How Strength Training Changes Your Body for Good - <AUTHOR> http://time.com/4824531/strength-training-women-exercise/ <comment><USER2> Since I bet the overwhelming majority of our 300,000 years worth of homo sapiens ancestors and countless more years of prior ancestors exercised in these ways as a matter of course, I would instead title it

"How sedentary lifestyles and lack of strength training degrade your body and mind."

<comment><USER3> Not sure if I made that comment already on HN. But I was watching a documentary on some amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe.

All the men from teens to elders looked like gym models. It never struck me until I was in my 30's - but really I have the body of a sick individual and the guy on the gym adverts is actually what the human body looks by design, not some sort of aspirational dream.

<comment><USER4> _All the men from teens to elders looked like gym models. It never struck me until I was in my 30 's - but really I have the body of a sick individual and the guy on the gym adverts is actually what the human body looks by design, not some sort of aspirational dream._

I've seen comments like this before, and they're valid, but I've also seen evolutionary biologists and/or anthropologists point out too that many if not most people who are wounded or sick die. So you're also seeing selection bias, where the healthy thrive and you don't see the unhealthy because they're dead.

<comment><USER5> I don't get it; I mean, I understand the idea of selection bias but what does that have to do with grandparent's point?

OK, a relatively large percent of hunter-gatherers die due lack of antibiotics & other modern medicine. But gp isn't claiming it'd be a good idea to return to a full hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They're just observing that "this is what a biologically normal, healthy homo sapiens looks like". And if you go to the gym you might replicate that -- presumably without incurring the fate of short-lived hunter-gatherers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One thing I wish I realized earlier in regards to strength training:

It's very easy to do at home if you have the space for it.

You don't need an expensive machine. A used power rack and bench can be found for cheap. I now get my workouts done in the amount of time it would've taken me to drive to/from the gym. Listen to whatever music I like. Don't have to worry about other people. Don't have to worry about weather.

<comment><USER7> Very true. Dialing it down even further, a bench and a set of adjustable dumbbells can be had for even cheaper and take up a lot less space. You won't be able to progress as far, particularly with leg exercises, but a small flat bench with dumbbells under it fits in the corner of a room when not in use. The power rack, bench, weights, and barbell may not be too expensive, but the extra room to hold all of them is.

That said, I'm a huge fan of the home workout. There's at least an hour worth of time overhead in going to the gym, and there's mental activation energy too. At home, I can easily start a workout, I never wait for a machine, I change in my bedroom instead of a locker room, I'm using my own shower, and it takes zero time to get there.

Especially for beginners, the downsides of only having dumbbells are dwarfed by the benefits of doing it at home.

<comment><USER8> Honest question:

I live in a small apartment, is another issue not smell?

i.e, the room with gym equipment may begin to smell of sweat?

<comment><USER9> Not it won't, your SO will notice the smell after a session, but with proper ventilation it will be quickly gone.

But the coating of the weight may smell very bad, it depends on the material :

un-coated plates won't smell, but will make lot of noise when stacked together and will easily put a dent in a wooden floor

rubber coated plates are silent, but will smell horrible for months, depending on the storage where you brought it, I had to clean mine 3 times with lots of recipes, and put it on the balcony for weeks, and even now I still notice a smell in the room.

I would go for urethane plates, won't smell and are silent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "The average American flat-out loathes strength training. While about half of people do the recommended amount of aerobic activity each week, only 20% also do the muscle-strengthening moves that work major muscle groups."

That definitely sums up myself. I am a cyclist. My totals for this week are 147.1 miles with 15,497 feet of climbing (I do nothing but mountains, flat is boring!), but if you ask me to do 10 push ups, I will complain! For me aerobic activity engages my mind. There is a destination. The environment moves and is changing. When climbing up a hill, I have no choice to push myself if I am ever going to get to the top. Push ups? I simply stop when my body resists.

Despite my complaints, I do some strength training. Core strength is important in cycling and it is my upper body that fails during long rides, not my legs. My legs can keep going, but my shoulders give out due to constant vibrations.

<comment><USER11> You'd probably see nice returns in your cycling if you started doing heavy barbell squats too.

<comment><USER12> Maybe.

afaik, most elite cyclists do not squat. I'm guessing endurance and low body weight are more advantageous to the sport.

I'm sure there are studies. Can anyone else chime in?

<comment><USER13> Elite track cyclists--i.e., the ones who ride at 40+ kmph on velodromes-- definitely do squat. I wouldn't be surprised if they also incorporated power cleans and deadlifts.

Example: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOImvJOaGiY](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOImvJOaGiY)

<comment><USER12> Yes, track cyclists do indeed lift, but it seems OP is an endurance cyclist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Weight training doesn't make your muscles bigger, it inspires your body to make your muscles bigger. So my question has always been, if having bigger muscles is good why doesn't the body just do it? It certainly has to be aware that I'm operating with a calorie surplus.

<comment><USER15> Even if you are operating with a calorie surplus, you'd need to eat an optimal mix of nutrients to maintain extra muscle. Most people (most likely) cannot simply ramp up amounts of what you currently eat.

For example, if you suddenly require 5000 c/day, you cannot simply eat more pizza, MT Dew, etc. You have to eat 5000 c/day of nutrient rich food. Your muscles do not only require calories. This is actually very hard to do (imagine how much actual food volume you have to process)!

You also need many more macronutrients to keep things going (all that extra food needs to be processed), and clean (significantly more waste byproducts produced).

Your cardiovascular system needs to grow in conjunction with the extra muscle -- it must keep up. As does your skeletal (bones, ligaments/tendons).

<comment><USER16> Which nutrients are pizza missing for building muscle? The problem with pizza is that it is way too easy to over indulge, but I don't think it is lacking "nutrients".

<comment><USER17> Protein. Pizza is a high carb dish in most cases. If you're getting a whole chicken breast worth of chicken per two or three slices, that's a different story. But in general it's mostly a bunch of white bread with some tasty sauce on it.

<comment><USER18> Pizza has cheese which has a decent amount of protein in it.

Lots of pizzas also have meat toppings as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Indoor climbing/bouldering is a nice alternative for ppl who find lifting boring. Despite mostly engaging upper body, it really gives you a good workout with the added problem solving challenge, balance and flexibility training.

<comment><USER20> What I like about climbing, despite never having done it,

      - blends power and subtlety
      - blends static and dynamic
      - involves almost all limb chains

The added "route planning" effort also forces your brain into deep focus. A climber said for him every second is an hour.

And on actual rock, having to judge a grabbing surface on the fly is beautiful to me, like playing violin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Do we always need additional/external weights, or are there any body weight exercises that can target your bones? Perhaps leg bones are easier since the body weight goes through them. How about upper body (like shoulder area) and the spine?

<comment><USER22> You can do a lot with just bodyweight, but even the r/bodyweight folks recommend using a barbell for squats and deadlifts.

<comment><USER17> You can get pretty far with kettlebells too. And they're easier to deal with for a home gym.

<comment><USER22> Do you have a site you recommend with good routines? r/kettlebell maybe?

I'm familiar with kettlebells from Crossfit, but I know CF catches a lot of flak for how they use them.

<comment><USER17> Haven't been to r/kettlebell but I like what they have over at onnit[1] for beginners. I'm in the camp that would recommend against crossfit.

[1] [https://www.onnit.com/academy/full-body-kettlebell- workout-f...](https://www.onnit.com/academy/full-body-kettlebell-workout-for- beginners/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


FitBit Data Just Undermined a Woman's Rape Claim - <AUTHOR> http://fusion.net/story/158292/fitbit-data-just-undermined-a-womans-rape-claim/ <comment><USER2> That "just" is from (2015), and it was posted before here too.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is an interesting juxtaposition to the story about a FitBit helping ER doctors diagnose a patients heart condition.</comment>


Welcome to the Era of Politically Correct Web Browsing – Hit and Run : Reason.com - <AUTHOR> http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/03/welcome-to-the-era-of-politically-correc <comment><USER2> No. Just.. no. Flagged for being a misleading article from a social regressive website with the most misleading domain name ever.

For the last time, Eich was not ousted for his "views" or "beliefs". (He wasn't even technically "ousted" \- he stepped down.)

The furor over this person was because of their _ACTIONS_ , namely donating money to what was for all intents and purposes a hate group.

It really is that simple.

