Ask HN: How do you get over the initial fear of learning something hard or new? - <AUTHOR> Particularly with regard to new software projects, languages, concepts, etc. <comment><USER3> Two ideas:

1\. Keep reducing the goal until it's no longer scary. Instead of "learning X", maybe try "reading about X" or "try X for 10 min". Keep taking more off your plate until you feel that "I can do this" feeling.

2\. When a fear pops up, respond to yourself with "I know". For example: "I might waste my time and never get good at X" -> "I know". If you repeat that process some contend that by giving your monkey brain (or flight response) attention and respect it starts to diminish. It just wants you to know how risky it thinks this activity is and can keep repeating or getting louder until you acknowledge that it's been heard.

<comment><USER4> In addition to that, it helps me to think of the consequences of failure.

For instance, my wife and I recently redid an entire small bathroom. I replaced wallboard, replaced toilet and cabinet and sink, and laid tile. I'd never done any of that before.

It was incredibly scary at first. But I finally said, "What's the worst that can happen?" We paid a plumber for the hard stuff like moving the shutoffs and replacing the cracked flange (my fault!) and did the rest ourselves.

The worst thing that could happen was that we damage something (which happened with the flange!) or that we decide we just can't do it to our satisfaction and have to pay someone.

The alternative was to just pay someone.

In the end, it was still scary, but it was the logical thing to do, and so I tried it.

It went very, very well. Except the flange.

<comment><USER5> In case it happens again :-): [https://www.amazon.com/Toilet-Flange-Repair- Kit-Flanges/dp/B...](https://www.amazon.com/Toilet-Flange-Repair-Kit- Flanges/dp/B078HGCYYJ)

<comment><USER4> Thanks, but unfortunately that wasn't the part that cracked, It cracked vertically all the way down to the pipe it was connected to. The whole thing had to be replaced to make sure it wouldn't leak.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One thing is to learn not to fear jargon. It's just a bunch of made up words, and you can quite easily learn them, and then you will sound just as clever and sophisticated as those people you saw in discussions.

Like, you might be getting into woodworking and see someone casually saying this, a real example I ran into earlier today:

"I built a jig to hold my boards down and run them over the stacked dado with the miter guide. Despite this, the cupping that some of the boards had made the cross cuts uneven. I opted for half lap joints because I've seen people do miter joints on this bed design before and they don't seem to hold up very well over time."

That's actually a self-proclaimed beginner talking about one of his first woodworking projects. When someone asked him how he learned all these words, he said "You can learn a lot from YouTube."

Indeed those concepts aren't advanced; a miter guide is just little gizmo that holds your plank at an angle, a half lap joint is just a particular way of gluing two planks together, etc.

But reading stuff that has unfamiliar vocabulary can be tiring, so keep an eye on that and make sure you look up the words you don't understand, maybe keeping a small lexicon in a text file.

<comment><USER7> Also, watch out for bullshit artists using jargon. Most jargon isn't B.S., but a lot of B.S. manages to hide behind jargon. You'll begin to notice this if you immerse yourself in academic writing. Being widely cited and having lots of collaborators is no guarantee that you actually have something useful to say.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Step one to solving any problem is recognizing there is one. In words from Rambo, you need to come full circle with your fear that...

1) You don't know shit

2) Learning requires patience and time

3) It's ok to take a step back and start from square one

I approach learning new programming languages, hardware design concepts and software design concepts very similar to how I might approach hiking through a forest, mountain, etc.

If I'm hiking i'm usually taking the most interesting scenic route I can take out of pure curiosity. This drives my interest as I'm hiking wondering what might I see around the bend or just over the next ridge. This part is crucial for me to keep going otherwise lost of interest is high and the end goal of getting to the top seems less rewarding.

The same concept should be applied to learning. There should be an elevating amount or sustainable amount of interest towards the end goal of learning something new. Each chapter of a book or functional line(s) of code that does something should excite you and elevate or at the very least sustain your level of interest.

I'm probably one of the weakest software engineers (or possibly was) at my company mostly because I'm a first generation college student and engineer out of my family. I grew up on a farm and ranch where most of these resources were limited. I've had to spend more time on improving my skills and learning new things than probably the vast majority of individuals in our software department have. This methodology I've mentioned above has done wonders for me and has shaped my character/personality to how I approach problems and learning new skills.

</comment><comment><USER9> I need something pushing me. Usually it's a demand placed upon me that requires I learn it to meet some kind of deadline. It's got to be something time-bound. If it's just a general request, for example, from a higher up that I learn something or look into something for some unknown reason or for some theoretical future project, odds are I'm not going to actually do it. But if I know that if I fail to do it and there is actually a consequence like me not being able to fulfill a goal that has been set for me, then I'm going to make sure that it gets done if for no other reason than not wanting to fail or be embarrassed.

If this is not for work where you are accountable to others and instead this is for a personal project it becomes more difficult. If possible, work with someone on your side project because then you will be accountable to them like you would be on a team at work. If it's just yourself and you are taking the approach of "well it doesn't matter if I don't meet my made up deadline for myself", then things tend to never get done. I had this issue. When trying to balance side projects with life and family, the projects kept getting pushed. Once I had a business partner, I'm far more productive because I have a real reason to get stuff done - no one wants to fail the person they are in business with.

<comment><USER10> +1 to this, doesn't really matter how vague the push is so long as someone is putting the monkey on my back. There's always some stress but it's infinitely better than no push and I always learn loads in the process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fear of learning something new...?

I have real problems understanding the question. Honestly.

The only way it could even remotely make sense to me is something like:

"Fear of _failing_ to learn something that is required knowledge to save your (your) job/livelihood/life.

Case in point: am I "scared" of learning German? No, but I can think it will be too hard _for the level of energy I will be able to put into studying it_ compared to the benefits.

So - at least in my case - the only "scaring" element would be "scared of wasting my time/money pursuing this".

(EDIT: typo)

<comment><USER12> Sounds like you're having trouble with honest empathy or understanding what other people might be thinking or feeling.

This kind of feeling is EXTREMELY common, especially with engineers. You sound like you're over-indexing on logic and not really trying to understand how other people might think and feel. You might not get this now, but working on these other skills will make a bigger impact on your life and career than being a better programmer.

<comment><USER13> I can't understand this either. Of course you know very little about something when you are just starting out, that is expected, where is the shame in that? Hopefully you'll learn it eventually, and if not, well then it wasn't for you. We can't all be good at everything.

/another (ex-) consultant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Try to take on a contract or job role that's a significant but achievable step above your current level of capability.

It's amazing how quickly you can learn something when you throw yourself into a situation where you just have to do it, or else.

Obviously you need to take care to ensure that your employers/colleagues will be supportive and understanding that you'll need some time to develop new skills. But you also want them to push you to raise your level to what you/they know you're capable of.

</comment><comment><USER15> It requires a certain amount of energy to "punch through" a problem. You just have to focus and commit enough energy.

Most people have unfocused energy. They try to do too many things and never hit the boiling point on the harder things. Because they don't succeed, they start to lose confidence on attacking hard problems, and start to give up earlier.

You might be playing a game. It's easy to give up on them. Commit to a certain stage, maybe a level, a round, try out a build, or play until one defeat.

I'm reading a tough book. Instead of commiting to properly reading it, I've committed to highlighting major points in each chapter.

I tried to learn to use a breadmaker today. It's quite intimidating - <USER2> instructions are very precise, ingredients have to be collected, and there's a lot of unknowns. I committed to just doing one loaf of bread. It took me the whole morning's energy, it was quite pointless, and it failed. But I learned a lot and I'm glad I did it.

