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jarrettch

87 karma · joined February 25, 2014

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jarrettch··on ‘Find Your Passion’ Is Awful Advice
Didn't read the article yet, but this is the premise behind that book and a lot of the writings on his blog. I highly recommend this book as well as Deep Work if you're a knowledge worker.

One of the bigger points he makes is putting in the hard work and eventually you'll get to a place where that thing develops into your passion and affords you lots of free time, flexibility, autonomy, respect, etc...

jarrettch··on What's Going on in Your Child's Brain When You Read Them a Story?
My daughter learned to talk a lot earlier than her older sister who is a year older, also learned to walk earlier too. Anecdotal, obviously, but part of me thinks she was trying to "keep up."
jarrettch··on Rental car companies have been waging a quiet legislative war against start-ups
You might be looking for Skurt. Although now that I Google them, it appears they've either re-branded as or been acquired by Fair.
jarrettch··on Talks I have given
These are some awesome talks I've never seen, so thanks for sharing! I can start binging now.

Has he ever given a talk or written a blog post that gave pointers/tips on giving awesome talks? A lot of it is practice, I'm sure, but just curious. Did a quick search and couldn't find much, although I did find some good suggestions for running a successful conference.

jarrettch··on We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change
Maybe I should've mentioned "Los Angeles" higher in my comment, but looking at the sibling comment to yours, apparently there are plenty other states where it is legal to pass on the fees as a surcharge as well. Obviously your situation may vary.
jarrettch··on We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change
Thanks for that link.

Made me wonder about the stores/restaurants I frequent here that do charge, apparently they're still ok to do so after 2015(link from the comments in your linked post): https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/credit-card-surcharges

jarrettch··on We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change
Merchants absolutely can pass on the fees or give "discounts" for cash, at least in the USA. Gas stations are one of the major businesses that practice this.

Anecdotally, I worked at a company store years ago where we would charge customers paying with cards a 2.75% fee, which is what we were paying. And that store was operated by a Fortune 500 company.

Also, virtually every small private business I go to in Los Angeles charges some fee, or has stipulations, for credit card transactions.

jarrettch··on We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change
It's even worse when your chip starts to fail, as one of my has started to do very recently. You have to put the card in three times(and wait for it to fail 3 times) before you're allowed to use the swipe function. Took longer than cash.
jarrettch··on What the Stoics did for us
I've read The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy. I like his writing, but there is a business-y type of vibe to it.

I also recently picked up The Daily Stoic book, which does help me get into a Stoic "mindset" (for lack of a better term) to start my day. Although with the way Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is written, you could almost just open up to a random page each morning, read a passage and reflect. But so far I've enjoyed this book.

jarrettch··on 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia
Not only the new stuff that replenishes the pool, but often times when I find a new resource/subreddit that I don't know much about but find interesting, there's often a huge amount of info already there. So even depleting the pool of past information becomes a huge distraction, all while more stuff is piling on top.
jarrettch··on Show HN: Make your web page dance with Rythm.js
I got confused because I was clicking the boxes and nothing was happening. They should definitely put a demo button towards the top. But yes this was cool!
jarrettch··on California ballot measure to decriminalize adult use of hallucinogenic mushrooms
I think you're thinking about Antabuse, which does make you sick after drinking.

There's also Naltrexone which supposedly blocks the receptors that alcohol reacts to so you don't get the "good" feeling of alcohol.

I think it's more important for people to understand WHY they're drinking though, instead of masking it or using drugs to fix it. This is probably a conversation for another thread though.

jarrettch··on Javascript Arrays and Functional Programming
Don't let this scare you.

When I first started learning this stuff, I started a blog. I made maybe 3 posts before giving up on it, thinking about how much I didn't know, how that everything I could write about at the time was probably covered elsewhere and better, etc.

Several years later I regret giving up.

A lot of writing is writing for yourself. Obvious benefits to that, one of which is hopefully you get better at communication, which is huge in life in general, not just a career as a dev on a team.

