woogiewonka

It makes me wonder what role overstimulation at home plays in diagnosis when kids are dropped into an environment where they must abide by certain structure. I am not qualified to comment on the disorder itself but part of me thinks kids are exposed to vastly different environments today than they were for example 20 years ago. At home you have all sorts of things - devices and increasingly complex games & toys that stimulate the mind, and when you're put into a school environment, you're supposed to all of a sudden conform into that "sit still and learn" mold? To what degree is this accounted for in the diagnosis? I grew up in a totally different time where stimulation was somewhat consistent from home to school, but I can't even imagine what kids are dealing with these days when they are exposed to high tech devices, games that interact on a whole new level than they have before, liberal parenting to controlled environments - that must count for something?

Ready, set, go! Let's see how many scrapers HN readers will build now to try to copy this "business" model.

I didn't read through the full article but I want to comment anyway. I think the problem is much more complex than simply "gig economy". In all likelihood it is a combination of multiple issues that compound on one another. Gig economy certainly plays a part in that compounding effect that causes isolation and loneliness but it is certainly not the only factor. Take a look at an average family today: you have a father and mother who both work jobs, stay late, outsource their parental duties, all just to keep up with the lifestyle they created or the bare minimum to survive. The kids are on their phones, ipads and whatnot and the adults are setting the example at the dinner table (what.. wait, nope there is no dinner table anymore as everyone just eats whenever, and if they do, they are on their devices). The growing isolation at home fosters a behavior that leads to ever more isolated existence in outside relationships. With the media constantly being pumped into our brains, we must have the latest and greatest gadgetry for what? To consume more media and become even lonelier.

The growing class divide, carefully curated media channels and a widening gap in haves vs have nots encourages an us vs them attitude. Combine that with a social media existence that allows you to select which highly tuned group you want to belong to and you've got yourself an information / viewpoint silo that breeds hate.

Then you have an ever-growing selection of consumer products that aims at creating a finely attuned solution to every need but in fact creates a sense of bewilderment and unhappiness.

Of course not all is terrible, as (some) businesses compete, you get better and better products / services (not always) that set a high bar for expectations. When the next burger, 4k TV or haircut is unsatisfactory, the feeling is compounded as we now have so much to compare to. How can anyone be pleasantly surprised when the bar to compare to is perfection?

Take our family again, the kids are going to college and accrue a ton of debt and are left to pay for it after graduation. No problems, unemployment rates are low, just go find a great paying tech job right? Well, now every entry job requires 2 years experience and nobody wants to hire college graduates. Take another dose of depression here and add it to your collective loneliness profile.

Then we have the corporate behemoths that stifle competition and create massive enterprises which control your life. Want to switch internet service? Forget it. No alternatives. Want to complain about a service you don't like? Good luck with that, you'll be connected to India and I'm sure they will put your suggestion in a corporate suggestion box... In some aspects we have too much choice and in others not enough. This of course leads to stress, frustration, anger, and despair - all of which feeds into the pool of depression. If yours isn't full, someone else's is getting there, and once it fills up it starts spilling out.

It doesn't stop there. US in particular is great at fostering a culture where we must blame everything on ourselves. Didn't get a good product? Your fault! You chose it. Didn't get the right president? Your fault! You voted for him. Didn't reach your personal goals after listening to that life coach / feel good guru podcast? Your fault! Don't you know, you're in charge of your own destiny! Forget asking for help, that's for the weak. Oh, but when you do, make sure to see a mental health professional since privacy is important (just don't complain when they share their information with insurance providers who will decide which therapy you should undergo).

Consumption, consumption, consumption. Take advantage of everyone to make an extra buck. Screw over your co-worker for that promotion. Outsource that job to an overseas contract worker - who cares about your fellow neighbor. Speaking of neighbors, why are they making so much noise? Well, don't bother talking to them because you know you won't. How dare you knock on their door and say hello, that's just weird! Nobody does that.

And people wonder why they are lonely...

I see tiny kids walking down narrow (I would call dangerous due to traffic) streets. See them crossing sidewalks. As a parent of a one year old I find this scary and fascinating.

If not HEPA, then which filter types do you recommend?

Scrolljacking on this site is unbelievable.

Your comment should be at the top of this thread. This guy never mentions fan performance after applying a strong filter like Merv 13. I did the same and the airflow is reduced significantly. Since other systems use a strong motor, this box fan contraption does not compare in the slightest. You'd have to have it run at high setting ALL the time. Imagine that...

I don't think so. The filter he uses has to be replaced every 3 months and it costs ~$15 (that particular brand). So you are looking at $60/year in filter costs - all in all not bad! Also, you could stick a carbon pre-filter right in front of the fan (behind this filter) of it to filter out some of the odor-causing particles.

Yes they do. Sadly. Some make up fake emails or use a junk email, but many give their real.