Want to learn to do mobile programming? Commit to it until you can do a to do app or something.

Want to learn a concept? Then do it until you learn and can repeat the concept.

Phrase it as a challenge, a puzzle to yourself, not something you _have_ to do.

What I strongly don't recommend you do is to only commit a certain amount of minutes. It works for some, but often I see people stop before hitting that boiling point. It's actually incredibly fun to focus on something for a few days, just as long as it's not an endless treadmill.

</comment><comment><USER16> Fear can be normal. Assuming you already know how to break a problem down into its smallest/most manageable steps (trying things like working backward from the end goal, using what you already know/learned previously, etc.), if the fear is overwhelming and getting in the way of getting started, then dealing with the fear might be a first step.

Write them out. What are you afraid of? "I can't learn this." "This time I will be proven to be an impostor", "Everyone will think I'm stupid". "I'll be ridiculed." Sometimes just doing that helps.

There's a lot of critical thinking that fears don't hold up to. "Have I learned anything hard or new before?" "Was I ever ridiculed for being a novice at something?" "Will _everyone_ really think I'm stupid?" etc. Sometimes just analyzing the things your fear-based reactions are telling you is enough to dispel them, or at least make them less paralyzing.

Ask yourself "what if I knew everything would turn out fine here, and that I'll be a success. How would I act in that case?"

Stuff like that. Sometimes the technical problems are easier than the psychological ones.

</comment><comment><USER17> What is the most important step a person can take? It is the next one. --Stormlight Archives (at least the spirit of the quote is from there).

I think the first step is easy, but continuing is hard. I think the most scary project I took on was being a very inexperienced home improvement person and decidiing to tear out our rock chimney, replace the whole wall and install a big window and create a new hearth with a wood burning stove. I had a week of vacation to do get the house at least back to livable.

I broke it down into parts or mini-milestones. Estimated what I would need and what I would do. I did research. I took the first step of removing the first stone of the chimney. Then the next stone. Then the wall. Then then next step.

</comment><comment><USER18> Learning should never be unpleasant. If it is, consider exploring supermemo.guru. It has many articles on learning, memory, sleep... and is maintained by one of the most knowledgeable people on the topics of learning. For this particular question, explore the articles on toxic memories, to see why some people experience anxiety before learning.

I am not in ANY way affiliated with this site, I just read it often and the articles have helped me more than I can describe in words.

<comment><USER15> I second it. The site looks a bit old and the articles are quite long, giving it that rambling madman feel. But it's all good stuff by a qualified researcher.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Grab a successful project already done by someone else, put it in your repository, back it up, and start changing things, one at a time. You'll start to see how little things work, maybe understand why the original author made choices, and surprisingly, find better or more interesting ways to do the same thing. (I'm always looking for ways to do the same thing with "less". I usually find them.)

Keep restoring the original and repeat. Then start adding new functionality. Experiment. Break it. Play "what if". You can always restore and start over.

Before you know it, the mystery starts to fade and for some people, the fear does too.

</comment><comment><USER20> Why will you have fear of learning something new or hard?

</comment><comment><USER21> For me: start small.. keep moving, inward, onward, upward..

Check out the book mindset by Dr Carol Dueck.

She walks a person thru recognizing where we have a fixed mindset vs a growth mindset. It was a refreshing read.

</comment><comment><USER22> Recently I started learning VHDL. I have some very personal pep talks... look to your own past for something more applicable.

      * "you've learned over 20 languages"

      * "this won't be as annoying as brainfuck, Piet, or FRACTRAN"

      * "you've absorbed the basics of analog circuit design, this digital crap is gonna be easy"

And then it's all about setting reasonable goals, breaking the work into discrete chunks and tackling them in an orderly fashion.

      * my coworker whose FPGA board I'm using tells me "just get to a point where you can turn on an LED with a switch and it's downhill from there"

      * I tell myself, "your algorithm is a series of interconnected state machines.  Figure out how to make a state machine and it's downhill from there"

And then there's the expertise I have access too -- I know that memory and timing issues are going to be a nightmare. When I get to that point. _When I get to that point_ , I can worry about the PCI bus and API. At that point I'll have the basics down, and I'll be able to have more fruitful discussions with my coworkers and they'll take a greater interest in my work.

</comment><comment><USER23> We are all born ignorant. Life's mysteries give meaning and passion to life. If I knew everything, I'd have to find new passion, so I'm grateful I'm ignorant. There has never been nor ever will be anything wrong with not knowing.

Assuming you're studying alone, so it's not fear based on māna (comparing yourself to others without taking in the back story of all parties being compared):

Generic fear is recognition of the unknown. Recognizing when there is something to learn is a beneficial skill to learn. Recognizing this is how fear works, the emotional response ceases its control when the logical mind understands what is going on and how to deal with this unknown; learning is an opportunity for a reward.

Learning is pattern matching our previous understanding (neighboring concepts) with a new idea. (And understanding the story of how that concept came to be, and what its intention is eg, leading to how it is used and in what situations.)

When one is learning a concept within a subject matter they are already familiar with, there are a lot of similar concepts, making the learning easy or effortless. However, when it is a new subject matter, especially if it is an atomic concept with its only neighboring understanding comes from isomorphic concepts that exist in other domains, it can take a bit more work to really "get it".

A trick I employ when learning is I forget time. I forget any goals. If I'm learning a thing so I can solve an issue in a issue tracker, then I will feel pressured on time. But the harder or more foreign the subject is that needs to be learned, the slower one needs to go to really get it.

If I am okay taking a day or even days pondering a new idea with the patience of learning the concept for it itself, then the learning process will be enjoyable instead of stressful.

If you have "all the time in the world" to learn, then it becomes easy to recursively dive depth-first into the concept and it's prerequisite concepts, as well as its neighboring concepts. Instead of learning a single concept, why not learn an ecosystem of concepts? This will help one retain what they've learned, make what they learn far more useful than learning a single stand alone idea, and it makes it easier to learn more of that topic. Once the first 2-4+ concepts in a domain are learned, learning anything else within that world becomes a cake walk.

<comment><USER24> > māna

I like that there's a word for this :) Which language is this from?

<comment><USER23> Pali. Usually if you want a precise word to describe something psychological, there is a word in Pali for it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This might not be a direct answer , but reading " Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29369213-peak"](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29369213-peak") certainly helped nail down in my head that learning is a skill, and the only barrier to learning (and becoming an expert) and doing something is yourself and time (it explicitly says that you can't hope to be an expert by mindlessly repeating it or going through the motions though) . The book also lays down effective lessons for how to optimize for learning the skill fast (specifically with short iterational feedback loops) and effectively.

The book is fairly well researched, draws from credible academic sources and breaks down the "genius" construct fairly well. It left me knowing that any new subject or skill is approachable to anyone and everyone, as long as they are prepared to put in the time, and effort and an effective feedback loop in there.

</comment><comment><USER26> Tim Ferriss publishes a piece called Fear Setting. You might find that useful.

Another suggestion is to actually write down and articulate the specific issues you're facing. I find that the act of writing helps me make sense of thoughts - much more so than simply thinking about my thoughts.

Although I find I'm better at execution than planning so I like the mantra "just do it".

