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fortythirteen

1,205 karma · joined September 5, 2017

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fortythirteen··on Facebook Isn’t Sorry, It Just Wants Your Data
While the general conclusion is correct, this angst-ridden blog post posing as a news article wouldn't get past the most generous editor a few decades ago. It's sad that Buzzfeed News is considered a legitimate source by some.
fortythirteen··on Dark Motives and Elective Use of Brainteaser Interview Questions
> I have a pet theory that when people interview they bring this buried frustration into the room with them and use the interviewing process to play the part of the people they feel humiliated them.

I think it has more to do with impostor syndrome and a fear that a new person will expose them as the frauds they perceive themselves as.

In my experience, sometimes that fear is justified. The people whom I've run across who are the most condescending to engineers who "haven't proved themselves" often have the most lax coding standards on the team. They're often the ones who build Rube Goldberg programs and who never document their work - you can't be replaced if nobody knows how your core programs work.

fortythirteen··on Facebook Is Now Rating Users Black Mirror Style
> Oh my God! Big Brother! Control! Black Mirror Is Real!

Frogs and boiling water...

fortythirteen··on The tech industry's use of persuasive techniques on children
It's the ubiquitousness that was missing in the past. It's come to a point where it's considered socially regressive to not give your middle-school aged child a 24/7 communications device laden with apps engineered with the same addictiveness principles of slot machines.

We have burdened young humans, whose mental abilities are not fully developed, with a self-image permanently detached from interpersonal relationships. There is hard data on this[0][1].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcBJ2bQ4HHE [1] www.amazon.com/iGen-Super-Connected-Rebellious-Happy-Adulthood/dp/1501151983

fortythirteen··on Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal
They have crossed a threshold and, if you continue to use Google products, you have crossed a threshold.

Google is now a willing and active participant in the coverup of massive human rights violations, including the open air murder of political protesters. If you pay for AdSense or G Suite, or even consume the "free" services, you are financing this.

fortythirteen··on Should I Learn Java in 2018
I think you're right when it comes to the lower tier of JS developers, but IMHO there are a lot less middle tier devs per-capita in JS than Java. Proficient fullstack JS is a very in-demand skillset right now, and if you're an expert you can find a new, high paying job, in just about any mid-tier tech town in 48 hours.
fortythirteen··on Should I Learn Java in 2018
There's an argument to be made that Java positions are the easiest to fill with lower waged visa or offshore workers, meaning that you have to maintain an extremely high proficiency, move into management, or be under constant threat that your job will be outsourced.
fortythirteen··on MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
There's a big difference between the AfterEffects guys and the writers. Rogan's complaints were as someone whose career requires massive amounts of writing and understandably wants a keyboard to have feedback.

I'm in complete agreement with him. In their obsession to make the thing thinner and fancier they have rendered it less usable. They've locked themselves into a marketing pattern that precludes them from having a "if it ain't broke" mindset.

fortythirteen··on MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
I'm being forced into an timed upgrade by corporate and I couldn't be unhappier. If some of the extraneous software needed to work in the environment wasn't Mac/Windows only, I'd request a hi-res Thinkpad and throw Linux on it. Even my ~2010 iMac at home runs Ubuntu.
fortythirteen··on The Role of Personality, Authoritarianism and Cognition in Brexit
My bad. I'm so used to the cognitive dissonance around here.
fortythirteen··on The Role of Personality, Authoritarianism and Cognition in Brexit
1. There may be a scale, but they didn't use it. 2. Go to an Antifa riot and you'll see your "Loch Ness Monster"
fortythirteen··on The Role of Personality, Authoritarianism and Cognition in Brexit
I'm assuming sarcasm, so forgive me if I'm wrong. I'm a pretty centrist, non-politically active guy, and I personally have one acquaintance that identifies as a marxist, another as a communist, and a third, literally as a "radical feminist marxist" who has participated in protests/riots. I know nobody that identifies as a fascist. Anecdotally, left-wing authoritarianism is much more prevalent in my milktoast town.

Edit, because HN won't let me reply to the claim of "misunderstanding" Marxism (and the clear gaslighting of the words "communist" and "radical" that were used):

Clearly, my "radical marxist" acquaintance destroying public and private property, while actually flying the Soviet flag, is wholly misunderstood for the non-authoritarian, peaceful, theoretical marxism it actually is.

Edit 2: Are you perceiving the whole comment or is your cognitive bias actually blocking out the words "communist" and "soviet"? You're picking a minute fraction of my sentences that suit your disposition and acting like they're the whole.

fortythirteen··on The Role of Personality, Authoritarianism and Cognition in Brexit
Like most situations, you learn more about someone from the questions they ask than the answers they give. The creator(s) of that survey have some extremely binary world views.
fortythirteen··on The Role of Personality, Authoritarianism and Cognition in Brexit
Their authoritarian scale is the RWA, or Right Wing Authoritarianism. They did no test for general authoritarianism, meaning that their summary is suspect. It's no surprise to anyone that the mostly left-wing remain voters scored low in right wing authoritarianism.

Edit: thanks for the brigaded downvotes with no rebuttal, proving that you just don't like your cognitive biases challenged with facts.

fortythirteen··on The Role of Personality, Authoritarianism and Cognition in Brexit
For reference, I got a 59, which is securely within the supposed "non-authoritarian" side. That being said, the questions in that test are quite binary and, The RW in RWA being for "Right Wing", heavily biased towards "authoritarianism" being a solely right wing, religiously conservative thing, which it is most certainly not.

