morganf

Ad an expat/immigrant, I'll tell you my personal working definition, based only on my experience:

An immigrant is one who moves from a poorer country to a richer country. An expat is one who mixes from a richer country to a poorer country.

One cool feature of my definition is that it explains a lot of the cultural subtleties in comparing these groups: how immigrants adopt the local ways much more than expats do (expats retain that touch of superiority) etc etc

On average, every situation is different, this is just my general rule of thumb pattern I've observed.

Wow an actual topic on HN that I know about. I spent 3.5 years studying the history of UPenn - including writing my thesis in its history - and it is definitely not a land grant university.

Bena, the post you are responding to was joking. "It always was something different" - gaslighting - is the entire point of the Mandela Effect.

And well done, GP: I laughed outloud!

Yea, I loved the book as well (without commenting on where I agreed or disagreed with him; agreeing or not, great read and full of insight.)

And yes it is huge. It is a few inches thick. Maybe 2 or 3 inches thick.

Then sibling post saying it is 8mm thick is misguided or confusing his units. He did say he read it on his phone so maybe that's the thickness of his phone ;)

Coincidentally, I just bought two copies to gift to friends who are in serious leadership positions.

What makes you think this is a problem in Google's eyes? If you can't reasonably see the street names then you are much more likely to use Google Directions, which is the precise behavior they want to encourage in this case. From your and my eyes and all users this is a real frustration and a detail all of us hate; and clearly Google could fix it easily if they wanted to. But knowing how they benefit from making the street names hard to find - for the reason in my first sentence - why would they fix it?

I've long argued that Nietzsche is actually a comedian. Agree or not with his ideas, he is hysterically funny, in this smart and subtle way, a lot like George Carlin.

I’m sorry I wasn’t clear in my original wording. I meant that my GenZ friend argued that this was a common pattern in his generation and my post here was intended to elicit other feedback and stories and insights and observations to help me calibrate if this is indeed likely to be turn out to be a real pattern or not…

Wow this was amazingly interesting. Thank you for sharing your personal experience.

It’s a whole new world out there…

newscracker, I just want to say THANK YOU. Ever since the iPhone has made this change, it's been a minor frustration of mine, like a constant pebble in my shoe, since I have the habit of going into Airplane mode with wifi on every time I go inside to a venue with wifi (b/c the health consequences of having such a strong 4G signal so close to my body are unclear to me; better to be safe than sorry) and the lots of clicks (settings, cellular data, turn it off; settings, wifi, turn wifi on; etc) has been this pebble in the shoe pain. But I had no idea you could define a shortcut for these and I never thought to. I just designed shortcuts to turn them on and off and put it on my homescreen and it is AMAZING. So, thank you, newscracker, for sharing this tidbit.

Why are Marxists Marxist?

Or said differently: when you have a hammer, everything is a nail.

And our belovèd HN, as amazing and as addictive as it is, is a community by for of “the software developer-entrepreneur” and this by definition, with the hammer of “your mind tries to reduce everything to algorithms” (the personality type which is attracted to writing software just for that very reason!) of course they will do that for humans as well.

Of course, I’d love an HN of poets but that would have the problem of the other extreme: empathy emoting so it would be hard to turn that into clear concise cutting and actionable insights…

Don’t their managers ask them in the stand-up-s? How do their managers handle it?

Ooooh sadly I’ve seen this too many times too

I agree with you and don’t think they are in bad positions at all!! Also, I think companies need to fire deadweight at some point or else the company will collapse - and crises are the “less bad” time to fire the deadweight you want to, as compared to good times.

Note: I’m not supporting this and I’m not saying I think this is a good move; I’m just observing there may be this more subtle logic at work, in the minds of management making these decisions.

Good point! I would theorize that it is much much less bad for employee morale, of the employees who aren’t fired, to think “the economy is terrible and the company is in a difficult position and everyone is doing layoffs” when their colleagues are fired as compared to the times are good version, “the company is growing and making more money and we’re doing awesomely - why did they fire my colleagues who I always thought did fine work”

As a human being, it can be very useful to separate out “moral” behavior from “legal” behavior. Even if Apple or John Smith acts perfectly legally, that doesn’t mean they’re acting in a kind or good or well-intentioned or fair way. The law - no matter how comprehensive - can never legislate kindness. In fact, if you are sophisticated about it, you can be a world-class Greatest Of All Time A—-hole while still technically complying with every law in your jurisdiction.

