skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Self-restraint is a hackable psychological phenomenon in one's brain. I agree that it is not an innate moral power, but I disagree that it is a distinct human quality that can be strengthened. Self-restraint boils down to optimism. People can put themselves through anything if they have faith that it will pay off in the end. Rational knowledge doesn't help, and it isn't a matter of simply being harsh with oneself, either: harshness and pessimism just produce a paralyzed, chubby, self-loathing person. If passing up a cheeseburger leaves you with a dead feeling inside -- "I'm deprived now and screwed in the long run anyway, what a waste" -- then you won't be able to keep it up. If you have faith that passing up the cheeseburger will have a long-term payoff, then your brain gives you a down payment of happiness that cancels out the displeasure of depriving yourself.

That's why thinking about a distant, glorious end result (like a smoking hot beach body) works for some people but is counterproductive for others. It's motivational if you really believe in it. For many people, though, it's just a reminder that they're making sacrifices for something that they don't believe in at all. Those people are better of thinking of less distant payoffs that they can really believe in, even if the payoffs are trivial by comparison.

Some people think that your brain will simply not accept passing up food that your body thinks it needs, that it's completely unnatural and therefore impossible. But you do things all the time that have energetic costs and distant, uncertain payoffs. Hard work, saving money, hell, even just getting out of bed: these are things that impose immediate costs. Your brain does emotional bookkeeping to incline you to avoid costs that have no payoff. If you've ever been depressed, you know that getting out of bed is sheer misery if you believe that nothing good will come of it. Yet it's normal to get out of bed, get to work on time, and work at a job for a payoff that comes a few weeks later. (Or, for a startup, months or years later.) In the same way, it can be normal to pass up food. You just have to have faith in the payoff. You might think that food has some special status in your brain, and it might, but your brain is surprisingly abstract and adaptable. (Consider the recent article about money!) Also consider that physical labor is basically the opposite of food, but people manage to habituate themselves to physical labor despite the complaints of their body (which are, initially, totally out of proportion to the physical cost.)

Having faith isn't easy; in fact, it's really hard. But it demystifies the question of why people eat or don't eat, and why they feel good or bad when doing so. I find it much easier to deal with my "faith" than to struggle directly with my impulses.

EDIT: Hmm, I got upvoted while in the process of making a major revision. Sorry about that. I should stop using the "edit" page for preview/composition.
I made this great new device called the "Automatic gasoline car to electric car converter." It takes your gasoline car and cleans the outside of it with soap and water! It shines when it comes out the other side!

What do you mean the name is misleading? Are you really dinging me for coming up with a product name that isn't perfectly descriptive??
It's not. That site only allows access to a minimal subset of GV features. The site that the article is referring to is going to have an interface designed to appear at least similar to iPhone-native apps, and provide access to most/all of the available functionality.
Design notebook suggestions?
What do you guys use for design and or sketch books? I know everyone seems to love moleskins, but frankly they've broken down on me in the past. I also like having larger size sheets of paper to work with.
Progression of the Inevitable: on the simultaneity of invention
Bloops -- changed to "a few".

At a leisurely 10 minutes per mile, that's 1.3.. hours of running. Well, overeating by a thousand calories is a lot.

But even assuming you burned 0 other calories, still, the argument holds.

You can, indeed, get thin by exercise.

If one stubbornly insisted on ONLY getting thin by running, and steadfastly refused to take responsibility for what went into one's piehole, STILL -- it would be possible, if perhaps impractical, depending on just how irresponsible one's eating habits were and how much free time they had to exercise.

But plenty of people get up early enough, for instance, to run for an hour. So it's not only doable, but EMINENTLY doable.
What sort of things? I was going with reasonably general, basic queries.. things like names of famous people, city names, and things like "[topic] blogs". I didn't go with anything longer than two words.

One particularly poor example was "ruby blogs" - see the results: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=ruby+blogs - results 1, 2, 4, 6 and 10 are pretty irrelevant. On Google, the top 6 results, at least, are really solid.
Ask HN: Hot & Useful software skills for novice converts?
I have a couple of friends who for different reasons (valid to them) would like to get into software development. One of them has a Master's degree (economics) and the other
has a PhD (Biology). While both of them would love to first get into school (under-grad/grad) to get a solid foundation in Computer Science, they can't as they need to keep making money. They are fine working at the entry level in the industry. They have asked me for the skills that they should
learn that will help them contribute to their future employers in a meaningful manner and thus earn their pay.

While I have my own ideas, I would like to know what the smart and pragmatic people on HN have to say.