</comment><comment><USER27> I can think of a few strategies, alongside the other good ones people mentioned. 1\. Reduce your initial expectations. When you start something hard and/ or new you will be awful at it. Just acknowledge that fact and move on. 2\. Focus on time as the goal. Instead of saying, I have to master A or B, focus on time spent, focus on the raw number of hours spent learning. You should still chunk the learning, but start by tracking time. 3\. Seek immersion opportunities. The person who authors [https://waitbutwhy.com/](https://waitbutwhy.com/) focuses on a new topic periodically. These topics can get quite complex and yet sometimes he only has a week or so to get himself up to speed. He'll do things like find all the videos on the topic on Youtube that are informative, authoritative and yet somewhat entertaining. He'll mass watch those videos, all the while gaining a feel.

</comment><comment><USER28> If the reason for your fear is out of deadlines, then simply ignore the deadlines for the most part and focus on learning overall. Obviously you can't ignore them completely, but if you actually let yourself just focus on learning instead of the deadline you will actually have a better chance of completing your goal by the deadline rather than if you focused only on the completing something by the deadline.

If it does not have something to do with a deadline, then I would suggest just pursue the new language, concept, etc. like you would something you are naturally curious about. If you are a fan of a certain science fiction universe, it is not scary to try and learn something new about that universe, because you will be naturally curious about it and be focusing on the joy of learning new information about the universe. Treat whatever you are trying to learn like that by finding ways to get naturally curious about the new subject.

</comment><comment><USER29> I can't say I ever had fear of learning something new. I really enjoy learning.

I suspect you don't have a fear of learning, but a fear of how people might perceive you during the phase of learning? Don't get me wrong, I also struggle with "perception fear", just in different areas of life. I'm also working on overcoming that.

Here's my 2 cents that's worth less than 2 cents.

Face your fear head on. Instead of beating yourself up for mistakes, remind yourself that making mistakes is natural. Adjust and try again.

Hope you break out of this fear because it's a mindset. Most fears are bullshit. Learning won't kill you, people judging you along the way won't kill you.

Enjoy yourself and go easy on yourself.

</comment><comment><USER30> Don't look at it from the view of a complete project. Think of it like compound interest in your retirement account. I learn by building slightly more complex projects on top of a previous simpler project knowledge.

Want to build an entire website, with authentication, payments, dynamic interfaces, real time notifications? Learn HTML by putting your resume on the web. Then take that knowledge, and build something that takes a basic form, and maybe saves to a database. Then you take that, and build something that takes that user input, and thanks them by email. Onward and so forth.

Going from 0 to 100 for someone that hasn't done all of these little projects over the years, is way too daunting and unrealistic.

</comment><comment><USER31> If you're going to learn a new language or software being organized takes out all the stress. For example, when I learned Rust I made myself the perfect Sublime text setup for rust when on udemy got a course for it and would code along with the course instructor. I'd also make a folder to containing the code for each source with a folder in there for each lesson which would contain the source and the compiled program and I got through that and it was actually fun. As long as you're organized and don't rush yourself you should be fine.

</comment><comment><USER32> Google "Tim Ferris fear setting". I've gone through the fear setting technique several times and have gotten through pretty rough patches in my personal development with it.

</comment><comment><USER33> Come up with a small first step. This is usually writing the hello world equivalent or reading through a paper or article. Once I get my head around it I make a list of todos and start knocking them out.

</comment><comment><USER34> Pick any _aspect_ of said subject and dig in. If possible, have a project to study said subject. Do not look at other aspects of the same subject. Focus. Less thought is more at this point.

The minute you start thinking "oh no the subjects so big, where do I start", you start tying yourself up in mental knots.

Also, have another subject, so when you get fed up, you can take a break and switch subject (maybe forever). You can "find your spot" like that.

To learn is to live! Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER35> Give yourself permission to define your own goalposts, however meager or humble. It's not unlike learning a new spoken language: just because you have a massive vocabulary in your native tongue, does not mean it's not an achievement to learn to count to ten in a new one.

It's not enough to "crawl before you walk before you run". It's important to _feel good_ about successfully crawling, even if one is accustomed to running marathons in another context.

</comment><comment><USER36> Call it "excitement" instead.

For example, there is no stage fright. It's stage excitement. All those feelings some people get before speaking in front of a large crowd? That's all excitement. Wow, I'm looking forwards to this! This is going to be _great_! Surprisingly effective. Apply the same self-psychology here.

Being excited about it makes more sense; maybe it really _is_ excitement you're feeling. Easy to confuse the two.

</comment><comment><USER37> Not on the topic of software, but with other crafts, I like to think about the idea "Nothing is hard, it is just slow". the biggest beginner mistake in woodworking is trying to work to fast, same with welding, same with music. If you just content yourself with working on new, hard things slowly and don't try to be fast it all ends up less daunting. FWIW, this has been my experience learning the little code that I know, too.

<comment><USER38> this is key with hand work. there is an expectation that, if for example you are shaping a piece of sheet metal, it seems like if you know what you're doing just can just bang it out. so if you keep trying to bang things out you're supposed to get better.

knowing what you're doing really means having the patience to make a subplan, trying to execute it carefully, seeing how well you did and repeating the process.

initially that might take several days and be painful. it will get faster over time, but you have to learn to let the work steer you, and to put it aside when you no longer have the focus or stamina. that internalization, regardless any any of the particular skills you may pick up along the way, is what makes you a practitioner rather than a hack.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Meditate everyday. Mindful meditation for 15 minutes a day has helped me just start things without thinking about them. Most people enjoy doing something once they get started, it is getting started that is difficult. Set a small objectives, and just get em done. I'm not even exaggerating, mindful meditation has been the greatest tool I've ever found for being consistent about things and starting things.

</comment><comment><USER40> As a neurotic, I conquer fear through excessive preparation. I honestly don't know what to do about a fear of preparation, though. If I find myself intimidated by learning something, I look for a prerequisite to that something that isn't intimidating, and start there.

Maybe what you have is a fear of _committing_ to learning something hard or new? Something with a deadline, that you'll be judged on at some point?

</comment><comment><USER41> I see a lot of comments asking what a fear of learning something new is. I interpret is as the fear of appearing stupid when trying to learn something new. This means, that one doesn't ask questions, doesn't take big steps in the presence of other people, the fear of failing at this new learning experience. The fear of appearing incompetent at something that one "should" already know.

</comment><comment><USER42> We have this problem all the time where I work. It usually manifests itself as a "slow engineer." When you dig a bit that usually means the engineer in question is afraid to ask questions, generally out of fear of looking silly.

My advice is to ask questions and read up. You can ask trusted advisors/friends what to read up on before asking questions to the scary folks (who are usually not that scary anyway).

</comment><comment><USER43> For me, I use the power of habit, and just keep at it every day.

A few benefits to this:

\- The power of habit can be an impetus to overcome the initial fear.

\- The knowledge that you did it just yesterday, and it wasn't so bad.

\- Learning gets solidified overnight, and often things are easier the next day.

\- And then just doing something every day means it gets a lot of repetitions.

 _" I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning."_

― William Faulkner

</comment><comment><USER13> Fear? Learning new things, especially hard things, should be the most thrilling and rewarding thing in life. Starting on a new subject is like being a child again. Instead of jaded indifference you look at the world with fresh eyes, full of fascination. Everything is new, you don't know what to expect, it's an adventure!

</comment><comment><USER44> I use this formula for everything, from learning new domains to working on side projects to doing exercise:

Improvement = Consistency + Effort

If you consistently put in effort, you will improve. Improvement over time becomes success.

If you just keep consistently showing up and trying your best, eventually you will get very good at anything. On a long-enough timescale that is a certainty. There is no reason to fear the new.

</comment><comment><USER45> I'd say you have to accept the reality of having a lot of unknowns in new software projects. By doing that, I guess I mean embracing the fear since there's always going to new situations that come up in reality. In my mind, I can't actually get used to anything since something new always crops up so I just take that as the norm.

