skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Founders don't work many more hours per day than early employees at x100 less than early employees. They work many more months/years before earning an income at all.
>
> By the time the employees start to get hired, a large part of the risk and work that a founder does to earn their hopeful future fat stacks has already been done.

What you describe isn't the case for most tech startups I know.

These startups need a lot of highly involved technical work done, and often need to hire a small team early on. They typically get seed money quickly. It's not unusual to see seed money right from the start.

> Now, are startup compensation packages a little low and relying on the money making reputation of past decades? Sure.

The point in this thread is not that it's "a little low".

The numbers quoted is that if you're a good engineer at a top tech company, you can almost guarantee about $2m over 4-5 years. In a startup, you'd make less than half of that in cash, with the only compensation being some stock options, that people are rapidly realizing are worth nothing in most cases.

That's a big difference, especially over many years. And we didn't even mention the large gaps in benefits, healthcare, work-life balance, job stability...

The bottom line is that the startups were so good at squeezing the real value out of their job offers, that now only irrational developers will choose them over bigger already successful companies.
He always said JQ was only a temporary solution.
FAANGs receive massive volume of applications, so it can be very difficult to receive a call back from a recruiter. I had a Facebook recruiter tell me that their acceptance rate is "way lower than Stanford", which, if you think about it is not that surprising. Anyways, the best way to get a call from Google or Facebooks is to find someone to refer you.
I know this is a bit of a controversial opinion, but I always felt that society's reaction to sexual assault give victims a reason to feel even worse about their situation.

Not to say that it isn't a severely traumatic thing to experience - it absolutely is. But, we regularly treat virginity as some sort of virtuous status - and then speak of rape victims who lost their virginity to their attacker as if they were stripped of some sort of human value in the process.

We speak of rape very matter-of-factly about how it ruins lives, ruins women for marriage, emasculates men, and follows you for life. For a victim, this almost feels like the world telling you how defeated you are supposed to feel.

I feel like way too much of society's response is about pitying the victim, and not enough of the response is about moving forward and getting past the trauma and living a normal, happy life.

I am also an American, and we tend to focus more on the negative. Many times, when I have expressed this opinion, people have been upset because my feelings don't put enough negativity on the actions of the attacker - but really, the attacker means nothing to me, only the recovery and wellbeing of the victim.
Companies with 10% growth Y/O/Y fail all the time. A portfolio of 10 of those companies will consist primarily of failures. Most of the companies in that portfolio will cease to exist without returning money back to investors. By your own definition, none of them will grow explosively, and so the winners can't pay back the losers. Pick a success rate and an investment multiple for the winners and do the math.

Banks do fund businesses like this, all the time. The difference is that they fund with debt instruments, not equity. You're obligated to pay them back and can't deliberately manage your business to avoid the obligation (chances are, you'll have to co-sign the obligation personally).

If all you're arguing for is broader availability of lines of credit, by all means, keep asking for that. But that's never been what startup investors provided.
Show HN: Wallaby – A very Rails admin interface
Of course. One should always fight for their believe. If someone doesn't like the open-door-dumps then he/she should do whatever they can to prevent it. Likewise If I prefer open-door-dumps then I better work on to make it happen.
Gentrification’s Empty Victory
REST was Roy Fielding but I agree. Much like the concept of Apache Cordova, the best jquery would be no jquery at all.
AWS has several thousand engineers in the Virginia suburbs of DC, with a bunch of local VP-level management

(and that's not including anyone who works on the us-east-1 region)
None of this, the market is too small. No European country is comparable to the USA and its 300 million customers.
At the time it seemed like gambling. Everyone thought it would come crashing down at any time. It was the forward thinkers and the heavy risk takers that invested. On top of that, only crazy people ever though it could hit 20k.
Haha, seconded. Taxes are just like executing a program. Boring, sure, but fundamentally easy.

Beyond the laugh, though, I find that a very strange rewording suggestion. Usually the advice (and I've found this good) is to make the to-do more specific and concrete. An open-ended project-sized item like "organize my finances" is a foolproof candidate for procrastination. "Do my taxes" is better, but might still be too big depending on the complexity.

A real to-do for either would be something like "Collect tax forms and order by date (note: there may be one under the couch?)" -- it's reasonably scoped and has a very clear "I'm done" criterion.

(EDIT: Looking at the article, it seems that "breaking it down" is indeed the suggestion. The specific wording chosen is still strange; it seems the author means something close to "gather documents" by "organize my finances".)
Who's using ActivityPub? For what?
Probably a Pixel or a Pixel 2, and install Copperhead OS which is an open source Android with all Google stuff removed and many extra hardening options. It's really security focused.

Use only F-Droid applications.

