Hacker News Reader

hahaxdxd123on The most unethical thing I was asked to build while working at Twitter in 2015

Even economically, it seems unlikely they would. The data is their moat and it's what they can use to target people with ads. Selling it seems counterproductive.

hahaxdxd123on To get kids into science, just do it

Interesting. My impression of American anti-intellectualism is that it more often takes the opposite form:

"X person is by all measures more educated than me on this topic, but I did own research! (on Youtube and Facebook)"

hahaxdxd123on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2022)

I wrote a neat solution to the 3rd Q in the coding challenge. Except I brainfarted and skimmed a StackOverflow answer that made me think `dict.update` added dict values together and not replaced them. Realized it too late, immediately after I submitted...

Overall a pretty cool, compilers-esque coding challenge! Way better than the Leetcode stuff - gives me a pretty positive impression of the company. Hope I can apply again soon.

hahaxdxd123on Test scores are not irrelevant

The HackerNews classic

hahaxdxd123on Test scores are not irrelevant

Actually California's state school system at the UC level is 1st in the country. And 1st in the world.

hahaxdxd123on Apple is quietly pushing a TV ad product with media agencies

They are approaching monopoly by ... competing with each other and taking down Netflix's near 100% streaming market share?

hahaxdxd123on US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

That is a positive statement, not a normative one.

hahaxdxd123on World’s Best Airlines Were Just Announced and Not One US Carrier Made the List

err, most other parts of the world were still recovering from a lil war?

hahaxdxd123on Tether ordered to produce documents showing backing of USDT [pdf]

Ok but US money markets are not backed by Evergrande debt

hahaxdxd123on Why Figma Is Worth $20B and Other Observations from the Adobe Acquisition

I agree. The whole point of a free market is that it should lead to a competitive market, in which profits shrink and consumer surplus expands. He literally says that Figma is threatening Adobe's margins. Stopping mergers of companies like this is ... exactly what antitrust is for?

hahaxdxd123on The Ethereum merge is done

Come on man, this is a bad faith argument.

Show me a smart contract that can issue an undercollateralized loan. Turns out that takes manpower, time, and energy to underwrite this stuff.

hahaxdxd123on Some WFH employees now live in another country

> It won't move, but the utilization will change to be minimize the cost.

Yes people will build more medium density housing instead of having zucchini gardens in one of the most expensive regions of the world. Higher density would be good for renters in the local area.

This, taken to it's "extreme": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax

Pretty well studied, and has a lot of support across ideological viewpoints.

hahaxdxd123on Some WFH employees now live in another country

That's the beauty of it. Land can't move.

hahaxdxd123on Some WFH employees now live in another country

Why punish value creation when you can punish rent-seeking? It is a strictly better substitute.

hahaxdxd123on Patagonia founder gives away the company

The only issue with wealth/income inequality in countries like America is that some goods are artificially constrained or positional (mostly housing).

A mediocre salary of $40,000 is enough to buy so many goods from competitive markets (phones, cars, anything you can get off Amazon/AliExpress). This becomes very apparent when you go to lesser developed countries.

The major costs in people's lives do not come from the billionaire class. If you tax them into oblivion and give that money away, it will be soaked up by housing anyway (look how sharply housing costs have risen after the growth in real income the past 2 years).

hahaxdxd123on How San Francisco makes it insanely hard to build housing

In some cities, these departments are the legacies of the mob.

hahaxdxd123on Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

> Also, USA, wtf, why are you flying the flag at half staff? Did you forget what you fought about in 1776?

Because one half of the Special Relationship had their head of state die? If the Canadian PM were assassinated, would you be up in arms over a half-mast due to the War of 1812?

hahaxdxd123on Bikes, not self driving cars, are the technological gateway to urban progress

Autonomous vehicles can communicate too. Why not just an LED screen in the front that displays its intentions? "Your turn". "My turn".

hahaxdxd123on Bikes, not self driving cars, are the technological gateway to urban progress

I would be far more comfortable cycling if the majority of cars on the road were self driving instead of distracted and angry drivers.

Even in probably a top 5 city for cycling in America (SF), I weigh how poor the drivers will be along the route when choosing to drive or cycle.

In a city like San Diego, where drunk driving is a local pastime, I would never cycle.

hahaxdxd123on Bikes, not self driving cars, are the technological gateway to urban progress

It's not dense because the same people opposing pedestrianization also oppose density.

If we let people build a couple Amsterdams or Londons in America, we could just self select and those that want to cycle and walk can do so, and those who want to drive can do so - just in separate places.

hahaxdxd123on Argentina's currency exchange black markets

I know some US startups that hire Argentinians (Scale AI, etc) and pay them in USD-T or USD-C. Not sure if they pay any taxes in the US, but they certainly don't pay the income tax or take the currency conversion haircut in Argentina. Pretty good deal.

Still, these people want USD, not really a crypto. I figure some lost their shirts in UST.

hahaxdxd123on Cognitive ability is related to supporting freedom of speech (2020)

Also,

"although cognitive ability was related to more affective prejudice toward relatively conservative groups and less affective prejudice toward relatively liberal groups"

You can also use this study to write "Cognitive ability linked to hatred of conservatives."

lmao

hahaxdxd123on San Francisco braces for commercial real estate crash

Perhaps instead I can suggest to you airline travel or an exercise regimen?

hahaxdxd123on San Francisco braces for commercial real estate crash

Can confirm like 80% of my Google friends are 3 hour/day types. But then again, it was only 5-6 hours/day before COVID anyway.

hahaxdxd123on San Francisco braces for commercial real estate crash

brace yourself

brace for impact

you need to brace before squatting

hahaxdxd123on San Francisco braces for commercial real estate crash

Yes, YIMBYs are notorious for wanting housing to be scarcer and more expensive...

hahaxdxd123on The Portuguese can no longer afford to live in Portugal

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Everybod...

If you live in any society where land values are private profit, expect nothing less.

We're seeing this in America too, but hopefully with any luck, we still have enough entrepreneurial inertia that salaries (mine especially) remain high enough for a little while longer to make this palatable.

hahaxdxd123on The dictatorship of the articulate

The same Marc Andreesen who complained that there shouldn't be housing built near him because it would lower his property prices?

How can someone who has read Why Nations Fail miss the point? We don't build for the same reasons that we didn't from the year -2000 to the Enlightenment. Because it's now better and easier in so many cases to just rent seek. Why bother constructing housing when you can just have other people's labour increase your land values? Why should I increase the supply of residency spots when constraining that supply increases my salary by $100k? Why bother with bold bets when you have net work effect monopolies? It's not talkers standing in the way of builders, it's leeches.