</comment><comment> vezzy-fnord Direct link to the article itself: [http://time.com/49136/brendan-eich- mozilla-firing-firefox-ga...](http://time.com/49136/brendan-eich-mozilla- firing-firefox-gay-marriage/)

Not that it really said much. It was just a brief thought dump with no particular direction.</comment>


Ask HN: Any recommendations on dealing with a company restructuring? - <AUTHOR> The company I work for will soon go through a major restructuring. At the moment the company has a /very/ flat, start-up like structure (3 levels: 1 CEO -> 2 Managers -> ~100 employees). There are also roughly 10 team leads in charge of service lines/products, but that are not involved with the business side of things at all (e.g. budgeting, leave approval etc.).
The reorg's purpose is to introduce more structure and delegate responsibility (I guess all startups go through this?). Effectively the plan is to elevate the 10 team leads to managers of the various service lines and products they lead now, including some of the business responsibility.
I am one of the team leads, and also one of the most senior developers on staff. There is a big strategy session being planned to discuss and implement the reorg. The meeting will be politically laden (some guys manage 3 people, some as many as 20, with varying years of experience).
So I have two questions: 1) In general, what is your advice for handling the restructuring? Any experience, advice or mistakes, pitfalls or caveats you can recall I should avoid/lookout for? Anything I should specifically ask for, or push for?
2) There is a lot of unrest amongst the team leads (hence, politics) with some being way more senior (~10 years exp) and managing larger teams who will now be promoted along with/treated the same as mid-level guys (~2-3 years exp). There is a big question of fairness, and the road ahead. Any strategies for dealing with this? <comment><USER2> You seem to have a good grasp of the situation, and I'm not sure I have much advice.

From experience, I'd keep an eye out for members of your own team starting to act up. Some people respond to reorgs as a chance to vent their personal agendas, or slack off, or [fill in the blank]. I would not expect the same level of output until well after the org shake up has settled down.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's definitely something to look out for, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just take good care of your team. And do not expect fairness.

Business can be honest but never will be fair.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good point, my team should come first.</comment></comment>


Bow and Arrow: Primitive Technology - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLoukoBs8TE <comment><USER2> He would probably get better shooting accuracy if he had been drawing the bow further, beyond his chin, instead of holding the string wholly on muscles.

Otherwise, very impressive.</comment>


Something is rotten at food startup Hampton Creek - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Sex-lies-and-eggless-mayonnaise-Something-is-6427839.php <comment><USER2> Blogspam. Original post is at [http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek- ceo-complaints-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo- complaints-2015-7)</comment>


Rackspace Shuts Down Koran-Burning Web Site - <AUTHOR> http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/09/09/rackspace-shuts-down-koran-burning-web-site/

<comment><USER2> I'm usually impressed by the discussion on Hacker News but the amount of ignorance about the nature of the 1st Amendment and the difference between government and private actions in this discussion is disheartening.

The US 1st Amendment is a restriction on government actions not a restriction on private actions or private contracts. There may be other legal reasons why private actions might be controlled or regulated but please don't point to the 1st Amendment in order to justify that control.

Finally, where do people get the idea that the concept of 'free speech' includes the notion that other people, companies, or the government are _required_ to support and assist you in communicating your message? The freedom to 'speak' without government coercion is not a guarantee that your speech won't be met with ridicule, criticism, rejection, or counterargument and appeals to your 'free speech' rights being violated when that happens is absurd.

</comment><comment><USER3> While I like this in theory (because burning the Koran en mass is a stupid idea) I'm troubled by it in practice. Does this mean that if I espouse on an idea that Rackspace doesn't like they'll pull my service? Obviously this has nothing to do with the 1st amendment... Rackspace may terminate my use of their property by grounds in the contract I've signed with them. I'm not sure, however, I like the idea of a hosting company policing the ideas that are posted on their servers.

<comment><USER4> It sounds like it, assuming the way your idea is espoused violates TOS that you agreed to.

<comment><USER3> Fair point, I guess if a movement to burn the Koran "...contains harassing content or hate speech" I have to wonder what other ideas and writings, in Rackspace's considered opinion, might violate that clause in their TOS? As this isn't a legal or constitutional issue, one presumes they aren't using the legal tests for hate speech/hate crimes. Is this a 'I'll know it when i see it' sorta test?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> People who think this is a free speech issue wrt Rackspace are confused about how the first amendment works. The right to free speech, is not the right to a platform from which to speak. This was the law-of-the land before the internet even existed.

Back before Craigslist killed classified, news papers absolutely had terms which specified which content they would or wouldn't run.

<comment><USER5> The "constitutional" aspect (if there is one) isn't the issue, though. The issue is whether I, you, or anyone else, wants a web host that takes down web sites it disapproves of. A web host can take down websites for misusing apostrophes, if it is entitled to by contract (if there's a broadly drafted term in the contract, this might even be possible in the real world, not just hypothetically). But would you want to do business with them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I understand why

.... except..... there are about a billion images, jokes, articles, sites degrading Jesus Christ and advocating destroying Christianity

</comment><comment><USER7> Rackspace did the right thing. This is not a free speech issue since there are more articulate ways of expressing your dislike of some belief system without desecrating objects that a certain group considers valuable.

<comment><USER8> No, it's not a "free speech issue" because you have no right under the Constitution to post whatever you'd like on Rackspace's private property, and the contract you enter into to post anything there specifically enjoins you from posting "harassing" or "hate" speech.

Sorry to be pedantic, but people have weird ideas about what the 1st Amendment actually means. "Congress shall make no law" does not mean "Rackspace shall make no rule".

<comment><USER9> In other words, you have no free speech on the internet because all the routers, wires, servers, links, modems are the property of their owners and they are free to censor whatever you post as long as they have sufficiently ambiguous clauses on their contracts that may or may not involve you as a part.

How far can you bend your constitution before it breaks?

<comment><USER10> You have a good point that a private monopoly can ultimately limit public rights like free speech. If there's no alternative provider that is willing to host hate speech, you can't broadcast it in that form.

I can think of three ways to provide for that:

1\. Public servers, possibly sponsored by the govt

2\. Regulation of Internet access run by private companies

3\. Waiting for private competition to create such a space

The first one worked well in the early days of the Internet. There were lots of rules against commercial use of publicly-funded computers but little content regulation. Despite what some may think about the govt, it has lost most times it has attempted to limit free speech.

Regulation sort of works for railroads and telecom lines. Bell gets a monopoly on wiring but they have to provide access to disabled people, can't do discriminatory pricing, etc.

The last one is least likely to succeed. I don't know of any private US company that advertises themselves as "no takedown unless required by court order". It seems there is little profit advantage in marginalized speech compared to the cost of defending against attacks on it.

While it's good to see Ipredator and BayImg providing services with this kind of guarantee, the fact that such an effort only seems possible in Sweden should give us pause.

<comment><USER11> <https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/> is one I can think of.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Well, good.</comment>


9 Podcasts for first time founders - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/swlh/9-podcasts-for-first-time-founders-ed0fd2a90027 <comment><USER2> this is a really nice list.

I've just finished reading the excellent book recentley shared here⁰. Working through it made me realized that the start-up I joined is ignoring every advise in the book. The ycombinater youtube channel there is a great Sam Altman talk on starting-up¹ which drove the point home further (that I've bet on a losing horse).

As an engineer I constantly get bitten by joining awesome sounding new tech start-ups that despite awesome tech they don't survive the second year (they find a market fit and fail when scaling bc they ignore all the human aspects of what it means to be a company). And in my case it's never the tech that was at fault but lack of creating processes under which successful patterns can be repeated. Somehow it's __always __the dynamic of the people that dooms those projects. Every time I end up coming to the hard realization that there is no other option for me to quit the company after I 've wasted a lot of time and nerves, and it's often more ugly than it should be.

⁰ [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17456999](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17456999)

¹ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoqgAy3h4OM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoqgAy3h4OM)

<comment><AUTHOR> That's exactly why I wanted to start our podcast (#4 on that list). Every time I sit down with a post-seed founder, no matter the scale, the conversation always devolves to "people problems"

At every startup the customers are different, the pain is different, the tech is different. But as people, no matter where we work, we're largely facing the same problems: "people stuff" Would love to see Startups get better at exposing and sharing good solutions to those problems</comment></comment>


Intel's New Xeon E5-2602 V4 CPU to Sport 5.1GHz Clock, 165W TDP - <AUTHOR> http://www.tweaktown.com/news/49671/intels-new-xeon-e5-2602-v4-cpu-sport-5-1ghz-clock-165w-tdp/index.html <comment><USER2> >The problem is, Intel's super-quick Xeon E5-2602 V4 processor will only be made through specific OEMs, and will not be pushed out into the world for public consumption.