For extra level of paranoia, carry a portable hotspot, and connect your phone to the internet through your hotspot via wifi. This would avoid baseband attacks.

Obviously phones are very insecure, but depending on your threat model this is a very good option.
There's something oddly uplifting about all the responses in this thread put together that I haven't experienced in a long time.
I've thought about the comp issue for a while and came up with a kernel of an idea for a possible solution. Most companies are going to fail which means that most engineers will see their options go to ~$0. The reason VCs make money regardless of this low success rate is that they have a better Beta due to the many concurrent bets they're taking.

It occurs to me that some kind of Startup PEO could be created to help give engineers a favorable Beta too. Startups would hire the PEO by granting them equity and paying the salaries of their team each month. In exchange the PEO would pool the costs for good healthcare and other benefits. They'd also provide placement services to help engineers in their program switch companies whenever they wanted.

Do damn good work and the shared fund will give you upside. You won't be rewarded for picking the winning horse anymore, but instead the quality of your work over years and across several organizations. I'm not going to pretend I have all the incentive management figured out, but I think there's something in there and an ORG like YC might be able to pull it off.
It seems a little silly to me that someone would trust a "secure OS" from a situation where one guy could "seize control" of the company and infrastructure. This is largely why I've never seen third party ROMs as a significant solution to the security situation with mobile phones.

That being said, I'm curious what the other side of this story is. The email makes it sound like the guy's being fired.
Hehe, that's what a lot of people I know in Sweden did, and then the Riksbank changed all the coins a couple of years back and it was a big hassle to find any place that would accept huge amounts of old coins without charging huge amounts of money for it.
Evil mode doesn't support most ex mode commands. Can be jarring for someone used to doing things the vim way. Eg :help is just a thin wrapper around emacs' native help system, no :sets work, :u isn't implemented, etc.
I know where you're coming from, but here in the states a lot of real people are struggling to afford real goods and services that they need to stay alive: housing, healthcare, education, etc.

I wouldn't say economic anxiety is just 'nonsense fueled by conspiracy theorists.'
Notes on 'Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count'
You're saying we could do a debt financing to expand the business. Yes, we could do that. We wouldn't, because debt sucks, but I agree it's an option that is available to us, where venture funding is (I think, and am fine with) not.
I've shared this experience at my workplace. There are freely available snacks and occasional catering from local vendors. I don't find it surprising that many take advantage of the offerings, especially of highly popular foods like pizza.

An improvement would require both the individual and the organization to make an effort to reduce overconsumption and promote healthier foods. Would it be useful to apply standards like the USDA does with school cafeterias? [0] Either way, recognizing the issue is an important first step.

[0] https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/nutrition-standards-sc...
Ah, but here is the rub. If you want to work remote, who would you rather work for? An employer as established as possible (with less risk of going under) or a startup which might not even be around next year? Being remote, new opportunities might not be easy to come by, especially if the startup folds due to an economic downturn which is affecting other startups as well.

While hiring remote makes sense for startups, working for a startup might not be the best option for remote workers.
> The difference is that business partners are completely free to set the terms of their partnership.

They are not completely free; the law has bounds.

> Whereas in marriage, the terms are fixed by the state.

That's not true, there are default terms set by the state and, within the bounds of the law, they can modify them. Hence pre-(and post-)nuptial agreements.

> No business partners would enter a deal with equal shares if one brings 1M in assets and the other zero

You can probably find examples showing that that generalization is overstated, but, sure, that would be unusual.

> A marriage forces them to.

No, even in a “community property” state, it doesn't, even in the absence of a special agreement between the parties. Community property is generally that property acquired during the marriage; assets brought in at the formation remain separate property, in general.
This is a bananas article and kind of makes a case for Zimbardo as a sort of Alex Wakefield of psychology.
This was a wonderfully witty and almost equally sarcastic take on happiness. Good guffaws guaranteed.
The only reason to join a startup is if you know the founders and you think working with them would be fun enough that you're willing to give up hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it.
Those aren't mutually exclusive
It's quite a well known fact in the Valley that FB/Google pay much better than MSFT/AMZN...and yes the best (or lets say a lot of them) engineers eventually do leave for FB/Google...AMZN has huge turnover. MSFT on the other hand is more of a rest and vest type of place with nice work life balance so not as many people are leaving.
Wow. They were apparently profitable for two minutes in 2016, might be what you're referring to? I haven't provided any evidence because I assumed you had access to the same real world information as I do, but if you don't have internet I can mail you some stuff.
Or you negotiated poorly for your first and second jobs. Do better next time. There is a wide variance both within and across companies.
If the underlying hardware is compromised(it is) then it doesn't matter what the os does.\
EDIT: If you are downvoting me - state why.
It's a lot harder to build an app, plus find new customers, handle marketing, documentation, support, operations, etc. Consider you have to do all of this at the same time. It probably can't be done for a "major" app by a single person in a year, but maybe for something small.

