Hacker News Reader

tennis_sorton A TV Show Forced Britain's Devastating Post Office Scandal into the Light

I worked on government systems circa 2003 and it was a mess of outsourcing, delays and consultants. It was always a question of which corner to cut.

I don't think anyone was trying to do the wrong thing but rather timelines and budgets were tight.

tennis_sorton TikTok is transforming the music industry. Is that a good thing?

I read "Dopamine Nation" recently and TikTok "ticks" so many negative boxes. Having lost hours to this ultimate time wasting app, there is no chance my kids are getting this on their phone.

As the book hypothesizes, poor Dopamine regulation and the increasingly prescribed medication to treat this are becoming the norm. Particularly among working classes who have poorer earning potential and engaging work.

Tiktok is literally mind numbing.

tennis_sorton Ask HN: How do you feel about recruitment agencies selling as “consultancies”

Caveat emptor. Just a body shop by another name and if the buyer doesn't care, they get a random bunch of bodies.

tennis_sorton Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

Yeah you're right there. 150k salary is better than a £600 day contract.

£150k per year is tricky to find for salaried positions as a dev. They exist but not as visible (to me at least) compared to the contract equivalents.

The enjoyment side is something I hear mixed opinions on. There are plenty of "disguised employment" type contracts in the UK that just go to contractors for rarer skill sets. YMMV.

tennis_sorton Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

£100k London as a single person could definitely buy a flat somewhere. Maybe not a great area but it's doable.

A house with a garden, kids, private school etc. 100k won't cut it unfortunately.

For some reason I thought FAANGs in London were paid really well but seems like contracting or finance is the only way to get a reasonable income.

I have a buddy who was working for a DeepMind and now works for Google (UK). His salary is £140k. Meanwhile day rates of £600 per day are pretty standard and pay the same for arguably less hassle.

tennis_sorton Slack System Status

Free at last! Woohoo.

tennis_sorton Facebook loses users for the first time

I play golf+ and really liked it. There's a great tennis one too.

Practicing without the weight of impact of a club/racket is good.

Its niche but definitely a new dawn for gaming. FB might be too early but they're in the right space.

tennis_sorton UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

JPM have just made a $12b investment to fix that: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/tech-investment-c...

I'm aware that these investments often go south. I've seen HSBC's foray into "Fintech" and it was rough.

tennis_sorton Sleep quality and consistency associated with better academic performance (2019)

I stayed briefly in a real dive in NY one time while I was studying there. The room was used to dry clothes or something.

I literally couldn't focus on anything in College. It was like I was perpetually hungover everyday.

Also I wasn't great at self care when I was younger, first thing I'm going to teach my kids.