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sky_rw

1,008 karma · joined September 6, 2017

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sky_rw··on I don't like traveling anymore
"Right now, I am writing this essay from the living room of my hostel in Almaty, Kazakhstan."

Breaking news: Hostels in third world countries loose their charm as you get older.

sky_rw··on Show HN: We made a photo search engine for homes for sale
It seems like this site is more EU based. Does anybody here know if there is an MLS equivalent in this jurisdiction and/or if similar copyright holders over there are as litigious?
sky_rw··on How I Stay Motivated Working on My Solo SaaS (When It Feels Like Nobody Cares)
You stay motivated by remaining as close to the value you are delivering to your customers as possible, so you can feed energy from their use of the product.

This is almost impossible in a marketplace business, which is one of the infinite number of reasons that building a marketplace inevitably fails.

sky_rw··on Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong
Ok I'll bite. The de minimus rule allows any import valued under $800 to enter the USA duty free. Chinese drop shipping companies and others leverage this rule to ship millions of packages direct to consumer. Many Chinese companies split a large freight shipments into dozens of smaller shipments to avoid paying duty fees.

My understanding is, trade war stuff aside, the effect this has on customs is to overwhelm their intake facilities with small packages, thus allowing shipments of narcotics and illicit goods to make it through without much chance of getting caught. The idea is that removing this rule will force shippers to bulk ship freight and allow customs to better inspect smaller shipments.

sky_rw··on US government agency argues that money isn't property–so it can take yours
* Communism has entered the chat *
sky_rw··on Games Workshop and the big ambition of a miniatures business
Please God don't let Warhammer become Marvel.
sky_rw··on Hit men aren't what you think
FYI these wait times are now down to about 2 weeks. The ATF decided to do the bare minimum of process improvements and had a ~10X increase in efficiency.
sky_rw··on Hit men aren't what you think
There is an absolute zero chance that he used a B&T Station 6. The media, as usual, is 100% wrong.
sky_rw··on Wi-Fi jamming to knock out cameras suspected in nine Minnesota burglaries
It's also worth noting that you can buy signs and stickers on ebay for way less than the actual system, and you arguably get most of the benefit from the visual indicators.
sky_rw··on Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive
I keep re-reading this section of their blog post trying to figure out what I'm missing here. $2.6 million full load per employee on avg? Is this heavily weighted to a few executives? Can somebody explain this to me?

Edit: I'm stupid and did the math backwards.

sky_rw··on American bully XL dogs to be banned, Sunak says
I will never stop finding it hilarious how quickly progressives run to racial crime statistics and hold demographic breakdowns of violence sacrosanct when it comes to dogs breeds.
sky_rw··on American bully XL dogs to be banned, Sunak says
Im not a fan of the premise that a small percentage of a population being responsible for an outsized percentage of violence is a result of their breeding. It's the environment and socialization factors that drive this.
sky_rw··on I worked in federal prison sweatshops for 23 cents an hour
> Having to serve as a slave in that system should be illegal.

Good luck with that. Legal slavery is literally codified into our bill of rights.

sky_rw··on Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
During my commute I watch a homeless guy in my town walk 2 miles with a limp everyday to the spot he panhandles. There may be more to it than walking.
sky_rw··on Judge sends Sam Bankman-Fried to jail over witness tampering
The opinion that I believe s most close to the truth re: favors for donations, is that politicians value constancy and dependability more than short term cash injections. One needs to be playing the game for decades before you can start earning 'get out of jail' type favors.
sky_rw··on I am offering a $100k bounty to the person who sets me up with my life partner
Why post this instead of reading the actual post?
sky_rw··on Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening new North Sea licences
Yes, honourable politicians get their kickbacks through book deals, inflated speaking fees, and brilliantly timed stock deals. Having a business owner with a transparent revenue source is far less preferable to an honourable politician who's family gets legitimately deserved board seats on foreign energy corporations.
sky_rw··on Stone knives and bear skins – there is no money in tools
It's worth noting that when a VC says "there's no money in X", their definition of what constitutes "money" is very different from a normal persons. It's more accurate to say "there are no wildly market-inefficient profit margins to capitalize on and make hundreds of millions from in tools".
sky_rw··on Payment systems while working at a pizza place
If anybody here is suddenly considering a startup in the PoS industry, please just turn around and run as fast as you can in the other direction. It's an endless pit of hell.
sky_rw··on The office is a theatre for work (2019)
Using the USA as an example of labor distribution in this regard is disingenuous. Like most leading countries, we are supported by an external labor class operating extremely cheaply and exporting critical goods into our system. Agriculture work in the USA would be much more prevalent if 13% of the Mexican population wasn't directly involved in agriculture. In fact ~78% of Mexico's exports go to the USA. Its a vassal state, supplying the USA with cheap and largely unregulated human labor critical for our subsistence. You say we optimized our work, I say we imported $40 Billion in food from China last year.
sky_rw··on Never waste a midlife crisis
Going to church regularly does not mean you have a rich spiritual life.
sky_rw··on Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
In 2007 the president of the University ACM chapter told me not to toy around with languages outside the CS curriculum, and that Ruby was a waste of time. I'm grateful everyday that I ignored his advice.
sky_rw··on Apple’s Unionized Store Wants to Start Accepting Tips from Customers
He equates it to vaping. I'd take an employee blowing clouds of raspberry smoke in my face over 22% tip on a Macbook any day.
sky_rw··on A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers
Now do one about the South Korean sex trade in Silicon Valley.
sky_rw··on Whole Foods closes San Francisco flagship after one year, citing worker safety
>Did I ever feel unsafe? No.

How safe you _feel_ often has little correlation to how much danger you are actually in. A lot of people are oblivious to their impending assault or murder until just before it happens to them.

sky_rw··on SVB Hall of Shame
It's not immoral to yell fire in a crowded theater if the theater is in fact on fire.
sky_rw··on Military unable to determine how the objects were kept aloft
Wait until they meet wolves.
sky_rw··on Reducing technical debt by valuing comments as much as code
Rails developers (myself included) are lazy by design, and thus eschew anything requiring redundant work. Most operate under the principle that "it was hard to write, it should be hard to read"
sky_rw··on Marion Smith, the world’s most prolific cave explorer, dies at 80
How does one become a _professional_ caver?
sky_rw··on NY Supreme Court reinstates NYC's fired unvaccinated employees, orders backpay
Well clearly there is an elite class to whom body autonomy is granted, and an underclass who must follow arbitrary and capricious rules. OP appreciates that celebrities and entertainers are our betters and should not be held to the same standard.
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