I don't know if it would help you to hear this from a stranger, but try to calm down and clear your mind through meditation. Before going to sleep, set clearly achievable goals for the next day. Wake up early, meditate, work out. Obtaining a lucid state of mind is the best thing you can do for yourself right now. If it helps, go somewhere you normally wouldn't go where you can be very in-the-moment for a time, to snap you out of your current environment and allow you to reset.
If you assume the outcome of your thesis is a foregone conclusion, this can enable you to work without hesitation. Many fighting chances have been born during last-minute, no-hope efforts, and if yours doesn't come along, treat that as a bridge to cross when you get there.
I know, easy to say when everything feels like it's doomed. I took a shot at building a MVP for a product to start a company with and failed because I spent over half the time messing around, working on what wasn't important.
Six months in, running out of time and money, I started these habits even though I thought to myself that it would be too late for them to matter. I became very productive especially towards the end as a result, and I could keep to my new routine since I figured "at least I'll be getting something out of the whole ordeal".
At the same time, I felt like the situation was beyond salvaging, and the product indeed never saw the light of day. The silver lining is that the habits I picked up when I set myself straight, both professionally and personally, have been immensely useful in the years that followed.
Give it your best. I hope things work out for you.
I don't think any of the below are too exciting, but the effects they have probably show up in the bottom line:
- I invested a lot of time into speeding up our customer-oriented websites after I noticed we were regularly loading in 4-10 seconds. It wasn't seen as a major priority - however, past a certain load time for each page, you start losing users. We started off way past that certain load time and managed to end up at something between 1 and 3-second loads in most cases.
- This wasn't my idea, but a marketing manager I respect a lot once mentioned that people were spending a huge amount of time filling their date of birth while signing up. Something like 30 seconds or more. The reason was that we had been using a date picker that defaulted to the current year, so people would have to click back i.e. 30 times to select their year of birth. On his request, I replaced it with 3 lined-up fields of selects, and the time spent on average went down to 2 seconds.
- I had the chance to do a major rewrite of some legacy systems that worked fine, but weren't built to scale and lacked standardization - the company had a few hundred users in one country when they were made, and when I worked on it there was a locally-modified copy of the system for each country we were in.
The reason for it was that some of our integrations would cease to work due to third parties, and we had to implement a major upgrade, so I built a service to handle requests and standardized the old servers to only make requests to the service without being smart about how they're processed.
In the process, since everything was liable to break anyway if I didn't get it right, I updated every dependency (whether it was for the code or the server) that I could find. Not fixing what wasn't broken was a value that had served us up to that point, but we were racking on technical debt and it was a good chance to get rid of it. Sure, lots of things -did- break, but solutions were found. Technically, it'll help both me and future devs entering the project, and practically, since the integration chiefly targeted contract processing for our customers, the fact that we can still do contracts and nothing broke on the surface is a success.
- I implemented log aggregation across all our servers (using ELK) and it's been helping us track errors and server states a lot. We could have used something like Sentry, but we have millions of events going through on a regular basis, so it's cost-effective.
- We use an internal time tracker that works based on office card access events. I was always curious about racked up overtime, so I added in a calculation for it in the API and returned it in the response when loading a user's info without adding it to the frontend. I mostly used it for myself and told a few colleagues about where to look if they wanted to check. A few months later, overtime calculation was added into the tracker as a feature.
Predictions are fun! Here's hoping I come back to read this in 2030.
1. There will be a breakthrough in VR gaming. Kits with similar features to today's most expensive will start going on offer for prices lower than or comparable to consoles, and new high-end kits will offer full motion tracking without needing treadmills or the like. VR cafes, similar to the Internet cafes of old, will become a mainstream choice for entertainment, especially for teenagers and young adults. Half-Life: Alyx will be a major contributor in establishing industry conventions that other developers will build upon.
2. Piracy will drastically increase for video content following the fragmentation of streaming services. A subscription to have access to all streaming services will appear, and we'll have completed the loop back to cable television.
3. Electronic voting will be adopted in a few more countries. One will have an election hacked, resulting in a different party being elected than the one people actually voted for. A major scandal following that will halt the trend.
4. Web development will continue to remain highly fragmented. There will be fewer and fewer individuals that understand all the layers of applications due to continually exploding complexity. Containerization will be taught as a core competency in any development course. Firefox will gain 10% of market share, but Chromium-based browsers will remain king. JS will lose market share but will remain at the top.
