Jolly Code - <AUTHOR> https://www.jollycode.org/ <comment><USER2> Sorry this is unreadable ~ is this meant to be a joke?

<comment><AUTHOR> In a sense, yes. It's a collection of fun programming projects, and the font is a continuation of that spirit.</comment></comment>


Scapegoats Goatscaping - <AUTHOR> http://www.scapegoatsgoatscaping.com/aboutus/

<comment><USER2> Goats can take out almost any noxious weed. Good success with your venture!</comment>


Petition: Place all Bills and Changes to Bills in a Public Git Repository - <AUTHOR> https://www.change.org/petitions/president-of-the-united-states-place-all-bills-and-changes-to-bills-in-a-public-git-repository

<comment><AUTHOR> If anyone doesn't think this is a good idea, feel free to say so. I can handle criticism. :)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you stylize jQuery Mobile?  - <AUTHOR>

Recently got a job as a front end developer at a big bank. I'm in charge of the UI. We're using jQuery Mobile. I'm a bit in over my head as I have to make this work on over 17 different phones flawlessly. I'm FUCKED.
I need a page that has all the assets of jQuery mobile so when I'm skinning, all I have to do is look at this one page.
Does anyone know where to find one?
What is the proper process when skinning jQuery Mobile?
It never feels right and it feels very hacky skinning it. What I do is create a new stylesheet, view whatever I want to change in Chrome/inspector, then override those classes in that new style sheet. A lot of things tend to break and I have to use a lot of special classes to fix them up.
What is your process? <comment><USER2> I had to do this recently, and rather than trying to remove styling from one of the built-in themes, I found it was easier to define my own (by picking any theme name but 'a', 'b', or 'c'), like this:

           ...

This will retain all the layout styles, but give you a fresh start on the rest, so you aren't trying to undo drop shadows, circular buttons, etc.

You'll need to include `data-theme="n"` on the divs with header, footer, and panel roles also.

My email is in my profile if you'd like to ask any other questions; I'd be happy to help.

</comment><comment><USER3> The best way to stylize jQuery Mobile is to create a new theme through modifying an existing one - I'd recommend modifying an existing one because of the cross browser testing/developments they have already done to the CSS.

</comment><comment><USER4> Have you taken a look at their ThemeRoller?

[http://jquerymobile.com/themeroller/index.php](http://jquerymobile.com/themeroller/index.php)

<comment><AUTHOR> Doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the editing I've been doing. This just changes a few colours and CSS properties. However it has a full page of assets I can use, so that solves one tiny problem of mine haha. Thanks.</comment></comment>


A Brief History of the Internet (1999) - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/html/cs.NI/9901011

<comment><USER2> If you are interested in the early history of the Internet, and would like a lot more detail than provided by this paper, I cannot recommend the following book enough: "Where Wizards Stay Up Late - The Origins Of The Internet": [http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up- Late/dp/06848326...](http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up- Late/dp/0684832674)

<comment><USER3> This is the first time I've seen someone else on here reference/recommend this title. I quite enjoyed it, as well. (My copy ended up water damaged and I can't refer to it right now, but from memory...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> ...and Al Gore???

Guderian insisted in 1933, within the high command, that every tank in the German armoured force must be equipped with radio- and visual equipment in order to enable each tank commander to communicate and perform a decisive role in blitzkrieg.

Guderian Kenngruppenheft, Funk in jedem Panzer -> Hut 6 -> SAGE -> SRI - > Cerf "inspiration" \--> Edward Bernays.

<comment><AUTHOR> Without getting into what Al Gore may have said or meant, let me quote the following lovely little tidbit from Paul Ginsparg (who created arxiv.org). It's about physicist Ken Wilson, but Al Gore and Newt Gingrich make a fascinating appearance:

"He [Wilson] was on the NSF taskforce that pushed for the implementation of the early NSFNet, and I was told by George Strawn (one of the people on the NSF side shepherding the process) that Ken was the key person who argued for using the TCP/IP (i.e., internet) protocol, rather than the DECnet protocol favored by many of the other physicists, and we know where that has led… (George also told me that the absolutely essential people who moved the NSFNet through the senate and house, respectively, were … Al Gore, Jr and Newt Gingrich)"

[http://quantumfrontiers.com/2013/06/18/we-are-all- wilsonians...](http://quantumfrontiers.com/2013/06/18/we-are-all-wilsonians- now/comment-page-1/#comment-3645)

<comment><USER4> BS. There is almost no conceptual difference between the two below, which would allow for any substantial credit in terms of innovation for the people you are mentioning.

[http://www.ilord.com/images/enigma-in- use-3-600px.jpg](http://www.ilord.com/images/enigma-in-use-3-600px.jpg) [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm//wp- content/uploads/201...](http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm//wp- content/uploads/2012/09/crop.jpg)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Kenngrup...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Kenngruppenheft.jpg) [https://awarmanf.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/us-4.png](https://awarmanf.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/us-4.png)

Concept of datagrams, encapsulation, Radio Identifiers (~ MAC/IP address) etc.: [http://operationturing.tumblr.com/Enigma](http://operationturing.tumblr.com/Enigma)

<comment><USER4> care to elaborate what was Cerf's & Co. crucial distinguishing insight?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Now I just need someone to explain the history of subnets. Never worked out how they ended up as they are.</comment>


Personal Computing On The VIC-20 (1982) - <AUTHOR> https://archive.org/details/Personal_Computing_On_The_VIC-20_1982_Commodore/mode/2up <comment><AUTHOR> The manual to my first computer. Had the datasette storage as well. Loading a program took a good five minutes. Unfortunately the TV I used for it was black and white, so I only saw it in color once when I connected to the family TV.

The manual is amazing from today's perspective. On the first few pages it has cartoons and teaches you how to use the _shift key_ and other such rudimentary things. Two chapters or so later you are learning how to PEEK and POKE (read/set) physical memory locations. It was friendly and assumed you were intelligent at the same time.

<comment><USER2> Same here! I really wanted a TI-99/4A but the parents ix-nay'ed that idea.

Many fond memories of VIC, and also many times when I'm doing something horribly manually-oriented on my current PC and I think, "Geez, this feels a lot like the VIC-20!"</comment></comment>


