Hacker News Reader

DorintheFloraon California Hits the Brakes on High-Speed Rail

FYI: Existing train (Amtrak) service in the Central Valley is being expanded currently and they are looking to expand it further. The expansion, from 6 trips to 7, went into effect June 20th. Fresno is the same city where ground is being broken on the nation's first high speed rail.

This sort of contradicts this editorial claiming high speed rail makes no sense and will not fly.

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article84917817.html

DorintheFloraon California Hits the Brakes on High-Speed Rail

The officials who have to make the budget tradeoffs that weren’t on the ballot in 2008 are finally pushing back. The question now is when they’ll have the guts to pull the plug.

  We can do "The Innuendo"
  We can dance and sing
  When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing

Don Henley - Dirty Laundry

http://www.metrolyrics.com/dirty-laundry-lyrics-don-henley.h...

It is an editorial -- in other words, opinion not news -- and the strongly worded title really does not fit with the content. This should not be getting taken so seriously here.

DorintheFloraon Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find'

But if we raise the price of helium to prevent depletion of resources, helium will be expensive too.

Although artificially raising the price of diamonds seems to have been an effective strategy for the diamond industry, that is in part because they found a marketing angle where the high price of a diamond engagement ring is a strong emotional signal between a prospective couple. In most markets, people simply are not going to pay more for something than it benefits them. Raising the price can have the consequence of pushing people to go look for other alternatives.

Price has to be reflective to some degree of underlying value or benefit. Further, if creating helium comes at the cost of destroying more real value than it creates, this is simply a lose-lose prospect across the board, regardless of the price tag you can attach to helium.

DorintheFloraon New Cities

Sorry to have made assumptions. My understanding is that there was no pre-existing infrastructure suitable to cars. The dirt and cobblestone roads that existed were inadequate, to put it nicely. I have read up a good bit on such things and drawn a very different conclusion from you.

In the US, personally owned vehicles are critical for sprawling suburbs and rural life. It is a big country with low density. Cars should not be necessary in the big city. Those that are designed well make it possible to live without a car. In much of America, it is quite challenging to live without a car. This is partly due to choices we have made, not because it had to be that way.

DorintheFloraon New Cities

The world would be better served if you studied how to tweak existing cities to make them more pedestrian-friendly and people focused. They are too car focused.

You should start by reading "How buildings learn." Old buildings that work extremely well typically did not start off as superior. They typically gained value over time as residents added improvements that worked well because they lived there and understood the problem space.

DorintheFloraon New Cities

Perhaps you should read some history. IIRC, at some point, car companies bought up public transit infrastructure and shut it down because less public transit was good for sales.

#canyousayconflictofinterest?

Linky: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_con...

DorintheFloraon Ask HN: Is Y Combinator a submarine communist plot?

No. As is often the case, they think that because they do one thing dramatically better than anyone else, they must be fundamentally wiser and smarter in all things.

"A wise man is humble."

DorintheFloraon SimpleCitizen (YC S16) Is TurboTax for Immigration

For now. Presumably, that could change at some point should they get traction. You have to start somewhere. ("The faith of a mustard seed" and all that.)

DorintheFloraon New York passes bill making it illegal to advertise entire apartments on Airbnb

Yet, you continue to simply dismiss me, a point that I covered. I must not be listening carefully enough. It couldn't possibly be that I have a point and it simply has no hope of getting through to you, no matter what I do.

DorintheFloraon Half Staff – why is the US flag at half staff?

Seems like this maybe should have been submitted as a "Show HN."

Do upgrade your flag. Make that a high priority.

DorintheFloraon New York passes bill making it illegal to advertise entire apartments on Airbnb

I generally try to not be sarcastic. Thank you for making an effort to answer in good faith.

