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ultra-jeremyx

60 karma · joined December 15, 2016

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ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
Interesting thread. Anyone here in the U.S. and supporting a family? The main hurdle for me starting my own business is cost of healthcare. I haven't looked too deeply into options, but I assume I'd be taking on a huge cost to support a spouse and children.
ultra-jeremyx··on Apple built iCloud to store billions of databases
That's because I meant Athena! https://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/what-is.html

Doh!

ultra-jeremyx··on Apple built iCloud to store billions of databases
This sounds a lot like AWS Aurora, which (I'm simplifying here) is a database interface on top of a distributed file store, (S3).
ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: Should I try to manufacture toasters?
They are talking about a June oven, which is a smart oven and far more advanced than a toaster. https://juneoven.com/
ultra-jeremyx··on The Tyranny of the Marginal User
Oh yeah, and they had Inbox, which I LOVED, and sadly, they killed off
ultra-jeremyx··on The Tyranny of the Marginal User
Are there any examples of _consumer_ software that has an interface for the Marginal User, and a different interface for others? The only example that comes to mind is something like TweetDeck, but I believe that was killed off in the new Elmo/X era.
ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
We had three 6k BTU units, one 12k BTU unit, and one 18k BTU unit and the total cost was ~$18k. We got $1,600 in rebates from the utility for the energy efficiency program.

I am very impressed with how little electricity they use!

ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
We went the Mitsubishi units (I see these and Fuji everywhere) and a certified installer. They add two years to the warranty if you have one of their certified installers do the work. I have high confidence in Mitsubishi being around to honor the warranty.
ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
Cold climate mini-split heat pumps * I live in northern New England and used to heat exclusively with wood in the winter time. Very cozy, but hard to maintain a consistent temp throughout the house. The new cold-climate models can operate at 100% capacity down to an ambient temp of -13F outdoors. One in each bedroom, the living area, and home office makes it easy to dial in the optimal temp for the space. No more loading the woodstove overnight when everyone is in a bedroom with the door closed!

For the summer, the heat pumps have replaced our terribly inefficient whole-house central AC. We have a PV solar electric system, so we can use the electricity we produce to run them, and once I started paying attention to energy use in our home it was clear that the old central AC had to go.

The modern mini-splits are pretty much maintenance-free, and are warrantied for 12 years. Best off all? The compressors are very quiet. You can have a normal conversation standing right next to them.

ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2018)
How can you claim "we're a remote-first business" when you're saying Chicago and San Diego candidates are first?
ultra-jeremyx··on Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
The real tragedy here is the lack of the Oxford comma in the headline.
ultra-jeremyx··on The Limits to Growth (1972) [pdf]
The point of system dynamics is not predicting the numbers--it's understanding the system. If you look at historical data over time and see values increasing, decreasing, and remaining steady, it would be nicer to have an endogenous understanding of what causes those changes instead of extrapolating based on the historical data. When you understand _how_ the system works, then you can reason about where the leverage points are.

I always loved that the biggest leverage point in any system is to change the system itself!

ultra-jeremyx··on Dev Bootcamp Shutting Down
Is your program appropriate for students who are high school seniors/graduates as a alternative, or lead-in to college? What level of programming experience is required?
ultra-jeremyx··on Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control
Go ahead and try it! How hard could it be?

http://ultrasignup.com/

ultra-jeremyx··on Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control
Timmy Olsen has been hit or miss as far as leaving his competitors in the dust.

There are a LOT of other factors. Who's on top in the ultrarunning world is constantly changing, and, the ultra races are extremely vaired: 100 mile road races to the Barkley Marathons.

Just last year, Karl Meltzer broke vegan runner Scott Jurick's Appalachian Trail speed record. Obviously, they had very different diets.

I think the real requirement for ultrarunning (and other long-term thinking activities) is grit. Grit includes will power but also the ability to endure.

ultra-jeremyx··on 2017 State of Global Tech Salaries
...and the section on race is very interesting:

"When we look at our two largest markets on Hired’s platform, San Francisco and New York, the average African-American candidate on the Hired platform is 49 percent more likely to get hired than the average white person. [...] It's unclear if African American candidates are receiving more offers because of diversity initiatives, a lower preferred salary, or a combination of those and other factors."

ultra-jeremyx··on Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
I would become a full-time MUT runner (mountain/ultra/trail) and adventurer like Kilian Jornet (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-t...) or Karl Meltzer, who broke the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail this past summer here in the U.S.
ultra-jeremyx··on Running as a Thinking Person’s Sport
A few years ago I got into MUT (mountain/ultra/trail) running and have been amazed by the mental health benefits it has had on my life. I have come to realize that it's because human beings are natural endurance athletes but the evolution of our minds has far outpaced our biology. Most people just don't use their bodies for what they were evolved for. For me, engaging in regular endurance activities led to great fitness, and more importantly, happiness.

As a developer, I find that taking a mid-day break from coding to run for an hour or two in the mountains refreshes my mind and clarifies my thinking in the afternoon. I often end up solving coding problems when I stop thinking and focus on the moment in running, and then--BAM--out of nowhere a solution will pop into my head.