Ask HN: I broke one relationship, and missed another, worth it? - <AUTHOR>

Note 1: This is a throwaway account, for obvious reason.
Note 2: I posted the same story at http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/20803/true-story-i-broke-one-relationship-and-missed-another-because-of-my-startup-i. But so far, no response. I think it would be good if I cross post it here.
Here it goes.
I started to work on my startup since last year January. At that time I had a girlfriend. She was very supportive of me when I first started. I told her upfront that the startup would be a very consuming job by itself, and on top of that I had another full time job because I needed the income to support my living expenses. She said she could cope with it; and she could find other form of entertainment and won't do anything to jeopardize the relationship. Note that at that point of time I didn't even ask her to support me, either financially, emotionally, and I didn't ask her to share my stress, work load and troubles.
All I asked from her, was to not cheat on me.
Fast forward to six months later, just as my startup was showing signs of life , I found out that .... she did cheat on me. I was heart broken and promptly broke up with her. She was sad and pleading for second chance; she wanted to salvage the relationship.
I said no.
I would need full energy and concentration to deal with two demanding programming jobs day and night; I didn't want to remain in a relationship with no trust; I didn't want to check on her everyday. That was just painful.
Then I met another girl two months after the broke-up. We showed some affection towards each other. But the hurt was still lingering in my mind. I afraid that if I launched a full-fledged relationship with her, the same thing would happen to me again, for the same reason. So I was very cautious, refraining from taking the relationship into deeper water. We were dating like twice a month-- going to movies, having dinner together, just very casual and friend-type of meeting and nothing sexual ( we were less opened to sex than most western countries). But we did SMS daily. I got this strong feeling that if I openly pursued her, I could easily won her over.
But I didn't; the cost of pursuing a girl might not be very high but the cost of maintaining a relationship is. I wasn't sure I wanted to make that kind of commitment. And of course, the memories from previous relationship didn't help.
I told her that I would be concentrated on my startup, which by the time, was showing very good sign-- so good that it was generating at least twice of my full time income ( and my full time income is already very high by my country standard), and I was prepared to go full time. I also told her, frankly, about my past relationship failures and I didn't really know whom to trust/ not to trust. She laughed, assured me that most girls weren't like my ex, and they would be willing to sacrifice for the boys.
Still, I was unsure of that, so I didn't make move.
And then, yesterday.
She SMSed me, telling me that she got a boyfriend. I was stunt, and sad. I couldn't help but feel that I actually miss the opportunity for a fruitful relationship because I was too absorbed in my work and being too defensive.
A no small part in me started to question what I believed: is it worthwhile to do a startup, embark on a journey full of risks, and break all the relationship?
Usually I was very motivated and optimistic . But as I woke up in the morning today, for the first time in many many years, tears streamed down from my eyes; a sense of emptiness engulfed me. What's the point of earning all the money in the world, and having no relationship, no life?
Is it worth it? Any advice you can give? <comment><USER2> Not to downplay your situation. I assume you're still young. But life is full of choices. There's no way to know which is the best choice at the moment. All you can do is make a choice, give it everything you got, and you won't regret it. I promise! Just like you are doing with your start up. As for finding the right girl, don't worry the right one WILL come, just when you least expected. In reality, there isn't just one right one. Just as you are not attracted to just one girl. Any relationship requires (much) effort to make it works; just as your relationship with your startup. You are just not ready for a personal relationship now. But that should stop you from going out and having fun with friends. And when you are ready, one of those friendship will turn into a relationship.

</comment><comment><USER3> I went through a phase where I just HAD to have a certain girl in my life to make my life complete. I endured sooo much pain because of it.

Anyway, I only say this because, in retrospect, I think it was all just biology. If, despite your emotional state, you can just manage to wrap your head around that for a second, then maybe it will help you.

Keep going the way you're going as long as you're enjoying the ride. On the other hand, don't wait for forever until you find the time to commit to a relationship. They can be very rewarding, and you should definitely try to have that experience at some point in your life.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wish I could find the time, and when the time is right I could find a girl whom I can share my life with.

Having these two events happening at the same time takes a bit of luck, I afraid.

<comment><USER3> My dad said this to me at a particular low point in my life, perhaps its relevant: "This hard time you're going through right now is just the way life is for you _right now_ at this moment. For better or for worse, life is always changing, and things WILL NOT be the same tomorrow as they are today." ... I always drew encouragement from that when the chips were down.

Take care.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Paul Graham on How to Start a Startup

<http://paulgraham.com/start.html>

"During this time you'll do little but work, because when you're not working, your competitors will be. My only leisure activities were running, which I needed to do to keep working anyway, and about fifteen minutes of reading a night. I had a girlfriend for a total of two months during that three year period. Every couple weeks I would take a few hours off to visit a used bookshop or go to a friend's house for dinner. I went to visit my family twice. Otherwise I just worked."

You have to want it, buddy.

</comment><comment><USER5> Sorry it's been a rough time. Losses you describe are stressful and painful - take care of yourself, exercise, lean on those close to you, and keep talking.

We're all different, but I'm exponentially more efficient and creative when I can find a balance and take time to sharpen the saw. We're humans - we tend to need or at least enjoy other humans.

Good on you, hang in there.</comment>


A Modest Proposal: Eliminate Email - <AUTHOR> https://hbr.org/2016/02/a-modest-proposal-eliminate-email <comment><USER2> >Instead of employees simply transferring their normal offline communication to the more convenient online system, they began to communicate vastly more than they ever had before. "Thus — in a mere week or so — was gained and blown the potential productivity gain of email," he lamented.

A classic case of Jevon's Paradox: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox)</comment>


Ex-AOL CTO McKinley and Partners Start VC/Incubator (Competes with YC) - <AUTHOR> http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/11/exaol-cto-john.html

<comment><USER2> Good God, another one. It's so weird reading these sites. I can remember having each of the thoughts they're paraphrasing...

<comment><AUTHOR> The application clearly borrowed some questions from YC. It's really interesting how closely they're modeling you overall.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> There would seem to be the risk of VC again: in the end of the three months, either you accept more money in their terms, or other VCs think there's something wrong in your startup.

</comment><comment><USER4> Hehe.

Why don't they just post in the About us section: "What Paul Graham said... here's a link to Hackers & Painters, but fill out our app instead."

</comment><comment><USER5> D.C? Do VCs there even understand this stuff?

</comment><comment><USER6> woah, crazy - what does this mean? The advisors won't ever attend a YC dinner</comment>


Supercharge Your Product Using Principles of Psychology – Updated [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://seekingnorth.in/2020/08/supercharge-your-product-using-principles-of-psychology-updated/ <comment><AUTHOR> A simple pdf based on some of the most interesting psychology principles that can be embedded in your product for choice-hacking.

<comment><USER2> helpful for product managers. did you think about adding fundamental attribution error?</comment></comment>


Jasuto: Make music by constructing graphs of signal processing nodes - <AUTHOR> http://jasuto.com/main/ <comment><AUTHOR> This has been one of my primary timekills as of late. I know next to nothing about both music and signal processing, but if I were to learn either, this would be how!

Lots of super interesting anecdotes in the manual as well, such as the author stating "this node is mostly useful in scripts" or "this node outputs the values of the accelerometer of the device" or "this can be used in the detection of certain frequencies". Makes me feel like the application has a much wider use than just creating music...</comment>


Shaky: ASCII Diagram to PNG - <AUTHOR> http://shaky.github.bushong.net/ <comment><USER2> I use this tool almost every day turning sequence diagrams into drawings. [https://www.websequencediagrams.com](https://www.websequencediagrams.com) While the "back of a napkin"style is hip, management seems to prefer cleaner drawings. I'd use shakey, if it made "professional" drawings.

<comment><USER3> That looks like it's using Dot notation: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT_%28graph_description_langu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT_%28graph_description_language%29)

I like to use [http://www.graphviz.org/](http://www.graphviz.org/) to convert from DOT to PNG.

<comment><USER4> Uhm, if the only thing you base that assumption on is the use of -> to mark a line with an arrowhead ... sure. But it's pretty far from dot, actually.

<comment><USER5> They are similar in that they are both languges that can be used to specify diagrams.

<comment><USER4> dot describes graphs. Sequence diagrams aren't really graphs in my book.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> These ideas always seem to top HN. They are cute, but interactive diagram editors have been around a while and, unfortunately, are just faster to use and are more flexible.

Maybe it'd make more sense to just have one of these tools implement export to ACSII?

<comment><USER7> I think the appeal would be that, since it's text based, it's already supported by git/mercurial/svn/name-your-vcs. A binary format would need some sort of history/diff support inside it to work well with a specific plugin for s VCS. An XML-based format would integrate well with a VCS, but you lose the clarity of the ASCII based diagrams.

