.

17.
WSJ made to believe Google abandons strict net neutrality (wsj.com)
39 points by ckinnan on Dec 15, 2008 | 30 comments

This article is the most interesting I have seen on techcrunch in a while. It really is an extraordinary event, and Arrington has actually done a great job reporting on it.
19.
Books programmers don't really read (billthelizard.com)
36 points by mlLK on Dec 15, 2008 | 15 comments

It does ring a bit empty, doesn't it.

Bad move overall, imho. I've lost some respect for Seth Godin because of that letter. A more normal rejection letter would have been more appropriate. This letter makes him sound a bit too kitsch.

21.
Eliminating the Programmer (slickedit.com)
36 points by lief79 on Dec 15, 2008 | 16 comments
22.
The Yawn Explained: It Cools Your Brain (discovery.com)
35 points by eisokant on Dec 15, 2008 | 24 comments
23.
I haven’t given up on PHP — yet (phpadvent.org)
35 points by nreece on Dec 15, 2008 | 49 comments
24.
SC, an s-expression based front end to C (kyoto-u.ac.jp)
34 points by ngvrnd on Dec 15, 2008 | 16 comments

I know this isn't the sense of "now" the question intended, but what I'd recommend is taking a long vacation, to clear your head. You can't usually do this immediately after selling, because you have to work for the acquirer for a while. But when you finally leave the acquirer the best thing you can do is go somewhere far away for at least a month.

    • Buy more fonts

What an amazing press hit for the telcos. They just completely pwned the WSJ. So badly, though, that there's a chance the paper will turn against them once they realize how they've been used.

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me.

When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz"

I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you."

I got the job too :)

Rule 101 of rejections: don't be nice. Be kind certainly but tell them where they went wrong. They've already been rejected - sucking up helps neither party....


This sounds a little like being dumped along the lines of "its not you, its me."

Everything Seth Godin writes is either unactionable, obvious, or wrong.

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