I love Insync! Very underrated and I wish more people knew about it!!

…and a huge thanks to @dang as well!

Yeees. Make a phone with a keyboard as easy to type on as that one and I'm customer number one!

I second that love for Insync! And I'm also not affiliated.

Whatcha talking about, Willis?

Hehe ;)

Abruzzi -- I'm 45 and only started dreaming in the last 5 years. I don't know why or how but I do now. It's incredible. Maybe you will, too!

Super super interesting and I'd love discuss - drop me a note (contact info in my bio) :)

This looks awesome! Do you have any info about publisher payout rates, or how the revenue earned (like RPM) compares to, say, Adsense? I'm psyched to try it :)

Um. Last year, I re-read Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and my favorite chapter (written in such a funny way!) is his detailing how his wife was having sex with everyone under the sun, and everyone in Rome knew it. Except for Marcus Aurelius himself; he lived in such a bubble, he couldn't see the reality in front of his nose. He was so unable to teach his son, Commodus, that when his son became emperor... well, Commodus turned out to be one of the most cruel and evil emperors in the history of Rome.

This made me question the "wisdom" of his Meditations (which, as a kid, I loved reading and whose advice I used to love): knowing this is how he lived and ruled and raised children, and those were the consequences... are we sure it's good advice? I'm not anymore.

Text here: http://sacred-texts.com/cla/gibbon/01/daf01013.htm

So here's what "they" don't tell you: building a successful startup -- even by moderate definitions of "successful," such as, "reaching a point that lets you only work 4 hours/week" -- is what economists call a "superstar economy." Kinda like being a musician or a basketball player: 99.99% of the starving artists or guys in the neighborhood playing hoops make $0.00 from it, but one-in-a-million make a killing. There's a small "middle class" in the ecosystem (people who don't strike the goldmind but do just fine) but, for all practical purposes, it's really, really tiny, too.

So, therefore: building your own app and putting it into the app store is helluva lot like trying to make your garage band a big hit. You must remember these three things to start your own band (or your own startup):

1.) Expect your band will never make a dollar. (Similarly, expect the startup to never make a dollar.)

2.) You must love creating music and feel such a deep calling to create that music, that you will obsessively create that music with the band, even remember #1, that your band will never make a dollar. (Yup, you must be so obsessed with your company's mission and vision that you'll do it even expecting it to fail.)

3.) You must be emotionally ready to play the lottery. If you're not emotionally ready for the lottery, stay home.

4.) Similarly, you must instinctively feel like you are blessed by Fortuna, because luck needs to be on your side not just tonight but for the whole journey.

5.) It's a f---load of hardwork to get people to notice what you do, and to get them excited about it. Are you prepared for that overwhelming, intense, nonstop amount of hardwork?

6.) You know what's even harder about the hard work? There's no one to tell you what to do. You don't even know if what you're doing is the right thing or not. There is a way to change what you're doing and create something that will get people peeing in their pants with excitement. But you need to figure it out. No one will tell you, ever. In other words, more painful then 24 hours/day of work is 24 hours/day of work and not even knowing if you're doing the right work....

7.) Unless you happen to have a very strong mentor or model, it makes the incredible amount of hard work still even harder. Jimmy Page was the highest paid studio musician in England before he went to start his own band. He had a series of great mentors to teach him the path. A good mentor will teach you what to listen to and what to ignore. You probably want to ignore this rambling post here.

Okay, 3 minute break over, back to work.... :)

morgan

Modern parallel:

My business partner and I have a weekly brainstorm on Tuesday night (not quite by campfire) that's focused on us coming up with wacky and crazy creative ideas. We often do it over wine, we let our imaginations run wild, we try to come up with extreme concoctions that might just be able to work, and we have a space to be creative and no idea is bad during that time. Surprisingly, we've found that this really helps our creativity for the other 99.9% of the work-week: sometimes, our crazy ideas come back to us (in more reasonable forms, less extreme) that we then implement and make happen!

In other words: we realized, too much of our day-to-day work is concerned with tactical issues, so we've created a space around a virtual fire to unleash our creativity, which then helps us in the day-to-day.

Maybe this work due to evolutionary forces on humans since these paleolithic days!

It would be interesting if we answered the question, along with another: why/how? (Is that two other questions?). Knowing why and how, say, Roger L'Estrange's 1715 Aesop's Fables influenced you so would be much more interesting than just knowing that, it did influence you.

