skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's plain to see that the wisdom being passed on here was painfully earned. Some people never make it out. Congrats on surviving and coming through stronger, reclaiming your life.
My favorite Mark Twain line (commenting on a Henry James novel): "Once I put it down I couldn't pick it up."
How does one make money off of this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless
I'm just saying there's not much going on in Downey. There really isn't. Downey makes Burbank look like Mountain View.

I am not in a position to have anyone intern (I run my startup out of my house -- Downey doesn't let you have a business license for an apartment, by the way!) That, and I flunked out of college in my first semester.

My offer is entirely tongue-in-cheek and it came from the same place you're coming from. But I understand you don't know me, so it's cool. Nice to meet you!
I don't know about that. There are plenty of cases similar to this, and yes, even younger.

I got pushed into a gifted program (the highly gifted magnet schools in LAUSD) by my parents. It was boring, and I wish they didn't - the people I met were fantastic but the program itself was the biggest waste of time. Another kid in my class made the papers like this one cause he finished his HS diploma and went on to college early, and his mom fought EVERYONE along the way to make it happen.

Of course, I dropped out of HS early and went to a community college too (well, I took a whole bunch of classes there starting from 6th grade anyway), and I enjoyed the experience. A lot of my friends went from middle school to college. There are a fair number of programs like that around like at Cal State LA..a few more places..Simon's Rock is another one I can think of now.

I don't think it's really the studying, but the attitude. The only time I liked the gifted program was where we almost had individualized studies (one kid might be doing basic math, another could be doing algebra) but were grouped together into one class (the social factor) and we were free to do whatever we want. I liked community college because I picked what I wanted to do, generally wasn't stuffed with useless busywork (I dropped most of those classes and took the same one with different profs), et cetera. Meanwhile, the equivalent AP classes at the HS were boring, nothing BUT busywork, and we HAD to stick with the schedule studying to the tests we had to take and there was no room for anything more because some people couldn't keep up. The forced-ness was what I hated.

And yeah, that whole work and play are opposites thing is annoying too. I learn a lot from hands-on labs and things, and we didn't get to do a lot of those ever. Maybe it was because it was a cash-strapped public school?

Finally, I think all of this needs to be customized to the student, because that's what makes it so good. The gifted program I was in was great for some, the early college stuff was great for others, and neither really worked for me.
Dani, this is a wonderful essay, really. Thanks a lot.

I had many problems related to what you mention there. Long story short: some years ago I got to my nation's newspapers because of my own small game studio and of my work on the local game dev association, and I got to speak to lot of conferences with very prestigious people, but I always felt empty, and I always felt I was more and more of an imposter. I rushed doing activities not because of my interest on them, but because of how they could help maintain and enforce my own image... and so on and on. Also I actually was starting to feel more and more stupid, because I wasn't doing the things I love most, and that I think I need to feed my mind.

Finally I decided that was stupid, and I decided a first step to find myself would be to shut the mouth up. I stopped caring a lot about press and related stuff, and despite I eventually did some note most of the times I sent the media to colleagues that I felt cold talk better than me about the different subjects. I dropped out from forums and disappeared from communities which only helped my ego grow. I just kept working quietly with a few clients, and I even started filtering my clients only to do the most interesting projects, which could again give a boost to my brain and let me feel again that I was doing something worth, and not just something that gave me money while making the others feel I was actually worth.

This was a lot of time ago, and that was like a slow career reset for me. These days I'm much happier about my work, while being a lot more slow profile (now I'm rarely called from the local press, as a remnant of my previous career, and because of my current activity I'm now teaching and giving some conferences).

But I think I have a lot more to learn yet. I loved your article, and despite all my growth in the latest years, I found interesting ideas in your article which I think I could use to improve my life a lot more. Thanks again.

Only wish I had read this some years later (the more years, the better).
Except they aren't making the best decisions most of the time, and by the time the kid can study what they want easily on their own (think things like money for buying materials), they're stuffed with bullshit busywork from their normal classes that are intellectually boring and take forever to do, until they get to college (hopefully).

Or at least that's what it was like for me. One of the things I loved to do was to code, and well, that sort of went out the window for the two years I was in high school because I'd be dead tired and in need of sleep every single night after the requisite extracurriculars and homework. My parents wouldn't let me drive to school in the morning because I'd get only a couple of hours of sleep a night sometimes and they didn't want me to fall asleep behind the wheel.

Even on weekends I didn't have time because I had to study for the classes I hated and do lame group projects where at least one member didn't do their fair share of work.
Oh jeez, I know this kid. I have the same piano teacher as he does, and I felt so sorry for him. His lessons were often after mine.

