Hacker News Reader

lquiston How we bootstrapped a $1M ARR email client

How does Missive compare to Front?

lquiston Concern in Europe that the Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets will not be competitive

Interesting take. Is there a next after Starship?

lquiston Goldman Sachs Working Conditions Survey

That's a suggestion by the analysts. As someone who has worked 100 hour weeks in finance, there is a world of difference between 80 and 100. 80 allows you to care for your health in a way that 100 doesn't and is in that way just barely sustainable.

lquiston CFTC charges two individuals with multi-million digital asset pump-and-dump

I don't believe Elon is selling

lquiston “This destroys the RSA cryptosystem”

Yes and if it is feasible given current computer architectures or requires significant advances in quantum algorithms/computers?

lquiston Launch HN: Athens Research (YC W21) – Open-Source Roam Research

Honest question: Why use academic design principles instead of SaaS design principles?

lquiston Caltech Awards 10,000th PhD Degree

One of the most insane stats I've heard: Roughly 1 in every thousand Caltech alumni has a nobel prize

lquiston Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby (2004)

Agreed. Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is nothing short of literature.

lquiston 76% of American CEOs say they may shrink office space

There is going to be a lot of pain but overall I think this is very good for the economy. Rents that went to landlords will be redirected to more productive purposes (or profit, which when distributed to shareholders will be reinvested).

lquiston Launch HN: Scrimba (YC S20) – Interactive video for learning to code

Is Scrimba open source?

lquiston Giant Pacific Octopus

Interestingly enough, octopus has multiple pluralizations, the other being octopodes

lquiston The Evolution of Psychiatry

This article is fascinating. It proposes an evolutionary theory of mental illness (e.g., "Psychopathy...as a cheating strategy which is game theoretically optimal for some portion of a group."). What might be the evolutionary reasons for Depression and Anxiety?

lquiston Raise Less Money

"But I now realize that this is the wrong framing because simply staying alive is an inadequate goal for a company. Founders start companies to find product market fit and grow. Venture capital is designed to speed growth, not to extend runway."

PG says in his essay "How Not to Die": "If you can just avoid dying, you get rich. That sounds like a joke, but it's actually a pretty good description of what happens in a typical startup. It certainly describes what happened in Viaweb. We avoided dying till we got rich."

Aaron pre-empts this by saying that things have changed about the availability of funding to competent founders over the past 10 years, so the advice should change. I don't buy that. Shutting down early and raising new money for a new startup may give you a greater chance of the huge exit, but not dying is the best way to maximize likelihood of becoming rich. Maybe not unicorn rich, but FU money rich.

lquiston Celebrate Woz's 70th

Hmm..is that true?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woz-u-steve-wozniak-former-stud...

lquiston nCino S-1

The Co-founder/CEO holds only 1.6% of the common shares!?

lquiston Show HN: C0D3 – A free, interactive site to learn coding

# Why Learn JS?

JavaScript is the only language that lets you do every aspect of technology.

This is misleading at best.

lquiston April Unemployment Rate Rose to a Record 14.7%

What is the unemployment rate for software engineers? Can't seem to find this in the BLS data

lquiston SEC loosens crowdfunding regulations for small businesses financing in pandemic

Would investors be purchasing equity?

lquiston So I reverse engineered two dating apps

Unfortunately I think that is because customers and investors broadly don't prioritize security + privacy.

lquiston Ask HN: How is your PPP loan application coming along?

Chase Bank client. Received a text from our relationshiop manager 1:20pm PST to apply on Portal. Submitted prelim application 10 mins later. Received loan approval Midnight of April 15. Funds in the bank account April 17.

lquiston Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

I doubt that software eng unemployment is at 10% right now. Looking at BLS data from previous recessions shows that software eng doesn't get hit nearly as hard as other professions.

lquiston Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

Any numbers on what is happening for software engineering unemployment?

lquiston Jack Welch has died

I've always subscribed to the theory that the true measure of a leader is what happens after they are gone.

lquiston Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

I found this Atlantic Monthly article written by a public health expert to be helpful: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vac...

lquiston Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

Doesn't surprise me. Culture starts at the top. Austen has repeatedly proven to be a liar (this article has a few examples and you can find others in Verge's reporting) and that culture has been normalized at Lambda.

lquiston Haters

Wage disputes? Do you mind sharing/linking please?

lquiston Fashionable Problems

If you want to try working on unfashionable problems, one of the best places to look is fields that people think have already been fully explored: essays, Lisp, venture funding – you may notice a pattern here.

Do people really think the fields of essays, LISP or venture funding are fully explored?

lquiston Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

It seems a bit insane to me that pregnancy leave is something we Americans mostly leave to the discretion of employers. If we as a society care about it, we should back it up with public dollars and public policy.

lquiston Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

Incorrect. That is an avenue of leverage. Currently driven more by corporate interests than citizen interests.

lquiston Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

An interesting idea but the reason investors + creditors can get these is because they have leverage and can negotiate for them. They are not always able to secure them. Consumers currently have no such leverage. The best avenue to this kind of leverage is probably legal?