5. There will be a rising trend in using neural networks to prepare APIs and interfaces for the most common app types, and it's going to be advertised as magic. It will result in a decrease in entry-level freelancing jobs, and a decrease in the revenue of companies based on providing no-code websites - unless they're the ones that offer the service.
6. A new standard for designing apps will appear from one of the tech giants and be adopted into the mainstream after 2 or 3 years, similar to Material.
7. There will be a massive push in many major cities to discourage personal vehicle ownership, proposing the use of public transportation or bikes/electric scooters instead. Part of the push will be in decommissioning lanes, the other in taxes.
8. Gen Z will turn out as a generation of extremes. To the surprise of many, tech illiteracy will be a serious problem.
9. There's going to be a global scare due to a superbug, i.e. a virus that is resistant to antibiotics. It may get as far as having border lockdowns.
10. China will continue its rise to power, and individual freedoms will continue to decrease. On a related note, Hong Kong will be subdued in a subtle manner, and a history rewrite will be attempted.
11. There will be an economic recession within three years. Many companies will feel the effects on their bottom line from decreased sales and will try to automate entry-level positions in response.
12. Mirroring what another poster said in this thread, deepfakes will become so commonplace that only lived experiences will remain fully credible; and yes, there will be an industry based around trying to sell content as being fully unedited.
13. Open offices will finally start fading out, remote work will become more mainstream. Despite experiments in several countries, the 8-hour workday will remain the norm.
14. Again mirroring other posters in this thread, crypto won't have a massive breakout, though it will continue to rise in popularity. Investors will start wincing when they hear about crypto startups, the already established ones will start seeing some mainstream use.
15. And the one I'm most sure about: we'll still be playing videos using VLC in 2030.
During my first job, my boss introduced me to HN. I doubt I would've found it so soon otherwise, as the only other person that knew about it before I mentioned it is someone I only met this year.
My first boss was a great guy to work with and I'm grateful he told me about it. Even though I learned a lot from him professionally, the impact of that one-time five-minute conversation about the site might have added up to more over the years.
I'm thankful that I was lucky enough to be exposed to computers at the very young age of 6. Until I became around 11 or 12 years of age, most people only had routine access to them when working government or highly technical jobs (Eastern Europe in the 2000s), so I am aware it was a very kind gift from my parents.
They actually worried that I spent so much time playing video games afterward, but games taught me English, made me competitive for the first time, gave me a few tips on empathy, and helped me develop a passion for solving problems and understanding systems, which I tried to use to make my own games, which ultimately led me to pursue a career as an engineer (which eventually led me to HN, and eventually to this post. Ha!)
Full-stack developer with around 4 years of experience.
I've worked with several startups in bringing their web products to life from scratch, and have worked on all sides of the problem (sometimes even helping them with market research).
I really enjoy working for companies that put an accent on improving the lives of their customers and afford their team the trust they need to get things done.
Very into optimizing code and usability when I get the chance. I've been the sole developer for a course website since 2016 (mostly pro-bono during my spare time) where I've been using a mixture of Google's services and internal tools to max out speed, and we handle a decent traffic load on the web hosting equivalent of a toaster as a result.
I also maintain a browser extension that counters GDPR/privacy spam, and that's brought on a slew of fun performance problems to tackle as well.
Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania (GMT+3)
Remote: Yes.
Willing to relocate: No.
Technologies: PHP (Laravel 5.x), Javascript (jQuery, Vue.js, learning React), some DevOps (setting up and securing servers via VPS or AWS, setting up CI/CD /w Docker images + Gitlab/Bitbucket/Your Service of Choice and monitoring), design sketches and implementations (PS -> CSS).
Per month:
Rent is 500-600 EUR max (worst case unless you're actively looking to splurge), with the average going around 250-300 or so.
You can cover food and taxes at a basic level on another 300. Of course, YMMV if you only order restaurant food and such, but if you stop by a supermarket every now and then you're set to go as low as 600 EUR/mth to live comfortably. I got by on 400 when I really had to in the past.
It's full of tech companies (most involved in outsourcing for Germany, the UK and the US) that pay decently for the appropriate experience - at least when you compare how much you'll have left at the end of the month vs UK and Germany for example.
There are several major universities around, foreigners are a common enough sight and virtually everybody (that you're likely to run into) born in the 90s or later speaks English on at least a basic level.
