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Pretty neat list, bookmarked for a personal project I am working on atm


Thank you! Let me know if you have eny ideas that I might be missing :)


I second this - but just be aware of the regular license vs. extended license requirement (i.e $20 vs $800 for example). Although if you get the point where you are charging for a product and need an extended license - that may not be a high price to pay for a quality theme you would probably spend 10-100 fold paying someone to create something similar.


What would you even do if you had more money?


Stop working forever, sooner.


Thanks for sharing. I just got married and did my own site - I forgot how time consuming even a regular HTML / CSS static site could be when you have a million other things going on - I would have loved to have used this.


I got married last month and thought about doing a site for a while (I just may still make one just for her sake with all the wedding pictures) but being a full-time web developer I knew it wouldn't just be slap on some pictures and HTML/CSS. I cannot tell you how many times I've struggled with CSS or JS and I use both daily! They're painful lessons, sometimes too easy to forget when you leave the front-end.


I did that as well; I threw all the images afterwards up on a S3 bucket and set up Cloudfront in front and it's relatively easy / cheap to host.


I second this. I grew up in the NYC suburbs, have went to school and lived in various boroughs of NYC for the past 10+ years, and my wife was born and raised in NYC. I think most people not from here (and perhaps 'here' can be any big city one may just pass through when visiting in this context I guess) seem to forget it's as you say just a collection of small neighborhoods just like anywhere else. I am sure there is an exception (maybe Midtown Manhattan but) - but for the most part I think most people know their neighbors, help each other out, see the same people around when they got to a bar or get coffee, go to the same parks in their neighborhood - all the same things people think you may miss out on vs living in 'small towns.'


I was in Brooklyn for 2.5 years living in South Slope just off of Prospect Park. Now I’m in a suburb of Birmingham, AL. I basically live in a forest. Have a 5 bedroom / 6 bathroom home that is significantly cheaper than my 3 bedroom / 1 bathroom apartment. Raising three kids, I am just so incredibly happy with life out here. My commute is a 10 min drive through beautiful woodlands in a comfortable car. Any time I get slightly annoyed by traffic, I remember jamming myself in a crowded subway where I’d be lodged between sweaty body parts of strangers for 45 min and I just grin.

Public transportation is great, except for rush hours. And the nights and weekends scheduling.

Don’t get me wrong: we loved our time in NY (and, like most people in NY we also hated it; it was a bipolar relationship). And my career might takes us back that way. But I hope not. It’s not really built for single income families raising multiple children.

I’m perfectly happy if you’re happy with the city trade offs. Because they are just trade offs. But I prefer the trade offs of living in unincorporated county outside a small city.


I find these descriptions fascinating, because my experience of Park Slope is so different. Short walk to the R at Union Street, easy commute to midtown even during rush hour, rarely more than 25 minutes, almost always get a seat, enjoying a podcast or ebook, never have to worry about parking, snow removal, traffic, car repair, refilling gas.

I grew up on what was practically a nature preserve in rural midwest, and I find Prospect Park is so beautiful, great for a walk or a jog, and has such a friendly community with the farmer’s market, weekend off-leash dog hours, kids programs, free BRIC concerts at the bandshell.

I find quality of life solely on factors like enjoyment of nature, community belonging, diversity of activities, is just so, so much greater in New York. The direct access to private nature areas in the rural and suburban midwest has plenty of upsides, but truly was much less convenient, much less community-oriented, much less diverse in terms of both cultures and variety of free or cheap activities.

I had similar experiences in Boston too. I joined a geocaching group that frequently met in Middlesex Fells. It’s borderline impossible to find such a group in the midwest that actually has meaningfully large membership and meaningfully diverse variety of people regularly participating.

I do agree that one has to weigh the cost tradeoffs carefully with cities. But I think what you get out of a big city is very different than the way you put it. It’s more about the vibrancy and diversity of the community, and that you can find inclusiveness no matter what walk of life you come from.


