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matthewvincent

212 karma · joined January 21, 2016

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matthewvincent··on Repo Blowup Was Fueled by Big Banks and Hedge Funds, BIS Says
* And some would say to sneak in a little QE without calling it QE
matthewvincent··on No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk
No we aren’t the best mammals at swimming but, definitely the best primates. And I think the argument is that the theoretical aquatic ape spent much more time in water than the typical bear.
matthewvincent··on Warcraft 3: Remastered Will Work with Old Custom Maps
While a new story and characters ie Warcraft 4 would be awesome I actually really like this idea. WC3 is a perfect game, refreshing graphics is the only thing I really want and maybe this will get some younger people to try a game they might have written off otherwise.
matthewvincent··on Apple Music Web Client
Not that it matters but I interviewed for an Apple team that was using react. Something adjacent to iTunes if I remember correctly.
matthewvincent··on Facebook to Add Its Name to Instagram, WhatsApp
I think the poster was referring more to Bayer / Monsanto
matthewvincent··on Alphabet overtakes Apple to become most cash-rich company
Apple has spent ~30 billion on share buybacks this year so, I’d say pretty shareholder friendly.
matthewvincent··on Faster Smarter JavaScript Debugging in Firefox DevTools
Firefox dev edition has been my go to lately, highly recommended if you do a lot of markup / css debugging. Being able to see outlines around elements as I hover / scan through the DOM easily doubles my speed.
matthewvincent··on Google to push new ads on its apps
I’ve been using Firefox Focus with DDG on mobile for about a year and don’t miss Chrome even a little.
matthewvincent··on Ask HN: I have an interview with Google in a week. What should I prepare?
Make a leetcode account and do nothing else until your interview.
matthewvincent··on Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse for its portrayal of a spiritual journey / life that was not a ‘religious’ one.

This was a book I read in my early twenties that really helped me come to terms with a religious upbringing that no longer resonated with me, as well as a spiritual void in my life that needed to be filled. Seriously life changing stuff and so easy to read. Definitely the most accessible Hesse.

I’d be curious if this book has impacted anyone else similarly and if so what they took from it. Love this thread btw

matthewvincent··on Ask HN: Programming – what changed your mind about a language or feature?
Java for me. I started using it at my most recent job and was a little horrified initially at what I was seeing in our codebase. The syntax does you no favors when in comes to code formatting. I also had reservations about the overhead of a strongly typed language as it was my first. BUT I ended up really enjoying the language and strong typing gives back so much more than it takes. Pleasantly surprised in the end.
matthewvincent··on Russian ads, now publicly released, show sophistication of influence campaign
I totally agree there is no way these had any real impact on voter turnout. To me these read more like sowing the seeds of division in general than anything else.
matthewvincent··on Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes
I recently had an amazon delivery person submit that they had delivered my package even though they hadn’t. Prompting me to go through the stolen package process, only to find the package on my doorstep a couple days later. Definitely don’t want that dude in my apartment.
matthewvincent··on Sublime Text 3 now has font ligature support
I can only speak for me as someone who really loves the aesthetics of code, but there's something super enjoyable about things like arrow functions rendering as actual arrows in Java / JavaScript. It's so clean!
matthewvincent··on Designing Websites for iPhone X
Saw a cool implementation of this design on codepen today:

https://codepen.io/davvidbaker/pen/KXgPyG

matthewvincent··on Other ways to read Hacker News
Can't recommend MiniHack highly enough. Love the scroll down to next comment tree feature, just to name one.
matthewvincent··on Olin College Produces Founders at Five Times the Rate of Stanford
Perhaps the larger percentage of founders has more to do with the substantially smaller student body and shorter track record of the university. Daniel Kahneman touches on this phenomenon in "Thinking Fast and Slow".
matthewvincent··on A timeless Twitter Bootstrap theme built for the modern web
The fire input error state is A+
matthewvincent··on Learning React.js is easier than you think
I don't think learning React is analogous to learning to build client server apps any more than jQuery is. I personally have worked on many static React websites (which is a blast by the way).
matthewvincent··on Show HN: The JavaScript Way, a book for learning modern JavaScript from scratch
I definitely wouldn't assume that a JS newbie knows the http fundamentals. That definitely wasn't the case for me when I started learning. You can get a lot done on the web without really understanding what you're doing.
matthewvincent··on Using Deep Learning to Create Professional-Level Photographs
I don't know why but the "professional" label on this really irritates me. I'm curious to know how the images that got graded on their "professional" scale were selected for inclusion in the sample. Surely by a human who judged them to be the best of many? I'd love to see the duds.
matthewvincent··on Evolution of the Lego Logo
So much nostalgia in those logos! One thing that struck me looking through those old sets is just how timeless Legos really are. I inherited many of the 70s-80s sets from an older cousin in the 90s, that were subsequently used by my younger siblings and I all the way through the early 2000s. And they're still there at my parents house ready for another generation! I honestly can't think of another toy with such staying power.
matthewvincent··on Resonance NodeGroup: Create complex animated transitions in React
Demos look good, and at first glance this might be the most easy to grok animation api I've seen for react. Excited to try this out!
matthewvincent··on Ask HN: What's your process for learning?
My favorite way to learn a new topic (which consistently works well for me) is to read several books about the same topic back to back.

I find that if I read three books by different authors on let's say React for example, which are all meant to cover the basics, I learn much more than by reading one book three times. The difference in the authors voices and inevitable variability of emphasis and style throughout, really helps me stay engaged and pick up the things I might have missed in the last book.

I'll usually do this first, then move on to tutorials and deep dive type books which are mostly a breeze by the time I get to them because of the very solid fundamental foundation provided by the initial book set.

matthewvincent··on Ask HN: What podcasts are you listening to?
Surprised no one has mentioned The Tim Ferris Show. That's my #1 right now. He's got a really eclectic but also well thought out guest list and I learn something useful every episode. His recent episode with Nick Szabo was the crash course on cryptocurrency that I always wanted. Highly recommended.
matthewvincent··on Graffiti 'dying out' as kids dump spray cans for Instagram, Twitter etc.
As a resident of Oakland CA, easily one of the graffiti capitals of the world, my take on this is a pretty simple one. Super aggressive buffing campaigns by the city.

Businesses on Broadway in Oakland will actually be fined if they don't paint over new graffiti in a timely matter. When a writer knows he will be buffed over within days if not hours he will probably look for more low key spots that will last longer and actually be seen by peers.

Anecdotally it also seems like there are way more legal walls around town now. Spots where businesses pay the better street artists to do big murals that less established writers won't write over.

matthewvincent··on GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code
I had an interesting interview with one of their recruiters in which within the first 5 minutes I was asked to agree to compensation below what their calculator (which was a part of the job posting) indicated was their pay scale for my location and that position. I was told my resume wouldn't be passed to an engineering lead until I had (in writing) agreed to the lower salary range. Liiike why even...

Edit: Didn't intend to make a scene or put anyone on blast here. Just thought the calculator was a little silly. Thanks for the responses gitlab staff.

matthewvincent··on The 10,000-hour rule is wrong and perpetuates a cruel myth
Bob Ross really was a well of creative wisdom. I've been enjoying watching through all the episodes of his show on Netflix.
matthewvincent··on Master JavaScript Programming with 18 Open-Source Books
I'd say JS essential reading would be:

1. JavaScript the good parts - because classic

2. You don't know JS series - because depth

3. Functional JavaScript - because underscore

Then you're done. Go find a Node or front end framework tutorial and blast off from there. Build build build.

matthewvincent··on Nikon “extraordinary loss” kills DL cameras and slashes jobs
I think you're right on with B. As a photo professional I'd say 4K 60fps video is the number one feature a camera can have these days. Enabling every photographer to also be a cinematographer. Canon and Nikon just aren't keeping up, mostly due to their crushingly expensive pro lines.
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