Reich: In the last 10 years, airlines spent 96% of cash flow to buy back shares - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1241475421281157121 <comment><USER2> If you want to know why, I recommend always brilliant Matt Levines's article "The Good Times for Airlines Are Over" [https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-17/the- go...](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-17/the-good-times- for-airlines-are-over)

As the article explains airlines taking money off the table is optimal solution for them.

<comment><AUTHOR> >> _At the start of 2014, American's stock market capitalization was about $13.3 billion. Shareholders got back $15 billion between then and now. 3 In the aggregate, shareholders got about 113% of their money back over six years. If their stock is now worth zero—it's not, American's market cap as of yesterday's close was about $6.8 billion—then that's not an amazing return_

He's assuming that they sold the shares. If not, they may hold a lot more shares in total, but all are now worth about half.

<comment><USER2> He is not wrong. Investors balance their portfolio regularly irrespective to dividends or buybacks. Corporate dividend/buyback decisions don't dictate how much they own.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Since they took the wealth that they should have been putting aside to weather economic downturns and invested it in their own stock surely they can simply sell all that stock to raise money rather than needing to be bailed out?

Of course they made a poor investment choice, they invested in a company that wasn't prepared for what's happening now, so they'll lose money on their investment.

("but our stock price will go down!")

Better than going to 0.

<comment><USER4> I am not an investor nor economist, I had a course on technical analysis of stock markets so I have some understanding. To me it seems like a very strange idea to put safety fund into your own stock. If things go bad your stock will be dropping. Sane thing to do if you want to save that value is to buy government bonds or other securities not your own stock.

<comment><USER2> Buyback is alternative to dividend. It's a way to give money to shareholders. Stocks bought are usually canceled.

In other words, those stocks bought don't show in the company balance sheet as assets they own. They are gone, they are not investments.

<comment><USER3> But they could easily be reissued by the board - especially one faced with a stock price of 0

<comment><USER2> Re-offering makes sense only if the stocks are seen having upward trend or someone sees value in the stock.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I don't think we should let them collapse, just negotiate with them: Sign off xx%-90% of the company to US taxpayers or no money.

<comment><USER5> Unfortunately representatives tend to get caught up in horse trading for themselves.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting that HN will generally regard rail travel as a public good that should be subsidized, not during a crisis but every year, by tax payers.

Well, in America, air travel is our rail.

If you go hardline libertarian about this and let them fail, the federal debt might be a bit smaller, at a time when our government can borrow for 0% — but after the crisis your tickets will be much more expensive as competition will have dropped back down to two major carriers that won't compete on price.

<comment><USER7> I think a lot of people here would be content with leveling out the massive subsidies. This isn't a situation where the airlines, aerospace companies, and their supporting web of companies aren't getting plenty of direct subsidies, loan guarantees, tax breaks, and so forth already. It sounds like you think it's a zero sum game with the only important metric airline ticket prices? Railways don't offer airline tickets so that formulation neatly does away with them unless we support rail enough for it to grow to something competitive.

<comment><USER6> Most Americans pay for Amtrak every year and never directly benefit from it.

Air travel has been extremely cheap for some time because of competition. Well the competition is about to die and you will be left with one or two choices for most routes. And those carriers will increase costs dramatically.

So the question is if you want to offer some small government assistance to keep our infrastructure running, or if you want to double your cost of air travel for the next decade.</comment></comment></comment>


Huawei has surpassed Apple as the world's second largest smartphone brand - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/6/16259810/huawei-apple-global-smartphone-sales <comment><USER2> LOL, Apple makes more from Smartphones than Huawei, Samsung and every other manufacturer and Google, combined.

<comment><USER3> They also make better smartphones still. They just work, while Android is a buggy mess.</comment></comment>


Debtrail: A Debt Collector and Bill Splitter - <AUTHOR> https://debtrail.com <comment><USER2> Very useful when you need to remember your friends to pay you back.</comment>


Don't be the startup that accidentally runs out of money - <AUTHOR> http://josephwalla.com/dont-be-the-startup-that-accidentally-runs-out-of-money?fb_action_ids=10100943476821683&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B251129961724637%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D <comment><USER2> This is a very important point. It's remarkable how often startups run out of money as if by accident. The fundamental reason is that although a startup is nimble in many respects, financially it's like driving something very big and heavy. You have to be "ahead of the aircraft" to a degree most people have never experienced. Plus when startups are doing badly, their founders are usually in denial about it. And denial in a situation where you have to think far ahead is a terrible combination.

<comment><USER3> As part of YC business dashboards, are financials ever included? I don't mean Stripe/Braintree/etc transactions (although that's important as well), but burn rate/time remaining data. As you point out, its a critical metric and should be at the front of everyone's mind.

<comment><USER2> How carefully the startups watch this sort of thing varies a lot, but it's always the beginning of any conversation I have when I check in with them.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: A New Tool to Understand and Visualize the News - <AUTHOR> https://newsphere.org <comment><AUTHOR> Hi there! My friend and I are working on a website called The Newsphere and we're looking for others who share our interest in understanding current events to help us beta test our platform. The Newsphere acts as a virtual map of world news, enabling users to see the news as the result of a complex web of relationships between people, places, organizations, and countries. You can watch our intro video on youtube here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwgat54KXg&t=3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwgat54KXg&t=3s) and signup for the beta here: [https://newsphere.org](https://newsphere.org) or keep reading to learn more about the Newsphere.

Basically, our model analyzes thousands of news articles every day, and uses natural language processing to extract the different entities in them, as well as identifying relationships between them. Over time we construct narratives, which the user can see illustrated on a graphical timeline. The goal here is to give context to current events, enabling users to view recent developments in light of past patterns of behavior.

If you're interested in learning more, you can email us directly at firstname.lastname@example.com and we'll be happy to get back to you. Again, you can sign up for our beta here: [https://newsphere.org](https://newsphere.org)

Thanks again!

<comment><USER2> Interesting! I'd love to watch the video on the front page, but it won't work on Safari.

<comment><USER3> The video doesn't load either on Firefox / Linux. There is not error message in the console.

Playback works correctly on Chromium / Linux .

<comment><AUTHOR> We're working on fixing the video on our site, if you'd like you can watch it on youtube here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwgat54KXg&t=3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwgat54KXg&t=3s)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Just a sugegstion. Rather than the "Clear. Concise. Comprehensive" tagline, write a one sentence summary of what it DOES.

<comment><USER5> Agreed with this. If the premise of the service is that the news is clear, concise, and comprehensive, _show me that_ with a clear and concise explanation of the product on the front page (and perhaps a comprehensive drill-down in the rest of the site). I care far more about the UX of the tool than the ML behind the scenes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sooner you can have a workable current affair as part of your front page, the better. You could even have subdomains or special features on major events, even a dedicated domain (China, impeachment, etc). Looks like one of those things best understood by clicking around. Best of luck.

Not sure if he'd have useful info or time to spare, but I think Austen from Lambda School had a news-related venture (Grasswire or something) in the past and could have feedback for you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! That's something we've been thinking of implementing, perhaps with a search feature as well. And we'll definitely try to reach out to Austen, especially with his success in the startup world. Are there any other people/ companies/ startups you'd suggest reaching out to for feedback? We've mainly talked to professors/ business leaders from Brandeis University and a few professionals in the news industry.

<comment><USER6> I'd almost ignore the traditional news industry. You're trying to do something new and many won't understand it or have useful tips in 2019. Just make sure you have easy to find and share deep-dive topic pages and you'll soon discover whether people are interested or not in this style of presentation.

<comment><AUTHOR> Makes sense. Do you mean deep-dive topic pages on specific events such as the syrian civil war, for example?

<comment><USER6> Yep, exactly like that. IMO you want to be the single best page on the internet for something like that. More interactive than a Wikipedia page, broader content than a news item, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is the "play" icon supposed to indicate a video? Clicking it does nothing.

All I get is the slowly-appearing stock clip art lower on the page, which doesn't really explain it at all.

<comment><AUTHOR> What browser were you using? We've mostly been testing the site on Chrome and Safari.

<comment><USER8> On Firefox (Windows), the .hero-media::before element is disabling interaction with the video controls. Add pointer-events: none to the element to fix this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I like the timeline idea. What's up with the Instagram/Dell/Unilever/Uber logos? Why are they there?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Those logos were actually left behind from the website template we were using and have been removed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks like a cool project. I'll sign up for the beta.

How many news sites are you pulling content from? I'm curious about how, or if, you're getting content from news sites that have subscriptions - e.g. The New York Times. Do you store archives of information?

I know news articles can get updated or lost. It would be interesting to keep track. I can imagine using this or something like it when writing a book or an article and the author may want to understand relationships over time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Currently for our MVP just AP News, which we're getting from here: [https://newsapi.org/](https://newsapi.org/). We're working on perfecting the site with one or two news sources first before expanding to more options. Definitely a good point about articles changing/ getting updated, something we'll be looking into how to address going forward.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm working on something very similar. I do also have built a feature similar to the timeline. (your version is much cooler.)

I had a question. Mostly the title are clickbait and doesn't represent what actually news is and many news site are biased and distort the meaning by carefully selecting the words.