</comment><comment><USER46> Fear is normal, though sometimes because of that fear i get too lazy to start to learn something new. So just think positive, nothing is impossible.

Maybe my advise isn't so good but i like to buy new pens and have some sweet stuff like chocolate. If i pass first hard part i can encourage myself with a bar of chocolate.

</comment><comment><USER47> Do something with it that is simple, useful, and for which it is uniquely well suited.

For instance, I wanted to start working with Lazarus (A FreePascal IDE with WYSIWYG GUI designer) so I used it to throw together some simple GUI launchers for a portable LAN gaming pack I put together.

</comment><comment><USER48> Realize you are going to die and there is nothing you can do about it.

Helps in all fear based situations.

</comment><comment><USER49> I don't. I just suffer through the anxiety. Mostly trying not to pay attention to it until I've made something. Once I've made something with a new technology I've got evidence for myself, than I can start to find comfort.

</comment><comment><USER50> You keep doing it. The more you try, the more you get over that fear, and understand you can learn what you put your mind to.

That also means you get better at understanding how you learn, and prioritizing what to learn as there is just to much!

</comment><comment><USER51> Take a look at this: [https://azeria-labs.com/the-process-of-mastering-a- skill/](https://azeria-labs.com/the-process-of-mastering-a-skill/)

</comment><comment><USER52> If I get discouraged I just tell myself this is good because I am adequately challenging myself. If you're only doing stuff that you feel is easy then you aren't really going to improve.

</comment><comment> oh-4-fucks-sake If it's a really big tech to learn, I tell myself "the first 6 weeks are going to suck, and then I'll be fine". Has seemed to be a decent rule of thumb for me.

</comment><comment><USER53> I took a personality test today. (Really). The results were uncanny. I LOVE learning and trying new things and if it is hard then I might fail. But I if I get up and try again again I might succeed. My Dad used to tell my sister "if you never fall you aren't skiing hard enough". I fell all the time.

Baron von Hilton went bankrupt numerous times before founding Hilton Hotels. Failure is how we learn. It's the main ingredient in "experience".

It's also a way to find your own path. I tried Angular. It just didn't click for me. I tried React. At first I didn't like the idea of JSX. Then everything clicked. I might have never tried it had I not failed with Angular first.

</comment><comment><USER54> Keep in mind that in this case fear is a good indicator that if you proceed you will grow as a person. It is a good sign to feel fear, embrace it.

</comment><comment><USER55> Can't say I have this fear. What's it a fear of?

<comment><USER56> It doesn't exactly feel like fear. I'd say it's more like the goal is so far that you give up even before trying / push it back forever / procrastinate. For ex "I'm going to learn how to do security research / do bug bounties / write exploits" and never do much. It is fear based tho. I'd say it's fear of wasting time and not getting anywhere.

<comment><USER55> I wonder if it might just be not knowing how to start, rather than fear, then. I don't expect I'd be very good at achieving those goals unless I had a specific project in mind that touched on them.

Like, I wanted to do kernel development for years and couldn't get into it, and then suddenly I had a job with buggy kernel drivers that needed to be fixed and it was surprisingly easy. Fear wasn't holding me back, but not having identified a realistic small project in the area that I was motivated by was.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> Just do it.

</comment><comment><USER58> accept failure and use it as a stepping stone.

</comment><comment><USER59> The only answer I've found is to set that aside and just put one foot in front of the other. Over and over and over again.

When I encounter uncertainty or doubt, I have a bad habit of distracting myself so I don't have to think about it. I have learned to catch myself doing this, stop distracting myself, and continue to press on.

If something isn't working after trying and trying, it can be really frustrating. But instead of thinking about how stupid the thing is that I'm trying to make work, or why it was designed this way, or whatever, I have learned to just keep trying. Maybe I'm even correct that the thing is poorly designed or whatever- but it doesn't matter, just keep going.

This is not easy- but the upside is that it is simple. You just have to remember to keep going. Again, not easy, but also extremely uncomplicated, no?

If you're anything like me, you can be very thoughtful, but that can manifest as constant thinking about "what ifs", which honestly doesn't help anything. Make your head like a rock. Just keep going. Everything besides "keep going" is a distraction. So just keep going.</comment>


Police were called to reports of Murdock banging on the door of a neighbor - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/30/ian_murdock_debian_founder/ <comment><AUTHOR> The interesting part that I hadn't heard before:

> According to the San Francisco police, officers were called to Steiner and > Union St in the city at 11.30pm on Saturday, December 26, following reports > of a man trying to break into a home – that man was identified as Ian > Murdock. He reportedly fought with the cops, and was given a ticket for two > counts of assault and one for obstruction of an officer. The techie had been > drinking, according to the police logs. A medic arrived to treat an abrasion > to Murdock's forehead, and he was released so he could be taken to hospital.

> A few hours later, on Sunday, December 27 at 2.40am, police were called > again to reports of Murdock banging on the door of a neighbor at the very > same block. A medic arrived to treat him for any injuries. Officers then > took Murdock to the county jail where he was held in a cell.

> Murdock was bailed later that day, on Sunday, after a bond, said to be > $25,000, was paid. He died the next day.</comment>


Nitric oxide radicals are emitted by wasp eggs to kill mold fungi - <AUTHOR> https://elifesciences.org/articles/43718 <comment> semi-extrinsic Since the domain was unknown to me, and there was suddenly two stories from them on the front page, I was a bit skeptical that this was some low-quality publisher.

But "eLife was founded in 2011 by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust ", so they seem legit.

</comment><comment><USER2> Your sinuses also produce NO theorized to have the same antimicrobial effect as well as a sort of regulatory hormone as the gas is inhaled.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's well known that reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are used to fend off both infection and non-cooperative host cells i.e. cancerous cells.

But nitric oxide (NO) can spontaneously react to nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-), and nitrate can actually be used as an electron acceptor by some bacteria in mouse intestines. ([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705454/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705454/))

The article points out that wasps transfer protective bacteria to their larvae, so it could have been that secreting NO is really just an indirect way of cultivating more of these helpful bacteria. However, they showed that the protective effect against mold was the same whether or not nitrate was present, which shows that the mechanism really is direct killing of the mold by the eggs themselves!

<comment><USER4> I believe you are conflating Nitric Oxide (NO) with Nitric Oxide Radicals (NO•). While Nitric Oxide isn't stable in the presence of Oxygen, Nitric Oxide Radicals will react with pretty much any species they come into contact with. From the viewpoint of an organism, they are more useful as a weapon than as any sort of controlled energy source.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> reminds me of the dynamics of survival whereby yeast has evolved to exude alcohol to thwart off bacteria as they both attempt to colonize a food source like some fallen apple

<comment><USER6> Indeed it has been suggested that early forms of life produced oxygen as toxin as an evolutionary advantage.</comment></comment>


Disintermediating Amazon. Fast. - <AUTHOR> http://contraterrene.com/blog/ebooks/2012/04/18/going-into-competition-with-amazon-fast/

<comment><AUTHOR> The server is starting to show signs of stress, so here's the text:

Everyone has an opinion about the DOJ v. Apple/Big Six case (or Big Five, I guess, since Random House wasn't involved in the alleged collusion). I've got my own opinion on the merits of the case, of course, but I'm not going to discuss that in this post. Instead, I'm going to address some common misconceptions: first, that publishers find it difficult or impossible to get their books on the Kindle without paying Amazon (as expressed by Bruce in the comment thread on this post by John Scalzi) and second, that setting up your own ebook publishing workflow requires scads of time and money (as expressed by Charlie Stross here). Now, Charlie Stross is a smart, technically sophisticated guy, but he's way off base when he claims (in the comments) that "if I had to run my own self-publishing op I'd lose half my writing time".

