Hacker News Reader

hashberryon To Pay Attention, the Brain Uses Filters, Not a Spotlight

Especially psilocybin. "Hero" or "ego-death" doses are fascinating. Filters/barriers break down. Each room in my house had a special vibration/energy based on how I spent my time there. Artwork had deep meanings not previously noticed. Projected families and friends onto chairs in my empty dining room and had conversations with them (with cussing & sobbing). Started to think about my ancestors and had "past life" schizophrenic experiences based on memories and impressions of history. Felt powerful daemonic energy, radiating from body out of my hands, and felt amazed by the incredible ability humans have to create & destroy.

THC/cannabis is too much of a recreational drug... though it's useful for taking the edge off at the end of a psilocybin trip.

hashberryon Greta Thunberg: 'How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood'

> Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg ... her "fame-seeking", "stage-parents", particularly her "fading opera starlet mother" who performed internationally, were "pimp(ing) her out" without regard for Thunberg's alleged mental problems, which included Lowe's long list of disabilities, by which Greta and her sister were claimed to be handicapped. By so doing, Lowe wrote, they were subjecting her to "child abuse."[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg#Criticism_and_r...

hashberryon Greta Thunberg: 'How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood'

"How dare you have more than two children?" It's easier to blame capitalism and lecture to politicians instead of poor third-world families.

hashberryon Hold That Recession: U.S. Indicators Are Trouncing Forecasts

If you want to get past the paygate to read this article, disable JavaScript for www.bloomberg.com.

> “the message is growth is slower, yes, but the risk of recession is grossly overstated. As long as the Fed continues to do the right thing” by cutting rates a couple more times.

Apparently a healthy economy is one the Federal Reserve manipulates by keeping interest rates as low as possible. How long can they keep this up?

hashberryon Ex-Facebook engineer mocks the culture and jokes about how he was fired

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-brF6SUXbns

Brutal and hilarious. Good deadpan. "Without a doubt Facebook is one of the best offices I've worked in ... open office is like working in a warehouse, food is good, they have decent coffee."

hashberryon Blogging Like a Hacker (2008)

Also, blogging like a hacker includes not being afraid of your blog being hacked. Static HTML has the advantage of high security + high performance.

hashberryon The Long Road to the Student Debt Crisis

Student loans can also be used to pay rent and meals, and living in an urban center is increasingly expensive. My alma mater is tearing down old dorms and building pricey new ones instead of making student life as affordable as possible.

hashberryon Why Is Hollywood So Scared of Climate Change?

Why is the working class responsible for fighting climate change? Why must Hollywood "challenge audiences to change their ways"? Especially when China is building 300-500 new coal plants?[0][1]

Actually, as individual consumers, the best way one can lower one's carbon footprint is to not spend money. Don't buy the brand new cars product placed in films. Don't drive to the theater, wait until the movie can be streamed. And don't buy candy or soda or beer in theaters. Use as little resources as possible.

[0] https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/03/28/china-new-coal-p... [1] https://www.npr.org/2019/04/29/716347646/why-is-china-placin...

hashberryon I'm Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here Is Why [pdf]

"My director/manager started making inappropriate comments about a member of my team, including that the Googler was likely pregnant again and was overly emotional and hard to work with when pregnant."

So she reported her female manager to HR for gossiping, which the manager can easily deny since words are different than actions. HR exists to protect the company. It's best to only go to HR when there is illegal conduct.

"HR is not like a playground teacher whose job it is to solve all problems and stop bullies from acting." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/when-your-hr-department-is-your...

hashberryon 22% of Millennials say they have no friends

Same here, though I really really enjoy living + working alone (5+ years now).

Tip: get a dog. Having a dog forces me to leave the house at least twice a day to go on walks, plus it's a great conversation starter with people around the neighborhood. Dogs are social animals and it's amazing how the simple act of loving and receiving love in return can improve emotional well-being.

hashberryon The terrible truth of climate change

If you really want some terrible truth...

China draws 70 percent of its electricity from coal and is building 300-500 new coal plants by 2030[0][1]. Nothing we do can offset this new CO2.

[0] https://www.npr.org/2019/04/29/716347646/why-is-china-placin...

[1] https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/03/28/china-new-coal-p...

hashberryon Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

"Homo sapiens" is Latin for "wise man," but there were many Hominin species who possessed comparative culture, art, and intelligence. Neanderthals actually had larger brains compared to modern humans[0]. There are many theories on why Neanderthals became extinct[1]; my favorite is that we simply outbred them because of our sex appeal. What is Latin for "sexy human?"

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Anatomy

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_extinction

hashberryon China’s State-Driven Growth Model Is Running Out of Gas

China is a fascinating experiment of modern state capitalism. But it is also reliant on globalism, and a recession crisis will be felt globally.

hashberryon Jeff Bezos: I spend my billions on space because we’re destroying Earth

The working class should not be solely responsible for combating climate change. But at the same time, Amazon (and all corporations) are responsible to their shareholders, i.e. to give them a return on their investment. It's the shareholder/investment class that has power to change how companies operate to benefit the planet, but that could potentially lower profits and give competitors an advantage.

hashberryon 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

I also like to compare video games to porn. It's achievement porn that can replace hobbies, creative pursuits, and working (lots of unemployed men game all day), just like porn can replace sex and relationships.