How do you handle it or have plan to do it?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's great to know other people are also trying to tackle this problem! I agree, the titles of news stories are often to grab one's attention rather than convey the true contents of a story, and we're still trying to solve this problem. Perhaps some feature that visualizes the mood/ topic of a story based on the full text, but it's a difficult problem to solve. We're open to suggestions though!

<comment><USER11> One solution i can think of it to not use the title. Rather use the backlink text. Found it more useful and descriptive.

This is involve crawling irrelevant page or probably the whole internet.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you explain this a bit more? I'm not sure I'm following how this would be implemented

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I wanted to do something very similar. This is amazing! May I ask, where do you get your news feed from? The sources I enquired at the time were quite pricey.

<comment><AUTHOR> We've been using [https://newsapi.org/](https://newsapi.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think you'll need some major UX work done. It looks like a product made by engineers so far..

<comment><AUTHOR> For sure, our beta is pretty bare bones but we'll refine it over the next few months, especially after we get feedback from our planned beta launch at the end of the month

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is there a demo or set of screenshots for the tool? I would like to learn more before signing up for a beta.

<comment><AUTHOR> Our demo video is on the main page of our site and can be found on youtube here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwgat54KXg&t=3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwgat54KXg&t=3s)

Additionally you can check out our one page user guide PDF here: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-D7MmRph8mRC9MUL55Vh5hNy...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-D7MmRph8mRC9MUL55Vh5hNyIX8yJZj_zr1_Fojldk4/export?format=pdf)

The PDF also includes a link to a more in depth explanation of Newshpere

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Nice idea, I signed up.

Curious to see how you handle weighting/filtering of the sources, the whole "fake news" issue.

Not your primary concern, I'm sure, but I don't (normally) use Google, nor allow Google-tools into my browser. I am a small-but-vocal minority. There are good alternatives to Google's recaptcha, Google-docs registration, etc. Just sayin'.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great point, we'll have to work on that going forward. We've been using AP News as our main source for the moment as it is fairly neutral, but we're looking for ways to handle different sources going forward. We went with google but are open to other suggestions for future forms

<comment><USER16> I strongly suggest you make it user-configurable, history shows it's difficult for any individual to reliably predict what news is fake vs not. Rather, tools such as this might actually help one differentiate, provided the news sources aren't censored.

<comment><AUTHOR> User-configurable does sound like a good option, hopefully something we can integrate into the site soon

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> One this is out of beta how much will it cost?

<comment><AUTHOR> We are still working on our pricing model but right now we are looking at a doing freemium model. Free version would have some limitations (ex: a limited number of news sources that stories can be pulled from, so choosing 3 sources from list of options) but the average user would still get a ton out of the site. Premium version would be subscription based, giving users full range of features (ex: pulling from as many news sources as you wish). We would love feedback on any suggestions for pricing though, we'll be tinkering and tailoring it based on how the beta goes/ what changes we make to the site + idea

<comment><AUTHOR> We've created a slack channel to continue the discussion and receive feedback on our site. You can join here: [https://join.slack.com/t/newspherecommunity/shared_invite/en...](https://join.slack.com/t/newspherecommunity/shared_invite/enQtODEwNjI3MTc3OTUyLWEyNjI2ODZlNDExNjY1OGY3NmY4MWViMzdjMWI5ZWI3MWVlOWRjNjc2N2VmYjhhYjMyMTliYzVkZTMwN2ZmMzE)</comment></comment></comment>


Fossils Of The 21st Century - <AUTHOR> https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-fossils-of-the-21st-century-1830693850 <comment><USER2> Remember that wood used to be something that would not decompose to the point we got coal.

But then some bacteria mutated to use it as fuel, and thrived.

It will happen for our things as well. Now if it happens too late, we are screwed. But if it happens too early as well, since rotting plastic would be a huge issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> The coal-ash smear across the Atlantic. One hundred years of shipping.

Fordite? Trinitite?

</comment><comment><USER4> One claim I've seen is that after 10,000 years, the Hoover dam will barely be recognizeable, and all the rest will be gone ... reduced to elements again.

Except for the rock piles.

100 million years, not so likely.</comment>


Show HN: HNWatch – Watch HN, filter stories, get e-mail alerts - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vetelko/hnwatch <comment><USER2> Very cool! If you don't want to worry about crawling HN you can use the API [https://github.com/HackerNews/API](https://github.com/HackerNews/API)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for suggestion :)</comment></comment>


quick question: where do you go for product reviews? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Books? Amazon. Everything else? I just Google it.

Yes, I know there's a bunch of opinion/review sites out there but they all suck and are fairly biased due to spam.

A big issue is that most of the products on specialized review sites are highly polarized... either highly negative or highly positive. Dissatisfied people, overwhelingly, seem to have enough incentive to go and review (negatively) a product. Most of the people who are satisfied are content with that and don't feel the need to waste their time and review. On the other end, highly elated people are inclined to review positively a product. So in the end, most of these voluntary review sites suck. The only reviews I trust almost completely are Consumer Reports reviews. They are impeccable and free of bias.

</comment><comment><USER3> The real question is which sites best hide the fact that they exist to splatter affiliate links all over the place.

While searching for hosting last year, it took me hours before I figured out that all the hosting review sites were affiliate farms. Forums too, just look at the number of people offering up $97 off dreamhost hosting plans. At a $100 per sale I can't blame them for trying.

</comment><comment><USER4> Usually I'll just Google the product name and follow links. If the planned purchase is big enough, I'll lurk enthusiast/specific forums until I get the information I need.

</comment><comment><USER5> Cnet Reviews: <http://reviews.cnet.com/?tag=hd_ts>

<comment><AUTHOR> :-) i was wondering if anyone used better/different ones than CNet</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best book(s) to learn about the basics of economics? - <AUTHOR>

Given the current climate, I feel a little behind when it comes to broader economic themes. Anyone have any recommendations for texts that can help non-economists grok the subject? <comment><USER2> Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt: <http://jim.com/econ/>, <http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/Economics_in_one_lesson.pdf>

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell

Free to Choose by Milton Friedman (video series, too)

Use of Knowledge in Society by Hayek (short, non-technical paper which is full of brilliant insights): <http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html>

Not a book, but the Econtalk podcast is fantastic: <http://www.econtalk.org/>

<comment><USER3> The "Free to Choose" television series is really great, second that. They're all on google video, search for the obvious keywords and "long" duration (20+ mins) to find them easily.

I especially liked the debate segment in each show, where Friedman argues his points with both supporters and detractors. It struck me while watching it, you really can't find stuff like this on TV anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Please beware that "economics" is a very dangerous subject in that the notions of "right" or "wrong" are very, very different from theoretical fields like mathematics, practical fields like engineering, or experimental fields like physics (yes, I'm aware this is perhaps overgeneralizing, but you get my point).

My practical advice to a beginner would be: Please disregard any theories in the beginning, by which I mean both rigorous microeconomic models and (especially) the narrative sort found in books for layreaders or newspapers.

Stick to data! Read a lot of data. And then some more. Also, instead of theories about the data generating processes, read their concrete definitions, what exactly do they measure (not just the general idea they're intended to capture but what exactly, like "192 vendors of banana in location X are self- reporting Y"), how are they collected, what market mechanisms exist (market microstructure), etc. Stick to the concrete and read data.

Only when you're ready to make a commitment, take a year or two off and dive into economic literature. Economics is a field where, if you don't know what's what, you will be "had" by the next plausible-sounding, impressive-looking idée du jour if you're not careful.

One has to know quite a bit to see the assumptions underlying the theories and how they influence its results, and I can tell you that the mainstream theory rests on very shaky theoretical foundations. The typical structure of economics literature is that this weak foundation is first brushed over in one sentence (usually starting with "we assume that..." and ending with "...to keep things simple/tractable/whatever"), then comes some big mathematical exercise, and then comes a very plausible-sounding discussion of the main idea that is constructed to either resonate or astonish you. there is also quite a bit of advocacy here, don't forget we're dealing with a real-world subject with somewhat fuzzy notions of "right" and "wrong", hence the incentive is there to fund/get funded for certain lines of research or results that support or refute political views.

Also, unlike in other fields, you will generally not find that the "best" economists naturally emerge in brand-name departments, like Harvard or MIT. It's very political. In my own opinion, the better thinkers are found on the fringes, perhaps with "official" specializations in physics or sociology or psychology and not officially branded "economists" at all!

So stick to data, you will know more than most branded economists and you can't go wrong, after all, the data is the data... ;)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for this. So you're recommending econometrics as a start? Is that Bayesian or Frequentist?

<comment><USER4> I would actually not recommend econometrics as the OP seems to just start out in this area. My recommendation is: get to know the data, learn what is available, read the definitions/construction methods, plot it in so many ways, do simple statistical summaries, for subperiods, for the entire sample, nothing fancy. One caution though: Try to do so _before_ making up your mind as to what explains the world, and even more important, try to forget everything you've already been programmed to read into the data. It's like in some karate movie, you have to "empty your mind" and let the data come to you, and if you let it sink in, at some point, you will start to ask questions and seek your own answers. I think that's a better way than to be presented with one or two general frameworks and then force fed so many specific models and examples that invariably one ends up seeing the world and asking the same questions like "them".