To start the discussion:
* Which programming languages: Java, C#, Ruby, Scala, C++ ...
* Which application domain: Web, Desktop, Mobile etc
* What are the skills that are in the demand most
as per your experience? What kind of skill set you are looking for in the entry level programmers when you hire?
* What are the skills that will be valuable in the long run?
Eric Ries is a great example of turnng a little practical experience into an incredibly profitable consulting business.
This comes up in Hacker News every time a health story comes up, usually quoting a pop-sci writer. You've stated it by far the clearest with no vagueness or handwaving so hopefully you can answer this (or provide pointers to research):

In this theory where does the stored energy (i.e. the fat) come from if not from the calorie intake? How can this be done for more than a short period of time (e.g. I know you can break down muscle for energy) without breaking laws of physics?
Now I know why I can't hack it as a radio talk show host or freelance writer. I just don't have the ability to stretch a single sentence - "Losing weight requires a calorie deficit." - into four pages.
Regular expressions. They don't take a long time to learn, and can save you endless work in a wide variety of domains.
I was listening to an interesting interview with Dustin Nguyen, a comics artist yesterday. He had a background in CAD work, and for a long time had a pet project of creating locations for scenes in a CAD package. The idea being he and his co-workers would be able to save a load of time when drawing the art, because they could just use rendered backgrounds.

He mentioned this idea to his boss (famed comics artist Jim Lee) who apparently just said: "Why? Drawing is fun,".

And to this idea of automatically generating code from some formal spec, I can't help but think: "Why? Programming is fun,"

Sure no one likes tedious, rote programming. I especially don't like the kind of tedious typing statically typed languages tend to require you to write. But if you aren't finding the art of programming fun... I think you are in the wrong line of work.

For any interested parties, the interview with Nguyen was from episode 91 of the Sidebar podcasts - http://www.sidebarnation.com/
That guy needs a copy editor. I couldn't make it through.
The article does address this to some extent. For example:

"According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight."
"and that's why you never ..." :-)

With one-time projects I've meant products like a micro-page that a customer wants for some ad-campaign an then after some weeks have passed nobody will ever visit again.

But I agree, anything more than that is destined to be modified one day.
I LOVE the Rediform composition notebooks. Model 53-108 60pgs. They can be had on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Rediform-AVE53-108-RED53108-Compositio...
The Apple/Microsoft comparison ignores the fact that MS has a huge market share which, until the recent switch in user focus from desktop to web apps, had few viable alternatives.

This is far from the case with Apple. Avoiding Windows ca. 1999 required serious commitment and basically giving up on Office type applications. Avoiding Apple today requires saving yourself $x by not buying its products. Notice the difference?

And if you miss certain Apple-only software/features - I would - since this is Hacker News we could discuss alternative implementations. Leave the "I'm a web celeb and I'm gonna quit my iPhone!" to the hypeosphere.
YC seems to me a better value: for the same stuff, and a lot more, they pay you.
Indeed that is a useful little skill to have.

I am looking for skills at a somewhat higher level than regular expressions though. For instance, like some of those mentioned in the question above.
1,000 calories, considering the modern possibilities, isn't that much. I mean, that's a bit less than two slices of toast with Nutella.

Weight loss programs have to focus on preempting and managing appetite. There's a wealth of studies connecting exercise to increased appetite (c.f. OP), especially focused, running-at-the-gym, doing-penance-for-those-donuts exercise. (Low-level activity—walking around, say—doesn't seem to provoke the same uptick in hunger. But it also burns way, way less calories.)

Your counterfactual assumes that the runner isn't more likely to eat an additional 2,000 calories, which is to say, they're already managing their appetite. If you can manage your appetite, then go for a goddamn run already. You'll be happier for it. If you're not managing your appetite, work on that—exercise will not help you lose weight until you do.

There's a great book—The End Of Overeating—which details the intersection of modern food science, evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, and human physiology. If you're interested, give it a go.

(BTW, bringing up elite athletes doesn't help the discussion—elite athletes regularly have 1.5-2 times the VO² max of even extremely fit people. Hell, five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain could circulate 7L of oxygenated blood per minute compared with the 5-6L of his competitors and 3-4L for the fitter of us regular people. Human physiology has a statistical distribution, and bringing up people many standard deviations from the mean doesn't help any of us regular schmucks. My mutant power certainly does not involve my metabolism.)
Running an hour a day is a dicey proposition because of the possibility of injury. I would say it's impossible for the vast majority of people who are overweight, no matter how carefully they worked up to it. You'd have to be skinny, have excellent form, and not have any unfixable pre-existing injuries or weaknesses.
If you've programmed before I'd recommend C# in a Nutshell, you get a solid overview of C# and .Net at a quick pace and its a good reference when you are done. WPF Unleashed is highly recommended for WPF (I haven't read it, I've just heard good things), Application = Code + Markup is also a very good book for WPF.
> ignorance or a need to create an eye-catching headline

What is it about being a hacker that makes us so surprised and/or upset when marketing works on us? As if we just lost an intellectual battle?

