skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I run a few OSS projects, among which one with 10k+ github stars that has a decent size community. While I recognize my own personality in Rich's post ("if you don't like my direction.. there's the door") for some reason I ended up running this project with the attitude that everyone I am interacting with their time, insights, and needs are just as important as mine. It's been very refreshing. It makes people very eager to contribute, and there's close to 0 hostile behavior in the community. It really works magic.

I have no doubt that Rich's time and his direction of Clojure are endlessly more important than the average community member, as a fact. But you CAN'T communicate this way! Interacting with someone where before you start there is the assumption that someone is way more important cannot result in a good interaction. Even if it is a fact, even if both people involved know it, you will be much better off if you act like it doesn't exist for the purpose of communication.

Of course, time is limited, but I find there is an art to giving short reactions that are still respectful in this way. And it is not like Cognitect entirely does NOT want there to be community interaction (like Rich himself says), so it is just a question of optimizing these interactions.
Agree completely. Which is why... blaming the current generation of workers seems unhelpful. I hope the OP will realize that.
I think I covered ableness in the second paragraph. For a large and growing number of people in the US, taking on that fight could easily mean homelessness. I don't hardly consider them able on grounds of self preservation.
> many things here cannot be made here with any ease

Like what?
Same here in missouri. We had 2 dry summers in a row, then a wet harvest time this year.

Hay prices are up over double last year and last year was up from the previous year. Last year for example I would have been happy to buy $25 a 5x5 round bale. This year if you can find them, they're $90-$100. Small squares 2 years ago were $1.25, this year I happily paid $4.
That's pretty blatant age discrimination.
>they correspond to physical reality as well

I wonder if what you are referring to as illusions could not just be realities of our emergent physical needs for individual, short-term survival, but also for collective, long-term survival. I guess it's possible that some human illusions such as some of our concepts of right and wrong, morality, or natural rights, would actually also be emergent for AI in the long-run if these illusions are necessary or consistent with survival ir exitence in our universe?
I wonder how much of the feeling of the absolute evil of eugenics is just the echo of the highly successful propaganda campaigns against the Nazis by the Allies? Isn't eugenics just the idea that society should promote the improvement of the genetic makeup of the populous? An idea prone to abuse fundamental individual liberties, but do we just instead say genetics don't matter at all? Seems like that is the West's current path, but that does not look like it is working out so well either.
Depending on when "a while" is, it may be significantly different now. We've had at least two big releases that have shifted a significant amount of the ecosystem, and many smaller ones that have improved things too.
> hiring [...] without consideration for anything but merits

I would only be concerned about this if I lacked merits.
Hang glider forced to cling on for his life after launching unattached
TiDB Operator User Guide on Kubernetes
The Watchmaker [video]
I'm glad you will register :)

Yeah we will definitely add some sort of information regarding price on the website really soon.
Thank you. I have never considered this view. I always hear it’s for the team’s good to be more diverse but never why it’s good to be diverse...
I still believe quotas should not be applied everywhere but your example shows an excellent point that they are beneficial in some cases.
a team is greater than the sum of its parts. personality and background can and do make a big impact on team dynamics and performance. I like to look up candidates and get a broader picture of what they bring to the table (e.g. leadership, sense of humor, optimist, realist, etc.)
There are certainly much more Fortran users today then 30 years ago. It is not only widespread in science and engineering education but subsequently of course also in the research codes. However, there is a gradual shift towards scientific python when high performance is not needed. But as the author notices, Fortran is the prominent language for high performance programming because it is so simple and has linear algebra built in at its hearth.
"I don't want to do evil things for any amount of money" is clearly not the same thing as "I don't care about money at all."
Sounds like you're thinking of isolated robotic workers.

An ideal worker in my mind has many human qualities that make them enjoyable and inspiring to be around. They make other employees happier to come to work and help them be more effective at work.

Granted, it's a lot easier to measure that Tom produces 15% more widgets per hour than it is to tell that Cindy's presence increased the entire factory's output by 5%. But still, the latter provides more value to a company so I expect improvements in evaluating that.
Just like Facebook, Google is NOT selling anyone’s data!

What they are selling is the ability to run targeted ads based on that data. But the data never leaves Google!
To quote Google's code of conduct as it exists today:

> And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!

https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/

Media headlines from the time gave the impression that it was removed, which was absolutely false.
I would pay good money to test this hypothesis. I don't think its as simple as consuming tech though. I wonder how much effect cannabis legalization, opiod use etc. have on keeping a restive population dormant.
Why?

Maybe the older candidate only recently started to do the work. And this just the first thing the young person did?