One concrete example is "aggregate demand". It's a concept presented in the most basic textbooks as a "fact" but it's really an artifact. Fischer Black claimed that the more he thought about it, the less he understood how one could distinguish between "aggregate supply" and "aggregate demand", yet economics is taught like that in every basic textbook I have seen so far. There are very few "facts" in finance and economics, so for the beginner, before consulting what others have thought, I would recommend first having an unadulterated look at the facts before reading explanations or stories.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My favorite book is "Economics in One Lesson". It's available free online and in print from major book sellers (see the top search results on the Google). This book does not represent mainstream economic thought, but that's a good thing given the track record of mainstream economists in the current crisis.

<comment><USER7> I love that book.

Another good, "popular" Austrian-school book is _What Has Government Done to Our Money?_ by Murray Rothbard. _The Theory of Money and Credit_ by Mises is on same subject but it's more comprehensive, the tone is more academic and is considerably harder. Both are available online.

<http://mises.org/money.asp> <http://mises.org/books/Theory_Money_Credit/Contents.aspx>

<comment><USER8> Just an addendum, lots of good free econ books in pdf format at <http://mises.org/books/>, including all the Austrian School classics.

<comment><USER9> Looked at that collection. I've read a lot of Austrian stuff and I'd say that Hayek's elaboration of the trade cycle and the dynamics of international currencies are the two greatest works of Austrian Economics. They are not the basics by any means though and are pretty tough going, as hard as reading books on compiler design.

<http://mises.org/books/monetarynationalism.pdf>

<http://mises.org/books/pricesproduction.pdf>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you're the kind of person who reads Diplomacy by Kissinger for an introduction to geopolitics or the Bible to understand christianity, then I'd highly recommend Human Action by Ludwig von Mises for a very strong understanding of economics. One of the best (and largest) books ever written on economics, you don't have to be of the Austrian school to get a lot out of it. It lays a strong logical and theoretical foundation and then considers issues in a very engaging and even entertaining manner for non-economists.

And it's available as a very high quality audiobook for free!

<http://media.mises.org/mp3/audiobooks/mises/HumanAction/>

<comment><USER11> Yes, _Human Action_ is big, thick and highly recommended. You can find one or more earlier and still quite useful print editions on the net (as I understand it, the subsequent edits weren't heavy).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> General and fallacy debunking:

'Economics In One Lesson' by Henry Hazlitt

<http://jim.com/econ>

Land and rent analysis (missing in almost all textbooks):

'The New Road to Serfdom: An Illustrated Guide to the Coming Real Estate Collapse' by Dr. Michael Hudson

[http://michael-hudson.com/wp- content/uploads/2010/03/RoadToS...](http://michael-hudson.com/wp- content/uploads/2010/03/RoadToSerfdom.pdf)

'The Chaos Makers: The Dreamers & The Deceived' by Fred Harrison

[http://renegadeeconomist.com/wp- content/uploads/2009/04/the-...](http://renegadeeconomist.com/wp- content/uploads/2009/04/the-chaos-makers.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER13> One option is to browse some major university websites for commonly used textbooks and pick one that's appropriate for your level (in terms of math/econ background) and seems interesting. Some common choices are Krugman & Wells and books by Mankiw. Textbooks are drier than popular books, but they are clearer and more rigorous, and you have some assurance that any reputable one will attempt to present a balanced, mainstream view rather than pushing a personal agenda.

Another option that is a bit more expensive but may be a lot more enjoyable is getting some DVDs from the Teaching Company. They get what are usually very good lecturers to give their courses, and

<http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=550> <http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=5610>

seem to be the kinds of things you're looking for. I haven't watched these, but maybe worth a shot.

(Regarding some of the other suggestions: blogs are ok, but the more econ- heavy ones will assume some degree of familiarity with economic concepts, and will post on random topics in no particular order, so they don't really solve this problem. Non-mainstream books or famous monographs are also ok at some point, but as with all such things, it's generally best to at least understand the basic mainstream stuff first.)

</comment><comment><USER14> To grok the subject, it will take a while. Search for a good undergraduate economics course and follow that. I second Hazlitt "Economics in One Lesson". But if you truly want to understand this, you will need to start with one book and then note all the books and theories which come before, going back a long way 200 years or more. Read or read summaries of those as well. In that way, you will get a firm foundation and understand how some "new" stuff is just old stuff with a new name.

</comment><comment><USER15> Wealth of Nations is a great read, if only to appreciate how much of modern economics Adam Smith either foreshadowed or invented and how misrepresented his ideas typically are. There's a certain amount of slogging but it's well worth the time.

<comment><USER16> _P J O'Rourke On the Wealth of Nations_ does an entertaining and fairly accurate job of "condensing" it. ISBN 0-8021-4342-3

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> "How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't" by Irwin Schiff.

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/8009736/Irwin-Schiff-How-an- Econom...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/8009736/Irwin-Schiff-How-an-Economy- Grows-and-Why-It-Doesnt)

<comment><USER2> The author is currently doing time for refusing to pay income taxes. A crank, IMHO.

<comment><USER18> Throughout history people have refused to submit to immoral government controls and have suffered the consequences. They are to be admired by people who aspire to be free.

The income tax is an assertion that government owns the work of its citizens and has a right to take as much of it as it wants. The majority of citizens accept this claim because they don't want to be fined, imprisoned, or otherwise mistreated.

Taxpayers are slaves on the government plantation, forced to work for the government. When a slave protests and is punished, he should not be called a crank by the other slaves.

<comment><USER19> You are aware that government provides services in exchange for those taxes, right?

<comment><USER18> Among the "services" that (American) government provides: Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (countries that have not attacked us), military spending equal to what the rest of the world combined spends, social security and medicare (ponzi schemes in which workers today are forced to finance the retirement and healthcare of the elderly with no realistic expectation that their own retirement and healthcare will be similarly provided for), and of course law enforcement and prisons (a large part of which is devoted to punishing non- violent drug "crimes," i.e., people using illegal drugs themselves or suppling them to those who want to buy them).

Providing services does not justify the income tax, even if those services were useful or moral, which they are generally not (see above). The mafia and private slave owners also provide services (protection and employment) but this does not justify their robbery.

The sixteenth amendment to the American Constitution was only ratified in 1913. Somehow America survived until then without a general income tax.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> <http://www.marginalrevolution.com> is your best bet

Through posts it links to all of the other good econ blogs: Krugman, Mankiw, as well as good articles in FT, NYTimes, Economist, etc.

Economic texts are notoriously boring, blogs are a good solution to that problem

</comment><comment><USER21> Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

<comment><USER19> I've seen a few recommendations for that in this discussion. Never read any books by him, but in my experience reading newspapers over the years, reading oped articles by him, it seemed clear to me where his political affiliation lies, at least with respect to the main two US political parties. Did you see any of his political slant in this book? Or did he seem to stay neutral/impartial?

<comment><USER22> The "slant" in this book is that he is pro-free market and anti-central planning. He states that the free market is the most efficient way to allocate scarce resources. The book explains why this is so with many varied examples.

<comment><USER19> does he address Tragedy of the Commons? monopoly? uneven distribution of information and power? aristocracy (feudal or modern)? just curious, because those are also economic forces in the real world, but they tend to push back against the notion that a totally free unregulated market w/o govt intervention is best.

Regardless, I'll definitely check it out. Looking at the 1st few pages on Amazon and he seems to have good writing skills. Do not like the Hoover Institution connection though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Everybody is suggesting some Austrian Economics books. I don't think it's a good idea to start with something which is not mainstream in the academic world.

I've read something about austrian economic, and it sounded good to me, but I know it's so easy to foolish a layman in any field with almost anything.

If most academics today at top univesities and most nobel prize are not followers of the austrian school there may be good reasons.

Better to start with the current state of the art and then read about less popular schools.

<comment><USER3> I find your comment ironic given your username.

At one time, bloodletting was mainstream in the medical world.

<comment><USER23> :)

Yes, it's quite ironic. I'm not saying Austrian Economics is wrong, I don't know enough to make such a claim.

I'm just saying that for a complete beginner it's better to start with what is believed to be correct by most professionals in the field.

Then of course it's great to study Austrian Economics.

I think that starting with the general consensus among professionals is the way to go in any subject. I know economics is heavily politcs influenced and politics can trump over truth, but still...

To think different first you have to know mainstream and if you see something wrong in it you can criticize.

Otherwise is just ignorance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> For an overview of mainstream modern econ, if you read nothing else, read Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan. For a good introduction to the major economic schools of thought check out Economics as Religion by Robert Nelson (he has written a new one on the same subject that I haven't yet read). To get into behavioral economics, I'd recommend Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely and The Winner's Curse by Richard Thaler. Tread carefully, there is a lot of polemic posing as economics on bookstore shelves.

</comment><comment><USER25> University Economics by Armen Alchian is quite a good introductory textbook to the basics of mainstream economics. It has a strong emphasis on understanding economic concepts intuitively which I like.

If you're looking for a more mathematical introduction, McAfee's open source book is a pretty good introduction to microeconomics and is available for free at <http://www.introecon.com/>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. I don't have a math-heavy background, so Econ has always seemed formidable and daunting to study. I'm sensitive to the political agendas of name-brand economists and theories and just never really knew where to begin.

