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binaryorganic

668 karma · joined July 21, 2011

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binaryorganic··on Ask HN: How to be less opinionated?
I love your question! It’s a great place to ask it, because merely asking a question like that in a place like this immediately demonstrates the need we all have to develop these tools. Appreciate you!

Practice listening over hearing. Prioritize curiosity for its own sake.

In terms of 1:1 communication: If dialogue is a venn diagram, strongly opinionated people can sometimes look for opportunities of intersection and commonality to bring things back into their sphere of control. Communication can become territorial in that way, with opinions acting as a kind of currency that gets used to buy influence. Try to be aware of where you’re at, spatially, on this diagram. Try to be aware of what your intentions are in a given moment. If you lead with listening and curiosity, you’ll quickly find yourself spending a lot more time in the other person’s sphere.

binaryorganic··on Dune: Spice Wars
I consider them indigenous, though you’re correct that they weren’t always there. They were, to the best of my knowledge, the first people to inhabit that place. Much as, where I’m from, Native Americans weren’t always here, but are accepted as the first people.

The Dune wiki, for what it’s worth, describes them as a Native people:

https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Fremen/DE

binaryorganic··on Dune: Spice Wars
Your sentiment put words to my feelings as I watched the gameplay trailer. As soon as the narrator shifted to the theme of exploitation and politics, with no reference to the indigenous population, I recoiled from the whole idea of it. The sorts of motivations these games ask you to align yourself with feel foreign and unwelcome compared to how I felt about them 25 years ago.
binaryorganic··on Poll: Is the leetcode grind necessary to land a high paying remote job?
*their bosses.
binaryorganic··on Covid vaccine immunity is waning – how much does that matter?
Friendly reminder that the purpose of the vaccines was to reduce death and severe disease, which all of the approved vaccines continue to do, even as “immunity from infection” wanes.
binaryorganic··on Apocalypse Never Slide Deck
Learning that someone has conflicts of interest and regularly distorts science directly correlates to my trusting their message
binaryorganic··on Apocalypse Never Slide Deck
Right, but there’s a citation next to that statement which digs far deeper.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-optimism-on-...

binaryorganic··on Apocalypse Never Slide Deck
Here’s context on the guy who backs this stuff: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shellenberger
binaryorganic··on Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
I agree completely. Though I’m confused by your use of the world slur. Are you referencing my use of “whyt”?

Happy to discuss if you’re interested in discussion.

binaryorganic··on Must-read psychology books
Same! I was so glad to see it’s inclusion in the list. It’s had a huge impact on me. Will check out Widen the Window.
binaryorganic··on Show HN: I wrote a book about Go
Always assume Go references are about the board game, always disappointed. Congrats on the book!
binaryorganic··on A request for Pinboard old-timers
Thanks for confirming. All the best as you turn this new page! You have my heart (if not my wallet).
binaryorganic··on Covid vaccination linked to 'substantial reduction' in hospital admissions
What your saying is a likely long-term outcome. But the reason we see milder viruses circulating as an “end-game” is just because we don’t tend to deal with non-threats. There is no rule that mild strains are a given outcome of mutation. You just won’t see super-deadly variants last long-term because it quickly turns into an us or them battle that we have so far been able to win.
binaryorganic··on Covid vaccination linked to 'substantial reduction' in hospital admissions
There certainly is a race. The slower we go the more spread. The more spread, the more variation. The more variation, the more likelihood of a vaccine-resistant strain taking hold.

Even if it’s a long-term certainty, much better to be well-equipped to respond to it, which we simply are not at the moment.

binaryorganic··on A request for Pinboard old-timers
I paid a flat fee to join. I think it was like $7 or something. I think the price used to go up incrementally with each new signup.

I gotta say though, the whole value proposition he made back then was a one-time fee. I had no problem with the switch to subscriptions for new users. But asking those original folks to switch over means that they can never not pay from that day forward without losing access to their once-permanent service, right?

binaryorganic··on Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it
I had a similar experience with them as well. It definitely surprised me and made me grumpy, but it honestly took half the time as this one because I didn’t put up a fight.

I remember being similarly disgruntled by canceling Prime. Lots of misleading calls-to-action across multiple screens. But something about being forced to talk to a human being really rubbed me the wrong way with the Times.

binaryorganic··on The new reading stack
I’ve been using StoryGraph the last couple of months as a GoodReads alternative, and it’s been great!

I’m not interested in the social side of GoodReads very much, so the network effect wasn’t much of a pain point in jumping ship.

binaryorganic··on Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
On the Media (podcast) ran a good piece Friday about how the problem with news (especially right now with the election) is that journalists are treating the candidates as the protagonists of their own stories (and the media then get the voter reactions to what those protagonists deem important) when what’s needed is for us voters to be the protagonists who set the priorities for what the campaigns should be talking about.
binaryorganic··on Build Personal Moats
I dunno... I got a lot of value from this article. Nevermind the impossibility of everyone becoming a reputable master of their niche.

1) working towards that has benefits regardless of achieving the pinnacle of noteworthy in the examples given

2) being self-aware enough to be able to articulate the value you bring is not something most people are good at, but it’s definitely something everyone should practice.

binaryorganic··on Ask HN: Parents, what are you doing for school this fall?
We’re online only until at least October, but we’ve opted in to a full year of remote learning regardless of what the school does.

I’ve switched to stay-at-home Dad mode and work on side projects in my spare time.

My kids are just old enough to be able to manage most of their school work on their own.

I feel pretty lucky considering some of the tough choices others are having to make rn.

binaryorganic··on Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams
Bringing all of the pains of an open floor plan into the privacy of your own home.
binaryorganic··on On Trouser Pockets
I’ve got a pair of pants from REI that have a pocket down there, and I instinctively put my phone there all the time, because of how accessible it is when sitting. It’s great!
binaryorganic··on The nightmare that colleges face this fall
It’s important to remember that death isn’t the only price to pay here. A sizable University outbreak might still see an unacceptable number of serious illnesses, and in Covid’s case, those cases can take months to fully resolve. The idea that healthy people aren’t seeing serious complications is dangerously false.
binaryorganic··on Show HN: Bear – Minimal blogging platform
This is a great, great app. I use it and love it.
binaryorganic··on Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
Thanks so much for (almost) all of these answers! I really appreciate getting substantive responses from y’all.
binaryorganic··on Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
Super serious question. Of the 278 comments that have been posted to this thread in the last 8 hours, has anyone suggested a single female author? I looked for a while and saw exactly zero. Isn’t that kind of notable?
binaryorganic··on 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees
No, I don’t think it means that at all. It’s a percentage of all food that gets wasted, not every food.
binaryorganic··on Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online
I recently learned about bookshop, and was super excited until I actually started making a wishlist of stuff I wanted and found half of it to either be back ordered or not exist in their system at all. Turns out all orders are processed through a single book supplier and if they don’t have it bookshop won’t either.

As someone who doesn’t use Amazon, I tend to use indiebound, which just pairs you with the closest independent bookstore who has the thing you want.

binaryorganic··on Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]
Your math doesn't check out. 5% of people that get it (among a wide range of ages) require serious medical care for weeks. And if we send 5% of any population to the hospital in a given month the death rate for ALL diseases goes way up.
binaryorganic··on The Wuhan Virus
Preprint and not peer reviewed. The WHO had it at 1.4-2.5 a few days ago.

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-01-2020-statement-on...

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