So I basically wasted my time reading this.</comment>


Ask HN: What markets are small right now but will be big in 5 years? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Attention (as an actual, formal market)?

Self-driving car rental? (The self-driving matters - it can drive itself to your door. Today, if my car dies and I need a rental, I have to get myself to the rental car place, which is hard _since my car doesn 't work_. And yes, I know that Enterprise delivers, but that takes two people and two cars. That's expensive. A self-driving car would be cheaper.)

Concerts? (I don't mean concert tickets. I mean a market where fans in different cities bid against each other for their favorite acts to come to their town.)</comment>


Why does it take so long to mend an escalator? (2002) - <AUTHOR> https://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n05/peter-campbell/why-does-it-take-so-long-to-mend-an-escalator <comment><AUTHOR> > _In the early days they had to be persuaded to get on at all. A one-legged > man, 'Bumper' Harris, was hired to ride for a whole day on the first > installation – it was at Earls Court – to show how easy it was. Some people > were sceptical (how had he lost his leg?) but others broke their journey > there just to ride up and down._

Reminds me of a Blendtec salesman I saw at Costco who had one of his arms amputated at the elbow. The initial reaction was revulsion, especially since he made frequent jokes about losing his arm in a blender accident as he was using his arm stub to push things into the blender. But it was a very effective demo in showing how the Blendtec was so easy to use that it practically ran itself.

</comment><comment><USER2> As an automotive engine mechanic, ive always been fascinated by large building equipment like elevators and escalators.

That having been said, most of the time when large ubiquitous equipment requires periodic maintenance at scheduled intervals, you have more safety involved. large multistory escalators and elevators have numerous moving parts and circuits to lock out/tag out to ensure equipment service is performed safely. The result of a rush-job is always a gruesome headline on the local news.

Theres also extensive testing. Overload/overtorque systems have to be tested, fail-safe certification has to take place, and the device has to run for a given time before its entered back into service. In my job, I wouldnt think to return a heavy truck to a customer before driving it on both city and highway streets to confirm everything I've worked on performs as expected.

<comment><USER3> >The result of a rush-job is always a gruesome headline on the local news.

The opposite. 99x/100 rushing things turns out fine. It's just a small fraction of the time you get a near miss or an actual injury. We just happen to live in a society where those risks aren't tolerated. Elsewhere in the world those risks are tolerated. That's part of why so much manufacturing has moved overseas. When you don't have to spend an hour locking out a conveyor system to spend 10min replacing a part you can pass those savings down to your customers and undercut the competition.

<comment><USER2> >It's just a small fraction of the time you get a near miss or an actual injury.

We're taught to value the entire lifecycle of our work, at least in my field. For example, rushing to finish a steering maintenance on a large tanker truck could mean your friend gets his thumbs crushed under a pry bar, or it could mean hundreds of fatalities as the poor job you did caused the tanker to collide with a shopping center.

A missing cotter pin or a failed motor ground could easily injure dozens, or even kill them, on a large enough escalator.

<comment><USER3> >, or it could mean hundreds of fatalities as the poor job you did caused the tanker to collide with a shopping center.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. The vast majority of the time mechanical failure results in the vehicle coming to a stop on the shoulder without anything spectacular happening. Think about all the trailer blowouts where the only damage was to the underwear of whoever was nearby. We do things (like install cotter pins, on steering, not in tires, or not intentionally at least) to prevent those sorts of failures because there's a small chance of something spectacularly bad happening (and because downtime is $$ and if you're broken down on the side of the road the DOT vultures will turn up out of nowhere and find a reason to make your downtime even more $$).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well, that depends. Is the escalator located at the Embarcadero BART Station in San Francisco? Are there people shitting on the escalator? Are the escalators designed to take such an abuse? Would you like the maintenance team to do something else or just fix the same escalator each week?

<comment><USER5> The idea that hobo feces are responsible for BART's escalator problems is really an urban legend. It's the design of the damned thing, combined with statutorily mandated low-bid contracting that keeps them broken. At BART's brand-new Warm Springs station the escalators are all under roofs and there are no homeless people anywhere, and the escalators (which I must again stress are completely new) are constantly out of service. This is despite the fact that nobody uses this station, which sees less than one tenth the passenger traffic as does Embarcadero.

<comment><USER6> "When work crews pulled open a broken BART escalator at San Francisco's Civic Center Station last month, they found so much human excrement in its works they had to call a hazardous-materials team." (July, 2012) [https://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Human-waste-shuts- down-...](https://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Human-waste-shuts-down-BART- escalators-3735981.php)

On the other hand although the following article mentions human waste multiple times, it seems likely the largest factor is age:

"The escalators had once been very reliable but are now showing their age, Lemon said. The Dublin/Pleasanton escalator, on the job since 1997, and the Millbrae escalator, in service since 2003, are both closing in on 20 years, which means it's time for an overhaul, Lemon said."

[https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-breakdown- of-B...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-breakdown-of-BART-s- broken-down-escalators-11180030.php#photo-12973647)

<comment><USER5> I'm not denying the fact that the homeless crap on the BART stations. What I'm saying, and what the data from the new stations proves, is that it's not a factor and neither is age, nor exposure to rain. The new ones in the middle of nowhere with no rain are still unreliable, and there's no significant difference in available between the paid area and street escalators which you would expect to be different if transient excrement was the cause.

<comment><USER6> The article [1] seems to provide data that disagrees, that the affected escalators have higher failure rates. What do you think is the motivation for these experts providing incorrect information?

1\. [https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-breakdown- of-B...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-breakdown-of-BART-s- broken-down-escalators-11180030.php#photo-12973647)

<comment><USER5> That analysis commits a variety of errors. For example, they rank Warm Springs as the most reliable with "only" 5 days of downtime in the last two years. Unfortunately at that time the station had only been open for 60 days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is slightly depressing as I've been looking forward to Isaac Asimov's "belts" for some time now. A giant loop of of parallel walkways of graded speeds, continuously operating for city-wide underground transport.

I guess now that they'd have the escalator maintenence issues with steroids.

<comment><USER8> While at it: trains are so much more convenient.

Walls and roof protect you from excessive heat, excessive cold, wind, rain, snow, and the sound the mechanisms make.

Seats allow you (or people more tired than you) to sit and work, read, or rest, especially when you ride for an hour.

Also, train infrastructure is vastly narrower than such a collection of moving bands, and is readily available for maintenance when no trains are going.

The downside is that trains have to have stations. But the moving band will have to have a "station" all along it.

<comment><USER9> Being underground also protects you from excessive heat, excessive cold, wind, rain, and snow.

Being underground won't protect you from the noise of the mechanisms, but neither do the walls and roof of a train. Being on a train is loud.

Large crowds will cause heat within the system that will likely need to be managed, but -- like the noise -- this is equally true of trains.

How are any of those things an advantage of trains over a system of underground walkways?

<comment><USER8> I just happen to ride a lot of above-ground trains. E.g. much of the New York City subway goes above ground, sometimes pretty high, in Brooklyn and Queens. Same applies to quite a few cities (e.g. London and Moscow, off the top of my head).

But okay, let's imagine out underground walkway. Since it's underground, you can't walk on and off where you want; you only walk off where there's way up to the ground. This eliminates much of the allure of the system. Now you want to plan ahead and be ready to get off when you're next to the exit. If you missed your exit, you have to move to the next exit, or maybe cross the tunnel and go to the band of the opposite direction, and walk back a bit.

Please notice how the low-speed bands then need to run the whole length of the tunnel, adding little to the carrying capacity: few people want to travel at the speed of walking when traveling at the speed of a train is a few meters across.

If we let only the faster band(s) through the length of the tunnel, and limit the slower bands to the exit areas (pretty long and wide), we'll face the problem of walls: our band is moving fast, and nothing separates it from the walls. So we sort of need inner walls on the band. But they need doors to allow people in and out in the exit areas. And the doors need to be shut when the band is in the tunnel. It starts to look like a... train? Only an endless train with a peculiar way of boarding.

