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linseed_213

41 karma · joined September 23, 2020

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linseed_213··on Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?
You can ask it to generate images now, might be Pro only - it's not quite as good as Midjourney etc out of the box but works.
linseed_213··on Chat with your database using AI
Super interesting. Could you elaborate? Would love to hear more about what was easy/difficult in the process!
linseed_213··on I cannot wait for this deluge of AI products to be over
I'm rusty with specific languages and skillsets I rarely use (e.g. I don't use CSS every day, and forget Python JSON/XML/IO interfaces).

If I need to do something that requires those skills, it used to take me an hour to get up to remember how to do everything, and another hour to do the work. With ChatGPT it took ~15min as it handled all the boilerplate/basic stuff I was previously grabbing from documentation. It's not hard or impossible to do without it, but it did save me significant time.

If you're an efficient engineer with photographic memory, it will not significantly improve your workflow. If you're an average generalist programmer who uses Stackoverflow more than once a day, GPT models will save you time.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: Can software engineering help combat climate change?
Spent some time with technical friends working in the space, and it's unlikely.

However, Climate Draft [1] spends a lot of effort to find high potential startups with technical hiring challenges.

[1] https://www.climatedraft.org/

linseed_213··on Ask HN: How do I move forward after being laid off?
One more healthcare note - I had a lapse in coverage between jobs and my state health exchange (Thanks Obama!) was ~1/2 the COBRA price. That's what was recommended by my HR company at the job I was leaving. This was in CA, but similar situation in MA.

Good luck!

linseed_213··on Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?
I thought this accurately captured my personal experience: https://jamesclear.com/giving-up
linseed_213··on Ask HN: Firing an employee under a month before vest?
Yes, it's an absolute dick move. If it's that bad, accelerate his cliff and let him leave early.

Had a situation where I was let go 2 months before my cliff in an advising/part-time situation, and while I won't say anything negative about the company and most of my colleagues, I was honest in respect to the exec teams behavior. Zero of the 4 applicants who I relayed that to accepted their offers. Was my small equity stake worth (potentially, may have had other reasons) 4 hires?

linseed_213··on Ask HN: Which startups are thriving in the downturn?
With the drop in VC checks being written and overall interest rates, I'd expect revenue-based financing to have a good year.

Pipe, Arc.tech, etc.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?
Some of the popular restaurants in my town use a booking app called Seven Rooms, which does not have a "notify me" feature like Resy & OpenTable if there are cancellations on a date you're looking for.

Made a bot to check for my desired dates and times and ping me if something opens up.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: I got into MIT. Should I go?
I think it really depends on school Z. If it's a flagship, top in-state school (Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia come to mind but aren't the only ones), you may have a better social experience and still have the ability to meet top talent. If it's one level below that, I'd consider MIT.

E.g. In CA I'd put Berkeley/UCLA at close to MIT for undergrad and a more fun place, but I'd choose MIT over UCSB or UCSD for academics and future career options. Not that there aren't smart, driven students at those schools, resumes speak for you to some extent and will open more doors.

You're not the only one making this decision, other smart kids are making the same choice. I chose a large state school over smaller, "higher ranked" private schools and regret nothing. I had a much more "fun" experience than any of my friends who went to those other schools, and I find most of their friends pretty unlikable (douchey rich kids).

linseed_213··on Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1
Are there security/UX risks with users getting used to using their wallet for auth ? It's difficult to know a safe vs. potentially unsafe site when it comes to crypto. Reading the docs, it appears to be relatively limited permissions, but either by giving more permissions than desired or phishing? Or can they combine the authentication with additional information to become a more effective spearphishing target?

If my email account is phished or hacked, it's bad, but there's a level between my cash and my email account. If I make a mistake here, potential losses are higher. In which case I'd probably have a 2nd wallet for auth and another I actually use, which then becomes more of a pain. I don't trust my parents or less technical relatives to use this flow safely.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: How do I create a social movement to change the world?
Start at your local government, figure out what they can and can't do to help. Go to the next level, figure out what can and can't be done at that level. Keep going.
linseed_213··on Ask HN: How to convince big tech team that tests and code quality matter?
Related question - how do you convince small teams (15 eng) QA, test and code quality matter?
linseed_213··on Elite MBAs are no Longer Relevant
Generally accepted logic is that visible payoffs are not immediate but several years down the line for more senior roles. Ex. when someone is looking for a VP/Director/C-Suite role, the network and resume line items are more valuable. Most people will go back to similarly leveled roles, potentially in a different industry (like engineering -> finance/consulting).
linseed_213··on Ask HN: Books that teach you logic building skills
FB recommends it to prep for interviews with probability/stats requirements (Product/DS/Analytics)
linseed_213··on Ask HN: Has anyone fully embraced an event-driven architecture?
Evan can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was one centralized service with all the schemas. You could view older versions and make new versions via the UI.

