sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: One Scientist's Crusade to Rewrite Reputation Rules
sachmanb's comments
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: One Scientist's Crusade to Rewrite Reputation Rules
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Ask HN: I need a license for an open source project allowing commercial reuse
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Response to Dustin Curtis from AA UX person
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Something to think about: developing world and science
Interesting thing to think about - good comments in the article.
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Depression gene 'discovered'
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Are Your "Secret Questions" Too Easily Answered?
for password hint: "none"
first elementary school: "root mean square"
favorite food: "spiraling out of control"
if it's important, like a bank site, there's a way to unlock your account if you did ever lose your password. i see this as using features they didn't know that they had; specifically: "disable password hints" and "disable password alternatives"
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: The Master of Money: "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" review
another good book on buffett which has some sections dedicated to buffett vs quants and buffett vs 'its all luck' ppl is "The making of an American Capitalist" (http://www.amazon.com/Buffett-American-Capitalist-Roger-Lowe...) -- first book I got on him, perhaps the best (got snowball, haven't read it yet).
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: The Greatest Human Achievements
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: A Life Offline
There is so much going on, so much information coming in, so many interactions in our lives that many of our perspectives are on autopilot and if we get too buried, outside influences have too much influence on our perspectives.
I have taken time out a number of times in life, ranging from a month to two months. No friends, no family, no things to do, no internet, picked up a newspaper a few times (if you added up all of them I'd say 3 or 4) - spent most of my time outdoors, occasionally with music, and interaction with people I came across, and with no intention of keeping in touch. Works best out of country; first time was in the Himalayas, but one year I was poor and so I just went to a city a few hundred miles from anyone who knew me. The results are simple: various things that have been jumping around in your head settle, things that would have taken a year to figure out become crystal clear by week two, your life in so many ways becomes very clear, and you come out of all this with an incredible focus, energy, and just freshness.
You could do studies I suppose that figure out if this increases your overall efficiency, if it leads to better ideas, but such a study would only feed my curiosities because the value in this is more than just increasing efficiency, or improving products -- its about increasing the quality of life.
Reflection, pausing, meta-cognition, wandering into an alternate mindset are good to integrate into ones overall lifestyle, but sky diving for a weekend, or chilling out for 30 minutes a day - it seems with a busy life, as I'm guessing yours is as well - it's often like swimming against the current. It's nice to pause the current, enjoy your thoughts, paddle around some without worrying about it. It's very nice. I don't think it's going to happen this year for me, and that's unfortunate.
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Ask HN: Your Hacker Workspace
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Ask HN: Review our startup - www.webnotes.net
i also like how clear you made the advantages of the app, the testimonials, and just the overall how much information i get easily.
great job.
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Ask HN: "Dumbing yourself down" around your peers?
the way i see it is that between people, we want to communicate ideas. in order to communicate we have to meet at a shared context, and shared semiotics. the way i'm writing this is not how i would talk to someone at work. the way i talk at work is not how i would talk to my mom. the way i talk to my mom is not how i would talk with my housemate. the way i talk about a problem with a designer is not the way i talk about a problem with an engineer. the way i talk about a problem with an engineer is not the way i talk when discussing philosophy.
if you value comprehension, and you value growth, then you are in the minority of our society - especially when it comes to comprehension. it's easier to find people trying to win than to find people trying to comprehend. since you value learning and growing, you will accelerate as will others like you, beyond the understandings common in our society. your context will diverge more so from shared contexts, simply because you are internally growing. don't fret - just communicate what needs to be communicated. some people may not be interested in some of the things your interested in, and others will be. run into brilliant people with shared interests, sure it might be exciting, but you'll still need to communicate - you'll still need to meet with words, body language, and smiles - you're experience is entirely your own. we are all alone, together.
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Why we love and hate meetings
summary: Those people who like meetings for sake of meetings: "emotional drama-conflict, blaming, flirting, one-upsmanship, random outbursts, anger, and so forth. For these happy people heading for meetings, it's those the soap-opera aspects of meetings are the most exciting parts of their jobs...On the other hand, all this drama - the stuff we contemptuously call "politics" seems to be the bread and butter of the non-techies. Indeed, these people are often upset if I show them how to conduct well-run meetings, because I've taken all the joy out of their lives.
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Wolfram Alpha Architecture
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: What I know so far about marketing a small software company
i like this guy, though. he's not marketing scum.
this leads to my question: are there terms that distinguish between what this article is promoting, this idea of marketing and the more common ideas: 'public relations'/edward bernays/manipulation? Something other than 'being cool' vs 'being a jerk'?
if not, if both are just 'marketing' - then a terms should be made to distinguish the paradigm difference.
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: First Steps Towards Post Scarcity
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: First Steps Towards Post Scarcity
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: What's common about the hackers?
detailed profile: http://www.intp.org/intprofile.html
sachmanb | 17 years ago | on: Balsamiq hires 2nd empoyee