Hacker News Reader

helllllllloooon Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay

The article is saying unemployment is very low so your point doesn't stand. The minimum wage isn't hurting employment. What's hurting people are the low wages.

helllllllloooon Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay

Walmart, Amazon and Target are doing fine and still pay low wages. I don't understand your point or choice of companies to list.

helllllllloooon Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

Sure. But it's hardly suprising nor is it a useful comparison to say airpods make more revenue than Twitter.

helllllllloooon Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

Most profitable company in the tech world creates new product and uses prior manufacturing skill, brand awareness/loyalty, device lock-in, advertising experience and retail channels to sell it and makes more profit that arbitrary list of companies in different business areas. What's the point?

helllllllloooon Having Kids

You can always adopt or foster children if you really regret it later. There are plenty of children that exist that need good homes without having to create more.

helllllllloooon Teaching yourself about structural racism will improve your machine learning

> Does the fact that black Americans used to be slaves in the US, or were kept out of certain housing markets, contribute towards the fact that black Americans, on average, have lower credit scores, income, wealth, and collateral? Of course. But is this model racist? Literally not at all.

Saying that because history was racist means I'm absolved of responsibility going forward is not a strong argument. Redlining was literally a racist behavior. The point of the article is to be aware of it so you can try do better than in the past.

helllllllloooon Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

Even if this is true (which I don't believe based on your anecdotal evidence about Gen Z who max out at age 24), why is it bad?

helllllllloooon Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white

> I'm just saying that arresting 84% blacks is not necessarily racist _by the cops_, because every one of those 46 arrests may well have a video like this one, and this guy deserved it.

Deserves to be detained for eating a sandwich? Beligerant for expressing how stupid that is? The police department apologized for this so even they don't agree with you. I think we're done here. Good luck.

helllllllloooon Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white

Did you watch the video that the article cites? Please do. It's what sparked this study of the statistics and the police behavior in it is completely unreasonable. What you're saying doesn't align at all with what was recorded. He could easily be an "employed programmer", your biases are showing. A lot of programmers I know would respond similarly.

> San Francisco transit boss apologizes to rider detained over a sandwich

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/11/san-francisc...

helllllllloooon Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white

So your claim is despite the black ridership being 10%, black people are more likely to be beligerant or do something else that is somehow hidden but illegal so citing for eating is justified?

You're really bending over backwards to give Bart police a pass.

helllllllloooon Black Facebook staff describe workplace racism in anonymous letter

Sharing a story to a more widely read platform than medium is the value add. But yeah the original article is the source so probably better to start there.

helllllllloooon Self-Driving Uber in Crash Wasn’t Programmed to Spot Jaywalkers

The system should have detected and braked and if was incapable of this it shouldn't be on public roads. This is a very simple case of the car failing to detect an object in the road and should be the most basic functionality of a driverless vehicle. I have sympathy for the driver who Uber's PR team has thrown under the bus (excuse the turn of phrase) when it was obviously was a basic engineering and management failure.

helllllllloooon Self-Driving Uber in Crash Wasn’t Programmed to Spot Jaywalkers

No. The key point is that Uber engineers under the orders of management disengaged automatic breaking systems to make the car provide a smoother ride. If these had remained on then the pedestrian would be alive whether the driver was distracted or not.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/ped...

helllllllloooon Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

Really, you can't understand it? You've never had to work long hours at an unfulfilling, repetitive job you hate just to pay the bills and survive without being able to save anything? You're lucky, a lot of people in the US are not so lucky.

helllllllloooon Zuckerberg doubles down on Facebook political ads policy after Twitter ban

Political advertising is very clear on television. Isn't that the context of this discussion?

helllllllloooon Stripe to move to South San Francisco

> San Francisco spends a lot on its homeless problem with little to show for it.

$241 million from a budget of over $12 billion from a city that with businesses that collectively make hundreds of billions every year. Doesn't seem like that much. Same as 1 SoftBank funded startup that inevitably wastes it.

Little to show for it? The money is going to help people in a awful situation. Just because they haven't disappeared from the streets doesn't mean it's wasted.

The number is more like $3800 per person per year.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Bu...

helllllllloooon Stripe to move to South San Francisco

That number is a myth. An intentional butchering of the homeless stats and spending numbers for political purposes.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Myths-like-homel...

The number is more like $3800 per person per year:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Bu...

helllllllloooon Stripe to move to South San Francisco

Stripe CEO was actively against paying taxes to support SF homeless through Prop C. This isn't suprising.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tech-moguls-wor...

helllllllloooon My Favourite Git Commit

Wait until a derogatory word being used effects you directly. It's really easy to just not use words flippantly that you know some people have an issue with. You are clearly aware of how it can be offensive and for a lot of people your definition is still just a callback to people being unkind about mental illness. History matters too and if you choose to ignore that and use it anyway you're just being unnecessarily inconsiderate.

helllllllloooon Catalan separatists have tooled up with decentralized app for civil disobedience

You ignored my point and responded with a rant. I didn't make a comment on Catalonia. I was responding to the poster before me.

helllllllloooon Catalan separatists have tooled up with decentralized app for civil disobedience

I can think of non-evil reasons to stop secession. If the US South wanted to secede to continue slavery is it evil to prevent that to protect people?

helllllllloooon Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

> it's basically impossible for an organization to be non-political

This is exactly the point. It's impossible for an org to be non-political. Any choice made has wider socitial context and effects for the workers at that company. Politics is basically the effect of decisions on people. Not all political decisions are as extreme and sensational as NRA etc. most are mundane but still important.

Your definition of this political spectrum seems to be focused on politics that generate controversy rather than their importance or number of people they effect. Mundane politics are also politics, you just don't necessarily notice them

GitLab has to define what are acceptable politics to discuss and draw that line. This is a decision that has to be made and will be based on their political views and what they think is normal or extreme which won't be the same for everyone who works there. The whole thing just seems very naive.

helllllllloooon Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

Thank you for writing what I was thinking so eloquently.

Everyone's life is effected by politics and GitLab is making a political decision as to which politics are acceptable to discuss at work. Politics will still be discussed, but only the politics that those deciding deem acceptable and this inherently political.

helllllllloooon Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

Yes. That's exactly what OP is highlighting and that not giving two shits is the problem.

helllllllloooon The Streets of San Francisco

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trumps-war-on-the-home...

This podcast has a pretty good discussion and explaination on the different causes of homelessness. The distinction between "working homeless" in cities where housing costs are skyrocketing and people with medical issues or addiction was interesting to hear talked through with nuance.

helllllllloooon Ask HN: What did you get on your 5 year work anniversary?

Paid... same as for the 5 years before that.

helllllllloooon GM Cruise to delay commercial launch of self-driving cars to beyond 2019

This. Driverless cars work on the easiest roads and the mistakes they make are ones that humans wouldn't make. They also currently have humans as a failsafe if they do behave strangely. The stats would be very different if we just sent all the self driving cars out tomorrow without safety drivers.

helllllllloooon Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

I don't see any moral issue until Amazon indicates it made a mistake and is actually asking for the return of the goods or for more money. I haven't seen them do that. Maybe their intention was to provide a great deal to their customers.

Even if it was unintentional the relative cost to Amazon is tiny and but the relative cost to any individual customer could be quite large. What you can afford to pay is not absolute so damage caused is not equivalent between an individual and a billion dollar corporation.

In life and money there are no moral absolutes and treating all corporations and individuals the same is not necessary. For me, immoral actions are those with the potential to cause harm, and I don't see equivalent harm in your two examples.