skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Bush treats Kyoto as Clinton did. If Clinton made you feel better about that, well, they don't call him Slick Willy for nothing.

I'd argue that Bush is actually irrelevant to the US and the climate arguments. Since their rejection predates him, it's hard to argue that he's a cause. And, since no one else bothered, it's hard to argue that the US is especially wrong on this point. (Then again, since the best-case benefits of Kyoto are within the margin of error...)

And no, what I did is not a strawman. I took what you wrote at face value.
The entry we chose happened to be done in Illustrator, and I suspect a lot of them are. You can specify in the contest if you want vector or don't care.
The answer is 'no'. Those laws are not violated by puzzles.

The whole point of a job interview is discrimination.
That was good!

You know, there are a lot of people who want a job like Aaron has, but I think I know from experience what the immediate result is going to be.

Someone like Westwood College is going to offer a program in web entrepreneurship.

I'm sure the TV spot will be the equal of their legendary game development commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spSGNMJhWV0
There are lots of places where it's very easy to hire but that hiring ease comes from factors that reduce the success rate.

Does harder hiring in the SF Bay Area hurt or does it merely help weed out things that don't have a chance for some other reason?

As far as later stage employees go, successful silicon valley companies go elsewhere for what they can get elsewhere.

I think that you should start where you think that you have the best chance of success. I don't think that "harder to hire" or "more expensive" captures sufficient detail, but it's your company, so that's your call.
Why the interest in "law" when you can drive those evil companies out of biz AND make lots of money if you're right and they're wrong?
When people make claims and leave out few "minor" details or is missing some facts for the sake of hyperbole, it becomes less important to agree or disagree with them, rather you point out what's wrong. How can you argue against someone that doesn't present facts? That's not a strawman attack, that's just someone pointing out your mistakes.

As for your question: is Bush undermining the rejection of the Kyoto Protocol? I'll point this out: The US has neither ratified to nor withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol. Maybe the question you should be asking is: why isn't the US ratifying to the Kyoto Protocol.
Sitting around, counting his money. Occasionally does some emailing.
It is illegal to administer an IQ test as part of the hiring process. Since IQ is the #1 predictor of future job performance (See The Bell Curve), then I imagine puzzle questions are just about the next best thing.
Successful startup founder (i.e. rich guy). IIRC, he's been involved in a bunch of projects, usually as the author of some sort of web application. His latest project, Jottit seems to be a reincarnation (in spirit if not code) of Infogami, which merged with reddit.
That's dependent on the original founding team. Reddit has 4 founders as far as they're concerned, Aaron Swartz seems to be written out of their corporate history.
I think you should ask questions of the conventional wisdom. The conventional wisdom says one of the reasons to move a company to the Bay Area is that it's easier to hire developers. You should question whether that's really true. I gave some reasons why I think it might not be, and cited my experience. I don't think it's true. But you make the call.

Also, careful with words like "later stage". You're "later stage" as soon as you hire the first person who isn't getting a founder's stake in the company. For us, that was weeks, not months, after the birth of our company.
I would be a bit concerned about WFP applications. Any submissions between your last backup and now that may be gone...
I wanted to draw the Mandelbrot set -- as fast as possible. This led to an interest in code optimization, which led to an interest in numerical algorithms, which led to an interest in parallel computing, which led to an interest in computer security, which led to an interest in string matching and data compression algorithms.

I haven't done much in the way of code optimization lately -- I pretty much gave up once the P6 core came along and started aggressively pessimizing my code by executing instructions out-of-order -- but I'm still quite interested in all of the rest.
Startup For Less - Survival Guide for Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs
Shortly after my parents bought a new Macintosh, I found a program on it called Hypercard. It was a RAD tool that included a scripting language with flexible, English-like (verbose!) syntax. I starting digging around in the source code of the demo apps, and it kind of snowballed from there.

