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washywashy

157 karma · joined September 5, 2022

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washywashy··on The album art of Phil Hartmann (2022)
I’m always fascinated by the nuance of biographies. The big events are, of course, interesting, but I often find myself drawn to the more mundane, or unrelated-to-rise-to-fame, aspects that blend into someone’s life story when creating something like a Wikipedia blurb or summary. Before X worked as an insurance adjuster for Y years until Z happened. People like Alan Rickman come to mind. I never knew Phil Hartman did this type of work and for some pretty well known bands. Very cool
washywashy··on The album art of Phil Hartmann (2022)
Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz. Legend
washywashy··on Donald Sutherland has died
He’s very good in backdraft
washywashy··on Migrating Uber's ledger data from DynamoDB to LedgerStore
I pretty much never see engineering salaries factored into these types of savings projects. I assume because engineers are already viewed as a sunk cost or maybe it’s just because it’s way less tangible. Have seen many designs describe how X saves Y dollars but ignores the engineering effort to maintain and build it. Half the time I suspect it’s just so people have something to work on, rather than it being some critical fix.
washywashy··on Third Time: a better way to work (2022)
I might find this ultra-productivity useful if it was at a business or side-project I owned or ran, where I have a large stake in the outcomes and there’s not enough people to do everything. But, if working for a medium to large-sized company, the ROI on this type of productivity just isn’t there. I’m not saying don’t be professional and work hard and do your job, but in my experience if you race ahead because of some productivity hack you often end up either completing something that has changed from how you did it by the time it is needed, or no one really notices that you’re cranking out extra tasks all the time. I guess I could see a benefit if you use this to work smarter not harder and automate out a lot of mundane drudgery in your day-to-day.
washywashy··on California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]
Consistent driving and ride quality could be a benefit
washywashy··on Math as a habit
I follow this but part of this attitude has always struck me as slightly off. Parents and others deciding what is valuable versus what isn’t. Granted draining full days in Roblox for the average kid is likely a net loss, but I recall similar attitudes parents had for video games. There’s a fair number of people out there who played lots of video games as children and grew up to do great things because they were inspired by games. Guess I am saying it’s hard to know where inspiration can emerge from. I don’t think teaching our kids some skill is always about its benefits to them but the befits we have perceived from it, regardless of what it is and if the kid likes it. I recall having to go on lots of morning hunts as a kid because my dad enjoyed it and wanted me to enjoy it too, even though I did not.
washywashy··on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Also gevulot in Quantum Thief - mentioned in nested comment above
washywashy··on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
It’s not so much having a countermeasure but having countermeasures be built in to the system. Similar to a concept called gevulot in the book Quantum Thief.
washywashy··on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
We need to invent something that does the opposite now where individuals could wear something that prevents them from showing up in someone else’s content without explicit digital consent (some sort of personal scrambler). I don’t think the LED feature listed on this product page will often be honored by most people who will use these shades
washywashy··on Amazon Andy Jassy shouldn’t make RTO decisions in echo chamber of CEOs feelings
Companies also get tax incentives based how many butts are in seats. So, it’s not just a sunk cost fallacy at play here
washywashy··on How to lose weight in 4 easy steps (2015)
Clueless gamer guy from Conan
washywashy··on FCC allows blocking traffic from robocall-friendly provider One Owl
Isn’t perfect but this is why I suddenly like voice mail again. I don’t answer any numbers I don’t recognize. If it’s important they will leave a voicemail.
washywashy··on Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?
I think the issue is that people sometimes incorrectly assume job titles are standard and used the same across different companies. At some companies titles are more about pay bands. I’ve worked places with a bunch of “senior” engineers, but that was mainly because the company pay bands couldn’t compete with the market for junior engineers so they’d hire them as seniors. It’s bad too because sometimes once an employee gets that title they expect it at other companies even if the experience level isn’t there yet, which limits their mobility because they refuse to take a backward step in their career, even if the pay is better
washywashy··on We raised a bunch of money
Regions also important for more regulated geographies
washywashy··on Show HN: I created a game to memorize the fretboard
If only I’d had this back when I wanted to be Steve Vai to Yngwie Malmsteen
washywashy··on 12-Year-Old to Graduate from College with Five Degrees
Little Man Tate
washywashy··on NYC skyscrapers sit vacant
Yeah I don’t really understand this. I would ride bus to and from school. Stay after school for activities and find a ride back with friends or siblings or some other way without my parents needing to get involved. Anecdotal but whenever I see school buses now, they mostly seem empty and whenever you pass a school there’s a huge drop off or pick up line.
washywashy··on My friends who cheated in interviews are getting promoted (2022)
The problem is no matter how much training or systems a company has for its interviewing process, employees won’t read it and will inconsistently interview candidates (couldn’t remember List method == red flag; another interviewer rightly wouldn’t ding someone for this). I think interviewers really need to develop their critical thinking skills in how they judge talent. I’d rather have someone who wasn’t able to solve part three of an interview problem but high leveled some decent approaches that indicate, given more time, they’d be able to solve it. It’s interesting to me that we place this artificial time barrier on many interviews when in reality work is not chunked out that way and often takes quite a bit of thinking to come up with good solutions to things. On the other hand, I don’t think take home tests are a good solution for interviewing either. I think a lot of interviewers just end up copy catting whoever they trained with when watching interviews as a shadow (if they even had this opportunity).
washywashy··on ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
Lots of shark attacks too
washywashy··on On Having Enough Socks (2019)
You can never have enough. Keeping the ones with small holes is even somewhat useful
washywashy··on NZ’s biggest data breach shows retention is the sleeping giant of data security
Think about every little tiny mom-pop medical office that either runs their own IT or pays a medical-industry-centered consultancy that usually has an IT branch. I think you’d be surprised to see what is out there and what is being used.
washywashy··on Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco
Cops should also protect and serve, regardless of prosecution outcome. Granted it’s just an oath.
washywashy··on The Contradictions of Sam Altman
OpenAI/ChatGPT seem to be very creative based on variations it can make on “things” that already exist. I’m just curious if we see AI being truly creative and making something “new”. Perhaps everything is based on something though, and that’s a rough explanation for this creativity. Maybe AI’s true creativity can come from the input prompts of its “less intelligent”, but more flexibly creative users.
washywashy··on Incompetent but Nice
Incompetent but Nice only seems to work when all managers and team members know it and they are given tasks they can’t mess up. It does affect morale though, as working with a jerk would too.
washywashy··on Cargo theft, led by food and beverage, is surging across the U.S.
Could stores that are fronts for money laundering buy at inflated prices?
washywashy··on Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers after earlier cuts
You sound like you’ve never worked in recruiting or spoken closely with someone who has.
washywashy··on Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?
Cincinnati?
washywashy··on Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business
They auction the search result space, like Google search. I guess for prime members it would be nice to have the option to turn off. I have noticed this happening on lots of websites now, particularly grocery websites.
washywashy··on Unidentified Halo, an anti-surveillance wearable project
Reminds me of gevulot in the quantum thief
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