One text that hasn't come up here, but has in my offline discussions, is Foundations Of Economics: A Beginner's Companion by Yanis Varoufakis. Any opinions on that?

</comment><comment><USER26> Economics is a bit like theology. You read it to get exposed to the ideas, learn about other people's beliefs, and be amazed by the beautifully argued but experimentally unsupported theories. I liked Eric Beinhocker, Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics.

</comment><comment><USER27> Bookwise, some places to start for general overviews of economics are:

"New Ideas from Dead Economists" by Todd Buchholtz

"Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan

Blogwise:

<http://www.marginalrevolution.com/> is entertaining and filled with good insights from a libertarian point of view.

<http://economistsview.typepad.com/> has more centrist/liberal views on a variety of economic issues and has a good set of links to daily economic- related blog posts from various points of view.

The above blogs have enough links to other blogs to get you started, and they will give you different points of view on current topics.

</comment><comment><USER28> The Undercover Economist is quite a fun read and very accessible to the layperson: [http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist-Exposing-Poor- Dec...](http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist-Exposing-Poor- Decent/dp/0195189779)

<comment><USER29> I agree, it lays out many economic concepts in easily understandable form for persons new to the subject.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> For what it's worth, the Campaign for Liberty has compiled a list of videos and books on economics at <http://www.campaignforliberty.com/edu/economics.php>

</comment><comment><USER31> If you are concerned about learning about how we got into all this mess and have 10 minutes to spare - this would be a great primer <http://www.crisisofcredit.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Along with the excellent recommendations here, I would add "The Worldly Philosophers" by Heilbroner ([http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers- Lives-Economic-Th...](http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives- Economic-Thinkers/dp/068486214X)) for a slightly different angle. It covers a wide range of famous economists and describes the high points of their theories along with some biographical detail, in a very engaging style. It's the economics version of "Men Of Mathematics", which is also a fascinating book.

</comment><comment><USER32> Naked Economics by Wheelan

[http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Economics-Undressing-Dismal- Scie...](http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Economics-Undressing-Dismal- Science/dp/0393049825)

<comment><USER33> I second this rec. The author breaks down economics with common language and regular, everyday topics (no charts, graphs or formulas).

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I learned a heck of a lot from reading John Kenneth Galbraith's books. In particular, _The Affluent Society_ , _The New Industrial State_ , and _Money: Whence it Came, Where it Went_

<comment><USER34> Really? I get downvoted for providing an alternative that the Milton Friedman crowd doesn't like?

<comment><USER19> I tried to correct that with some upvotes. :)

Unfortunately HN (and other sites, not unique to this one) doesn't have a way to enforce distinctions between down-voting due to:

1\. respectful disagreement 2\. writer is crackpot 3\. writer is troll 4\. voter himself is being juvenile 5\. typo 6\. cosmic rays 7\. cat sat on keyboard

Actually maybe there's a startup idea in there: deliver a product/service/tech that DOES enable reliable disambiguation between those cases!

<comment><USER34> Heh, I was about to say that Slashdot already does something like this, but I am pretty sure they aren't covering cases 6 and 7. Cosmic rays and keyboard cats...now there's a startup problem I can sink my teeth into. Thanks. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> "Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics" is really great Hacker News-ish book about economics. It's the only non-technical book that gets into agent-based computational economics. There's some unfortunate business strategy waffle in the middle but otherwise it's fantastic.

Here's a review of it by the great Herb Gintis: <http://www.amazon.com/review/R26IO7AY7JHS8C/>

</comment><comment><USER36> Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman...

</comment><comment><USER37> Whoa what with the hacker love for Austrian economics?

It like everyone take after Eric S. Raymond, the hacker who extends Austrian(Hayekian to be more exact) economics to the field of software development in his _The Cathedral and the Bazaar_.

<comment><USER19> the strong Austrian current you see here is probably due to 2 factors:

1\. libertarianism & anarcho-capitalism are fairly popular among programmers

2\. the "markets good, government bad" belief is pretty common among business fans

personally I think there's both good and bad, wisdom and horrible flaws, in both of those belief areas

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner - [http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic- Th...](http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic- Thinkers/dp/068486214X)

</comment><comment><USER39> I might recommend some behavioral finance: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics>. _Predictably Irrational_ is good.

</comment><comment><USER40> Gregory Mankiw has published a numerous excellent books.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._Gregory_Mankiw>

</comment><comment><USER19> not books, but would anyone here recommend that he try the lecture videos at KhanAcademy.org? Or entries in Wikipedia?

<comment><USER11> Economics is so fantastically politicized---in a more honest age, it was called political economy---you'd have to apply your maximum filters for Wikipedia to be of any use. Probably not the best choice for a beginner.

<comment><USER19> Agreed.

I think it is because unlike with the real/natural sciences, in Economics it's very easy and common to commit fallacies like cherry picking and making deductions based on incomplete information or emotion-based assumptions. Folks that grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth (relatively speaking) are more likely to be anti-government/pro-market, and folks who want to make a living by running a business tend to not like taxes and not like external regulation of their activities, even when their activities would cause harm or impose external costs on their fellow citizens (pollution, etc.).

Actually I'd argue that Wikipedia may be a more neutral resource than many books because with books there can at times be only 1 person who blesses it with authority whereas most economics articles are vetted by the community and endlessly critiqued and debated over by editors, with both Pro and Con factions wrestling over the fairness and objectivity of each sentence. A book can often just be an attack piece or propaganda tool.

<comment><USER11> The problem is that Wikipedia articles will have "random" biases and omissions. When you read a book by one author it's at least likely to be consistent in its bias.

E.g. the latest example I've found of this, which I grant you is relatively obscure compared to more prominent and no doubt well fought over articles, is the one on the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS), which had one of the largest Chapter 9 bankruptcies in history: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Public_Power_Supply_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Public_Power_Supply_System)

All that financial history has been airbrushed out; unless you notice the categories at the bottom, check out the Further reading or the right External Link or sample the article's history you'd have no idea about what was a rather major bit of economic history, rated as one of the three both large and notable Chapter 9 bankruptcies: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_9,_Title_11,_United_Sta...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_9,_Title_11,_United_States_Code#Notable_Chapter_9_bankruptcies)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> 'Economics' by Paul Samuelson

<comment><USER11> It's a "classic", at one time _the_ classic, but I don't have much respect for an author who's glowing portrayals of the wonders of the Soviet economy were over the years quietly modified and then dropped as the truth became too well known to be ignored.

<comment><USER19> Agreed on both your points. (His college textbook is probably the thickest in my economics collection.) I lost a lot of respect for him over the Soviet era. It undermines his credibility on many other issues. Economics is already a soft science (compared to physics, etc.) so having trust in the authority of it's pole bearers is pretty critical.

<comment><USER11> Exhibit number N on why the neo-Keynesians don't get much respect today (well, not counting those they empower).

And it was worse than I'd remembered when I composed the above; as Wikipedia says, " _In Samuelson's 1973 edition of his famous textbook, he laid forth the prediction that the Soviet Union would catch up to the United States in per capita income by 1990, and almost certainly would by 2015 because of its superior economic system. Subsequent editions of his textbook would later push the date of his prediction back farther until the Soviet Union ultimately collapsed._ "

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Robert Shiller, Long time Professor of Yale University does economics the best justice I've ever heard.

[http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/financial- markets/content/down...](http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/financial- markets/content/downloads)</comment>


Ask HN: change username - <AUTHOR>

Who and how much do I have to pay to change my HN username? <comment><USER2> Just create a new account. Link them in your profiles if it really matters to you.

<comment><AUTHOR> dont wanna lose karmaz :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I was told they would not change them in 2010, so I setup the new desired one.</comment>


Crocodoc (YC W10) Debuts New HTML5 Document Viewer; Signs Dropbox, LinkedIn - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/01/crocodoc-debuts-html5-document-embedding-technology-partners-with-dropbox-yammer-sap/

<comment><USER2> I was responsible for integrating their service at Yammer. They were (and continue to be) awesome to work with. Intuitive API, dead simple implementation.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've always been a fan of Crocodoc. They invited me to a few of their beta previews and it was nice throwing emails back and forth with the actual developers on bugs and features. Great team!

</comment><comment><USER4> Great service with huge players using their product to serve up documents/files to millions using HTML5.

</comment><comment><USER5> Wow! Congratulations Ryan and team!

</comment><comment><USER6> Congrats on a new product launch. When you're in Cbus next, email me and we'll catch up.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nice work Ryan

\- Waseem</comment>


Great User Experiences Require Great Front-End Development - <AUTHOR> http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/04/great-user-experiences-require-great-front-end-development.php

<comment><USER2> There is a great irony in the fact that the UX for this site is pretty awful: * Gigantic social sharing buttons (they're bigger than the headline) * Glossy nav bar makes options difficult to read * When scrolling a long article, the left and right areas for nav are completely empty. I end up with two giant purple bars flanking the article. * On the topic of purple, sooooooo much purple.

