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Codeulate
codeulate.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2007
Codeulate is a Ruby and Rails programmer's blog with advice on learning to code, hiring programmers and selling screencasts.
What HN saysHN commenters, including the author, link it for programming tips, a post on switching editors, and its take on spotting small trends.
19HN people shared it
3linked it in comments
49stories submitted
290story points
13 years agolast shared
2007people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Switching editors is just as hard as switching languages2 people · 16 points · first shared 2008 · 6 comments on HN
- 2My Revenue Numbers: How to Sell 100 Screencasts2 people · 6 points · first shared 2010 · 4 comments on HN
- 3F*cking programming (2007)2 people · 5 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 4How much should global variables cost?2 people · 4 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 5How to land your first patch in Rails2 people · 4 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 6Great programmers don't stay blocked2 people · 3 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 7Obama's New Robots.txt1 people · 56 points · first shared 2009 · 15 comments on HN
- 8Damn Useful: When You Forget to type Sudo1 people · 25 points · first shared 2008 · 26 comments on HN
- 9Why Reddit is broken, and how to fix it1 people · 21 points · first shared 2007 · 21 comments on HN
- 10On the fundamentals of programming1 people · 16 points · first shared 2007 · discussion on HN
- 11F*cking programming1 people · 13 points · first shared 2007 · 3 comments on HN
- 12Top 4 Things To Never Do To Your Users1 people · 12 points · first shared 2008 · 3 comments on HN
- 13Twitter vs. Email. Fight!1 people · 10 points · first shared 2008 · 9 comments on HN
- 14Recruiting a Rails Programmer, Step One: The Email.1 people · 9 points · first shared 2011 · 2 comments on HN
- 15How to Train a Programmer (Hint: don't use Powerpoint)1 people · 8 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
r00k · 2008-12-09
I'm "the kid."
I intentionally restrained myself to one tip. See http://codeulate.com/?p=21 for the reasoning.
serhei · 2008-02-23
"Switching editors is just as hard as switching languages:" http://codeulate.com/?p=12
petercooper · 2010-06-21
Perhaps an example of how "small" a trend can be could excite you enough to look out for things that are "bite sized" enough to try.
I'm pretty deep in the Ruby world. A trend that has emerged (and is almost becoming a cliché) over the past 18 months or so is selling Ruby related screencasts. Peepcode started selling screencasts about 3 years ago but no-one followed on in a serious fashion for quite a while (until Peepcode "proved" it could work, I say).
Now, there are at least 7 - 8 unique vendors of Ruby related screencasts I can think of. None are Peepcode scale at all, but I've seen sales figures and know that some of them, at least, have done reasonably well. Even the people behind the more humble attempts are happy, see: http://codeulate.com/2010/03/how-to-sell-a-hundred-screencasts/
Now, "Ruby screencasts" is a crazily tiny niche. Not only is "programming" a tiny niche in the world of business, "Ruby programming" is a MINISCULE niche in the world of programming.. and Ruby programming screencasts is ULTRA CRAZY MOLECULAR LEVEL TINY!
If people have picked up on a trend in such a miniscule market and are making money with it, that's says, to me, that there are millions of teeny tiny niches in which you can start to perform very simple "tests" that make money and which, ultimately, could lead you to that million dollar concept or market.
Picking up on these teeny, tiny "trends" can be tricky, but is a lot easier in fields you're already absorbed in. If I had to pick…