Starting at 5:39 PM CST, I created a cover image, formatted and compiled an ebook using Abulafia (shameless plug, deal with it), created a video explaining how to set up your Kindle to receive third-party books by email, and wrote a rudimentary book-to-Kindle distribution mechanism (actually, there was very little original code involved — all it really has to do is send the book file as an email attachment, and people have already written that code plenty of times). If you want to try it, watch the video, then set up your Kindle to allow mail from email@example.com.

In a (probably vain) attempt to forestall nitpicking:

No, I didn't write the book in that time. It's actually just a short story; Poe's Masque of the Red Death — but I could just as easily have copied and pasted his complete works. The writing time is irrelevant to this discussion anyway (you'll have to write the book no matter how it's distributed, yes?). The cover image could use some work, certainly. It's a modification of an illustration by Aubrey Beardsley, taken from a 19th century edition of the piece (it may be moderately NSFW, depending on where you W). If I were going to put this up for sale, I'd either spend more time on the cover or hire an artist. Maybe one of these folks. It wouldn't take much volume to bring this little server to its knees. A production server farm for the likes of the Big Six would need to be much more robust, no question about it (and I'd definitely spend more than 15 minutes on the code ). But, you know, you can spin up as many servers as you want nowadays — within minutes. Hundreds of servers. Thousands of servers. If you don't want to screw around with maintaining your own, there are companies (including Amazon itself) that will rent you as many commodity servers as you want, by the hour. I don't have a payment mechanism set up but that's also a solved problem. These guys, or these guys, or even these guys (if you must). Hundreds of others. Yes, Amazon could shut down the Kindle's email facilities (or start blocking email from competitors they don't like), but that would very likely result in the DOJ descending on them. If that happens, getting a third-party book on the Kindle would require the awesomely complex process of plugging it in to your computer, waiting for it to show up as a USB drive, then copying the files (or you could use this — another shameless plug). It is now 11:08 PM, and I spent 25 minutes of that time talking to my aunt Joyce on the phone about issues unrelated to this project — so about 5 hours total to go from raw text to an ebook that's available to every Kindle owner on the planet at the click of a button. Not bad.

Remember, that's the total time to format the book, create the cover image, compile the book, set up the server for distribution, create the tutorial video, and write this blog post.

And I'm just, like, a guy, you know. If I can do this why can't the Big Six do the same? Claiming that they're "unable to compete with Amazon" is sheer unadulterated nonsense. Sorry, it just is.

I should note here that forward-thinking publishers such as Baen and Pragmatic Programmers have been doing exactly this for quite some time. I didn't invent this process. I have probably a couple of dozen books from those publishers on my Kindles right now — none of which were purchased through Amazon.

Update: April 22, 2012

In case it's not perfectly clear: I'm not planning to go into competition with Amazon myself (certainly not with this server) — this is just an illustration of how easy it would be. If I can do this in 5 hours, imagine what someone with Rupert Murdoch's budget could do.

The story choice was not a coincidence. The publishing industry is behaving in much the same way as the characters in the story.

This only addresses ebooks. Amazon, of course, also has a colossal (and massively efficient) infrastructure for delivering physical goods. Now that is an area where it would be very hard to compete with them. Digital goods are another story entirely.

With respect to Amazon "not paying taxes": Amazon charges sales tax and pays their own taxes in every state where they have a physical presence, and doesn't in states where they don't, just like every other mail-order company since, well, always. The same is true of every other retailer from Apple and Barnes & Noble all the way down to the indie bookstore on the corner, which doesn't collect sales tax on mail orders to other states. This is one of the consequences of a federal form of government. In general, you're not obliged to abide by the laws of a state unless you're physically present in that state. Changing that would likely require a constitutional amendment. If you think that's a good idea, it might be worth considering how you'd feel about being required to abide by all the laws of (insert least-favorite state). That doesn't sound quite as appealing, does it?</comment>


Show HN: I made a product that helps to collect feedback from users - <AUTHOR> https://productroad.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

I made a product that helps companies to collect user's feedback, share roadmap and changelog.

Productroad is a platform for users where users can:

\- leave feedback and discuss feedback from other users;

\- suggest features and upvote them;

\- subscribe to post and receive updates from the company team.

Productroad is also a platform for company team where team members can:

\- prioritize feedback and show it's status on development roadmap;

\- write a changelog;

\- track who is working on particular feedback.

Yeah, we are not first who are providing such services. So how we differ from others?

UserVoice. That service is one of the first in this niche. For now, it's focused on enterprise customers. We are focusing on small to medium businesses providing better user experience, simple and clean interface, transparent pricing. Also, we provide premium support for every customer.

Canny. This product is great and in many ways, we inspired by Canny. At the same time, we make a more customizable product. We also focused on privacy so we have different access levels, closed accounts, enforced SSO and many other things.

We are eating our dog food and make our roadmap public on feedback.productroad.com you are welcome to vote for our features :)

Also, Productroad is an open startup and we publish our business metrics monthly in our twitter (spoiler alert: not a unicorn yet): [https://twitter.com/productroad](https://twitter.com/productroad)

And the best part: we understand now is a hard time for many companies so we offer a 50% discount for one year for any hunter signed up during the first two months after our launch. And we offer a 100% discount for organizations fighting the COVID-19. Just drop us a mail on email@example.com.</comment>


Harmful Workload Generator for PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/lesovsky/noisia <comment><USER2> Some of my own code did all of this all by itself...

</comment><comment><USER3> Awesome tool! It's like Chaos Monkey for your ACID database. I am kind of hoping it could steer conversation into making DBs more "idiot proof". Pushing some code (or making a "manual data fix") that in rare conditions inadvertently locks the production database is no fun.

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting. How does this compare to just generating generic system load (e.g. running some benchmark)?

<comment><USER5> Well, this tool is extremely useful when you want, for example, to test your monitoring system or other observability tools to understand how "bad" cases will be really visible in them.

Of course, it should not be used in production.

Also, it's a good idea to use it for training of DBA / DBRE / SRE engineers to practice various cases and improve their diagnostics skills.

Regular benchmarks could have something like this embedded, I think. Postgres standard tool, pgbench, doesn't have it now. But I doubt "harmful workload" would be really useful when we test systems to see their max throughput / lowest latencies for particular workload.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> starred, Im curious if it could run concurrently with a standard tool to see impact on performances.

</comment><comment><USER7> Cool tool to test implementation of graceful degradation in the service and between services

<comment><USER5> Great idea! Do you think such kinds of tests could be fully automated (executed in CI)?</comment></comment>


NHome – The Hub Free Smart Home/ IoT System - <AUTHOR> http://nhome.ba <comment><AUTHOR> NHome, a hub free smart home and IoT system is a different and better way to take controll over your home. Instead of using a separate app for each and every one of your smart devices, you get to use just one, and we spared you the hard installing part you're normally facing, our app just scans the network your server is on and automatically adds every device on it, and allows them their true features and possibilities. Mutually connect every app to make your home a little peace of heaven. Scene your pre-set scenes and ambients, Schedule the scenes and devices, and off course trigger them inbetween. You also get a remote, which can recognise almost every device in the IR area. And let's not forget that we have widgets on our smartphones, a very usefull thing when in a cold night, you find yourself searching for the app and then clicking Unlock, now, you can access every device's controll, directly from your homescreen.