Maybe I'm spoiled by the reading UX that medium.com provides.</comment>


Show HN: Create a personal Google Blacklist - <AUTHOR>

I created a simple app that allows you to create a blacklist of sites for Google searches.
It also allows you to create "preferred searches" as well.  These let you list sites that you want ranked higher in the search results as well as blacklist sites specific to this search.
Just a note, please look at the about page to see the format that is expected for the URLs.
Site: http://blacklist-search.appspot.com/
Anyway, this was really a scratch my own itch sort of thing but I thought other people might find it useful as well. I would also really appreciate any input. Thanks! <comment><AUTHOR> clicky: <http://blacklist-search.appspot.com/></comment>


PragmataPro the ideal programming typeface becomes open source - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiegogo.com/PragmataPro-the-ideal-programming-typeface-becomes-open-source

<comment><AUTHOR> I've used Pragmata and then PragmataPro for over 10 years now. It was always the most expensive programmer font, but totally worth it. If you think about how many hours each day I looked at it, the cost was nothing.

Now the developer wants to open source it using a Kickstarter-like program. That's a great idea.

</comment><comment><USER2> there was a submission about this a couple of weeks ago

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3191131></comment>


Startup Camp : Sun's unconference for the Startup Community - <AUTHOR> http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com/2007/10/startup-camp-suns-unconference-for.html Startup Camp is an unconference-style event that's dedicated to bringing together the various members of the startup community for a face-to-face collaborative meetup where its the attendees that drive the agenda [in true unconference fashion] <comment><USER2> Non-linkjacked: <http://www.startupcamp.org/></comment>


Clojure has turned 5 - <AUTHOR>

The Clojure project has turned 5, so I thought I would post with some resources that got me dwelling in the community...
How precise you can be: http://squirrel.pl/blog/2010/05/22/clojure-vs-java-the-beauty-of-conciseness/
Usercase with Beanstalk: http://blog.beanstalkapp.com/post/23998022427/beanstalk-clojure-love-and-20x-better-performance
A startup that got an overhall with clojure: http://www.colinsteele.org/post/23103789647/against-the-grain-aws-clojure-startup
I've ordered these by the time taken to read them :D <comment><USER2> Happy b'day Clojure</comment>


Schwartzian Transform - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwartzian_transform <comment><USER3> I like the Arc idiom for this. Here's how to sort a list (say of stories) by some computed value (say a function called score):

      (sort (compute > score) stories)

If score is expensive, you just wrap it in memo:

      (sort (compare > (memo score)) stories)

Now it will compute each score once, save them in a table, and throw the table away when done.

<comment><USER4> This also pops up in SICP, first in an exercise (a re-tread of fibonacci, SICP's fizzbuzz) and in several other places later.

It seems like an example of the importance and influence of notation - <USER2> commonly used languages these days have first class functions but nobody using a lisp-2 variant would have thought to give this particular thing a special name.

<comment><USER3> I don't follow the connection to Lisp-2. Can you explain?

<comment><USER4> There isn't one, I fatfingered my 1 into a 2 and it's too late to fix it, sorry. I just meant it ends up being the shortest, least weird notation for function composition. Clearly, the meta-notation has some problems...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A possibly counterintuitive case where "the key...is expensive to compute" can be when accessing the key just requires following a pointer to something not in cache. It's not the same thing syntactically, but, for example, Postgres sped up collation by packing bytes into integers:

[http://pgeoghegan.blogspot.com/2015/01/abbreviated-keys- expl...](http://pgeoghegan.blogspot.com/2015/01/abbreviated-keys-exploiting- locality-to.html)

I've also seen speedups sorting strings by first sorting prefixes of them packed into uint64s (rather than sorting pointer/length references to string data), and in an application where a friend needed to sort a lot of indices into an array, it turned out to greatly speed the sort (by avoiding indirections) to copy the whole array, sort the indices and the copy of the array together, then toss out the copy.

</comment><comment><USER6> tl/dr, a sort optimization: avoid recomputing the sort keys by temporarily associating them with the input items.

Wouldn't it be embarrassing to have one's name in the title of a long winded Wikipedia article for a super simple and obvious optimization.</comment>


Ask HN: Should I validate a client's idea? - <AUTHOR> I run a small, but successful, web development shop. We have recently been approached by a potential client to build a web application for them. Its a reasonably sized project that will take a few months. There are no great technical challenges in this project.
The app will be entering into a very competitive marketplace, with a slightly different spin. However, the founder has almost no experience of web development and what it takes to get an app off the ground.
Given what I have seen so far, I don't think that he understands what it takes to make this thing successful. I don't know, maybe he gets lucky or something, but lets just say its unlikely. Its going to take a LOT more money in marketing than he believes and I get the impression that he thinks that people will just come to the website and use it. He is throwing out numbers that he thinks are attainable and, having started a few web apps myself, I know that he is being unrealistic.
I'm not sure that in all good conscience I can take on a project that is going to cost him a lot of money and not be successful.
I honestly don't have the time to get more involved, and start giving him advice on all the different aspects from a business point of view. Technically, though, I can get the job done to an awesome standard. But not on the business side.
Do I just lay the cards on the table, and let him make the decision? <comment><USER2> If you hired a contractor to remodel your kitchen, you'd expect him to give feedback on the design, materials, and construction of the kitchen, not speculate on the future resale value of the house. This guy is paying for a Web app, so take the money and deliver the app, giving him input on the design and implementation of the app. Let him worry about how to turn that Web app into a successful business.

<comment><USER3> This is the right answer but modified by an honest response to him when he inevitably asks your opinion on their prospects.

"I see challenges..." [and list them honestly, but don't overstate] is all you need to (and should) say. We've all looked at pre-successful businesses and thought they couldn't possibly work. Don't be so sure his will fail due to marketing requirements or any other shortcomings you perceive. Surprises surprise us all the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you do take on the client, be vigilant (and contractually bound) in what you provide. Don't go down the agile route. Specify _everything_ to the n'th degree making sure you set out exactly what you'll provide. When his budget runs out and he still isn't getting the traffic he expects, your phone will be ringing off the hook as he thinks of fixes, amendments and tweaks that he'll expect you to do for free if there isn't a bulletproof design document to refer to.

<comment><USER5> I second this. The contract should contain every little bit of functionality the client initially wants - from user registration to where the Twitter and Facebook icons will be on the homepage.

<comment><USER6> No, this is a terrible idea. It will be a huge and tedious effort, and it cannot succeed - you simply will not be able to write a specification that is watertight enough to prevent the client coming back and asking for changes. It will also eliminate any trace of the flexibility which gives the project even the slimmest chance of success.

The right approach is the exact opposite: make this a time and materials contract, where you bill every month for the hours of work done that month. He will be able to ask for fixes to things which are outright bugs (depending on how the law and the contract specify the warranty provisions), but tweaks or enhancements will cost him money. Using this kind of contract makes it very easy to stick to your guns over this.

<comment><USER4> If you've invented a way to conclusively differentiate between what is a bug and what is a change/new feature when you're talking to a client, the entire IT industry needs to know about it. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > I'm not sure that in all good conscience I can take on a project that is > going to cost him a lot of money and not be successful.

Mind your own business. Literally. Every startup is a bad idea until it makes money. Then, magically, it becomes an amazing idea.

That said, yes, it will likely fail.

I have been in similar situations many times. An experienced client means very little, I assure you. They engage in similar stupidity, the only difference being that they will couch their nonsense as an "exploration" or "learning experience".

It's their money and they can spend it however they wish. My job is to deliver a product according to spec.

Now, I _will_ politely inform them that based on my business acumen, understanding of the market, etc. that the success of their venture is extremely low. But that's as far as I go.

How do these projects end? Usually quite abruptly, when they run out of money. There is no hope of turning a client like this into a long-term client, because quite simply, they don't have any cash flow. They have cash, but it's a one time thing unless their business takes off, which it won't. But isn't that the definition of a startup?

<comment><USER8> > _Every startup is a bad idea until it makes money. Then, magically, it > becomes an amazing idea._

This is not remotely true. For example, Dropbox was not a bad idea until it made money; it was a brilliant idea with an unproven business model.

<comment><USER7> I think you're confusing stupid idea with bad idea.

Twitter was a bad idea. A stripped-down social networking site in a crowded marketplace ... unlikely to succeed. But succeed it did. Now it's a wonderful idea. But making a twitter clone now ... bad idea.

Now, a twitter clone with a 2 character limit, that's not a bad idea. That's a stupid idea.

I take on bad idea projects all the time, albeit with a warning to the client. I refuse to take on stupid ideas. I don't do crazy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I see my job as not to just deliver a product, but to help my client be successful. If I do not believe that my help will help make my client successful -- e.g. make money, get investment, or satisfy a contract with one of their customers -- then I typically pass. An idea validation project is not good or bad by itself, but it is often followed with other problems with the project. For example, I have had first-hand experience with the following:

\+ If a project is unsuccessful in a business sense, many clients will blame you, even if you deliver a perfect product.

\+ If a client is bootstrapping with his own money (or friends/family), then the client will often try to get as much out of you as possible for as little as possible.

\+ If a client does not listen to your recommendations and you feel it is irrational, you may find the client hard to work with.

\+ If a client wants a "kitchen sink" product and often tells you things will be "easy", then the client may have unrealistic expectations for you too and/or continually want revisions.

Note that the core problem with many of these is that the client has a small budget and/or does not respect your time/work. If you can ensure that these are not problems, it is probably safe to proceed hourly/weekly but not for a flat rate.

