Paul_D_Santana

Joined 13 years ago

Karma

152

Submissions

Member since

Mar 23

_________________________

____ Paul David Santana ____

* Thousands of hours of company time saved (and counting) via personally-developed Windows applications, websites, and more recently, an Enterprise iPad app. I work for a Fortune 100 company.

_________________________

I read every reply posted, no matter how old, as I get notified by http://hnnotify.com

Contact:

  Email: [email protected]

  Phone: 805-616-2004

  About: http://www.pauldavidsantana.com

  ^Bio, Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, CrossFit, Android App, more

  Feel free to contact me for any reason.

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Recent submissions

Comment · 12 years ago

I love ING Direct.

I just wish they offered Two-Factor authentication for "360" accounts.

Relevant link: https://www.facebook.com/CapitalOne360/posts/101515573342295...

Comment · 13 years ago

What do you do for services where you are needed once, maybe twice a month, for 1-3 hours at a time?

Comment · 13 years ago

What kind of complete and utter idiocy is this?

50% of these brand new college students passed an entirely online course at a tiny fraction of the cost for the student, a tiny fraction of the cost for the university, at an infinitely increased level of convenience.

Does no one else see this as downright incredible?

Comment · 13 years ago

Wow, incredibly profound. THANK YOU. Upvoted.

It is an extremely difficult thing to accept that one should not think of one's identity and aim in life by their employment, isn't it?

Comment · 13 years ago

I like the way you think, especially with regards to happiness, and I would love to hear more about this part:

> and for god sakes, travel

I'm very fortunate to have a position where I work exactly 40 hours (some of which is programming). This has allowed me the freedom to pursue other activities, such as meeting and developing an extremely deep relationship with my girlfriend, being an active participant in my church, completing Financial Peace University, joining a local Toastmasters club, and joining CrossFit and getting in the best shape of my life.*

However, I have not yet done any major traveling. Why do you put such high importance on it?

I'm not asking why traveling is generally good, but why _you_ specifically are recommending it so highly.

* [Edit: After reading this, it sounds like bragging but sincerely that was not my goal. I just wanted to say I totally understand and agree about what you said with regards to work and happiness.]

Comment · 13 years ago

Great. More middlebrow dismissal. [1]

Instead of just dismissing an article for the obvious points, try to identify at least one idea that could be considered novel or worthwhile. In this article, the suggestion of "X will inevitably be part of the future, so I will build it" is a novel idea, at least to me, and especially with the list of real-life examples he gave.

That is completely different than building what people want. For example, a different color phone case for a new smartphone is something that many people want, but not a "future" idea as the article suggests. Robot butlers like in The Jetsons [2] will inevitably be part of the future, so there's an idea.

Learn to think positively and see the potential of all things, including "obvious" articles. I'd certainly recommend The Magic of Thinking Big [3], namely the example about prisons.

[1] pg: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4693920

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Jetsons_characters#...

[3] http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B002V1BMPI

Comment · 13 years ago

Did that really need a Wikipedia link? Haha.

Also humorous:

My Girlfriend: What are you reading?

Me: I'm reading an article about this guy that turned down $300,000 from Microsoft to build GitHub.

Her: What in the heck is a GitHub?

Me: A website that acts as a hub for coders to share their Git repositories.

Her: Git repositories? My god, that sounds disturbing!

Comment · 13 years ago

> Everything is insipid for me. I have no hobby, no programming idea, no desire to meet people, travel whatever. When I try to get a hobby, I m fed up after a few try. When I go to nice tech event, I'm bored.

Join a local church.

This what I have done recently and it has been amazing. Friendly people who are extremely caring, a welcoming environment, and a call to a higher purpose. I've instantly gained some new friends that I care about. You may find value in doing the same.

Stop worrying about startup ideas, hobbies, etc. Just get to know people and care about them. Find ways to help them. I guarantee everything will work out by following this simple rule.

Comment · 13 years ago

Ah, interesting. I was not aware that debt and income were related favorably in that way.

So how do you attract high earners with a lot of debt (but still low debt-to-income)? That sounds extremely difficult.

Comment · 13 years ago

It could be that your target market (people in debt) is one in which people have a lower ability (or willingness) to spend. (Google Ramit Sethi's Pay Certainty test.)

In that case, perhaps an alternate revenue system can be found. Maybe something like Mint.com.

I read (listened) to Chris Anderson's book Free: The Future of a Radical Price [1], which tackles this very subject of creating revenue from free products. (Chris Anderson is the founder of Wired.com and this book debuted as #12 on the New York Times Best Seller List.) You may find his book useful too. I highly recommend it. Best of all, the book is priced appropriately: Free.

[1] http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B002V5CUHI

Comment · 13 years ago

I'm more interested in seeing Soylent succeed as a benefit to people around the globe who literally cannot afford (or don't have access to) a proper healthy diet.

Comment · 13 years ago

I agree.

I often record the audio off a video (if I can't directly download it) and listen to it at 300% speed when I'm doing other activities that don't require mental focus.

Comment · 13 years ago

Excellent comment.

Thank you for this.

I'll keep this in mind next time I'm losing steam through a particularly tough CrossFit WOD.

"Today, I want to win." Amazing. Thank you. +1

Comment · 13 years ago

🐟

Where did you get that fish? And are there more animal characters?

I'm surprised I can copy it into other apps and it doesn't bug out.

🐟

Comment · 13 years ago

You're welcome! I love HN Notify. It's funny but I saw it off of someone else's profile too! Email notification for HN is definitely awesome. I wish someone made one to give +1 upvote notification too.