skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
All you said about yourself doesn't quite sound like you should get a PhD.

Also having a PhD doesn't automatically make your life more interesting.

Having a PhD will make you an expert in a narrow topic. So it most likely
will lead to job opportunities inside this topic. If you love this topic,
then it might help having a more fulfilling work life.

The problem is, it's not quite possible to really know if you're still
interested that much in a topic after studying it for several years. You
might be even sick of the topic after your PhD.

What you will take away from a PhD are some research skills that you could
apply on different topics. But if you don't like and enjoy researching,
then I don't quite see what you will really take away from a PhD.
Get the PhD (unless you really feel like it is going to mentally destroy you)

In my 20 years career in tech (dotcoms, startups, academia), there have been several times when having a PhD would have come in handy for pay bumps, funding, new jobs, and interesting projects, etc.
Interesting, can you share the model of the purifier?
> will pay much attention to what i will say in the future.

At what point in your working life have you ever wanted to say "child sexual abuse is okay"? Is this really something you feel that you want to say but now can't?
> I can see every single pixel on screens and it's very useful in daily life

Can you elaborate ?
“I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

“There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.“
The best thing about seeing the codebase for a long lived product is seeing the layers of when something was written by the types of patterns found in the code.
Ask HN: Facebook ad account restricted 3 times within a week, no ads running
My startups Facebook ad account has been disabled/restricted three times within the last week. We're a SaaS solution for taxi companies wanting to get their fleet on mobile booking apps.

In the last week, our Facebook ad account has been suspended three times. Each time it takes a support rep 24-36 hours to respond (while none of our ads are running), after which our account gets reinstated immediately, only to be restricted again within a few hours.

Each time it's restricted before we've even had a chance to enable ads again.

We've tried their Business support chat, who are unable to do anything as "the system won't let me file another appeal while one is pending". They can't see any information about why the account was restricted, or anything internal regarding the appeal.

I'm convinced we've fallen victim to some faceless AI that will just keep deactivating our account. The majority of our leads come from Facebook ads, as we use this account to promote our services to taxi companies along with our mobile apps to customers in each region we support.

If anyone has advice/contacts for someone on the Facebook Business team who can actually help please drop me a message at ben [at] withgoto [dot] com
If you did a survey of any corporate or political organisation there would be large numbers of unbelievably competent people who hole weird and objectionable views. If a view isn't relevant to what someone is doing we have to be able to look past it.

You are underestimating, radically, the diversity of thought amongst humans. And particularly on the margins of leadership where the people who come up with new ideas are - obviously they aren't guided by social proof because they are working on new ideas. They have to be very experimental, and probably believe all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

If Stallman was the sort of person who only held mainstream views he would not be in the FSF. Which was a point addressed in this article.

I don't know which views in particular you are talking about, but many of them are much more mainstream than his critics are admitting to. Particularly the 17-or-18 comment; in Australia consent is age 16 so he had a point there.
If you think global warming is no fun, you haven't seen what global cooling will do.
It looks like you're an American expat studying in Germany.

A lot of PhD's there go directly into industry, so much so that's from my observation it's the norm instead of the outlier.

You would likely only surrender the chance for a PhD at your institution - and even then, only with your Chair. Funded PhDs are treated like a job and you more or less apply for them just like any other job opening. If you don't like what you are researching, but you are interested in holding employment that involves research, I would recommend looking for a funded PhD at another institution. Applicants with a technical background are at a premium in other fields, so you wouldn't even necessarily have to worry about sticking with CS.

So, here's my recommendation:

1.) Stick with your current research for the rest of the academic year. It gives you something to do while you're looking for employment.

2.) Start browsing one of the many job boards for EU academic positions. Find something you like.

3.) Start browsing any of the job boards for private employment - EU, US, or otherwise.

4.) Do a couple of interviews. If you find something you like, whether in academia or the private sector, go with it.

5.) If you don't find anything, and if you're offered the PhD position at your university, think hard about whether or not you want to take it. Research as a PhD is different (you're treated more like an employee).

