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tpkj

91 karma · joined September 25, 2017

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tpkj··on What to do when tech jobs go bad
I was in a similar situation, and another aspect to this issue is - if the company is large enough - HR departments who put on events or team-building activities or otherwise try to encourage a sense of how great the company is and how great it is to be part of the company; e.g., company potluck this Friday! There is nothing wrong with these things, per se, but what is disturbing is how this HR "PR" does try to give this sense of "belonging" and "family" which is ultimately at odds with the bottom line of the business. No, HR dept., unless you have unusually altruistic owners, the business is not there to make one big happy family; it's about the bottom line.
tpkj··on Pro-gun Russian bots flood Twitter after parkland shooting
David Satter, "The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE7uXO8NEms

tpkj··on Ask HN: One small decision that had most impact on your app or startup?
> Justify most features by data. What kind of data do you mean: data related to "this is something the customer wants", or "we've done studies showing this shade of blue has XYZ effect", or...well, I hope you get the idea. An example of what you mean would be interesting.
tpkj··on PostgreSQL 10.2 Released
Agreed. Tried pgAdmin 4, and it's not a happy user experience. Reverting back to pgAdmin 3 gives errors, depending on what you attempt to do. I have Navicat, and some features are good, yet some are frustrating. Postgres needs a "gold standard" ux tool. Maybe there is one, but I have not used it before.
tpkj··on [dead]
From what I can tell, that assessment is unfair. I do not find him to be like the typical knee-jerk, reactionary talking-heads you see on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc. His analysis has a broader, philosophical and historical perspective. Case in point:

Postmodernism and Cultural Marxism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLoG9zBvvLQ

tpkj··on Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
> Working that much is not good or healthy.

Nor is it good for employee retention, but apparently there is no concern for employee retention.

https://twitter.com/patio11/status/954282877717422080

https://twitter.com/TProphet/status/954090579897466880

tpkj··on Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
More in depth article (well, at least compared to the CNBC piece) here on Financial Times, authored by the SV investor. The comments section has some good feedback as well.

https://www.ft.com/content/42daca9e-facc-11e7-9bfc-052cbba03...

I get some of the investor's complaints about pc culture, and at the same time I wonder if this guy considers the ideal corporation one where an "employee" literally "works" 24/7, never leaves his/her desk for anything thanks to IV tubes for food, digestion, and medications to keep oneself constantly awake; and the bio-energy of the employee is harvested to supply energy for the office building.

Quite the recipe for individual and societal flourishing...

tpkj··on SPAs are harder and always will be (2013)
Single Page Applications? Bah Humbug!

https://wildermuth.com/2014/9/1/Single_Page_Applications_Bah...!

tpkj··on Long Island Iced Tea Soars 500% After Changing Its Name to Long Blockchain
Also wondering that same question. If it is, it would be interesting to learn how the conclusion to buy was reached.
tpkj··on The compelling case for working less
The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman

http://renewablewealth.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fisher...

tpkj··on Ask HN: How might we create a more United America?
I don't want this comment to be construed as a partisan hack, which is the last thing in the world that will bring about any real unity in the country. Anyways, you might be interested in Senator Ben Sasse's book, "The Vanishing American Adult", or other of his writings (his twitter account is often amusing.)

https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-American-Adult-Coming-Crisi...

From a review on The Atlantic: "He believes Americans have lost their sense of personal integrity and discipline. For the country to deal with the troubles ahead—including automation, political disengagement, and the rise of nativist, huckster politicians, he says—people must recover their sense of virtue. The republic depends on it."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/ben-sas...

Or have a read of his extensive comments on Charlottesville:

https://www.facebook.com/SenatorSasse/posts/1356425404455401

tpkj··on How to Choose the Right Mobile Platform/Tech for Your Product
No mention of ionic, or Progressive Web Apps?

https://ionicframework.com/

https://ionicframework.com/docs/developer-resources/progress...

tpkj··on The Switch to Outdoor LED Lighting Has Completely Backfired
American Medical Association warns of health and safety problems from ‘white’ LED streetlights

https://www.ama-assn.org/ama-adopts-guidance-reduce-harm-hig...

The scientific reason you don’t like LED bulbs — and the simple way to fix them

https://theconversation.com/the-scientific-reason-you-dont-l...

The Dark Side of LED Lightbulbs

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/led-lightbulb-con...

tpkj··on The Switch to Outdoor LED Lighting Has Completely Backfired
https://theconversation.com/the-scientific-reason-you-dont-l...
tpkj··on Tim Ferris comments on his move from Silicon Valley
Replace "Silicon Valley" with "Hacker News", and it sounds like a decent approximation of what HN is.
tpkj··on Single Founders Shouldn’t Put Marriage Off
Sounds like great advice if you are interested in developing coronary heart disease, impaired cognitive ability, and a host of other health-related issues.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1005/10051205

http://www.circadian.com/blog/item/22-5-negative-effects-of-...

