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PlugTuninon Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

Can you clarify the meaning of 4 tildes surrounded by the letters 'cul', for those of us who are new around here? Thank you

PlugTuninon How to work with me

I'd rather work with someone who's honest about how they operate than with someone who uses action as a verb.

PlugTuninon Study show that people think that data analysts and accountants are boring

You need from 24-30+ credits of Accounting coursework in every state. No one is taking 8-10 accounting classes in college to round out their electives. 99% of CPAs have a business degree. Yes, there are exceptions.

PlugTuninon Study show that people think that data analysts and accountants are boring

You're confusing SITTING for the exam with being issued a license -- it's the latter where you'll need a degree. The rules are set up to allow college students, who are close to graduation, to sit for the exam. The coursework requirements are such that a certain number of credits in Accounting must already be in hand, and it's almost inconceivable that any person meeting those requirements wouldn't be on the cusp of graduating.

PlugTuninon Study show that people think that data analysts and accountants are boring

PASSING the test is what is rigorous. Just as you don't need a law degree to sit for the bar (in some states), the requirements to sit for the CPA exam are basic. But the exam itself is not a walk in the park.

PlugTuninon Study show that people think that data analysts and accountants are boring

I don't think ANY state requires a degree or CPA license to be employed in a job that may have the word accountant in its title; however, there are certain kinds of roles, with certain responsibilities, that generally require a degree, and sometimes a CPA license.

PlugTuninon Imap-backup: Backup Gmail or other IMAP accounts to disk

Thank you for clarifying.

PlugTuninon Imap-backup: Backup Gmail or other IMAP accounts to disk

What if I just want an offline record of my emails for the day that google decides to delete me from the internet?

I'm confused -- Mbox files can indeed be viewed offline.

(Not to say your point about the ease of automating Takeout is not valid.)

PlugTuninon Gay men earn undergraduate and graduate degrees at the highest rate in the US

I'm straight and disagree with your assertion that our educational system had become feminised to the point of "alienating and neglecting hetero boys". Curious to hear the basis for your opinion, though.

PlugTuninon How fit can you get from just walking?

I think there's some confusion over whether the term fit means just attaining an ideal body weight or also having a lean and muscular appearance. The latter isn't so easy to achieve through just walking and diet, but many people are only interested in the former.

Whatever your goals, it's hard to go wrong with a mix of weight training, cardio/walking and eating right.

PlugTuninon Study finds walking improves creativity (2014)

(And some days, I listen to music when I work out.)

PlugTuninon Study finds walking improves creativity (2014)

Counter-point to valid point: exercise can go by more quickly if you're interested in a podcast. And when I'm done exercising, I may not want the podcast on, so I can then focus on work. Just as certain kind of music can be on when, say, you're writing code, a good podcast can keep me in a groove.

PlugTuninon Police misconduct settlements

Many in the medical profession find their job rewarding b/c they enjoy improving the quality of other people's lives. Not the same as social justice but also for a worthy cause.

Hats off to those folks...

PlugTuninon McKinsey suffers from collective self-delusion

This podcast was a good listen. One of the authors/hosts, Steven Levitt, worked at a consulting firm when he first got out of school.

I don't think anyone would dispute that these firms employ smart and talented people, but that doesn't mean they are worth the amount of money they earn to advise companies that they need do something that is, uh, sort of obvious. The podcast touches on an idea that is mentioned in some of these comments: for political reasons, the advice has to come from the outside.

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-consult-therefore-i-am-a-...

PlugTuninon Self-Directed Pandas Crash Course

Subscribed. Thanks for putting together this quality content. I was checking out your merge dataframes video the other day, that I was led to from a Stack Overflow post. I'm not a novice w/Pandas but I find that things stick better after repeated exposure, from different sources at that. The various ways of using merge/join/concat can be tricky to keep straight at first. I will be sure to dig deeper into your content in the near future, including the series of videos on Numpy.

PlugTuninon Time Management by Randy Pausch [pdf]

Great stuff, swyx. Thank you for saving me some time -- Randy would approve. I'm gonna spend the time you saved me watching his other video, The Last Lecture.

PlugTuninon Tips for a Better Life

Sounds like you've struck a great balance between being unafraid to tackle some cool, challenging projects and sniffing out the tasks that aren't worth your trouble. Knowing the boundaries of your expertise is key, no matter the domain.

PlugTuninon Tips for a Better Life

There is merit to the parent comment advising that some DIY excursions are best left alone, but I appreciate the adventure that comes with grinding my wheels from time to time. Hassle builds character! My buddy is taking years to renovate his house, but it's a great story, like something you see in Architectural Digest.

PlugTuninon Tips for a Better Life

...and make lists.

(This is an excellent one.)

PlugTuninon Write code. Not too much. Mostly functions.

