skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Really? With 200+ karma you wouldn't be willing to knock someone down every once in awhile... ya know, take one for the team?

I'm below 50 karma atm. and I think it might be worth it once in awhile. I'd rather have this place be a good community than gobble up karma. All it takes is for a small percentage of suckers like me to knock down the truly awful posts into obscurity.

I'm not even sure if I like people knowing exactly what causes karma to move. Allowing people to know the rules of the game invites people to 'game' the system for more points. Is the point of the site to get lots of karma, or to build a worthwhile community?

At any rate. I wouldn't say it's a dismal idea.
Well, he can't be shy to find a cofounder with an extrovert personality to begin with. He also can't be shy to bargain percentage points; it's all too easy for some extrovert j[oc|er]k to browbeat you into submission; you need him more than he needs you, unless you're Tarmo Uutsalu or Oleg Kiselyov or something.

Perky social web ideas are a dime a dozen.
As someone who writes for a blog with a relatively large reach, all I can say is do it and circulate it as best you can. You never know who might pick it up and what kind of links may ensue.

As to circulating it, a [reputable] PR company is a good bet but hardly free. There are services such as PRNewswire that are comparatively cheap - and assembling a mailing list of your favorite (and other relevant) blogs / news sources is free!
Thank you for the responses so far. Its amazing how varied they have been.

Trying to found a startup is a very risky business. Statistically, I'll wind up with some very good experience, but no company to show for it. In the long run, wouldn't it be wiser to get the MBA, even if it slows down my work?
> Any pearls of wisdom or inspiration for interesting marketing campaigns?

Lurzer's Archive, a quarterly ((IRC) global magazine of award winning print, video and online ads.
This is a classic strawman. Most people I know who are aspiring entrepreneurs don't despise their current work and think everything will be roses after they've made a lot money. Most just want enough money so they never have to worry about it again. It's a question of security and flexibility.

Choosing to work doing something you love is worlds apart from having to work doing something.
It doesn't seem like we are going to have the same types of issues with scaling web apps as people in other industries are going to have. I can see why it will be hard for games and other high performance applications to scale to multiple cores, but web servers work quite nicely in this setup, so I'm not to worried about it myself.

http://www.loudthinking.com/posts/7-multi-core-hysteria-and-...
It's a good idea. One that I need to do more of, really... my blog is echoingly empty, but it's not as if I don't write. I just do most of my writing here.

I should really do more blogging and less news.yc, or crosspost my blog entries as comments, or vice versa.
thats the way to think about it! - I don't think its healthy to do anything for 90-110 hours a week, no matter how much you enjoy it
can't be to hard to finds .yc's - cause its open. i hope this doesn't send a flood of seo's ;)
I've had good luck with Slicehost. In particular they have almost 24/7 support happening in their irc channel.
In efficient markets, risk and reward are always proportionate. So all other things being equal, the rational choice is to take as much risk as your life can stand at any given point.
i dont like the do what you love and you will never have to retire saying...

Many of my hobbies and things I do for fun are not monetizeable.
am i the only one who never got into PDF because it was a easily seen closed system of being able to read it for free, but to create it cost money? .... I always wished they would just disappear now its seems they are here to stay ;(
That's interesting, how is the smoothstart project coming along?

p.s. I'm creating it's competitor.
Revelations from Rails Source 2
You can surf the internet for 40 hours a week, though.
I think it signifies a trust in user votes; basically, if you hit a certain negative votes, the odds of you wanting to see this comment is thought of as low... having the system this way builds trust among fellow members of the commmunity (hope I'm not way off here)
Early retirement is a euphemism for "fuck you" money. That's what people really want.
the delicious one is wrong.
"Anyvite" is way to close to "an Evite."

Good luck not getting sued. Sincerely. :/
Extracting a recipe for happiness from livejournal [pdf]
I've been slashing the recent trend of "shyness coaching" articles on news.ycombinator, but the article is actually kinda good, as far as pop psychology goes.
Still, you can change a site a lot without renaming it...
One simple way to attack social anxiety
Benzodiazepines.

