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WillDaSilva

1,506 karma · joined July 22, 2019

meet.hn/city/45.4208777,-75.6901106/Ottawa

Socials:

- github.com/WillDaSilva

Interests:

Climbing, Cycling, DevOps, Data Science, Education, Fitness, Hiking, Music, Networking, Outdoor Activities, Open Source, Philosophy, Remote Work, Programming, Privacy, Startups, Social Impact, Science, Space Tech, Technology, Travel

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WillDaSilva··on 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans
Why not have the managers of the underperforming employees be straightforward with them? Tell them that, as far as the manager/company is concerned, they're underperforming (no need to single out the WFH aspect here if you don't want to). They may deny that their performance while working from home is different from their performance in the office, but the manager can dismiss that. It's unpleasant, but better than resorting to surveillance software, and better than making things worse for everyone just to help out this minority who underperform while working from home.

Once they've been notified that they're underperforming, try to help them out. If they can't be helped, fire them with well-documented cause (their history of poor performance).

WillDaSilva··on Introducing PyPI Organizations
I'm slightly surprised by the direction they seem to be taking here. It seems like they're going to try to use this as a source of funding for PyPI, rather than focus on its potential to bring namespaces to PyPI.

I also wasn't able to find out how much it will cost. Nonetheless, I'm glad to see this development, and will probably be making use of it for the company I work for.

WillDaSilva··on What is ChatGPT doing and why does it work?
> [...] it's still a Chinese Room.

So are you, and so am I.

That's not to say that ChatGPT is sentient or has a significant amount of personhood, but we shouldn't wholly dismiss its significance in this regard, particularly not using that faulty argument.

WillDaSilva··on American Cars Are Getting Too Big for Parking Spaces
Road damage is proportional to the vehicle weight to the fourth power. We all pay for larger vehicles.
WillDaSilva··on Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America
> If you don't like to tip, there are plenty of restaurants where tipping isn't expected; specifically those where you carry the food yourself from the counter to your table.

Generally such restaurants serve significantly different kinds of food, and are typically lower quality. You can't expect these kinds of restaurants (typically fast food, food trucks, buffet food, etc.) to out-compete restaurants that they are hardly even competing with in the first place (e.g. fancier sit-down restaurants).

WillDaSilva··on Microplastics are finding their way into fruit and vegetables as they grow
What evidence do you have to support this claim?
WillDaSilva··on Show HN: Wa-tunnel – HTTP Tunneling through Whatsapp
If your business model isn't compatible with the freedom of your customers, you should generally find a new business model, rather than working to reduce that freedom.

See also: modern intellectual "property" laws & enforcement, the businesses that push for it (typically large companies with a wealth of IP), the organizations that facilitate the control of information (governments, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Netflix, etc.), and the business models that depend on it.

There are cases where the benefits are worth a reduction in freedom, but this ain't it.

WillDaSilva··on Joe Rogan Interviews Steve Jobs
Yup. I'll add that it's not just unemployment that hurts us (under our current economic systems), but also underemployment, as we see with the "gig economy". Some people will overly focus on the unemployment stats, and naively conclude that all's well despite many people not living up to their potential, and barely making ends meet.
WillDaSilva··on Joe Rogan Interviews Steve Jobs
That seems less "anti-AI" and more anti our current economic systems, the inequality they produce, and their increasing incompatibility with the present and future. The "incompatibility" being between our values and the resulting outcomes. Our values tell us that AI and automation freeing up immense amounts of human labour/effort so that it can be directed to new (creative) ends should be wonderful and celebrated, but the reality is that it's bringing about a frightening future where an increasingly small few control the vast majority of the power in the world, and direct it towards "profitable" ends which are largely divorced from human values.
WillDaSilva··on 12,000 Facebook employees, 15% of its workforce, may lose jobs amid quiet layoff
To add to this, it's poisonous because it makes increasing "engagement" a primary goal for these platforms.
WillDaSilva··on Git making me want to pull my hair out yet again
Likely followed by git commit --amend
WillDaSilva··on Why Dates and Times Seem to Lose Their Meaning
Why is it that this study considers being focused on the present moment a form of temporal distortion?
WillDaSilva··on Arguing from compassion (2021)
There's a significant difference between "so you want people to sit at home all day and collect free money", and "so you want the people who sit at home all day to collect free money".

