skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My first legal job was in a callcenter doing inbound collection calls for 450 bucks (I live in Central America, so that's was about 200 bucks more then minimum wage at the time). It sucked. But I wasn't reprimanded or fired at the first minuscule mistake, I was being payed more money (86 bucks actually), than what the gasket person would make IF he/she worked all days of the week, and I could at least use my head to fix some of the customers problems in comparison to mindlessly shoving gaskets into a box.

I'd say my first job was shit, but it's a thousand times better than being a drone in a Japanese gasket factory. I'm not trying to be antagonistic, I'm just curious... What jobs have you had that where so bad?
We work hard, they enjoy life
The Failed Battle To Stop The World’s First Camcorder Pirates
Here's the thing, though: as long as others see themselves according to some paradigm, they will likely see you in relation to them and cast you in some social role.

In social interactions, we assume some identity to relate with those around us. Inevitably, those interactions (if we're receptive and respecting of who we interact with) will affect our own thoughts, including (sometimes) our sense of self.

No man's an island, and no man's nothing so long as he lives in a society. Saying "I am nothing" is just as bad as saying "I am X"
AnatOnMe: an interactive look inside the body
You may enjoy early Socrates if you haven't already.
Given that Google sees all my personal email and most of my web searches, the thought of them verifying my ID creeps me out.
How about nursing? The starting pay averages three to four times minimum wage, but there is still a shortage. It is easy to underestimate the mismatch between the skills required today, and the typical skills of the unemployed. However, your example does ring true to me in the engineering world.
I believe most people are actually complaining "threads are hard to use", evil is just a possible outcome if they are used by incompetent programmers.
Great essay, but like the grandparent I'm confused how it allows for any sort of drive. How can you have goals without identifying with them, or at least their purpose? It seems great and healthy to stop identifying as a failed attempt at reaching certain labels, but I struggle to imagine a singular goal not attached to a label.
I'm in Silicon Valley and this is nonsense. Sure, it's possible to raise $100K, but it's by no means easy.
Revenge Of The Killer Script Kiddies
Canadian Startup "Needs a couch in the Valley"
We are a Canadian game company/startup. We have a micro 2 man seasoned team with great tech and a good prototype. We are wanting to come to the valley to couch surf to meet and greet. Can you help? I am the creative biz dev guy. I will drive the couch, and the business. Any help is much appreciated for hook ups and couches. email upon request.
Great essay! I'm definitely going to identify myself with others that value the "I am nothing" mantra. I hope I don't begin to think I am something, that could cause anxiety.
My employer recently changed to a take-what-you-want vacation policy. So far it seems to be working well, with my French co-workers leading the way in using upwards of four weeks off. The part I really like is that they're tracking our time off with the intent of making sure everyone takes enough rather than seeing who uses too much.

It's amazing how easy it is never to take time off in this industry. We move so fast and there's always another problem to solve, so you never think you have time to take a long vacation. I still have to force myself to pick a week to go on vacation.
Indeed, I was thinking the same thing as I read the comment. Look at google trends for "housing bubble." Peaked in 2005, well before the bubble popped.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=housing+bubble
There's some truth to that.

But there's also a lot of shallow knowledge among the digital natives -- kids who've grown up in a world where there have always been computers, GUIs, Google, YouTube, or now, even Facebook and other social networks.

They know the basics, they're not afraid of them, but unless they've either been taught or are self-motivated to explore, discover, and learn, they are rote users, not informed users.
Actually I think you have more leverage than the Dr. If you are not happy with the insurance company you cancel the policy or complain to your employer (you are paying them, the insurance company does not want to loose the business). The doctor can do nothing - they want to get paid, they have nothing to hold against the insurance company.
Going Crazy: A woman's body melts,melts and melts like butter
Love the post, but nothing? I say adopt 2 or more senses of self, and get really good at using them at the right time.

I think moving beyond an ego-based sense of self is the best way to think rationally and accomplish a goal. In fact, the biggest benefit is probably being able to rationally understand other people's point of view without a sense of self clouding up your interpretation. But, for me at least, it has not been pragmatic to abandon a sense of self at all times.

For instance, it is much easier for me to relate to my grandmother with a stronger sense of self - or at least project a persona that gives that appearance. You can't really like people or things (in the most basis sense) without ego. Nor, can you fully extend emotional empathy in the purist sense when you have no sense of self. With no ego there are many professional environments that will simply drain your energy - even if you have a decent persona for relating emotionally with others.

