skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Is this FOMO or passion? How to fix it?
I am a software engineer with a Ph.D. in CS and am mainly working on ML infrastructure and performance optimization of model training. Generally speaking, my personal passion and interest lies at the intersection of linux kernel and performance optimization (think of the area around eBPF and the work that Brendan Gregg does).
Therefore, naturally I spent most of time on reading and think about linux kernel and performance in general. However, I have this habit that every time I see a topic that don't know much about have a FOMO-like feeling and start reading about it. This takes a short period of time and then I jump to the next topic. The result is, I read about a wide range of topics and but I don't much about any of them to have an opinion.
To give a concrete example, while I know a fair amount of ML frameworks and can implement basic ML pipelines and do performance optimizations (as part of my job), still when I see advance topics like transformers or newer model architectures, I feel terrified that I don't know about them and have an urgent feeling that I have to learn. Learning means spending time, which I don't have for it as I need to do my job as well as read other topics that can help me with my job.
At this point this habit, which I don't know whether it's stemming from FOMO or passion, is ruining my confidence and my mental health and I don't know how to fix it.
What is your advice here? should I keep reading about whatever topic I come across or focus on the area that It truly love?
Not sure if I know that joke. How does it go?
> And there are also various crop types, like fodder grasses, which you can bring to full harvest stage,

Please expand on this if you would. The seeds would not necessarily need light to germinate but certainly you would not be able to grow beyond the energy contained in the seed which had to come from somewhere.
> raised the possibility that Twitter might have turned off access to the apps deliberately because they don’t help drive ad revenue

That would be a weird approach since you need users to see ads and users come mostly to follow the larger accounts which (most of them?) choose to use the 3rd party apps with better features rather than the official one. That's basically just annoying the creators that drive that traffic and may slow down, or stop.
Whenever someone shows a labor-of-love working demo of a wearable, SOC, OS, shell, circuit, power and all, I'm reminded that there are so many ways to make to make this happen nowadays, there's no shortage of ways to reproduce these ideas at moderate scale and budget, and yet for some reason there are no fashion watches or flip-phones today.
Sensorwatch [1] is the closest I could think of.

I would _really_ love to see a fashion watch brand do BLE sync on a device and display something low attention demand on the 7-segment or matrix display. Casio and their likes managed to cram impressive functionality into featurewatches (is that a term?) in the 80s, and those things were gorgeous looking, and demanding very little unwarranted attention.

we_have_to_go_back.gif

edit: new RTOS watch is incredible, this rant is orthogonal.

[1] https://www.sensorwatch.net
Its from the perspective of someone who was obsessed with productivity porn coming to terms with the idea that none of that will ever actually work. He addresses why he thinks that and supports it with different ideas. I don't think anything is new, but he takes disjointed ideas and kind of puts it all together from his perspective. I thought it was interesting and it was a quick read.
Wouldn’t “needlessly” exclude the ~5-10% of people who regularly need those vehicles to do something a smaller vehicle cannot? Driving around the U.S. is really weird because there are so many people driving pickup trucks which are twice as big as their 90s counterparts, and they’re almost always in pristine condition but once you get far enough away from the wealthy suburbs you find non-cosplay farmers driving either much smaller vehicles (which get 2-3 times the mileage) or battered trucks which are clearly heavily used.

(I’m obviously biased here but that’s from having gone furniture shopping at IKEA a couple hours ago and watching some guy with an $80k truck with a lift kit & extended cab who was struggling to tie some boxes in the short bed with the gate down, which would’ve fit in my Subaru without any thought at all.)
Shared previously in 2011 with some good discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2915537
Scanlines vs. hard pixels: is pixel art truly retro anymore?
"If you worry too much about being clean and tidy,"

Explains why I've replaced so much inconceivably tortured code over the years
What about Twilight Princess on GameCube?
No reason we couldn't build sentient robots that also have some of the benefits of being made out of meat -- we have the time. I don't see any reason why robots shouldn't evolve over the useful timescales we are discussing.

Shedding gear can be a useful strategy; some animals even use it in extremis.
This makes me wonder if any books have been written about Toyota’s engineering practices / just in time production / production and logistics in general. I’m sure it would be fascinating.
Even if the risk of getting caught and sentenced is minimal the fact that it can be used against you is enough to be a concern. If nothing else it indicates a problem with UK law that should be solved and the fact that children have gotten caught up in it should worry everyone who cares about their freedom.
> If you worry too much about being clean and tidy, you can't push the boundaries.

I disagree and I don’t really see how they’re connected.
> many people were promoted for continuing to do their jobs as they understood them

While this link below isn't the best take on this, it does get concrete about the kind of thing you're saying. Each level of management is not doing the prior level better. Each level is doing management quite differently:

https://damuwinston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/managemen...

