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mementomori

21 karma · joined August 29, 2017

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mementomori··on Cryptocurrency loan platform implodes in $130M hack
For the Ethereum attack that's similar to the CREAM attack, are you referring to the DAO attack, or something else? Can you please share some links on that incident?
mementomori··on Europe Is Guaranteeing Citizens the Right to Repair
Are there any incentives for corporations to reduce waste? Designed obsolescence is the main business model of smartphones. If anything disrupts the profits in this business model, there has to be an incentive (either reward or punishment) that is enforceable and actually enforced. If a law is made and corporations end up circumventing it, that doesn't count. I kind of expect corporations to continue successfully circumventing/overcoming the efforts against designed obsolescence. Convincing consumers it's OK not to get a new phone every year is another issue.
mementomori··on Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
Curious. Let's say the Swiss military has been studying other conflicts and strategizing accordingly, but has not actually experienced any warfare in 200 years. Does the lack of actual experience in warfare put a force at a disadvantage to the forces that had experienced actual warfare?
mementomori··on We’re Optimizing Ourselves to Death (2019)
This is the core of my own development: seeing the world and life in this world (or even beyond) as an unbounded game rather than a zero-sum game. A lot of times it's the perspective that matters. Maybe at times when we are overly focused on the "how" of optimization and lose sight of the "why," the human mind/body/soul becomes unable to metabolize it, and flips out.
mementomori··on Spinning Up in Deep RL
Can anyone recommend some less opinionated introductory resources to learn reinforcement learning that focus on first principles?
mementomori··on How to Start Using Microservices
Microservices is for scaling applications that need to handle a high volume of transactions (millions+) with the expectation of high growth in transaction volume. It became a solution for Uber and Netflix when the exploding user requests caused their monoliths to become difficult to manage/modify/deploy. An application that handles hundreds to thousands of transactions doesn't necessarily have the problem that requires the microservices solution. The main tradeoff of microservices is that it increases the complexity of software, and has a lot of moving parts that need to be done right to achieve the advantage. The hype of encourage every to-do app creator to use microservices may be an overkill. The writer of the post does have the incentive to encourage the use of microservices and the utilization of their services.
mementomori··on A Brief History of ClarisWorks (2003)
I remember using Lotus at home. My uncle was a programmer and he taught me how to use the command line and Lotus. Also remember using Logo, drawing some shapes with the turtle.
mementomori··on How to stop procrastinating by using the Fogg Behavior Model
Agreed! Fear and despair are strong motivators for me. The trick is that fear sits in only when time becomes scarce. "How to start noticing something should be done before it's too late" is a good thing to have.
mementomori··on When your coworker does great work, tell their manager
That sounds like a good strategy: form an inner circle of peers that don't have conflict of interest (preferably not sharing the same supervisor, etc.) and being vulnerable with selective people should be helpful for fine-tuning strategy, and if not, at least generate a little social power. Previously, I had the tendency to isolate and not open up to anybody, to my own detriment.
mementomori··on When your coworker does great work, tell their manager
I am torn between the zero-sum and "abundance" concepts. It seems like some people like to promote the "abundance" concept (where one person's gain adds to everyone else) as an ideal but in reality I have only ever seen zero-sum results in terms of job acquisition and career advancement. There is a fixed number of slots and you need to eliminate others in order to obtain it.
mementomori··on Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
Tech interviews are kind of like a lot of games in life: do something difficult and boring in order to survive, and make it look easy and enjoyable while you're at it.
mementomori··on Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
I feel like sometimes big tech companies give technical interviews when they're not actually hiring, that it's a sort of formality. Can't really confirm it, but thinking this way makes me feel better about not passing to the next stage.
mementomori··on You might as well be a great copy editor
Modifying other people's code is kind of like a severe type of copyediting.
mementomori··on Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)
Is it more desirable to "actually want to create real economic value" and less desirable to "doing this just so I can tell people I'm an entrepreneur"? Maybe there's some value in "people who shouldn't be owning companies" owning companies, as it demonstrates a kind of economic freedom in a society. Whether a small business is able to make a dent in the economy or even an industry or a vertical is probably another topic of discussion. It's not actually that easy to start and run a business, there's a lot of yak-shaving admin work. Again, this is something that can be solved by throwing money at it (accountants, attorneys). So it does seem like entrepreneurship is prone to be used as social signaling by those who are already privileged. I don't know what argument I'm getting at, but I just know to be more discerning between the two types of entrepreneurs in my own networking activities and the people I choose to build relationships with, so I don't waste time.
mementomori··on Ask HN: How to get motivated after burnout
So it seems like what worked for you was a complete change of context for a period of time, and allowing the mind to wander instead of labor towards a goal? That is an interesting idea. I am currently extremely bored and extremely anxious at the same time, so maybe that would work.
mementomori··on Ask HN: How to get motivated after burnout
That's a great idea. I currently have an opportunity to help a friend with their codebase on a consulting basis without substantial pay. I am still anxious and resentful towards compensation but it's an opportunity to practice working.
mementomori··on Ask HN: How to get motivated after burnout
This really resonated with me, thanks so much.
mementomori··on Ask HN: How to get motivated after burnout
Not sure about that, sometimes I feel like I am only happy when I'm doing nothing. I guess this is a good analogy; bottom out, admit defeat, and then start over new. But preferably in the same industry which pays well.
mementomori··on Ask HN: How to get motivated after burnout
Glad someone related, I think in the meantime I'll keep working at it because I need income somehow and this is a good way to get it.
mementomori··on Ask HN: How do I create that mental reset effect Monday has on me?
I take time off from a job to literally soul-search: meditation, reading, spiritual practice. Doing things for no metric or goal at all except to feel good about myself through the experience. When my insides aren't OK, I can't perform on the outside.
mementomori··on Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook
Even though I don't believe that articles like this would make the slightest bit of difference, I sincerely admire the sentiment of people who write them.
mementomori··on We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)
>By going after people with the most sought after qualifications, TrendCo has narrowed their options down to either paying out the nose for employees, or offering non-competitive compensation packages. TrendCo has chosen the latter option, which partially explains why they have, proportionally, so few senior devs – the compensation delta increases as you get more senior, and you have to make a really compelling pitch to someone to get them to choose TrendCo when you’re offering $150k/yr less than the competition.

What is the "compensation delta"? Is that part of a formula for calculating expected compensation? For that matter, what is a good formula for calculating compensation when weighing job offers?

mementomori··on GDPR is a good thing
Is there a similar initiative to protect consumer data privacy in the US?
mementomori··on Dyslexia
Second that. Half the time I get directions wrong, whether it's adding/subtracting, multiplying/dividing, up/down, etc. Math was a mess and finance was an absolute nightmare, especially with derivatives.
mementomori··on iPhone X
Someone can drug me and hold the phone in front of my unconscious face to access all my data?