embeng4096

Adding another rec for Worm, "There Is No Antimemetics Division", Worth the Candle (protag was annoying but overall world building got me invested). Also add "Mother of Learning" to the list!

> Game development is a lot more than programming. If someone is just making projects on their own, it really doesn't matter much if the code is "good" or not. You just gotta have a game that works.

Balatro, a recently-released solo-dev indie game, is a great example of this. I saw two tweets the other day that, together, support your point: "Balatro has a 5000 line if-else chain"[0] and "in the 3 months since Balatro has launched, it has been collectively played for a total of 6200 years"[1].

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1cbcmr0/how_is_it_... (couldn't find the twitter link directly but summarized it from this reddit post)

[1]: https://x.com/LocalThunk/status/1794876280997036443

One trick I've found in Word specifically: press Ctrl+v to paste, then hit Ctrl, then hit 't' -- this is the key sequence for paste->open paste options->use plaintext.

You can do the same thing by pasting, then click on the little box that pops up next to your pasted text, then clicking the text option.

I vape and mostly stick to unflavored juice. I notice that my cardio is slightly worse than before, but mostly offset by playing cardio sports 1-2 times per week. It's more noticeable when doing extended cardio activities, like hiking -- when doing sprinting sports (tennis or racquetball for example) I feel fine.

One thing to note about juices: the basic composition of most is some amount of vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, nicotine, and flavoring additives. Unflavored juices are just VG/PG+nicotine, and both VG/PG are food-safe substances widely used in medicine, food, and skin care products. Though of course, inhaling aerosolized VG/PG is worse than inhaling clean air. Nicotine has some adverse effects like vasoconstriction (my fingers/feet get cold more easily these days) but is offset for me by its positive effects on alertness and mood.

The nice thing about vaping unflavored juices (make sure you check the ingredients list) is that you skip the flavoring additives, which are less researched in terms of health effects and less regulated. Also, there is no smell. Obviously a creamy or sweet vape will smell better than cigs, but the scent can still be overpowering or unpleasant for people around you.

Overall I agree with the other posters: vaping is better than smoking, and not doing either is best.

In past Ask HN threads I've seen recommendations for Lunch Money (https://lunchmoney.app/) and You Need A Budget (https://www.ynab.com/). I can't personally speak to them as I use GnuCash, but I don't recommend it for you because it does not do automatic sync as you requested.

It usually shows up as stars so I don't need to worry about other people seeing it, see: hunter2

Jokes aside, I memorize my password manager's master password, and have it written down in a notebook but in a different glyph set (Idk the scientific name). It's not ciphered or anything so can be decoded, but the chances of somebody recognizing Elian script are fairly low, I think, and recognizing something like Royal House of Riftgard script even lower. And if you use something like Elian script it can be obfuscated further by stylistic alterations. That, combined with a rotating cipher, even something like rot13, is probably enough to defeat all but the most determined attackers, in which case I'll have bigger things to worry about, like the XKCD wrench (https://xkcd.com/538/)

I use Twitter, anon account with very loose opsec.

I mostly follow individuals on personal accounts, meaning few to no managed accounts (corporations, politicians, professionals with any kind of product or course to sell) or accounts with a heavy emphasis on narrative making (journalists, activists, politicians, tech marketers, crypto enthusiasts, VCs/startup people).

Twitter is how I ended up joining a group chat interested in psychology and discussing e.g. practices for better communication, emotional maturity; a group chat around cooking and sharing tips; and otherwise having nice interactions within a loosely-stable group of people with shared interests. Most were accounts <300 followers and/or <300 following.

I'm not too concerned with anything big enough to be considered news (which is how I interpret what you mean by "public conversation"), as it usually filters into my timeline 2-3 days (or even weeks) in advance of print/broadcast media anyway.

I guess my point is, the key for making Twitter a positive experience for me is forgoing big accounts, like video game streamers, TikTok/Instagram influencers, and news-/politics-/special-interest-focused brands, and mainly seeking real individuals with shared interests. One big indicator is a high ratio of their own tweets vs retweets -- if an account is mostly retweeting things (often will be tweets on polarizing topics from polarizing accounts) and not really tweeting stuff like "I've been reading X programming book" or "I've been getting into Y hobby, and like Z about it", I either ignore the account or turn off retweets from them.

edit: removed some content relating to politics/news, trying to keep this message focused on twitter itself/how I use it/tips I hope are useful.

re: GPT4 degrading --

From this recent study: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.09009.pdf

> For example, GPT-4 (March 2023) was very good at identifying prime numbers (accuracy 97.6%) but GPT-4 (June 2023) was very poor on these same questions (accuracy 2.4%).

There is more in the study but I just grabbed a short snippet as an example.

Seeing the discussion on the submission "TODO apps are meant for robots" [0], I was reminded of this post that came out recently and wanted to share in a similar spirit.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36745858

Agreed with all this!