Marketing works, people. It's just hacking curiosity. You all read the article, didn't you? I finished it to the end.
I meant images instead of links.
Their prospects are going to kind of suck at first.

If I were to do a crash course, I'd say:

Java/C#
Code Complete/related software engineering books
Eclipse/Visual Studio
svn/cvs

You'll notice that there's nothing overly exciting there. I think it's most important for them to get the standard set of skills that'll give them the best chance of working in software development. That means the boring stuff that most people here would be "too good for." Everyone's a code monkey for some portion of their lives, the lucky ones just get it out of the way early.

And they might also consider the QA -> Engineering route. QA sucks (I can attest), but it's a good way to start working with software. If you're lucky, you can even move into regression tests, regression frameworks, etc.
Yes. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky were the first to demonstrate this behavior.

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211, 453-458.

However, I don't know enough to answer your question about in-population variance of this trait.
Well, the first thing I would suggest is putting all of the images into one file then using CSS to control what portion appears.

That should cut down on both latency and issues with IE only downloading one image at a time.
The founders of my company (not a YC startup) always paid themselves a salary. You can't really expect someone to work hard whilst not even earning enough to survive.

Also, the typical response to the above of "live off savings" is backwards, because if it's your company and you believe in it, your savings are the first round of investment.
The problem is that every few weeks an article comes out with some blanket statement like this, like "Excercise won't make you thin" which is only a partial truth. If you read many articles about fitness and nutrition you'll realize that there are no black and whites when it comes to nutrition and weightloss and there is no one easy answer.

Staying healthy and losing weight is a combination of good habits.

The reality is of course that exercise is a fantastic way to lose weight and stay healthy, but as this article says if you don't pair that healthy eating habits it means absolutely nothing.
Teaser - 9.5 minutes of introduction, 30 seconds of speach by the author. Full program: http://fora.tv/2009/02/24/Robert_Hefner_The_Grand_Energy_Tra...
Your argument assumes invariant appetite and metabolism. Weight regulation is complex; see Gary Taubes's book _Good Calories, Bad Calories_ or this article: http://sethroberts.net/about/whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf
I wish I could pay myself from the first day — to avoid being distracted by day job or contracts and to have some sort of realistic cash burn.
Indeed. If you ever need to provide evidence for a patent, this is the way to do it.
PHP Twitter - Add twit easy with PHP - Plaats een Twit met PHP
Let's Bring Combustion Out Of The 18th Century
Thanks for the comment. Made me think in a way that I've never thought before.
I do like that everything runs over HTTP at its base...
> you can break down muscle for energy

Yes. Lean body mass can atrophy from starvation while fat deposits are growing.

The point is more that the equation as stated is a useless way to think about fat loss. Hormones drive the lean vs. fat configuration of your body, not calorie counting. Cut out someone's pancreas and they'll waste away no matter what they eat. Inject testosterone or growth hormone and they will get leaner and more muscular, all else held constant. Inject insulin and they'll get fatter.

Exercise affects your body composition more effectively when you focus on how it changes your hormone profile rather than count calories burned. High resistance major muscle group exercises boost growth hormone and testosterone and increase insulin resistance. Long distance training actually reduces testosterone levels.
Because Apple is the government and enforces it's decisions with the threat of violent reprisal, right? This is ridiculous.

You trivialize the actions of an opressive dictatorship when you liken it to inconvenience of using a dictionary that lacks the term "Dirty Sanchez". (This being an example of a term present in Wiktionary but redacted from Ninjawords by Ninjawords.)
So when I'm angry it can TYPE IN ALL CAPS AUTOMATICALLY!

Other than that, adding pressure sensitivity to a keyboard isn't innovation, finding a good use for it is.
Languages: start with one of (Ruby, Python). At some point learn: C, Java. Also fool around with Erlang/Scala. That's the short version.

The economics guy could probably do well with R and some stats stuff... there's apparently beginning to be a big market for that kind of thing.