// My preferred take on this is "The Leadership Pipeline".
Talia, if this was all a misunderstanding from Jeff, then why was Timnit accusing Jeff for the longest possible time. I can understand Megan Kacholia was the main person in all this drama according to you, but the trolling/accusing that we saw in the aftermath was vicious and in poor taste. Honest bystanders who were giving neutral opinions were gaslighted to choose what side they morally belonged.

Why didn't any of you try to stop this verbal carnage? Also if Timnit was largely not at fault, why is that on every social media where any modicum of anonymity is possible, Timnit had been harshly criticized for her conduct.

We respect her contributions to advancement of ML, but that conduct was inexorable & in very poor taste.
So basically it is yet another scheme that only works well when the market moves monotonically upward, and when there is a downturn it's a crisis? Everybody is a genius is a bull market. The fact the landlord passing unexpectedly is also a crisis suggests this is not a well structured system.

What is extra weird is that the renters are paying the landlord considerably more than they would need for a downpayment on a mortagage to buy into this scheme. Is it just impossible to actually buy property or get a traditional mortgage? This system seems like the worst of all words. It is hard to see how you come out ahead in this system vs. just regular renting and dumping that money into the market.
I am not a Ruby programmer, so this is the first I've heard of _why.

I don't think it's fair to comment on the person based on one letter - although I will say the tone is reminiscent of some folk in my community who have their own demons.

I can see that as advice to a new programmer, a call to experiment, play around, stretch skills, share small scripts etc is useful.

Once you start building more meaningful, long term, things in a team context, then things like consistency, tests, comments and do on become a lot more important.

I've been lucky enough to work with very bright people over the years. But for some of them, their code is hard to read, somewhat prone to bugs, and generally working with it is "disliked." It is slowly being replaced. I include some of my early code in this.

Over the years personally I've tried to change from writing "clever" code to "clear" code. The latter seems less impressive but ultimately lasts longer.

Wherever _why is, I wish him well.
I feel your feels here and whole-heartedly agree that the “life is short” trope is unhelpful. But the book that this site was based on is not that. In fact, I would say that the week count that the site give you is antithetical to the book’s message.

I regard 4000 Weeks as one of, if not the, most important books I’ve ever read. The message might not be important for everyone but it changed my perspective in several important ways.
I think the best bet is likely the subtitles but I could be wrong
Have you tried "long pig"?
You're doing the right thing. Some of the humor you enjoyed is dated, based on outdated ideas and stereotypes that perpetuate marginalization, othering, and dehumanization of certain groups and we should limit young people's exposure to that kind of material and, at a minimum, contextualize it for adults. And hey, maybe Ace Ventura needs to permanently go into the Warner Bros. Water Tower like Song of the South went permanently into the Disney Vault.

One of my favorite cartoon shows (and the source of the technical term "yak shaving"), The Ren and Stimpy Show, was created by an emotional abuser who eventually became a rapist of underage girls. I cannot really enjoy the show the same way anymore, in light of this knowledge. It's not "cancel culture", it's a natural reaction to material that, in retrospect, is disrespectful or was created by horrid people.
Journaled File System File-System
My Dad used to do and teach VLSI design from the 1970s on. Later in his life he designed environmental microphones and recording systems using Excel and assembly respectively because, "I don't need software tools because I know the equations" and "I don't need compiled languages because I know where the bits need to go."

Sorry for the thread-jack. Three years on since the passing of a true polymath.
That’s a good point. Whenever I’ve felt existential dread it’s been soothing to know I can improve myself and live life in a better way. However if you’re already in what you consider to be an ideal state, you don’t have any wiggle room. And with a wife and kids on top, you have others who depend on you and also your own attachment to those people, which makes it all the more difficult to acknowledge that life is finite. All of the above which I haven’t experienced for myself.
Babysitting somebody else’s kids - even close relatives - is a long way from having your own. The relentless night after night after night and you being ultimately responsible is somehow different, both positively and negatively.
There are way too many people for the available resources on Earth as it is. What's going to happen when old people can get younger and live indefinitely? I don't mind as long as they live somewhere else.
> spending your time wisely is important but try to keep in mind that making the most of Every Second Of The Day is a sure way to make yourself miserable.

That was the whole point of the book though? Stop trying to make the most of every second and do what you think is important.
Some of these companies can also be found here: https://peoplefirstjobs.com

It doesn't seem to be updated very often though with resources so I am collecting a static list of such companies in case anyone is interested to explore. Obviously it won't fit across the bill but some of the criteria:

- Product-led

- Known for excellent engineering culture

- Outcome oriented

- Remote

- Invest in professional development

- Neither chaotic or beauracratic

- Sustainable & profitable
> And that matches my assumptions about US vs UK and EU -- US makes energy really cheap for consumers.