Another is learning through teaching or keeping a record. I've probably forgotten a bunch of things over the years that, had I written them in my blog I may remember, or at least know where to find the post instead of scouring the internet looking for another post by someone else that I used to helped me solve a problem.

Potential employers may like seeing a blog as well. You can tell someone you're passionate about x, but where's the proof of that passion? It may not be the most in depth blog like Dr. Axel Rauschmeyer's, but it'll still show what you know. And you never know who's reading, so you may help someone in the process.

The internet is already filled with "litter" or useless things. But if you're getting use out of it then that's the main point to focus on.

jarrettch··on Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube
My daughter is 3 and learned to use a phone/tablet before she was 2. Whenever I'd pull up YouTube on my tv she'd walk to the tv and try to swipe it as well. Often getting upset thinking the tv was broken, haha.

She was used to iPads, but one day I gave her my Android tablet. She was upset at first because things are slightly different, but adjusted quickly. I was shocked at how fast she picked it up.

jarrettch··on Introducing Highlights
This is what I'm afraid of. By far the most reacted/responded to messages are the Happy Birthday/Anniversary shoutouts, the @channel letting everyone know the coffee machine is working again or donuts in the kitchen, memes, etc.

When our DB is being updated, or our staging instance is gonna be down briefly, or "Here's an article about security updates just released for x," there isn't huge engagement. You know, stuff that actually affects my work as a dev.

I really don't want to see highlights of "@channel can someone dog sit for the weekend? here are pictures!" or similar things that aren't pertinent to work.

jarrettch··on Why MLB hitters are suddenly obsessed with launch angles
Thank you so much for these links. Recently I've thought about building something data viz and stats related using baseball stats.

I know MLBAM has a bunch of data they keep to themselves, but I should definitely be able to find something to play with here. Many thanks for sharing!

jarrettch··on The BEAM Book – A Description of the Erlang RTS and the Virtual Machine BEAM
This is amazing. I've started to learn Elixir recently, and as a result my interest in Erlang and BEAM has been piqued. I'm sure a lot of this will be over my head for now, but looking forward to digging in.
jarrettch··on RethinkDB is shutting down
Just started a new project at my company using RethinkDB, very early stages, but I was amazed at how well this was documented and implemented. Coming from different ORMs to use with MongoDB, ReQL was a joy to work with and I didn't even want to use an ORM(for me at least, others may disagree).

Sad day to me, but as an open source tech, I hope and trust it will continue to live on.

It sounds like the company landed at Stripe. Good for them. Glad they weren't left out in the cold.

Thank you all very much for your hard work. In my short period of time I have had using RethinkDB, it's been a pleasure to work with.

jarrettch··on The implosion of the daily fantasy industry
I've played both, and it's much easier to withdraw from DraftKings than it was from PokerStars/Full Tilt/Party Poker.

In the dark days of online poker after they shut down a lot of the payment vendors, I'd get shady looking checks from some middle man that I had to wait weeks for at times(never played/won enough to need wire transfers or fancier methods). That was horrible.

I've had withdrawals from DraftKings that take a day or two and go straight to my credit card or PayPal account. FWIW I play in California.

Edit: To be fair, paper check withdrawals did get faster as time wore on. Not sure how it is now. I live in SoCal and always preferred the card rooms than online poker anyway, so it's not worth the trouble for me.

jarrettch··on Why a city should not build a stadium for an NFL team
Soccer has it's dull games too. Watching teams park the bus or just kick the ball around to kill time. Thrilling stuff!

Also, as a fan of all sports, I have to say there is probably nothing more entertaining(at least to me) than the NFL Red Zone Channel. Almost no stop in the action, skip most replays, see all the big plays, often in real time. Of course playing fantasy football plays a big part in that.

Hockey is a great game to watch as well with pretty constant shots and action.

