noahth

When my wife and i decided to try this, we figured we had runway to live without dramatic changes to our standard of living for 3-4 years. The initial period we agreed on for the sabbatical was 6 months and we've extended that to 1 year. Of course, we are intentionally changing our budget and standard of living along the way. Most likely I will not go four years without working, but I may spend some time exploring other work options before I hang my shingle out for software projects again.

I worked for several years as an independent contractor; when my last big project ended several months ago, I decided to take a sabbatical for the climate. So far that has meant spending more time with my kids, learning to compost, building some new raised garden beds, mending some clothes that I previously would've replaced, reading more books, and various other little things. I plan to start volunteering soon with the local tool library, and there are tons of other things we'd like to do to reduce our budget and carbon footprint, when we can get to them.

I know not everyone can afford to "just take time off" but among those laid off from a tech company and browsing HN, surely some fraction of you could afford to do the same. You will still have a career to come back to if you spend a year turning your attention and energy to the climate crisis. BUT if you're under 40 or so (I'm 37), you may find that there is not a recognizable planet to come back to if you continue to focus on your career until the retirement age we were brought up to expect.

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym

A very large fraction of DeFi supporters do not regard all of those as desirable progress.

better to let those who want to see the list decode it themselves, than potentially expose someone to language that could deeply upset them. It's decisions like this that help make spaces like this unwelcoming to marginalized people.

This sounds really cool, and I hope it goes well. We need to work every angle we can to address climate change, and test as many ideas as necessary to get there.

My issue with this post is the claim that you will be making the world's first carbon-neutral houses. I understand the need for strong exciting marketing language, but, surely you mean something like, first modern Western-style carbon-neutral houses.

In this example Charlie has failed to consider the metagame of "don't be a third wheel"

It would have been a perfect opportunity to rename the project, but until then, in case anyone reading this isn't aware, there's prior work for a fork under a new name, as Glimpse -- https://glimpse-editor.github.io/

I can attest that Glimpse works as expected, and you don't have to wince when a client asks what tools you used.

SEEKING WORK - Remote only - NC, US (US-Eastern tz)

Website: https://www.nthall.com

I'm a full-stack developer with experience helping small businesses and startups launch, streamline processes, modernize outdated code, and more. Code-wise I'm most comfortable with PHP, Python/Django, and Javascript. Recently completed projects include modernizing a medium-large Django codebase in light of the Python2 deprecation, moving transactional emailing on a Django site from Mandrill to Amazon SES, and (soon concluding) helping a web phonebanking app manage their dramatic seasonal usage surge for the 2020 US elections.

I love new challenges and puzzle-solving. Limited availability through the end of the year but wider availability starting January. Read more on my website, or email me at noah@nthall.com to talk about your project!

One big difference is that Matomo doesn’t support PostgreSQL and has said they don’t plan to.

Many have tried. There's a simple reason that you glance at but don't directly confront in your post. The "voting rings" you outline are actually a huge constituency, thanks to the outlandish concentration of wealth and resources in the hands of these few companies (I mean FAANG - YC has a huge and unique network but I don't suspsect it's anywhere close to the same scale in dollars or current employees). No site can keep out so many skilled and knowledgeable techies and expect to keep up the level of quality that HN provides. This is one of those cases where culture flows pretty clearly from material reality - you can't have a better site until the titans are dethroned and dismembered. So, if you want a better HN, don't build an HN clone! Build political power that will target monopolies, monopsonies, and anything "too big to fail" for levelling and redistribution.

  Location: Asheville, NC, US
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Python, Django, Javascript, Celery, MySQL/PostgreSQL, Bash, SaltStack, PHP, CSS/HTML
  Résumé/CV: https://www.nthall.com/static/resume.pdf
  Email: noah@nthall.com

I've been working for startups and small teams, distributed, for about a decade. My experience over that time has ranged from managing a customer support team, to data analysis and reporting, to planning and implementing large-scale code changes in complex projects. Most recently I've been a solo full-stack contractor for a number of years; I've started to miss getting to collaborate more deeply with a team, and the types of growth, impact, and achievements that are only possible when working as part of a larger group. I strive to be humble, patient, and generous in work and elsewhere. I would be most interested in hearing from co-ops, non-profits, B-corps or similarly oriented organizations. If you're working on adtech or blockchains, I'm not the right fit for you.

SEEKING WORK - Remote only - NC, US (US-Eastern tz)

Website: https://www.nthall.com

I'm a full-stack developer with experience helping small businesses and startups launch, streamline processes, modernize outdated code, and more. I'm most comfortable with PHP, Python/Django, and Javascript. Recently completed projects include modernizing a medium-large Django codebase in light of the Python2 deprecation, and moving transactional emailing on a Django site from Mandrill to Amazon SES.

