Shenglong's comments

Shenglong | 2 years ago | on: How to cook ground meat perfectly without vision

I haven't posted in years, but felt the need to weigh in on a food topic that's dear to my heart:

With ground meat, the two things you're looking to develop with heat are flavor and texture (and safety). The problem is though, that while texture can be developed as a function of time, flavor can be harder to develop since it's mostly a product of the Maillard reaction (browning). Unfortunately, as you develop texture (heat up the meat), the muscle fibers contract and squeeze out water, which lowers the temperature of your cooking surface and mitigates Maillard development. This is exacerbated by using ground meat, which isn't as insulted as say, a steak would be, which means water comes out faster. This leaves two major ways to develop flavor: 1. Sear your meat before you grind it -- easy said, but a pain in general because it involves cutting and semi-freezing the meat chunks after searing, slowing down your cooking, or 2. Working in batches and trying to get your ground meat to brown before the heat causes the water to come out, which is slow.

Both of these options suck. For any aspiring home cook, I'd say the best thing you can do for your food is to buy a high heat source. Use a powerful induction stove on the highest setting, and you can brown your meat without batching it as the water evaporates faster than it can collect (up to a point).

Shenglong | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2016)

Everwise | New York, NY | Onsite | Software Engineer, Architect | Onsite

We're a Sequoia-backed SaaS company, has developed a completely new model for talent development. Our mission is to help the world’s professionals reach their full potential by connecting them to the people and resources they need to thrive at each stage of their career.

About Engineering @ Everwise We're a small engineering team based in NYC. Day-to-day we leverage Agile, Ruby on Rails, AWS, React, Redis and Postgres. We're very adaptable and looking for someone who welcomes the opportunity to solve a broad range of problems using a wide array of technologies.

Responsibilities - Build and enhance the front-end of Everwise's web applications. - Turn mockups into working products. - Rapidly prototype new features and quickly iterate on what works and what doesn't. - Analyze site/page speed and help provide performance solutions.

Your Qualifications - Experience with client-side JavaScript and MVC frameworks (Backbone/Angular/Ember is a plus). - Experience with mobile optimization, HTML5 and CSS3. - Experience with object oriented server-side programming, Ruby on Rails a strong plus. - Understanding of unit and functional testing best practices (Rspec, Jasmine, Protractor, and Selenium are bonuses).

Benefits We offer a very competitive base salary and bonus potential. We also provide a full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401K, paid time off (PTO), employee stock option plan and transit benefits.

We would consider relocating the right candidate to NYC. Feel free to apply at https://www.geteverwise.com/careers or shoot me an email (shenglong@).

Shenglong | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2016)

Everwise | New York, NY | Full Time | ONSITE | Senior Software Engineer, Senior Front-end Engineer, Software Engineer In Test

We're a small engineering team based in NYC, who come from all walks of life. We have successful startup experience and embrace processes and technologies that amplify output.

Day-to-day we leverage Agile, Ruby on Rails, AWS, AngularJs, Redis and Postgres. We're very adaptable and looking for someone who welcomes the opportunity to solve a broad range of problems using a wide array of technologies.

We offer a very competitive base salary and bonus potential. We also provide a full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401K, paid time off (PTO), employee stock option plan and transit benefits.

As a personal note - I joined about two months ago, and have had an amazing time here. We have a bunch of excitable people, play with an adorable office dog named Cooper, and everyone has a tremendous amount of fun. Our interview process is both fluid and fair.

Find out more/apply at https://www.geteverwise.com/jobs/ Or, feel free to email me a pitch at [email protected] and I'll pass it along :)

Shenglong | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2016)

Everwise | New York, NY | Full Time | ONSITE | Senior Software Engineer, Senior Front-end Engineer, Software Engineer In Test

We're a small engineering team based in NYC, who come from all walks of life. We have successful startup experience and embrace processes and technologies that amplify output.

Day-to-day we leverage Agile, Ruby on Rails, AWS, AngularJs, Redis and Postgres. We're very adaptable and looking for someone who welcomes the opportunity to solve a broad range of problems using a wide array of technologies.

We offer a very competitive base salary and bonus potential. We also provide a full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401K, paid time off (PTO), employee stock option plan and transit benefits.

As a personal note - I joined about 6 weeks ago, and have had an amazing time here. We have an adorable office dog named Cooper, and everyone has a tremendous amount of fun. Our interview process is also both fluid and fair.

Find out more/apply at https://www.geteverwise.com/jobs/ Or, feel free to email me a pitch at [email protected] and I'll pass it along :)

Shenglong | 10 years ago | on: We are Nostalrius, a World of Warcraft fan-made game server. AMA

Not entirely the same thing, but somewhat related: I used to run the largest Ragnarok Online private server for its time, and this AMA is really nostalgic. Well, except how great their community seems to be.