This endless train also has a downside: if anything goes wrong, the whole band/train has to stop, it cannot be re-routed. What if we segment the band into individually routable parts? Only then they'll have to stop at exit areas to allow safe getting on / off them.

Well, we have reinvented the subway.

<comment><USER9> What does anything in this "response" have to do with heat, cold, wind, rain, snow, or noise?

<comment><USER10> Why did you put the word response in quotes?

<comment><USER8> "I just happen to ride a lot of above-ground trains" implies trains being exposed to wind, rain, snow, cold, and heat. Same would apply directly to passengers if the moving walk bands were above-ground.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> In their early days, escalator's were disruptive in that "elevator operators" were eliminated. I wonder if that contributed to the reluctance to use them at first.

</comment><comment><USER9> > Stepping onto an escalator is an act of faith. From time to time you see > people poised at the top, advised by instinct not to launch themselves onto > the river of treads. Riding the moving stairs is an adventure for the > toddling young and a challenge to the tottering old. Natural hesitancy puts > a limit on throughput.

This seems right, but it's also trivial to fix -- just lengthen the ends of the escalator so there's a flat section to get onto or off from. Nobody hesitates to get on a moving sidewalk.

<comment><USER12> Thats how escalators are often designed, isn't it?

<comment><USER9> ...no? In my experience, you get something like 1.5 steps of flat space before they start rising/descending. It's not enough to be totally comfortable getting on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

<comment><USER14> [...] The escalators of the station caused a significant disaster on the Moscow Metro on February 17, 1982, that killed at least eight people. [...]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviamotornaya_(Kalininsko%E2%8...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviamotornaya_\(Kalininsko%E2%80%93Solntsevskaya_line\))

<comment><USER15> It's a Mitch Hedberg joke

<comment><USER16> Quoting someone who died by misadventure when the subject is public safety is either tone deaf as hell or way more satirical than I'm prepared for on a Monday.

<comment><USER17> He died of a drug overdose, nothing to do with escalators or stairs.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Let's Destroy Flash Together - <AUTHOR> http://whitequark.org/blog/2012/07/06/lets-destroy-flash-together/

<comment><USER2> This really should be getting more attention. HN is so good (read bad) at burring posts randomly, it's scary.</comment>


OpenRC, an alternative to systemd - <AUTHOR> https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=OpenRC,_an_alternative_to_systemd <comment><USER2> TrueOS (PC-BSD successor) recently switched to it ([https://www.trueos.org/handbook/postinstall.html#use-of- open...](https://www.trueos.org/handbook/postinstall.html#use-of-openrc-in- trueos-versus-freebsd-rc)) citing much faster boot times due to parallel launching.

<comment><USER3> As discussed at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13451924](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13451924) .

Further to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13458186](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13458186) , there still hasn't been a response.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are your favorite active tech-related subreddits comparable to HN? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> [http://reddit.com/r/programming](http://reddit.com/r/programming) Top Stories are almost same

<comment><USER3> The level of discussion is not as high as here though IMO.

<comment><USER4> My experiences with the subreddit have been negative. For some reason, most comments are very negative and bitter for no good reason.

<comment><USER5> Wait are we talking about r/programming or HN here???

<comment><USER4> Good point!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Right now the only replies list reddit and lobste.rs. That's really depressing :/

Are there really no other decent online communities out there? I'm increasingly disenfranchised with reddit and lobste.rs is invite-only (not my cup of tea). I've been poking around the various *chans to see if I can brave the noise and chaos in the hope that I'll occasionally find a similar calibre of info as what I find on here.

<comment><USER7> Unfortunately there's not much on the chans either. The ones I used to browse have generally been overtaken, even on tech/programming boards with threads complaining about diversity or they are thinly-veiled alt-right recruitment posts.

I haven't been there for a while, but Lainchan isn't all that bad. Quite slow, though.

<comment><USER8> Lainchan is pretty good but also glacially slow. Many threads stay open for years. The level of conversation is reasonably high as long as you stick to specific threads. The /g/ boards of the world are almost universally garbage.

<comment><USER4> > Lainchan is pretty good but also glacially slow. Many threads stay open for > years.

No kidding. There are still threads from when I first found the site (2014).

<comment><USER9> Slowness is a feature, not a bug, right? It helps encourage thoughtful posting and civil discussion. :)

If you want more activity, post relevant and interesting projects and thoughts.

<comment><USER4> Right, which is why I like Lobsters. The pace of Lainchan though is a bit _too_ slow, even when I try to post. It's not that the content is bad, it's just that there's so little of it I eventually forget to check the site.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> /r/ppc, /r/adops and /r/analytics

These three tend to have a pretty high signal-to-noise ratio, particularly when asking very advanced and technical questions.

From personal interactions I can vouch for there being many senior to exec level industry folks from a healthy mix of ad tech companies, networks, agencies, brands, etc. on both the buy and sell side.

Everyone is pretty friendly, so while asking basic questions might just get you a link to go RTFM (and really the official docs are often the best starting point...) everyone is pretty friendly and helpful.

Great for those trying to learn more about digital media and analytics all the way up to people with questions or who want to chat about stuff in the industry like header bidding, attribution, enterprise analytics troubleshooting, etc.

And the best part is since we all are living and breathing advertising for a living, we have a pretty low tolerance for blatant sales plugs and content marketing spam like on some other subs.

</comment><comment><USER11> In my opinion there isn't anything about Reddit that is like HN. It's why I stopped reading Reddit and came here. Too many haters and trolls on Reddit.

</comment><comment><USER12> There is [https://lobste.rs](https://lobste.rs) which is great (not a subreddit but it's very similar)

<comment><USER13> Signup by invitation only, and having retired before it started I don't know anyone in it who I would feel comfortable asking for one.

<comment><USER14> I can send you (or anyone else) an invite if you'd like one - send the email address you'd like inviting to email@example.com.

I don't use it that much so I don't have any real opinion on how useful/good it is.

<comment><USER13> Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but 4 people beat you to it by private email, 3 within 30 minutes....

When I've peeked in on e.g. the lisp subforum, it looked to be quite good, although that was a while ago, too frustrating to contemplate engaging without being able to be part of the conversation (which, I again emphasize, is an entirely legitimate method to avoid a variety of problems).

<comment><USER15> The community is mostly technical people with a large focus on programming, operations, and hackery. Fewer people comment on articles but the comments are lower noise on average. In a discussion on community standards, one of the veterans explained what the site should and shouldn't be about. I think the post represents what I've seen on the page & in the comments pretty well. Also, we have invitation trees instead of throwaways to encourage people to play nice. Been a few cesspools but not many.

[https://lobste.rs/c/sybvqw](https://lobste.rs/c/sybvqw)

It also illustrates there's a huge difference in priorities and culture between Hacker News and Lobsters. Not to mention who is participating. So, I like to read and comment on both sites as they each give me something different. People also often repost HN articles on Lobsters, too, with the Lobsters comments sometimes raising points I didn't see over here or vice versa. These two are my favorite sites for technical discussion for now.

On business side, you might like the Lobsters spinoff called Barnacles. It's open invitation right now. They're like HN for bootstrappers instead of VC- funded startups. High signal to noise ratio with good stuff on marketing & case studies of interesting business. Clifford's series right now is a good reality check for people that think doing a SaaS startup will let them focus on being paid to write code. Great opening pic, too. ;)

[https://barnacl.es/](https://barnacl.es/)

[https://medium.com/@cliffordoravec/expect-everything-to- be-u...](https://medium.com/@cliffordoravec/expect-everything-to-be- unexpected-883642c0d7c)

<comment><USER16> The lobste.rs link is fantastic. The level of discourse it reflects is refreshing. Thanks for sharing!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is there anywhere that covers technology/scientific development well? (Non- software).

I'm always looking for those kinds of things (new sensor, scientific methods, medical advances). But have never found a good forum for this.

<comment><USER18> /r/futurology, also /r/science

<comment><USER19> From my experience /r/futurology contains way too much clickbait and sensationalist bullshit to be enjoyable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Literally nothing. Reddit is a cesspool and especially when it comes to technical topics it is absolutely abysmal. Most of the people spouting off opinions about technical topics on Reddit are totally unqualified to do so. People who work as cashiers at Taco Bell writing diatribes about Ruby vs PHP, etc.