For me, the better answer has been to look at my self (more specifically my brain) as a library of different selfs. Yes, I am nothing, but I must at least be a controller that responds to my environment with the most relevant sense of self at any point in time. I would suggest there is an evolution of self beyond nothing.
Regardless of whether we apply the post-fact label "capital" or "labor",
the point that a species can become no longer useful and that we have precedent for this phenomenon is still both valid and scary.
How to divide fractions
Google Taking Street View To The Depths Of The Amazon
I managed to pick up one of these at Walmart. There are some areas where it's rough around the edges, but overall I love the UI every bit as much as I thought I would. The hardware is actually pretty decent, heavier than the iPad, but still comfortable. I can already tell, though, that the screen will not be near as scratch-proof as the iPad's.

The loss of webOS is a damn shame. Best case scenario, it becomes the Amiga of the tablet world, with die-hard fans keeping it clinging to life with hacks and homebrews.
Complain and it shall be (no longer) fixed!

Read: he heard you and now the background is no longer fixed. ;)
Best Buy HP TouchPad clearance pricing policy changed; updated
Will iCloud be an open protocol? Will I have access to it on my Android phone?

Firefox Sync is an open protocol -- there's nothing stopping somebody from writing a Chrome extension implementing it.
That's an awful lot of thinking going on there, but are you saying you think they are paying 13 dollars a day? No, a bare minimum wage in Japan is (depending on the exchange rate) pretty close to $10 an hour.
Wallpaper of Vanessa Hudgens High Quality Images
Gmail has ads?

Enticing the average HN reader and enticing the average Gmail user are two different problems.

And it already has great spam filtering and minimally-intrusive ads that people have learned to ignore.
Wouldn't a decent measure of boom vs. bubble consist of looking at the number of companies that become profitable and self sustaining? The article talks a lot about companies looking for money, but how many made the transition from money consumer to self sustaining?

If the current crop of start ups has a decent percentage of companies becoming profitable and remaining in business 5-10 years down the line, it's boom.
So because someone is rich that makes them a good programmer? I have done some projects with the Minecraft SMP protocol (which is awful), and I write plugins for it. So yeah, I know a bit about its design.
> humans are wealth producing, not destroying.

Why should this statement be independent of the number of humans in the world?
Can Glucose Replenish Willpower?
The Truth About Being a Hero
unknowing is key. Assume you are a programmer that can reliably code threaded, shared, mutable memory code… and you have to make a library call.

Is it safe? Does it say it's safe? Do you believe it? What about the next release? If you single thread all calls to the library to be safe, is your program still provably deadlock free?

The unknowns eat up a lot of thinking.
Indeed, I wonder what the inactive percentage is for a site like Facebook.
yes grasshopper, to be nothing is to be everything, to be everything is to be one with the universe. Now snatch the pebble....
12% of America smoked pot last month. 5% in Netherlands where it is legal.
Just keep trying. Took me about 30 minutes of refreshing and error messages at every step to get one.
I would love to see SMS disappear. The two things I think are holding it back:

- Phone's default ringtones for SMS are much more notable than the email alert. Change the defaults on phones so that it's more obvious when an email arrives and people will be more likely to use it.

- Less spam. People are generally confident that SMS messages are sent from someone they know, so they check them immediately. If email had less spam, people would be more interested when email arrives.

Fix these two things and I think there will be broader appeal to email as a replacement to SMS.
The Female Erotic Brain, Mapped
Want to Live Longer? Turn Off Your TV.
How is Google's policy different from Facebook's? Google is enforcing the policy more strictly? People are just complaining because it's new and they think they can change it?

I don't really get it. Host your own blog and you can be called whatever you want.
This shows the importance of good URL design upfront. Twitter did an amazing job of having well defined REST-ful URLs from the beginning and it was one of the factors responsible for their early success. The more rational, guessable and legible your URL's the easier it is for people to use your web service.
Indeed, and Jacques was reasonably close — Planck frequency is 1.855 × 10^43 hertz
The article resonates with a branch of philosophy called non-duality. Lately I have been reading a lot about non-duality, mainly from books written by J Krishnamurti. It all boils down to living in an ego less state and getting rid of the illusion of choice. It's very easy to understand it intellectually, but problem lies in realizing it in everyday life.
That's awful, 2 keystrokes for <leader>? Use \ for leader, or , for leader and \ for ;
I'm far, FAR more religious than almost anyone on HN (in my experience) but I don't entirely buy this. I think religion can give purpose. It can imbue someone who doesn't have a purpose with a strength of conviction. So in that sense I think the quote is correct.

But I don't think someone who has a purpose they truly believe in is worse for not having religion in a motivational sense. So what I think religion has done for the United States is to give the masses (people who are fine with a 9-to-5 day) more motivation to work diligently even when they aren't chasing their dream.