I was off the F-line at 15 St PPW. The commute into Manhattan was not usually too bad. The commute home was terrible (my stop was 23rd St and the trains were usually quite full by the time they got to me).

Life is about trade offs. We did our best to make Brooklyn home for our family and didn’t expect to leave. There were some incredible highs. There were also some very challenging lows.

We spent a lot of time in Prospect Park and were very blessed to live within walking distance. I would frequently meet the family in the park for picnic dinners on the way home from work (in the spring / summer). But as a counter example, I now live 5 miles from a massive state park. Yesterday we spent the morning swimming in the lake and the evening hiking to a waterfall (where we then climbed down the rock wall for a dip). It’s a very paddle friendly park as well and we plan on buying kayaks and paddle boards for next season (we only just moved here in February).

The best part of all of that is that it was just a normal Saturday. No pre-planning required. When we got home and realized my son had left his life jacket at the lake, I made dinner while my wife circled back for it (okay, I ordered pizza from my phone...).

I will say, we miss Seamless. Like a lot.

I’m on the fence about cities being more inclusive than towns. As a family we’re very active in church and community service so YMMV, but I find no shortage of opportunities to work, play, worship, and serve with people of varying backgrounds. There are certainly fewer types of communities (Jews and Muslims are underrepresented in the south). But I’m not completely sold that’s the same as inclusivity. My experience in the city was that bias exists in humanity no matter how many people you cram into a square mile. It can take different forms in the city, but it certainly isn’t absent.


It’s interesting that you mentioned underrepresented groups — that wasn’t what I was thinking.

I more meant that in rural / suburban American it can be really hard to have a community if you’re interests or beliefs are not mainstream to that area.

If you’re vegan, you like frisbee, long-form board games, medieval architecture, unusual (in America) world sports, have non-mainstream religious or political views, want to attend tech meetups, etc.

Near large culture hubs, despite the fact that racism or bias exists in cities just like it exists everywhere, you can find a community no matter what itbis that you love or value ir what to try or identify with.

Speaking from experience growing up in small town Midwest and Louisiana, both in rural areas and small cities, and then living in the Midwest as an adult, this is not true unless you’re right in a big city. Sure, there’s the usual superficial politeness granted to you even if you are “weird” relative to the area, but really it’s obvious your mere existence makes people uncomfortable and your hobbies or views or whatever “aren’t right.”

Small communities don’t tolerate wide varieties of weirdness (incidentally, Paul Graham has spoken about how this is a mainfactor that allows a city to develop into a successful tech center).

So, sure. If you “fit in” and all you want in life is the particular set of options that the one small town offers and people mostly see you as One Of Them, then it’s fine.

But this is obviously not scalable to a large group of people, who will have all kinds of conflicting weirdness.


There are certainly more opportunities in cities to be part of a wider expanse of recreational activities / groups. There are "more things to do." We never repeated weekend family activities in NYC (outside of things in our neighborhood).

I'm still unconvinced that cities tolerate "weirdness" better than small communities. I'm a religious conservative who works in the tech scene. People were "superficial[ly] polite" (for the most part), but it was obvious my "mere existence [made] people uncomfortable and [my] hobbies or views or whatever '[weren't] right.'"

I didn't move away from Brooklyn because of that, but it was a very real thing. I was fortunate enough that when I moved to the city I was already pretty successful in my career. I didn't have to kowtow or apologize for who I was because I didn't really have to care what people thought of me personally. But my kids definitely caught flak for it (even from the parents of their friends -- it was strange seeing a 40 y/o father debate the existence of God with my then 10 y/o daughter who finally, in exasperation said, "Listen, I'm just religious, okay?").

But I completely agree with tech meetings, veganism (though it's growing in popularity even in smaller towns), frisbee, etc. That is a definite trade-off. I used to grab lunch with players from pretty much any and every company. This week I'll grab lunch with a guy from Shipt, and... that pretty much sums up Birmingham.