<comment><USER21> Quite contrary to what you've written I find the Haskell subredit very useful. The comments are usually well thought out and relevant. I daresay the people on the Haskell subredit are the smartest and most helpful of any subredit I've been on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Not a sub, but I'm a big fan of Designer News. I've been a daily visitor for the last 3 years. While it's more design-focused, many Users are UI Designers, Product Designers and people working in tech.

[https://www.designernews.co/](https://www.designernews.co/)

</comment><comment><USER23> Maybe a combination of various topics, add/remove to your interests:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Freethought+PhilosophyofScience+Som...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Freethought+PhilosophyofScience+SomebodyMakeThis+browsers+cogsci+compsci+gamedev+longtext+math+programming+shamelessplug+somethingimade+startups/)

Basically: Freethought+PhilosophyofScience+SomebodyMakeThis+browsers+cogsci+compsci+gamedev+longtext+math+programming+shamelessplug+somethingimade+startups

</comment><comment><USER24> For Go, it is [http://reddit.com/r/golang](http://reddit.com/r/golang)

<comment><USER25> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13036890](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13036890)

<comment><USER26> As a summary for those who are unaware: a (now former) mod of that subreddit, who is a major Go contributor, called for the deletion (or the discussion there of) of the subreddit due to the actions of the Reddit CEO. He did so believing that the subreddit was an official communication channel. Upon learning that it was community started, he changed his opinion. Many are very offended.

<comment><USER24> Yes, very offended. see my comments here

Just to see how friendly /r/golang is, check my experience as a newcomer on google group and on /r/golang

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13041938](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13041938)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> /r/truereddit Just interesting stories and essays,a lot like HN but slower(and no show my program threads)

<comment><USER28> Unfortunately that sub is as politically left as it can get. Downvotes galore if you dare to disagree with the agenda of identity politics.

Best part: they upvoted and agreed with NPR that lefties are impervious to fake news and can quickly spot it because of their superior reasoning skills.

<comment><USER29> Entertainingly, I find that many of the "lefties" I know read widely on all areas of the spectrum, and those of a certain timbre only read their bubble.

You'd never know that by the posturing on the part of those gentle persons of the bubble, but you're definitely not one of those, are you?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I rarely read r/programming any more, its content rules seeming so arbitrary. My favorites are:

\- r/python

\- r/reverseengineering

\- r/netsec

\- r/shittykickstarters (to read debunkings of why a Kickstarter is scientifically/technically unfeasible)

</comment><comment><USER31> /g/ and /prog/ can be useful. There's tons of noise and beginner/toy threads, but competent devs can be found.

Can't speak for the other chans but I recall a chan with a competent user base dedicated to programming/hacking/rigbuilding a few years back. 1337chan or something? Abused the green on black theme if anyone else remembers.

<comment><USER32> [https://99chan.org/nerd/](https://99chan.org/nerd/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I wouldn't say these are comparable to HN but r/cableporn and r/welding might be interesting to HN posters.

<comment><USER34> I also have a soft spot for subs that reveal high craft in unexpected places. r/conduitporn is also on this list.

<comment><USER33> Thanks for the heads up, I just added it to my list of subs. There are some really great pics on there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> [https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/) by a long way

<comment><USER36> Meh, it's alright. I've found it to be completely dominated by people who are only interested in or talk about deep neural nets. That's fine I guess, it's certainly popular. But there are vast areas of applied machine learning that rightly use other techniques (deep learning isn't AGI!) and it's really frustrating to try to ask questions about RF Tree Pruning or SVM kernel functions only to get a bunch of vacuous "you should try deep learning" comments.

<comment><USER35> For deep learning quality is high (and it rarely misses important stuff). But I share your frustration that it is "deep learning news", see this post of mine: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/4el597/is_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/4el597/is_rmachinelearning_deep_learning_news/) (Though, in the last month deep learning is my main focus, so it is OK.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> [https://barnacl.es/](https://barnacl.es/) is one of my favorites, for bootstrap startup news

</comment><comment><USER38> [https://barnacl.es/](https://barnacl.es/) (Barnacles) is a ~strong~ young community of tech-related news with emphasis on bootstrapping and launching products.

<comment><USER39> It doesn't look that strong to me. There aren't any comments and I guess there aren't more than a few active users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> [http://reddit.com/r/programming](http://reddit.com/r/programming)

[http://reddit.com/r/[your_favorite_programming_language]](http://reddit.com/r/\[your_favorite_programming_language\])

[http://reddit.com/r/futurology](http://reddit.com/r/futurology)

[http://reddit.com/r/math](http://reddit.com/r/math)

[http://reddit.com/r/mathpics](http://reddit.com/r/mathpics)

[http://reddit.com/r/statistics](http://reddit.com/r/statistics)

[http://reddit.com/r/probabilitytheory](http://reddit.com/r/probabilitytheory)

[http://reddit.com/r/electricalengineering](http://reddit.com/r/electricalengineering)

[http://reddit.com/r/ece](http://reddit.com/r/ece)

[http://reddit.com/r/netsec](http://reddit.com/r/netsec)

[http://reddit.com/r/physics](http://reddit.com/r/physics)

[http://reddit.com/r/emdrive](http://reddit.com/r/emdrive)

[http://reddit.com/r/artificial](http://reddit.com/r/artificial)

[http://reddit.com/r/machinelearning](http://reddit.com/r/machinelearning)

[http://reddit.com/r/neuralnetworks](http://reddit.com/r/neuralnetworks)

[http://reddit.com/r/MLQuestions](http://reddit.com/r/MLQuestions)

[http://reddit.com/r/learnmachinelearning](http://reddit.com/r/learnmachinelearning)

[http://reddit.com/r/mlpapers](http://reddit.com/r/mlpapers)

[http://reddit.com/r/computervision](http://reddit.com/r/computervision)

There is really so much out there and everyone has there own personal interests. Just check out [https://www.reddit.com/explore](https://www.reddit.com/explore) which will give you personalized recommendations based on the subreddits you are already subscribed to.

</comment><comment><USER41> [https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/) and [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/)

</comment><comment><USER42> There was a good discussion of this a while back -- one user here made a multi-reddit of the suggested subreddits, in this comment: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7255336](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7255336)

</comment><comment><USER43> Maybe not entirely tech related but /r/entrepreneur has some good posts (not all of them but there's some gold here and there)

</comment><comment><USER44> I enjoy [http://reddit.com/r/haskell](http://reddit.com/r/haskell)

</comment><comment><USER45> Surprised /r/cscareerquestions hasn't been mentioned. It is my goto spot for discussing cs careers and options.

</comment><comment><USER46> [http://www.timqian.com/my-headline](http://www.timqian.com/my-headline)

</comment><comment><USER47> [https://www.reddit.com/user/akkartik/m/programming](https://www.reddit.com/user/akkartik/m/programming)

</comment><comment><USER48> [https://www.reddit.com/r/chipdesign/](https://www.reddit.com/r/chipdesign/)

For all things related to chip design.

</comment><comment><USER49> For bootstrapped startup talk, I like [http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/](http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/)

<comment><USER50> Looks like a great site for solopreneurs. Thanks. I signed up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Does anyone participate on MetaFilter ($)?

<comment><USER52> Yep. Not under this name though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> [https://hashnode.com/](https://hashnode.com/)

</comment><comment><USER54> The classic, slashdot.org

</comment><comment><USER55> Kaggle forums anyone for machine learning and data science?

</comment><comment><USER56> how can I get an invitation for lobste.rs?

</comment><comment><USER57> * Barnacl.es * aesi.news (defunct) * DnE

</comment><comment><USER9> It isn't hard to get an invite if you're even partially competent. Then again, it is invite only to keep out the sort of camp following mouth breathers that are taking over HN.

<comment><USER58> Please don't come here to diss this community while participating in it. That's like littering in a city park while complaining what a mess it is.

We detached this comment from [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13050127](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13050127) and marked it off-topic.

<comment><USER9> There's a difference between dissing HN as a whole, and dissing the growing subset of the userbase that has lowered the technical content of the site and decreased the civility and level of discourse.

That, or you mods aren't doing your job in keeping this site sufficiently attractive to hackers--if you _were_ , threads like this wouldn't be necessary.

The first step to solving a problem dang is _admitting you have a problem_.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> /r/backpropaganda

</comment><comment><USER60> UGH REDDIT. You couldn't say forum? It has to be on reddit?

IRC is where it's at tbh.

<comment><USER61> Where on IRC? #startups? or language specific ones? Quite a few are ghostowns since slack picked up steam...

