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sawthat

460 karma · joined September 23, 2014

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sawthat··on Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions
I don't think that's what anyone is arguing. People are arguing that Donald Trump is an existential threat to the american republic, not that he would be "bad for minorities". The racist thing is bad, but really only a small part of the overall badness of Donald Trump.
sawthat··on Peter Thiel to Donate $1.25M in Support of Donald Trump
Time for YC to take a stand and cut this guy loose.
sawthat··on How We Designed Our Interview Process
An early stage startup probably can't afford you.
sawthat··on “Node.js is one of the worst things to happen to the software industry” (2012)
Oh man, Gradle isn't perfect? Crap. I was holding out hope.
sawthat··on “Node.js is one of the worst things to happen to the software industry” (2012)
I'd really like to hear more about this louse coupling idea.
sawthat··on “Node.js is one of the worst things to happen to the software industry” (2012)
I fight with maven every day. I was just being snarky, the fact is maven can be abused in the same way anything can. Gulp gets insane when people start writing opaque custom tasks. Maven gets insane when people write opaque plugins. Nothing is perfect. Although people tell me Gradle is...
sawthat··on “Node.js is one of the worst things to happen to the software industry” (2012)
You say you are over node, but I don't think you are. You need to let go and move on.
sawthat··on “Node.js is one of the worst things to happen to the software industry” (2012)
At least it's not maven.
sawthat··on Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100M dollar lesson) (2012)
At-will means at-will. That said, larger companies generally have policies that require documentation and a "personal improvement plan" (PIP) before termination for cause. This is mostly to provide documentation in the event of a wrongful termination suit.

However, generally if an employee is considered a serious liability (they have hurt or threatened another employee) they can be fired immediately.

Startups tend to be a little more aggressive on termination because they can't afford to pay a salary to someone for months hoping they improve.

sawthat··on Cisco to lay off about 14,000 employees
The article seemed to imply they are letting go hardware people to focus on software.
sawthat··on Find a new city
This is a good article, in particular the first point that the "super star" cities were affordable places to live from the late 60s through the early 90s if you didn't mind a pretty gritty situation. However, I don't think you can recreate that situation easily in an affordable rust belt city.

The reason those cities were affordable at that time was white flight. The wealthy and middle class white population was moving to the suburbs, causing demand for housing to fall dramatically reducing costs (as well as the tax base, causing decay, increasing white flight). However the businesses that drove those cities did not leave. San Francisco was still a financial hub on the west cost. New York was still the center of finance and business for the entire country. So you had a place were creative people could gather and live affordably as well as an economy that produced enough excess to support the artists and musicians. (a struggling rust belt city doesn't have that many coffee shops and no local money to buy art and pay cover charges and clubs)

I guess what I'm saying is that those times are gone. There are cities where artists artists "are creating their own scene". New Orleans springs to mind, but those cities are getting expensive fast because there just isn't the huge excess of housing there was during white flight.

sawthat··on Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
Best way to not carry a balance is to not have a credit card. It's very easy to say "don't carry a balance" but most people do. When I used credit cards I often carried a balance, despite my best efforts. If you have the discipline to NEVER carry a balance, more power to you. But most people don't and the points just aren't worth it.
sawthat··on Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
Don't use credit cards. I also recommend YNAB: https://www.youneedabudget.com
sawthat··on Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices
Amazon sells Duracel and Energizer as well as super cheap shady crap from China. The same seems to be the case in every category.
sawthat··on A Tragic Loss
Technologies like autopilot are going to save lives. This was one of around 90 fatal traffic accidents in the US on the same day (based on historical averages). It's going to be hard to make a foolproof system, however anything that makes it less likely for an inattentive drive to crash into something is a win.
sawthat··on Snowden decries Russian surveillance bill as dangerous, urges Putin not to sign
Cuba is also not very free in this regard.
sawthat··on Blackbird, a car rig that creates photo-real CG cars [video]
It's not automated. They take the data and use it to help create a CG car, but the final work is done by human animators.

It might not fool "car guys" but a large number of car commercials shoot with CG cars now.

sawthat··on EU Referendum Results
"The reason this bath water is so dirty is that there is a baby in it"

Policy matters. The right wing proposal is religious discrimination. In the US we don't make exceptions for religions we don't like. You don't have to like Islam. You can believe that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with western pluralism. If you are American the moment you decide that's a good reason to start getting ok with religious discrimination is when you've given up on the very ideals this country was founded on.

sawthat··on California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents
Nobody lives there anymore, it's too crowded.
sawthat··on It’s cheaper to build multiple native applications than one responsive web app
(note: I've met Eran a few times, he is very smart and I respect his opinion)

Note aside: this is one of those "it really depends" kind of situations. For many cases native apps are always going to be cheaper to build. For others the web is just much better. It seems like the problem Eran is describing is more of a labor shortage. It's really, really difficult to hire good web developers. I have no idea why this is.

sawthat··on What Urbit is
You have a right to say or think whatever you like, but that doesn't mean people are going to like it. I find what Yavin has written to be so odious it taints the entire project (which isn't common, normally I just don't are). It sounds interesting, but I just don't want to even touch it
sawthat··on Facebook admits rogue employees may have shown bias against conservatives
The irony of the Washington Times complaining about bias...
sawthat··on Nikola Motor Company
It's a pretty well established system in marine applications, so it seems like a good idea. Of course, the hard part isn't the tech, it's building a company.
sawthat··on After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
I assume this person has found that burning that many calories is easier for them than restricting their diet more.
sawthat··on SSRI Stories: Antidepressant nightmares
"science". This stuff comes from this org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Coalition_for_Dr... and Dr. David Healy, long time campaigners against antidepressants. Draw your own conclusions.
sawthat··on After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
You are asking a person who clearly has spent a ton of time figuring out how to manage their weight if they've tried calorie tracking?
sawthat··on Top Myths About Teaching Computer Science (2015)
Or perhaps when a woman hears someone say "as a single man I would like more women in my field" she runs as fast as she can in the other direction?
sawthat··on Top Myths About Teaching Computer Science (2015)
Can't tell if trolling or just incredibly clueless.
sawthat··on LivingSocial Is Laying Off More Than 50 Percent of Its Staff
counterpoint: I worked at a different startup in the last couple of years that got acquired for around $400 million (after I left) and the found was a very wealthy serial entrepreneur. Basically, you never know. Basically don't treat a job at a startup as a way to get rich.
sawthat··on LivingSocial Is Laying Off More Than 50 Percent of Its Staff
I worked at a .com era startup that went through something similar. Biggish acquisition offers came in circa 2001, but much smaller than the theoretical enterprise value if the product worked out.

Company finally sold in 2005, preferred shareholders got everything but still lost money. Founders got nothing, employees got nothing. But everyone got to keep their jobs which was better than just going out of business.

This seems to happen pretty often. Also common is founders turning down acquisitions because they are sure they can make more if they keep at it. You wouldn't start a company if you didn't believe it.

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