Oh, and do you literally expect a "great" entrepreneur to work 24/7? Good luck with that. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-can-huma...

tpkj··on A growing number of early Facebook employees regret the world they created
"A New, More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel"

https://hbr.org/2017/04/a-new-more-rigorous-study-confirms-t...

tpkj··on A growing number of early Facebook employees regret the world they created
Can they leave without withdrawals?

Online Social Networking and Mental Health

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/

"Addiction to online social networking, as well as Internet addiction in general, are recent and insufficiently investigated phenomena, frequently discussed and sometimes disputed in the psychiatric literature.30–35 The addictive nature of SNS is supported primarily by the mental preoccupation of many chronic SNS users who as a result tend to neglect other aspects of their social functioning such as family and offline friends. In addition, according to our own observations, sudden cessation of online social networking (i.e., lack of Internet connection) may in some chronic users cause signs and symptoms that at least partially resemble the ones seen during drug/alcohol/nicotine abstinence syndrome."

And just googling "facebook addiction nih", it looks like there is plenty more material of this sort.

tpkj··on Zuckerberg Has Figured Out What's Wrong with the Country
Maybe part of the problem is Facebook.

Internet Addiction and Excessive Social Networks Use: What About Facebook? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4926056/

"Facebook is notably the most widely known and used social network worldwide. It has been described as a valuable tool for leisure and communication between people all over the world. However, healthy and conscience Facebook use is contrasted by excessive use and lack of control, creating an addiction with severely impacts the everyday life of many users, mainly youths..."

tpkj··on Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?
Seems like "HN bubble" is a large part of this person's challenge. Like you say, "Technology fads come and go", and there's no place quite like HN to have your sanity picked apart by fad-feeding frenzies and when, all is said and done, the often time-wasting arguments and ultimately irrelevant material that flies around on HN.
tpkj··on Legal pot in 100 days? New Jersey's next governor aims for national first
ER Visits for Kids Rise Significantly After Pot Legalized in Colorado

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/er-visits-kids-ri...

tpkj··on What to Know Before Buying an Air Purifier to Clear Wildfire Smoke
I am in no way, shape, manner or form affiliated with EnviroKlenz! That out of the way, here's a blurb from their article:

"Activated carbon filters will remove chemical gasses. They work by adsorption, a process by which the toxic gasses are attracted to and stick to the carbon But there are problems with carbon filters. Since activated carbon simply collects toxic gasses and stores them, when the carbon becomes full of gasses, the gasses can release back into the air."

That is what I was referring to in terms of carbon not being a cure-all.

tpkj··on What to Know Before Buying an Air Purifier to Clear Wildfire Smoke
Earlier this summer I researched air purifiers because of a large painting project that was going to take place in my residence. I am super-sensitive to smells and the like, and I was not going to mess around with this purchase. I ended up choosing the EnviroKlenz mobile air unit.

There are no two ways about it: the unit is expensive. However, it does not resort to using carbon, which can end up releasing pollutants, and I was told the product gets used in clean up operations by the government.

I would not call the purchase a perfect panacea, but I believe it helped, and do not regret it.

https://enviroklenz.com/remove-toxic-paint-fumes-fast/

https://enviroklenz.com/large-wildfires-in-washington-oregon...

The SweetHome (part of the NYT Company!) did not review EnviroKlenz, and I believe that is because of the whole Amazon affiliate aspect to the SweetHome.

(I'd be curious if others here have used EnviroKlenz.)

tpkj··on Students learn more effectively from print textbooks than screens, study says
https://hbr.org/2017/10/in-a-distracted-world-solitude-is-a-...
tpkj··on Students learn more effectively from print textbooks than screens, study says
> Digital textbooks can offer so much more than print textbooks.

Yes, digital textbooks can offer so much more, and yet maybe the "so much more" is their biggest pitfall: they (and/or the device serving as their platform) offer near limitless opportunities for distraction. While our attention span - or our lack thereof, trained as we are by the 3 second rule TV commercials push on us - might be able to get a major workout that leaves us exhausted and feeling like we have accomplished something (though in reality, hardly anything) - the digital format and form of delivery can rob us of our ability to freely focus. Let's face it, even with a good old-fashioned hard cover we can encounter distractions, and when we use digital, we're opening ourselves up to overwhelming levels of "opportunities for distraction" in which environment the human mind/body/condition is incapable of flourishing. Ironically, the very limitations of the physical textbook may be one of its liberating features.

tpkj··on Ask HN: Is anyone using Watson in their business?
The real question may be, "How many IBM-managed software consultant projects brand their software with the Watson label AND actually use Watson services as described here: https://www.ibm.com/watson/products-services/?" One thing is for sure: Watson branding != Watson services.
tpkj··on Ask HN: Is anyone using Watson in their business?
"Big Data Bust: MD Anderson-Watson Project Dies: Top Cancer Center Spent $62M" http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/876070
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