I remember first playing WoW and thinking how dumb and childish it was. Then it sucked me in and I became obsessed with it, especially PvP. It made me realize that games with cartoon graphics such as Fortnite specifically target children and young teens.

hashberryon How I made money podcasting and why you probably don't want to

Loved the ending. Self-disclosure is a big part of humanistic psychology. Sidney Jourard[0] explored this in depth:

You cannot collaborate with another person toward some common end unless you know him. How can you know him, and he you, unless you have engaged in enough mutual disclosure of self to be able anticipate how he will react and what part he will play?

If we want to be loved, we must disclose ourselves. If we want to love someone, he must permit us to know him. This would seem to be obvious. Yet most of us spend a great part of our lives thinking up ways to avoid becoming known. Indeed, much of human life is best described as impersonation. We are role players, every one of us.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Jourard

hashberryon The challenges of teaching software engineering

You're not alone. Wikipedia has an interesting "Controversy" section about software engineering[0], with a quote from Edsger Dijkstra:

... software engineering should be known as "The Doomed Discipline", doomed because it cannot even approach its goal since its goal is self-contradictory. Software engineering, of course, presents itself as another worthy cause, but that is eyewash: if you carefully read its literature and analyse what its devotees actually do, you will discover that software engineering has accepted as its charter "How to program if you cannot."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering#Controver...

hashberryon Reddit has quarantined /r/The_Donald

Regarding censorship, reddit quarantine removes The_Donald from search and prevents future content from being indexed by search engines.

hashberryon Reddit has quarantined /r/The_Donald

Interesting, because the The_Donald has always been toxic, but now action is finally being taken. The narrative on The_Donald this week has been about Google's interference with the political process such as manipulating search results (e.g. the Project Veritas Jen Gennai video)[0], and why the media is ignoring this after obsessing over Russian interference.

[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/c4miq0/insider_...

hashberryon Men's fertility irreversibly damaged by age of 18 thanks Western junk food diet

Since it gated, here are the diet+sperm quality results:

From the responses to a dietary questionnaire, four types of diet were identified: a “Western” diet characterised by red meat, processed meat, fatty and sugary food and drink; a “prudent” diet comprising mainly chicken, fish, vegetables and fruit; a “Smørrebrød” diet cold processed meats, whole grains, mayonnaise, cold fish, condiments, and dairy; and a traditional vegetarian diet, involving lots of vegetables, soya milk and eggs.

Sperm health, as measured by concentration, volume and motility, was best in those following the prudent diet, followed by the vegetarian and then Smørrebrød diets, with those adhering to a western diet yielding the worse readings.

hashberryon Berlin approves 5-year rent freeze

What about issuing bonds and using rent to pay off the bonds?

hashberryon Berlin approves 5-year rent freeze

Many people treat their city as the center of the world. NYC is infamous for this. "Flyover states" is a common pejorative classist term. Every tech company sets up offices in large cities not just for the talent, but because people want to live in the city, not in the "boonies" or "in the sticks" with a bunch of "townies."

hashberryon Berlin approves 5-year rent freeze

Government bonds. The affordable rent would go towards paying off those bonds. Tenants would be selected by income level and lottery. If cities can build huge stadiums, they can build huge housing complexes.

hashberryon Berlin approves 5-year rent freeze

If affordable housing is an issue, then perhaps the government should provide it for its citizens, like building huge high-rises in Berlin.

I used to rent in an expensive city but bought a cheap house in the suburbs (thankfully I work remotely). Everything is cheaper out here, from gas to utilities to food. But I did experience classism from my friends and family: there is status living in a world-class city. And having wealth or a high-paying job in the city is part of this status. But many people want the status without having to pay the $$$.

hashberryon Why are we so pessimistic?

> Third, this “negativity bias” is further amplified in the era of social media. In the past, traditional authorities and intermediate bodies—churches, political parties, trade unions, sports clubs—neutralized extreme positions.

Blaming social media is trendy these days, but this is a poor argument when one reflects on history. "Traditional authorities" often encouraged extreme positions for its citizens, such as the governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II. (Hitler Youth was a very popular "club!") And doomsday cults have been around forever. (Many are still waiting for The Rapture!)

I'm actually rather optimistic about social media. Proper use of social media makes it easier to understand viewpoints of the opposing side and find and share new information. It seems there is a pessimistic "negativity bias" around social media itself because it's easy to point out extreme examples and users.

hashberryon When to use web workers

Can you elaborate? I enjoyed the layout, colors, fonts etc, but curious on why the page is not acceptable.

hashberryon We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

https://climate.nasa.gov/ has lots of data.

"Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, global warming would continue to happen for at least several more decades, if not centuries. That’s because it takes a while for the planet (for example, the oceans) to respond, and because carbon dioxide – the predominant heat-trapping gas – lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years."[0]

[0] https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-cl...

hashberryon Coldfusion is “Unpopular” – I don’t care

Ah, Macromedia ColdFusion brings back memories. I did enjoy how quick it was to learn and modify pages. As long as Adobe continues to update, maintain, and market Adobe ColdFusion (they seem to have a good track record), it'll never be a "dead" language. There are advantages to corporate dollars.

hashberryon Procrastination is not a time management problem, it is an emotion

Procrastination is an addiction because it offers relief from anxiety and instant gratification. Also, being a chronic procrastinator and a skilled developer is a deadly combination. I've been praised for my excellent work and rewarded with raises and bonuses, even though I often procrastinate until the very last minute.

Tip: to make your git logs look socially acceptable to co-workers and management, don't commit at 3AM Monday morning, wait until 9AM.