I googled Guinea Worms and was pleasantly surprised to see Jimmy Carter working on the problem. Supposedly, the worm is 99.9% eradicated and is on its way to be completely wiped off the face of the earth. Jimmy Carter and the people involved int his are awesome!

Don't ever present custom presentations or documents without first having some sort of a commitment from the prospect.

1.You are wasting your time 2. You are coming across as desperate

By commitment I mean a phone call.

The number one mistake I see freelancers make is not schedule a time to talk to the prospect. Calls are amazing because they do a few things:

1. Filter out people who are not serious about their projects (it's either a side project for them and they have not fully dedicated themselves to it, or they are just shopping around for prices)

2. Allow you to sell yourself without trying. This is really easy to do counter to all the advice out there. Just listen. Listen carefully. Sympathize. Be there so they can cry their problems on your shoulder and then offer to relieve that pain by providing an end-to-end solution.

I have learned all of this the hard way - presenting free quotes, proposals and all that bs. Only when I stopped doing that and focused more on the networking aspect - talking to the person and understanding their problem - becoming their friend - that I got most projects.

Were they real jobs? Did you end up selecting anyone? If so, what bucket did they fit in - cheap and abundant or quality?

The key to Upwork is to position yourself as a premium solutions provider. I know it goes counter to what Upwork stands for - competition and lower costs, but this is what I have done early on and has worked for me.

You want to accomplish a few things by positioning yourself on results vs. cost:

1. Filter out shit people who only see you as a cost 2. Not have to compete on price

You can do both of these things and get people to come to YOU instead of bidding left and right. Here is how I did it as a UX designer:

1. Position your profile as a SOLUTION provider, not a code monkey. That means showcasing working products with a side of description about the tech stack.

2. Accept some projects at lower cost to get yourself to 100% "top freelancer" status. This process takes time but once you get there you will see people reaching out to you instead of the other way around.

3. Say NO to many projects. I know I know.. you are thinking I should say YES to everything so I can maximize my chances of finding work but in reality you want to say NO to as many projects as you can. There are QUALITY projects out there that hire long term coders and you can get them if you position yourself as a solutions provider. The big benefit of this is that you get ongoing work and not a fly-by-night single page app.

4. Set a high price. Again, this is counter to what everyone does, but you want to attract companies / individuals who filter out by price (ignore the low costs and look for presumed quality - higher cost). As a UX designer I found my ideal rate to be $75/hr - BUT, I do not charge $75/hr - this is just what's on my profile, I actually charge on a weekly basis at ~60/hr. (I don't work a full week 8 hrs a day).

There was an excellent comment from a team of developers who position themselves outside of Upwork really well: https://codetree.co/

This is what you want to do, follow their footsteps, both on Upwork and off. Set up your website to communicate a professional image and a solution provider mindset. You are there to deliver a final product, not code. The people that want to pay the lowest price for your work see you as a "he may leave shit unfinished half way through or take forever to get anything done" therefore they want to reduce costs.

I know all of this because I started on Upwork and I frequently post jobs to work with developers. I have a few side projects where I outsourced all of the development work having done the UX myself.

I'm curious, was this pay from raised money or did you actually generate revenue to cover your pay?

Well, in 2010 I was doing affiliate marketing via Facebook & Adwords. FB made some changes during that time that made it impossible for me to continue. I ran with Adwords for a while but then Google killed of the niche too. This is basically what happens when you trust your livelihood in the hands of other companies that can turn it all off in a second. The income that year was split in half between me and my partner so in total I think we pulled in 300k. It was nice while it lasted but then the real world knocked.

Mine for shits and giggles (USD)

2009 - 0 (moved and was living off savings, almost broke)

2010 - 150k (affiliate marketing, self, from home, 3 hours per day worked)

2011 - 24k (just a sliver of affiliate marketing, self, from home, not sure how many hours I worked)

2012 - 42k (SEO contract work, tiny company - part remote, 40 hours a week)

2013 - 42k (SEO contract work, tiny company - part remote, 40 hours a week)

2014 - 55k (marketing at small company - remote, 40 hours a week)

2015 - 75k + fully paid top tier health plan (marketing - large ecommerce company - remote, 40 hours a week)

2016 - 50k (freelance - from home, 20 hours a week)

2017 - 60k (freelance - from home, 20 hours a week)

2018 - Looks to be on track to 100k (consulting - from home, 5-8 hours a week)

For context, 2009 - 2015 I was living in a high cost of living location. Today I live in a very low cost of living location.

I don't think he was trying to make them feel guilty, rather just pointing to the awkward fact that the situations and people he is talking about are the ones like those in the audience. I haven't read the book but I reckon he talks a lot about Google based on how many times he mentioned monopolies and anticompetitiveness.

Ted started off great and has turned into a complete joke. Got the money? Come and talk. Have a controversial idea - sure, it's worth spreading. I've come to accept TED as entertainment more so than anything factual. If facts are there, they have to be checked.