Clarification: Eating mostly plants is sound advice if you consider that it means eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.

PlugTuninon Autism and Invention Are Connected

The curse of knowledge (or expertise) is interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

Edit: Sorry for the dupe. Vizzier posted this a minute or three before I did.

PlugTuninon Autism and Invention Are Connected

I respect and agree with what you are saying. Even on the "higher-end", my relationships with the opposite sex were often unorthodox, shallow, or outright dysfunctional. And most of them were before my diagnosis.

I'm probably guilty of not viewing this as disabling because I'm treating the term too concretely, as if a disability has to be something "physical" that might require special accommodations. But yeah, I suppose my challenges in understanding the game of love are disabling.

PlugTuninon Autism and Invention Are Connected

I should be clear in stating that my life hasn't been a bowl of cherries. Asperger's is at the core of a looooong list of problems I've had with interpersonal relationships, whether it's family, friends, co-workers, roommates, etc. I'm sort of intolerant of being treated unjustly or being taken advantage of, and I react rather nastily to those who cross me. (And before you judge me, know that people with Asperger's have a knack for finding these situations. Exploited by coworkers? It really happens. Undesirable roommates who've physically threatened me? Been there more than once. Physical altercations as a kid, refusing to back down from bullies? Too many times to count. Screwed up relatives? I have many.)

But I don't care to use the word disabled in describing myself. Being unable to keep my mouth shut in the face of something I don't agree with doesn't qualify as a disability. My sensory issues aren't anything I ask for accommodations for. That I prefer to spend more time away from people than the average bear is not a disability. And in the context of autism, it's hard to use the word disabled and not have people place limitations on what one can/can't do. So, I don't use the word. And just consider myself different.

I recognize that there are people deeply offended by people like me, who are at the higher-functioning end of the spectrum and refuse to consider themselves disabled. (They see us as impostors.) There are also many people who take offense to the term lower/lesser functioning, and resent the use of terms like "severe autism". They consider this language to be demeaning. Autistic twitter is quite the landmine for semantic wars of this sort.

PlugTuninon Autism and Invention Are Connected

There was a time when society relegated women to pursuits that frequently deprived them of many opportunities to invent. Fortunately, society has changed.

PlugTuninon Autism and Invention Are Connected

Good point. The author of that article, Baron-Cohen, has previously written (debated?) about whether HFA/AS is a disability OR a difference. Speaking for myself, and many who identify as having Asperger's -- and your son, from what it sounds like (who sounds really cool!) -- it is indeed a difference, and by no means a disability.

PlugTuninon Autism and Invention Are Connected

Interesting read.

Minor point of clarification: It's noted that many autistic folks struggle with empathy. There are two dimensions to empathy, cognitive and affective. Cognitive is more about perspective taking, or reading the feelings / intentions of others, while affective is the ability to share/understand the emotions of others, and respond appropriately.

Putting aside that the two may overlap, it's often the cognitive aspect that challenges the autistic, leaving them susceptible to being tricked, or unable to pick up on, say, whether or not a person is interested in dating them.

I point this out b/c it's important that this deficiency isn't construed as simply a predisposition to acting like an unfeeling jerk. There are many layers to empathy, as well as the related concept of Theory of Mind.

PlugTuninon Apple Fitness+

I am not sold that anyone need Apple's help in order to exercise. I have been finding creative ways to work out at home throughout the pandemic. Give me some music and I can do the rest.

PlugTuninon What are the characteristics of an innovative person?

The point of listing traits is to give the reader an idea of what characteristics are frequently found in someone who is innovative.

Listing these traits can be useful without including a companion list of traits that innovators don't possess. I guess the quality of being innovative doesn't necessarily imply weakness in other areas. Maybe you should put together a companion post, titled "Things That Innovators Suck At Doing"?

I thought whoever put this together created a nice graphic.

PlugTuninon Good Books for a Lousy Year

I understand where you're coming from. What you might consider is that many ideas can be abstracted out and applied to aspects of life that, on the surface, aren't closely related.

For instance, Range, one of the books that Gates recommends, isn't specific to any occupation, but can inform one's general perspective on the hazards (or benefits) of taking a software job that is more specialized, and whether it's the best thing for your career in the long-term.

Relatedly, I can't tell you exactly what genre the You're Not So Smart or Freakonomics podcasts fit into, but like a lot of good books, each fleshes out all sorts of high-level ideas that can relate to day-to-day life.

I really enjoy learning about behavioral psychology/economics-type stuff.

PlugTuninon An update to storage policies across your Google Account

Yeah, that 30-day window was ridiculous. I lost my hotmail in 2006 after exclusively using gmail for 6 weeks. I'd like to know the origins of the policy. Who decided that if someone goes a few weeks without checking their email that they're either dead or no longer interested in using the internet?