It may seem "cute" or "toyish", but I woudl try to use it before giving an opinion. I certainly did that with markdown and ended up moving a lot of docs to that format, right in the repos with the code.

<comment><USER8> This. I would love, as an author and teacher, to keep my flowcharts, diagrams, etc with my book code.

Right now I'm using SVG for that, but it's kinda rotten.

<comment><USER6> Is that same problem, i.e. you want to be able to diff your diagrams or do you want the actual data format embedded in your document.

If it's the second, you can embed XML within SVG or a PNG. If you draw something simple in draw.io [0] (which I do co-author) and then "File->Export As" either "SVG with XML" or "PNG with XML" the diagram data is stored within the display format itself. This way you can just reload the SVG+XML or PNG+XML and carry on editing. But the PNG and SVG display as you'd normally expect.

Does that solve your problem?

[0] [https://www.draw.io/?splash=0](https://www.draw.io/?splash=0)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This works very well with diagrams created using [http://asciiflow.com/](http://asciiflow.com/)

Just tried it out and the export->copy->paste->save worked really, really well.

<comment><USER10> Is a great service, but I'd love to have something I can use locally. A _lot_ of my time diagramming is spent disconnected, transitioning over photos of whiteboards to actual diagrams.

Are you aware of anything that is a local client?

<comment><USER11> There is years ago asciio, works well on linux environments, some distros have it already packaged, otherwise you can pull it from CPAN.

Looks something like this: [http://wiki.cornempire.net/_media/asciiart/diagram1.png](http://wiki.cornempire.net/_media/asciiart/diagram1.png)

<comment><USER12> Asciio should be available as a package. For example, in Debian, it can be installed:

        sudo apt-get install asciio

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This visual editor allows you to easily draw the ASCII diagrams to begin with (for placing in code):

[http://asciiflow.com/](http://asciiflow.com/)

</comment><comment><USER14> ditaa makes some much nicer diagrams: [http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/](http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I like Shaky's rough style better

<comment><USER15> Matter of taste I suppose, but I find the rought style almost as irritating as ASCII diagrams themselves. Both involve a _lot_ of visual noise which is a huge distraction from the semantic content, for me. With something like Shaky, the combination of handwritten-looking text but the perfect consistency of computer fonts just creates an 'uncanny valley' scenario where my focus is drawn to the artificiality of the textural qualities - like bad CG in an old or low-budget film - rather than the assimilating the basic shapes and relationships that they are meant to present.

When I see something like this part of me always silently wonders 'if you think these handwritten-style fonts are so cool, why didn't you write your whole Readme in the same font? Probably because deep down, you know it's actually hard to read, so why make your diagrams hard to read?'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Ah, love it! I've taken to primarily doing ASCII figures when I write papers or other things. This along with Monodraw[0] will make a nice suite of tools! (absolutely love the shaky lines, reminds me of XKCD style)

[0] [http://monodraw.helftone.com/](http://monodraw.helftone.com/)

</comment><comment><USER17> [https://github.com/dbushong/shaky](https://github.com/dbushong/shaky) (last touched by the author 3 years ago)

</comment><comment><USER18> My impression is most people don't know about graphviz and dot, and implement these sorts of tools to fill this (admittedly big) gap.

<comment><USER19> Graphviz is great if you either want to automatically generate diagrams of huge graphs, or if you care more about structure than appearance.

But creating pretty diagrams with Graphviz/dot is an exercise in pain.

I love seeing more of these tools, and plan to integrate several of them in the scripts I use to build my blog, not to supplant the cases where I use Graphviz, but to augment them for the many situations where I want to do diagrams that need more precise control than Graphviz does.

(My personal Graphviz self-flagellation exercise involves an XSL file to convert the SVG output from dot to something prettier: [https://github.com/vidarh/diagram-tools](https://github.com/vidarh/diagram- tools) )

<comment><USER20> I use Mermaid [1]. It has similar layout algorithms as Graphiviz/dot, and is significantly prettier out of the box.

Mermaid has multiple renderers (including a client-side JavaScript one), including SVG, so you can trivially style all your diagrams using CSS. It can also process diagrams embedded in Markdown.

That said, just like Graphviz, its weak points is "messy" diagrams. But it supports subgraphs, which can help making them cleaner.

[1] [https://github.com/knsv/mermaid](https://github.com/knsv/mermaid)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I tried it with

        +-----+-----+  +-----+-----+
        |     |     |  |     |    /|
        |     |     |  |     |   / |
        |  *  |  *--+--+> *  |  /  |
        |  |  |     |  |  |  | /   |
        |  |  |     |  |  |  |/    |
        +--+--+-----+  +--+--+-----+
           |              |
           |              |
           v              v

          foo            bar

Close, just needs a little work. Also, is there any way to get a permalink to some specific diagram?

</comment><comment><USER22> A non-shaky mode would be great too.

</comment><comment><USER23> The 'drawn' -style output is cute. Would be nice if there were dot renderers that did 'artistic' renderings of diagrams.

<comment><USER19> Dot has a SVG output mode that's reasonably easy to tweak/manipulate. I did an XSL file that adds gradients and drop-shadows to the Dot output back in the day [1] and there are a number of annoying corner cases to deal with, but it's not too horrible; would've been easier in something other than XSL though.

[1] [https://github.com/vidarh/diagram- tools](https://github.com/vidarh/diagram-tools)

<comment><USER23> Very nice! I've used little .ps icon files before, and been generally unhappy with the whole thing.

At its heart, graphviz is great. But the tools so need a nice little modernizing.

At the basic level, I found myself being very repetitive because its not possible for graphviz nodes to inherit attributes from others etc. No CSS kind of hierarchy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> That is pretty awesome!

I only found two bugs:

1) if you type just something small, like "asdf", it doesn't render. It seems to require you to start with a long horizontal line to make it properly calculate the width.

2) this one is understandable, but, if you want to write code that decrements something, e.g. x--, it renders the -- as horizontal line instead.

</comment><comment><USER25> Is it just me or the ASCII diagrom looks way better than the generated faux- comic-PNG?

</comment><comment><USER26> There's also aafigure: [https://pythonhosted.org/aafigure/](https://pythonhosted.org/aafigure/)

</comment><comment><USER27> It would be great if there is a some kind of tool with predefined objects like the square, table, start and so on. So you can easily added to your text

</comment><comment><USER28> Doesn't work for me. I click the button and I get a blank PNG.

Edit: Oh, you have to edit the field for it to actually render it, okay. That wasn't obvious.

</comment><comment><USER29> It's like turning a painting back into a sketch, or maybe not. I'm confused... which comes first? ascii or sketch?

</comment><comment><USER30> It should have support for emoticons.

<comment><USER31> Agreed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Neat. Could really do with supporting diagonal lines / \

<comment><USER33> Yeah. This bit me on the first ascii diagram of mine I tried it on. But other than that, very neat.</comment></comment>


Quora is down - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com?share=1 <comment><USER2> It's not (actually) down but 504 Gateway Timeout error to be precise. It just means that one particular server did not receive a timely response from another server that it was accessing while attempting to load the Quora or fill another request by the browser.

In other words, 504 error usually indicates that a different computer, the one that you're trying to access Quora on doesn't control but relies on, isn't communicating with it quickly enough. Give it some time.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm generally pretty out-of-touch when it comes to social media/app trends (I finally made an Instagram account this year). What exactly is Quora? It seems like Yahoo answers, but people seem to give it more respect.

