tredigi's comments

> Moore's law ain't got nothing on NP-hard problems

Fun fact, exponential growth is exactly what you need against NP-hard problems.

I agree to the overall tone, but there are also counter points.

One of them is the Google example. To get promoted beyond a certain level, you must have brought some new product over the finish line. Result? They have so many new things happening all the time, all of them suck, and then just move on to the next. Eg how many chat products do they need to invent before they settle on one and let it mature?

Doesn't the leading anecdote give an example of a (dis)incentive that needs fixing? That it takes 10 months and lots of head-banging and then you get a $100 bonus, that would certainly disincentivise me to do any type of innovation.

If a fresh grad (phd or not) reaches that, then this title isn't worth much. No matter if he works insane hours like he mentioned or not. I'd rather say it's a counter-indication.

A workplace that incentivises this actually sounds quite toxic.

The big thoughts come when you can relax a bit and zoom out. That's what you'd expect from a principal title holder, instead of the willingness to permanent crunch mode.

Your observation is backed up by modern neuroscience. Effective multitasking is largely a myth.

Obviously one can context switch, but every switch comes at a cost. That cost could be hidden by happiness boosts from not having to think about this difficult thing (=pain) and instead do something simpler that feels like lower hanging fruit and gives more immediate gratification (=reward). But the shower you mention is key and can't provide progress on multiple hard things at once. I agree that this is akin to a procrastination strategy and commend you for the analysis and self reflection.

I'd disagree that really learning it and being proficient is any easier than other domains. People may have impression that it's easy to pick up since the number of 20 minute python tutorials vastly outnumbers 20 minute heart surgery tutorials, but it takes a long time, hard work and good mentorship to really pick up. A formal education helps as well, just like in other professions. You can self-learn carpentry or accounting or physiotherapy, but just like with software engineering, a good (!) proper education brings you further and quicker.

The irony of this response is that I didn't actually claim that you said any of those things. I commented on the book's content and the summary you gave.

Thia reaction of yours is telling though. As well as how you finished your original message:

> niceness has become a huge red flag to me ever since reading that book. I much prefer someone who is good (in competence and/or in behavior) than someone who is nice.

"Niceness" as a red flag? How does that not confirm what I wrote and put you in the camp of those agreeing with the book's message?

> I'm reminded of a book I read once called "No More Mr Nice Guy" where it explains that "nice guys" are actually kind of jerks because they behave certain ways to try to manipulate people and they expect reciprocation.

That's just red pill BS right there. Somebody is nice, I'm jealous, so he must be incompetent+manipulative, how else can I justify to myself that I want to see him as bad and myself as good? So let's just equate nice with bad, then jerk must be good, so I can just be a jerk and feel good about it!

No, just don't. Incompetent or not, nice is always better than jerk/toxic/.. No matter what red pill folks tell you.

I respect the part of diving in to build something on your own.

I don't respect what he actually built. Leeching off others' work and while doing it blasting out ads which ended up being the first wave of making browsing unpleasant in the early 2000s. Without any actual contributions.

And that then paired with "I didn't know how to code, and I hated reading." It's this attitude that software engineering is somehow what you do after having watched a fews youtube videos and discovered stackoverflow. My aunt still thinks that. Thanks for perpetuating that myth.

> and block those IP addresses from the service ports since the traffic source isn't to be trusted.

This means that you are locking out anybody using a paid VPN service, if any other customer of that same VPN service does any kind of scan.

I hope you don't estimate the earnings from your investments that way.

But +1 on f-string use.

Just because a fungus eventually breaks it down doesn't imply that it's "harmless". It can (and does) still accumulate in organisms and has many undesirable effects, including the human body. It can s easily end up in the food chain as long as it's not broken down, including areas where the fungus is not effective, which are plenty.

The only difference such a fungus can make is that it could break down in certain pockets in nature in the long run.

Thorough testing should catch all those "interestig" issues.

But easier maintainability I also favor braces everywhere.

I've worried about not emailing!

And I'm not even swimming.

You may be over-romanticizing the hunter-gatherer times. It wasnt all just a nice summer evening where people did a nice walk in the forest after chilling at the beach. Life was rough, often it was cold and rainy, people were hungry and every little injury could easily mean a horrible death. Constantly worrying how to fill your stomach without getting killed by wolves or a tiger (or a rival tribe) or breaking your foot, or some deity being unhappy with you and sending a thunderstorm. Can't just pop a pill when you have pains or can't sleep.

True, mental health likely wasn't much of an issue. But the other issues you got in exchange...

> There's no need to "dumb down" anything ever, not even for children.

This is so wrong that I can't imagine you actually meant it in the way that it quite obviously reads like.

When my 3-year old just saw is favorite toy fall from the sofa because he put it in an .. unstable position, then obviously it won't help if I explain the theory of relativity to him, cause ultimately it was gravity causing the mess. It won't help either to "dumb it down" by only explaining Newton's mechanics. What he actually needs to understand is that things fall down. Why exactly can be explained later. Much later. When he goes to university perhaps, if he chooses to and still wants to know.

That won't work because many people here post anonymously. They have a throwaway account and make a new one now and then to leave no trace to their real identity. Leaving an email address would mean having to maintain a throwaway email in sync with the HN account.

Nowadays that's even harder to do since HN shadowbans new accounts for a while. You write a comment and you are surprised that nobody replies. It's because nobody but yourself can see it.

Which, ironically, contributes to the issue disussed here.

I'm also using a rather new account, let's see if this msg actually is visible now.

Oh that's great! Finally a way to server-side getting pwned right in the shell with the next imagemagick security hole!