I took quite a while off after being taught that "real programming" meant C or C++ ,and later Java. The thought of trying to write interesting applications in those languages was unappealing. I discovered PHP when I needed server-side processing on a web page, but didn't find it very satisfying.

A few years ago, I heard that some guy had created a spam filter that actually worked. I read some other articles on his site, and he kept talking about a programming language called Lisp. I had heard of it, but thought it was dead. I decided to give it a try, and I haven't turned back since.
Health Vault: MS' healthcare search
But it should include memory-optimized basic data structures.
I know, and as a MacBook user I'm totally ashamed.
I the article is pretty much spot on; especially the part about how big companies suck the life out of innovation. Having worked in both environments myself; I even worked at a startup that went from nothing, to an IPO and then being acquired by a big company. There aren't words in the English dictionary that can fully explain how the business and the people changed over the years.
The reddit one no longer works because I deleted it. I resubmitted with a catchier title.
Do you have any sources on that? What if you administer an IQ test, but you call it something else?
Most people think discrimination is bad. I agree with them. But just because something is bad does not mean that it's correct to make a law against it. The people who discriminate disagree about whether discrimination is a good or bad idea.

Disagreement should not be dealt with by force, it should be dealt with by persuasion, (and with competition). The only exception is when force would happen no matter what we do (ie, they want to assault or defraud someone, then force takes place whether we stop them or not).

When people want to peacefully do things we think are bad, like discriminate, or watch Desperate Housewives, or buy homeopathic medicine, the best thing to do is leave them alone. Do we really want the Government monitoring and judging our peaceful economic choices? The only thing at stake with discrimination is it prevents cooperation between certain people. But so what? I do not have a right to have others work with me; such things should be purely voluntary. And there are still plenty of better, non-discriminating people to work with.
I wanted to break security. I never wound up learning much about it because I got too interested in other things.
A big influence on me was the hacker culture on AOL. This was around the time AOL 2.6 or 2.7 was current, and there were many ways to modify the AOL software to do very cool things.

After AOL released version 3 of the AOL client (which closed a lot of the hooks for illegal addons), I wrote what might be the world's first searchbox for web browsers. This was when I was a teenager and AltaVista was still the largest search engine. The program I wrote was a small AppleScript application that registered an "av" protocol with Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer so you could type "av:knitting patterns" in the Location bar and have that string sent to the AppleScript applet. The script received the string, looked for what came after the "av:" and computed a full URL to send it back to the web browser. The whole process was invisible to the user, as long as the AppleScript applet was running in the background.

It was a very simple script and I released it as shareware. I later built a search plugin architecture so users could add their favorite search engines, and the whole experience was a huge lesson in programming, testing, documentation, distribution, customer support and marketing, and I was suddenly buried in work.

Then Apple developed a plugin architecture for Sherlock and I started getting fewer and fewer shareware registrations. That's what essentially killed my shareware product, but the entire experience was very exciting. I was hooked and have been hacking ever since.
When I was two years old my dad bought an 8086 and installed ChessBase on it. I loved pushing the arrows keys and watching the pieces move. Then the summer after kindergarten my mom bought me a QBASIC book. I had only recently learned to read so it had to be read aloud to me at first, but I understood it. I pretty much didn't get up from my terminal all summer. By the time I started first grade I was comfortable with nested loops. I still have a friend whom I met in fourth grade who started programming as early as I did, but in REXX. I don't put much stock in Piaget :-)

