Yeah I do. Actually, I always do. Your question has brought the realization that, though not intentional, if I'm at HN its because that is the thing I have decided to do...

On that note, I have no choice but to tip my hat to HN. Way to go, you have successfully attracted a consumer to your service and then kept him there for way longer than they had consciously intended.

The Silicon Valley business model implemented successfully by the business that fuels it... damnit, now I feel like a sucker...

Problem with the arg how can an "average" investor expect to compete against the big dedicated investment houses is that in most respects the big guys are average at best.

Speaking as a former aspiring fund manager turned software developer, most of the tools at these manager's disposal are simplistic and completely invalid yet in most cases the manager's don't quite understand them anyways.

Bottom-line: its a boys club of MBAs whose curriculum still says the sharpe ratio is important and holds their students responsible for at the very most being able to calculate probabilities from a normal distro using a table of values.

Solution: invest in a lot of risky small companies, you will lose most of the time but, those few winners more than make up for the loss. Spread across enough bets stats says its very unlikely to lose. Contrast that with your family's 401k split in two a few years back while invested in the "blue-chips"

I am new to the valley and always enjoy meeting new people, shoot me an email when you get to town, I'd be more than happy to grab coffee or whatever.

Cool, will definitely do.

I totally agree, they must exist together for as long as it takes (or until you don't care), good luck!

of course not, you do it every month or so through proxy voting...

seriously though, wouldn't it be considered a gift? if so and my thinking is correct and gifts are taxable then... just be sure to pay your taxes

amen

Write a relatively complex system without any external code and, preferably, without any previous training...

It will suck, it will break, and eventually, it will be near impossible to add or change anything at all. But you will have experienced what the patterns n' principles authors (better) have and, I bet, even "accidentally" used a few of them.

In my opinion, design principle = minimize dependency. Oh and, if you do follow my suggestion, use a language that isn't object oriented... at the least you will, like me, wonder why "object-oriented something" isn't explicitly defined by gof elsewhere and, at better, might "accidentally" implement some sort of custom object system

I am gonna go ahead and say it... REINVENTING THE WHEEL IS A GOOD AND NECESSARY THING... if done for the right reasons, in the right circumstances...

First I'll second the other comments mentioning "learn you a haskell". I dont know haskell in the way an expert does, nor do I have very much exp writing it but, I can and enjoy when I do. "learn you a haskell" does a great job at speaking in clear english and is, honestly, an enjoyable book that is pretty fun to read.

But, if you are like me, you need to understand the motivations and intensions behind things before you can really feel that you have reached understanding. You know, the big picture type stuff.

So, in my opinion, to fully understand functional programming, you need to think about what it tries to do/solve. To get here I would recommend thinking about insanely complex systems and how you would build a flexible and efficient one. To start you may think about all the objects you would need to account for, which, eventually, causes insanity. Its not the objects in the system that causes the complexity, it's their interactions. So, you may start thinking about handling all of the interactions, which is where, I believe, the solution (really method is the better word) lies.

I believe then, that the key to understanding functional programming is to understand what its related concepts are able to solve. Thinking about how to make sense of and control this shitstorm of complexity will, hopefully, shed light on why the hell something called an "applicative functor" or, <insert other crazy/weird term> even exists.

I know, I know, I am being too general... the stuff comes from category theory though, so, uh, hard not to be... but seriously, if this is at all helpful and not totally incorrect, I'd be happy to expand in more detail

if, on the other hand, it is not helpful... forget it totally, learn a language, and hopefully the concepts follow else if, I am totally incorrect... why and where did it all go so wrong? else, nop

Good advice...

I am new to the development community in most ways and have only recently learned that GitHub is important in demonstrating experience. (although pretty obvious when put in that light...)

I have worked on a project that I started, designed, developed and shipped (well, it was deployed in-house at the company I worked). Actually the whole thing is kind of a crazy story but I won't bore you with it here. Important thing is that I hadn't really thought about it and can't say for certain I would have brought it up, your notes will ensure I do.

And yeah, I definitely need some work in Objective-C, especially if I want to be considered a programmer in closed-toed shoes and a sports jacket...

Side Note:

Realizing that it may be extremely obvious... what is an API chaser?

Thanks a bunch, this is exactly the type of information I am looking for.

I figured housing to be expensive, nice to get a number ball-parked though. As far as rooming with someone, it is true that I do not know anyone but would accept living with an initial stranger. That said, do any SF social forums spring to mind where I can post such a wanted ad? And, by "south", do you mean working for one of the big guys?

As far as my skill-set and experience goes, I am pretty certain that my background is quite different from the typical developer. I would love to talk with you about it and can explain in much more detail if you would hear it.

So as far as possibly filling a role your company is looking for...

I would be a liar if I said that I am an expert/have a bunch of experience with iOS and Android but, I would also not be doing myself justice if I left it at that...

I know python and c# well (so, not unfamiliar to the concept of the JVM) and have done quite a bit of thinking/tinkering/learning about cloud computing and associated technologies. I guess what I am trying to say is if I am not qualified for it now I can get myself there in the near future. In other words, its up my alley and I would love to find out if I can hack it.

Before I go I gotta thank you again for the info and time, it really is much appreciated!