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CinchWrench

63 karma · joined June 1, 2019

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CinchWrench··on The Last Gunsmiths of the Khyber Pass
I've instructed kids roughly this age. My context was the American Boy Scouts (remember when that still existed?), so I'm sure it was similar to your experience in the ACF.

There are a lot of psychological techniques you pick up on before you even get to the instruction. One of them is setting a firm expectation that "you are becoming a man, this is how men behave, men are accountable for their actions." This works well for kids in a situation where they feel that they have some honor/face to maintain.

The only difficult child I had to handle was one in the scouts who was using a pocket knife in a very unsafe way. I tore up his totin' chip [1] in front of the class and the shame from that and the dressing down his scoutmaster gave him at the evening campfire straightened him up quickly. I only bring that up because it illustrates how I used that shame drive as what I view as the most important mechanism to keep everyone safe.

This was easy for me to intuit because my father introduced me to guns at a young age, .22's under his supervision around 4 or 5, a BB gun without direct supervision around the age of 8, then on to pellets and carrying my own large-caliber rifle while deer hunting around age 12. It was impressed on me that I was going to pay like hell in corporal punishment if I hit something I shouldn't have, and I've ever had a mishap with a gun (knock on wood.)

It's interesting that in these contexts where I've felt most safe there's an almost visceral understanding that removal of group standing and potentially violence are waiting on the other end of negligence on your part.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totin%27_Chip --usually a minor infraction warrants removal of a corner of the chip. A serious infraction warrants complete destruction of the chip.

CinchWrench··on Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
Everything _is_ for sale at the right price. So the only problem here is that they're being honest about it.

There are several precedents that come to mind though, prostitution is one.

CinchWrench··on Experts recommend Machine Learning books
Slightly Meta:

I wish HN had a parallel community for these kind of silly posts. I use it as a worksafe site to take a break at work and sometimes jokes like this, while not being in the spirit of HN, are things I very much appreciate.

CinchWrench··on Opinions I have formed about the “geospatial industry”
Don't forget the SAS institute! Same business model!
CinchWrench··on Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends
The 4-Hour Life problem.
CinchWrench··on Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever
I have fantasies about a homestead in the shadow of Cavanal Hill. If I could raise chickens and goats, and maybe a family, all while working remote, I'd truly have the best our age has to offer.

There are a lot of us out here in the middle who want that.

I get your skepticism, but I'm going to hope against hope that telepresence technology will continue to improve and make that possible.

CinchWrench··on Companies consider abandoning open office layouts to prevent disease spread
Consistency space.
CinchWrench··on My First Year as a Freelance AI Engineer
I work at an f500, and I have worked in other data science groups at companies in the same industry. It's no huge thing for a large consultancy to be thrown 500k-3M for a 6 month "predictive" project whose deliverables are some python code that trains simple scikit models.

Absolutely grinds my gears too because the consultants turn in dreck that we're expected to fix to help the VP who hired them save face.

Not sure why I'm sharing except that the last line of your comment really hit home for me.

CinchWrench··on Will VBA Die? (2019)
This is so cool. VBA is a gateway drug, for sure. It was my first foray into programming, specifically to solve a problem I knew I could formulate as a shortest path problem. That's led me on quite a journey.

The only thing I wish they'd do is update the editor. I like that it feels responsive, I just don't like the lack of line numbers and themes.

CinchWrench··on Jupyter notebooks in the IDE: VS Code vs. PyCharm
Is spyder still super slow? I gave it up back in 2018 because of the (perceived) performance problems.
CinchWrench··on Oliver Cromwell, the man who wouldn’t be king
Indeed, I have ancestors involved in this genocide and they don't seem to be the type that would have any loyalty to London. So who exactly is it coming after the irish and why?
CinchWrench··on Talent May Be Shifting Away from Superstar Cities: Study
The dirty secret about staying in smaller markets through your 20s and 30s is that your pay never catches up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for you, but I'm swallowing some pretty bitter pills here having just crossed the 30 year mark and watching my company hire in people at my level for 20-50% more.

CinchWrench··on Falling Back to an Older MacBook Pro
2012 mbp. Still mostly self serviceable, and I'm on my second display, third hard drive, and second set of RAM.

I'm gonna ride this heavy machine until the wheels fall off.

CinchWrench··on Life Is a Ponzi Scheme (2009)
Wealth taxes are just going to be another way for the top 0.1% to fleece the rest of the top 10% or top 50%, because the rich and powerful will always change the rules to benefit them and to hide their assets.
CinchWrench··on The GM strike is really about the switch to electric cars
>I do think that we as a society have a responsibility for baseline care of everyone.

If you give people a floor like that, you have to keep them doped up enough to be content with it. Or engineer a more complacent human.

CinchWrench··on An Antique Toaster That's Better Than Today’s [video]
But your toaster is open to the internet and now it mines bitcoins for some shady character in Moldova.
CinchWrench··on A.I. researchers are making more than $1M, even at a nonprofit
*Cries in fortune 500 wage slave
CinchWrench··on Pension funds may be wrecked in a future recession
Not all pensions are public employee pensions!

There are a lot of machinists and truckers out there who are already feeling this pinch.

CinchWrench··on Fridge Condenser Fans – Old and New [video]
Just watch AvE BOLTR videos instead. At least you'll be able to laugh about it.
CinchWrench··on Meeting online has become the most popular way U.S. couples connect: study
Too real.
CinchWrench··on Meeting online has become the most popular way U.S. couples connect: study
In the future, you will search for your mate the same way you order pizza.

Oh wait, I mean present. Not future, present.

CinchWrench··on Tiananmen 30 years on – China's great act of 'forgettance'
Not everyone shares your value system. (I do, but that's beside the point.)

You never know when the person you're responding to might be Pentti Linkola.

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