NotPavlovsDog

My partner is working on a sub-topic, removing microplastics from laundry discharge water, and it is a huge and still undefined challenge. There is no magic pill.

Even core definitions such as "what are microplastics" are under review and development. And then there's nanoplastics.

For those wanting an introduction to the topic, don't go with media, start reviewing papers. The top cited papers clearly outline how all-encompassing and complex the challenge is.

One thing that turned me off property in Germany was the amount of regulation and inspections involved, which can also be a problem in US areas with aggressive localities bent on generating revenue from homeowners. This, in my estimates, increased prices and made home ownership less attractive (for me).

In my pedestrian look-up of prices for homes in Japan, when accounting for salaries, they were comparable in salary-life-years spent, or higher, to US or Europe. What is your experience?

It does get easier to address at scale. When applied to construction, the at-scale approach used to increase predictability is primarily available through a) pre-fab construction under conditions approaching control b) repeat buildings, the classic cookie-cutter houses. There's a reason why they're popular with developers.

A custom house will take longer and cost more than the estimate, on average. There is research on this in both small-scale and large-scale construction.

As a personal anecdote, I & partner built our own permanent dwelling (check my posts). It went over time and over budget, and even then, we had to compromise on features.

Don't forget that central heating /AC and "proper" insulation are not a standard feature in Japanese construction. Neither are cellars nor sound-proofing. Their plumbing is rarely winterized, and they often have the classic approach of kitchen on one side of wall, bathroom on the other. That's one bathroom, and a much simpler plumbing setup than multi-units popular in Europe or the US. These are just some factors in a long list that significantly simplify projects in Japan and make pre-fab a strong contender.

The Japanese consumer expects less and pays the same if not more.

Does anyone have experience running the open version on their machine? (self-hosted)

P.S. congratulations on the game relase! Spotify was asking me to login, so i think I found you on youtube, giving a listen. Perhaps consider updating your post by adding a non-spotify link?

I'm not decided on Spotify yet. I don't like their compensation model for artists, but, in fairness, i reviewed it years ago.

Should give it another read at some point.

An electronic ambient / drone / noise soundtrack. All the tracks should be playable freely.

Mostly electronic with some diy shovel guitar samples and collected & recorded ambient noises.

Most tracks are melodic and somewhat calmly chill, however, Tracks 2 and 3 (and the bonus 30 minutes mix) are noisy. Give them a fast-forward at lower volume to insure you don't encounter noise level you would not be comfortable with.

I find experimenting with ambient music as well as digital drawing helps me reset.

Ideally you do multiple things, but multitasking is hard and distracting. Back when I was a student and the woolly mammoth roamed the earth, I administered a small business website. The traffic was mostly google based. I dedicated significant efforts to build partnerships, brand awareness on small niche forums and websites, a link exchange catalog for same-niche-noncompete websites, leveraged several google-competing platforms, created a mailing list and a customer CRM.

When the latest google algo update all but removed the search traffic, the business did not observe any drop in sales, thanks to multiple points of outreach. When apps arrived, we created an RSS feed app that pinged customers with attractive offers, not repeated on the mailing lists.

Confusing tactics for strategy is a very Silicon Valley thing. Every service will betray you, unless you have rights to the source code, has served me well.

2. Do so without understanding the TOS, disclosed and, most dangerously, undisclosed.

3. ...

4. Profit? No, collapse.

The internet services as represented by FAANG (throw in Oracle, Microsoft as well as Paypal and Ebay) are conceptually based on silo-and-moat building. Even youtube stars are starting to realize this.

There's a reason why two trends are seeing a resurgence at the moment - the truly open internet and full-service-owned websites and platforms.

One should not, and cannot afford to, use transnational conglomerate controlled platforms for building a small business.

Sure nice it doesn't work on competent developers, not with the current job market.

With root access to the server / just good old wget, are there benefits to using the plugins/services? Which would you suggest? Would be grateful if you shared your experience.

I'm a developer now managing product. if you apply a historical analysis perspective, Agile has either influenced our process, or our process may be described as post-Agile.

We have a backlog, organized by priority. We have self-organizing teams. Teams make their own planning and own their backlog. I, as the person responsible for product, take time meeting the people involved in making the product work in the market. Such as legal, finance, etc etc. The team does not have to participate in this, but they are welcome to.

What I have fought hard for is to not have management push tech stacks at teams. Developers get to decide, unless there is a legacy situation, and then they get to decide if they want to work with it. And we have a clearly defined org culture. That's as in who gets paid more, promoted, and why.

The developers have a higher-than average salary (algo for market value known to all and published internally), a % set bonus from total net, and an option to go for a higher % of bonuses by forgoing some of their salary. Some people like a known salary, some prefer a chance for a higher pay-out with more risk involved.