Sure, they create tolerance, but so does alcohol. Do it responsibly and under medical supervision.
Believe Me, It's Torture
Thanks for reading the post. What do you think is wrong with the del.icio.us formula?
Quite frequently we read them indirectly through Techcrunch/Mashable/GigaOM, etc. They read the press release and then summarize and add commentary. I suppose that usually it's the PR company issuing the release that is also bugging them to pick up the story, so that's probably the more important (and expensive) part. Without a PR company you're probably better off sending them a more casual email.
Neil Young's answer to digital distribution is physical media? A disc you have to go the store and buy in person or have delivered by a guy in a truck? A disc, I think it's safe to assume, for which you have to jump through hoops in order to get the music onto your iPod (assuming you have a Blu-ray drive in your computer)? Neil, you truly are a visionary.
I think the sorting is much more effective than the graying out.
It would be nice to have a less misleading title. I clicked to find out what Digg's algorithm is.
Google wins source code ruling against Viacom
Neuromancer is even better than I remember. I saw it at a book sale for $1 and picked it up and started re-reading it. Its awesome. Very believable - gritty and messy like real life. Great characters and just flat out virtuoso writing by Gibson.
I remain unconvinced that software development will ever be able to make that kind of a titanic shift; people naturally think in serial and accomplish tasks in serial, and many programming tasks simply don't break down neatly into highly-parallelizable chunks. For example, you can parallelize at the web request level, but are you really going to start parallelizing the rendering of the output of that request? Would you bet your website on you being able to get that 100% correct, or would you rather trade off some speed for the sake of correctness and implementation ease?

To put it another way, parallelization is a cost-benefit analysis; having more cores changes the "benefit" side of the equation but not the "cost" side, and I don't see any magic bullet coming that will drastically alter the "cost" side. Increased use of multiple cores at the lowest level will only happen thanks to better tools and frameworks that keep people from having to think about threading/parallelization themselves. As soon as you have to worry about ordering dependencies, you've entered a world where implementation is very difficult and testing/verification is nearly impossible. Most applications right now are "fast enough" to make correctness and implementation ease far more important concerns than raw speed.

So you might see people migrate to frameworks that allow for easier parallelization, and web applications will obviously benefit, but I doubt you'll see any fundamental change in how people write software.
I don't know what their site used to be, but Anyvite is a pretty cool name. It's descriptive, short, and easy to spell.
I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that most startup founders (those who stick with it, anyway) enjoy it a lot more than a 9-to-5 job or consulting work. In this context, then, the smallest value of "early retirement" really means "never having to take a 9-to-5 job or do consulting work again", not "never doing anything productive ever again".
After 8 years bleeding my motivation waiting for week- or month-long simulations to run, I strongly believe nobody should work on problems where the feedback loop isn't insanely short.

I care far more about working someplace small than about working on something web-based. There's just a lot less communication and bureaucracy, better odds of avoiding dysfunction.

Web-based startups just happen to satisfy both these constraints - the web as delivery mechanism yields instant feedback[1], and the web as eco-system encourages small and agile organisms.

[1] And high quality feedback. As an academic I was separated from my readers by an advisor and a dissertation committe, or by a set of anonymous reviewers and a program committee. Large companies separate you from the customer by layers of hierarchy. In a startup you're right next to your customers.
I think this is relevant, and would love to hear more about it.
I assume that refers to dropping the F-bomb on the (lame|stupid|unappreciative|mean) boss that you toiled under pre-retirement.

Now, if you got your money from doing a startup, who gets your F-bomb? :P
Hitchens is one of the leading intellectuals of our time, as well as a great wit and a master of the English language. Referring to him as "Vanity Fair writer" is like referring to Orwell as "Former restaurant worker".
And to score a touch down. The idea of squillions of dollars is just like the idea of the endless party after a big win.

It won't be the reality and maybe even if we know that the fantasy is still motivating. However when the fantasy turns your life into an unbearable drudge it should be reevaluated.
The actual algorithm is more complicated than that, is all.
They ignored my last app and seem to be doing the same now. They seem to only pay attention to sites that are heavily funded for some reason. I'm young, working alone, and don't need funding - I find that a little more interesting than people running through millions. They also seem to cover some really ridiculous websites too.
Terence Tao says there is a problem with the proof.

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/structure-and-rando...
Agreed, I do my part to try and vote on stuff as much as I can, especially comments that have obviously taken time and effort to create.
I wonder why Paul cares so much about people being collectively downmodded under the ground. Some of the stuff I said here scored way below -10 mark and I didn't care, why would PG?

This is just a little game we're all playing: popularity in high school, karma points on some Internet board, who knows, maybe someone is selling fake Facebook friends... Paul, you're taking this too seriously! :-)

Why create a little democracy only to manipulate it slightly to his understanding of "the right thing to do"? Although I'd love the idea of printing McCain name nearly invisible on the ballot. That would do the trick.
The Sheep Look Up++ - a book that makes it possible to imagine how bad things could get, a faculty that helps keep you alert, and out of thinking "How bad could it be? Everything will go on as normal". Funny, we have a lite version of it - we have risen+rising cancer rates, and chemicals being 'innocent til proven guilty' here in the States. Something that still awes me, though perhaps it shouldn't, is the way organic food fits the role of Puritan so exactly.
I'm sure this works great when you can split up your application to 2-10 threads. But how well will your programs work when you have to cope with 200-2000+ cores?
Votes should be traded in between users for money. Micropayments aren't really necessary if you're in for the mid-run, as Adsense et al. prove.
That's mistaken. It's likely that they will start stepping down per-core CPU speeds in the name of reducing the heat given off by each core. This would let them pack even more cores in and improve the 'overall capability' of the "chip".
True. The API is the easy part. Scaling is where the real test will be.
Because many hackers are shy?