Also think about what you don't like about your current research and where you live. Are you dissatisfied because of cultural reasons - which is definitely an issue in the expat community - or are you dissatisfied because of your line or research or your academic environment?
Not really, they are both the same sort of pop-cultural prop. I think one does include a bit of the blue shifting effects of the disk, a prominent effect they left out of interstellar.
I wasn't referring to those posts, but these for example:

“I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

“There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.“
Amen. Social justice warriors and baseless witch hunt participators are the armpit of humanity, wanting attention by covering up their own incompetence and insecurities. Go do something with your life, and mind your own business.
Why is there so much hero worship in technology? Compared to other business areas we have myriads of heroes and fallen angels.
If you think about it, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense, yes there are a lot of people that move technology forward by several years... and without those people some developments would have taken longer. But there is nearly no example where I would be willing to say without hero x - y would never have happened. Is this something psychological? Is this about us having a feeling of agency and not just being simple players on the field of Moore’s Law?
I agree with everything you said.

I just hope that we applied the same rationale in an even-keeled and level-headed manner in other cases where similar concerns are raised.

I hope we don't make exceptions for our favorite pet causes no matter how close to the heart and rule against those who were found to have either voiced opinions or acted in an antagonistic manner to such causes, even when those decisions are thorny and sentimental.[1][2][3]

[1]
Mozilla CEO resigns, opposition to gay marriage drew fire

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mozilla-ceo-resignation/m...

[2]
Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich resigns in wake of backlash to Prop 8

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/03/mozilla-c...

[3]
Did Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Deserve To Be Removed From His Position?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2014/04/11/did-mozilla-ce...

edit: typo
They're made out of meat: https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/think...
I've got nothing of substance to comment on the technical aspects of the project but I find it amusing that Germans create a lot of pseudo-English words (Denglisch) such as "beamer" (projector) and "handy" (mobile phone). I wonder how confusing this might be to anglophone people.
except that Stallman was let off for years ... I think people often just let him off because he wasn't "Hot, charming" and they maybe felt a certain amount of pity for him ...
Why is John Gruber reprinting anonymous emails that are clearly lying? Richard Stallman was never married so he never had an "open marriage" either. Given that the person writing the email didn't even bother to verify this easily verified detail I suspect the rest is also a work of fiction.
Apparently to zero, and if we're to believe the article, he's been made to starve under the bridge too (if I'm to believe the countless HN threads about homelessness in the US, this is how being homeless looks like).
I've replied upthread and edited my post to include the full quote. I wasn't trying to twist his words.

As I wrote in my reply to the post you're referring to, I seem to think that the term sexual assault is necessarily imprecise--but in another sense, it isn't imprecise at all, as all the acts described by it share a single commonality, which is lack of consent.
Earl London 2019 Conference Recap
The article is not so much about the actual published paper as it is about what should be the right way to frame the narrative. Should the conclusions of the paper be seen as apocalyptic, dramatic, or simply serious.
Uh, vertical writing in Korea was famously abolished decades ago when the Chosun Ilbo, a prominent conservative newspaper notorious for its love with now almost dead hanja uses and vertical writing, finally gave up with that in March 2, 1999.
You seem to flag a lot of things that you don't like which boil down to you don't like research very much. And that's pretty much what a PhD is. It also tends to be something very specific and narrow. This doesn't preclude you from taking your PhD and branching out into something broader down the road, but the value prop of a PhD, if you will, is that you're a world expert in some specific area.

The other downside of not just getting industry experience is that a lot of PhD research is very, well, academic. Wrote a book recently (something else that involves lots of time in a library and elsewhere reading and writing on your own) and a lot of the papers I used for research were pretty much crap and disconnected from anything in the real world.
He lost his job from this. It is a big deal.
"Programming is rather thankless. You see your works become replaced by superior ones in a year. Unable to run at all in a few more." ~ why the lucky stiff
my friend and i use the N word multiple times in our conversation or in chat. None of us are black. Context matters... Now if one day somebody hacks my phone and says i am a racist by leaking parts of my messages- is that ethical? how far are we from censoring others thoughts?
Its a mind blowing thing to me that people study for that long, not really even starting their career until their 30's, to get a Ph.D - That said, if you are that close, and having this serious of thoughts about what is the right decision, and it will only take this extra 8 months to set you on the right path, then just do it. btw what country are you in?
but but ... he was tolerated ... people were complaining about him for years ...
Fugitive on run for seventeen years found living in cave by a drone
Who needs proof about Minsky? RMS said he thinks the children couldn’t be sexually assaulted because they wanted it. You’re defending this creep? Do you agree that it’s not kiddie rape if the kids don’t complain?
IIRC rumor I've seen has it he's extremely careful in things like never being alone with certain people etc.
Interesting but why would you need Vulkan?
> narrow-minded society

"don't defend the rape of children" isn't narrow minded.
All that effort washes out in the end because you can’t always be there for your child and you can’t make them do what you think they should. In the short run you can help them with their homework or get them a tutor, or deal with the fact that their teacher is a dickhead but one day they’ll leave and they’ll rapidly turn into themselves, the kind of person they were always going to be. If you broke your back making them study all through high school and they decide to just stop in college, they will, and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you put great effort into saving their soul by getting them to attend some religious service every week they’ll probably stop attending except when they visit you.