But the thing about countries like China and India is this: What Americans consider mundane work is the dream of many people in these countries. I've met people from India who dreamed of a job in a call center since they were a little kid. Meaning those people are just as motivated if not more so than their American counterparts who worked hard because they thought God commanded them to.
…and only play 40-60 rounds. Logistics aside it would be over in 5 minutes.
36 Hours is Not a Proper Response Time
Yea, I finally got through it. Took me about 30 minutes though.
Planning for the Apocalypse (by being less handicapped than the fat kid)
I actually don't mean to attack you here but can I ask what you expected to accomplish with this comment? It isn't relevant to the article nor is it really logical (since I doubt this low level reporter has anything to do with the high level scandal at News Corp).

I sincerely doubt anyone involved in the News Corp scandal reads HN so it isn't like you'd be getting a dig in and it doesn't seem like your comments were meant to be funny.

The reason I bring this up is your comment seems to be hate based. As if your hatred for News Corp is so significant that you can't help but express it even when there's no real purpose to doing so and that seems unhealthy to me.

Even if you aren't religious one of the tenants of judeo-christian religion is forgiveness. Not for the sake of the person being forgiven but for the sake of person with the hatred in their heart. Because hatred, even when justified, tends to eat away at you until you end up a bitter person.

Anyway, something to think about...
No, threads tend to be:

while( connection = accept_connection ){
in_thread_run(handle_connection, connection)
}
Bubble or not, since the money are available, perhaps this is a good time to start building companies that solve real problems. Not that Groupon isn't cool, but the unfortunate thing is that gamification startups or group deals or 4sqr+photos+nonsense are popular, and the money is being thrown their way. Investing in those companies makes financial sense, but it would be great if more health-care or education related startups were not just funded, but also bragged about. In a long run, they could have a great impact on the society at large, even if they don't make investors into bagillionairs.
Premise: we are what we think about. Being nothing requires one to think about nothing. It's actually quite a lot of work to think about nothing! The brain is constantly solving problems while awake and while asleep, building up momentum.

Proposal: Instead of expending massive amounts of energy bringing an object of such high inertia to rest, why not just change the inputs you are feeding it to gradually alter its direction? Don't focus on the cessation and extinction of the turning of mind. Focus on feeding the turning of mind solvable or aesthetically pleasurable problems, to decrease the bandwidth occupied by unsolvable\fear based problems.

tldr: I'm not convinced the epicness of ego destruction is necessary for ego transmutation, if that is one's goal.

edit: Well, I just realized my analogy does not hold for all cases. In Physics, if you want to change the direction vector of an object in motion, to the opposite of its present heading, it will require at least as much energy as bringing the object to rest. So focusing on ego destruction could be worth it depending on where you want to go and where you are now.

Additionally, we also know from Physics that all motion is relative, velocity cannot be measured without a frame of reference. I think the Buddhists would argue that cessation of the turning of thought provides this otherwise missing frame of reference, enabling the thought\ego vector to accurately be measured when the turning of thought restarts.
Fukushima Five Months Later. A Long Road To Recovery.
Don't take the words at the face value. That's just a typical way to make an article sound more appealing that it is.
I like the philosophical implications of: if it is possible, with enough trials, it will happen.

I remember using this argument against the proposed creationism view of my religion teacher. If it is possible for life to emerge on a planet, given enough time, it is bound to happen. Likewise: given enough games of Go, one game will end with a perfectly ordered black-white spiral. This then led to the tangent of: Is it possible for God to exist in our world?

The same with the possible worlds model of modal logic. If something is possible, there is a world were such is the case. That could mean that, if time travel or travel between possible worlds is possible, there is a world out there, where they discovered this. They could travel between possible worlds and teach these other worlds how to travel too.

As soon as something that crosses the boundaries between worlds is even remotely possible, in the end it should permeate through all possible worlds.
I absolutely agree with this sentiment. This is the "box" that I was referring to above. It represents the limit of that which you are willing to believe, in many cases because you believe that you have already reached some level of understanding which cannot possibly be eclipsed by further investigation.

I also believe that it is at least as important to recognize that there are certain characteristics (for lack of a better word) that each of us possess which are an integral part of who we are.

Your claim that we are nothing presents a serious ethical dilemma, and one which I believe if not understood correctly can have disastrous consequences. Allow me to explain.

Each of the characteristics that I mentioned above directly ties me to a responsibility that I have to some "other". With regards to this other, I am something. It is the very essence of existence. The mere fact that I exist means that I will always have an effect on some other, whether good or bad. Without an other, I do not exist.