Since the answer is obvious and you know it, why do you ask?
Wait - the title doesn't include Digg, so how exactly is it misleading? Maybe you're being sarcastic and my sarcasm detector just isn't well-tuned.
ISO (and FDA, etc.) standards tend to not be freely available online. Instead, you pay a few hundred bucks for a copy of the standard, which may be printed, electronic, or both. A sort of cottage industry even sprung up around this -- since the standard itself is copyrighted material, I think other companies are licensing it to resell.

Before the internet, and when the only users of standards were companies too large to care about a few hundred dollars, this made some sense. It's fairly annoying now, but existing businesses depend on this policy, thus they lobby, yadda yadda...
it's been awhile since I've seen a sci-fi list with books i haven't read. thanks for the link.
I like Hitchens, however, the waterboarding I saw in the video does not match the description of waterboarding on Wikipedia: "which involved stretching cellophane over his mouth and nose and pouring water on his face to create the sensation of drowning".

I was under the impression that in Hitchens' case there was no cellophane over his mouth and nose. Also the inverted (head is lower than feet) placement of the person was not done either, as Hitchens seems to be on a level surface. The reason for being inverted is supposed to be both a loss of control, plus it is easier to stimulate the gag reflex.
Dude, he's a pundit. A big name pundit, to be sure, but hardly the second coming of Benjamin Franklin.
"False idol"? Work until you drop? DHH must've been raised Catholic. Or, wait, Protestant.

I'll do what I want to do the way I want to do it, thank you very much Mr. Hansen.
I agree that downvoting sucks though I don't think losing Karma is the answer. Maybe there should just be a cap. People really do love to pile on here. I have long valuable posts that might get a couple of up votes but a couple of bad posts that have cut my karma in half. This really makes me feel like I just shouldn't comment at all. If I do comment, then it pressures me to post a lame "me too" or "I agree" post rather than risking an idea that people may not agree with. Just because the majority does not like your idea does not make your idea wrong, a community heavy in startups should know this better than any.
This is a classic strawman.

I don't think you're using that word correctly. The person works 80 to 100 hours a week and is miserable is a strawman? That's odd, because I've met so many of them. I've been one of them.

Which is not to say that there aren't a few people in the world who want nothing more than to work 100 hours a week. If you are one, good luck with that.

Most people I know who are aspiring entrepreneurs don't... think everything will be roses after they've made a lot [of] money.

Most just want enough money so they never have to worry about it again.

Am I the only one who sees a contradiction between these two sentences?

And just how much is "enough money that you never have to worry about it again"? I know people with no money who never worry about money, and I know people with pots of money who worry constantly. The worry has very little to do with the amount of money. The worry comes from you.

DHH is suggesting that one way to be happy is to get a job you like, work a sustainable number of hours, live within your means, and then stop worrying about it all the time. You've got an education, a skillset, and a salary that is the envy of the world, so what are you so afraid of?
Some unformed thoughts on Ambient Intimacy for the next generation
Well, so, just choose units that are meaningful to you, and stick with the knee that falls out of that.
Or a pseudo-open one -- Microsoft's XPS format has had some push and was submitted to ECMA not too long ago.
It would work for one night if you wanted to go out and pick up women, but it's a terrible idea to take benzos every day for social anxiety, because you quickly reach the point where the drug has absolutely no effect but you need it to feel normal. No doctor would prescribe that, you need some type of panic disorder. SSRIs like Celexa/Paxil would be a much better idea.
Good advice from ajross and pg. The fact that they don't have an option plan in place suggests that it's definitely very early stages. What level of funding do they have? Especially if you're that early, you should DEFINITELY be seeking equity.

To put it in perspective, we just made our first non-founder employee - a senior developer - and we gave up 4% to get him. It's on the high side, but as a first hire and someone who we didn't want to lose, we were willing to give that up.

That said, the legal costs with creating an option plan (and registering for business in the state if it's a DE corporation) are not insignificant. Especially if they don't have much money yet, and want to spend that mostly on talent, that can be a factor here.

If they haven't done an equity round yet (i.e., valued the company), then the stock is effectively worthless (par value is probably $0.001 per share or something in that range, and normally you would see something like 5M shares authorized and outstanding). So in this scenario, an option with this strike price is effectively the same as an equity grant.