<comment><USER62> Looks like somebody doesn't know how to idle.

<comment><USER61> only idle for about 25 years...must be doing it wrong... :D</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Look Who's Irrational Now - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html

<comment><USER2> what a long, rambling ad hominem fallacy.</comment>


How Can I Donate to Signal, Open Whisper Systems? - <AUTHOR> https://support.whispersystems.org/hc/en-us/articles/212940158-How-can-I-donate- <comment><USER2> I wish more open source projects had a way to support them besides for working on the code base. I usually don't know the languages they use and don't want to invest the time to learn their framework. I'll gladly give them $20, though.

What are some ways to support open source projects besides writing code?</comment>


How do I compensate advisers and board members? - <AUTHOR>

How do I compensate advisers and board members?
People who will contribute a great deal of know how, expertise, and guidance, but will do so by phone or weekly/monthly conversation, not by day to day participation?
How do I do that at a very early stage when I am very limited in terms of cash?  Are these typically equity relationships, and if so, how much? <comment><USER2> I'm still working on that issue myself, but here's some stuff to look at for reference:

[http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-as-a-newly- started...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-as-a-newly-started- business-to-build-an-advisory-board-without-spending-a-lot-of-money)

[http://www.quora.com/Do-members-of-an-advisory-board- usually...](http://www.quora.com/Do-members-of-an-advisory-board-usually-get- paid)

[http://www.quora.com/What-is-common-compensation-for- sitting...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-common-compensation-for-sitting-on- an-advisory-board-of-a-self-funded-start-up)

[http://www.quora.com/In-lieu-of-cash-what-is-a-good- amount-o...](http://www.quora.com/In-lieu-of-cash-what-is-a-good-amount-of- equity-to-offer-advisors-helping-to-develop-the-business-case-for-a-pre- funding-just-incorporated-start-up)

[http://www.quora.com/Stock-options-or-shares-Whats-the- prefe...](http://www.quora.com/Stock-options-or-shares-Whats-the-preferred- way-of-compensating-advisors-for-a-startup)

[http://www.quora.com/What-are-compensation-systems-for- start...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-compensation-systems-for-startup- advisors-advisory-board-members)

<http://www.quora.com/Startup-Advisors-Board-Members>

<http://www.quora.com/Advisory-Boards>

<http://www.quora.com/Board-of-Advisors>

[http://www.quora.com/Startup-Compensation/How-should-our- ear...](http://www.quora.com/Startup-Compensation/How-should-our-early-stage- pre-product-health-industry-startup-compensate-for-an-advisory-board-member- who-brings-industry-contacts-and-credibility)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, that looks like a great place to start.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _Are these typically equity relationships, and if so, how much?_

While you have good links on how it can work when they are, they don't need to be. Good people are generally nice and want to help. The tech community can be very tight like that, in a _good_ way. A lot of people will give you their time for the asking, with nothing in return except the satisfaction of paying it forward and helping to nurture a promising startup.</comment>


Whiteboard Interviews - <AUTHOR> https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2017/03/04/Whiteboard-Interviews <comment><USER2> Interviews don't demonstrate ability or aptitude so much as they demonstrate ability to keep a cool head under incredible pressure. It doesn't matter how soft you make the whiteboard question: you are getting lower quality signal in an in-person office interview than you will in any other venue. Interviews are incredibly hostile experiences and nothing you can do, including comfy chairs, bright, cheerful surroundings, or free drinks will change that.

We need to engage with the fact that these interview processes are just stupid. We know a number of better ways to extract signal from candidates, but we keep interviewing face-to-face for technical ability because that's how it's always been done.

A number of companies are trying to embrace work-sample challenges to boost signal from candidates. But I don't think they get it. They assign take-home work before or after an interview, and still make decisions on candidates based on an "interview loop". If you have an interview loop composed solely of people, I don't believe in your process. We had a sort of interview loop at Matasano, but the open secret was it largely didn't matter, because if your (numeric) scores on our work sample tests were solid, _the burden of proof was on the interviewers to override the work sample tests_.

We worked with a number of different hiring groups at Starfighter last year, some of them quite smart, and at none of them did I see a process that deliberately and meaningfully insulated itself from "I'm having a bad day and haven't eaten lunch yet and now I have to interview someone" bias, or from "I'm putting you, the candidate, in the most uncomfortable imaginable professional circumstances and expecting not only perfect recall of the intricate details of your craft but also that you recite those details in a way that demonstrates _confidence_ and _ability to get things done_ ".

All the hiring I see is still done by by subjective X-factors; worse, each interviewer in a "loop" has a different X-factor. Where's the table-flip emoji when I need it?

<comment><USER3> So, to hit it from the other side: maybe none of that matters.

For an industry practice that everbody is saying is so badly broken, people sure seem to be making it work--or sidestepping the braindamage.

For CTFs like Starfighter, or for any take-home work product exam that is objective ("Pass the tests, meet the performance requirements, etc."), the emphasis is placed on the deliverable and not on the candidate, right?

Which in turn suggests a question--is this perhaps a signal that we don't need to be hiring employees at all if we can just spec out the work correctly and the associated acceptance criteria?

<comment><USER4> > For CTFs like Starfighter

CTF?

<comment><USER5> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_flag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_flag)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This article is a nice reminder of the truism, "don't do things in a shitty way and they won't be shitty." That is, whiteboard interviews aren't inherently terrible, it's just that a lot of interviewers ask terrible whiteboard-based questions, like asking to code in unrealistic circumstances.

But I think that also kind of highlights what DHH and others are trying to get at - a lot of programming interviews _are_ terrible because they abuse the whiteboard, and that needs to stop.

<comment><USER7> The problem is that you have to have some way to evaluate someone's skill level relatively quickly. Take home assignments will never work. Part time work, or contracting work until you're satisfied is going to be even worse from the perspective of a job searcher. Imagine you get a new job that pays half of what your last job did and then you get dismissed at the end of 3 months and have to restart your search.

I don't understand all the fuss. Whiteboard interviews are unpleasant, sure, but I've done a lot of them and they're not that bad.

<comment><USER8> Most professions have solved it: some really tough, relatively objective, centrally-administered exam that's a strong sign of knowing some minimal competency. Then, point to the authenticated results instead of going through that at each employer.

<comment><USER9> Isn't it what a college degree is supposed to represent?

I'm not saying they _are_ what you are talking about, but that they are meant to be such objective exam.

<comment><USER8> Not really. They're correlated but colleges do not coordinate on the exact same tests for the final exams, nor even what specific classes you're expected to have. (In some ways, that's a good thing -- colleges should have variety on what specifically they teach.) So it's not objective, and it may not meet security standards -- one university may do the honor system and not bother to actively stop cheating, while others may not trust that as a mechanism.

Usually, professions have some test that you need to pass in addition to getting the degree. You have to pass the Bar exam after getting a law degree, the EIT exam after getting an engineering degree (then FE after 4 years under a PE), you have board exams after completing med or pharmacy school , there are actuary/accountancy exams after those degrees, etc.

They serve a more orthogonal role to the degree, in proving mastery of a more specific body of knowledge.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> >>"Back when I was at Google, I was mostly interviewing people for "Developer Advocate" positions, and a lot of people somehow got into the process without being able to code at all. So, early on, I'd ask. "You've got a list of objects, write some code to select one of them at random. Any language, don't worry about syntax, assume the built-in random function is good enough."

That was actually a nice question: If you wanted to dive a little deeper, you could ask the candidate to sketch in unit tests. And if you're talking to somebody super-technical, ask "Your code is in production and sometimes it's throwing illegal-index exceptions under heavy load. What's going on and how do you fix it?" Just because that's a cool problem, very real-life, and most people smile when they get it."

Genuinely curious as to what the reasons for illegal-index exceptions under heavy load would be? I genuinely can't think of any reason. Perhaps the problem is under specified. Unit-testing would need to be seeded to be reproducible.

<comment><USER11> I could see it being some sort of shared memory problem, where the system is misallocating memory because it's running out of free space.

