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Issue #113 - May 2, 2021
Here are the top threads of the week, happy reading!
1. Ask HN: What diagrams do you use in software development?
Top comment by Gehinnn
I use drawio, as those diagrams are quite future proof (drawio is open source, very old and you can embed diagrams in svg files) but also very expressive (you can even use latex inside drawio diagrams).
Since I created a drawio integration extension for VS Code, I tend to create much more diagrams during coding, as they are really cheap to create. There is also an extension for IntelliJ and the diagrams work nicely in github readme files. After moving diagrams closer to code, I noticed that it is much easier to keep them in sync with the code base. Especially as PRs changing the code structure can include diagram changes at the same time.
I use them to model simplified class diagrams for documentation purposes, to model data flows, to create primitive mockups, to show the relationship between UI components (as embedded screenshots) and to show component dependencies.
I try to follow UML, but I don't care about machine readability and prefer readability over UML compliance.
You can find some uses-cases of those diagrams here (https://dev.to/hediet/create-diagrams-in-vs-code-with-draw-i...).
2. Ask HN: How do you organize your knowledge?
Top comment by aristofun
This general “knowledge management” question is like a “time management” one — usually meaningless and sometimes a form of escapism.
When you don’t have any particular emotionally charged goal(s) in mind — no time/knowledge management technique would really make a difference.
But some of them might give you a good illusion of something important going on.
And as soon as you have specific important goal in mind (like preparing to specific exam, getting lawyer license etc.) — almost any approach you feel comfortable with will do the job.
You usually dont need to review possible options in advance, the goal itself gives you hints and guides (if preparing for exam means remembering a lot of scattered facts - you’d probably end up with some anki cards on your own etc).
3. Beware HN: The rise of weaponized "abuse" reports
Top comment by calibas
FYI, this post about weaponized abuse reports is being downvoted/flagged. It very quickly disappeared from the front page of HN.
And I'm well aware it's against guidelines to even comment about this on HN, but it's directly relevant to the content of the post and the health of HN as a whole.
4. Ask HN: Who doesn’t want to go back to the office?
Top comment by pcbro141
I don't want to go back, I can get my day job done in < 5 hours. I intend to start a couple of fun side businesses and it's easier to do that with no time (and emotional exhaustion) wasted on commuting and sitting at my desk trying to look busy.
Do your tasks in as little time as it takes leaving more room for leisure, this is the first time I'm feeling the benefits of that 'increased productivity per hour'[1] economists talk about.
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/labor-productivit...
5. Ask HN: How to get back hacker's mentality and joy of coding
Top comment by boxed
Look for a new job.
There's a lot of comments here about focusing on yourself with meditation or hobbies or whatever. But that's just ways to survive a job you don't care about. It's a workaround.
If you spend all day training your brain to hate programming your brain will learn to hate programming. You need to change jobs. And then you will have to spend at least a year to slowly restore your brain to a working state.
It took me ~two years.
Now I'm excited about programming and has been for 8 years solid. Changed jobs again recently to keep that fire burning. There is no substitute for your job being meaningful.
6. Ask HN: What are the three most expensive tools/services that you use?
Top comment by sdfjkl
We live and cruise on a 12m sailboat.
Annually (last year):
Boat maintenance/upgrades €2547, Food €2333, Marina fees (mostly in winter) €1335, Fuel €900, Cruising fees €664, Shorepower €350, Entertainment €240, theoldreader.com subscription €17.
Details vary a lot depending on where we are every year and what exactly breaks on the boat or gets upgraded. That year we anchored in Greece for the summer and spent winter in a Sicilian marina with a good discount.
7. Ask HN: How did you transition from FTE to self-employed/sole proprietor?
Top comment by ska
> But I suspect there are more strategic options.
Some other suggestions things to think about:
* you'll need a significant buffer (bare minimum 4-6mo) to smooth out income variability. If you are on your own, you will probably always have high variability.
* Having an "anchor" contract before you transition would really help - e.g. 6-12mo with enough time committed to cover your basics. This shouldn't be more than max 40% time commitment, or else you won't get anything else done.
* You are going to become a salesperson. Commit to being decent at it.
* Understand what service you are selling and who you are targeting. You could have a high value, short engagement consulting business where you mostly talk to execs, you could have a higher volume (hours), lower cost, longer engagement business where you mostly provide bandwidth or experience variability to engineering managers. These are not the same business; trying to do both will probably fail.
* pricing is a signal. It's also hard to change.
* billing hourly is easier for you and them at first, but will put you in a box. billing by value will bring in a lot more $ assuming you can a) sell it and b) deliver
* what work you accept and don't accept is also a strong signal, but in the early days there is a tendency to take anything that comes along when you need revenue. Be careful not to pigeonhole yourself this way.
* cashflow issues will surprise you. If you are billing large orgs (especially public sector) you may have no choice on payment terms (but you will get paid). Outside of that, decide some you can live with and communicate very clearly. Net-15 or Net-30 with a proper discount will help you on flow.
8. Tell HN: HN Replies Data Security Incident
Top comment by jmknoll
I'm not an hnreplies user, but IMO this is exactly what an incident disclosure should look:
- What happened
- The extent of the damage
- Why it happened
- Why it is less likely to happen again in the future
Maybe this is evidence of how low the bar is for incident reporting, or maybe its evidence of of "no publicity is bad publicity," but I just signed up for hnreplies.
Great service idea, and thanks for the honest and helpful disclosure!
9. Ask HN: Please Dark Mode for HN
Top comment by angelaguilera
As a workaround, I have been using Materialistic to browse HN from my Android phone. It has a nice dark theme, which I use by default.
https://github.com/hidroh/materialistic
10. Ask HN: What are the best maintained how-to sites for Linux?
Top comment by danuker
The Arch Linux Wiki, which I find very useful (surprisingly even for other distros):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/