And if you don't want anyone unallowed to "unlock" your doors, the NHome app delivers you a superior security module, which allows to add as many cameras as you wish, and to record with them on many triggers, say Motion,it Integrates with ANY alarm system, and always gets you notifications when something you didn't expect happens. Get NHome and try it, we promise, it will be worth the three clicks necessary. If you find it either usefull, awesome, or nice, feel absolutely free to spread the word, and make sure to mention @NHomeApp whereever you can (It's twitter), and you'll be helping build something extraordinary</comment>


Advice on CIA website: "Your security and well being are our primary concerns" - <AUTHOR> https://www.cia.gov/cgi-bin/comment_form.cgi

<comment><AUTHOR> From the site:

"Your security and well being are our primary concerns. By visiting this website from outside of the U.S. and contacting us, you may be subject to monitoring by security or intelligence services, or other third parties that do not adhere to U.S. Internet privacy laws. While we employ numerous safeguards to help minimize this risk, we suggest that you not use your home or work computer to contact us. Use instead a computer where you are entirely unknown. Although our website is encrypted, it is still possible for others to see that you have visited CIA.gov. As an added precaution, we recommend you use current web browsers and clean the computer's search and/or browser histories after you visit the website."

</comment><comment><USER2> so?</comment>


Project failure lessons (let's learn together) - <AUTHOR> I think we spend a lot of time congratulating ourselves and others when our projects succeed.
This is a great way to build up positive reinforcement but as we all know there are at least 5 failures for every 'success'. Sometimes this number is more like 50:1 or more.
Success can mean anything like getting your first paying customer, reaching 500 users or being featured in a large publication.
On the other hand, failure can happen for a plethora of reasons and usually is caused by more than one factor. I personally wouldn't even know of many of the reasons why my old projects failed. I want to learn from your experiences and I want everyone else on Indie Hackers to be able to learn too.
If you please;
- list one or more reasons why projects of yours failed in the past (possibly telling us how you found out/fixed it). <comment><AUTHOR> I think many of my past projects failed because I spent too much time developing them before releasing them or asking potential users for feedback.

In the end I didn't know what users really wanted and was instead developing the features I thought users would want.

I think many of my past projects failed because I spent too much time developing them before releasing them or asking potential users for feedback.

Any overall projects or idea or features can be tested with your potential customers.

See would they pay for it, how usable it is, or do they even like it!

Please validate your projects with real users as early and as often as possible.</comment>


TranslateQuick - <AUTHOR> https://translatequick.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi guys. Have you ever traveled in Latin America and had locals send you voice messages in Spanish in WhatsApp? If you don't speak Spanish, this can be extremely frustrating because you can't use Google Translate for these voice messages. I built TranslateQuick as a service to help solve this problem. You can forward your Spanish voice messages to us in WhatsApp, and we'll send you the English translation.

Problem I travel quite a bit in South America and I've noticed that most locals prefer to send voice messages rather than sending the message in text form . I don't understand why they prefer voice messages to text form, but I found that it can be frustrating for foreigners who don't speak Spanish as they can't copy and paste the message into Google Translate for translation.

You can try using the voice recorder function in Google Translate, but the problem is that Spanish has various accents and slangs depending on the region and country. Also, Google Translate tends to be more accurate when you enter in what you want translated in grammatically correct form. Most people don't speak like this on a day to day basis.

Solution I got the idea thanks to a friend who always sends me voice messages to translate. I thought that maybe this problem can be solved if travelers had a WhatsApp number that they can forward their voice messages to, and the person operating that WhatsApp number can listen to the forwarded voice message and send back the translation of the voice message from Spanish to English.

I built a basic web app that handles sign ups and assigns a number of a translator to the users. Users can add that WhatsApp number to his/her phone and can forward any Spanish voice messages received in WhatsApp to this number. The translator will then receive the message, listen to it, and send back the English translation.

Status The service is live and operational. I thought about building a mobile app for this where the users can share the voice messages through the app, and I can have a dashboard where translators all over the world can translate the voice messages as they come through, but that's a lot of upfront work for the initial launch. I think that will be a better user experience though compared to signing up through a website and manually adding a WhatsApp number to one's contact list.

Once I see the user base grow and I'm confident that this is a big enough problem to solve, I will get to building the mobile apps and the infrastructure around it to help it scale better.

Let me know what you guys think!</comment>


Interview with Type Designer Erik Spiekermann - <AUTHOR> https://johannesippen.com/2019/erik-spiekermann/ <comment><USER2> Aah, the quip on the road network typeface... some highlights

> The narrower a typeface gets, the less legible it becomes. We do also know > that we have long words in Austria, like "Gumpersdorfer Straße" in Vienna – > so now they only use the compressed version, even for short words, because > it's easier for them. Then I get blamed because it's not legible, but that > is not my fault. Maybe it is because I should have said no. When you're > supposed to work for a bad company, like weapons or tobacco, the argument > is: "If I don't do it, somebody else will, so I might as well do it." If I > wouldn't have done the compressed version, somebody else would have done it, > maybe even worse.

> "Shit, Spiekermann, you are right – you make us look better!" – that was my > big lesson here: You make them look better, that is your job. We have the > skill of showing them, not just complaining about things that don't work.

> My Dutch friend Lucas de Groot put it nicely when he was learning German: > "We have to verglücklichen our clients", we have to make them happy.

</comment><comment><USER3> "I want to die as the person with the most letterpresses" - an insightful, personable, and inspiring interview that illustrates Spiekermann's views on design but also his personality in an awesome way!

<comment><AUTHOR> Awww thank you! _blush_

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Stopped listening to this guy after this fiasco.. [https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/erik-spiekermann-laura- kalb...](https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/erik-spiekermann-laura-kalbag- twitter/)

<comment><USER5> Why? He's a typographer, of course he's pedantic. Paired with his eccentricities it's quite entertaining to listen to him.

<comment><USER6> At the risk of flogging a dead horse, the tweeter was technically correct when she said that she had written a book. She said neither that she edited, typeset, printed, bound, distributed, shelved, loaned, sold, nor solely forged a book out of the edifice of the void.

Pedantically-speaking, Spiekermann dropped the ball on this one.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is your best way to learn a new programming language? - <AUTHOR> I want to learn Python for web development. Programming is totally new to me.
So what's the best way to learn it and maybe the fastest?
What would be your learning methods? Do you have any tips/hacks etc that works for you? <comment><USER2> 1\. Do some research and look for a good book on python, or possibly a MOOC/set of videos.

2\. Follow the content, make sure you understand the concepts. Don't just read the material, it's recommended to code what you're reading so you spend time understanding what you're coding.

3\. Solve some exercises.

4\. Once you've covered the fundamentals, go and start off with a project. Start with a small project, then create bigger ones.

Essentially, cover the fundamentals and understand them, then go ahead with a project. The real learning is in the projects you'll build as you'll find gaps in your knowledge that you'll cover on the way. But it's good to study the fundamentals so you have a starting point and aren't completely lost.

There are a lot of good books for an introduction to Python, "Automate the boring stuff"[1], "Think Python"[2], and many more. These two are actually available for free online. Someone here can probably recommend some better books or you can look up other recommendations online.

EDIT: formatting

[1] [https://automatetheboringstuff.com/](https://automatetheboringstuff.com/)

[2] [https://greenteapress.com/wp/think- python-2e/](https://greenteapress.com/wp/think-python-2e/)

</comment><comment><USER3> My recommended route: Harvard's CS50x on edx -> _Think Python 2ed_ -> [https://www.obeythetestinggoat.com/pages/book.html#toc](https://www.obeythetestinggoat.com/pages/book.html#toc)

You don't need to take CS50, but it's the probably the best introduction to programming available online and will give you a strong foundation that will make the later books easier to work through.