It's hard to judge, prices here spiked 3-5 times in two years; I'm pretty sure they more than doubled last year alone. I don't think the US was affected as seriously by the Ukraine situation. Government negligence has allowed a lot of price gouging by energy companies. Further incompetence has led to renewable suppliers being paid a rate based on the inflated costs of running a gas power station.

> That could explain the OP, the cost-benefit might make more sense with US energy prices? Or is that right, should it be the opposite? The OP seemed to know what they were talking about, do you think they were wrong? I'm figuring they were right for US prices but maybe not UK.

Cheaper energy makes capital intense investments a less sensible. As an extreme example, if your energy bills are only $50/year spending even $1k on a device that cuts your bills in half would be a poor financial decision.

The other major factor is the ratio of electricity to gas prices. It sounds like in some places they're nearly equal. Heat pumps are a much more sensible option in those places.
If a heat pump is 3x as effective as heating with gas, 1kWh of electricity needs cost you less than 3x that of gas before you begin to see a financial saving.

Another is that UK homes are almost universally heated by circulating hot water through radiators in each room. Comments from others seem to indicate that these setups are typically more expensive than the air based systems typical of the US.

> My impression is that the "supply choice" thing is all a neoliberal scam. The price structures are super confusing, and a LOT of people, especially poorer people who can't afford it, get really taken for a ride. Often there's a cheap "teaser" rate, then the rates balloon to something hypothetically "market-based" but who really knows where the numbers on your bill come from. I have stuck with the traditional/legacy supplier myself.

Private energy companies feel like a joke. Cheap energy is fundamental to the health of the economy and the population's quality of life. Seeing as any kind of shock require government intervention, I don't see the benefit of allowing private companies to siphon off profit when times are good.

We have similar-ish systems. The majority of people are on a fixed tariff with top rate capped by the regulator. "Agile" tariffs allow people to opt in be billed at half-hourly market rates. If you can shift your usage to the cheapest hours you'll sometimes find yourself being paid to use electricity. In a stable market with battery storage and solar you can save a lot of money. During the crisis there were 2-3 months periods where people were paying 1-3x more than the capped rate though.
So it’s a solid and it melts, absorbing heat, then it must turn back into a solid, releasing heat. I’m curious to see how they move the solid back to where it started to complete the cycle. Maybe the material doesn’t move at all, it’s on some kind of revolving assembly? It’s just that in modern refrigeration systems, the evaporator isn’t necessarily that close to the condenser, so with a solid I can see this being awkward in some situations.
That's the idea behind this educational toy: https://upperstory.com/spintronics/
I'd say sometimes people may need to feel bad about themselves in order to improve. And this feeling may be triggered unintentionally, too; there's no way around it sometimes. Feeling the pain sucks though.
That will be a contentious subject, there really is no golden standard. I subscribe to The QF Bible personally, and I have configured Picard as such (feel free to ask how if you're interested)
https://musichoarders.xyz/reference/bibles/the-qf-bible/
LA and southern California could use some roundabouts. There's so many places with stop lights almost stacked on each other.
> It’s like the only purpose it served was to be found and tip off who was interested in that stuff.

it'd be a shame then because the FBI must have spent several years worth of man-hours investigating 13 year old edgelords instead of concerning themselves with actual threats.
I think the difference is in "worry too much". You can write shitty code and push boundaries. You can write clean code and push boundaries. But if you're spending too much time worrying about if your code is tidy enough to publish what you created (or not publish because it isn't), then that's time wasted on not exploring the idea.

There's been a few posts on HN that I remember which could be summarised as "I made this cool and useful thing, but I'm worried I'll be criticised because it's not polished enough. Should I just throw it away?" That's the "worry too much" view.
From the article: "In addition to the mobility of indoor farms, vertical farming has the capacity to grow food with 95% less water and 97% less land, according to the USDA"
> Is it just impossible to actually buy property or get a traditional mortgage?

Ta latter comment says something like you could, until recently, only get max 30% LTV on a traditional mortgage, but through this system, you can effectively get 50-70%

https://mobile.twitter.com/AnthonyLeeZhang/status/1614107630...
Great point, but it seems like it would be a huge pain to have to change all of the spell and monster lists and D&D-specific terms from the SRD into generic equivalents.

On the other hand, claiming copyright or trademark on D&D terms and mechanics that have diffused throughout the RPG universe for nearly 50 years (experience points, hit points, ability scores, spell levels, character classes and levels, alignment, saving throws, initiative, etc.) seems like a fool's errand.
Had the opposite reaction. The advice is valuable, but I didn’t care much about the presentation. The purpose also isn’t to give you existential dread, but to pull you out of the daily productivity routine blinders so that you can see the broader bird’s eye view perspective.
I consider it one of the most important non-fiction books I’ve ever read. His thoughts on commitment, efficiency, planning, and distraction changed my perspective on work and life in general in many important ways. I listened to the whole book twice and have it on my nightstand to read again.
I think Ethereum developers might be able to say this :P
this isn't the distiction you're hoping it is.
>You have lived one thousand seven hundred seventy-four of them so far
That’s a significant amount of the weeks you’ll see. The psychologist Erik Erikson suggests that at this phase of life you focus on the virtue of love. Share yourself more intimately with others and invest in happy relationships so that your future weeks can be lived well with companionship and purpose.

