sharp11

OP here. This is the language learning app that I've always wanted: no typing and tapping, lots of listening and speaking.

Would love to get feedback from HN community!

Yes, interesting that the prediction markets got this quite wrong as well.

I posted this because I found the use of graphics to tell a story remarkably beautiful and effective.

Beautiful UI, very intuitive!

One issue I ran into (on a MacBook Pro, OSX El Cap) was that scrolling wouldn't work on my (external) trackpad. It interpreted 2-finger scroll as pinch (down) and zoom (up). Had to use trackball to scroll.

This is such a wonderful blending of genres. We techies often can seem (or be?) detached from emotion. The rigor with which analytics were applied here ("real-time crying dashboard"!) is genius. So funny and so true.

One thing that us nerds might not think of but which I think can be immensely helpful is talking to a good therapist. It's a really tough situation… Try not to approach it by hunkering down in isolation. Be proactive about finding a resolution ASAP.

Really great read about what it's really like to be an activist. Constant running around hoping that 10 people show up and constant wondering if you're getting anywhere.

Also, a brutal reminder about the devastating personal costs that we so often forget about.

As a climate activist here in the US I had it easy, but still so much of this resonates.

Interesting read, but… Specifics? "Hope and teamwork" was all it took to get on top of a crushing backlog of support requests? Sounds like a fairytale…

The book is architected around three exceptionally rich (and well-studied) examples: wolves, elephants, and dolphins (esp., killer whales). But he spends a great deal of time on other species (birds, fish, and yes, insects) and you would be missing the point of the book to think he's only talking about "higher" species.

Read the book -- it really is mind-altering.

If you're interested in this topic, I heartily recommend Carl Safina's Beyond Words. It presents compelling evidence for the thesis that the default in the animal kingdom is conscious & feeling.

The resiliency of nature and the speed with which it rebounds is both astonishing and important. What a great piece of journalism -- so rich in detail and beautifully written.

The hum of the generators is replaced by the river singing in full voice, shrugging off a century of confinement like it never happened. Nature’s resurgence is visible everywhere.

It's really great that Dr. Habib is talking about this publicly and I think his word "solidarity" is very helpful. If you've ever experienced what he's describing it is baffling and excruciating and the very nature of it is you feel that everyone else is on the other side (not against you, necessarily, but out there watching).

I've experienced this more than once -- the first time when I was in my 20's and on live TV being interviewed about a local community group I was part of. The lights and live camera inexplicably turned my brain to complete mush, despite the fact that the interview was a completely friendly one. I've also had it happen in front of live audiences -- both as a speaker and as a musician.

But here's the interesting thing. I also love being up in front of an audience. I've performed as a professional musician (and dancer) and also given numerous talks. And, speaking of music, there are artists of the highest caliber who've struggled with debilitating performance anxiety.

And it's relevant here on HN. I was in a Founders Institute demo day a few years ago when one of my classmates had exactly this kind of meltdown.

But there really is a lot you can do to get a handle on performance anxiety. It starts with having plenty of practice in pressure situations. And with not being too hard on yourself if you do screw up.

Thank you so much for the pointers. So fascinating!

This is great! Basically cement is a fractal substance. Are there other known fractal substances?

Define a location-based metric for climate change vulnerability analogous to the way walkscore.com has defined and developed a metric for walkability.

A good walkscore makes property more valuable. A valid and widely distributed climatescore could be the most effective way to create political will by making property value accurately reflect future risk.

No no no.... No need to apologize! Just chase the bug. This looks awesome for a V1! Kudos to you guys.

Thank you for the incisive suggestions! This is remarkable stuff. Here's a good one not behind a paywall: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056265/

What I found fascinating here are the implications for the neurobiology of memory. Here it is limited to highly emotional fear-based memories, but nonetheless the idea that a memory gets rewritten immediately after recall, as saving a file after edit, and that that is an opportunity to completely redefine the memory, is quite striking.

Great, that's a good motivator for me to think about it!

This is really neat! I've been thinking about ways to better stay in touch with friends and this might help. Right now it appears to be mostly about activity logging. I did see the "suggest" feature and I think that could be a point of expansion.

I never knew that the chemistry of flames and burning was so complex and poorly understood. Beautiful that flames are spherical in microgravity!

The analogy with technical debt is poorly conceived. :) Technical debt (as with financial debt) should be a conscious trade-off; borrowing time now that will be paid back later. There's never any reason to choose a poorly modeled UI.

tl;dr: there is no onboarding magic. It's "product simplicity".

So if Atlassian’s onboarding experience leaves a lot to be desired, how is it that they have scaled to $320M in recurring revenue with no sales team? How is the company only spending 12-21% of revenue on sales and marketing while other SaaS businesses are spending 50-100%?

Product simplicity.

I think this is a great thing to do. I've donated development time to a few different non-profits. The small ones, in particular, are often extremely in need of help and the benefit gained can be enormous.

The biggest thing to consider up front is -- of course -- maintenance. It's not that helpful to come in and bang out some code and then disappear. Find a topic area that you really care about, and then find one small non-profit that you think is doing great work in that area. Then, if you possibly can, build a long-term relationship with them. It doesn't have to be a big time commitment. But it probably does need to be an ongoing commitment. At least for a reasonable length of time.

This is a really interesting case study. I'd encourage you to continue to document it and share it widely. The fact that you aren't trying to do it all through the app, but that the app is part of the support network is very cool. Thanks for sharing this!

This is a huge and growing space. Random NYT article from today: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/business/dealbook/buffetts...

Check out B-Corps (For benefit corporations). Read Amory Lovins' Natural Capitalism.

You couldn't be more wrong (about the grassroots). Use the google. Just to take one (random) example: the past decade has seen a swell of innovation in business models that make home solar affordable through pooling of capital, volume buying, long-term lease deals, etc. These are startups.

There are plenty of geeks who care deeply about the planet. No offense, but it doesn't sound like you're looking very hard. In terms of superstar techies, how about adding Bill Gates to your list? How about Google's investments in solar? We're in the midst of a vast societal transformation to sustainability -- certainly all the sectors you mention -- and it's being invented by techies.

That's interesting. You're looking at it from the point of view of the bettor. My concern is just that non-dominant lines of inquiry are already intensely selected against and this just institutionalizes that bias. But I see your point that the lopsided upside incentivizes contrarians. That's very interesting .. I have to think about that!

[Edited as enlightenment dawns ...]

The problem with this is that it seems likely to be biased against unexpected results or results that contradict the dominant theory. The old saying, "Science advances one funeral at a time," has a lot of truth in it.