The former is a clear misrepresentation of the views of most UBI proponents. The latter is an accurate part of their views, albeit a loaded/(mis)leading statement.

WillDaSilva··on Absurd Trolley Problems
They are far more comfortable than buses. Larger too. If you rely on public transit, then your city switching to trams for the highest frequency routes can be a significant quality of life improvement for you and the many thousands of others who will use them every day.

That isn't their only advantage, but it's one which is often overlooked.

WillDaSilva··on Modern Python Performance Considerations
The Python docs themselves is a good place to start: https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#slots

The Python wiki also has some good info about it: https://wiki.python.org/moin/UsingSlots

WillDaSilva··on A Swedish skier was basically frozen, but lived (2016)
No. Regular body temperature is around 37°C. Hypothermia starts at around 35°C.
WillDaSilva··on California study begins screening for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD
Addiction and tolerance are related, but distinct.
WillDaSilva··on Inflation is a disease (1978) [video]
Another contributing factor is likely that back then most recorded voices you heard were from professional speakers/performers. Nowadays anyone can easily record their voice. Not only does this mean that many more amateurs will do so, but also that it has become a more casual affair - people don't generally put as much care into it.
WillDaSilva··on US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent
> Parents need to drop kids off [...]

This is far from universal, and is a problem we should address wherever it is the case. It's bad for plenty of reasons, with one of the largest being that it prevents us from having schools operate during times that work well for children and teens.

WillDaSilva··on Lessons from a tech job search
Have you conducted interviews? In my experience, years of experience correlates poorly with technical ability.

I've seen several senior devs with 15+ years of experience who can't complete basic programming tasks (in a language of their choice) despite allegedly working at a job where they write code every day. I'm talking fizz-buzz level stuff. It's baffling.

WillDaSilva··on Things you don't need JavaScript for
It can be done with a checkbox element instead, and then have the style changed (to translate it) based on whether it is clicked.
WillDaSilva··on Black, the uncompromising Python code formatter, is stable
The presence and depth of the debate about this formatting choice suggests that it isn't arbitrary. Many have provided solid reasons for why one option should be preferred over the other. They aren't merely articulating their opinions; they are also providing objective reasons for why their opinion is valid.
WillDaSilva··on Shenanigans on Microsoft Feedback Hub
It is sarcasm. Nintendo is extremely hostile towards perceived infringements on their IP, and go out of their way to make modding and fan content difficult to use.
WillDaSilva··on The quest to build a general-purpose thought decoder
Banning it all but guarantees human obsolescence. We certainly need to tread very carefully here, but foregoing this advancement would be a grave mistake.
WillDaSilva··on Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging
The title on that Reddit post is far better than the one on this post. It'd be nice if Hacker News would increase their title length limit.
WillDaSilva··on Transcrypt – Python in the Browser
Weakref finalizers can help with instance destruction in Python

https://docs.python.org/3/library/weakref.html#weakref.final...

WillDaSilva··on Aphantasia
Neither does drawing one, as shown by the numerous artists (painters, illustrators, etc.) with aphantasia.
WillDaSilva··on Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
I would recommend Open Data Structures: https://opendatastructures.org/

It's available for free online, or if you'd like you can buy a physical copy. It's got 14 chapters that take you through a variety of data structures, introduces you to the theory behind them, and teaches you the basics of analyzing them.

I've done many of the exercises from this book, and found them useful for learning the topic.

WillDaSilva··on Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%
> We are all logical people

That's a bold claim. In my experience the vast majority of people hardly try to think logically or apply critical thinking skills in most opportunities, and no human does so anywhere close to all the time. Humans are deeply irrational creatures, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

WillDaSilva··on Why “Trusting the Science” Is Complicated
The harm people cause by holding believing false beliefs is rather complicated at times, yet extremely important and impactful nonetheless.

For flat earthers in particular this video sheds some light on why their way of thinking is harmful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfhYyTuT44

To be extremely reductive, allowing false beliefs into one's web of beliefs corrupts it. This typically gives rise to a multitude of other false beliefs. Flat earthers almost never only believe one obviously false conspiracy theory. They become epistemically susceptible, and worse still, they tend to spread these awful ways of thinking with great zeal.

In the more general case, I recommend you learn about the ethics of belief. The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy page on the topic is a good starting point: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-belief/

Maybe someone can come along and answer your question in a more succinct yet equally (or ideally more) convincing way. This request that you commit several hours to educating yourself is the best I can do at this time.

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