</comment><comment><USER6> Lay the cards on the table, and let him make the decision. It's not your responsibility, as a developer or as a decent human being, to stop other people making bad decisions. Indeed, making bad decisions is a vital part of a full life experience.

I'm reminded of the words of Daniel Kish, a blind man who has struggled against the wrap-them-in-cotton-wool approach generally taken in the raising of blind children:

> Running into a pole is a drag, but never being allowed to run into a pole is > a disaster. [1]

Tell him about the pole, and about the pain of running into poles, but if he choses to run, don't try to stop him.

[1] [http://www.mensjournal.com/article/print-view/the-blind- man-...](http://www.mensjournal.com/article/print-view/the-blind-man-who- taught-himself-to-see-20120504)

</comment><comment><USER10> I've had exactly this issue in the past - worse in that the client was also arranging for third-party design and UX, and we were just to put together the technical solution.

Honestly, the best you can offer is advice - it's worth highlighting any particular problem areas that you may be able to help solve as part of the technical process.

However, at the end of the day, this guy's probably going to go ahead and build this app regardless of whether or not you agree to take it on. So the choice is a) it doesn't work, and you get the money or b) it doesn't work, and someone else gets the money. Sure, if there are going to be long-term ramification for you, of the "Hey, aren't you that guy who developed that awful website" kind, then maybe think twice. But it's realistically not your job to validate business ideas, and it's better not to even start down that road - because you'll end up sharing responsibility.

Just make sure that you're paid before launch!

</comment><comment><USER11> "I'm not sure that in all good conscience I can take on a project that is going to cost him a lot of money and not be successful."

Love this attitude. There are too many people who simply don't care.

I agree with many others on this thread, lay the cards on the table (if possible with examples of your own apps and difficulties they've faced) and let him choose. Potentially also point him in the direction of a marketing/pr firm that may be able to help (ideally someone you're friendly with and can talk to beforehand). That way you're increasing the chances for him, reducing blame for yourself and paying forward with some work for a friend.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER12> We deal with this sort of thing all the time. The best move, I think, would be to be very upfront about how competitive the particular market is and your thoughts on that. And be VERY clear about the scope and what he's getting from you. onion2k is right - when he's not getting the traffic he imagined, you're gonna be on the hook for the "fixes" necessary to make that happen.

</comment><comment><USER13> The reason you are even asking this question on HN shows some moral obligation that you feel to do what is "right" in this case; whatever "right" may be to you. Due to this, I would present your concerns to him, and then accept the work if you feel comfortable with it.

A project like this seems to warrant an Agile approach; mitigating risk for both yourself and the client.

</comment><comment><USER14> Me and my colleagues have created a company around validating clients ideas. So far we had some small projects and now are working on a bigger one. To tell you the truth it is fun, but it is more responsibility. The business part is the hardest, and takes more time then we thought.

But we are operating only few months, so it may be only the learning how to do business and communicate it that is hard.

Company web: [http://6artisans.com](http://6artisans.com)

<comment><USER15> In this day an age, where Subway can make "artisan sandwiches" and Dominoes can make "artisan pizzas," you have the chutzpah to give yourself the titles like "Data Artisan," "Mobile Artisan" and worst of all, "User Experience Artisan."

I like the idea for your company, but the "artisan" angle ain't making me trust you. Instead it's making me laugh. Please take this as constructive criticism. I'm sure you folks know what you're doing. Just stop taking it so seriously.

<comment><USER14> Well, it is probably just language gap. I never heard of artisan sandwiches and pizzas ;)

<comment><USER15> Mmm, yeah. Totally a language gap. As long as you don't do business with clients in the US, you should be fine. See, there's this trend here to put the word "artisan" after everything to make it sound better (and charge more for it). It didn't sink in for me that you were European. My bad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The key issue is: do you have ethical and professional obligations to a _potential_ client. Or only to an _actual_ , contracted client. Or not even then. Since you've posted this question, you presumably agree with the last two propositions.

So, you believe that you have knowledge that the client does not. And the lack of that knowledge will cause him to make a mistake. I would say that you have a professional obligation to advise him that the webapp is unlikely to succeed, but that this should not be used to override his freedom of action. If you explain your concerns and he still wants to proceed, then take the work.

The degree of any ethical obligation you might have depends on the harm that might be done to him by his failure. If he is wealthy and can absorb the cost of failure then, in warning him, you've probably discharged your ethical obligation too. On the other hand, if the client has re-mortgaged his house to pay for the app and he and his family would end-up homeless when it fails then I'd say you have a duty not to involve yourself. Obviously, the grey-area in- between is tricky.

If you don't think there is any ethical component to this then your decision will presumably be easier. I hope that is not the case.

</comment><comment><USER17> This piece of advice only applies if you choose to go on. The main risk here is having your client blame your work for the likely failure of the app, even with no proper ground for that. Imagine that you propose some design improvement over his specifications, this could be (from his point of view) the reason why the app is failing! So stick to specs, validate and transfer the responsability of every design choice to him.

</comment><comment><USER18> Lay the cards on the table... Eventually, it won't be good marketing if you didn't help you're client.

You can propose to create a MVP and just show screenshots of early twitter and facebook...

Say it will cost him less money and it will help him validate the idea. Show him some Analytics of some of you're apps.

<comment><USER5> Most people I've talked to don't understand the idea of an MVP and believe EVERYTHING they want in a product is an MVP.

<comment><USER18> Use Trello to seperate stuff if you're working with people who don't understand it... :)

Then notice that most of the stuff for the finishing product is in the current sprint backlog and explain that ain't a MVP.

Then start to filter stuff away for what isn't "required", the more you filter, the more it will become an MVP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Last year we were contracted to do some IC verification work. The more we learnt about the system, the more we wondered, "doesn't this just duplicate existing successful products? What is the niche here, exactly?".

Meanwhile they ran out of money and didn't pay our invoices.

</comment><comment><USER20> In my previous job, I made the mistake of joining an early stage startup as a full time employee with almost the exact situation (experienced founder with "if I build it, they will come" syndrome).

My advice is to pass on the opportunity from the technical implementation side and pitch some business consulting instead for a reduced or nonexistent fee. Then you can accomplish the following:

1) Help him out and not leave him completely hanging.

2) Remain engaged in case his business does take off and you gain enough confidence to take on some technical work.

3) Pass along the work to some contacts who might enjoy the technical work more than you would.

</comment><comment><USER21> I was in a similar situation and I laid down the cards. I think I did the right thing by doing so and the client will reevaluate the viability of the concept as they said.

</comment><comment><USER22> As everyone seems to agree, you're being contracted to build a web app for the client. The business model and marketing behind it, is essentially his challenge.

> I'm not sure that in all good conscience I can take on a project that is > going to cost him a lot of money and not be successful.

No one can ultimately say a project will be successful or not as there have been good ideas that died, and bad ideas that took off.

Take the money, build the best web app that you can build.

</comment><comment><USER23> "I honestly don't have the time to get more involved"

So don't. It sounds like you have quite a bit of work landing at your door to make the above claim. If that's the case then choose to work on the projects that you feel have the most potential to succeed. Doing so will, assuming you're correct, build a better portfolio and reputation for you, which will then lead to more opportunities and better pay.

</comment><comment><USER24> This might seem like a strange response, but I think it depends almost entirely on what kind of person the client is. Are they the type to admit their own failings? Or are they the type who thinks everyone else is an idiot? The former will accept the failure of the app for one of the many legitimate reasons. The latter will blame YOU when they don't get rich instantly. Be careful.

</comment><comment><USER25> Learning to present your opinion properly is an important skill. It's tough to know what will work or not, even for the most experienced people in Silicon Valley. One time, I thought an idea was garbage and the market oversaturated, their initial launch ended up receiving a ton of press and traction.

</comment><comment><USER26> Yes. Do your due diligence & be up front & honest. Also prepare to have a 'backup' plan (other peson/people) in case he still wants to move forward

</comment><comment><USER27> Yes, lay the cards and let him make the decision. But, as others suggested, be very clear (in writing) what he is going to get for his money.

</comment><comment><USER28> What is your web development shop's URL? You may get some business ;)</comment>


ClojureScript: 4 Things That Might Worry You, but Shouldn't - <AUTHOR> http://jasonrudolph.com/blog/2012/09/11/clojurescript-4-things-that-might-worry-you-but-should-not/ <comment><USER2> I agree with everything except the ease of debugging- I've found it difficult to debug clojurescript code (though I still use it anyway because of the other benefits)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been meaning to give clojurescript a try (I've fiddled with clojure), but is there anything comparable to backbone or ember?

<comment><USER4> I've asked this question before to folks who I know use ClojureScript. The answer is: you don't need a framework like Backbonejs if you're using ClojureScript. Why? The ability to work in a functional language means you are able to express equivalent concepts without the need for alot of plumbing/framework.</comment></comment>


Want to get hired by the next Google? - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.theage.com.au/startupstories/ <comment><USER3> Had a good look at the article, app and various other bits. Some comments:

\- sydney based: <http://www.martinjwells.com> & previously of dot communications ~ <http://www.dot.com.au/about/people.htm>

\- Founder wrote the article (how he wrangled that one I'll never know. one way to get some press)

\- more a platform than a tool and used as discussion, blog, as a startup ( <http://martinjwells.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/goodbye-blogging> )

\- realtime (slow): scalability problems will be a problem (testing scalability of your engine is the new 'create a blog engine')

\- appears to be imitating myspace: supply the tools, create a community to grow

\- ui problems in that from title link in index to detail content there is another layer. Imagine using google and having to click the item found, then another before you get to the content but they seem to be aware of this and concentrating on growing userbase and fixing it rather than _wait_ and design the best user experience ever.