There were no questions on the test that would capture a pure Stalinist/Maoist as the obvious authoritarian he/she is. This throws the entire study into question on its claims.

Also, with regards to the original study, the high degree of neuroticism in remainers could easily be characterized as them being susceptible to fear based propaganda.

fortythirteen··on Sex and Sexuality
An absolute false equivalence, save the "timeshare child" thing, which sounds disastrous for the well being of the child. Nobody in their right mind would argue that a child split between two homes is a preferable state. Regardless, there was no argument of banning anything made, so you've descended into hyperbole.
fortythirteen··on Sex and Sexuality
That is an absolute cavalcade of stereotypes. Even then it has a major hole. In your vision those children will still be born into the societal norms of their larger group.
fortythirteen··on Mark Zuckerberg and his empire of oily rags
Did you read the article? He literally gave every example of maliciousness as right wing and provided no examples of how the left is equally manipulated.
fortythirteen··on Sex and Sexuality
(Playing devil's advocate)

The child doesn't consent to a life of being outside of that social norm. One could make the argument that it's in the same ballpark as raising a child in religious extremism.

fortythirteen··on Mark Zuckerberg and his empire of oily rags
(Argues that social media and data tracking is a dangerous combination that can serve to further alienate us from our humanity)

(Proceeds to inject his political agenda that, while it has many truths, is written in a way that will completely alienate anyone not far-left)

fortythirteen··on Sex and Sexuality
> We may be headed to a possible future in which technology makes it possible to decouple "romantic" impulses from the reproductive drive.

This type of techno-hubris, which thinks it can undo millions of years of evolutionary biology, leads to the type of utopic visions that devolve into murderous chaos.

What you're proposing isn't terribly different than eugenics.

fortythirteen··on Cities don't have to offer huge subsidies to companies like Apple and Amazon
> Why should mom-n-pop have a higher fiscal hurdle than MegaCorp?

They don't. They have normal taxation. They wouldn't even have the opportunity to make profits, and hence be taxed, if the clientele never moved into the area.

> Then MegaCorp shouldn't have any qualms about entering into a binding agreement that the economic bounty will come, or else MegaCorp pays a penalty equal to that bounty. I wonder why they don't do that?

Because they're not shitty businesspeople? Remove the incentive and there's no motivation. It's basic behavioral economics.

fortythirteen··on Cities don't have to offer huge subsidies to companies like Apple and Amazon
You're proving my point, in that you don't see the situation holistically. You're assuming all "business" is tech. How about all the maintenance based services? Even inside tech, do you think all issue management in a giant data center is going to be handled by those 50 employees and not a slew of outside contractors?
fortythirteen··on Cities don't have to offer huge subsidies to companies like Apple and Amazon
How many other businesses are going to open branches, if not headquarters, in Des Moines to be close to the Apple data center? How many other companies can they now attract with larger employee counts, as a town that was chosen by Apple?

If I lived in that town, and wasn't a ruralist, I'd be thrilled with the city's decision.

fortythirteen··on Cities don't have to offer huge subsidies to companies like Apple and Amazon
These deals are far from short sighted. What the city may lose in corporate taxes is more than regained through the increase in revenue from middle class population growth. Sales tax and automobile tax revenues skyrocket with the all the people moving in. Businesses open to support the new residents and are taxed. More homes are built and property values go up, meaning an increase in property tax.

Seriously, people who think giving a subsidy for a large tech company to move to your city is short sighted fail to understand the issue holistically. Nome a single American city that has seen it's overall revenue decrease from a large company with skilled workers moving into their area with a subsidy.

fortythirteen··on Complicating the Narratives
Why would anyone of above average ability become a journalist anymore? You have better, long term salary prospects as a public school teacher.

Journalism in the west is close to dead. It's arguable if there ever was true objectivity, but not arguable that we haven't seen this little of it since the 19th century.

If I had the resources I would start an online news service that actually followed the AP guidelines to the letter, and had no opinions whatsoever - not even an opinion section.

fortythirteen··on Growing a Golf Simulator Business to $50k/month
https://store.steampowered.com/app/489600/The_Golf_Club_VR/
fortythirteen··on Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views
My favorite is when Sabo the conservative street artist got banned from Facebook right after his "Fuck Zuck 2020" posters appeared all over L.A.

But hidden camera footage of a Twitter engineer openly admitting that they shadowbanned conservatives came out last year.

fortythirteen··on Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views
This isn't opinion, it's provable fact. Twitter and Facebook were on a tear last year, actively shutting down the accounts of conservative pundits, under the guise of rules violations, while turning a blind eye to the same actions from pundits and personalities on the left.
fortythirteen··on Why athletes need a ‘quiet eye’
The article (and anyone who focuses on "quiet eye") is placing emphasis on one of many triggers to flow state. Hyper visual focus is no different than the focused breathing of vipassana "mindfulness" mediation, or the pre-action routines that are standard in sports psychology.

If LeBron has a mental, pre-freethrow routine of focusing his vision on the tip of the hoop, bounces the ball twice, spins it, and then shoots, he's triggering his mind to focus on the precise moment and allowing his subconscious to take over.

There are a number of great books on this subject, but my favorites are How Champions Think, by Bob Rotella, and The Mindful Athlete by George Mumford.

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