nnnnnn

Posting this for two reasons --

First of all, these organizations don't pop up or maintain themselves magically, it takes a leader to get this started and a smart team to keep it going. They deserve to be recognized for truly great work.

Second, I think having open government data in a truly ACCESSIBLE format is extremely important. If you've ever tried to look up data on the FEC site, you'll know what I mean. Not to take away from the FEC data site -- it's an incredible data resource, but tech companies certainly do a better job productizing these large amounts of data from the government.

Without whatsapp being open source, how do we know for sure that Facebook is not somehow storing or reading our messages?

As good as this sounds on paper, I hesitate to trust Facebook to transmit my data without wanting to peek a bit. I currently use both Whatsapp and Signal and will probably continue to do the same unless there is a way for users to verify Facebook doesn't keep a copy.

After leaving the YC startup I co-founded, then doing consulting in SF for about 6 months after, I decided to leave the valley at the end of 2015.

Where did I move to? Medellin, Colombia. While I'm not sure I'll stay here forever and may move back to SF at some point, I'm definitely enjoying living down here for the moment. I'm doing remote software consulting, so I am geographically agnostic.

I definitely miss friends, the hustle, and being surrounded by smart people in SF. However, there are a lot of things I do not miss about SF. For example:

Prices: SF <> Medellin

Rent: $2000 (mediocre) <> $300 (nice, best part of town)

Nice restaurant dinner: $30-40 <> $10-15

Uber (20 mins): $25 <> $3

Interesting take on consulting. I agree, the traditional consulting model is fundamentally flawed, but after reading some of his other blog posts, I'm not as sold on his approach to hiring and "orchestrating." For example:

"In our projects we discourage any horizontal communications between programmers, and you won't be able to get any help from anyone. You will be on your own and you will fail, because you are used to patronizing someone senior, in your office."

This is so ludicrous that it almost sounds sarcastic. While I agree there is value in searching out your own solution, talking through problems and asking advice from team members is very valuable. It doesn't have to be a junior asking a senior. There's clear value in talking problems out with an equal and even a senior talking through a problem with a junior.

As a former student of CS5 (the class), I must say it was spectacularly well-run, fun, and educational. Zach Dodds, one of the authors of this book, was a particularly brilliant and inspiring professor.

While I'm an advocate for practical eduction, I'm equally an advocate for understanding the principles of your field. This book will much less vocational than your typical code-school/academy/etc and instead focus on building a foundation with which you can build upon.

I highly recommend this as a great primer to computer science.