All throughout running a server, I asked myself whether the community was unbecoming (not just towards us, but towards each other), or whether we (and the servers before us) were just doing a terrible job at fostering a positive environment. A few years after we shut down our server, I heard a rather famous League of Legends player had started a private RO server, and a few months later, heard that he flipped out and told the community to f--- off, shutting the server down.

It's hard for many people to imagine a community more "toxic" than in League, so I had just figured, perhaps the failure wasn't our fault. Reading the comments in this AMA really makes me think though, that there was actually a solution, and we had just failed in community management.

My words of wisdom here: lots of people focus on product development, but the community is often just as, if not more important; don't neglect it.

Shenglong | 10 years ago | on: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

This is a pretty crass statement to make. If the focus is full-on navigability, I agree that contrast in the navigation bar is paramount. Yet, for many sites with simplified features, the emotional experience trumps the direct navigability of the site itself.

This is especially true for sites like Airbnb (as in the example) where in addition to emotional response, there is an immediate focus on activating users. The focus shifts from full navigability (logging in, become a host, etc) to searching for a listing.

Shenglong | 11 years ago | on: Marissa Mayer Has Completed Step One

There's a good amount of criticism as well as praise for her, and I'm not entirely sure your question is entirely fair.

The reality of it all is that transformations take time, especially when things at Yahoo had been so Scott Thompson'd. Marissa has been rebuilding a sinking ship from the inside out - where most people would've just tried to patch it up as it slowly sank, or sold it off for parts; I think that's what's admirable. I think that's why people defend her. She dared to defy the status quo. She dared to employ the same dedication as founders do day in and day out, and she demonstrated over and over again, the audacity to take risks.

I find it stranger that more people don't defend her. All of us should know that technology companies thrive or die from the inside; it's why startup founders spend such a disproportionate amount of time hiring great people. To anyone who actually bothered to pause and compare Yahoo's culture today to yesterday's, it would be obvious that Marissa's conviction and aptitude is heralding a new era of prosperity; the transformation is apparent - and even if not yet absolute, it is still miraculous.

Remember: people -> product -> profit

Shenglong | 11 years ago | on: With Lyft Line, Passengers Can Split Fares for Shared Rides

"Sub solen nihil novi este"

I've been backpacking around SE Asia for a few months now, and this sort of system has been active on an ad hoc basis for years in Chiang Mai, Thailand. There, it's expected that "red cars" (seemingly the only active taxis), will pick up other passengers.

They'll stop for passengers flagging them down, and check location before issuing a quote, if in fact they're on the way. While this made traveling really cheap, there were times where a 10-minute trip stretched into over half an hour. I'm interested to see whether these services will customize allowable wait times to the individual, or whether all ride-sharers have roughly the same tolerance for delays.

But, to say that any one company copied another in this case is a pretty stupid argument to make. I asked myself this question the first time I rode with Uber, and I'm sure many of you have as well. I would imagine that any good PM would've thoroughly investigated it; it's pretty obvious.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: How to Drink All Night Without Getting Drunk

For all the Asians who flush - I would be very careful about trying this at home. It seems like it'll have the opposite effect of what's intended.

The alcohol breakdown chain reaction in the body (I'm not a chemist) is ethanol -> acetaldehyde -> acetic acid. The ethanol causes your to be "drunk", but the acetaldehyde has some arguably worse effects (headache, tiredness, flush). Asians typically process ethanol -> acetaldehyde way faster than others, but the acetaldehyde -> acetic acid can be really slow. If the yeast is mimicking ADH and not ALDH, you're just going to suffer even more.

Again, I'm not a chemist or a doctor, but from my preliminary internet research and anecdotal testing (though I have quite a few different data points), Famotadine (OTC), and higher levels of APO-Ranitidine (can be prescription) seems to slow the rate of ethanol -> acetaldehyde, balancing out the drunkness effect more, and giving you more time to process the acetaldehyde -> acetic acid. I typically go from maxing out at 2 drinks / 3 hour period, to about 11 drinks / 3 hour period on Ranitidine, given favorable conditions. I've had lower levels of success with Famotadine.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: Facebook offers to pay Menlo Park $600k to hire a cop

Interesting. Increased security, faster response times, and public image at such a cheap rate is probably a no-brainer for large tech companies like Facebook.

I feel like we're going to see more private funding for public positions in the (perhaps distant) future, but I suppose the obvious question is: at what point does private funding of public officials become theoretically troublesome? Some would call this the start to an unsettling change.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: The 7 Habits of Highly Overrated People

For me, what's frightening about this is how often I used to reflect on my own life, and at times, couldn't actually be sure whether I was useful or just overrated. People would tell me what a great job I did and praise the amount of time it must have taken, and while I'd smile nervously and modestly reject their attribution, I'd often be left silently thinking, "I don't think this was as difficult or took as long as you think it did." It took a while to just accept that I did my part.