I'm writing a master's thesis on project management at the moment, part-time, and have had to do entirely too much reading up on Agile and project management history. Like I wrote, we can absolutely be classified as Agile. We just don't have it pushed down our throats, and we have a realistic culture - our part of the business is dependent on excellent developers, we treat them with respect, give them decision-making power, offer a share of the profits, and expect them to care about the product as a whole and their part in it.

If the "Agile" you have been exposed to does not treat developers with respect, nor establish a mutually beneficial organizational culture, the market will sort the organization out, as long as developers remain a crucial part of the equation.

SAFe has a great, telling name though - it's designed to be safe for corporate control freaks. They might not know waterfall, they just live it in their guts.

Easy to identify, they believe in being a "visionary leader" and "inspiring the lower rank".

"Independent experts indicate (fee undisclosed), a powerful malevolent actor was involved in the recent malicious attack on our infrastructure. This aligns with the recent series of threats identified by the State Department and other US government agencies as enemy state activity to undermine Democracy! They hate our Freedom!"

   > "A quick review of Gab’s open source code shows that the critical vulnerability—or at least one very much like it—was introduced by the company’s chief technology officer."

   The core leadership behind inadequate decisions, often above the CTO, are frequently of the "don't care about the math, just the numbers" type.

We may still have a fragile and unique culture in software, that perhaps contradicts past history such as engineering in construction (look up "corruption construction") or the unique corruption of medicine ("sugar lobby", "food pyramid").

Despite bad decisions and the fumbled cover-up, the attempt to perform in public on their part is valuable to me. We don't have easy access to which of the doctors took money to publish "research" that "calories are the same", pushing for more carbohydrates in diets. This may translate to multiple people, people you might personally know, dying of diabetes.

With open software, we get the names. This should not reward click-bait media witch-hunting.

From the article:

   >The change, which in the parlance of software development is known as a “git commit,”

I would rather, as an engineer, discuss core issues we can fundamentally address: compromising on inadequate workflows (including core architecture and paradigms), commitment to over-delivery, and the ever-dooming deadlines. What victories of the CTO went ignored, as part of "the job"?

It's nice to be smart when you have regular 8 hours of sleep. I've had enough stress to remember just how idiotic many of my decisions were, as a "leader". Most of them went ignored just because we were covered by being invisible, by design. Morally, I can't judge this CTO. If you look at your coding history, can you?

   What are my blind-spots? Actively seek and solicit contrarian viewpoints, contradictory to ingrained paradigms. Look for unquestioned self-beliefs, with dedicated time plan and check-lists.

As a follow-up, the legacy of Douglas Engelbart. He demonstrated the computer mouse, hypertext, networked computers and face-to face conferencing, including shared workflow, in 1968 ![ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart ]. This was not mentioned in popular resources nor courses I took. I have learned a lot from this case, such as what being a true visionary vs marketer means and entails. I would have missed this entirely had I not allocated time and dedicated schedule towards a mindset of actively seeking contrarian view-points and historical perspectives.

  Dedicate time to self-review, including value alignment and career goals, according to 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year plan(s). 

Construction and materials "solutions" that are by design planned to fail by the end-of-life / warranty, etc.

Some handy individuals have modified their existing assemblies, but I don't have the time nor the tools, and it's not cost-effective to mess around in my case, as a replacement for my electrical unit will be under $300, dealer demo unit, with own installation. Just have to snag one on sale.

The zone is not ideal for wind or solar, so we are connected to electrical. We had a contractor help with bath tiling, he did plumbing and electric hook-ups, an electrician did what was required by code for the electric system.

   Every single one of the licensed pros had cut corners.

The plumbing had multiple mistakes as well, wrong tank positioning, wrong main drain placement, no main cut-off to the tank, did not get a filter hook-up or a drain valve, etc, and the hot water boiler did not get a proper set-up for easy maintenance (the magnesium sacrificial anode cannot be removed, too close to the ceiling, you have to dismount the whole unit).

If I had the money and not to have to work during the build process, I would have built a small house first, learning everything about how to do it right and observing the "pros" as they go along. But hey, we have a house that total spend was 1/3 of the market, enough land to build a second one, and I am a different man from the experience.

It was my first experience with engineering outside of software. Trust no one, do your own research, plan, experiment and verify apply even more in "physical world" engineering.

It's nice to become more and more self-reliant with construction skills. I just serviced the indoor plumbing, changed 3 taps, installed a water-filter hook-up and filter, including pipes, and plan to assemble a big water filtration system, myself, in the summer. $ 5K to 7K for filter tank, controller and installation by contractor, vs $600 for system and medium from manufacturer, and install it yourself.