One note if you decide to go the integrated graphics route: if you’re planning on gaming, get a CPU with the most powerful integrated graphics you can.

I did as shoo pointed out, started out with a CPU with integrated graphics to save money (inflated GPU prices during pandemic), then later upgraded to better CPU plus discrete graphics card.

I started with a Ryzen 3400G for its low price and integrated graphics, but found I could barely play even medium-low graphics games like Valheim, maxing out at 15 FPS, dropping to 5 much of the time.

Hopefully you can avoid the same issue if you decide to get an integrated graphics CPU. I do prefer and recommend a dedicated graphics card, assuming it fits within your budget.

All my friends built their first PC in high school/college (5-10 years ago) and I only recently did mine 2 years ago. I was nervous but it turned out to be pretty easy.

I would figure out what your needs are: play modern AAA games in 4K definition at 120 FPS? Play older games on medium graphics? Do video or other media editing? Etc etc

Then go look at Logical Increments for example builds and figure out how expensive you want to go to meet your needs (they have example builds from basically a toaster on up to the best that consumer money can buy): https://www.logicalincrements.com/

(Edit: keep in mind that the prices on Logical Increments may be lower than actual parts, due to the supply chain issues, pandemic, etc)

Use PC Part Picker to keep track of your build items, they have a handy interface to make builds out of specific parts, track the price of the whole build, make sure you don't forget a part, and even generally warn you if you choose incompatible parts (it's not foolproof but it worked for me and is nice for peace of mind): https://pcpartpicker.com/

Finally, read/watch a few build guides on YouTube or find some articles via Google, to get more familiar with the process.

This is a rough and high-level approach to what worked for me as a first-time builder with roughly zero knowledge (beyond being as computer-savvy as an average person in tech, which I presume most HNers are). Good luck and have fun!

Here[0] is a blog post by someone who identified it as playing a part in a severe case of selective mutism that deeply impacted their professional ambitions. The description is interwoven with a narrative of their time at some sort of week-long retreat, but there are sections (mostly in italics, as they're memories) that describe the mutism, their efforts to identify its source, their learning about the vagus nerve interactions, and the takeaways about the vagus nerve and its role in their experience.

[0]: https://fortelabs.com/blog/groundbreakers/

In the spirit of idle games, two that have really captured me are Swarm Simulator and Exponential Idle, the latter being pretty in a minimalist way.

https://www.swarmsim.com/#/

https://conicgames.github.io/exponentialidle/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/exponential-idle/id1538487382

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.conicgames...

I think it's hard to get people to give credence to experts whose claims can be demonstrated to be outlandish. E.g. James Anderson, famously known for helping to discover and mitigate the Antarctic ozone holes in the late 20th century, said in 2018 that the chance there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic by 2022 is "essentially zero"[0].

Yet a NASA site reports that in September 2022 (when the most recent measurement was taken), the Arctic sea ice minimum extent was ~4.67 million square kilometers. [1]

To be very explicit: I'm not saying that climate change doesn't exist. I'm not saying that Arctic sea ice is not diminishing (the NASA site says it's diminishing at ~12% per decade). I'm not saying that the Nobel prize is a good indicator of expertise.

I'm saying specifically that I believe it's more difficult to convince people to trust a source making claims of negative consequences when those consequences are less bad than the source says.

An analogy I might use is drugs (specifically in the US). I've heard a few people, who went through an anti-drug education program forced on them in their adolescence by parents/teachers, mention that marijuana was portrayed as just as bad as other, harder drugs. Then, when they went on in high school and college to smoke weed and discovered that they did not ruin their lives by getting stoned a few times a week, or even every day, they subsequently gave less credence to what the anti-drug advocates were saying.

[0]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2018/01/15/carbon-p...

[1]: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/

I only brought up the other service for context and answering your question of whether there is demand, I wasn’t intending it as a way of saying “already done” - sorry that that was the message communicated. Agreed with both of your points!

I think there is a demand for this service, as a similar service seems to be offered by Japan Rabbit[0] (sorry if you already were aware). But it's a proxy service (as mentioned by another commenter) while it sounds like you are purchasing direct.

I would buy sake, and I have heard the Japanese-exclusive Peace cigarettes are a treat, have been on the search for those.

You have a cool idea, good luck!

[0]: https://japanrabbit.com/

Interesting to see this perspective. I've always associated the focus on nuclear families with a tight-knit neighborhood, almost small-town vibe where everyone knows each other and, yes, are up in each other's business. The breaking of social cohesion I've associated with the more recent phenomenon of it becoming more common to leave one's community to go to school or for a new job.

I also use VSCodeVim! One struggle I have though is that navigating with Ctrl+d / Ctrl+u or Shift+[ / Shift+] still opens folds if the cursor lands in the middle of a folded section. Do you run into this also and/or know a fix/workaround?