</comment><comment><USER4> Since this has turned into a discussion on Tangler;

I use Tangler occasionally (I'm Sydney based, so I've met Martin too - <USER2> guy, very helpful). The app was kinda slow initially, but it's getting much better. I read posts on it a couple of times a week now, although I don't necessarily prefer it to traditional forum systems. It seems unfocused at the moment, but I suspect that's largely part of their plan to let the users decide where to take the app.

I do agree with bootload that they need to get rid of the second click through layer for topics. That does bug me a bit. Some better visualisation of topics within groups might help too - I feel lost without hierarchical navigation.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm pretty sure Google uses the same veto method with ~3 people. I don't think it's a good idea. Some of the best people I've known seemed strange, and even stupid, when I first met them. More than a small group of people with veto power seems likely to filter out many of the greats.

</comment><comment><USER6> "The next Google". Riiight. Some things look neat, but I definitely wouldn't go that far.

<comment><USER7> Do you think you would have gone that far when Google was just a search bar with better results? (I'm not particularly claiming that this _is_ the next Google, only that the next Google is extremely hard to spot)

<comment><USER6> I think you're playing down how much better the search results were between Google and Altavista & Co. I agree the next Google could come out of left field, but my comment is directed toward the author's headline, implying that his company is "the next Google." I may have misinterpreted what he meant, but that's what I was speaking of.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm not so sure about this veto thing. If there is even just one guy in the team who is really picky about, eg.: personality, then it won't work.

Long interviews are definitely worthwhile, though.</comment>


How to Become a Game Programmer - <AUTHOR> http://shawnpresser.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-become-game-programmer.html
<comment><USER2> Not sure I agree with the author's assertion that matrix math should be avoided until absolutely necessary when learning graphics programming. I don't even agree with the idea that matrix math is particularly difficult.

When I was in university, we learned graphics programming by taking a linear algebra course or two. This was applied in a graphics course in which all students built their own software renderer, from top to bottom.

I have seen coworkers who never learned matrix math fumble with obfuscated code that could be replaced with one line of matrix operations. Several game companies I have interviewed at make linear algebra a very big part of their technical interview process. IMO if you are even remotely comfortable with math, learning matrix math is a HUGE benefit (maybe even a necessity) if you want a serious job as a game developer... the easiest way to get going with it is to just take a university-level intro to linear algebra course. That is all you need to understand the math underneath the entire rendering pipeline.

<comment><USER3> I've seen various resources around hn for getting familiar with linear algebra (which seems hugely useful) - let's say that I'm not in a position to take an intro to linear algebra cours at a university, what other alternatives are there? Any online courses?

And how much calculus is required to have a chance at understanding the material?

It might be nice to have some study groups in the bay area for people looking to get into this with a regular schedule.

<comment><USER4> _> I'm not in a position to take an intro to linear algebra cours at a university_

What kind of non-position are you talking about?

At least here in Germany, there's absolutely no problem with attending a linear algebra lecture as a guest. Just ask the lecturer whether it's okay for him/her, and everything is fine.

<comment><USER5> My faculty even allow people to attend its courses as a regular student for some money (not much, ~35 Big Macs).

But of course, you need to be close to a university with decent linear algebra lectures, have enough time and so on. That's harder.

<comment><USER4> Linear algebra is absolute basic stuff. It is part of the first and second semester in mathematics, and also taught in computer science, physics, chemistry and many other fields.

So all you need is a university that provides natural sciences. I can't imagine such a university being hard to find.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you really do want to be a professional game programmer then I'd recommend biting the bullet and starting with C. It's a fundamental requirement for programmer at any game studio, and it's absolutely the closest interface you can get to the low-level workings of a machine without resorting to assembly. Learning about the heap, pointers, arrays, addresses and offsets isn't particularly fun, but neither is it particularly hard. I would be far more likely to employ a junior or intern with a solid understanding of these concepts, than someone with a fancy python graphics demo but who couldn't implement strlen()

That said, if you do want to dip your toe in the water and figure out if programming is for you, I'd really disagree with the suggestion of using Python as your language, particularly if your intention is to later focus on C/C++. Python is great, but its structure and constructs do not map particularly well to those languages. A better first step would C# (native on Windows, Mono on other platforms). In most ways its syntax is virtually identical to C++ and shares the same project and compile/run concepts. If you are using Windows, you'll also be using a best in class debugger and the same environment as you would in C/C++.

<comment><USER7> On the other hand, python, at it's very basic level, gets the syntactic mess that you or I are very familiar with, and removes all of it for first-timer's. There are no classes, no functions, just statements.

Also, for the "enter a name" and "guess a number" programs, for the beginner, everything I can think of will look effectively the same between the two languages. Furthermore, you can see the results right then and there when you're programming, rather than compiling, running, and repeatedly earning segfaults.

That said, the moment they begin to understand the flow of logic, they should move away from that language, so they can comprehend pointers/etc. This is, of course, all my opinion. Dijkstra would disagree with me, and so would many hackers, I'm sure, but wouldn't it be advisable for them to first begin to think in the minuscule steps, like a programmer does, before they have to deal with some of the stresses of C, and, even more so, classes?

<comment><USER8> I couldn't agree more with the middle paragraph.

But 'no classes' and 'no functions'?

      class NewClass:
          def NewFunction(arg0, arg1):
              print("Hello, World")

Python has both.

Pointers wise, I think you can learn them fairly late. I certainly didn't struggle to pick them up after years of using pointer-free languages.

(edit fixed my formatting)

<comment><USER7> I meant needing classes. You can program in python without ever looking at them; where as in C#, they're required to do anything. Not needing that extra boiler plate code is just one more hurtle a new programmer won't need to learn before getting into the real meat of development, if they chose to use Python as their first language. I should have been more clear about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wrote a book called Game Programming For Teens when I was 14, that was an international bestseller, sold in over 6 countries.

The book was written for teenagers who wanted to learn how to make videogames for the first time. I used a language called Blitz Basic to teach the kids. Why? Because they learned with a very basic language, how to make a cool game that was fun to play. They could even share with friends! But they didn't get bogged down in the intricacies of the syntax of C/C++.

I found that the teenagers who've read my book tend to get really inspired by the BASIC language, and that passion carries over to finally finishing the game in C/C++

</comment><comment><USER10> This is a great article. However, at the point where he suggests that the two choices for graphics programming are DirectX or OpenGL, I would point out that there are other options if you are pursuing anything other than graphics programming. If you're still on python at that point, there's PyGame, or SDL for C/C++.

Maybe it's because Im older and there wasn't as much need for 3D graphics when I was starting out, but I'd argue that for most people, focusing on a 2D API first will be much more rewarding.

On his mentioned other paths, I would fall squarely in the "texted based MMO => Network programmer path", except I did write plenty of graphical games along the way, just never with a 3D API of any sort.

I do think I will just link this article next time someone asks me that question though, he said it all better than me.

(Credentials: World of Warcraft was the first 3D game I worked on)

</comment><comment><USER11> This seems to be directed at PC/Console games. But for casual Flash games, Kongregate has great tutorials at: <http://www.kongregate.com/labs>

</comment><comment><USER12> I disagree with his advice on not using game engines. Just about any finished game will rely on someone else's libraries or code at some point. It would be insane to duplicate all this effort from scratch, except maybe as a learning exercise. Ogre3D is a good engine for C++ and Unity 3D can even use javascript. I learn a lot about actual game construction and design while using these engines, while efforts at reinventing the wheel usually end in frustration.

<comment><USER13> I think his point is to not focus on an engine. You don't work for a studio and are just starting out, you need to get the experience and knowledge first. Sure when you're working in Starcraft 3 or Quake43262 you'll be using an engine made by someone else, but the fact that you now know how that engine works on the inside because you didn't use them when you started makes you invaluable. It's the same deal with Ruby programmers and only Rails programmers we have now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'd like to know about the economics of being an indie game dev. Is it a an industry where it is easy to turn a profit once you've learned the basics? I've read that games are really hit-and-miss, so you need a large game portfolio to spread out the risk.

<comment><USER15> They're blockbuster driven, like other entertainment media. If you get a hit, you can make a million in a month.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I did something very similar to this, it worked, I weaseled my way into the video game industry and I shipped a major console title. You can do it, too!

However, the industry sucks. I left after about a year. In that time I learned the terms "stress migraine" and "death march." Compensation is pathetic.

Upside: wanting to make games propelled me to learn to create software. Now, I have a fantastic career as a software developer, minus the games and the stress migraines.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've considered setting my main focus on graphic programming to combine my love for math and programming. As the author said, they are "puzzles" that are unbelievably rewarding when solved. I could never really see myself going into game programming though just because I typically am not interested in many games with the notable exception of games like Doom. I still plan on making my own version of the Doom engine for Android (as a personal introduction into graphic programming), but have gotten bogged down with other projects.