Whether you plan to go off-grid, build, be your own general contractor, or even just buy a property, doing things yourself, provided you can follow engineering principles and values, is always the best bet. You want reliability. The pros want to make a profit.

Life pro tip - if planning to participate in construction in any way, audit the locality and how strict vs smart their code and inspections are.

Python can serve so many automation scenarios for you that I really could not recommend any better language for general purposes, great choice!

As far as sharing, welcome to software! Unlike medicine, we have the luxury, some even think obligation, of releasing early, learning from our mistakes and the market and re-iterating. Those that share the fundamental cultural values of openness, experimentation, and helpful feedback in software are, luckily, widely present here.

"If You're Not Embarrassed By The First Version Of Your Product, You’ve Launched Too Late" Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn, for which he should forever be ashamed for, but he did release on time).

I would suggest, now may be the time for you to reach out to devs and request personal mentorship in Python, explaining your high load with medicine and motivation for Python. Getting personal feedback and guidance will speed up things by a lot! (Unfortunately, I'm not a Python expert, can't help there ).

Best of luck with your future projects, you're very much on the right track!

My latest foray before the current re-attempt, I was only able to secure part-time EMT positions, (volunteer with pay), but to get to a position with a regular schedule that would fit my other obligations would require going to more school than I could do at the time.

Whenever one talks about medicine / patient care with fellow practitioners, it is also fascinating to note how different we all are and that the field can accommodate many, of those willing to pay the price.

EMT to the general populace was not something for me, I found dealing with families in distress more emotionally draining than any unconscious patient, regardless of their state. So what would work for me, it appears, is either work removed from patient family interaction, or medical systems work, whatever it may be (innovation, tech collaboration with surgeons, etc. They are starting to use 3d modeling side-by-side during surgery now, etc)

Yes, the family is probably in the worst stress of their life, and, if you have the luxury, one aims to include them in your care protocol, attempting to at least assess their level of distress so they don't suicide or collapse in the next 24 hours, but you also have a huge ticking clock for the primary patient...

Have you reviewed how much sleep deprivation would be involved in the path towards being a doctor? It differs depending on the path, but middle-age and lack of sleep may be very hard (source: have multiple surgeons in my near circle). But it is very specific to the path you pick, of course.

I am currently trying to see if I can find a niche in healthcare, away from my software manager job, but am taking it slowly. For me, the 7 years of school are impossible, so no doctor for me. This comment is not meant to be in any way discouraging, and it may be presumptuous of me, as you have perhaps spoken to multiple doctors in the field interesting to you.

The feeling of tipping the needle towards keeping someone alive is incomparable, best wishes with your path transition, whatever it ends up being.

The reason I ask is HN is a great community that may provide valid advice as towards the direction you would like to pursue in dev ( if you so desire ).

I found a book that I've added to my list, so thanks again.

Software is implemented on automated systems we understand, build, and can predict at some level of performance. Medicine is built with humans, to work on humans (which we can't predict nor understand fully, let alone build like we do computers and software), and on top of that, uses software (and lots more).

Software does not exist in a vacuum, some recent examples of the unanticipated effects of systems complexity in software could include

a) political radicalization of facebook and youtube users through algorithms designed for a completely different goal, maximizing screen-time b) the simplest case, citibank losing millions because of bad UI design (not taking the human user into the design).

So medicine, from a systems standpoint, is not that structurally/conceptually different from software. It is researched, designed and practiced/used by humans, just like software. Some of the reasons medicine is more complex is that it is, at the moment, dealing with more living systems than software (medicine: attempting to influence complex performance on the biological level. Software: for end-users, interact/affect on the psychological, conscious level).

At the moment, medicine is more complex than the software industry. As software continues eating the world, that will change, as nanobots, brain-imitating processors, etc, arrive.

I am at the moment looking at a cluster-fuck of improving a tiny process for a regional medical complex, and the staggering complexity is outside of anything I had to deal with while working in finance and distributed computing, and those software systems were more complex than what got humans into space.

We know the lessons from space and atomic projects - have a mandate, financial and political commitment, theoretical and societal backing. But getting matter to controlled fission or orbit sure appears easier than even understanding cancer, let alone eliminating it, as history so far has shown us.

Medicine presents a higher level of complexity than software. I'm not putting "in my opinion" in that statement, ample publications on the topic.

You can rebuild and recompile software, not living systems.

Start with cell biology, build up to organisms, add politics, money, regulation, sprinkle with some liability and soft human factors. It is unknowns upon unknowables all the way down and up.

And the HN thread from when it was released: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21231208

Thanks for sharing through all these years, Paul!

(P.S. Graham released his Lisp book freely on his site, worth a read if you haven't already.)