Me? Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities. I read it when I was 21 (1998) and it changed how I walk down the street, every single day of my life since. Why this street is full of life, and that street is empty, for example. But not only that: she basically argues that central planning is disastrous for cities, and that cities should think on the street and human levels, from the ground up, and then iterate from there (rather than top-down). These ideas applied to other areas of life -- like software development, for example -- have been very powerful for me. I'd argue that Jacobs' thought is a precursor to the whole XP/agile software movement, for example. Both start with the same premise, the spec is dead (in software language). All this is probably obvious to y'all, but wasn't to me at 21 ;)

Yikes. Somehow, an emoticon like ":(" doesn't capture the pain I feel for you.

I've been through a similar break-up at a low point as well, so I understand the pain.

Someone in this thread suggested going physically far away. There's a great aphorism in Latin America which, translated into English, roughly means, "no one's a prophet in his hometown." Going far away gives you a bizarre super-confidence and super-powers, since what was simple and obvious in your own world that you're comfortable in, suddenly becomes insightful and smart. So I second the suggestion someone in this thread made, of going far away! (Hello from South America;).

More abstractly (the following point isn't about you anymore; this just got me thinking), questions like this make me think: I sometimes feel that people don't talk enough about the risks of the startup world. They all sound so theoretical: oh, you could potentially lose money or friends... but no, that won't happen to me! The reality is... it's a "superstar economy," no different than being a soccer player or a rock star. Mark Zuckerberg as John Lennon (maybe Dustin Moskovitz as Paul McCartney? Ha! Maybe Eduardo Saverin as the famous "fifth Beatle" who left before they took of hahahaha!!!!!). We all instinctively understand that, okay, if my friends and I start a band in our garage, there's a 0.000000001% chance we'll end up successful - okay, so eventually you grow up and get a real job, and stop the band once we go to college. But yet, it's so curious to me that, when we want to start our own company in that very same garage, for some reason we think that we are much more likely to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, that the chance is more like 1% than 0.000000001%. We think we're not like the annoying cool kids in high school, but actually, within our own circles, we see the same patterns emerging: everyone, it seems, wants to be a superstar. Oh human nature!!!

My unsolicited -- and probably wrong so ignore away, I don't know the actual stats etc! -- instinct is the following, and I apply this to myself (and this works only for myself so it might not work for you, everyone's different): when I'm evaluating whether to jump into a project, when I'm evaluating whether to completely run with it and see if I can be the next John Lennon or Mark Zuckberg then, I would treat it no different than buying a lottery ticket or casino game that would be partially a game of skill but mostly a game of chance. If I feel like I'm in a position where I think I can afford to lose a lot of time, friends, and money (since I'll likely lose all three!) -- then I would go for it. But if I'm not in a position where I think I can afford to lose a lot of time, money, and friends, then I just wouldn't go for it. Or I do it as a background project on nights and weekends and see what happens :) So it's about your own evaluation of your own situation more than anything else.

Again, just because this sort of analysis works for me, doesn't mean it would work for you: everyone of us has different levels of risk tolerance, financial situations, family situations, etc. Even issues as basic as age: it's easier to be 21 and lose everything than to be 51 and lose everything, etc. They used to say Rome of antiquity, naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret -- you can push nature away with a pitchfork, but it'll always come back!

Okay now time to listen to Janis Joplin's Me & Bobby McGee. Freedom's just another word, for, 'nothing left to lose'...

-morgan

As a tech (and literary) nerd type with a little baby, I've been inspired to create two little fun community sites on the side:

http://parentsintech.com - Interviewing other, well, parents in tech! There are a lot of us, but very little online to discuss best practices and tips for getting the best of both worlds, start-up and parenthood.

http://quantifiedbabies.com - The latest news and profiling companies who are building up the "quantified baby" space. Basically quantified self nerds like me who want to do the same to those who can't yet quantify themselves, their young kids.

If you'd like to be interviewed/profiled on either site, drop me a line, morgan at parentsintech followed by a dot then a com hmmm I wonder if the spam filters can figure that one out hehe. Any other parents in tech out there? I'd love to meet you! We need to stick together ;)

Okay time to change someone's diaper!!! -morgan

(You know, Polonius was meant as a figure of mockery, so I'm not sure it makes sense to go around quoting his ironic sayings....!)