Though you still might build it, then find nobody wants it. Now you've wasted a year or more of your life. It happens all the time even with funded companies. You build it and nobody comes... or two few customers to support a real business.

To do something "major", you need people. People want to get paid.
China Is Testing Roads Paved with Solar Panels
Kinda hijacking this. When using FastMail with a custom domain can I setup a catch all address and then have each different address somehow tagged? It would be nice to be able to have proper unique email addresses for each service so I know where spam ends up coming from.
I'm not sure why you are trying to dispute my facts when it's clear you have never worked at any of the above companies based on your comments.

Even in Seattle it's well known that FB pays more than MSFT. So your theory about top tech needing to pay top dollar etc, doesn't hold.
Show HN: Ensemble – Keeping you on top of your Composer dependencies
Well great advice so i should follow it: If you are a stoic, positive person who doesn't negatively affect the life of others and your own, do not make the mistake to think you have it good. You re just a convenient person, transparent and invisible to everyone because people like drama, they don't like rocks.
I agree with you that GP's comparison was a bit drastic, to say the least.

However, you have gone too far in the other direction. You make it sound like leaving a religion is just as easy as unsubscribing from a newsletter.

Visit one of the ex-religion subreddits sometime. I know Mormonism and Christianity both have one. To be fair, those online groups will be selection biased towards the most difficult situations. But I think many of those experiences are not terribly uncommon.
The author doesn't say that she doesn't like people who give themselves a negative identity, but rather that it's a habit which makes them miserable, which is plausible.

She also doesn't say that any of the habits can be casually broken, if only they are recognized.
Yeah, I feel you. Like I wrote about, I can feel myself growing toward the middle though I like to feel like I care about my company's raison d'être. On the same token, I regret seeing good candidates get passed up because of some undefinable sine qua non (I swear I don't use so many French sayings, these just happen to work).

Here are a few thoughts I have in response:

- "passion" as a term has sort of been hijacked by Silicon Valley-esque startups, particularly in B2B spaces. This is a cynical take, but how else are you going to convince someone to take crappy pay with poor chance of equity return to work on a risky idea?
- passion doesn't always have to mean cause-oriented. Can you be passionate about good engineering? About boring, reliable, predictable success? Maybe there is a value you are "passionate" about but you haven't encountered many companies also passionate about that. I write about this too. It's just useful to be open-minded about defining what it means to you, but you probably do care about how you spend your time away from home
- there is also the matter of being passionate about just straight up doing great work. I used to think I wouldn't like contracting or consulting, but I've met some awesome firms in Seattle and they are full of people who like swooping in, solving hard problems and moving on to the next thing

And finally there are lots of industries where "punch in, punch out" is ok. My friends working in healthcare info systems come to mind. Government work (18F and sundry contract companies) is getting more interesting.

I am totally with you about being honest. It's a good way to discover where you don't want to work. I want to recognize though it is a privileged position to being in a position where you can survive not getting or turning down a job.

Thanks for taking time from your day to read and reply!
Most psychotherapy seems like a clinical, medicalized repackaging of wisdom that the ancients already had. (Which is most certainly not to disparage the value of psychotherapy!)
Debit and credit are the only methods for commerce with almost any third party. Transferring and escrow payments require direct channels that Wells Fargo does not want to negotiate. Regardless of differences between debit and credit, debit is at least backed by direct account balances. Credit is not. Chargebacks would also be a nightmare for credit cards.

Even if it's deemed unacceptable to disallow over-risked services like credit cards to purchase cryptocurrency, then the beauty is that cryptocurrency purchasers can migrate their loans, and savings to another banking provider who will service the headache of credit-backed cryptocurrency investments.
Mastodon uses ActivityPub. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software)
Once you let any X define you as a person, and for a sufficiently long time, it becomes very ingrained. It's a dangerous thing.
Yeah it was quite revolutionary then simply because psychology wasnt even a thing, its kind of looking back at people worshipping fire whereas nowadays we understand way more about the whole process of fire
The best way I found of actually getting through the dread tasks is to cheat. Ask for help from someone else (presumably they do not have the mental block).