>> Have you considered the possibility that it's not about morals or intelligence but that it's actually an intractable problem?

I don't think they're saying, "this person is secretly plotting to take over the world".

I think they're saying, "have you considered that this is actually a hard problem and not as simple as you make it out to be?"

I think trickle down would actually go against GP's point. Their point seems to be that even as richer SWEs make more money, they price out middle class workers on housing -- then as workers pay more for housing, they have less money to buy things from the companies that pay the SWEs, with a result of putting downward pressure on SWE salaries.

Believing in trickle down would actually undermine GP's point. If trickle down was true, SWEs' spending would offset the housing cost increases caused by SWEs, so middle class workers would have more disposable income to buy things from companies that pay the SWEs -- and that would be the opposite of what GP is describing.

I moved from a previous setup to Obsidian[0], but if you end up thinking Obsidian is overkill, here's my old setup:

Visual Studio Code, with 1 plugin, Markdown Paste[1]. VSCode has a text editing experience very close to the simplicity of notepad++, including tabs. Markdown Paste to paste image from clipboard into Markdown -- location/filepath of locally-saved image can be changed.

In VSC, you can open a preview tab which will show the rendered Markdown (including images) and put that side-by-side with your text editor tab.

[0]: https://obsidian.md/

[1]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=telesoho...

Perhaps mataroa.blog or blot.im?

Mataroa is freemium ($ for auto-export and custom domain features, all else is free). Blot.im is paid, like a CI/CD that turns a git repo or a folder in your Dropbox or Google Drive into a static site.

I've not used mataroa, but did use blot.im when I was blogging.

Otherwise I second the recommendation for a static site generator, like Jekyll or Hugo.

I work for a small product development and contract engineering firm - a dual major in EE and MechE would be a big plus in our eyes. Not sure if that’s the type of job you want, but there’s definitely such firms scattered across the US (assuming you’re based in the States).

This was indeed an interview for a tech position. I was exaggerating about the design aspect so I’ll retract that. We do however have techs who interface with customers and who coordinate projects. From your responses I’d guess this is very unusual and thus my experience is a bit of an outlier. Maybe you could give the original asker better advice, I think anyone reading would benefit if you did.

I agree with all your individual points but I’m slow in understanding your overall message, sorry.

Think you're right, it's a mistake by the journalist. Here's a tweet[0] from Anton Nell, Andre's partner according to the journalist, saying what GP is saying: yearn.fi is shutting down but yearn.finance will continue to operate.

[0]: https://twitter.com/AntonNellCrypto/status/15004054752962969...

I work for exactly one of these product development consultancies / contract engineering firms - we are a team of ~10 EEs and SWEs who work with customers from idea to design to development and then manufacturing. To the point of "lots of subjects", the above includes but is not limited to: sales, project management, electronic schematic capture and PCB layout, design for and manufacturing support, web development, and mechanical/system integration. Often we'll collaborate with our mechanical engineering counterparts who've opened their own product development and contract engineering consultancy.

I can't speak for all firms but the way we find our employees is through networks of current employees and through LinkedIn recruiting. You'll want to emphasize aspects of your resume/work that mark you as a self-starting generalist with key skills.

An example on the generalist side: we had a candidate say, "I don't want to do design, I just want to be handed a schematic and do PCB layout." They were passed over in favor of another candidate willing to dive in and do schematic capture if necessary, PCB layout, and speak directly to customers about requirements, timelines, budgets, and other project planning logistics.

An example on the key skills side: the weakness of generalists is of course lack of depth, and we'll often contract out to SMEs based on project needs. If you know of a product consultancy near you that's, say, mechanically-focused, you can offer e.g. SWE expertise on, for example, frontend/backend development for a site that accepts RESTful HTTP requests from the IoT device they're building a mechanical enclosure for, whose customer needs software expertise that the MEs don't have.

To find these companies, useful search phrases are things like "product development", "contract engineering", "engineering consultancy" and so on.

Ah, makes sense -- thanks for clarifying.

Can you elaborate? This particular comment of yours reads to me as agreeing -- as in agreeing that selectivity accounts for some of the decrease in sex, but not all, which I think is what I stated.

Your other comment in this overall thread gives me the impression that you actually disagree though, so I think I'm missing something and would appreciate more explanation.

One possible explanation is that, as you say, "most people" are monogamous -- the rest are a group of men who have more partners drawn from the same group of women (excluding the monogamous women), and a group of men who are not having partners at all.

See this article [0] discussing a study, and specifically this quote in it which I think reconciles both your point and the GP's:

> Most women and men reported at least weekly sex, and most people reported having one sexual partner in the prior year. In the most recent surveys, men age 18 to 44 were more likely to have had no partners in the past year (16 percent) compared to women (12 percent). Men also were more likely to have had three or more partners in the past year (15 percent) compared to women (7 percent).

[0]: https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/06/iub/releases/15-sexual-i...