Sabrosa

How do you present side projects on a resume? Especially if they're little weekend projects; i.e. not something that's made thousands of dollars or gotten a zillion users.

(Note: I am a college student graduating in 1-2 years, if it matters)

I'm 21 years old, about to finish college. And I've decided to spend my 20s becoming a renaissance man. What does that mean? I'd like to spend the bulk of my time becoming a well-rounded person - learning (foreign) languages, drawing, painting, musical instruments, mathematics, physical fitness and so on. Specialization is for insects, etc.

I like the idea of making things more than just acquiring knowledge. There's just too much information out there for any one person to know; but, I do think it's possible to be good at creating various things.

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So, my questions for you are:

- What subjects would you try to learn?

- How would you go about learning these various subjects?

Hi HN,

My mom has doing freelance computer consulting for 10-20+ years, mainly with something called GL4, which she says is similar to Fortran. It's really specific and for very niche clients.

Long story short, her client list is starting to dry up. I recommended that she learn something more modern, as there seems to be a huge demand for experienced programmers.

Any suggestions on what language(s) to learn? Keep in mind that she isn't going to run off to SF and join a startup, and that remote or semi-remote work is much preferred.

Not really looking for a huge career change here, more like... spend 6 months learning X (which is easy for a person familiar with Fortran) and get a decent position with reasonable hours / freelance work.

Thanks a ton, it is much appreciated.

After a short hiatus, during which I started up a small consulting business, I'm going back to school in the fall.

I'm not really interested in programming as a profession; I'm more interested in being an entrepreneur in general. Which means that I'm learning how to code, how to design, how to sell, etc. As such, I'm a philosophy major, as it lets me pick and choose the classes I'd like to take (a CS major wouldn't.)

Any specific tips on how to get the most out of my time here? I've got about 2 years left. I'm planning on getting more involved and possibly studying abroad for a year.

Thanks!

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This can also be a general "college-advice" topic, so feel free to respond even if it's not to my specific situation.

There seem to be dozens of podcast sites about business and entrepreneurship. I hate to call anyone out in particular, but just a few examples:

  Stanford's Technology Ventures Podcasts
  Mixergy
  This Week in Startups 
  etc.

I've spent hundreds of hours watching these shows, and to be honest, I don't think I've actually learned anything. I'm starting to think that business is best learned by doing, not by endlessly consuming startup media. Which is a shame, because I really enjoy watching the above mentioned shows.

Anyone else feel the same way?

My story: I dropped out of college 6 months ago to build a startup. I had little to know programming knowledge (but extensive computer knowledge) but was (and still am) passionate about the idea. The other reasons for my dropping out were basically: it's a relatively useless liberal arts degree from an average state school in a town that I have no intention of living in upon graduation. And I really don't want to go into debt.

Unfortunately, I didn't get much of anything done the past six months. I can point fingers and make excuses, but it essentially comes down to my lack of work ethic. It's not surprising that I have none; it's difficult to go from a life of non-pressure to full-blown passionate startup hours (typical lazy-smart kid here - didn't do much in high school or first 2 years of college).

I essentially just spent a lot of time reading literature and history books. This sparked an intellectual interest within me, but didn't help much with the dream business. I have become more familiar with the web dev world, and decently good at HTML and CSS, but that's about it.

So, I'm kicking around the idea of going back to school, but this time, going full out - 20+ credits, or 7ish classes per semester. I need about 67 credits to graduate, which means that I can theoretically graduate within 2 semesters+a summer. The credits all work out for my major and such, so it's really just a question of "yes or no".

Does this make any sense whatsoever? At this point, I need to get on the ball, big time. My idea is that I need to get used to working hard, and perhaps the best first step towards this is to handle a crazy academic schedule. I'm also much, much more interested in intellectual subjects now than I was 6 months ago.

It's either that, or keep working my minimum wage job, bootstrap myself (I pay my own bills) with consulting work (or something) and try to get a work ethic on my own. No matter which path I take, I intend to start the company as soon as I have the skills.

Thoughts, help?

Hey HN, I have a different spin on the old “how do I learn how to program” question:

How do I learn how to program, launch, maintain, and update a web application? Measure this in years.

My story: I had an amazing idea for a business. I spent 6 months researching it and laying out exactly how it will work. The site isn't very technically-complicated, but it's not a blog either.

So I decided I could easily teach myself programming (with little prior experience) in ~6 months and then launch the serious, heavy-hitting product. If it were successful, I’d hire a technical guy to run the technical stuff while I manage everything else.

Am I correct in thinking that this was a bit shortsighted? I’m slowly starting to realize that there is a lot of technical (and non-technical) knowledge to be had: programming the site, system admin, business administration, etc. etc. More importantly, that it may be too much for me to learn all at once, seeing that I’m a computer-savvy (but not math or programming-savvy) twenties-something guy. I can’t really get a cofounder, because at the moment I don’t have any actionable skills (if anything, I’m a “hustler” / designer).

Revised plan: Start small and work my way up to the big beastly idea. As in, slowly learn the ins-and-outs of entrepreneurship, programming, and the web by working on small, manageable projects.

At the moment, I’m working on a content-oriented site built on WordPress: I merely have to write articles and learn basic SEO and site administration. I'm also starting a small t-shirt sales company (not printing).

After this, I’d like to make some simple web apps. Rinse and repeat until I’m immersed enough in the web ecosystem to have a clue.

Thoughts? On both “what to learn and how” and my plan in general?

I’m a young, 20-something guy who’s been working on a startup project for about 5 months now. It’s going well. Fortunately, my project is technically very simple – most of the work is non-technical (writing, design, etc.) which I am better at. There will also be no need for a huge staff to maintain the site, once it's live.

Here’s the thing: sitting in front of a computer for 15 hours a day isn’t exactly how I want to spend the next 2-5 years. These are arguably the best years of my life (age 18-26) and I’d like to spend them traveling, volunteering, and doing other crazy stuff.

At the same time, I’m passionate about the product and entrepreneurship in general. It’s not that I’m lazy or unwilling to put in the work (far from it), it just doesn’t seem like the right phase in my life to sacrifice all of my time.

Any advice on running a startup “part-time”? Is it doable, or am I just deluding myself? Would going all-out for a couple years then selling the business be a better plan? Putting the idea on the backburner isn’t an option, so please don’t suggest it. I currently don’t have the money to travel. Even if I did, there’s a time limit to my startup – I need to launch soon, before someone else solves this problem. The question is “How will I execute?” not “Will or Should I execute?”

(Yes, I know you aren’t supposed to keep your idea under wraps. I have talked to numerous business professionals offline, but I’m not ready to broadcast it on a tech savvy site like HN.)