<comment><USER4> A worse stackexchange</comment></comment>


Intel's recall explanation doesn't hold any water - <AUTHOR> http://semiaccurate.com/2011/01/31/intels-recall-explanation-doesnt-hold-any-water/

<comment><AUTHOR> and an opposing point of view from Anand here:

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/4143/the-source-of-intels- coug...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/4143/the-source-of-intels-cougar-point- sata-bug)</comment>


Maritime 'Repo Men': A Last Resort for Stolen Ships - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/world/americas/maritime-repo-men-a-last-resort-for-stolen-ships.html <comment><USER2> That sounds like a dicey business for sure. Depending on the vessel it can take some time and effort to fire up the engines and get underway, especially if it's been sitting for a while. Not to mention all the stuff that can go wrong, like casting off a stern line and getting it wrapped around the prop. That's working for a living!

</comment><comment><USER3> On an unrelated note, I've always thought that building an offshore city would be a hell of a cool thing to do, and a neat way to create your own country.

</comment><comment><USER4> Does anyone know good resources for geeking out on things maritime?

<comment><USER5> This list of "Piracy Prone Areas" makes interesting reading: [http://www.iccwbo.org/products-and-services/fighting- commerc...](http://www.iccwbo.org/products-and-services/fighting-commercial- crime/imb-piracy-reporting-centre/piracy-prone-areas-and-warnings/)</comment></comment>


Ex-Disney IT workers sue after being asked to train their own H-1B replacements - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/ex-disney-it-workers-sue-after-being-forced-to-train-their-own-h-1b-replacements/ <comment><USER2> Both American & Indian companies, and American politicians bought by these companies, are spewing a lot of BS - such as 'each H1B worker creates 2.6 new jobs'. I was watching Bloomberg West and their Indian station reporter was saying that there's no such thing as an Indian IT company (referring to Tata and InfoSys) since they employ Americans too. So employing a handful of token American employees makes them an American company. They're trying to create dissonance to muddy up the argument.

The toughest and highest profile person who is going up against the abuse & exploitation of the H1B, L1, F1 OPT visa programs is Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. He wrote Trump's immigration position policy on Trump's website.

And recently Michele Malkin wrote a book on the fleecing of American IT workers by the H1B program.

www.amazon.com/Sold-Out-Billionaires-Bipartisan-Crapweasels/dp/1501115944/

NumbersUSA.com is also good.

</comment><comment><USER3> A Disney spokesperson told Ars via e-mail: "These lawsuits are based on an unsustainable legal theory and are a wholesale misrepresentation of the facts. Contrary to reports, Ms. Moore was offered another position in the company at comparable pay, and more than 100 of the workers affected by the changes were rehired."

Total bullshit. I don't believe any comments from companies peddling H-1B. It's time "we the people" start speaking up and take action where necessary. Why don't one of the CNN anchors pick this up for a debate? And who the fuck says we don't have talent here?!!!!</comment>


Inside a Powerful Silicon Valley Charity, a Toxic Culture Festered - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/business/silicon-valley-community-foundation.html <comment><USER2> This is fascinating article. The main complaints are actually against a woman, the foundation's top fundraiser. One of her quotes to a black intern:

>"ok slave, come into my office"</comment>


Denied Entry - <AUTHOR> https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2017/06/28/denied-entry/ <comment><USER2> The thread from yesterday: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14643467](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14643467)

</comment><comment><USER3> Someone asked me today when I was going to visit the US again. I told them _never_. That is, not until this madness stops. The US now treats citizens from allied countries as enemies and that's just plain rude and not called for. There isn't a shred of evidence that any of this has made America safer in any way and it would be pretty easy to argue that it has made America _less_ safe on account of pissing off large numbers of people both inside and outside the USA.

<comment><USER4> > The US now treats citizens from allied countries as enemies and that's just > plain rude and not called for.

Alliances are made between governments, not the citizenry. What if the US thinks there's a threat to it within the citizenry of an allied country? What should the US do?

<comment><USER3> > What should the US do?

Focus on the threat, not ban the whole bloody country or make all travelers from that country suffer somehow. Really this is a totally disproportional response. Note that this _specific_ individual was blocked whereas you hypothesize a _general_ threat, the two have nothing to do with each other unless you're aware of the Curl author being up to no good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Something that I was curious about, and which others might also be:

>Sorry, you're not allowed entry to the US on your ESTA.

"ESTA" stands for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, and is a program administered by US Customs & Border Protection (part of the Department of Homeland Security). It's used by people in Visa Waiver countries to submit information about themselves & their travel plans, before they depart their country of origin.

More info here: [https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international- visitors/esta](https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/esta)

Info on the Visa Waiver program: [https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international- visitors/visa-waive...](https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international- visitors/visa-waiver-program)

I guess Mr. Stenberg could have applied for a B-1 Visa to cover the visit, but I thought the whole reason for the Visa Waiver program was to remove the need for people in member countries to get a B-1.

<comment><USER6> The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again.

I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA.

How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without any paperwork, and yet they have to file paperwork to get into the USA?

Maybe next we can quarantine all new arrivals for 72 hours in some kind of security camp, where they'll endure an arduous interview process to make sure they're safe -- run by highly qualified TSA geniuses.

<comment><USER7> As I said in the prior thread, I'm still betting on this being a clerical error.

I -- US citizen -- was once almost denied boarding of an international flight because the airline's system had screwed up my passport information, and they thought I would need a visa to return to the US (and of course I didn't have a visa). I found this out _at the airport_. Luckily I was able to get it resolved in time by showing the airline agents my passport, and a supervisor was able to override or correct something to let me get a boarding pass, but relying on the kindness and competence of front-line airport staff is risky at best. I might just as easily have encountered someone who would tell me "The computer says no, and I can't do anything for you when the computer says no".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "DHS has carefully developed the ESTA program to ensure that only those individuals who are ineligible to travel to the United States under the VWP or those whose travel would pose a law enforcement or security risk are refused an ESTA. While the ESTA website provides a link to the DHS Travel Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP) website, there are no guarantees that a request for redress through DHS TRIP will resolve the VWP ineligibility that caused an applicant's ESTA application to be denied.

U.S. Embassies and Consulates are not able to provide details about ESTA denials or resolve the issue that caused the ESTA denial. Embassies and Consulates will process an application for a non-immigrant visa, which, if approved, will be the only way that a traveler whose ESTA application has been denied would be authorized to travel to the U.S."

[https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international- visitors/frequently...](https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international- visitors/frequently-asked-questions-about-visa-waiver-program-vwp-and- electronic-system-travel)

<comment><USER9> As someone who has been through this bureaucracy — DHS, consulate, TRIP, etc. — I can tell you that it's a huge pain.

It's a completely opaque system. There's no way to talk to anyone directly. You can only send letters, and hope for a reply. Even seasoned immigration lawyers will have to go through this infuriatingly slow and obtuse system of sending letters and then waiting a long time to get a vague, unhelpful reply in return for some nameless functionary.

In my case, there was an error in my records, and we tried to get them to expunge the offending information. But every time we clarified to them what had happened, we got a reply back basically _summarizing_ the issue, with no solution. My lawyers had to keep doing this until they finally got a redress number and a notification that something may be happening. Meanwhile, the various government databases are not unified or even talking to each other, so all the information about the error was apparently held by the immigration office at JFK (or something like that), _not_ centrally at DHS, which made everything a lot harder. Eventually we received a confirmation that _something_ had been done to rectify the problem, but — in a kafkaesque twist — they refused to say what, and they could not guarantee that there would be no further problems.