<comment><USER12> Or similarly, the application is multithreaded and the list length at `idx = randint(list.length)` time is greater than the next line `obj = list[idx]`, when you pick one of the last few indices and objects are removed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> charles-salvia I've been doing interviews pretty frequently lately. Maybe it's just the limited scope of my experience, but I've never asked anyone to code bubble- sort, nor do I know anyone who has ever asked that, nor have I ever been asked that at a job interview. The closest thing I've seen to this, probably, is generic tree-traversal questions, like find the lowest common ancestor of two nodes, or whatever. Apparently the feeling these days is that these sort of questions suck because they're not "real world" enough, and you'll never need to know about such stupid things like "nodes" and "algorithms" and "computer science" on the job.

So now I guess the trend is to ask more trendy, design-oriented questions like, "how would you design Facebook?", etc. But the problem with all this backlash to algorithm-heavy whiteboard interviews is that it ignores the reality that there are tons and tons and _tons_ of crappy candidates out there. I'd prefer a candidate who understands pointer arithmetic and can implement a recursive descent parser over someone who vaguely describes how Twitter might work at a high level. It's not that I am claiming that most on- the-job programming is implementing algorithms and data structures (it's obviously not), but being able to do these things indicates a certain quantifiable level of aptitude.

The trick is to present the questions in a way that isn't vulnerable to rote memorization. Don't ask someone to simply code a tree or graph traversal algorithm. Instead ask them about the most efficient way to route packets or whatever. And more importantly, tailor the interview questions to the actual experience they claim to have on their resume. If they claim to be a machine learning expert, ask them to sketch out how a multilayer-perceptron actually works. If they claim to know about the Linux kernel, ask them to design a page-cache, etc.

I agree the "you have 5 minutes to implement quick-sort now!!" is not helpful. I also hate the stupid logic-puzzle crap. But let's not completely dumb-down the whole interview process as a remedy to all this, just because "real-world" programming is more about import java.util.* rather than coding up custom radix tries.

<comment><USER13> > the reality that there are tons and tons and tons of crappy candidates out > there.

Maybe we need to start asking why that's the state of the industry right now. How did it come to this where quantity is so high and quality is so low? And how can these candidates better themselves?

<comment><USER14> Because it became cool and well paid and thus many guys decided to give it a shot, fake it till they make it. Some even succeed. Also, because many peoples confidence is much higher then skill. They get away with it because confidence tend to be confused with ability.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I absolutely hate whiteboard interviews.

I have been lucky enough to have had only one whiteboard interview in my career and I will say it was awful. Luckily I didn't really need the job as I had freelance on the side. IIRC the company was TripAdvisor... I will not name the interviewer's name but he does have a blog... sadly I think he is actually proud of his interviewing and management techniques).

I have absolutely terrible handwriting and even worse ability in penmanship layout (basically what I call consistent and appropriate spacing).

Before the interview the interviewer didn't even shake my hand and barely made eye contact with me. He looked pissed before we even started (its ironic again because the guy praises his people skills in his blog). In the interview I was asked to do a binary tree sort. I did it recursively. He wanted it to be not recursive and with an array.

At this point I was pretty nervous and my whiteboard looked like a 5 year olds scribbling. I just wanted the interview to end so I sort of just gave up.

A couple months later I ironically started a successful recruiting software company. Even more ironic the interviewer later tried to start his own startup but failed and had to go back to TripAdvisor (this was about 3 or 4 years ago).

I tried to connect on LinkedIn with him to give him some feedback... alas he did not connect.

The reason I wanted to leave him feedback (besides the sick inkling to rub in my success) is I have learned so much from my recruiting software company. I see people desperately applying for jobs everyday (we are career portals as a service. We try to make the apply process as painless as possible).

People seem to forget how uncomfortable it is to go looking for a job (probably why he went back to his old company).

</comment><comment><USER16> Being able to communicate via whiteboard is a useful skill. I'm not good at it, but I appreciate those who are. That seems to be what this author is advocating: jotting down ideas, designs, diagrams, temporary notes. If the team depends on everyone being comfortable at a whiteboard, then it's worth testing at an interview.

I don't think that is what most people are pushing against, but rather actual whiteboard coding. Taking the whiteboard out of the picture, the task is to write code in an unrealistically broken editor. You get a partially functioning backspace but no insert, indent/outdent, search/replace, etc. And the editor restricts your typing speed to 10% of your normal capacity. On top of that, strangers are staring at you.

If whiteboard _coding_ really leads to better hires than other forms of evaluation, I'd like to see the data.

</comment><comment><USER17> I don't think anyone has any issue with having to physically use a marker on a whiteboard during an interview. What else would you use for a system design question?

What is insane is expecting a candidate to be able to navigate a million state modification and off-by-one gotchas using only a marker and their short-term memory.

<comment><USER18> > I don't think anyone has any issue with having to physically use a marker on > a whiteboard during an interview.

I have friends whose RSI is sufficiently bad that it could be an issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Seriously people think whiteboard interviews are reason for diversity? I think the much bigger reason for diversity issue is that companies are reluctant to even interview if you don't have a brand name associated with your profile(a tier 1 college degree or previous exp at top tech firms). There are lots of job postings these days which state tier 1 college degree as requirement. I am from India and here the situation is if you are not from a tier 1 college you are a moron and designated to do low quality cheap work. It may not be the case in other areas like the valley, but here it seems the filter for participating in the interview has more to do with diversity than how interview is conducted.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm glad he does it right. Now if the people interviewing me could do it right, that would be great.

</comment><comment><USER21> I think the optimal solution to the hiring problem requires trying out the actual relationship. It's similar to dating. Predicting the long-term success of a relationship based on a first date is sub-optimal.

A service that provides this "trial relationship" could work. When I'm looking for a new job, I could do one hour per day of real work for a few companies. After five days, both employer and prospective employee will have a better understanding of each other than a single day of interviews allows.

There's practical concerns. Companies certainly wouldn't give prospective employees full access to internal codebases or data. Companies would have to break off small tasks which could devolve into throw-away take-home assignments. Employees at the company would have to endure the annoyance of dealing with prospective hires. It might be worth it for everyone.

<comment> w0rd-driven This is sadly rife for abuse. Why hire anyone? You can just string enough candidates along to possibly not work a full solution but it could be a first line or give you a fair number of prototypes. Granted I don't know that this could ever be viable but companies would sure try because free work > paying any amount. I think most of us understand the phrase 'you get what you pay for' and yet I've personally seen many individuals and companies believe they're getting a steal.

I feel like there are a few good ideas. I personally love the idea of work related assignments but only if the result is actually measured. If I don't get the job I know I've wasted my time and I can handle that. What I can't handle is giving me a task and completely ignoring the results. What will that signal to me about day to day operations? That you'll likely ignore the very real value I bring to your organization on a consistent basis. That's a big enough red flag for me to stop everything and walk right out the door. If I'm supposed to extend the courtesy of not wasting the interviewers time I expect at least some attempt at that same courtesy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The issue is the dependence of code completion, google, and IDEs that writes boiler plate code for you, and companies just use stupid services like hackerrank to test algorithm implementations, which has to run and compile properly u see that environment.

</comment><comment><USER23> Two weeks ago, a coworker and I were thinking through ways of implementing an extension to a library we've been writing for a client. We were drawing all sorts of things to come to a consensus of what to do. Through doing all of that, I finally experienced a real-life reason to whiteboard code, since after writing down psuedocode on the whiteboard explaining the implementation that we were agreeing upon, everyone on our team "got it" immediately.

I think whiteboard interviews are incredibly useful. We use them in our interviews, and they've been successful in helping us learn more about our candidates' abilities and for them to show us what they know.

</comment><comment><USER24> In my previous company we used ask candidates to code a very simple task: reverse a string in Java, on the whiteboard or on paper. It is a trivial task but many seasoned people failed it to the extent that we thought "you don't really know Java, do you?".

To this day I'm very suspicious when I don't get a coding task on an interview. That's generally a pretty bad sign. Best option is when I get a notebook with "my" IDE, but I also coded on whiteboards, paper, Google Docs.

Frankly, I don't know what other options are there. There should be code in the developer interview. Take-home task? GitHub account? Probation day?

<comment><USER25> > It is a trivial task but many seasoned people failed it to the extent that > we thought "you don't really know Java, do you?".

This is the kind of bias that I think an interviewer should never have, and part of what makes interviews so stressful: that your ability is called into question off of something very simple. You don't know whether the candidate knows Java or not. You only know that the result of the interview is negative, which could say just as much about the interview as it does about the candidate. Assuming "you don't really know Java, do you?" with so little evidence strikes me as disrespectful at best. Why is this considered OK?

ashark makes a lot of very good points as to why someone may know Java but stumble with this question.