It was pretty user-friendly and managing schemas was straight forward. Haven't done anything similar since so no comparison point, but I thought it was fantastic and improved data quality a ton.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?
I've had 2 friends start revenue generating MVPs on Bubble.io

One is a Cameo-like platform for LatAm, the other is a TikTok like short-form audio app .

I've been incredibly impressed by the platform and extensibility. If you have basic coding skills I think it's much more powerful than Webflow or other platforms.

https://bubble.io/showcase

linseed_213··on Supreme Court to Decide First-Ever Gun-Carry Case
... Or in the real world where the rest of us live, not strawman land, like taking your license and right to drive away if you get a or DWI/DUI - which is what happens to normal people. If you're rich and have good enough lawyers, you can become a congressman.

Cars are licensed, insured, and highly regulated. Do the same thing and we'll be happier than we are now.

linseed_213··on Supreme Court to Decide First-Ever Gun-Carry Case
How many gun deaths per year would need to occur for you to reconsider?
linseed_213··on San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin recall campaign approved
Is there evidence that they're doing that?
linseed_213··on Silicon Valley's hunger problems grow during a time of record profits
It's a very complex issue -

1. The current amount of charity is not enough, and there's a growing population of underserved people in these areas. There wasn't enough before COVID exacerbated it, so the demand increased by multiples and supply did not.

2. Many companies receive tax incentives to be where they are (which are often projected to be rosier than reality - see SF Mid-Market), so people expect the companies to "pay it back" in some way. This is ambiguous, doesn't really happen, or it's paltry sums relative to the lost tax revenue.

3. Several well-funded initiatives were stopped by NIMBYs (e.g. homeless shelters for SF should always be in someone else's neighborhood - so liberals will sue to protect their property value, more housing should be anywhere away from them and not block their bay views, more than 3 stories is offensive, or preventing meals for the homeless at a church in a nice neighborhood because people the same people who donated would prefer it doesn't happen near them). Turns out people can be altruistic and selfish simultaneously, which is how you end up with SF. Liberal when it's an idea, conservative once it might affect you.

Most would argue it's not the corporations' responsibility, and communities shouldn't be at the whims of a profit maximizing corporation's generosity (nor their employees). However, people are trying to find help anywhere. The federal government decided it's not their problem, so people are looking to the corporate world to help. Seeing Apple's $57B in profits while food banks are empty a few miles away is Hunger Games-esque, and makes them an easy scapegoat.

Some would say a lesson is that you shouldn't depend on individual or corporate generosity in a crisis, but GoFundMe is the preferred way to pay for medical bills for at least 70m people in the US, so who the fuck knows.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: About Financial Inequity
Are you willing to vote against your own interests in the short-term (ex. your wait times for your non-emergency doctor visits due to Medicare for All may increase, but in exchange everyone has healthcare) to help those that are less fortunate than you in the long-term? I don't blame anyone for playing the hand they're dealt, minimizing their taxes, not donating money to charity. Those are the laws and norms we've agreed on - maximize your quality of life from there.

Related note I've been thinking about it a lot recently: Will & Ariel Durant wrote an 11 volume history of the rise and fall of Western Civilizations (after touching on China and the Middle East) called The Story of Civilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Civilization

It was written in the 1930s-70s so it has some fascist, racist and pro-eugenics overtones. Different time, pretty expected - you'd have to be pretty high on Western Civilization to spend your entire life, all the way to your deathbed, writing about it. Conveniently, he wrote a summary of what his takeaways were after all of his research The Lessons of History https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GUIEYU/ref=dbs_a_def_r...

After studying the rise and fall of hundreds of states and civilizations, he credited excessive wealth inequality as one of the most consistent causes of a failed state - Romans, Greeks, Chinese, etc. Once you hit a certain level of inequality - norms fail, and it gets redistributed anyways. Since capitalism inherently concentrates wealth upward (returns on capital are higher than returns on labor), controlled income redistribution (e.g. The New Deal) is necessary to maintain stability.

Blog post with a few examples from the book https://fs.blog/2016/03/history-concentration-of-wealth/

It feels like a lesson that humans have repeated thousands of times, and we've managed to forget again.

linseed_213··on A former Uber engineer's disaster story
Would you want to download a different app every time you traveled to a new country? If you're in the EU/APAC with many countries close together and travel for business?

Uber works relatively well in every country you go to, including at one point, China. Not many apps have ever accomplished that.

linseed_213··on Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?
It's $150 in the us also. Insurance occasionally covers it, making it ~$10-50 co-pay.
linseed_213··on Ask HN: So I Hired a Homeless Guy
I don't think this is the best place to ask. HN has a strong individualistic perspective. I'd reach out to local mental health/employment non-profits to see if they have ideas. They're experts in these types of scenarios.