To this day I am still being pulled into the immigrations office for some light interrogation every time I enter the US. Which is whenever I come back, since I now _live_ in the US.

The visa application process is similarly kafkaesque and characteristically unfriendly. For example, while applying for a visa, there's absolutely no way to contact the consulate (or at least there wasn't in my home country). Forget about calling or visiting, there's no way to talk to anyone except by appointment, and appointments are only for getting an interview to submit your visa application. And what's hilarious about both the visa system and ESTA is that they don't even guarantee entry. Visas are issued by the _consulate_ , but you can get a visa from them and _still_ be denied entry by DHS. As a European used to my government being quite friendly and approachable, the cold-heartedness of the whole thing was quite shocking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think the reason for the denials is a change in the interpretation of the rules.

ESTA used to be for short term visits for any reason.

I think some people in CBP now interpret it to mean a short stay that is not "work" related.

You can look up all the academics -- which were definitely covered by ESTA -- who have had issues because some people at the border were not sure on how to interpret them.

They are not alone. Way back in 2007 or so (so before Trump, but after 9/11), I overheard a German visa officer tell an American that it was totally illegal for them to work if they just came as a visitor. He had to get a work visa and it was long and complicated.

He had made the mistake of telling her that he planned to hop over to visit some clients.

He then said something like "oh, ok, its not a work trip its just a vacation. Nevermind about the visa, good bye." and walked out.

I think someone interpreted the conference as "work", and that is what lead to all this.

I think they (whoever it is) should make it clear to the officers what the policy is, and I also think the policy should be that conferences and the like are covered by ESTA.

<comment><USER11> The boundary between "business" as covered by B-1 visas and "work" can be fuzzy. If you are employed by a US company and you get paid by said company while in the US (i.e. you're not on vacation) then your trip can be interpreted as working in the US. It's not clear which Mozilla entity is Daniel's employer but I've seen similar situations. Companies that have a lot of international employees traveling to the US typically know what sort of papers or preparations need to happen to reduce the chance of these things.

Another crazy example, if you own a house in the US but you're not permitted to work there, fixing your own house counts as work and could get you deported banned from entry. You have to hire someone else to fix it.

Borders are stupid... And the US has been this way basically for ever. If anything I think they got a little better vs. e.g. 10 or 20 years ago. I used to work for a Canadian company that did a lot of business in the US and there was some time period (~15 years ago) where any company employee attempting to travel to the US had a lot of difficulty because those guys got it into their heads that the company was doing something funny.

You can run into trouble in various other places in the world as well.

<comment><USER7> Back when I worked for Mozilla, I often had to travel to the Toronto office for team meetings (most of the team I was on was remote).

I always had to carry a letter to give to CBSA at the Canadian border, explaining the difference between Mozilla US and Mozilla Canada, that I was an employee of Mozilla US and would not be paid by Mozilla Canada, that I would not do any work for Mozilla Canada, and in fact (I loved this bit) that I would not be "working" (whatever that legal term meant) at all while in Canada, only attending meetings. We used to joke that we couldn't fix bugs while at those gatherings, since that would be work and put us in violation of what the letter said.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Horrible though this is, it's (bizarrely) better than the pre-ESTA alternative. My brother was denied entry to the US in 2003 while traveling on a visa waiver. At this point he was detained (without access to counsel) until a suitable outbound flight was available, and deported. The red stamp in his passport renders him ineligible to apply for an entry visa until 2018. This is all on the discretion of one immigration official, with no recourse for appeal. The justification is that when you sign the visa waiver, you agree to all this.

Edit: my brother is not entirely innocent in all this, but knowing before you fly is an improvement

<comment><USER13> In what way wasn't he innocent? Did he talk back to the official, or not have a return ticket?

<comment><USER12> he answered _no_ to the question "Have you ever been arrested"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Being denied entry is the same as being accused of a crime, but not being allowed to face your acuser nor defend yourself in any way. It's infuriating in every way, even if it doesn't affect directly. Why? Because someone, somewhere - most likely without a shred of empirical proof - decided that it would be "safer" if people aren't told why they were denied, because otherwise the "bad guys" would be able to circumvent the system or some other equally moronic rationale. We all know the type of close minded, ignorant pinhead who made that decision, and it's infuriating they actually have any sort of control over our daily lives.

<comment><USER15> Not sure I agree with the analogy " _Being denied entry is the same as being accused of a crime_ "

Consequence of being accused of crime is prosecution, with potential loss of freedom (or death).

Consequence of being denied entry into one country in the world -- is not the same (unless you are unfairly prosecuted in your own country and there is no other country that you can go to).

Being denied to enter a country, more akin, in my view, to being denied a job interview (and subsequent employment).

<comment><USER16> How is "being denied to enter a country" not "loss of freedom"?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's popular to poo on USA these days, but I had a similar experience with Canada.

I was about to present at NIPS (a ML conference in Vancouver) in 2010, but was denied visa (Czech citizen - EU). No reason given. Those pesky PhD computer scientists, we don't want them in our country, ruining our economies! :)

I also cursed a bit, but unlike the OP, didn't cry (WTF?). It's their country, their rules, their loss (I think).

<comment><USER18> > I also cursed a bit, but unlike the OP, didn't cry (WTF?).

It's not really constructive to criticize how someone else responded emotionally to the same situation. It's great for you that you didn't cry, but it's not like anyone _chooses_ to cry, and there's nothing wrong with them for doing so.

<comment><USER17> Well, that was my initial reaction, honestly. It's great for you that your reaction was different, but it's not like anyone _chooses_ their initial reaction. How is criticising me for it constructive?

I only wish the best for Daniel, I know the situation sucks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Kudos to the QUIC working group for this absolutely correct response: "We won't hold any further interim meetings in the US, until there's a change in this situation."

<comment> Paul-ish Couldn't this hurt people in the US who want to go to a conference but would have trouble with reentry?

<comment><USER20> Since they have meetings rotating between multiple continents, the WG chair probably already knows about all participants for which this is an issue. They explicitly mention being aware of this problem in their announcement, but that they deem it less critical right now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> People coming to unstable states like US or Ukraine, balancing on the edge of government collapse, should expect such things to happen with pretty high probability. I really can't see why this could be surprising at all.

<comment><USER22> Actually Ukraine is the stable escape strategy for conferences which should have been held in Russia. Latia is also quite popular, but Ukraine is the usual target to escape Russia's strange visa handling. I wonder what will be the escape country for the US situation. Canada or Mexico.

<comment><USER21> It seems to me that Japan would be better place to hold tech conferences than any other country right now

<comment><USER22> Been to a tech conference in Japan. Extremely expensive, and nobody speaks English. Europe still holds the best options.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Was it really necessary for him to refer to his Twitter follower count so many times?

<comment><USER24> I kinda read this as a stream of consciousness post about what happened. In that context, it's more an expression of astonishment that _that actually happened_ than boasting or anything.

FWIW, I had something kind of similar happen to me a couple years ago. I posted an open letter [0] to a famous politician in my state, shared it on Facebook and Twitter as I do with all my posts, and went to bed. Overnight, it went viral and I woke up to an email box full of messages, tons of mentions on various social media outlets and a couple of phone calls from newspapers and TV stations wanting interviews.

The next few days were pretty crazy. More than anything, it was just a shocking experience to realize that that many people actually cared. I imagine he's had a similar experience. And, in fact, I wrote a follow up post [1] a week or so later rather similar to his.

So yeah, I just read this as a guy who's shocked that the world cared what happened to him. I wouldn't read more into it than a guy who's grateful that that many people took notice.