The point I was trying to make is that the subject of affordable housing seems to have fallen into the same pattern that discrimination against women or people of color has fallen into. There is always, without fail, some reason (aka excuse) as to why this specific woman or this specific person of color does not deserve the promotion or should not be listened to, etc. It isn't their gender or skin color, it is that they aren't saying it right, being too emotional, etc ad nauseum -- standards that white males don't get held to. Affordable housing seems to be a topic where there is always some excuse as to why it is relevant this time, why it isn't a valid argument in this case and so on.

I do know something about these topics. I don't agree with you that homelessness is mostly about mental health issues and addiction. It is far more complicated than that. That piece of it gets far too much press. It becomes just another excuse to dismiss the fact that many people on the street have some income, just not enough to afford a middle class lifestyle, and affordable housing is in incredibly short supply in this country.

When you dismiss homeless people as merely insane addicts who cannot function in society any way, it is a convenient way to wash all of society clean of the responsibility of providing adequate amounts of affordable housing because we don't really know how to reliably cure mental health issues or addiction. So, it absolves the world of really doing anything about the problem because, hey, it isn't really fixable, so you can't reasonably expect "me"/the world to really try and you can't reasonably hold us responsible.

I fear I am wasting my breathe, so to speak. So, in the interest of not pointlessly beating a dead horse, I plan to stop here.

Thanks for engaging me.

DorintheFloraon New York passes bill making it illegal to advertise entire apartments on Airbnb

Homelessness has been increasing nationwide for about 3 decades or so:

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/why.html

This is because the supply of affordable housing has been dwindling while demand grows:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1292331...

This is not specific to New York per se. I guess you have every right to argue that this is just a New York issue because this this a New York law under discussion, but lack of affordable housing is hardly specific to New York and AirBnB is also hardly specific to New York.

So, while you no doubt have some valid points, the fact is that affordable housing is simply not happening nationwide. And when people do what you are currently doing -- and most people do -- of saying "yes, BUT..." and acting like somehow this specific instance is not relevant or doesn't count, well, again, affordable housing is simply not happening and there is always an excuse and it is always not the thing we are talking about THIS time.

So, do you have any pointers as to how and when it would be okay to make any points about it without them being dismissed out of hand as irrelevant, not on topic and so on?

Thanks.

DorintheFloraon California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy

And, yet, here we are, discussing the clickbait -- me included.

(I mean, instead of something meatier.)

DorintheFloraon California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy

If we do too good of a job of keeping out Mexicans, we will have serious food shortages. There will also be other areas that suffer -- like upscale landscaping that seems to be mostly maintained by Mexican workers -- but the whole food shortage thing worries me lots more.

So, I hope we don't get too clever about it.

DorintheFloraon California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy

Yeah, they even have a state called California which gets quite a few people from Mexico coming in across the border. Many of them speak little or no English. I hear it is doing okay.

DorintheFloraon New York passes bill making it illegal to advertise entire apartments on Airbnb

I am a bit fed up with hearing this kind of thing. We are all human beings.

If you are rich, you get accused of being in it for the money. If you are poor, you are accused of being in it for the money. If you have a vested interest, you are accused of bias. If you have no vested interest, you are told go away and STFU.

Poor people do not have the time, energy and money to advocate for changes that would potentially free up a MERE 30k rental units. They are too busy trying to survive. People with money are generally too busy trying to get richer or keep what they have to put time into trying to make the world an actually better place.

Who is allowed to say "This is bad for affordable housing" and be taken seriously? It seems like there is no one on the planet who is allowed to advocate for affordable housing. We are all guilty of something. Meanwhile, affordable housing simply is not happening.

DorintheFloraon New York passes bill making it illegal to advertise entire apartments on Airbnb

Not only that, but I think there is reason to believe that AirBnB further stresses the housing market and adds additional fuel to the existing divide between the Haves and Have Nots by putting more rent monies into the hands of the Haves and creating more scarcity of housing for those looking for a long-term rental, not an alternative to a hotel.

DorintheFloraon California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy

Still, it seems thin for HN. Even given that many people here live in California and HN is headquartered in California, it doesn't seem like something interesting, discussion worthy and meriting hitting the front page.