To choose to ignore the responsibility I have towards an other is an action. It may have a good or bad consequence, but it is still an action. I cannot avoid acting, as inaction itself is an action with regard to the other.

For example, I mentioned above that I am a father. Now, I could of course choose (as many men do for one reason or another) to simply walk away from my responsibilities as a father. I could decide essentially that I am not a father. But that doesn't change the fact that I have fathered children and that abandoning that responsibility will have some consequence on them. To them, I am something. I am their father, and I can't change that.

To pretend that I'm not a father is simply lying to myself. It's also being very selfish. That's why I say that this belief system can have disastrous consequences when applied broadly. Because if you're not careful it can lead to very selfish behavior.
I haven't seen anywhere noted that a significant part of humanity don't have surnames, eg many Indonesians. How to enforce a real name-like policy under these conditions?
People forget how incredible open source is.
I wouldn't necessarily put getting corrective eye surgery on the same level of achievement as an overweight person losing the weight, but good message nonetheless.
Friends can find you more easily using your real name? Try that if you have a very common name. There are over 80 pages of G+ results to sort through if you have mine, and I have it easy. Friends with common Chinese or Indian names have it a lot worse.
I wouldn't co-found a company with someone I had an emotional attachment to.
It seems to me quite difficult to follow the philosophy described in this essay. It also seems to me an undesirable life, though I can see why a person would want it. Much satisfaction in my life comes from seeing myself as a "good" x, and I experience very little dissatisfaction from these labels. Perhaps this will change as I age.
I think this article touches on the real issue here but then abandons it for a more politically charged point.

The problem here isn't religion or morality per se. To make that argument you'd have to be making the point that the people rioting didn't know what they were doing was wrong. I don't see that as valid.

The issue, as the author says at the beginning, is self-restraint. Britain has seen a decline in religion and without the "fear of God" there's a certain segment of the population (the lowest class who have nothing to lose) who no longer see the need to restrain themselves. So the issue is teaching them why they should restrain themselves even without fearing God

Given that I see a very simple solution here. In societies where religion is losing favor schools and parents have to teach kids secular morality. Explain to them that a riot destroys businesses which deprives the government of revenue which in turn will come back to harm the people who caused the riot in the long run.

Basically switch the "Golden Rule" for the "Categorical Imperative" (which to be honest are virtually the same thing anyhow)
Let the game begin with sony playstation 4 : reddit.com
You might want to repost this when it's not late Saturday night on HN. :-)
> I'd rather be earning a living by means of a nursing job that pays at least 5 times (more like 10 times in the US) what a Japanese gasket plucker makes.

For what it's worth, most people actually doing the "cleaning up after the elderly" job are certified nursing assistants, who often earn basically a notch or two above minimum wage.
I think having a bit of an explanation of what the site is and how it works would be very helpful. Having a video of you using the website to show some features while also explaining how the site can help people will go a long way. Other than that I would recommend starting small and getting everyone you know to talk about it. Perhaps you should also try to market it on a local college campus if there is one near. College kids are always looking for ways to meet people who are interested in them (read: get laid) and I'm sure would be glad to check your stuff out. Or perhaps you could try and get in touch with the guys from like a little and see if you could do something with them.
I haven't heard of that before. The ex-business-manager part of me absolutely freaks out when considering the logistics of it. How do they manage deadlines and such?

Otherwise, that sounds pretty darn awesome.
$2 Web Hosting
Do you think that the people you are marketing towards will be people who have Linkedin profiles?
Now if PHP were Japanese?
According to Wikipedia, "As of 2010, regional minimum wages range from ¥642 (~US$7.75) to ¥821 (~US$9.90) per hour for all workers."
Good point. Will repost on Monday.
I'm pretty sure only one http message is needed to send both html headers and html content, which makes the only draw back a slight lag of the client rendering the page.
Twitter is not a Facebook killer. If you want to follow Lady Gaga's latest tweets (broadcasts), Twitter is for you. If you want to narrowcast photos for your friends to see, Facebook is for you. Then there's email / Skype / QQ / MSM for private communications.
Apple offers webOS developers $199 phones and free dev tools
Principles of Accounting: Finance Accounting - Tips on How to Do It
If Apple ditch the optical drive, it's a choice. They did the math, looked out for ourselves and made the decision.

If HP did it that PC is a cheap sake.
Pick-up truck will be overkill to draw analogy to a shitty PC, it still doesn't crash every now and then.
The correct way to use virtualization
I really was worried what happens to CyanogenMod, since the 7.1 RC is out there for quite a while now..