[0] [http://www.robpeck.com/2015/06/an-open-letter-to-roy- moore/](http://www.robpeck.com/2015/06/an-open-letter-to-roy-moore/)

[1] [http://www.robpeck.com/2015/07/what-happens-when-your- post-g...](http://www.robpeck.com/2015/07/what-happens-when-your-post-goes- viral/)

<comment><USER3> Kudos to you that is one heck of an argument and laid out in a way that it is impossible to refute. Scary thought: those people that function as enablers of people in power with detestable views are always ready to jump forward, no matter how dirty the deed that needs doing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> So sad. I wish half this country hadn't gone mad

</comment><comment><USER26> By spreading FUD in this way, I wouldn't be surprised if major conferences happening in SF start moving to other countries: Apple WWDC, GDC, Google I/O, Salesforce's Dreamforce, Oracle's JavaOne... many people go through significant effort to cost their travel and it's no fun that with no notice you can get sent back home.

Really _dumb_ move.

<comment><USER5> To be honest, I don't think San Francisco conferences being impacted would cause any movement in policy.

Assuming that conferences moving would even impact policy in the first place, I'd expect Las Vegas conferences to be the ones that trigger change. Just on the tech side, Black Hat/DefCon and CES immediately come to mind. Las Vegas relies very much on conferences, and at least one casino/resort owner (Sheldon Adelson) is a well-known Republican supporter.

Remember, though: This is still a low number of visitors being denied entry. It would take a sizable number of regular attendees—or a notable number of high-profile attendees—being denied entry to cause rumblings of change.

<comment><USER22> They started denying all Chinese visitors of security conferences in Las Vegas in bulk a few years ago already. Our local CIA/NSA guy was very proud of it. "Not welcome!" he said.</comment></comment></comment>


In Paris, Plans for a Seine Reinvention (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/05/in-paris-plans-for-a-river-seine-reinvention/392639/ <comment><USER2> The article is from over a year ago in May 2015. This BBC article from a few months ago in May of 2016 confirmed that by the end of this summer they are still planning to reserve a portion of the Right Bank only for pedestrians and there is also a map to mark the area that will be blocked off from cars.

[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36169815](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36169815)

I don't see any more recent updates and this August 15th article with quotes from Mayor Anne Hidalgo is the most recent confirmation I've found that the work is ongoing:

[http://pejnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article...](http://pejnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10579:mayor- of-paris-remains-committed-to-the-struggle-to-reclaim-her-city-from-the-car- hume&catid=74:ijustice-news&Itemid=216)

<comment><USER3> There have been some updates today: a commission has just finished to investigate the outcomes and given a negative assessment, but the mayor of Paris has stated that she will not follow the advice of the commission and carry on implementing the plan to reserve a portion for pedestrians.

Source (in French): [http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/08/22/la- commissi...](http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/08/22/la-commission-d- enquete-sur-la-pietonisation-des-voies-sur-berge-a-paris-rend-un-avis- defavorable_4986504_3224.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The sections on Rive Gauche that they have turned into pedestrian areas are really quite pleasant - and traffic hasn't suffered so much.

Also slated is turning place de la bastille into pedestrian only square, and potentially opening the monument to public visit - amongst seven other pro- pedestrian plans: [http://www.la-croix.com/France/Sept-places-parisiennes- parti...](http://www.la-croix.com/France/Sept-places-parisiennes- partiellement-rendues-aux-pietons-2016-03-25-1200749124)

There is some public criticism, after Place de la Republique was 'transformed' recently - the traffic was reduced, but the entire square is now a tree-less concrete block.

<comment><USER5> >the entire square is now a tree-less concrete block

There need to be reasons for people to come into an area--often cafes, etc.

In Boston, City Hall Plaza is notorious. It's a barren wind-swept brickyard for much of the year. At one point, there was a part-time farmers' market around the fringes in the summer but it's generally very underutilized space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> For those who are unfamiliar with the city of Paris' strategy on transport, what they are trying to achieve is to create the maximum amount of traffic jam so that people stop using cars out of frustration. Other means include multiplying bus lanes, bicycle lanes, etc. The outcome is an over-congested and polluted Paris.

<comment><USER7> Are you suggesting that reducing the number of cars in Paris will somehow increase pollution?

<comment><USER6> It's actually the outcome. The same car will take a lot more time to make the same distance, polluting a lot more than if it was flowing quickly.

<comment><USER8> No it's not. Study after study has shown that building more roads doesn't speed up cars it just increases the number of cards and reducing roads doesn't slow down cars it just decreases the total number.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Paris main problem is population density and no high buildings. but you have to see this plan as a part of the "great paris" project aimed at making Paris merge better with its suburb. And hopefully have people not travel theough Paris if they don't need to stop inside.

<comment><USER10> Paris is a high-density city by Western standards. It's either the highest- density city in Europe or close, depending on how exactly you demarcate cities. We often have discussions here about how San Francisco needs to densify, but Paris has 3x the population density of SF, so is nowhere near in the same league of low-density cities. It's 50% denser than Brooklyn. Of American cities / sub-city regions, only Manhattan edges it out (Manhattan is 30% more dense).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> They'll still be a prime location for action movie scenes I hope.

You can't have a Paris car chase and gun battles without zooming along the Seine sans traffic

</comment><comment><USER12> This is partly in response to Paris briefly being one of the most polluted cities in the world[1] by some measures last year. But generally, it seems Paris fares slight better than Los Angeles & Amsterdam and slightly worse than London and NYC[2].

[1] [http://www.france24.com/en/20150320-paris-city-smog- pollutio...](http://www.france24.com/en/20150320-paris-city-smog-pollution- plume-labs-hidalgo-public-transport-diesel)

[2] [https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/dec/02/where- world-m...](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/dec/02/where-world-most- polluted-city-air-pollution)

<comment><USER13> Paris is built in a valley with Montmartre to the north and Montparnasse to the south. When the winds die down for more than a few days being in the city really sucks. All the diesel particulates just sit their. Like you can feel the smog and particulates accumulating on your skin.

<comment><USER14> You can't reasonably say that Paris is in a valley because of two small hills (altitude 130m, only 100m above the lowest point of Paris). When there is no wind pollution accumulate everywhere.

Paris is in a very good position for pollution: in a middle of a plain, not very far from sea with a regular wind from west.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> A parisian enthousiast for every non-car policy !!!

</comment><comment><USER16> You can expect measures like this to intensify around Europe, thanks to the software engineers at WV and Audi.

If cities can't trust carmakers to be honest about the emissions their products make, then they're going to work harder to kick cars out altogether.

</comment><comment><USER17> FYI, this is from 2015.</comment>


The One Thousand Hour Rule - <AUTHOR> http://yongfook.com/the-one-thousand-hour-rule <comment><USER2> _You need to put in 1000-hours of hard work on a new project to begin seeing meaningful returns._

Gladwell based his quotable theory on some research, and it wasn't a new idea.

In terms of a thousand hours to viable product, there are just far too many examples of products that have become successful in less time for it to be a theory. eg.

* first version of Facebook was ~2 weeks of code

* chatroulette

* Inviteshare - built in 24 hours and sold to Techcrunch the next day

* First version of Crunchbase we built in 48 hours

* all the 24 hour hackathons that have released products

* you can pull together various bits of open source software with some glue and a stock template and have a product in 24 hours

There are heaps of other examples of products launched with 10-200 hours of work that became hits, I am sure others can suggest more.

While you may have come to this conclusion by looking at your own two examples, it definitely does not apply across a broader spectrum.

