mcdow

My bad! Fixed. Didn't even realize the YT links had tracking info on them!

Here's a great YT video on why McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4

TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and the only company allowed to service the machines. And it's no skin off of McDonald's back for these machines to always be broken, the cost falls on the owner-operators.

Do you think developer focused startups are not profitable? Or do you think they aren't profitable without scale? And why?

Not so sure the median would be so far off here. Just earlier this week I spent about 4.5 hours in the ER in a Bay Area hospital. Not DC, but 5.5 hours doesn’t seem crazy to me.

My thought when I read things outlining American industrial and infrastructural woes is "What in the world is to be done about this?" As far as I can tell, protectionism doesn't seem to work, and globalism doesn't seem to work. I'd just like to hear a coherent plan on how a country should get out of this situation.

It seems like we are currently in the "skeuomorphic" product design era for AI products. Which is to say we are building the same products but with AI tacked on. I appreciate that you are approaching this problem from first principles and attempting to break from the model of the previous generation. Kudos.

Could you speak more to the US “opening the Japanese market when they really want to”? I’m not familiar with this.

I think both things can be true. The worst of the LKML are crybabies. The worst of Rustaceans are zealots. The worst of any community are usually a vocal minority. Rust for Linux can continue on their mission, and that’s noble. But conflict is to be expected between the babies and zealots, naturally. RFL is not mutually exclusive with a Rust Linux clone. Drew’s proposal seems like a perfectly reasonable parallel project to the RFL project.

Hi! Fairly new HN reader here. I’ve been wondering where to find similar online communities. Specifically, less tech-focused websites that promote healthy discourse. What are MF and WP?

I honestly don’t disagree with you. I too experience “the suck”. But the good parts of runs make the suck worth it. It’s just a roll of the dice. You never know if it’s gonna suck.

Also I feel you on the taking breaks part. There’s no rules. Nothing beats sitting on the curb eating some junk and drinking some Gatorade mid-run.

Marathon runner here. Spot on. A marathon is near impossible if you don’t like running. Inevitable if you like running.

Marathon training is actually the framework around which I do all “quests” now. If you enjoy the process, anything is possible. The key is finding a way to enjoy the process.

I’ve extended it to several areas I didn’t find very fun prior. Language learning and job hunting in particular.

I actually wrote my first blog post on this very subject[1]. Warning, it’s quite verbose and not the best. There’s a TL;DR.

[1] https://emmettmcdow.github.io/posts/how-to-learn-a-foreign-l...

I do horses from various media. Epona, Trigger, Shadowfax.

Not the person you responded to, but I actually take a similar approach as them so maybe I can explain.

Firstly, difficulty and fun are not always directly correlated. Something can be difficult but fun, or difficult and unfun.

Following on my first point, different activities or goals usually have aspects that are more or less fun. It’s better to start with the easy and fun stuff. You don’t have to swallow the ocean.

Now this last part really is dependent on the type of person you are. For me, once I’ve gotten into a subject, I just become more curious about it. The aspects of the subject that were unfun at first are now interesting. I’m more invested and I’m more curious. And if I’m more curious, it’s more fun.

To sum it up, it’s not that one can avoid enduring difficulty. It’s more about harnessing your own strengths and curiosity.