There are plenty of events on a general level, though if you're looking to find communities focused on very specific niches, you will likely have a harder time than in SF, mostly due to the smaller population size.
You can likely afford to not have a commute at all if you go in the 500+ range for rent.
I've been living in it ever since I started college in it many years ago, and weighing the pros and cons, I find it can really go toe to toe with a lot more famous cities in terms of the kind of lifestyle you can afford and the problems you put up with in exchange.
Not sure if US citizens require a visa or not.
LE: Based on points made in other posts - it's rated as one of the safest cities in Eastern Europe and has very affordable private health care. Getting a tooth fixed, for example, is around 40 EUR. A doctor's appointment is usually in the 25-40 EUR range for most specializations. Public healthcare, unfortunately, is worth avoiding if it can be helped.
Water has decent quality - you can drink the tap water - but a filter is not a bad investment. Air quality is rated quite high relative to most other cities in the EU as well.
I think Romania is awesome in terms of food. There are plenty of options (in the big cities, Cluj being one) in restaurants as well as in supermarkets. I always urge for Romanian food after traveling abroad. Home cooking is still big in Romania and you'll find a lot of restaurants offering "home cooked" like dishes.
In terms of stability I wouldn't worry, at least not for the next 3-5 years. Romania is a member of EU and NATO and I know it gets a lot of bad press (which is deserved and actually there is a lot of political turbulence lately) but for a foreigner I think it doesn't really matter (Poland and Hungary are still great regardless of the current political struggles).
A 1Gbps (1000Mbps) internet connection is ~9Euros/month
Downside: Bureaucracy, lack of highways, public healthcare system (there is a private one though wich is decent), very slow trains
Stability of what? Internet? There are riots in the streets if the internet goes down. And I'm only half joking.
Regarding food, I'm from Bucharest and the food variety and quality is not amazing compared to a major Western metropolis. But food is cheap and if you ask some locals plus you do some research you should be ok. Cluj is smaller so I don't imagine it being better than Bucharest regarding food.
I have visited Cluj few times and stayed in hotel. Office life is international but the moment you step out the street it's Eastern Europe in terms of difficult to navigate in English. But everyone is nice.
I assume living there would require learning the language.
Local food is not interesting, if you value food. Look into Mediterranean direction. The city is nice but it is not cosmopolitan, but I think it might be moving that direction.
I moved from Bucharest to Cluj-Napoca. The food is far better in Cluj and with great variety: vegan, asian, italian you name it! Some restaurants are Michelin star level according to some, though none have been officially evaluated. Most food places close at midnight. 1 in 10 people work in IT in this city, there are meetups on any tech stack you want and the Universities are the best in the country.
Romania has great local food! But not so much when it comes to international cuisine - it's either bad or very expensive.
Internet is fast and stable and on top of that super cheap, compare with other UE countries.
I'd recommend RO if you enjoy nature, specially the mountain/rural side.
I was there, cool little city. I think I could see myself living in Cluj if I wanted to save a lot of money, but I did stay in cooler cities in Poland, Czechia. Also heard a lot about Budapest or Istanbul. But a short term stay in Cluj (maybe 3 months) would definitely be an option.
Personally, I like the gentle introduction given on W3Schools. It shows you what you have and what you aim to get out of it in terms of data, and removes the need to bother with a local setup, letting you focus on the actual queries instead.
It causes not responding prompts because I couldn't find a good way to implement a sleep call on the checker, but hey, it works, and I'm lazy enough that I'm willing to burn processor cycles to not get out of bed.
If you assume the outcome of your thesis is a foregone conclusion, this can enable you to work without hesitation. Many fighting chances have been born during last-minute, no-hope efforts, and if yours doesn't come along, treat that as a bridge to cross when you get there.
I know, easy to say when everything feels like it's doomed. I took a shot at building a MVP for a product to start a company with and failed because I spent over half the time messing around, working on what wasn't important.
Six months in, running out of time and money, I started these habits even though I thought to myself that it would be too late for them to matter. I became very productive especially towards the end as a result, and I could keep to my new routine since I figured "at least I'll be getting something out of the whole ordeal".
At the same time, I felt like the situation was beyond salvaging, and the product indeed never saw the light of day. The silver lining is that the habits I picked up when I set myself straight, both professionally and personally, have been immensely useful in the years that followed.
Give it your best. I hope things work out for you.