It wasn't until around 1999, though, that I was really able to start becoming a hacker. That was when I finally got my own computer rather than sharing one with the family, and immediately put Linux on it.
Scientists figured out what the appendix is for
20, undergrad, CS and Biology
Facebook Is Kinda OK but Largely Overrated : Matt's Homepage
This seems relevant:

http://redeye.firstround.com/
Commodore PET and Commodore 64. I don't remember exactly why I wanted to program them... just that it was fun.
27 + Bs. in BA + Ms. in MIS + Ms. in IT in Design
Dreamhost hosts my mailbox. I have a nice setup that runs server-side where SpamAssassin automatically trains CRM114 and the two check each others' results and make sure they don't produce opposite conclusive answers. I use mutt as an MUA and Postfix as an MTA, with DynDNS's outbound mailhop service to get around the firewalls imposed by various lame ISPs.
I was six years old and sitting in my father's lap reading while my mother video-taped. At some point I playfully smacked my dad, he playfully smacked back and I began to cry. Afterwards, my mom said something about editing the video. In my mind, I understood her to mean she could somehow alter the video... you know, change my crying into smiles, laughs and lollipops. I still can't get over how much influence that single misconception has had on my life.

Cut to three years later.

A good family friend gave me an old Apple IIe in 1994 (I was 9). I would break it, and then watch him fix it. It was fascinating, and I finally had my chance to figure out how to make machines do what I wanted.
This kid is crazy.

PG, if you look at successful YC startups (Loopt, Reddit, Zenter) has there been any pattern in the character of the founders?

I can't imagine someone with Aaron's character leading a successful company - his history (Infogami)supports this.
I've been reading your comments, and you have interesting things to say. Do you have a website or email address that you would share?
It's Bill Gates' fault.

I had an Atari ST. It had a simple, elegant GUI desktop and there was no reason for me to ever stop playing Uninvited or drawing in DeluxePaint. I would have been about 9. I'd save up my pocket money and buy $20 imported ST Format magazines with headlines like 'ATARI VS AMIGA: WHO WILL INHERIT THE FUTURE OF COMPUTING', and read about MIDI and DTP.

Everything worked so I had nothing to fix.

Alas the ST broke. And it turned out neither Atari nor Amiga inherited the future of computing - nobody made games for Atari ST anymore. I got a 286 12 running DOS 3 from my mum, and was plunged into boot disk hell trying to free that precious 640K of RAM for my games. I started editing batch files and using 'errorlevel' to make little menus so I could use less floppies (they were expensive). Then I had a 386 where the video card slipped out all the time. So I opened the case and slipped it back in. I eventually got a feel for hardware.

The computer teachers at high school were terrible. I didn't like logo, as I couldn't see anything practical. We learnt Pascal later, but the teacher was always away, so we learnt from the internet and another kid who showed us.

I read a lot of computer magazines. I wanted to write for computer magazines.

I finished high school and did a certificate in business management the same year. I did an MCSE at 17, got into tweaking a lot, then found Linux, the tweakers dream. Tweaking lead to scripting, scripting leads to hacking.

I'm actually really glad I got into Linux then, and I'm glad I stuck with it. At that time, everybody was talking about Win32 and Visual Studio. It seemed like you had to have an MSDN subscription to make software that was considered desirable by the masses. Now the internet is considered the biggest part of computing, and more often or not it's based on OSS toolsets and languages.

PS. Atari rocks all over Amiga. :^P
Summing up:

- Be smart, be prepared.

- Get out there and network a lot. Get involved.

- Get lucky.
I misread 12 as 15. But the blog post says you pick three images. So 12 choose 3, or 220.

OK, if you were willing to sit through their video, why don't you tell us about this second layer?
Buzz Monitoring Widget: Empower You Page With Recent News
What should be illegal is silently judging the "coolness" or "good looks" or "charisma" of a candidate. Because, in the real world, that's usually what gets you the job.
Simple XP tip: Turn off your beeps
Technorati CEO: Techmeme is "a great little site."
Check this out. You can build your own news and blogs monitor according to your keywords and urls and embed into websites and blogs.
Over a Dozen Web Resources for Tech Travelers
I wanted to resolve the 'Einstein' or 'Cabins' puzzle so I got an Aim65. I went through Pet, CPM, bubble memory, Forth, Dr Jobs, Turbo C, Smalltalk and was very near to a solution with microProlog (it came as an 8"floppy). Then Winston and Mellish ruined it for me. It's done even better now with amb and monads but life has never been quite the same.
He made two really interesting points:

* It seems that YCombinator's boost is not that big as everyone thought. After first three months they hardly got three thousand visitors a day.
* Buzz, even negative, really matters. Despite negative comments about the rewrite, without this it is very likely that they would not grow so quickly.
But what if having a facebook profile becomes like having an email address? I'm sure early emails and early web searches were frivolous b/c people had been getting along fine w/o them. Early cell phone calls were, "OMG!! I'm walking down the street talking on the phone!!! This is so cool." etc.

At the same time I agree w/ maroon. Social networks are not my thing. Think about how you meet and maintain relationships with people in the real world. You're usually talking to someone you know and they introduce you to someone else. The conversation naturally veers toward common ground where a relationship can be built. I haven't seen a company reproduce this.

I never met anyone new on a social network. I never had the nuggets to ask anyone out and the ones who asked me out were either no-go's or bonafide prostitutes (yes I was on myspace for a few months.)

One of my co-founders said it best. "Facebook is for maintaining aqaintences."
Rumor: Facebook To Launch MP3 Store?
7 Rules for Communicating Clearly and Concisely in Email
And I spent all of it obsessively reading the RSS 1.0 mailing list

No wonder he gets invited to all the best parties.

a list of companies I thought were good ideas and pulled the top one off the list. The idea was this: make building a web site as easy as filling in a textbox.

AWESOME!!! It's like a comment section with only one entry, with the whole thing renamed "web site".

He apparently has some sort of wacky charm, and that is how he's gotten where he is. His genius is obviously anchored firmly to the mundane.
Hi paul,

I have enjoyed all ur essays and am fascinated by how insightful they are. I am graduating from college in december with a bachelors in electronics. Could u please recommend some of the books which have helped evolve ur thinking to this level.

Thanks

Gaurav
I personally think that in someways facebook is over hyped, especially regarding the apps which are largely superflous however I use internal facebook messaging more than I use email now.

So perhaps until almost everyone you know has a regularly used facebook account, it will be hard for people to fully appreciate the value of it.

Interesting anecdotal evidence: A lot of people leave Myspace and Bebo to join Facebook. I've never heard the opposite of this happening.
Early cell phones were owned by busy working people like executives at large companies, and were used to conduct business from anywhere.
Dear New York Times: The Pay Wall Was Only Half the Problem
Creative Entrepreneurs: The Next Masters of the Universe
Spread to Enlarge - Designing for iPhone, Wii and Other New Web Devices
I've got a somewhat related question:
If a bunch of guys that were used to Exchange and the internal calendaring/syncing with phones/etc. left, and wanted to break their MS bonds and embrace oss, what would they use?
Basically - is their a compelling alternative that would still work with Blackberry?
A guess seems like a reasonable standard of proof, the experiment is when you hire them for a month to see if they can do the job. If that's illegal then the laws are broken.
A Call to Arms for Interaction Designers
30+ "Funniest" Places on the Web
Facebook is wrong by definition:

virtual contacts are virtual, real contacts are real (no joke! Try the difference!)
I object to the overuse of the word "hacker". You're all like a bunch of freshman coeds in English class talking about the day they became poets.
The last comment about people's status message is funny. Gave me an idea to write a script, which hides people's status messages, avatars, music they currently listen to, and all similar forms of self-expressing-annoyance, on gmail chat, meebo and all similar.
I think the real reason for the Times' dwindling readership and authority in the last years is the influence of the current publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., who took over in 1992. I lived in NYC back in 1989, and at that time, the Times was the ultimate newspaper: it gave an objective view of not only NYC but of the whole world in wonderful enlightening detail. I used to get the Sunday edition hot off the press late Saturday night and then eagerly read it on Sunday. It was truly at that time the standard for what a newspaper could and should be.