I always get weird when people make a big deal about things people do at some young age. Most of the time the age is not important for the things we praise young people for doing. Most of the time it was just something their parents pushed them into to doing that any of many kids could have done had they just had the right parents.
NLL is stable in 1.31?
It shouldn't be required either way, but I've occasionally zip-tied two adapters together so I can swap between them quickly.
OP specifically asked for quantitative metrics.

> So, as a programmer, how do you quantify or estimate how good you are?
My favorite parts touch on how thoughts projected out of neural firings do not describe the cause of those firings. I think.

I imagine planting bread crumbs after already walking a trail, as a best guess narrative of where I walked and why.

> What makes some neural firings [semantically significant] is just their place in the causal chain, the pathway to further behavior. Rats choose among alternative pathways as a result of neural firings produced by previous experience. But it’s not because these neuron circuits contain statements about anything.

> By colonizing consciousness, spoken language turned [consciousness] into a monologue of silent speech, tricking us that the meaning of spoken words is given by thoughts’ content when its just silent sounds passing through consciousness. Neuroscience shows that that in our brains the neural circuits neither have nor need content to do their jobs.
Agreed, and this is exactly what I tell people who sometimes forget to compose their emails to me in 12pt Comic Sans font like my email rider requests.
Or when shareholders and board members oust Zuckerberg and Sandberg. Employees get fired for making mistakes that cost companies millions - why aren't executives held to the same standard especially when it's cost them billions in their market cap with no real solution in sight? The smart people are leaving (Chief Business Officer of Whatsapp being the most recent one), and the bleeding is only going to continue if there's no trust in the top ranks at FB.
One thing I've wondered about "don't be evil" is: what stories does the company tell itself about how that value gets put into practice?

Any value which actually drives organizational behavior in the real world is going to be complex -- complex enough that it cannot be fully conveyed in a 3-word-phrase. This is especially true when the phrase includes such a not-agreed-upon word as "evil". So the ways that the organization expects individuals to apply the phrase need to be explained. From to Lexington the data structure that humans have historically used to store those explanations-of-values is the story. So what stories did Google employees used to tell each other about "don't be evil" and what stories do they tell each other now?
stop it.

“Modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not.”

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-co...
the point is that current measures of 'best' skew heavily towards certain race, origin, and background
Tracking left and right: website behaviour in the lead-up to the midterms
OK I had missed the kata containers blurb in the FAQ, thanks for pointing it out. In fact the tweets make my point: we are all so blinded by new shiny releases that we forget their highly incremental nature.
I don't think that the lay-upper-middle-manager (aka the customer) cares. It's all about looking good in your yearly reviews.
No. This is about judging people as individuals, on merits, character, and ability to do the job, while removing unchangeable physical characteristics that are meaningless and have been used far too often to ill-effect.

Why do you think we should continue to include those physical characteristics, especially if they have nothing to do with the actual job?
How the Sandwich Consumed Britain (podcast)
Profits allow for survival in the immediate. Innovation allows for survival in the future

EDIT: The phrase "Innovate or die" is popularized for the concept of profits or innovation.
But... I am puzzled. Honest question here.

What is wrong with meritocracy? Isn't it a system where your talent, effort and achievement are meaningful, and attributes like race, gender, wealth, sexual orientation etc. are irrelevant to your success? Isn't a meritocracy a platform that is equal to all?

Has someone redefined the terminology somehow?

I mean, I've always thought a meritocracy is a good thing. It does not matter "what" you are, it matters how good you are in what you do. And if you are not good at something, it is not due to your sex or race etc.
Well, like this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A3Ns93sbE8v70hCt7yWJigoi...

Best I think I can do is certain descriptions for projects highlighting my role, as well as stick a little section at the bottom describing a personal experience and showing a bit of my personality and value system. Stuff like "Led hackathon team of 4 to develop a serverless app integrating several APIs." It's really quite tricky to show off your soft skills on your resume. I think the resume should be more to just get your foot in the door. If I can get on the phone, I'm usually good to go.
I’m surprised to see library support so high on the “needs to improve” list.

It makes sense when compared to the rich Python ecosystem. Coming from a C++ background I consider the Rust library ecosystem to be one of its strong points already!
Better motherfucking website
> we should also have size caps on companies

As a thought experiment, I've often wondered the best way to maintain the positive corporate culture that small companies tend to lose as they grow.