Parents can make a small short run difference through massive effort, if they really want to. It just doesn’t matter in the end.

What you can make a long term difference in is how fondly your children remember their childhood, if their parents were there, loved them, and were happy, rather than tired, stressed and angry.
> There's a difference between tolerating it to a degree and letting leaders continue uncomfortable awkwardness.

You are saying that socially awkward people shouldn't be leaders. RMS can't change, he isn't socially awkward by choice. That's his personality.

I disagree. Leaders have flaws, and social awkwardness isn't anywhere near the top of the worst flaws. In fact, in RMS' case, I think it was part of the reason for his success in promoting free software.
>The other people in those organization do get to have a say too you know.

True, and when squinting, the scenario is understandable: "High profile employee repeatedly receives negative press, so the organization doesn't want to be associated."

They're free to employ and endorse, or end a relationship, with anyone at will (modulo labor laws). The worrying thing here is, despite decades of bad behavior, they didn't distance themselves until he expressed unpopular opinions picked up by social media.

It's like the saying, "The ends don't justify the means." This smacks of letting social media voices have a say in staff choices. Even if most people agree with the outcome, it's the wrong process.

Edits: removing tangents to focus on the points.
There's also lots of leaders (many important ones on history) who say controversial things. You are saying they shouldn't be given a platform by society, which I can't disagree with more.

This isn't the followers saying "no, that's not ok", this is large institutions saying "no" on behalf of a vocal few.
> He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace

This sword cuts both ways.

MIT is not a kindergarten, they are adult people moving in an adult work context.

It has been said here, that some women are so terrified of Stallman that will carry plants around with they. If true this would speak volumes but not about RMS; about those women!

I assume that there are a lot of very smart but socially awkward people (men and women) in MIT. Excentricity and twisted humour is not a trait exclusive of men. Sex jokes are not exclusive of men. A fully growth women, so terrified of any contact with men to barricade herself behind a geranium all day, should raise a red flag. Maybe somebody in the administration could stop chasing the "big bad men" and kindly try to help this women to improve her social skills instead.

Dealing with sex and relationships is part of being an adult. Any adult women should be able to stop and deal elegantly with an undesired proposition. Men act nervous, clumsy and awkward all the time when try to develop a romantic relationship. This does not convert them in monsters. Is just the human nature.

Just a smile and a "thanks, but not thanks" should be enough, and this is a skill that can be learned also.
No. None of the things you mention is actually the issue.

Diversity: It's not about opinion, but about an authority figure doing things that harm his colleagues. I could have the opinion that you're an idiot and a liar, but if we were working together and I would constantly say that in the workplace where everyone hears, I would probably get fired.

Inclusiveness: It's not about ostracising, either, certainly not because of some mental disability. If someone harms his coworkers and won't stop, they cannot continue working.

Fairness: Again, the problem is not opinions but harmful actions. It certainly isn't about conformity. Harming the people you work with is not some sign of genius conducive to creativity.

I think that too many people are expressing strong opinions on the matter of sexual harassment and sexual assault without having studied the subject at all. Those are opinions based on deep ignorance of the matter.
I 100% disagree with this advice. I don't know what opportunity cost you refer to, but I think learning German is still probably the best way to get to know Germans. Sure the country is multicultural and German is no longer the only language if you want to truly know Germany, but it is still a big deal. I feel like language is the single largest contributor to a group's culture.

That said I am amazed to say I agree that you don't need to learn German to survive in Berlin. I lived in Berlin 2005-2006 and learned German while there. I think that not knowing German at the time often made things extremely difficult. Even many of my highly-educated university friends were quite bad at English. But now when I go back and visit English is just plain everywhere. It's weird now how easy it is to live in your bubble and never really need to learn German. And it is true that now you will need to push learning the language yourself when presented with so many opportunities to speak English.