</comment><comment><USER4> My method is always make yourself small examples to study as you read. So if you're reading a Python book chapter on lists, stop reading and open emacs or whatever editor and write yourself some lists. If it's a section on stacks/queues, make a toy stack or queue model. This is the only way I was able to read some difficult texts in programming theory, by making sure I understood what I was reading before continuing the chapter, sometimes this took a few days stuck on one topic. My course recommendation after that green tea press introduction is [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~112/schedule.html](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~112/schedule.html) notice that each topic has video buttons to watch a short youtube lecture, and notice the 'weekly practice' 'hw' and 'labs' on the right side. These are all open and come with a linter to enforce class scope and a solution test suite.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you have never programmed before I wouldn't care about the fastest, you risk learning nothing _fast_.

Avoid any hacks, shortcuts or methods more appropriate for less practical subjects.

Find a good and definitely not concise book or a good MOOC that explains all the basic concepts with lots of examples you can try in a Jupyter notebook. The more you code the more you learn.

</comment><comment><USER6> I recommend by first reading through a high-level style guide. Guides produced by larger orgs like FaceBook, Etsy etc are usually a good starting point - high level but without too much technical mud.

After that, depending on whether you like getting your feet wet or taking a more formal approach my two go to methods are either: 1) reading through a "code by example" for the lang or 2) finding a cool relatively simple project written in the lang and stepping back to the very first commit and reading diffs from there (I also recommend this technique for picking up design pattern / design strategies in general)

</comment><comment><USER7> you can read all the books you want, cover all the moocs you want, but in the end nothing gets your noodle working more than working on a project of interest

</comment><comment><USER8> My way to do it is: Read all of the instructions, and then write a program. If the program is wrong, then correct it. If something is unclear, see if there are examples, and possibly parts of other programs can also be used as a example.

</comment><comment><USER9> my 2 cents: write unit tests in it. go check some simple code out there ( github ) and cover it with tests, rinse and repeat...</comment>


Ask HN: Why is finding a well paid remote position so difficult? - <AUTHOR> It seems 100 times easier to find a job locally if you are in a big/medium North Americn city.  Will working remotely ever take off and if it did, would the global workforce reduce wages so low that most in the western world couldn't afford to take a senior developer job? <comment><USER2> Remote positions often (not always) pay less because many more people are competing for the same job, and some of those people have suburban or rural costs of living.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the difficulty depends on a lot of factors.

I lucked into my first remote job. I got to work remotely 80% of the time. I hadn't really considered remote work a real possibility until that point. It worked out pretty well, and every position I've held since then has been 100% remote. Almost eight years now.

I think once you have some remote experience then it's much easier to find other remote positions since you've proven you can do it. It also helps _a lot_ to know people who do remote work and especially managers who have remote/distributed teams. Networking, for better or worse, is extremely important.

Also I think it's important to consider that while it may be _easier_ to find work locally, you're actually quite limited in the breadth of work available. There are super interesting things I absolutely would not have had the opportunity to work on if I hadn't been actively looking for remote opportunities.

I would say keep applying for remote opportunities that interest you. If you show genuine interest and ability to perform then I think you'll find you'll eventually land a position.

Don't be afraid to email decision makers directly. If you're respectful and lay out your value proposition they'll definitely pay attention. At worst they'll ignore you.

<comment><USER4> I've been working 100% remote for 6 years now, and have seen about half the people who do end up going remote just don't like it or are not self-motivated enough to put in a full day's work without being in an office.

<comment><USER3> It's certainly not for everyone. Easy to be distracted and it can get very lonely.

I feel like I've done my best work remotely though.

The ideal would be remote work most of the time with the option to go into an office whenever I like, but the reality is that's rarely an option.

The ability to structure my own day is extremely valuable to me. I also feel I get judged less for appearances and more on what I actually deliver.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hire remote workers. Because of our business and the level of communication, being in the same time zone is important. Because of legal complexities, being in the USA is important (though we have interviewed people from other countries).

I think if you are in a position of providing labor that can be reduced to a written document (and no other communication) then you are at risk of being outsourced to the global marketplace. Otherwise I wouldn't worry.

</comment><comment><USER6> Most jobs aren't remote or, even if the possibility exists, aren't listed as fully remote, right away. Therefore, when you're looking strictly for remote work, you're limiting your choices substantially. At the same time, the company hiring is casting a wide net, so competition will be higher than a comparable local job.

</comment><comment><USER7> I see a lot of remote jobs on angel list, here on HN, on SO and also LinkedIn. I work in Prague and there are two different US companies from NYC that have setup dev shops here, so they are for sure hiring remote engineers and paying almost what you might make in a smaller US market. So the number of remote jobs is only increasing.

[https://jobspresso.co/remote-work/#s=1](https://jobspresso.co/remote- work/#s=1)

</comment><comment><USER8> My main issue is that there are no brand name companies (think FAANG/2, or even FAANG/3) hiring remote. I'm not going to debase my resume by working for someone's pet project.

<comment><USER9> > I'm not going to debase my resume by working for someone's pet project

Damn... That hits way too close to home.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I just got finished a remote job search. I think in general the market is quite good if you're a Senior Engineer with the right skillset and have prior remote experience.</comment>


The Apple Tax (Part II) - <AUTHOR> http://www.mondaynote.com/2012/08/26/the-apple-tax-part-ii/

<comment><AUTHOR> My favorite part:

'There seems to be a moral aspect, here, as if Apple should be held to a higher standard. Last year, Apple and Nokia settled an IP "misunderstanding" that also resulted in a "Tax"…but it was Nokia that played the T-Man role: Apple paid Nokia more than $600M plus an estimated $11.50 per iPhone sold. Where were the handwringers who now accuse Apple of abusing the patent system when the Nokia settlement took place? Where was the outrage against the "evil", if hapless, Finnish company? (Amusingly, observers speculate that Nokia has made more money from these IP arrangements than from selling its own Lumia smartphones.)'</comment>


PhoSho – Do Friendship Differently - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/ai/app/phosho-do-friendship-differently/id959065952?mt=8 <comment><AUTHOR> PhoSho lets you share themed moments with friends. Have even more fun with AutoTake! Turn it on and your friends will have only 5 seconds before a picture automatically takes from their camera and post for all to see. It's like surprising, or catching your friends off guard, and you get an awesome photo of it! Think of the possibilities….

A themed moment (we call these Sho's) can be a competition, dare, challenge, or anything you think is worth sharing. Your friends respond with photos related to your theme. Vote the best photo up and the worst photo down. The photo with the most votes scores a point! When the timer ticks down to zero photos disappears.

Pick a preloaded Sho (like the below) or write your own. Control how long Sho's last by setting the timer, when it hits zero all photos and comments disappear. Select only the friends you want to include - share with one or share with many.

A theme can be whatever you'd like! Just a few examples:

Best Beer Chug The Mustache Impersonate Trump Love is… Cutest Girl/Guy On The Way To Class Stay Classy America Too Much Touching… Awkward Couples… What Are You Guys Up To?

Fraternities and sororities all around the U.S. are using PhoSho. Be crazy, spontaneous, or downright weird. Get funky and do friendship differently!</comment>


MySQL Raytracer - <AUTHOR> http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=83222 <comment><AUTHOR> I did not create this. This is a demoscene production released yesterday at Deadline (Berlin) 2019.

