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pjdemers

689 karma · joined December 21, 2015

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pjdemers··on Silicon Valley's tone-deaf take on the AI backlash will matter in 2026
If the earth is one big tomato garden, maybe aliens will leave us alone. Also, native Americans were very aware that other groups of humans existed beyond their horizon, and some of the those groups were hostile to them. We have zero reason to believe there is anyone out in space hostile to us. In fact, we have plenty of evidence there isn't anyone at all out there.
pjdemers··on Is America's jobs market nearing a cliff?
Back in the early 2000's I did consulting work with Home Depot's backend developers. Their office is the "store support center", which is in the NW suburbs of Atlanta. I remember the team as being very good, but surprisingly small.
pjdemers··on The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
Paying by card doesn't round, the amount charged is exact cents, or at least that's the way it worked last time I was in Canada.
pjdemers··on US air traffic controllers start resigning as shutdown bites
There is no end game. He makes everything up as he goes along. When (if?) the shutdown ends, he will claim victory no matter what the outcome. If it doesn't end, he will still claim victory. He always wins.
pjdemers··on Air traffic controllers warn of 'tipping point' as US gov shutdown drags on
>> senate will nuke the fillibuster.

No, they will not. They will make a deal, probably covering spending until the end of this year.

pjdemers··on Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad
It will never last. There is a 0% chance even one company or person will ever pay this fee. Only an act of congress can change visa requirements, and it will never come up for a full floor vote. Ever. So it will be in legal limbo, and therefore can be ignored.
pjdemers··on Scammed out of $130K via fake Google call, spoofed Google email and auth sync
I get 5 calls and texts a day about my Google and Coinbase accounts. So many that if either Google or Coinbase really did try to contact me, I wouldn't see it.
pjdemers··on Googler... ex-Googler
The only retention bonuses I ever seen were to be paid in immediately, in full on involuntary termination. There was a "for cause" clause where bonuses don't get paid for termination with a cause, but the causes were listed in writing.
pjdemers··on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?
Darn right. Lots of smart, hard working, innovative people in China. And every single one of them would get on plane tonight if they could get a visa to live in US or UK (and a few other countries). So, which countries offer a better future for our children?
pjdemers··on Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer (2016)
I've always asked for better non-monetary things in writing: title, spot on the org chart, automatic promotion soon, which parts of the product and stack I will work on, even as trivial as whether my desk will have a window. I state with constant certainty that those things are more important to me than a bigger paycheck. Most of the time I was offered far more money (in one case, 2 years pay signing bonus) in return for my agreeing to accept an offer with none of those things in writing.
pjdemers··on xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B
I know for certain that in Virginia you can sell a house for any price you want, because I transferred one to a family member for zero. Of course the county's assessor had other ideas about the value for tax purposes, but the official deed was recorded at $0.
pjdemers··on Ask HN: Any jobs that don't force you to always be advancing career wise?
there are lots of companies where promotions are very very rare. Find one. Look for companies where the current managers have been in their exact same role for 10 or 20 years or more.
pjdemers··on China tells its AI leaders to avoid U.S. travel over security concerns
Given that most jobs in the US pay 10X or more what the same job pays in China, they are probably concerned that trips to the US will be one way.
pjdemers··on Inheriting is becoming nearly as important as working
From the article: "Building enough houses in the right place is the single biggest action governments can take to restore the link between work and wealth" No greater truth can can be spoken about what's wrong with the economy in rich countries today.
pjdemers··on Why are corporations cutting managers?
The same reason sports teams fire their head coach (or manager) when the owners want a change - because it is easy to replace one manager than an entire team.
pjdemers··on Calif. tech companies see laid-off workers as 'table scraps,' recruiters say
My experience is that a list of employees ordered by (compensation/contribution) is created, sorted highest to lowest. Those nearer the top of the list are most likely to be let go, those lower on the list are most likely to stay. And, contribution != performance. Profitability (margin) and revenue growth of the product and team affect contribution as much as individual performance.
pjdemers··on Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business
I used to have a side gig as the CFO for a not-for-profit (an unpaid volunteer). Anyway, this organization was over 125 years old, associated with a larger organization 80 years older than that, and had the same primary bank for 70 years ... Anyway, my treasurer, who was very smart, insisted we keep enough cash to run for 3 months in a secondary bank. Just in case we were locked out of our primary bank.
pjdemers··on The real "Wolf of Wall Street" sales script
Anyone serious about stock trading at the time knew who they were and what they did. They also advertised heavily in print. So anyone who stayed on the call for more than short time had some interest. I had coworkers who "invested" with them.
pjdemers··on xz has shown how a dependence on unpaid volunteers can cause major problems
Well, with free products and services, our policy is "if you're not happy, we'll give you double your money back"
pjdemers··on You won't find a technical co-founder
My experience with non-technical cofounders is: "We already have a CTO. However he/she is too busy/important/senior/all-of-these to build an MVP. What we need is someone to take our CTO's design and code it up, then become employee #1 for, all for 0.5% of the company."
pjdemers··on Marilyn vos Savant and the Monty Hall Problem (2015)
I got the problem wrong because I didn't know he never opens the door picked nor a door with a prize behind it. That's because I hadn't seen the show since I was about 5 years old, because that's about the time I stopped watching daytime TV.
pjdemers··on I Ended Up with Just 0.15% of My Own Startup
What's the company worth now? I once passed on a similar funding round at a startup that I had left. The investors in that round lost ~80% of their additional capital.
pjdemers··on NY times is asking that all LLMs trained on Times data be destroyed
The end result will be that OpenAI pays the Times a few hundred million dollars for a license. Chump change for OpenAI, but real money for the Times.
pjdemers··on Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth
Some missions blow up on the launch pad, or fail to reach orbit, or are lost mid-flight, or crash on landing. I wonder if the average actual mission length exceeds the average expected mission length.
pjdemers··on OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman
Reading the press release, whatever he did or didn't do, he got fired for covering it up, not for doing or not doing it.
pjdemers··on Microsoft lost its keys, and the government got hacked
This sounds like an inside job.
pjdemers··on Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-job, no-worries permits
How many tech jobs does Canada have? If everybody who wants to move to (or stay in) the US but can't because of visa issues moves to Canada, are there enough jobs for all of them?
pjdemers··on Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
For an employer the great advantage of remote work is the ability to hire people who live anywhere in the world (or at least anywhere in your country). But, when you're not hiring, that no longer matters.
pjdemers··on Ask HN: Paychecks from a failed startup?
I don't know other states, but in California, managers are personally liable for paying their employees. The penalties are steep. If the company doesn't pay you, anyone who knew that employees were working without the company's ability to pay them has committed a felony and either must pay back wages or will go to prison. You will get paid. I've had managers tell me the company was broke, and to go home right now, then quit themselves right there.
pjdemers··on Frank founder Charlie Javice arrested, charged with defrauding JPMorgan Chase
They gave the emails where they bought the fraudulent data to Chase. Not only that, they used company email and money to negotiate and buy the data. They need a lesson in how to commit fraud. I assume they will get that lesson in prison.
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