We were lucky - we're doing our initial stock purchase agreements now (we incorporated awhile back but had to redistribute some equity as involvement with co-founders changed) and we were able to include our first hire in that plan. We all have the same vesting schedule - 4 yrs prorated with a 1yr cliff - but our initial dates are a year or so earlier than his. This saved us at least 5k in legal fees.

My advice would be, like ajross and pg suggested, to negotiate what equity will be granted - even if they don't yet have the means to grant. And, if they wanted, they could also sell you shares under the same original purchase agreement (assuming they have a vesting schedule they're happy with, and they had some authorized but unissued shares).

Basically, if you want the job and like the company, take it - but if you don't negotiate the equity now (even if it can't be executed yet) then don't expect it later.
How To Make Money From Home | Andy Michaels Blog on Internet Marketing and Online Success
Do you want to work from home? Working from home and making money from home are very different things. If you want to make money from home you must take certain steps to ensure success. Research is key, know who you are dealing with and get recommendations from current participants in the plan or service.
Those sites might pay attention to a press release from a company they'd heard of. If you're newly launched you're better off just sending them a short, personal email.
I don't buy his aversion to mp3s. Vast majority of the population can't even tell the difference between 128kbps and 192bps. I guess quality is a red herring and a way to market his new product.
Nothing is wrong with free software, I just think that if you're going to make it free, make it free, don't limit it like this:

"It requires the operator of a network server to provide the source code of the modified version running there to the users of that server."

I realize the Affero GPL3 and GPL3 are different. They both have the same limitation so I shortened the name in my comment to simply "GPL3". I understand the reasoning behind the clause, but I don't agree with it for a number of reasons.
The consultant/contractor would likely be to avoid payroll taxes/withholding/processing fees with TriNet etc - not to avoid giving equity. (And, technically, it's illegal to "pretend" someone is a contractor when they're not - but that's a separate issue :)

Remember, this is all at-will employment - either of you can end the relationship at any time. This is where an equity grant/option with cliff vesting comes in. 4 yrs with a 1yr cliff is fairly standard... In other words, if you get fired or leave before 1 yr, you don't get that equity/option and it reverts to the company.
I never bothered to count how much I typically work in a week until I read this article.

Usually my weekday schedule goes something like this:

- 1hr in the morning for breakfast and centering for the day

- 8hrs at the 9-5

- 1hr at the gym

- 4hrs on the startup

- 1hr to read, relax, and disconnect

Total work time = 12 hours a weekday. On weekends I'll typically do 10-12hrs on the startup. So ~70-72 hours.

So what helps the most? Good Sleep... and Timeboxing - Focus into an activity and disconnect when your time is up. I make sure my mornings take an hour, don't rush, and relax and center myself for the day. Going to the gym is an awesome energy boost and stress reliever. And finally, similar to my morning, I set aside an hour at night away from the TV, computer, etc. to just relax and disconnect from the day. I need sleep, and this gets me 8 solid hours each night.

On weekends I'll hang out with friends at night and limit any drinking as much as possible. Really though the foundation is a good sleep... if I'm not getting the 8-9hrs I'll scale back everything and get my sleep in order first before resuming the busy work schedule.
Impressive resume on Symfony. I think Symfony powers all of Delicious http://www.symfony-project.org/blog/2007/10/02/delicious-pre...
"I think the voting problem is a serious one. Apparently, only a minority of readers and posters vote and they seem to have a gang mentality that works like this: "If I don't like you, I'll vote you down regardless of what you write." This sucks the big one."

Maybe fade the commenter's name when a comment is posted and restore it to full visibility, say 24 (or 48 or 100) hours later? This way you are forced to focus on the content of the comment and not the commenter.
If you come to the realization that work in itself isn’t evil, you can stop living your life as a waterfall-planned software project.

This simile is awesome.
I love Kohana's ORM lib. Another framework I've been impressed with is Akelos. It sports a very progressive tag library remiscient of RoR.
It's not that difficult to discontinuate benzos. You just need to taper off slowly. You'll just be left at the same place you were before.

Many doctors treating depression will actually use benzos in addition to SSRIs as a standard first-attempt protocol. Antidepressants are inespecific for social anxiety, and can actually aggravate general anxiety (hence the SSRI-suicide problem). Sure, if social anxiety derives from low self-esteem or something... but you can work that out in psychotherapy. While on benzos. Or you can work it out by yourself, by interacting with people.

I was actually being provocative about all the pop psychology crap being thrown around. If your head is a mess, then the pop psychology is useless. When unscrambled, you can attempt the pop psychology methods or join buddhism or something.
Famous Programmers From Adleman to Zimmermann