The trade offs are very real. I happen to be at a point in life where my community consists largely of my wife and kids. Once the kids are gone (or once they bore of me), I'll probably reinsert myself into other social groups. But right now, I don't want to spend Saturdays playing frisbee with other adults. I want to spend it hiking with my kids.

Those things are possible in the city. But as a family we prefer the trade offs of living in the county. I think the secret is that you don't have to have the same preferences that I do. And if you find the city more embracing of your goals, appetites, life style, or whatever then that's great. But every time I sit in my car all by myself in near silence, I breath a long sigh of relief.


The inclusivity / exclusivity really depends on who you are...

As a Jewish family in Germany (currently living in Berlin) I wouldn't want to raise my children in a small eastern community where they will be the only Jewish kids in school (I get the impression in North America anti-semitism is a pretty fringe phenomenon, but it's still "a thing" in Central Europe).

And similarly I probably wouldn't have wanted to be the only Muslim family in your town.


There isn't an easy or quick fix for it. Though there are small towns in America that are predominantly Muslim (lots of refugees relocated to specific locations). But this is completely reasonable: if I were an ex-pat living abroad, it would also be hard to raise my children in an area where they would be the only white Christians. That is a real trade off that is hard to account for outside of certain pockets within the US.

I think Anti-Semitism is fairly rare (though it does exist). But it would be hard being one of the five Jewish families in my entire high school. I was good friends with them, and Christmas was a hard time for them. It would be very challenging to be a Muslim in good parts of America (outside of major cities; where, if we're being honest, it still isn't easy being Muslim).


Anti-Semitism is mainly found in Western Europe, in Muslim dominant cities like Rotterdam or Paris.


I'd unfortunately like to inform you there's plenty of "traditional" anti-Semitism especially in the economically depressed areas of former East-Germany, Poland, etc.

It doesn't always stem from malice (sometimes just ignorance) but it very much exists.

And yes there are also some such issues in "Arab ghetto" neighbourhoods in Berlin and Paris but at least here I find it much easier to avoid by simpley not living in those neighbourhoods (& of course neither all muslims nor all working class europeans are anti-semitic, but you don't need a large % of the population to cause trouble/discomfort).


Have you lived in a all town like this article is talking about. Or just NYC burbs that this article isn't talking about.


I have!


Where? Thoughts?


This is exactly how I feel.

I am currently working on a project for a client where they expect to have about 3,000 users each with some basic profile information, and the ability to upload some documents etc - nothing too crazy. I don't think they ever have to worry about scaling to 50,000 users and performing any data-intensive database queries. Why not use something like Mongo in this situation?


Because your data is probably relational and data being consistent is probably beneficial?


I second this. In addition to this, I've never had a problem with them, and their customer service is great.


Everyone's already said it, but between 100 and 200$ depending on what state your from. You can just google something along the lines of "(your state) corp filing form" and it should pop up, fill the forms out, and mail them in.

You most likely want to register as an "S-Corp" as opposed to a C-corp for tax purposes.

If you live in NY, you probably don't want an LLC either due to the required advertising in print publications. I'm not sure if other states have this, it could be just NY. http://www.yourincorporation.com/lawbrary/publication-requir...


I, a Junior now at a University in NY, have often have felt the same way as you. I've never liked school too much and probably won't really pursue anything related to my major, but I don't regret my decision to stick with it at all, due to one aspect: People.

Let's face it, college is fun. You'll probably have some amazing times and make some incredible and long-lasting friends along the way. Don't skip out on that because you know eventually you want to start/work for a startup. You will probably always be able to start a company, but can never really go back to school and enjoy it in the same way you can now.


Thanks for the advice everyone. I actually already started Learn Python the Hard Way about a week ago, so this works out great.

And thanks for the advice on the project, I will probably do as you suggested and start with some simpler projects and then expand into what I envisioned, after I get a grasp of MySQL, python etc.

Thanks again, and see you around HN.


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