ac1294

I started reading Hacker News about two years ago (freshman year in college), and I was instantly motivated to start coding. I decided to major in EE, and I've done well in my C/C++ programming classes. I also picked up Python and R for some work on personal projects.

However, almost all of my coding has been limited to the command line. Although its been fun, I've been interested in designing a web-app for a while. Some of the posts on Hacker News make the process sound so easy, so I finally built up the motivation to start.

I decided to use Python as a backend, since I know that language best. I chose Flask as my web framework because it's supposed to be one of the simplest frameworks for Python. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to understand proper file structure and basic features such as blueprints, forms, models, and controllers. Most Flask tutorials go over these terms too quickly for me to properly understand them.

I wanted to manage users on the web-app, so I needed a database. I picked SQLite. Just like with the frameworks, I had to pick a solution without even understanding what the solution was doing. Fortunately, SQLite and databases haven’t been as difficult to pick up as Flask.

To control my web-app’s appearance, I picked up HTML and CSS. The tutorials on w3schools were nice, but I couldn't imagine building an entire app manually. And then I came across Bootstrap! It's an extremely helpful framework, but again, it's another tool I've had to learn.

One feature I wanted was interactive graphs, so I went to JavaScript. Codecademy helped me with the syntax, and I eventually found the Highcharts library. This has been the easiest tool to learn due to their comprehensive documentation.

Learning these tools individually is tough. Making them work together is even tougher. The posts on Hacker News make the web development process seem so easy. Was everyone's first experience this rough?

I'm a third year undergrad majoring in business, engineering, and math at a top public school. I have worked extremely hard to get a perfect GPA, and I thought that would have positioned me well for an investment banking internship this upcoming summer.

Unfortunately, I'm getting "out-networked." I understand GPA isn't everything, but it's disappointing to hear that I have a slim chance at banking just because I'm not emailing/cold-calling 3 investment bankers a day. I'm working my ass off so I can get an internship where I work 100+ hours a week doing stuff I don't even know if I'll enjoy. Note: neither the 3 emails / cold-calls per day nor the 100+ hours a week is an exaggeration.

I've never looked into a software development internship. I'm consistently one of the top students in my EE programming classes, but I'm definitely not as good as the kids that have been programming since middle school. But at this point, I'm sick of recruiting for business internships and seriously considering switching.

I came into the business school thinking it would give me a broad array of choices, but it's funneled me to either investment banking or management consulting. I feel like I'm better suited for software development or a startup, but I'm afraid of risking a safe / prestigious job at an investment bank after I graduate.

I know it's "never too late," but I feel like my software dev prospects are nowhere near my banking prospects with about 1.5 years to graduation. What should I do?

I was furious (as were many of you) when I initially read that the NSA had taken phone call metadata from millions of Verizon customers. At the same time, I was thrilled to see the news make media headlines; as a libertarian, I'm typically disappointed by what the establishment reports. But this time, many individuals from all sides of the political spectrum were slightly outraged.

Unfortunately, the passion died down much quicker than I expected. A few journalists disagreed with Snowden's cause and called him a traitor, and news was quickly back to normal again. It seems as though the general public has forgotten about the NSA. Warrantless wiretap doesn't even concern most of my friends.

Hacker News consistently pushes NSA headlines to the front page, but my other news sources don't. Has everyone else seen a similar drop in passion against the NSA among their friends and family?