Whether or not to learn the local language is of course a personal choice, but I still feel like it's something you should do.
Amid the controversy, I thought this post (indirectly linked from another one below) makes a pretty strong case, with witnesses albeit anonymous ones, that RMS has a history of bad behaviour including sexual harassment:

https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-appendi...

It also links to this, from 1983 which does not name RMS but is pretty interesting and damning about the culture of computer science at the time:

https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~lazowska/mit/?source=post_p...

Disclaimer: I'm a man, I'm not a feminist, I dislike cancel culture.
If someone tells me they think that it's sometimes fine to have sex with children, I don't need any evidence of action to want to distance myself from that person.

> If anything, it's you who left out the part where Stallman already said, before this incindent, that he was wrong. I.e. he said it because he actually changed his mind and believes he was wrong, not in order to "save face" or clear his image or avoid scandal or whatnot.

He posted that after the storm had started, three days before his resignation. A few days after the "Remove Richard Stallman" Medium post was written.

Do you think that's a complete coincidence? Has nothing to do with saving face and only his desire to explain that he had changed his mind?
@dang

Can we please stop removing Stallman discussions from the front page?

I understand we want to keep things civil on HN, but the reality is that this dramatically impacts this community and all developers - probably more than we realize on the surface.
I
Discussing it and essentially letting everyone voice their thoughts is a way to both (a) come to consensus and (b) potentially see view points.

As it stands the “media” has a voice, most developers come to Hacker News.
A PhD will make close to zero difference to the quality of job you get, so if you're thinking that an MSc will get you a boring job but a PhD would get you an interesting job that's absolutely not the case. I speak as someone who has had a long and fulfilling career in software engineering in spite of having a music degree, and knowing people with strong quantitative PhDs doing very boring work. (I would say they aren't "stuck" other than in their own perception however). It's on you to find yourself interesting work though - PhD or no, it's not going to land in your lap.

Secondly, it's definitely not the case that if you don't get a PhD now you'll never get one, however in all likelihood it will be much harder later on. In my experience, people's responsibilities and commitments (personal and work-wise) grow constantly and it only gets more and more difficult to find time for things in future.

It sounds like 9 months doesn't give you a PhD, 9 months gives you potentially the opportunity of a PhD. So it's a theoretical minimum and when you're looking at this, you should calculate on the PhD take longer. Be wary of sunk cost. Having invested time in getting an MSc, it's easy to think "9 months isn't that long given how much I've done so far" without thinking through whether the goal is worth achieving in itself.

tl;dr: Get a PhD because you want a PhD. Probably don't get a PhD thinking it will make some sort of difference to your job prospects.
> I have never programmed Erlang but it feels like it is the currently only language that is some kind of secret weapon. It has similar aura than Lisp

It has a good marketable brand and 'appearance' for sure. A good Aura and level 3 magicks, but once you start leveling up your spell tree, like other comments in the thread have alluded to, the cracks start to show and you bleed out mana trying to scale what you initially thought would be an effortless process.
I have read over your comment a few times and still have no idea what you mean. But yeah, I'm confident in my judgment of what is and isn't normal in this instance.
What you call "pedophilic musings", I call natural thinking process that probably every critical thinker went through in their life. It even reaches standard socially-acceptable conclusion - it just took him way longer than usual (which frankly is hardly surprising).
“I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

“There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.“

I can give you the links but it's quite easy to Google.

Edit since I dug them up for another comment:

https://stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%20...

https://stallman.org/archives/2012-nov-feb.html#04_January_2...
> The most disgusting thing is that whose who witch-hunted him, from their higher moral ground, will face no consequences at all.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. At the very least, the FSF has lost some annual contributions...
Choosing a Coding Bootcamp
Yes, Erlang was designed for the control plane, not the data plane.
Did you mean serious axe to grind on renewables? As he hates renewables it seems.

> so creative on facts with respect to renewables that he's either being disingenuous or is simply incompetent

I work in an energy company making renewable forecasts amongst other things and I agree with your judgement.
It's a public post from 2003. Funny how nobody has dug it up for 16 years.
> Would Epstein be right to escape because US wanted to prosecute him on the account of trafficking young girls?

I think I’d argue that yes, from his perspective, in hindsight, that would probably have been a good idea.
I never noticed the name was something about age until now...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution

https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/book-review/ji-xianlins-...