I love a challenge and I have room in my schedule at the moment. Read more on my website, or email me at noah@nthall.com to talk about your project!

Someone's already given the biggest answer (eBird), but a good supplementary app for help with identification is the Audubon app. You can do checklists in Audubon too, but eBird is better for that, plus has the bonus of submitting your lists for science.

No thanks! The "demonstrated ability to amass and manage resources" is mostly a matter of luck, with a small dash of willingness to exploit others. Everyone deserves an equal say in the allocation of resources. It pains me to say that this must include even those who are willing to exploit other people to amass resources.

Everyone deserves a say in the allocation of resources. The way we accomplish that is through government. Elon Musk is not improving the environment, he's launching cars into space for giggles while mistreating his workers.

There is a strong economic argument for keeping oil in the ground now, though. Namely, that the planet will cease to support a functioning global economy under runaway warming.

almost makes you wonder why we build ladders that tall in the first place, doesn't it?

It might be enlightening for you to apply this line of reasoning to historical forms of exploitation. But no, it is not ethical to exploit someone just because they can't afford alternatives.

As a fan of Fisher, it's interesting to read an open-minded review of his work from someone on the right. But the bit about Islam can't be left unchallenged. The reviewer says:

>>> I would not claim that Islam is monolithically malign, of course, but someone less constrained by their unconscious sense of ideological appropriateness would ask why interpretations of the faith lead people towards evangelistic violence and puritanical tyranny so much more than interpretations of other faiths.

But here in America we still have Christians practicing evangelistic violence and working to enforce puritanical tyranny. There's nothing unique about Islam in this regard, unfortunately. Like nearly any religion, it can be mustered to support incredible love or horrific cruelty.

This sounds great! I'm no expert but it seems that the postgres documentation disagrees about the process for enabling the extension -- "The module must be loaded by adding pg_stat_statements to shared_preload_libraries in postgresql.conf, because it requires additional shared memory. This means that a server restart is needed to add or remove the module."[1]

What I was really looking for was a ballpark estimate or guideline of what additional resources a server would need to run this extension.

[1]https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/pgstatstatements.html

> Suppose a genie offers to tweak the world in one of two ways. Either he will (A) double everyone's bank account, or (B) double the amount of food in existence. Which is better for society? Clearly the answer is B, doubling the food. Option A (doubling the money) merely creates more placeholders, more tokens — while option B creates more objects of intrinsic value. In other words, A is a zero-sum change, while B is positive-sum.

This thought experiment is mistaken in almost every direction -- first of all it's not zero-sum to double every bank account given the unequal distribution of account balances. Second, and even worse for the point being made, it's wildly untrue to imagine that food is in such short supply that we need to double it. The problem with food is primarily one of distribution! This is where I gave up attempting to see his argument through. There's nothing to be gained by "reasoning" from such poor premises.

Some great things about companies that you can always count on:

- They never change their terms of service

- The demand for constant growth never causes them to reconsider ethically dubious revenue streams

- They never get acquired

Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn has a great perspective on the reward/punishment question. Doesn't check all your boxes but worth checking out alongside other options.

"makes it tougher for companies to manage their marketing spending" ok but... so what? It's absolutely not my responsibility to make it easy for companies to manage their marketing spending. If companies don't like how difficult it is to track or manage their marketing spending, I, for one, won't be losing sleep over their hardship.

The game industry is not just coders, for one thing. Also worth noting this effort doesn’t preclude anyone from organizing a software developer’s union; in fact some people are working on that goal, and it’s also possible to join IWW as a software developer.

But to offer a different answer to “why just games” - this particular effort is newsworthy right now because it was organized to be promoted heavily at GDC, which I believe just ended.

It's not a hard problem, and it certainly isn't the fault of the individuals tasked with administering a broken and underfunded system. America's elites just aren't interested in solving it. They'd rather pass on indescribable fortunes to their children while the wretched masses beg for insulin online.

Also worth noting that verified accounts have access to exclusive features.

I use Trello for task management and Harvest for time tracking and billing. I sometimes get envious of people with more tightly integrated and automated systems but so far I have needed the flexibility that comes with looser coupling much more than I've missed the added time required by my current setup.

Nobody shoots up on the sidewalk because it's the best place for that experience; they do it because they don't have a better place to go. The problem isn't the drugs, it's the system that puts addicts on the street, and the legal system is part of that.