Lots of people I know don't understand how I like hockey or soccer. Some can't stand football. Some like watching sports I find boring, but I don't begrudge them or declare that a sport I find boring must be boring to everyone in the world and they're all somehow brainwashed or confused.

jarrettch··on How Police Officers Seize Cash from Innocent Americans
Over a thousand people were killed by police in the US in 2015 according to http://killedbypolice.net/ which is more than fatalities from shark bites, airplane crashes and terrorist attacks in America combined in this recent calendar year, so comparing those with police shootings(some justified, many not) is dubious at best.

Maybe expecting to be murdered is a dramatic perspective to have, sure. Most people aren't murdered. But expecting the people who are hired and paid with tax dollars to "Protect and Serve" but instead kill, beat, or straight up steal from you(among other things) doesn't seem like something we should just accept because statistically it happens less than other things.

jarrettch··on LAX becomes largest U.S. airport to allow Uber, Lyft pickups
I'm black and live in a predominately minority neighborhood, Inglewood, CA in Los Angeles. It's not terrible, but does have some sketchy areas. I've requested rides to and from my home plenty of times with Uber, mostly without problems.

One time I got my request accepted by a driver(to leave my house), and they asked where I was going because they didn't want to go to a bad neighborhood. The driver mentioned I was lucky that they were "passing through" and they only pick up passengers in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Venice, Santa Monica, etc. The driver also said they turned down a white guy in a gang-infested neighborhood late one night.

They mentioned it helped that I had a good rider rating. Either way, they definitely considered canceling the ride based on location.

I've never tried to hail a cab from Hollywood or somewhere in LA headed in the direction of a black neighborhood, so I'm not sure if the experience is the same as it seems to be in NYC or other places for some black people. That ride did make me wonder how many Uber drivers actively avoid worser neighborhoods though.

jarrettch··on How Is Critical Life or Death Software Tested?
I've been wondering about this lately. My stepdad has heart failure and they put a heart pump in his chest. It regulates blood flow and settings can be changed, etc. Leave it to a dev to think "How much testing has gone into this thing?" Even one minor slip-up in his blood flow, either too high or too low, could mean a stroke and possibly death. Or, God forbid, the thing crashes somehow and stops working.

That machine is much easier to code than a space shuttle obviously, but I still wondered about it. The tech has to be rock solid. Even one malfunction could cause so much despair in a family, and could also cost your company millions.

jarrettch··on TANX: online multiplayer tank battle using WebGL and Node.js
Really enjoyed this! Although, I did get killed right away after spawning. Maybe make the spawn zone a temporary safe zone while new players figure out the controls or so current players can't camp out?
jarrettch··on Ask HN: Does anyone else value the comments more than the link?
As long as it stays "Hacker" News, I think the audience will stay small enough and comments will remain to be mostly high quality.

If it branches out into "Cat Video News" and God knows what else then we may be in trouble.

jarrettch··on Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”
While I never did own a Treo, I did have a Sony Ericsson P900, which came out about 2-3 years before the iPhone I believe. My friends thought I was crazy for buying such an expensive phone, but I was happy with it for so long that I kept it for about 5 years. Lots of flagship phones made years later still didn't match the features of that phone. I still have it, so maybe I'll try booting it up as well.

I think my experience with that phone is the reason I'm in love with the Samsung Galaxy Note series now.

jarrettch··on Dark Sky has a new owner
This is great news. forecast.io is often the 2nd thing I check when I wake up, after checking email/texts.

Hopefully with more devs and support, an Android version of the app will be in the works!

jarrettch··on Amazon Echo
Someone needs to film this.
jarrettch··on A Fantasy Sports Wizard's Winning Formula
They are legal because the courts and legislation(such as the UIGEA) have deemed them to be legal.

I don't understand what seems to be a distinction between daily games and season-long leagues. Season-long outcomes are affected by injuries and other random factors as well(just ask anyone who drafted Adrian Peterson with their first pick this year).

jarrettch··on Tabnabbing: A New Type of Phishing Attack (2010)
2) Also, I don't use GMail; say what you will, it's another defense against this.

As the article states, you can use this to replicate any website. It's not just isolated to GMail.

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