<comment><USER3> And so Zuckerberg did not write code before "theFacebook" and it took him only 2 weeks to MVP?

He arrived at Harvard in sept 2003 and the next week started to write code for "course Match" and then went on with Facemash...

1000 hours is around 20 weeks if you put 50h/w, less than 6 months.

TheFacebook launched on feb4 2004. So 1000 hours that may well be it or even more in the case of Facebook.

<comment><USER4> I'm sorry but it should be obvious that while Facebook's success might have involved genius, it certainly didn't unique _programming_ genius. Zuck didn't create a real time flight optimizer, an ultra-fast RISK chip or anything of the sort. He created a decent web app. He was no more a _genius programmer_ than Bill Gates (who also might been both a programmer and a genius FWIW but not a genius programmer).

What he created was a decent web app that began superbly positioned and then expertly skippered it into the true golden market position.

The genius ranged from business to social to UI with programming ability being a distant if important factor.

And that in many ways does contradict the 1000 hour thesis - he could have had experience in building great web apps beforehand. He could not have gotten experience building billion dollar companies before hand - but he did well (however much I might find Facebook unfortunate on various levels).

<comment><USER5> > RISK

RISC?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hate to dump on someone's effort to motivate others, but this post is a dangerous extrapolation that combines Outliers [1] and the author's personal experience.

It promotes the idea of a magic number, and that hard work and time leads to returns (not true for the majority of startups). It encourages thinking like "Man I'm at the 950 hour mark, I'm almost there!", or even worse, planning one's product milestones around time spent.

One of the main attractions of the 10k hour rule is that there are few external stimuli that can negatively affect your learning/training.

If I decided to invest time in taking up the trumpet, I don't have to worry about competition with other budding trumpeters or whether BrassCrunch or Spitter News have effusive posts on my latest performances. I won't have to determine which percentage of the public 'gets' trumpets and plan how my playing should appeal to them.

With proper practice one hardly ever goes backward -- ability increases monotonically give or take a few plateaus. With startups you often go backward as you try to figure out your product-market fit and so on. Userbase size or revenue would not increase over time the way ability does when it comes to personal improvement.

1\. I haven't actually read Outliers but I'm familiar with its thesis. If it's anything like Gladwell's other books, I recommend _The Talent Code_ for better treatment of the subject matter. Norvig's <http://norvig.com/21-days.html> is also great reading.

<comment><USER7> I dont think anyone is taking this literally, but coming away with the point that it takes time to develop ideas and not to expect instant success even if you think you're the cat's pajamas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Do I need to provide example when 1 hour of hard work leads to meaningful returns and 10000 hours leads to nothing to show that this theory incorrect or it is obvious?

<comment><USER9> Not incorrect, just incomplete. The incompleteness might actually be a misreading of the book. If I remember right (it's been awhile since I read it), Gladwell mentioned this explicitly, just not as a major point the kind of which he drills into the reader's mind: 10,000 hours are necessary, but not sufficient.

Isaac Newton, Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie* could not have accomplished what they did without devoting themselves in outmost sincerity to their ideas. The point is that to have a truly lasting impact on improving the world for the better, you need to devote at least 10,000 hours to something great and be smart about how you devote those 10,000 hours.

Galdwell's point, from my reading of his book, is the hypothesis that the vast majority of people don't achieve Greatness because they don't begin to devote that kind of time to one aspiration, not because they are somehow inherently limited in their mental capacity. In other words, the world is full of unmotivated genius, and you're very likely one of them. Study hard, work hard, and strive for the stars, etc., etc. ;)

* having recently met Larry Page for the first time during an internal Q&A session, I can assure you his intelligence is quite limited by human capacity, as well. Yes, he's a lot better at answering sensitive and badly phrased questions (my own) candidly and to-the-point than anyone I've known, but he's also had more experience with it than anyone I've known, also. However, he didn't seem inherently talented in any way than the smarter of my professors (I was once told by one who knew him that neither was Einstein).

In essence, there are two points we sometimes lose in overly simplified metaphors:

1) there are a lot of really intelligent people changing the world for the better that aren't famous. A lot of the time, they don't want to be famous because it would get into the way of their work.

2) there is a big difference between famous people who publicize themselves as an a means to an end (their ideas), while others publicize themselves out of ego. We're all prone to the latter (at least I am), and should make a conscious effort to "unit test" that behavior every once in awhile.

[maybe this is better as a blog post...]

<comment><USER8> Gladwell mentions people that accomplished outstanding results after spending 10k hours. But it is not correct way to show that theory is correct. To support his claim he need to show that most people that accomplished outstanding results after 10k hours of work. But it is not true. There are people that accomplished good results after 100 hours, 1000 hours and 10000 hours for sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Both the original "10,000 hour rule" and this rule run afoul of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox> unless you rephrase the statement to something along the lines of "we have found that most people either succeed at X and continue doing it for the rest of their lives regularly or give up, and that of the people who give up, 95% of them give up before doing X for 10,000 hours"

I believe the question is, "what is the mean and standard deviation of the time investment at the point when a sustained positive feedback loop is achieved?"

</comment><comment><USER3> This 10 000 hour rule (or let's see with this 1k h rule) is liberating: you do not have to be a genius to start. Again that does not mean you will be a genius but no genius got to be one without 10000 hours. Herbert Simon talked about the 10 years rule.

</comment><comment><USER11> The point is to focus on the fact that it will take time (and thus, effort) to give your project a chance. In other words, don't set unrealistic goals - e.g. "I'm going to build, launch and get my first 1,000 customer in two weeks" - because you're more likely to abandon the project instead of grinding it out as you should.

</comment><comment><USER12> This sounds like the right order of magnitude for every individual project I ever worked on that had an impact.

</comment><comment><USER13> There is a big difference in efficiency across people and startup teams, in terms of what they might achieve in <X> amount of time. A solo founder with no experience as an entrepreneur, little technical prowess, and few useful connections would generally take longer to be successful.

For example, look at YC companies' varying degrees of progress at demo day. They usually have at least two founders -- if they are working 80 hours/week, they would roughly be putting in 1,000 hours _per founder_ after 3 months.

</comment><comment><USER14> Grammar nitpick: All of the uses of "1000-hours" in the article are incorrectly hyphenated. You should write "a 1000-hour project" but not "1000-hours of work."

</comment><comment><USER15> Hey, I wrote that blog post half a year ago. :) [http://blog.opportunitycloud.com/2010/03/02/its-going-to- tak...](http://blog.opportunitycloud.com/2010/03/02/its-going-to-take-five- years/) 1000 hours or five years, the gist of both these posts is that you need persistence.

</comment><comment><USER16> The comments are largely very, very accurate. This does not compute as does Gladwell's formula. However, this can again, reductionally, be broken down to another cool cliche: work hard, and beat out the dip.

So, read Seth Godin's "The Dip".

</comment><comment><USER17> sorry but this is total BS. I know projects that have been instant hits with 100 hours of work (some cheapo iphone apps for example). Then again if want to make a decent social game or a technology related product, 1000 hours will get you nowhere. Spread over a years timeframe, which it usually takes to get a decent product to market from start to finish, thats about 3 hours a day.. Even if you leave out weekends and stuff, its still nothing.

<comment><USER15> Yeah, but how many attempts failed before that 100 hour project succeeded?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's funny. In flying we use 1,000 hour as the passing point from flying small airplanes to joining your first airline and technically start "the career".

So I think I agree with the camp that believes in putting the time first and only then being able to judge results.