@matznerd

1. What can the average person do to help you with your mission? 2. Where is the kickstarter? 3. Do you have someone working on marketing already? 4. Is there a way to volunteer without being physically present? Marketing, design, just brainstorming etc... I realize you have a "contact us" button on your website, but could you list more specifically what you are after? 5. Where can we keep track of what you are doing now and what the next step is? 6. What is standing in your way now to get your test project going. Specifically referring to "wiggle tank" and first olivine by 2019. 7. Have you factored in all of the economics of this? Extraction, delivery, dispersion?

Thank you.

I am not an expert on this subject matter but I suspect much of the required structure for younger kids is only a necessity due to constant restrictions and monitoring that's been put in place by modern society. In other words, we are not giving enough space to develop on their own terms and explore their surroundings.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s and remember spending a lot of time unsupervised going about wherever and doing all sorts of wild things well before I was 7 years old. Looking back now as a parent it is absolutely terrifying to me what I was "allowed" to do. Then again when I think about the Norma in countries like Japan (where it is not uncommon to see kindergarten kids walking home by themselves and crossing streets and intersections), I am reminded that kids can develop independently to a great tune than we give them credit for. I don't know about Japanese kids materials levels but I've noticed that they are typically given more freedoms to act independently and spend a lot more time on outdoor and social activities. If I had to guess I'd say they are a lot less materialistic than their Western counterparts.

As for my own child, I try to let him be independent even at 1 year. For example, we have a TV stand that any parent would be terrified if their kid climbed on it. I was terrified at first but then with some observation and secret supervision I let him climb it. To my surprise he quickly learned how to turn around and get down safely. There was only a single time when he fell from it sideways unhurt, but now he goes up and down like a pro without any supervision. I can leave the room knowing he will always get down fine. To what effect independence will have an impact on materialism remains to be seen but I suspect one of the commenters is right on the money with mirroring behavior and values.

I grew up poor and never had a strong desire for material things. I don't know if growing up poor is the reason for this, but I do know that not having access to "fancy" things a kid might have access to, made me spend a lot more time playing outside and keeping occupied with activities. Of course this was all before I had access to a computer. The moment I discovered Age of Empires, I had a strong urge to have my own computer.

One of my biggest distractions for years has been email. I just have to have my inbox at zero and used to check my email religiously, from every few minutes to every few hours. I'd check email in the bathroom, in bed, at the table .. it was getting ridiculous. The things is, I never got any interesting email worth checking - it was always the same pattern: swipe - delete. So I decided to do something about it.

I figured checking email once or at most twice per day would be enough so I took took a few steps to accomplish this:

1. Moved the email icon from my phone into an obscure folder hidden on the very last screen on my phone. Now, instead of clicking it right away I have to actively find it which is kind of a pain.

2. Installed SelfControl for Mac and added gmail.com, facebook (yes I still have a shell account I use to check one group), reddit, ycombinator, twitter and a host of other news sites I may occasionally visit to the black list. The first thing I do in the morning is set that timer for almost the entirety of the day and hit start. Now everything is literally blocked and I cannot access it without turning off SelfControl which I have yet to do. Some days I make an exception and leave hacker news off the list.

What I really want now is a product, app or SOMETHING that just turns off everything, including notifications at a click of tap of a button - across all devices simultaenteouly. Turn of all notifications, popups, alerts, all the garbage that comes up through the day including phone calls, messages, Facetime.. just everything. I don't care if it's an emergency, I don't care if someone died, I don't care if checking the phone will save my life. Just turn it all off, but give me access to the apps I still use.

Me too.

Here in Japan we frequently eat ramen noodles for dinner, although not the instant kind (well, sometimes even the instant ones). There are some fancier ramen that you add all sorts of fresh toppings to (wakame, pork, eggs etc..) and it tastes awesome.

Really good web pages? are you kidding me? lol

With vacation rentals, you have to have people who actually rent stuff and that's the part of the chicken/egg problem I haven't solved yet. While I was able to bootstrap the site, the traffic to it was non-existent thus I felt guilty if I charged people to list. The premise was that they would list for free first, their listings would attract traffic, then I would charge people to list. Meanwhile people are booking and more are listing - that was the idea.

Couldn't you just use the code to do the rest yourself and launch it on your own - write him out of the picture if nothing was solidified legally?

How do we know which ones are irrational or how to find them? :)

This was about 7 years ago. It was bootstrapped. The site targeted US / US-based vacation destinations (Caribbean, Jamaica etc, not entire world).

My first startup failed because I had no idea what I was doing. I started an online vacation rental site, similar to vacationrentals.com vrbo, homeaway etc... I was getting traction and had people list their rentals on my site but I failed to collect any revenue. The thought was, build it, offer it for free to grow it and then charge. Well, I built it (wasting way too much money on an original solution when existing solutions could have done just fine), people came (after I bent over backwards trying to onboard them), but time sucked me dry and I was not able to sustain the "business" any longer. Looking back, I did just about everything wrong.