From starting in software as an Applescript coder to becoming a senior backend engineer, crypto and now indie hacking, David Nix has seen a lot of tech trends come and go. We talked about his journey, his thoughts on Go & indie hacking and his project YourNextDomain.com.
Me and David met from me being a user and huge fan of his project YourNextDomain.com. It’s a product that indexes millions of domain auctions to find the best possible deals. I’ve found a few myself (DM me if you want to buy, I have some for sale, lol).
He’s a super experienced engineer and there’s a lot to learn from him, which is why I invited him on the show. Here’s a few insights we’ve had:
We talked about our mutual love for Go lang which stems from its simplicity. There really is a beauty in Go that some people don’t appreciate. People call it verbose, repetitive and boring. But there is beauty in that because it allows you to get creative with the domain, not with the syntax.
David pointed out that Ruby is the exact opposite. With Ruby you can write the code any way you want. So maybe check Go out if you don’t like Ruby?
Engineering is all about trade-offs and there isn’t ever a straight “correct” answer. After you get a few years of experience under your belt, some situations where your choices bit you in the back… You develop a gut feeling for what’s good and what’s bad and when.
In that sense engineering is more art than science. I too have times where I just feel some architecture or code is good/bad and can’t quite express it well or put my finger on it. But my gut feeling often turns out to be right.
David made a good point that crypto’s only real PMF is finance. Payments with stablecoins are really nice, way better than banks especially for cross-border.
DeFi can be pretty neat if you’re into that. And crypto can be used to raise money, crowdfund or give out equity to employees. There’s some beauty and a few real applications to it.
But most everything else (GameFi, Art, decentralized social media) failed to get real traction. And there are quite a few scammy and shady things in the space.
For that one, you’ll have to watch the interview. Sorry, haha.
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