themoat's comments

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Passionate kissing is not a human universal (2015)

Sorry. I can admit I was wrong. I haven't seen ellipses used to begin a sentence that asks a question in a way that wasn't flippantly dismissive before. Couple that with a throwaway account and I jumped to conclusions.

I probably should have asked what his comment meant before I spoke.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Passionate kissing is not a human universal (2015)

I lived in a couple third world countries where grown adults asked if we had cats in the United States.

Should I look down on them for not knowing something about my culture? Or do we have different concerns in our lives in different parts of the world?

I'm not saying that being culturally aware is not good for a person. I'm saying it's not a sign of being better than others. It's essentially the same as me memorizing brain teasers when I was 12. Neat, but not the type of thing to brag about.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Why the ‘Queen of Shitty Robots’ Renounced Her Crown

I don't really get the impression that she is looking down on it, just that she was ready to move on.

“it was harder and harder to come up with ideas. I was always concerned that it was eventually going to be like beating a dead horse, and that the joke was going to be over and I didn't have anywhere else to go.”

themoat | 6 years ago | on: I Ditched Google for DuckDuckGo

I know other people have already echoed your comment, but I feel the same. About a month ago I switched from chrome and google search to firefox and ddg. After about 2 days I completely forgot I was using ddg. It just stuck.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Waymo to customers: “Completely driverless Waymo cars are on the way”

I can have this major feature done for you, but I'm not sure if it can be done in 2 months, so I say 3 to be conservative.

OR

I can have many small sub-features that relate to this major feature done in 2 months, but I might know exactly which features make the cut in those 2 months.

Seems congruous to me

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Sorry, we can't join your Slack

I guess my story was unnecessary, but I commented that I didn't read the article the way the person I responded to (and the person above him as well). I don't understand why the top rated comment is worded in a way that sounds like the article was bashing slack because the Author of the article doesn't understand how to focus...when I read the article and saw nothing that led me to believe the top level comment was on topic. So I commented.

If I am ok to carry on this tangent we are already on, I cannot wrap my head around a scenario where it would be appropriate for a member of a SaaS company, dev/PM/CTO/QA or what have you to be in a slack channel for one of their clients. It's completely unprofessional and should be avoided.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Sorry, we can't join your Slack

I didn't read this as a slack good / slack bad article at all.

At my current job I was asked to join a client's slack group (added without my consent) and it was a nightmare. The problems have nothing to do with notifications or interruptions, but it gives them the implicit understanding that I am a custom developer for their needs. Since they can reach me at any time, they assume that I am going to fix their bugs, add their features, etc. It circumvents what I think is the proper procedure for work. I suspect that's more the heart of why the author is saying they aren't going to join their client's slack group.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

My wife and I did that for 2 years. It works, but like everything, there are trade offs.

It's great that you know your child is being raised by you and your partner. You aren't offloading the child to a babysitter and trusting daycare to raise them with your principles or just to your level of care.

The downside is crossing paths with your spouse in a 5 minute handoff. Rushed dinners to cram in as much adult interaction as you can before you do bedtime or rush to work. There are times when you meet up at a McDonalds to eat and trade cars.

I don't think we would have done it differently, but there were definitely periods of loneliness that both of us felt.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: We Have Ruined Childhood

Not from my experience. The kids on my block played all summer long on bikes, with hoses, and at the nearby park. I'm guessing from 5 or 6 different houses on the street, all different ages. Just kids being summer kids.

Same story when I visited family in Colorado. Just kids playing outside like kids. Coming over unsupervised to play with the kids.

Seems like I might not live in the areas where the sky is falling, but I see kids reading outside, playing outside, and generally being away from their parents all the time in my own neighborhood

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Mailchimp to Sendy: Cutting Email Costs

I mean, you could just as easily use a real reference for what it would cost.

You can either pay mailchimp, or you can pay your senior developer to set it up for $80/hr.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: Go Creeping In

We had a "discussion" on which formatter/linter to use for a different language. There were 2 choices and I bet we spend 300 man hours on nonsense. Everyone had to have their say.

You can decide TO use a linter, but then you just get to argue about which linter...

themoat | 6 years ago | on: The Case for Rooms

There are a lot of people talking in this thread about the dangers of cooking in a kitchen that make it sound like a cheesy infomercial...

"Scalding your loved ones? Tired of shutting the oven door on your cat? Isn't there a better way? Closed floor plans!"

I've got kids. My number one complaint about my house is that I am shut off from everyone when I try to cook.

themoat | 6 years ago | on: The Price We Pay: How Little Most Bay Area Families Can Afford

Of course not.

I don't think his numbers are super accurate in his comment, but of course he isn't proposing a solution to the housing crisis, he's offering advice to anyone thinking of moving to SF.

I offer similar advice to people who want to become commercial helicopter pilots.

themoat | 7 years ago | on: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

I completely comprehend the bad things the platforms introduce, but pre-social media it was just really inconvenient to stay in touch with people way out of your area. Blogs were alright for it, but not great for 2 way communication in my memories.

I stayed in Peru for a couple years pre-facebook. I told friends and my host family I'd stay in touch and we all shared email addresses. I wrote less than 3 emails.

Next couple years go by and they start shooting friend requests and suddenly I am interacting with long lost friends, talking about their kids, jobs, and reminiscing about the dumb things we did together.

There are definitely other ways to communicate, but there's something about social media that reduces the effort required to connect with someone. It's irrelevant that you might change your address, phone number, or even email address. You have a fixed place that I can contact you and reach out. Oh, and it's the same website where I can find my favorite college roommate too...

themoat | 7 years ago | on: Bootcamps vs. College (2016)

This seems to fit my experience interviewing/hiring candidates over the last few years.

There's a certain type of "Bootcamp grad" that seems to fit well with my teams. Those people who got a degree and then found that they hated the field they worked in (biology, law, English teachers) have just come in and killed it for us.

I can't say, exactly, how that compares to CS grads, but I do know that every fresh Grad we've hired had to be hired on as an intern first to get them up to speed, while bootcamp grads were able to be productive from day 1.

Just my 2 cents.

themoat | 7 years ago | on: Interviews with developers who became managers

I did a fair chunk of interviews when I was just a dev. I loved it, and I took it very seriously in terms of vetting programming skill and practices. I also felt good offloading that burden from a good manager.

It was win-win for our team. YMMV

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