Personally, I think his parents (his dad in particular) ARE pushing him way too much.
Map overlaying the 4 next largest economies over the USA
PLEASE! I'll even pass on your details next time I see him.

I really think he needs a break from his parents. It might do him some good.
If it's any consolation, his piano teacher (also mine) actually sat his mom down and pointedly told her that he needs a break from piano because he's overloaded with other extracurriculars (let alone college work). :)
Don't women tend to go for the starving artist? But I think your more general point is sound. If you forsake money, you will need to find another signal of fitness, like power or being a great dancer.
Well that had zero content.
I think all high schools could do with starting classes a couple hours later, and to lessen the busywork.

It certainly works for me. I schedule all my college classes after 10am if possible, otherwise I just fall asleep in class no matter how early I go to sleep the night before.
Stanford kicks off parallel programming effort
Is It Necessary For A-Listers to Get First Dibs?
Any updated data, other then 2006?
IBM Cell Processors for servers
Please, don't take that as altruism.

If Google wants to have the web as the dominant platform, it makes absolute sense to lower as much as possible the barriers of entry to produce Web Applications.

It is just like Joel Spolsky said: they are just taking things that are complementary to their revenue-generating offerings and turning into a commodity. Google releasing something like this is no different than having IBM working on Eclipse.
My fiancee is in the retail business (seasonal gifts, in 600+ stores). The key is finding a good sourcing company - there are some that will work on commission once you prove yourself to be a good product developer. They'll even haggle with the plants to get you multiple samples before forcing you into a production line.
>You're attaching a heavy moral burden to the notion of a failed marriage,

I did no such thing. You did. If you remove that point, you'll see that I'm perfectly consistent in assigning blame to the actor.
Ask YC: Debt Financing for startups e.g.: Facebook, Blekko?
Why do startups use debt financing, why is it so popualar, other than the fact that startups don't need to part with equity?

and in the couple of cases I have seen it, it's mostly for hardware/ infrastructure related stuff? why is that?

-- Blekko: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/14/stealth-search-engine-blekko-gets-money-from-marc-andreessen-softtech/

-- Facebook: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc2008059_855064.htm
This CEO has Silicon Valley buzzing!
If you locate the earth-dome somewhere between Marin county and Portland, Oregon (or the Santa Cruz Mountains), there should be no problem finding a suitable mate.
I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I designed a retail product and had it manufactured in China. While there are cultural differences, I didn't have any problems in terms of altering a contract after its signed, or cutting corners. The company and specific representative I dealt with was courteous, fair, and delivered on the promise completely to my expectations. Language is no doubt a barrier (the employees' english is often a few notches down from a native speaker, as expected), but it just required less requests per email, and working in a style that was compatible. Finally, there are some great benefits to working with a Chinese company: low costs, and the time difference. It's really great to be able to start up a late night email correspondence that's right in the middle of their workday.
In the bay area, standard evolutionary psychology doesn't apply. The millions of dollars you make are negated by your bad hairdo and greenish-white LCD tan. The best bet for finding a woman in the bay is to get tattoo sleeves and become a popular bartender.
This site seems restful, but the more link doesnt act so. My typical use case on n.yc: rt click-open new tab on interesting posts on the main page, read through each new tab, then return to n.yc, and click on more to get to the next page (i visit irregularly, there're more'n one page of posts on some days). its probably half an hour or so when i return to click that more link, and its gone by then. irritating.

none of the other news sites have this problem. you're a news site, not an application; act like one.let me flip my page without have to buy the paper all over again.

ps: i see someone has raised the same concern wrt posting, but my use case is even simpler and just shouldnt happen.
Just because he called out a single guy who was unable to make something scale doesn't mean he was dismissing the entire technology (as, clearly, he hasn't).
I agree, I just like posting comments to this site.
Building the Real Iron Man
Alas that our minds learn by trial and error and not taking advice. In fact, the brightest people tend to be the ones who have a driving need to find out for themselves and not listen to what other people say about it.
So does your comment...
Wait a minute, the Southeast produces ~5x more than the Northeast? Please tell me it's not about (Golf Coast) oil.
The irony of being a prodigy is that it is indeed a facade, because it's not that the achievements are new, just that the achiever is.

This is why it feels empty. Because although you did something a few years earlier than other people, lots and lots of other people already did it, are doing it, and will be doing it soon.

The rat race is one of relative achievement. One can pile on all the plaudits and laurels in the world and it still comes down to jumping through other people's hoops for approval.