While there is danger in exaggeration, I also warn that there is arguably more danger in being too modest, and understating your own importance and value of your work. I've met extremely talented individuals who were being paid less than a third of what they deserved because they believed that their "work will speak for itself" or because they "don't believe in self-promotion". There is a healthy balance to be struck; remember that just as marketing is essential to a successful product, promotion is important for the self.

There are better ways to do that than the ways listed here, though. For example, taking credit where credit is deserved is extremely useful, but ONLY when you're speaking to someone far removed, such as at a job interview. On a team, you'll get further by promoting and pushing through other peoples' accomplishments when they are too timid to do so. You'll earn respect from both parties, and you'll breed a more productive atmosphere which can only benefit you in the long term.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: Microsoft does away with stack ranking

We will continue to invest in a generous rewards budget, but there will no longer be a pre-determined targeted distribution. Managers and leaders will have flexibility to allocate rewards in the manner that best reflects the performance of their teams and individuals, as long as they stay within their compensation budget.

Is this not in effect the same as a curve? Giving higher bonuses to one person means giving lower bonuses to another. Giving everyone the same bonus discourages high performers from staying (and also working on the same team). People who receive little to no bonuses take the hint to leave, just as if they had received a 4 or a 5. Considering only 10% of employees receive a 4, and 5% receive a 5, I'm thinking that effectively, there has been no change.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: Time to move on? The case against daylight saving time

I wonder - have any of you who run large projects which are sensitive to time changes ever have to deal with DST? I ran a MMORPG, which had specific events at certain times of the day, on certain days of the week. Now imagine:

North America observes DST two weeks before Europe. DST ends for Australia two weeks before North America (time goes the other way). China does not observe DST. I won't even bother to get into the other countries.

Even disregarding the other issues that DST created (and trust me, there were lots), just syncing up players for events was a giant hassle. Yes, people should theoretically research and know how their time works, but expecting users to sync your events to their time without missing one or two is naive ignorance. Even with mitigations, my staff and I basically spent every DST start/end dealing with a plethora of IRs to the degree of, "why did you change the time?"

I would not miss DST at all.

(We did standardized time quite early on, and did announce in server-time)

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: Click this link to opt out of Google's shared endorsements program

It's not that bad once you read into it. It's not bad at all. Google displays my recommendations to my friends, and since I only really like/+1 things I would recommend, it seems natural, and maybe even convenient.

Unfortunately, the crux of the issue may lie in consumer protections. While you and I may know exactly what we're endorsing, the average consumer probably does not. The average consumer probably also does not understand that their friends also do not. Otherwise, we wouldn't see so many "FREE $500 COSTCO GIFTCARD - CLICK HERE" posts on Facebook.

TL;DR: While I haven't formed a cohesive opinion about this, the problem with endorsements lies in the average case--not in the best case.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: Starting an Airline

Here's an investment banker joke I've been hearing oddly often recently: "How do you get a million dollars?" -> "Invest a billion dollars in the airline industry".

On a more serious note: there's a lot of talk on this page about the finance and logistics of starting a company like this - but I think the human factor is also worth mentioning. I fly a moderate amount, and whenever I have an hour or so to spare on a layover, I try to find interesting people to talk at the bar. While I've had varying levels of success, last layover at O'Hare, I spoke to a pilot who had been with a major airline for about a decade.

Having seen "Catch Me If You Can" and surmising that the situation must have changed, I asked him about his job. That was the most dismal response I've received from that question. We talked for about half an hour about how terribly pilots are treated, and how (maybe a bit of an exaggeration) a good number of beginner pilots for airlines are on food stamps because they're paid so poorly. I asked about benefits, and his response was, "just about every benefit you can think of is basically unusable." I asked him why he did it, and he told me that flying was like a drug.

Pilots are responsible for lives, and I'd feel a lot safer if my pilot was paid enough to survive. Yet, with dwindling margins and a thriftier consumer base, it's going to take a lot to disrupt this industry. In reality, I don't see anything major happening without some drastic innovation that cuts associated costs significantly in order to build up that margin.

Shenglong | 12 years ago | on: Tutor reveals the Ivy-admissions madness of rich penthouse parents

I'm thinking this article is a little exaggerated. I applied to, and got into an Ivy, but had no sort of preparation at all. I was suspended over 20 times throughout my schooling, had 0 hours of community service, didn't find out that the SATs existed until my senior year, and my reference letters were from no-name teachers. Yes, some of the things described (working at a neuroscience lab) were true, but they were entirely my initiatives.

More importantly, even at school, I never saw anyone (limited scope, I'm sure) with this kind of description. All my friends seemed passionate about what they were interested in, and the majority were from middle-upper class families.

While I'm sure there are distinct cases of this sort of coddling, I would caution that this is likely more the exception than the rule.

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