Jesus, I'm going to cry. FML.
This makes me yearn for the days back when programming was still fun. Back when Ruby was my main language and the sky was dark at night despite my eyes being wide open. All I could see was code!
Society spends a lot of resources educating people. This would mean society can get much greater ROI, possibly compensating with technological progress any additional resource consumption.
Can't speak for the grandparent, but for me, my beef basically boils down to one thing. When you use a stateful hook, there has to be some concept of identity of the calling component. You don't want to get someone else's state back when you call useState(). However, I've never seen it documented what actual process is used to determine the identity of a calling component. In fact, it is something that I've had problem with before.

Related, I don't feel comfortable giving up control of when a real DOM element is replace by a new instance. For some things, like canvas, file inputs, audio tags, this replacement needs to be carefully controlled or prevented. This seems to violate the react philosophy.
This reminded me that even my 67 year old mom stopped using cash money altogether. I think COVID was het final push.

I will always remember a video about a bus driver who was robbed by an idiot with a shotgun. Risking years of jail time for a few hundred euro.
Well no more robbery in the digital currency age.
Interesting to know it was based partially on Zelda II. Maybe that's where the constant sexual harassment came from: at the conclusion of Zelda II Link and Zelda are seen to embrace (behind a nearly closed curtain).
RapidNations – a geography, and somewhat typing, test
The article states that they get 2 years of free rent. In exchange, the property owner gets the use of the deposit money. From what I can tell, the scheme depends on property values going up, so that when one tenant leaves, the owner can get another tenant to put down a larger deposit, part of which they use to pay back the first tenant etc.
Making nitroglycerin requires fairly strict temperature control while running the reaction. Ignoring this aspect is a common rookie mistake. If it gets too warm, the nitric acid will essentially auto-catalyze its own decomposition (the brown fumes), which is never pleasant and ruins the reaction. Being too aggressive with the cooling has other issues.

I think amateurs underestimate the importance of temperature control when trying to synthesize chemicals. There is a lot more too it than mixing ingredients like a cocktail.
It's looks so interesting, but:

No GPS.

My BangleJS has GPS but it is really tricky to get it synchronized with the satellites. I go for a run and then check the data and it's missing half of it because it couldn't pull the updates.

AsteroidOS is cool but none of the watches really work well.

I have a recent Samsung watch and the battery life is poor enough that I'm always forgetting to charge it.

Sorry for the buts. This is a really cool project, I just am surprised there isn't a perfect smart watch that's open source. Or even a closed source watch that is hackable.
Three things may help:

* Mutation testing
* Contract testing
* Formal verification

Other things that may help:

* NLP models that automate from Excel
test cases
* Probabilistic models coordinating on
build pipeline and test runs to
determine coverage, and which to skip
* High-coverage integration and API tests

Companies are already selling these.
Another article about the same topic.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/future-refrigerators...
The minimum level of lead we can measure is dangerous. Your claim is that there is some level that is safe, but there is absolutely no evidence for that. Each time we get better at measuring smaller and smaller lead levels in people, we find a correlation between lead levels and negative outcomes. There is literally zero evidence that supports a "safe" level of lead.

We also understand the mechanisms in which lead acts on the body. We know it's harmful in any amount. There is no safe level of lead.
I was pretty curious about the project too (am not the author) and did some digging.

The benchmark is here: https://sansyrox.github.io/robyn/#/comparison

I took a brief look into the internals and turns out it wraps actix web (https://github.com/sansyrox/robyn/blob/main/src/server.rs), one of the more dominant web servers on techempower.

tldr: I dont have a good reason to doubt the performance but seems pretty interesting if you want to use actix web without having to go through rust
You connect the debug probe to your MCU (pogo pins or w/e is convenient for the form factor), connect it to a PC over USB, and print to a terminal window in Windows, Linux etc. Or a serial-USB bridge if it doesn't support debug probes. If the MCU is so basic it doesn't support UART, bit-bang it with GPIO. Too easy!
This goes much beyond techniques and tools, this is very philosophical, about slowing down, adjusting your expectations, realizing that you live on borrowed time, that future-orientation makes us miserable, that a lot of our issues comes from the finitude of our lives, that we need to embrace it, etc.
5 guitars is a lot! I'd consider that well into accumulation territory.