I think web stuff has a lot of jobs, and there's lots of room to get in at an entry level and work your way up. Something like mobile probably requires more skills at the get-go.
I remember the days when I was on the collegiate crew team and I worked out twice a day for 3 hours. At the end of the season I gained 20 lbs (probably of muscle) but I remember distinctly eating about 5 times a day compared to my normal 2-3 times a day now.
Who knows, in the future sharing your DNA may be a standard prerequisite like meeting the folks. Of course, people won't be marrying or having children by then (ala europe) so the government will likely create the "cash for wombs" incentive to encourage women to bear "pure breeds" and get all those DNA clunkers off the road.
The article states that people compensate for increased bouts of exercise by either consuming more calories or decreased activity later in the day. It goes on to cite a number of studies showing this effect.

Basically, if someone runs a few miles, they will reward themselves with a treat that negates or even overcompensates for the calories expended. Failing that, they will do less physical things later in the day... sit and watch TV instead of working in the garden for example.

Sure, some people have the willpower to go for a run and not eat more to compensate, but the majority of people do not. Any those that do might not even notice that they decrease later exertions to compensate.
Hmm I exercise daily and have been more tempted to eat healthier foods, rather than undo all the work my body has put in exercising. I'm down 30LB in the past 45 days. Time can suck it.
So you are suggesting to stop using the HTML canvas element, and instead use Javascript to render tiles which are clipped using CSS from one large image?
What's the reason for not doing it in Flash?
They make a nice, organic entry point into a lot of higher-level programming concepts, including some of the languages you list. I believe it makes more sense and is more motivating to start by solving problems rather than learning software development in the abstract.

You can solve a lot of problems with pattern matching, and the ones you can't solve will then lead you to other interesting places.
> So it's not only doable, but EMINENTLY doable.

I'll bite - how many hours/week do you run?
Okay, so here again is an opportunity for me to talk about my company, but I will try to avoid it.

Here's the deal. The web is the future. So for application domain -- the web is where it is at. And the web includes mobile. Mobile devices are web devices. The whole point of the web was to enable mobility in a standard protocol -- mobility of information, digestion of information and communication of information between any device, whether that device is a computer with a browser, or a cell phone, or a car, or a refrigerator.

So, that is the main issue. If you except that premise, the premise that the web is the future, then I can't help but recommend you learn technologies that are fundamental to the future of the web: the technologies that are part of almost any web application. Those technologies are: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SQL. XML is good too.

The problem here is that it is difficult to start in the web domain, because in order to really create anything of value, you have to learn more than one technology. HTML by itself is just a flat web page. To be awesome you have to create that HTML dynamically and in order to do that you have to learn a lower level language like .NET, PHP, Java, or an opinionated platform like Ruby on Rails, or mine: Qrimp.

Then, to use whatever programming language, or platform you choose, you also need to power it with a database, so you have to learn SQL. Then you need to make that web page do cool things in the browser, so you have to learn JavaScript.

So I would recommend, if you are going to start somewhere to program choose either SQL or JavaScript. You are going to need those, regardless of whether you ultimately go with Ruby on Rails, Qrimp, PHP, .NET or J2EE.

So, to narrow it down even more, go with JavaScript. It's a lot like Java, which is a lot like C# (.NET). Reasoning: Keep your doors open. Start with the broadest technology that can be applicable in the most places, then narrow yourself down toward rock-stardom in your niche.

That being said, SQL is part of almost any information system, even outside the web domain. It's also one of the most difficult to wrap your mind around, so go there. You can actually create HTML with SQL if you want to. Most veterans don't recommend it because you are mixing the presentation layer and the data layer, but the point remains...

If you look at this breakdown: http://demo.qrimp.com/TechJobsCharts You'll see that the most requested skill set among technology jobs are HTML and SQL -- for good reason -- the reasons I listed above.
I just use a legal pad. They work great for design, not really sketches though.

It really depends on what you are doing though. I use a graphpaper spiral bound book in my bag for long term ideas and designs and then the legal pad for working with people and sharing designs.
That is was I was referring to, yes. And? Why call it censorship, when the act of denying access to shelf space does not actually alter the content? Why should the retailer not have the right to choose what they sell? It's nonsense.
Databases and SQL, everyone developer needs to know about them. They are easy to learn, incredibly ubiquitous and actually quite fun to work with. Have them start out simple by downloading MySQL and reading, say, <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/>W3 Schools tutorials</a>.

Regular expressions. Very useful no matter which area (desktop, web, mobile) you specialize in.

HCI, usability, interaction design. They should atleast know enough about usability and design to appreciate its importance and avoid The Usual Mistakes (TM).

Using and administering web server software. Learn about Apache and the most common modules (e.g. mod_rewrite) because the odds are pretty high that you'll have to set up a web server in the future.
You should email 37Signals about your profound disappointment at how ineffective their "Campfire" product is for making S'mores.
Ten questions for Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine
running an hour at a 10 minute mile (6 mph) is unlikely to lead to injury.