The only thing that doesn't feel fake is absolute achievement -- when you do something new, regardless of age, and regardless of media coverage or getting puppy snacks from the outstretched palms of condescending adults.
Actually, I know Arrington was interested in Rails as early as July 2006. We had a serious conversation about using it for the first version of the job board. I argued for PHP and we settled on it -- at the time, Rails deployment was a PITA and he didn't have any other Rails apps, so why take on that hassle for a simple app?

Yeesh, I keep mentioning I build that job board here. It only took ten days from introduction to done, he just keeps coming up here.
I don't get it. Like, it's a pretty map, but after staring at it for a couple of minutes I can't figure out how it's supposed to relate to the real data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nom...
Doesn't directly help you, but Bunnie, the guy who made the Chumby, has very interesting blog posts about getting a product made in China. Check out his blog starting around January 2007.

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?m=200701
I agree with the commenters who point to the parents. This kind of prodigy is usually the product of an ambitious parent trying to vicariously superachieve. I think that explains why so few go on to great (or even comparable) achievement in later life. It's because they weren't living out their own identity but something that was assigned to them. Sooner or later this is bound to be rejected or otherwise collapse.

The vast majority of children want simply to be like other children and, most of all, to have their parents' love. I believe it is the latter force that drives the typical child prodigy. That is, what drives the achievement is not anything like intellectual passion (which mostly comes later) but a desire for the parent's approval and love. It's sad when that is conditional on mastering calculus at age 8 or what have you.
No, you're misinterpreting it. The Northeast produces more than the southeast. What that map says is that the Northeast's GDP is approximately that of Japan (both ~$4.3 trillion), but $40 billion more than Japan's. Similarly, the Southeast's GDP is $216 billion more than that of the UK (both ~$2.5 trillion).
Scaling Facebook Chat to 70 Million Active Users Almost Overnight
> Your kids need animal protein right up until their brains are done developing. It doesn't have to be very much animal protein, as little as a teaspoon a day does the trick

This is utter nonsense on multiple levels.

1. Biochemically it doesn't matter what the source of the amino acid is. You can supply all essential amino acids from combinations of any number of plant sources.

2. "Vegetarian" does not exclude animal sources, as it typically includes milk and eggs. Vegan does, but that doesn't matter anyway, as per #1.

3. "A teaspoon" -- where did you come up with that rule of thumb? This is obviously superstition.

4. Brains require fats (especially DHA and EPA) and glucose. The human brain is 60% fat. Glucose is the fuel. Omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) can be supplied directly through microalgae oil, or converted from ALA in flax, walnuts, and other sources.

5. Human breast milk is only 5%-10% protein (by calories), yet during breastfeeding is when a human grows proportionately the fastest.

Stop with your protein myth and ridiculous child abuse nonsense.
Build 3D cube scape in javascript with JQuery and record it as movie
Fixed Point Madness!
Yeah, I got the opinion that he was taking the mickey on that one.
> The point is that study after study shows that with just a tiny portion of animal protein, they end up a whole lot smarter.

You're confusing two separate issues. The key factor is that treating malnourishment of impoverished and starving African children is beneficial. This has nothing to do with whether they are fed concentrated protein from animals or plants.
I gotcha. So you need to know those countries' GDPs to interpret the graphic. I thought it was a comparison based on land area and that those countries GPDs were roughly equal, which is way off.
bkow, do you mind sharing more information about your experience? What you desinged, how you contracted with, etc.? You can email me directly if you with noel AY noelgomez D O T com
semigeek, do you mind sharing some of your/your fiancee's experience. You can email me directly at noel AY noelgomez D OT com

I'm interested in how she got things prototyped and even how she sold things into the retail channel.
Transportation has been in the post-functionality age for a few decades now. Getting from A to B is taken for granted, and choice of vehicle is almost entirely driven by aesthetics and style. And it makes a huge difference. Try going on a date in an M3, or a 1987 Firebird, or an xB, and see the different reactions you get.

This vehicle is relevant because it's a genuinely new thing, in a field which only sees about 1 new idea per decade. (not to channel Zuckerberg here or anything...)
Not really. I decided to read the comments, to see whether the article was worth reading. Thanks to the "zero content" comment, I've decided not to bother. Time saved!
> vitamin B12

Cobalamin is added to any number of foods (usually in the form of cyanocobalamin), including bread, cereal, orange juice, soy milk, veggie burgers, soft drinks, and on and on. It is produced by bacteria.

I know multiple mothers who have breastfed while on vegan diets. It is trivial to get B-12, simply by taking a multivitamin, which they should do anyway regardless of diet (starting with prenatal preparation including folic acid supplementation).