I mean, I like this little tidbit about California and have for years. But this isn't particularly substantive.

DorintheFloraon California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy

Fifth largest, sixth largest, eighth largest -- it kind of does not matter. A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's pretty impressive, but it isn't really news. This has been true for a long time. I have seen it said that "California is the American dream squared" or something like that.

DorintheFloraon Complaint-Driven Development

From the article:

Since that change, I haven't heard word one about our terrible, onerous, awful default body and title character limit policies. Not one. Single. Complaint.

So, they didn't do what the customers said they wanted, but they did work on the issue until people quit complaining.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

― Henry Ford

Plus, IIRC, for the Edsel, they did ask customers what they wanted. And it has gone down in history as one of the worst cars ever.

DorintheFloraon Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users?

That's part of my point. We don't know where the OP is coming from though in terms of how well he/she knows the problem space, etc. If they don't know it well enough, perhaps pointing this out will help them.

DorintheFloraon Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users?

If appropriate, give the the elevator pitch and a 1min demo on your live product.

I want to point out the the above snippet assumes/implies a fairly deep knowledge of your intended audience, the problem space you are working in and several other things, any one of which might be the real problem as to why the OP is not getting traction.

Not a criticism. Just ...an elaboration, I guess.

DorintheFloraon Why Startups Fail: An Analysis of Post-Mortems (2011)

I am aware of his essays. I am trying to think and talk about something specific, let's call it Memology for the moment. I am not talking about start-ups per se but more about he architecture of ideas and how we separate the wheat from the chafe. I have explored that in terms of human psychology for myself. I would like to explore it for the business space. I hope it will be of interest to other people at some point.

Thanks.

DorintheFloraon Why Startups Fail: An Analysis of Post-Mortems (2011)

Quote: #2 – Built a Solution Without A Problem (i.e. No “Market Need”)

Choosing to tackle problems that are interesting to solve rather than those that serve a market need was often cited as a reason for failure. Sure, you can build an app and see if it will stick, but knowing there is a market need upfront is a good thing. “Companies should tackle market problems not technical problems

I am trying to figure out how to think more clearly about this type thing and write about it. I am sorry to see so little discussion here on HN for this submission.

DorintheFloraon Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

It is a pleasure to see this analysis of the business strategy, what worked, and why. Tweeted. :-)

DorintheFloraon This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

Men currently hold most of the "worldly" power -- political offices, CEO positions, etc -- and, on average, make about 150% of the money women make in the U.S.*

* (These stats may be a bit out of date but I have no reason to believe that they have changed substantially. HN itself is a very male dominated forum and it is a place to meet and greet power brokers and god help you if you are a woman. It is not a very friendly place for a woman trying to make professional contacts, etc.)

DorintheFloraon This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

If you care: Sometimes, just looking may help. Just don't turn a blind eye to it, which is what most men do in such situations.

If the woman feels she has a sympathetic supporter, it is easier to defend herself and if the jerk thinks there is an eyewitness to his assholish behavior, he may tone it down without you needing to say something. I think saying something may be counterproductive (because when accused people are quick to justify, and that makes them LESS likely to back off, not more) but just being aware can sometimes help.

DorintheFloraon This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

In other words: It is just speculation. You (apparently) do not have a real world example to cite.

I am female. I have blogged before about some of my struggles with the glass ceiling, etc. It got no attention. Perhaps I was doing something wrong. But, as someone who has firsthand experience which contradicts your suggestion, I would be genuinely interested in seeing actual evidence. If I can find an example that works, I would love to follow that. I can't find it.

Thanks.

DorintheFloraon This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

Would it? I personally doubt that. Do you have an example of something like that working? Or is that just speculation?

DorintheFloraon This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

My concern with posts like this is that a) men currently hold most of the power b) attacking their behavior in a confrontational manner tends to close doors, not open them and c) I do not see it offering a real solution.

I am female. I think about such things a lot and have, in the past, written about my own negative experiences. But my concern is that this does not give us a path forward.