WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]

l8rpeace's comments

l8rpeace | 4 years ago

"The 12.5 million white male business owners comprise about 41% of the 30.5 million total owners of small businesses in America. There are about 11.6 million women-owned businesses (about 65% of them are white-woman owned) and 6.5 million businesses are owned by men of color, based on a recent analysis venture capitalist Seth Levine and I conducted with the help of researchers from Stanford University using two sets of U.S. Census Bureau data from 2017, those for employer and non-employer businesses."

So...still the majority at 41%? I guess "the minority" in the title means less than half.

l8rpeace | 4 years ago | on: Where have all the insects gone?

Try south of St Louis, MO on 55 (specifically south of Cape Girardeau, MO) in the summer. That might be where all the bugs have gone. \s

l8rpeace | 4 years ago | on: In Iceland, well diggers seek to tap a volcano’s magma

This works in Iceland because it's easier to get to the hot places. They pump water down fissures, the steam comes up to power steam generators, and they actually pump the water back up and send it miles away as hot water to Reykjavik.

It's effective because the fissures make it easier to implement this process.

Source: I went to Iceland in 2017 and toured their geothermal plant on Christmas Eve.

l8rpeace | 4 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?

OneNote. Since 2006. The sections and subsections may vary, but each note is purpose driven and dated. Each meeting gets an entry and Outlook has a good feature where I can "create notes" which will let me mark who was present with their contact info for easy reference.

Typically, the notes these days are hand written. If I want, I can use OCR to convert hand written notes to tired text, but search finds my hand written entries so I don't bother.

Notes are generally bulleted lists. I go back later and make TODO items from them. I can also clean them up and send meeting notes out to the group.

I like OneNote because I can embed images, screen clips, use hand written notes, access them anywhere, link to files (directly or embedded) and organize how I like. I don't like the newer "non desktop" versions of OneNote so I use the old 2016 desktop version.

l8rpeace | 4 years ago | on: Let Your Top Performers Move Around the Company

I was an IC program manager. I was asked to manage program managers. I stepped back to become an IC within a year.

I did this because my team was immediately starved for engineering resources upon my appointment, I was asked to continue my IC product management responsibilities while managing the team, and I kept getting PMs that were the problem children of the group.

I went on to run product management for tooling and ops processes around that tooling in the post-manager PM role. I never looked back.

However, I got the bug so bad I left to start my own company, so now I manage everyone?

l8rpeace | 4 years ago | on: Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule (2009)

I agree it's all about the cadence. How can you get into a rythm with multiple people potentially veering in different directions? Sometimes this is an org chart problem (we're a team but not working on remotely connected stuff), sometimes this is a management problem (giving in to the chaos), and sometimes it's a personal problem (one person's focus pattern is different than the next).

What Paul Graham said that resonated with me was WHY he worked late nights...that solitude gave him that focus time.

l8rpeace | 4 years ago | on: Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule (2009)

The switching cost is real. I explained this to folks at Microsoft. Microsoft is kind of bad at allowing for focused work in the scenarios I've observed (not necessarily a universal paradigm).

I also once kept the "dinner to 3 am" schedule with 10-4 meetings at Microsoft and it was very effective for everything except my personal life.

I've lived this both as an engineer and a PM. I tried to set aside at least 4 hrs focus time for people that reported to me, no matter their role. Not many others respect those boundaries.

l8rpeace | 5 years ago | on: LinkedIn’s Alternate Universe

I could practically set my clock by this...when I would get an announcement email from someone asking me to join LinkedIn and connect with them, I would know they (1) just got a new phone and (2) fell for the grey pattern during sign up/new login to share all of their contacts.

l8rpeace | 5 years ago | on: Tim Cook Defends Parler App Suspension: ‘We Don’t Consider That Free Speech’

The private water utility company is a false equivocation. Government regulations view this as a natural resource and regulate it heavily. Privatization of natural resources often raises the specter or threat of cut-off as you suggest and is traditionally subject to government intervention.

I believe you are right - cutting communication channels of a sovereign state can be an act of war. But these are private channels. I don't think we are anywhere near classifying these platforms as public utilities, much less natural resources, at least in the United States.

l8rpeace | 5 years ago | on: Tim Cook Defends Parler App Suspension: ‘We Don’t Consider That Free Speech’

Apple has a private platform. Apple can do what it wants, whether they use the typical definition of free speech or they redefine terms. The bigger problem is that there are no public platforms despite this technology. And I don't know if governments have ever given citizens more than rights (like, do they have these rights and a platform to express those rights).

l8rpeace | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you stay fit?

TL;DR: keep it short, keep it simple, make it your own personal independent habit

I've tried to make physical fitness a life long habit. I've prioritized physical activity of all kinds (sports, exercise, yard work) over other activity. I've invested in equipment (I have a treadmill, bike trainer, batting cage, free weight setup, cable weights) and I focus on the habit. That said, I could get by with a pair of running shoes. No need to over complicate things.

This adherence to fitnesd is a stark departure from many friends and my entire family. This makes it harder as my fitness is an individual activity insofar as when in the company of friends and family, I sometimes need to justify this activity to them. There is no guilt for me associated to following a different path and course of section from others. As a technologist, I have to remind myself that there is no guilt associated with time for myself VS time away from the computer and my business. Sometimes that is harder than it sounds, even though it sounds ridiculous.

This focus results in running 4x/week, weights 3x/week with other cardio and outdoor activities/sports mixed in. Sometimes, if I'm away from my equipment, fitness can be body weight exercises and walking.

For me, taking 30-60 minutes daily (not necessarily all at once) gives me mental fitness also - free time for my thoughts and for myself. This plays into my introversion tendency to recharge away from others. And the timing is right! I may not be able to easily justify 60-90 consecutive minutes in anything. But if I can exercise for 15-30 minutes here and there it adds up.

page 2
newer more