Before you fly those first 1,000 hours you haven't learned a thing, and after you flew them you discover again every 1,000 a bunch of new things.

</comment><comment><USER19> I wonder if this rule translates into other domains as well? That is, does a violinist become noticeable after 1 000 hours, but only a true master after 10 000 hours?

Also, we should never forget that these X hours rules are speaking to X hours of deliberately stretching practice/work. They don't mean, try randomly for X hours and you'll automatically become awesome/successful.

</comment><comment><USER20> It is 2010. I'm sure there are apps that were a success after 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, and some after a year or two of pivoting.

If its an innovative and useful idea users "get it" almost immediately.

If it's not as innovative and you're building an app that is improving another idea it will take more time for users to see it, try it, and switch.

I don't think there is a magic number.

</comment><comment><USER21> 1000 hours is about 6 months.

Assuming that "meaningful" return means profitable, some companies will be able to get a return in < 1000 hours. Some it might > 1000 hours. It's going to depend on the market, your customers, the problem you're trying to solve, and your work ethic.

</comment><comment><USER22> I think a "while" is a better measurement than 10k or 1k. It takes a while for things to click whether it's a skill, a product or business. And the while is usually longer than we predict.

</comment><comment><USER23> Our very own zackattack might beg to differ. I can't imagine he put 1000 hours into his AwesomenessReminders, which are making him a pretty penny.</comment>


Why the transportation industry needs an open-source car platform - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@OSVehicle/empowering-infinite-mobility-revolutions-in-open-source-88599b03e84a#.qwv9feaa8 <comment><USER2> If this actually happens, that's pretty amazing. Would love to see car manufacturing democratized</comment>


To my young Thugs - <AUTHOR> http://chestergrant.posterous.com/to-my-young-thugs

<comment><USER2> This is good advice regardless of race. Yet, it's important to have successful individuals belonging to a minority be good role models and encourage others in the same minority directly.

Achieving your goals takes a lot of "acting white". Promoting it as something worthwhile, fun, and acceptable for black kids may lead to more children and teenagers considering it seriously.

<comment><USER3> FYI, acting white is no longer a thing.

<comment><USER2> How so? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white>

<comment><USER3> "The term is controversial, and its precise meaning is hard to define"

First, if you want to talk about "African Americans", you need to realize that everything has been set against them for a few hundred years _in America_.

Do they adjust for this in their "studies"? No.

Acting "white" was a term for kids at some point in the 90s. It's not an overriding concern these days.

I sometimes marvel at how well some American blacks have done despite the fact that the system has been stacked.

> Achieving your goals takes a lot of "acting white".

This is just ridiculous.

<comment><USER2> > It's not an overriding concern these days.

Quoting wikipedia: "Nevertheless, the idea that minority students suffer from the negative prejudices of their ethnic peers is currently accepted as generally true in much of the American media—as expressed in articles in The New York Times, Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal—and in American society."

> This is just ridiculous.

Let's drop the term if you don't like it or if you think it is obsolete, but the feeling behind the statement "Achieving your goals takes a lot of acting white." is anything but ridiculous. I used the term "acting white" as a way to convey success, particularly in school, and aiming high while being belittled for it by your peers.

Replace it with "Achieving your goals takes a lot of ambition and hard work often against peer pressure" if you prefer.

<comment><USER3> You didn't read the same article you quoted dude.

> Though the study's conclusion gained a popular foothold and has been > espoused by figures such as Bill Cosby in his famous May 2004 speech, a > later study challenged its validity. In 2003, Karolyn Tyson, a sociologist, > and William Darity, Jr., an economist, both at the University of North > Carolina at Chapel Hill, directed an 18 month study at eleven North > Carolinian schools. The study concluded that white and black students have > essentially the same attitudes about scholastic achievement; students in > both groups want to succeed in school and show higher levels of self-esteem > when they do better in school.

You just want to use "acting white" as a euphemism for black students as underachievers. Those days are gone. Long gone.

If you use that term these days around the youth, you _will_ be laughed at.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is all fine until level 10. $4M is not easy to achieve, involves quite a bit of luck, and is more than most people will need. It's fine to aim high, but don't frame it as some kind of "level" that you have to achieve or else you've failed.</comment>


ASk HN:Please review my instant map search web app..... - <AUTHOR>

I've posted this for the 3rd time and I haven't received any feedback since I made some changes. I made a big change on the layout, and some of the functionality of my app. Is the goal of the site clear to you? Am I really doing some improvements(for people that reviewed this b4)? Is it by chance useful for you? Thank once again in advance.<p>http://jamafriend.com/LargeMap.aspx <comment><USER2> I like this and can see it being useful. Kind of an interesting twist on traditional map search.

My one complaint is that the icons representing the hotels/food/bars are way too small and non characteristic.

You need to give your map some more personality and try to differentiate yourself from the same exact look as Google maps. I believe Google made some cool changes to the API recently that allow you to really customize the look and feel..

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your time. Icons gonna be the next thing on my schedule.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's ok, but it's not doing anything that Google is not already doing as far as I can see?

If I put "restaurants in San Francisco" into Google, it immediately gives me map results...

<comment><AUTHOR> First of all thanks for taking time to check it. On Google Map, yes you type "restaurants in San Francisco" and it will give you all the restaurants on the area. On my web app, you only need to type the location "San Francisco" and it will give you all the nearest restaurants on the area once you click the radiobutton for restaurants under "Show Nearest" options. Ok now here's the difference, say you want to search in another location like in "Manila,Philippines", in Google Maps (assuming you don't wanna drag or scroll the map to find "Manila, Philippines") so you need to retype again "Restaurants In Manila" but on my web app the moment you start typing it will retrieve immediately all the nearest restaurants on the suggested location until you finish typing the whole world "Manila". Then if you change your mind again and want to check out nearest restaurants in "London" it will retrieve all the nearest restaurants on the suggested location until you reach London. Hence you don't need to retype again and again "Restaurants in #somewhere#".Anyway, the single purpose of my app is to find the nearest interesting point for the user assuming he/she knows the location but in Google Maps I think it's more of a general purpose since you can use it in whatever way you want like for browsing the world, driving directions etc.

<comment><USER3> Are you overthinking it - if I'm looking at restaurants in San Francisco, chances of me wanting to look at them in London or Philippines at the same time? I'm also a fast typer, so don't see it as a major burden myself... I'll have another play later

<comment><AUTHOR> FYI You should notice the map updates as soon as you start typing just like Google Instant Search.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not trying to be a jerk or anything, what's the use of it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I hope you tried it but it's a web app where you can quickly browse the location on the map with instant suggestions. Once you press enter ,it'll give you the current weather on that location. Then if you choose to know the nearest churches, clinics, hospitals etc. it also provide you. Keep browsing or moving the map and it will update the nearest points you choose. I think its a great way to quickly find out the nearest restaurants, bars etc on a certain area.

<comment><USER4> I did try it before that comment. I see now. Kind of like Yelp's map. Cool</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Dendron – a local-first, markdown based, hierarchical note taking tool - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron <comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN - author here. Dendron is something I've been more or less thinking about for much of the last decade. It came about because I needed something that could handle the many thousands of notes I've collected over the years.

Every knowledge management tool today suffers from the problem that the more information you put in, the harder it becomes, as a human, to get any of it back out again. Dendron has solved this problem for me and with the release, I hope it can do so for others as well :)

</comment><comment><USER2> I'm eager to try this out as I am having headache managing all my notes, which intersects/joins with many others.</comment>