Details from the README [https://demozoo.org/productions/268459/info/2923/](https://demozoo.org/productions/268459/info/2923/)

\----

Hello Deadline! This is a raytracing engine contained in a single Mysql SELECT statement. In the beginning of the code there are a few parameters that can be modified. The scene can be specified using the @triangles and @squares parameters, but everything is explained in the comments. The whole query returns a bitmap file which can be written to the filesystem using the "INTO DUMPFILE" syntax at the end of the query, if mysql has filesystem write permissions. The raytracer supports shadows and reflections, which makes it, to my knowledge, the most advanced MySQL raytracer on the market right now. However, it is not really polished and kinda slow. Since I didn't really know how to present this work in a demoparty friendly way, I just included two finished renderings.

Contained files: sqlray.sql - Contains the code and a standard box scene with a few spheres sqlray-bunny.sql - Contains the code and a scene with the stanford bunny model, about 950 polygons. sqlray.bmp - Contains the output of the query in sqlray.txt. With a resolution of 1920x1080, this image took about 10 minutes to render on a Xeon E3-1246. sqlray-bunny.bmp - Contains the output of the query in sqlray-bunny.txt. With a resolution of 200x200, this image only took about 2 hours to render on a Xeon E3-1246.

Requirements: To run this code, you need a running mysql-server to execute the query. The code is only tested on mysql version 5.7.22 running on Ubuntu 16.04. MySQL also needs file write permissions to write the bmp file to the filesystem. If you want to render more than a few pixels worth you usually also have to increase mysql's memory and execution time limit settings.

Released under the do whatever the fuck you want license. If you use it for commercial purposes, like rendering your Hollywood studio's new big animated A-Movie, please let me know at email@example.com.

Have fun!

\-- Nick / Holtsetio

</comment><comment><USER2> madness, i love it!</comment>


Digital Disruptors - <AUTHOR> http://www.m1l.asia/articles/50 <comment><AUTHOR> During 1800's investors in the stock market traded with paper securities, yelling and screaming at the top of their voices in order to 'transact' and own stacks of those paper. Little did they know that those physical papers would fade in oblivion in future and that securities would be held virtually in digital formats.

Although the transition from physical world to today's all-encompassing virtual lives has been slow, such changes have been important catalyzers for technology companies to begin innovating and redefining how traditional processes work. Paper security converted to virtual demats was just one of the numerous examples of how technology made its way into traditional processes.

Ones and zeros are eating the world. The creation, storage, communication, and consumption of information is being digitized - turned into the universal language of computers at breathtaking pace. All forms and types of enterprises – from small businesses to large corporations, from non-profits to government agencies – are going through "digital transformation", taking the help of digitisation to create new processes, activities, and modes of transactions.

Digitization is changing the way we work, shop, bank, travel, educate, govern, manage our health, and enjoy life. The technologies of digitization enable conversion of traditional forms of information storage such as paper and photographs into binary codes (ones and zeros) of computer storage. The process of converting analog signals into digital signals is a sub-set of such a workflow. Its noteworthy to note though that the digital transformation of economic transactions and human interactions is more pronounced than conversion of various forms of media into bits and bytes. In the last decade or so, the rates at which technology has been evolving have become overwhelmingly steep. From driverless cars to artificial intelligence, high- tech companies are competing to strive to achieve the unthinkable; a life where WORK IS FOR MACHINES AND LIFE IS FOR HUMANS.

Recent developments in technology industry has been quite fascinating. Artificial intelligence (AI), which refers to the use of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human understanding, has been around for nearly 60 years. But, it is only recently that AI appears on the brink of revolutionizing industries as diverse as health care, law, journalism, aerospace, and manufacturing, with the potential to profoundly affect how people live, work, and play.

Within 3 to 5 years, it is expected that commercial uses of AI would increase exponentially. The idea is that AI embedded in product applications would benefit end customers. AI is also being used in process applications and in corporations to automate processes and enhance customer satisfaction. Automated voice response systems have been used for a few years now to replace human customer service agents for customer support. Eg. The Hong Kong subway system has employed AI to automate and optimize the planning of workers' engineering activities, building on the learning of experts. Insight applications harness advanced analytical capabilities such as machine learning to uncover insights that can inform operational and strategic decisions across an organization. Chipmaker Intel employs predictive algorithms to segment customers into groups with similar needs and buying patterns effectively using this information to prioritize its sales efforts and tailor promotions (Intel expects that their AI-based approach will generate an additional $20 million in revenue once it is rolled out globally).

The next big disruptor is the Blockchain technology. Blockchain is a secured and reliable technology that is used to securely stock and share data or list transactions on an infinitely large and democratized networked system called the ledgers. It enables to perform transactions in a relatively fast and cost effective manner and ejects brokers out of the system leading to direct peer- to-peer interactions.

The Blockchain data storage technology is predicted to be a massive disruptor in the next 3-5 years. Because the existing cloud storage services are centralized, users have to trust a single storage provider. With Blockchain, this can become decentralized. Eg. Filecoin is testing cloud storage using a Blockchain-powered network to improve security and decrease dependency. Additionally, users can rent out their excess storage capacity, Airbnb-style, creating new marketplaces.

Blockchain technologies make tracking and managing digital identities, both, secure and efficient, resulting in seamless sign-on and reduced fraud. Be it banking, healthcare, national security, citizenship documentation or online retailing, identity authentication and authorization is a process intricately woven into commerce and culture worldwide. Blockchain offers a unique service called smartcontracts. These are legally binding programmable digitized contracts entered on the blockchain. What developers do is implement legal contracts as variables and statements that can release of funds using the bitcoin network as a '3rd party executor', rather than trusting a single central authority. For example, if two people would like to exchange $100 at a specific time in future when a set of preconditions are met, the conditions, payout, and parties' details would be programmed into a smart contract. Once the defined conditions are met, funds would be released and sent to the appropriate party as per terms.

Virtual reality is all set to take over the way we experience and view media. Some experts call it the ultimate empathy machine because VR helps to live vicariously in others' shoes. Currently, the gaming industry has the hottest VR applications because it is fun and people can understand easily why VR adds value to their experience.

The education industry has started to embrace VR for teaching students. For example, Schools would invest into Google Cardboard (VR Headset), give it to students in classes and experience the Google Expedition app on Android/IOS. This app allows students to go on field trips from Galapagos to the International Space Station. It makes learning more interesting because it is more likely that they will remember what they have experienced rather than just reading a book.

As the advertising space becomes more and more congested with competition, VR has opened up a new space for brands to communicate to their customers. For example, Audi´s Sandbox experience which uses real-time trackers, an Oculus Rift, a driving seat and a sandbox to create a unique experience. The idea is that you can create a real track in the sandbox that is referenced in VR where you drive an Audi.

The real estate sector is also set to benefit from the VR technology. Companies are giving virtual tours on VR headsets for prospective buyers, with just a camera and software that is available on cloud. The whole process of making a Virtual tour of a mansion takes around 2 – 3 days. In addition, the camera only costs $3600 and the software is around $49 – $149 a month. The speed, price and ease of doing, makes this a real disruptor in the industry.

Disruptive technologies usually start out performing worse than their current generation counterparts, which are much used and are, so called, incumbents. This leads to a tendency to ignore disruptors until it's too late or 'in your face'. History is testament to the fact that transformational ideas emerge victorious in the end. So could be the cases of AI, Blockchain, AR, VR, Drones etc., and a few others that are hidden but lurking around the corner.</comment>