<comment><USER26> Exactly. So many of the proponents of the whiteboard algorithm question industry are thoroughly convinced that they are eliminating people who will fail on the job. Of course it's impossible to verify this. The only thing you can verify is the performance of candidates that do pass your test and you subsequently hire. I'm sure there are a lot of bad hires even at the companies where they use these interview techniques. The believers are clouded by survivorship bias and confirmation bias. They get no information from those that they reject and they refuse to acknowledge the bad people that they accept.

Didn't the guy who started WhatsApp fail his facebook interview? :-)

[http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-rejected-whatsapp- co...](http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-rejected-whatsapp-co-founder- brian-acton-for-a-job-back-in-2009-2014-2)

Here is some debunking of other commonly held misconceptions about this interview strategy:

1) The questions are not tricks -- actually every coding algorithm question that has a "naive" solution and an optimized solution requires a trick. That's why you can study for these interviews. The studying involves memorizing the catalog of tricks and identifying which one to apply based on the question. Even the simplest and most commonly used tricks (using a hash table, multiple pointers into the same array / multiple accumulators, bit shifting) are still tricks.

2) The interviewers have a large catalog of these questions so you're not going to pass by memorizing stuff. As I mentioned in #1 above, this is false. The list of tricks that need to be employed to solve these puzzles is finite and definitely less than 100. Most common interviews will probably be solved by one of the top 10 tricks.

This page has 80 solutions: [http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/top-10-algorithms- in-interview-...](http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/top-10-algorithms-in-interview- questions/)

3) This method may have too many false negatives (when they reject a candidate who would have been a good member of the team) but it eliminates false positives (when they hire a candidate who cannot code). With enough dedication and time, anybody can train to pass these. It's not really a skill that is super useful for getting things done in a programming job.

Some people are very good at riddles but have no common sense. They do not make good members of a software development team but they are very good at these interviews.

<comment><USER24> Tricks? Algorithms? Puzzles? Riddles?

Are we still talking about string reversal task?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Maybe I'm out there as far as this topic is concerned, but as a software engineer I enjoy whiteboard interviews. If you can't get up in front of a couple potential colleagues and talk/draw code, how are you supposed to whiteboard complex designs in meetings after you are hired, possibly to higher-ups?

But I agree there should be set parameters in an interview: ask every candidate the same open-ended design questions, stress that they just use pseudocode, keep the problem questions small (5-10 mins max), don't be a overlording interviewing jerk, etc.

</comment><comment><USER28> > _By the way I got one of those in my interview day at Google, and > another at Amazon, and I blew them both._

Interesting to hear this, can't have done that badly as he got jobs at both of those companies!

</comment><comment><USER29> Whiteboard really helps one to express his/her thought process to the other person and I'd hope it will continue to exist in the interviews.

<comment><USER22> Then the interviewer should explicitly say he wants to know your thought process too. 99% of them just say code this and let me know when you are done</comment></comment>


Ask HN: 30, 45 or 60-day free trial conversion rates? - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone done any A/B testing on SaaS conversion rates for the number of free trial days, e.g. 30 vs 45 vs 60-day trials?
FogBugz and Basecamp both offer 45-day trials, but 30 day trials also seem common.
I'd argue that 1 day should be enough to demonstrate your product's value, but I have no data to back this up with.
Is there some aspect of hitting/missing a billing cycle? Why is a 45-day trial the sweet spot? <comment><USER2> It really depends on what kind of value that your service is offering.

For instance, Pivotal Tracker offers a 90 day free trial. Their product requires that the users/teams become dependant on their service so that they can't live without it.

Offering a 1 day trial here, when it works on weekly iterations just wouldn't work. Equally, offering a 30 day trial, really only provides 4 iterations, or probably about 20-30 stories. This definitely isn't enough to "hook" the users and lock them in due to the amount of time that they have invested.

If you are in it for the long haul and your service really does provide great value for the users then getting your users invested in the product might come at the cost of giving more free trials away for free.

Some services are freemium remember. They are unlimited trial times in effect, because the upsells and bolt ons are where they make money.

Equally, however, some services 45-60-90 days would definitely be too much, and you could be losing money.

You can't just say in isolation, 45 days is the sweetspot for 100% of startups, because it ignores any other factors such as the service value that the product fills.

Equally, if your product takes time to kick in, you wouldn't want to offer 30 day trial. For instance, if you were a marketing platform like HomeAway or a _paid_ version of AirBnB. Offering a short trial might not be the best idea because it takes time for the value of the service to really kick in.

<comment><USER3> Exactly agree with chrisacky.

That's why we all have to A/B test our own products. There's no one manual for maximizing revenue. We each have to do our own research to determine what our individual user bases feel comfortable with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When I launched <http://bugmuncher.com> I offered a 7 day free trial. Not too sure why, I think with it being a very MVP launch I wanted to find out if people would be willing to pay as soon as possible.

Later I A-B tested 7 days against 30 days, and found 30 days did perform better, but not actually by that much. The 7 day free trail had a 9.95% conversion rate, where as 30 day had an 11% conversion rate.

I personally was expecting 30 days to do much better, but after seeing these results I suspect the length of the trail isn't very important to users, they just want to know that they _can_ try before they buy.

I may try A-B testing 45 days (and maybe 60 days) if I get bored and can't think of anything else to test.

<comment><USER5> By the sounds of it 30 days did do much better. In conversion rate optimisation a 10% conversion improvement is a big improvement.

<comment><USER4> That's actually a very good point, hadn't thought of it that way. Can you guess I'm new to A-B testing? :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You can probably _demonstrate_ the value in couple of minutes but many products don't _provide_ value until after a longer period of use.

</comment><comment><USER7> Interesting. Is there any software that makes it really easy to integrate multi-variate testing instead of just A/B?

How many people are really doing A/B testing on conversion rates (meaning assigning a value to a user and giving different trial lengths randomly) vs changing the trial length for fixed intervals?

<comment><USER8> > _Is there any software that makes it really easy to integrate multi-variate > testing instead of just A/B?_

You might find this useful - <http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/>

<comment><USER7> Thanks. I had looked at them a long time ago and they either didn't have or I forgot about multivariate testing.

I would still love a plugin or framework for wordpress that allowed multivariate testing native to the CMS, but at the pricing for VWO it's hard to complain.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I feel like there two things that should be A/B test here: 1) Best length of trial to get someone to sign-up for a free trial 2) Best length of trial to get someone to convert to paid user. Your actual conversion is going to be a combination of those two factors.

</comment><comment><USER10> A 30 day trial period with user engagement at the end of trial asking them if they need additional time to evaluate will work better. Offer them 15 day extension if they need.

There are two advantages to this approach: 1\. engage in conversation with user asking for feedback and understand their needs. 2\. treat them special with an offer to extend trial, earning their respect for personal attention and better chances of conversion.

</comment><comment><USER11> Wise to test different trial expiration scenarios against each other, some based on usage time, some based on product feature usage, some a combination of the two. You'll often be surprised which scenario is optimal and by how much.</comment>


N.Y. Passes DNA Requirement For Convicted Criminals - <AUTHOR> https://www.npr.org/2012/03/15/148692189/n-y-passes-dna-requirement-for-convicted-criminals

<comment><AUTHOR> » "We know from lots of studies and lots of data now that violent criminals very often begin their careers as nonviolent criminals," Aborn says. «

This is just plain stupid! When looking at the violent criminals many may also convict to nonviolent crimes. But looking at all the nonviolent criminals, only a few may ever commit a violent crime! Then you could instead just force a dna-sample at the birth of every New Yorker citizen. Well that is probably also where it will end if this is not stopped...</comment>


Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, obituary - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/05/trevor-baylis-obituary <comment><USER2> I met Trevor years ago at the barbican inventors fair. A true entrepreneur and an amazing person!</comment>


Ex-CEO Akira Morikawa adopted guerilla style management to build LINE Messaging - <AUTHOR> http://beaconreports.net/how-ex-line-ceo-akira-morikawa-broke-management-convention-to-build-the-popular-line-messaging-service/

<comment><USER2> This is basically an ad for Akira's new company.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lovely article highlighting the difficulties in Japan. The guy is still in a very small minority.

</comment><comment><USER4> Good to hear about Japanese companies succeeding with modern management practices.

</comment><comment><USER5> amazing guy.</comment>