On the downside, sometimes I feel I learn more from reading things such as this and going off and building my own things than I do from classes. I'm currently trying to solve this by focusing on my math major first then switching focus to my computer science major so I can approach it with a "larger toolset".

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm a computer science major and I've interned at an animation company as a technical director. We were outsourced for a certain AAA game that is coming out in 2011 (can't say what companies cause it would probably breach the NDA.) I spent a few days at the actual game company, and it sort of put me off game programming completely. Even though people had cool offices with posters and toys everywhere it was a very dull and depressing place to work. People came in at 10 and sometimes stayed till midnight. The highlight of the day was ordering dinner at 6pm. It was basically permanent crunch time. Also people don't realize that most of game creating is assets. Animations, mocap, recording dialog, scripting. There is very little actual programming unless you're working on an assets/tools team which makes engines (in my case they licensed the Unreal engine so most of the work in terms of programming was done.) Making a game nowadays is more like making a 10 hour movie...there are writers and directors that are hired. They film the action in a mocap studio and eventually animators clean up the data and level designers import it into the engine.

</comment><comment><USER19> Well, I don't know about being a game programmer, but he made me want to program my own tic-tac-toe game. So I made one yesterday and added a real AI today.

That's probably, even by my very low standards of beginner, one of the dirtiest pieces of code I've ever written, but yay ! it works !

</comment><comment><USER20> Step 1: Learn to program. Step 2: Program games.

Seriously. Why do people make this out harder than it has to be? Sure, your first few games won't be sale-able. They'll probably be crap.

-NOTHING- you can do will skip the crap games you are going to produce at first.

<comment><USER21> The point isn't "how to learn how to program"; the point is, "here is an ordered list of projects that will terminate in you knowing for yourself what good next steps are for game development".

I was enthralled by this article, not so much because I'm interested in game development (I'd rather eat a bug), but because I can imagine how valuable this article form would be for software protection, or reverse engineering, or network protocol design, or operating systems development (wow, would I ever like a series of step-by-step projects that ended in a basic functional virtual memory management system), or (somebody, please, please, please) FPGA dev.

(sorry for the prior opening snark).

<comment><USER22> I'm a CS PhD student, but I took a graduate level configurable computing (read: FPGAs) class in the ECE department. It was hard, but I came out with some of the basics. You may like reading through the homeworks I did for the course: <http://people.cs.vt.edu/~scschnei/ece5530/>

(That first homework took me 25 hours because it was my first time ever using a hardware description language. Feeling like a freshman again was humbling.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This type of questions, don't bring anything up, those who want to become game programmers, will become game programmers by they own initiative. Beginning with the language they would find at first step better for them, through the experience of time, those spirits would hand out and discover, what languages and technologies match better with the project they are currently working. Today I could say C/C++ are my best conclutions, thanks to pointers, memory access adresses, offsets. But who knows tomorrow?

Sorry for my english.

</comment><comment><USER23> This type of questions, don't bring anything up, those who want to become game programmers, will become game programmers by they own initiative. Beginning with the language they would find at first step better for them, through the experience of time, those spirits would hand out and discover, what languages and technologies match better with the project they are currently working. Today I could say C/C++ are my best conclutions, thanks to pointers, memory access adresses, offsets. But who knows tomorrow?

</comment><comment><USER24> If you want to be a game programmer I would suggest giving graphics programming a miss. I would suggest concentrating on one of the following:

1\. Tools: C#, Maya & 3DS Max APIs, pipelines, UX. IMO the most important area in games (hence my startup), also very sort after.

2\. Networking: learn about how to write networked games and servers that handle lag and heavy load.

3\. Low level systems, memory, optimisation, in C/C++.

These areas are all heavily sort after in my experience. What the games industry doesn't need is more wannabe graphics programmers.

</comment><comment><USER25> Once you get to graphics programming, what are your options on the Mac for IDE and library (directx/OpenGL)?

<comment><USER26> On the mac: IDE == Xcode. API's OpenGL, OpenGL ES (on the iPhone/pad), 2d there's quartz which is beautiful but generally too slow for games.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Develop with [http://qt.nokia.com/products/appdev/developer- tools/develope...](http://qt.nokia.com/products/appdev/developer- tools/developer-tools)

</comment><comment><USER28> Step 1: Learn to program. Step 2: Program a game.

Games are computer programs just like all the other computer programs.</comment>


Efene - a little more object oriented (a language for the erlang vm) - <AUTHOR> http://efene.tumblr.com/post/1146316926/a-little-more-object-oriented

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm the creator of efene, if you have any question let me know.

</comment><comment><USER2> I like the idea of offering a choice of syntax for the same language. Generally speaking, I don't see why syntax and semantics need to be as coupled as they are.</comment>


Show HN My Search Engine and Coupon Site - <AUTHOR> http://www.splatsearch.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Splatsearch.com came alive before Backrub and was used quite a lot. It went into neglect and wasn't ever built on because Google became the big player. I recently bought the domain from the owner for the low $thousands because I loved it and it was one of the first search engines I used. The plan is to build some kind of intelligent search engine but to fund it I have created a comparison site and coupon search engine. It covers quite a few country's and 3 languages.

I would love a peer review from fellow HN`ers to know how well I am doing.

<comment><USER2> It looks it has a lot of margin for improvement: right now products are showing up in a rather cluttered and useless fashion. What technology are you using to crawl items? You should definitely focus on that for the tool to be of somewhat value to the average user.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback Mahesh. I didn't realize it was so bad so i will make a point of pushing the new design live asap. Everyone has to start somewhere though. Most of the product are from data-feeds so its just trying to create the best we can do with different formats and different information.</comment></comment></comment>


Rovio CEO Stepping Down - <AUTHOR> http://www.arcticstartup.com/2014/08/29/mikael-hed-stepping-down-as-rovio-ceo-in-2015

<comment><USER2> Maybe this has something to do with the Rovio focus moving more towards being an entertainment brand and not a gaming company.</comment>


Show HN: Jobs for Coronavirus Survivors. Have Covid-19 Antibodies? You're Hired - <AUTHOR> https://jobs.rezscore.com/hire/covid/ <comment><USER2> Thanks for posting! As a probable early survivor, I've been looking for ways to volunteer, hopefully this works out!</comment>


Bitcoin couple face death penalty for 'seastead' in international waters - <AUTHOR> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-18/bitcoin-couple-face-death-penalty-in-thailand-for-seastead/11031336?pfmredir=sm <comment><USER2> Rule number 1 of international sovereignty which has been valid throughout human history.

You are sovereign iff you are able to defend your territory. If you cannot defend your territory you are not sovereign.

* There have been some exemptions for religious or cultural centers, or if you are a buffer between great powers but those have been rare.

</comment><comment><USER3> Of all the places to set up a seastead, Thailand really isn't a great place. Beyond the military dictatorship currently in power, the country is very proud of its independence and the fact it was never colonized. It has a relatively strict rule of law.

Although international borders in the ocean exist, countries overlook them all the time.

</comment><comment><USER4> If Thailand's navy attacks a vessel in international waters, does that count as piracy or an act of war?

<comment><USER5> A state military attacking a vessel in international waters is an act of war against the state whose vessel is attacked.

Of course, the whole point of seasteading is to avoid being subject to (and thus, protected by) any state, so...

<comment><USER6> So would it be acceptable for them to use deadly force to defend their vessel?

<comment><USER5> > So would it be acceptable for them to use deadly force to defend their > vessel?

Acceptable to whom? The _results_ of a stand-and-fight decision would probably not be acceptable to _them_.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The King of Kombucha - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/magazine/201503/tom-foster/the-king-of-kombucha.html

<comment><USER2> This article is praising a man who is very apt at selling lies. Not only is Kombucha (another bullshit health brand) ineffective in curing his mother's "so-called cancer" but even worse, causes serious side effects and occasional deaths which have been linked with drinking Kombucha.* Why would someone believe it is curing them of cancer if the mother who has sold this product was just as good as a snake oil salesman? I agree that the article has identified some faults of his in his industry, but praising him isn't doing any justice.

*[http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/com...](http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietandnutrition/kombucha-tea)

<comment><USER3> Whoa whoa let's slow down here. Kombucha is tasty (IMO) and the probiotics are great -- I enjoy kombucha and kefir regularly. But I'm not going to tell anyone it's magical or guaranteed to not cause them harm. There's simply not enough research either way. Correlation does not imply causation.

      In April 1995, two women who had been drinking the tea daily for
      2 months were hospitalized with severe acidosis -- an abnormal
      increase of acid levels in body fluids. Both had high levels of
      lactic acid upon hospitalization. One woman died of cardiac
      arrest 2 days after admission

I think that it's more likely those two women had underlying health issues they were trying to cure with kombucha instead of getting proper treatment; I find it plausible that it can cause harm to some people with preexisting conditions we have not yet identified.

You can die from drinking too much water too, you know...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a long-term resident of Japan, this confused the hell out of me. Over here "konbucha" is tea made from dried seaweed, bearing no resemblance to what's described in the article.

With that said, I found it hard to tell if the article's author took the guy seriously or was inviting the reader to conclude that he was a charlatan. It almost seemed like both, if that's possible.</comment>