Those days, unfortunately, began dying in 1992 and a little more every year since to the point now where common news is of the latest bias shown in the Times - the slant is obvious and annoying. I hate slants in news even if the slant is in a direction I favor. I want to form my opinion based on the facts, not the other way around. I'm afraid the only hope the Times has is if the next Sulzberger (or non-family member if the Times really tanks and gets bought up) can re-implement the great objectivity of yesteryear - but this is probably unlikely. The pattern seems to be the more they loose readers, the more they slant. Repeat.
The more you learn about a given subject, the more that subject will appear 'slanted' in a news article. Selective omission is a relatively simple form of bias, yet almost impossible to avoid. Even academic works are full of slant.
How would you define it? My definition of a hacker is someone who creatively and safely overcomes or circumvents limitations and enjoys the challenge.
For the one winter I lived in Seattle, we went for 4 months straight without sunshine. When a ray of light fell outside our office on the parking lot, we all ran out to revel in that one ray - I'll never forget how desperately we all missed and needed the sunlight.
It's easy to see why Graham would ask him to apply to YC, especially for the first series.

He was "famous" in some hacker circles for winning the ArsDigita prize and for his work on RSS, he was willing to move to Cambridge for a summer and work out of an apartment with little compensation.

The really interesting part of this, though, is the personal connection Graham had with applicants before they applied to the YC program (other founders accepted by YC tell similar stories).

So maybe the lesson here is: get to know Graham personally first, then apply to YC.
The strawman is Clinton. There's no reference whatsoever to Clinton in my original post. You claim that I'm elevating Clinton and the Senate to some high position, and then knock it down, when my post is about California's legislation.

My claim is that that California has made efforts that the United States have not made, and I do claim that the Bush administration has been actively undermining these efforts - both nationally and in California.

(edit - oh wait, I get it - I should have said "when the US failed to ratify Kyoto, rather than "when the Bush administration failed to ratify kyoto". I think Bush had a lot to do with it, but he wasn't the only one. If that's your position, fair enough).
Seems a top bloke to me.
I think the application would pull out all news.yc submissions and comments for the applicants and probably even show the top 10 google search results for each founder's name. Additionally, I think all the 4 partners go through all applications and they all probably rate it. The rating system probably binds the end result for easy consumption.
Many of the most useful technologies started out as trivialities.
"until almost everyone you know has a regularly used facebook account"

In other words, never.
Greetings Y folks! Simple life-hack in exchange for your collective advice!
OAuth Core 1.0 Final Draft is out: Now go build stuff!
Geocities...God rest their souls...
3k visitors after 3 months is not half bad
For a newspaper reporting facts, I would argue that quality is inversely proportional to slant. This lack of slant is what made the NY times of old great. There were no fabricated story scandals then, no need for a "public" editor to monitor the slant then. The NY times had enormous impact as their stories were syndicated in most other newspapers - this impact is vanishing. The increasing slant is why I gave up on the Times a couple years ago, and I'm sure it explains the loss of a lot of other readers as well.
"Pen Science" is to Writing as CS is to Web 2.0
Do you agree with this analogy?
Interface Design for Mobile Devices
Roughly, someone who is unquestionably a hacker has to identify you as such. It's clearly a cultural thing, and that defies objective measurement.

http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html

the CTO couldn't be a first rate hacker, because to become an eminent NT developer he would have had to use NT voluntarily, multiple times, and I couldn't imagine a great hacker doing that

I think pg sometimes types faster than he thinks. The same person who designed NT designed VMS. Richard Stallman (iirc) wanted to use VMS instead of Unix as a basis when he started GNU but couldn't for some reason. At bottom, there is nothing wrong with NT, aside from open-source nonsense (hack the kernel lately? No?). Is there anything preventing great work on Windows? No, no, no. And I would suggest that John Carmack is a better coder than all of you put together, but since he's willingly used NT, he's evidentally no great hacker. Hence, it is more culture- than technology- or product-based.