It's not clear it's simply growth, or whether it's profits. I wonder if a non-charity oriented non-profit would maintain a better corporate culture.
Oh come on. Not this argument again. Let me just say this: short of WW3 or a complete reset of the global economy, we will never, ever, ever go back to tying currency down to a commodity, ever again.
21st century. I highly recommend the book "The Psychology of Innovation in Organizations"

I help a lot of mom'n'pop type shops introduce innovations into their operations. Most places just need a solid online presence with a proper SEO strategy. Others need unique solutions that are foreign to their industries.
In case anyone else was wondering what this jargon meant, "non-lexical lifetime":

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/43234

Took me a bit of websearching to figure out what people were excited about.
The activation energy to mobilize people is incredibly high, especially on issues that don't directly effect them. And even then it's still huge. People will always debate exactly why, but it does mean that the vast majority of people will remain mostly politically inert.
> Ghandi

Maybe, you meant to say - Gandhi [0] ?

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
And both are bad.
So is COBOL and several other old languages. Lots of legacy stuff that still gets used and updated.
Is it context or appeal to emotion?
While it's true that you're not responsible for your ancestors' actions, you usually have similar nature and nurture to your ancestors, so it's useful to take them into account when attempting to predict your behavior.
Duplicate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18541650
1. I'm not comparing domain name availability to anything. Rather, I'm pointing out flaws in your analogy, comparing your analogy to other things, and trying to show you a wide spectrum of resource availability.
2. Domain names are not random addresses, they're identity, and thus severely constrained. Yes, if one wanted a random domain name, they have near-infinite options; but not every domain use-case is such. Not even the dominant use-case is such. Squatting on a domain name is an effective way of squatting on the online version of a real-life identity. Compared to trademark squatting, domain name squatting is trivial. Needless to say, both practices are extortionary.
> These points have nothing to do with actual value produced to the business, or the developer's worth / skill.

This is true.

Story points don't translate to value. They can't. A nail could be worth 5 cents, or it could be a million dollars. Value is determined by the customer and their need.

Story points translate to cost. Customers determine the value. They examine the cost. And they determine whether the value is worth the cost. Is that 5 cent nail worth 5 cents or is it the nail that'll save the project?

Story points are about developing an effective and consistent estimation tool (how much will this cost or how much time will this take to produce). If your team is inflating their story points, they're idiots.

Assign a number to a story or task. If the team has developed consistent and reliable estimates (this takes time to happen) then this number translates with some reasonable fidelity to cost and time to complete the task. If the numbers are unreliable indicators of cost and time, then the team needs to examine their estimation methods. Perhaps bring in other people with more experience to help them.

The team (themselves, no one else) has a history of completing so many story points per cycle (sprint, week, month, whatever). So they know that if the customer has asked for an estimated (their estimate) 50 units of work and they can only complete 20 per month on average, then it'll take 2.5 months on average to complete the work. This lets them, you know, plan. And discuss with their customer the priority and objectives. If the customer is only paying for one month of labor, the customer will have to reexamine their objectives and priorities.

The customer never sees the story points. They see the cost and time estimates the story points turn into.

The managers never see the story points. They see the cost of the projects and the income from customers.

The only people who should see and care about the story points are the developers and the project lead. Maybe a statistician if they can't do the math themselves.
I don’t really see how you can hide (a rough idea of) age in an anonymous cv though. I’m guessing you still have the dates in front of the diplomas and previous jobs, or at the very least how long was spent at each previous job. It stands to reason that someone boasting 10+ years of experience is at least 30, and probably around 35.
> Which other companies do you think would be more ethically conscious than GOOG in these circumstances?

If you wanted to do software work for a company that didn't kowtow to Chinese government demands, chances are 99% of jobs are available to you. Does that mean they could if they would? Unknown, and since regimes change with frequency you can't rely on stated principles, only actions.
>Who said it should be picked for web development?

These perhaps?:

https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket

https://github.com/actix/actix-web

https://github.com/carllerche/tower-web

Not saying that is the primary use, but still a valid question as long as these libraries are being built/pushed.
No need to debate, I have no idea what I'm talking about! But here's another recent study that (to my lay mind) also seems to be in this space: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-conventional-wisdom-cell-membr....
Legends speak of one called Tom: a great Entrepreneur of old, taken away to sleep in a secluded space of his own, who will one day wake and return to social media in our time of direst need.
I don't think you are reading that wrong. People use all sort of pseudo science to make inferences on people's competencies. Like if you are a woman in a male dominated field you're likely to be highly competent. Or when hiring for a leadership position an older candidate may be subconsciously preferred over a younger one with more experience. It's all generally bunk and this is imo, an admission that they have been using the wrong criteria to judge candidates.
These types of comments are generally shunned here, but I have to say, this is very well said and exactly how I feel about this.
More specificity is probably called for, as I have been under the same impression for quite a while. Directors of companies are now asked to consider stakeholder value rather than shareholder value when making decisions. A stakeholder can be a person whose environment is impacted by the decision, employees who may or may not be shareholders, customers, etc.
https://www.athensjournals.gr/history/2018-1-X-Y-Sweatman.pd...
It's true, though. Fonts have a very strong visual impact. And every single letter you write adds to and reinforces the impact.