1. Identify the dread tasks.

2. Ask someone who cares (about you) to help you.

3. Do them together, with the other person not letting you get distracted.

For big tasks asking other people to help you chunk them also helps. After that avoid thinking about whole thing and just look at the small chunks.
my understanding is the article was pointing to the difference between having a problem/difficulty, and letting it define you. Two different people can have the same chronic ailment - one will be defeated by it, the other will attempt to live a happy life despite it. The article is advocating the latter over the former.
Most of the flights with those prices you can't change your ticket, or flights are non-refundable, or if you want to change your flight at the last minute you're going to be charged the difference between the cheap fare you payed and whatever fares are available (mostly business select if you change at last minute). You can't book more than 30 days out with Teleport, but that's kind of the point. You don't have to spend hours each month scheduling, comparing prices, and booking your trip a month in advance.
Supreme Court Upholds Controversial Ohio Voter-Purge Law
Show HN: Grok, a modern wiki for useful, concise, trustworthy content
Pixels to Centimeters Converter
You can also just squat on one. As long as you avoid using the trademarks ("usb" and the logo) there is nothing that can be done to you even in the US. This is basically what most Chinese products do.
As I often do with new-ish things these days, I've been quietly weighing what degree of investment I want to put into GraphQL for a year or so.

John's vote of confidence means a lot to me. The software industry has lots of abstractions that are different ways of arranging the chairs on the deck, shuffling the work around while providing marginal productivity magnifiers.

jQuery's been somewhat superseded because it isn't an application-organizing framework, but it's still one of the best conceived and fitted abstractions for the problems it was meant to solve I've encountered in the entire time I've worked in software. If the person who conceived it thinks GraphQL yields productivity benefits, then I want to check it out.
I agree with you. I have often gotten reactions of pity and the like for speaking openly of my experiences. I do my best to give polite push back against it.

I was raised with the idea that the shame is on the rapist, not the victim. I was raised with the idea that people who treat the victim in a shaming way are part of the problem.

Being open about this aspect of my life is probably the single most "political" thing I do. I strongly agree with the things I was taught on this subject.

FWIW, I likely did not lose my virginity to rape insofar as the detail of my hymen being ruptured. That probably occurred many years earlier when I fell at age 4 while trying to use a chair as a ladder.
Leetcode is used by many companies for interviews and whiteboards. For example when I interviewed at Facebook the first screening problems were from the site and the later whiteboard problems for the on-site interview were as well.
So? That's one engineer. I said top 20%. You act like the median engineer is pulling 400k at FB. They aren't.
Can't really blame him much then, likely only the truly psychotic would have been depicted as mentally ill back then simply because didn't know what psychology was and thus definitely skewed his samples all over the place.

Then again, I'm probably just stating another unproven assumption.
Your constructive suggestions about Grok are very welcome.
when i approach a new largish (say < 500k lines) codebase I'm supposed to be working on, I'll often just go on a giant tear and completely refactor it to be the way I like it.

in the process I end up breaking several foundational assumptions and have to spend even more time carefully backing out my changes and trying to get it to work again.

rewriting the whole thing isn't your job (usually). check out a fresh new copy. now you can make a pretty informed decision about the best way to make the changes you're actually being paid to make.

or, more rarely, now I have a less tested but substantially smaller version (once I replaced a 500k library with a 15k version by gutting all the abstraction layers), and if its not a maintenance smallest-delta kind of deal, I just go with that.

anyways, the shortest path to the goal isn't always to chip away gingerly at the surface with your eyes closed and your head turned away - take a nice deep dive, you can always swim back up.
I did a PhD, so by the end of my 20's, my net worth was approximately zero. If I rolled the dice on a startup, there's a very good chance I'd hit my mid-30's and be in the same place I was financially at 20. Instead, I opted for FANG where I could accumulate as much in a few years as my parents did over their careers.
Yeah, it's because I would figure out how to call someone I know to come and get me.

You don't end up homeless when you have someone to call to come and get you. You end up homeless when you've burned through that bridge.
If you want to leave North Korea, you risk your life and your family's lives in a terrifying journey over the Chinese border. If you want to leave Mormonism, you write a letter saying "please remove me from your list."

This is exactly like saying, "If he beats you, why don't you just leave him?"

But I don't expect the people arguing with me in this thread to understand that, any more than I'd expect you to understand why Zimbardo's participants didn't just blow a whistle on the whole thing and walk out as soon as the experimental ethics went south.
Amen.

I didn't watch your linked video, but I definitely agreed with your post. As someone who has also been highly miserable (aka clinically depressed) in the past, various sentiments along the line of "come on, life is great, why can't you appreciate it?" and "that's no so bad, suck it up" most definitely did NOT help me overcome my depression.

Which makes me wonder: if the purpose of this post is to belittle "miserable" people, well I guess it succeeds, but then that seems a pretty miserable thing to do in the first place. If the purpose is to ironically remind folks that there are easy things you can do to not be miserable, I don't think it's doing it in a particularly effective way.
Great feedback. Clarified. Thanks wool_gather and gnud!