I would suggest doing more research on the subject of veganism and discontinuation of spreading further misinformation.
Annotations on Java Types: Over complication?
Inspirational: From Illegal Immigrant to Brain Surgeon
Why C is not my favorite language
People who go on to discover great things don't learn from the professors. Let's take math as an example. One creates advances in mathematics by sitting with the literature, a pencil, and a pad. Every great idea comes only after thousands of failed starts.
Clojure:

user=> (map #(* % %) (range 1 6))
(1 4 9 16 25)
user=>
Dude can grep wikipedia and has parents that can talk about topics in a deep way, or provide resources to him on topics that interest him. Most parents would do the opposite and restrict internet access for starters, let alone have the ability to assist in his intellectual interests. As far as kid activities his age, I'm sure he would be bored stiff around others. That seems like a blessing to avoid behavior that would no doubt only lead to worse choices later in life.
Language Dabbling Considered Wasteful
Douglas Crockford: "JavaScript - The Good Parts"
Icahn Enters Yahoo Fray
The problem, my friends, is the legislators. More spefically, lawyers as legislators. Think about that (in the context of many of the other good points here), and realize that there is an inherent conflict of interest having members of a self-regulating professional class (lawyers and the Bar) writing the very laws that only they can administer.

Never vote for any lawyer running for any legislative body.
Google maps suddenly becomes more than just a map
Work for Amazon Web Services
My instinct is that this kid's parents aren't treating him as an intellectual equal, so much as a lump of raw material to be manipulated.
Mormons, Scientologists face uphill battle against Wikileaks
Beautiful article. As one who almost burned out, I can attest to the many truths that are seen in the article. Great article, Dani.
I don't think we've met the same women. Evolutionary psychology makes for very reasonable generalizations that just happen to completely ignore things like cultural values.

There are some pretty fun, reasonably attractive women up on the northern coast of California (Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte counties), and likely further up the coast into Oregon, that would be intrigued by that kind of lifestyle.
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

Please read this. Eating meat is the largest factor for green house gases. So if you want to go Green stop eating meat.
Real-Life Iron Man Tech
It's a nice move, I've seen similar datasets on Google Earth, so it's not new by any means.
This is quite a remarkable piece of software engineering, very impressive stuff. I'm really glad they're open enough about it to share their techniques.

Also, I'd never heard of doing a "dark launch" before, but it sounds like a fantastic way to get early feedback from users.
I can't say that I prefer in-browser chats, but I can appreciate the complexity of the solution. Scalability is the new manual memory management. I can't help but think that somebody's going to come up with the scalability equivalent of a garbage collector and make our lives a lot easier.
"Tell a man that there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you. Say a bench has wet paint and he has to touch it."
The whole idea of having a union of states was that the states can compete with each other, If New York makes it hard enough to do business there, business will be done elsewhere. (See: Delaware, Nevada, Wyoming)

What should be happening is that NY has just made it undesirable to do business there. There should soon be a list of companies that just won't sell there as it is too much hassle. This is probably the goal. In some politicians muddled thinking this will help local businesses... Protectionism is ugly, even when states do it.
What, exactly, is Comcast doing with Plaxo?
Very interesting stuff. I wish more companies would post details like this.
Living with no job? I do it everyday.
Computer world’s equivalent of “The Amazing Race”
What's most interesting to me about this is the dependency management code in their javascript library. That's a feature that truly sets it apart from the other mainstream javascript libraries. (I'd love to be corrected on this!)
It sounds like the "dark launch" wasn't visible to users, it was simply to test the capacity of their servers. It's a very interesting idea.

They did roll out the UI over the course of several hours though.
A Bean Bag That Delivers Web Widgets
I disagree with the comment about the kid not knowing what he was missing. My parents pushed me in the opposite direction of the direction this kid's parents are pushing him. I resent my parents for that.

I was constantly forced to go outside and do something active. Pursuing intelligence was frowned upon. I am not exaggerating either. My grandmother told my mother, "Don't let those boys grow up to be too intelligent. No one will like them." My mother criticized my intellectual pursuits: "Chess is a stupid hobby."; "People don't need computers." My father was simply hands off. He didn't believe in pushing someone in one direction or another.

My point is this: I had the capability to do university studies at an early age, but my parents denied me that opportunity. I knew what I was missing because I've now experienced university life. The University of Florida was exactly what I imagined a university to be--the freedom to pursue whatever occupied my mind.
Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers
That's Erlang in a nutshell, though, isn't it?
Crystal Towers is one of the worst deals in SF. The only thing it has going for it is 3 month leases. For the same price, you can get a similar corporate housing vibe, but in a new building, if you look near the Caltrain station. If you are really into the George Jefferson retro hi-rise aesthetic, there are plenty of places around Japantown that are $700-$1200 cheaper for the same square footage.