I think designers are on to something when they say to use a custom font to promote the brand. It's something that's both low-key and high-impact.
I agree with you. Here in central Michigan they've begun construction of a huge cheese plant will purchase 20-25% of the state's milk. Add to that the drastic slashing of the Canadian dairy tariff and people are cautiously optimistic.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/john-gallagher/20...
As as reddit user might say, the name checks out.

That said, I never see a discussion about China, even here, that isn't saturated with whataboutism, often to the point of hyperbole.
I tried to balance, but months would go by and I wasn't making progress that satisfied me.

I quit my job last month, and so far, it seems it was the right decision.

What really pushed me over the edge was just realizing how bored I was at work, and it wasn't just a slow period - it was systemic. The projects I'd fantasize about spaced out commuting home genuinely excited me, but then I'd snap out of it as soon as I got home and realized I had 4 hours to eat, bathe, and maintain relationships with friends and significant others. I was scared to think about losing my paycheck, especially because I'm not pursuing these projects as potential revenue streams - really just for the sake of exploring and learning new things. I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where my only financial obligation is rent, and as a software engineer, a few hours of freelance work per comfortably covers that.

I'm not advocating everyone go quit your jobs, because I realize everyone's situation is different. But life is too short to be bored as shit.
The "values over profits" approach was always more of a recruitment tool than a PR tool. It did give a nice PR boost, but realistically Google's been the best choice of search engine since it came out in 1998. They don't need additional customer goodwill for people to keep using them, they just need to continue to give good results for esoteric queries.

Since 2005, though, good engineers have had lots of options for where to work, many of which pay better or have more growth potential than Google. And "Don't Be Evil" was a great way to persuade them to come work for Google rather than Yelp or Facebook or some hedge fund, and keep them there rather than have them go off and found their own startups that potentially could compete with Google. Because so much of their product moat depends upon technical excellence, keeping the best engineers within the company is critical for them.

I'll predict that if they don't reverse course on this, we'll see a mini-exodus of Googlers who either end up founding their own startups or start working on political-tech projects. Ultimately I think that may be good for the world, but it's not really in Google's long-term interests, although perhaps at this point their moat is entrenched enough and they're big enough that it doesn't really matter.
Part of it is almost certainly due to fear of reprisal, but consider also that many people of Chinese descent simply may not agree with the letter. I grew up in a majority-Chinese neighbourhood, and one thing you come to realize is that while many Chinese expats have very complicated feelings about the Party, they still tend to be intensely nationalistic and are very sensitive towards perceived slights directed at China.

They may not want to sign the letter simply because they're offended by singling out China for opprobrium.
Ancient Eastern traditional martial arts disciplines can be really amazing. I used to take Merpati Putih, a form of Indonesian silat, from a couple of brothers in Ogden, Utah, like 13 years ago. Within six months I was breaking solid ceramic tiles and hard metal files with my bare hands. I gave up a really solid MMA gym to go train with these guys.

The human body is capable of really amazing things, and schools like this have been honing their pedagogy for thousands of years. If only Westerners weren't so darn skeptical about everything, then we'd have way more of that sort of thing over here.
The Future of Work – On-Demand, Distributed, and Autonomous
It's a buzz word in marketing.

In strategy, there are 2 types of innovation

Incremental and Disruptive

Both types give organizations increased power over territory.

People are the blood of an organization. Ethics and people determine culture which determines goals.

Innovation is the strategic foothold for keeping an organization alive as it travels into the future.

EDIT: I want to add that all organizations (even non-business) need innovation. Civilizations, Empires, Protests, Support groups, Religious groups, etc... This is due to environments constantly changing. This is what Strategic Planners help with.
For 2018 edition code, yes. 2015 will come later.
Why would farmers extend themselves so much that one bad year breaks them? Why wouldn't they set aside some of that good money so in bad year they could still pay the bills?
> Yes, but the job probably will pay less, at a smaller scale, with fewer perks, and be less interesting.

Tough moral choices always come with a cost.
I think it has to do with size/status too, I couldn't imagine ever wanting to spend my life making a couple of the richest people in the world a tiny bit more marginally wealthy. Bezos, Zuckerberg, Page and Brin all still want more and work smart young people like dogs to get it. Not for me.