Life in a Startup

Posted on May 31, 2024 by way0utwest

I have worked for a few startup companies, including SQL Server Central. Each has been a different experience, and I learned a lot at each stop. However, I’m not sure I’d want to go through that process again at my age. I was thinking about the challenges and the excitement of being at a startup while reading about the founding of Reddit. The post doesn’t go a lot into the technical details or the working life, but it is an interesting read from a VC investor.

I also found this post on Choosing Startup Life, which talks about what the author thinks about before trying to start a company. He compares this with life in a Big Tech company, which relates to lots of companies, in technology or not. The main differences are lower salaries, less infrastructure, lots of work, and upside in a startup. Big companies have higher salaries and more perks, less stress and responsibility, and not a lot of context-switching. In general, that’s been true in my experience, though in bigger companies that didn’t think they were software companies, I sometimes could end up with a lot of context-switching.

When you work in a startup, I hope you have some passion or belief in what the company is building. I think that’s what drives a lot of Kickstarter/Indiegogo projects. Someone wants to start a business to do x and they believe in x. It’s important to do that since you are likely to need to work extra hours. Startups often are cash-strapped, so they don’t have a lot of services and infrastructure and depend on employees to work above and beyond their main job. They also are in a hurry to get cash, so they want to complete their work sooner, which means more hours per week. Not all are like this, and once there is some investment capital, hours can ease a bit, but investors want their return, so this isn’t a slow-paced, relaxed atmosphere.

There isn’t a lot of security. I’ve had startups fail under me where we didn’t have enough money to make payroll. I’ve had them sold in an instant with the new owner deciding to drastically change the employment status for many people. At the same time, I’ve had some jobs that result in unexpected windfalls of money. I haven’t had a company go public yet, but perhaps that will happen at some point.

I think about being in a startup like being in my first apartment in college. Nothing is provided, I don’t even know what I’m missing until I look for it, I keep long hours there, and everyone is responsible for everything. There are also a lot of arguments over who should/needs to/ought to do what.

Is it worth it? I think that the chances of a startup becoming a success can vary. It is important to understand valuations if you are trading away hours of your life on a gamble you’ll make money. Keep an eye on the number of shares offered and the potential value they would have to reach to make a difference in your life. For that matter, make sure you know what a pile of money means for your life. USD$100,000 sounds like a lot if you got a check tomorrow, but how much would that change your life?

If you decide to create a company and take outside investment, make sure you really understand finances.

Startups are exciting, but make sure you like the people working around you. You’ll spend a lot of time with them, and if you don’t enjoy their company, you won’t enjoy your job. Startup life isn’t for everyone, but it can be an exciting chapter in your life.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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A New Word: desanté

Posted on May 31, 2024 by way0utwest

desanté – n. the brooding delirium of being sick, which makes time slow to a trickly and turns even the most pathetic of tasks into monumental struggles, until the act of lifting your head from the pillow feels like trying to climb a mountain, wondering if you’ll every find your way back again, or even catch your breath.

I had desanté when I caught COVID the first time. I struggled with energy, feeling incredibly listless and tired. At times I was fine, but at others, I collapsed into bed, not even wanting to lift my head to watch TV.

I also felt like this when I had the flu in 2005 or 2006. A miserable couple of days where I didn’t want to do anything by lay in bed, not read, not watch anything, just lay, suffer, and attempt to sleep.

However, most of the time I just keep going through colds, through strep, through various other illnesses. I struggle to sit still.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

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Common Algorithm Concerns

Posted on May 29, 2024 by way0utwest

When we build software, many of us use the same algorithms to solve problems. We might choose a similar method for a quicksort or a lambda validation or a regular expression. For database work, your code for a running total (or other common challenge) is likely very similar to many other people. At least on the same platform. You might solve this differently in SQL Server and Oracle, but for the same type of database, many of us write very similar code.

Actually, many developers might copy and paste an answer from SQL Server Central, Stack Overflow, or another site. I’m not sure if I think this is good or bad, as it’s a good idea to reuse code if it solves the same problem. If you copy it and don’t test it, that’s bad. After all, the code might not solve your slightly different problem if you don’t check it.

In the modern world, if we build software for our business using an AI assistant, could our company be liable if we knew our competitors were using the same AI service? Is this any different than a human developer performing a copy/paste from SQL Server Central? I don’t think it is in many cases, though the same concerns about intellectual property might be present in either case.

The concerns over AI seem murky in some sense, especially as the AI might “generate” code that isn’t directly available on some public resource. I do think that this is more of a collusion using a service than an algorithm. Still, in the hyper-connected world, where many of our applications might look to take advantage of some service instead of implementing it ourselves, this could be an issue.

I ran across a piece that discusses a lawsuit about a common pricing algorithm being used by different hotels. In this case, it’s not that the developers at different hotels used the same code, but rather that the hotels used the same service from a company, which of course, used the same code for all their customers. Whether you think this is a valid lawsuit or not, this is the type of legal action that others might bring if two competitors ended up using the same AI service and developed very similar code that might behave the same way.

I don’t think that AIs (at present) can actually develop new algorithms or solve problems in a new way. Instead, they predict the likely solution based on how they’ve been trained by similar scenarios. In that case, how concerned are we about how getting common solutions in disparate pieces of software? For most of us, I think we’ve be pleased that we have well-tested (hopefully) code that runs efficiently (again, hopefully) being re-used in many places. That would be better for most systems in the world.

What isn’t better is if humans become more adept at specifying prompts and producing software without lots of specialized expertise. For many developers that might be average, or even slightly below average, this might cause them concern for the security of their position. With good reason, as labor is one of the most expensive parts of building software.

Ultimately, just as with any other position, the best way to build a safe, secure career, is to continue to build your skills and produce value for your employer. That way it’s unlikely any AI will ever outperform you.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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Copilot Reminded Me How To Find a File Handle

Posted on May 27, 2024 by way0utwest

Recently I was trying to delete a folder and kept getting the “something is using this, try again” dialog. It was annoying, but I couldn’t figure out what process had this folder locked. I know there are ways to do this, but I decided to ask Copilot how to do this.

I did this in the Edge browser, since that’s the easy thing. Note: I was actually on Windows 10, not 11.

I got this response.

2024-05-21 11_28_16-2023-John S & Atieh V Jones-Workpapers-12.31.23 Jones, John S Organizer 23486 V1

I then hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc and got the Task Manager. From there, I can see Resource Monitor at the bottom of the Performance tab.

2024-05-21 11_32_12-Task Manager

I opened this and it started in the CPU tab. I typed in the name of my folder, and I saw that there was a CMD window open with the handle. I then realized I had a window in my list, which I exited.

2024-05-21 11_33_08-Resource Monitor

Once I did this, I could delete the folder.

It This Better?

Not necessarily. If I run a search, I see lots of results. In this case, any of these could be clicked, but in the past, I’ve often had to click multiple results to find something that works. I supposed Copilot could have given me a poor answer, and I’d have to refine the prompt, so the process might be the same.

Except.

Here I am working in one place and not clicking other links, potentially finding down sites, 404s, or other issues. It feels slightly cleaner. It also means I can have context if I refine my search.

I don’t know if it’s better, but I find myself leaving an Edge tab open to Copilot to try stuff.

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