How to Be a Good Graduate Student    - <AUTHOR> http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/09/26/unsolicited-advice-iv-how-to-be-a-good-graduate-student/

<comment><USER2> I liked this article. Much of the same attitude applies to startups. Do stuff. Big picture and details. Finish stuff.</comment>


My Talk at Google - <AUTHOR> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/06/my_talk_at_goog.html <comment><USER2> Re : auditing cloud providers / higher security or assurance infrastructure.

1) If you bring enough money to the table, you can get them to let you in the doors and look at whatever you might want.

2) Rackspace ( [http://www.rackspace.com/blog/compliance-standards-and- regul...](http://www.rackspace.com/blog/compliance-standards-and-regulations- that-keep-the-cloud-secure/) ) (and others) currently hold audit certifications and will sometimes show the certification reports. Some things to look for: SSAE16 SOC 1,2,3 (type 1 and 2) , PCI/DSS , ISO 27001, etc.

3) AWS is setting up a .gov region. I'm guessing that this will have a higher security bar than the rest of the regions.

4) google is rumored to have a Fort Meade presence, I would guess that the average googler wouldn't be allowed to use that infrastructure.

5) Rather than renting from a single cloud, for higher security installations someone like Booze Allen Hamilton would help you build out and run a more custom solution rather than take a share of a pooled resource.

</comment><comment><USER3> I know the content of the video itself is very interesting, but I have to make this tangential comment:

Is it me or do people who were born in Brooklyn in the 50s and 60s have cool accents? Richard Stallman for example has a very similar accent.

</comment><comment><USER4> All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011k45f](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011k45f)

</comment><comment><USER5> Great talk. Loved it. Bruce is an insightful, engaging speaker. I come to like him even more :)</comment>


Ask HN: How will inflation change fundraising? - <AUTHOR> Raising large equity rounds may no longer work in inflationary times as inflation will consume part of the funds, which will dilute shareholders of earlier rounds more than normal. New investors may appreciate the extra participation they gain and not want to change, but when inflation raises high enough, the current fundraising model will collapse. What can we do? <comment><USER4> Y Combinator started with $10k investments, now $120k because inflation. But lately it is becoming a little high, compared to China and so on.

IMO, later stage VCs give money more for ammunition and scale up and down with the economy. It's seed funding that's most affected.

<comment><AUTHOR> I remember the $10k investment, and I always found it too low. I doubt they raised to $120k because of inflation (though I agree some part of it may be because of that).

<comment><USER4> They did cite inflation as the reason it was raised, but likely it was too low.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, a raise from $10k to $120k being inflation-based sounds a bit odd as an argument, and I remember this was in pre-Covid times where inflation was close to zero.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> With interest rates being low, the return on equities is still attractive.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is there even any significant amount of inflation occurring…?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet, but you can anticipate that it will. Think of the trillions of dollars being distributed to people by governments as Covid help. If you distribute funds derived from QE to people during a lockdown, everybody will start buying like crazy once the lockdown is gone, which will certainly cause significant inflation. Besides, inflation is in the US government's best interest, as it will lower external debt and therefore decrease US dependency.

<comment><USER7> The causes of inflation are, of course, complex, and there is currently no inflation formula. However its fair to say that the distribution of money does not cause inflation.

Equally lots of people getting govt money does not cause inflation. Even less so since a) its not life-changing amounts and b) it's mostly replacing lost incomes from elsewhere.

The movement of money (aka this thing we call The Economy) is the direct goal of the distribution. We Want people to spend the money - it is precisely why its being distributed.

Again, while inflation is complex, it's fundamentally caused by an imbalance of supply and demand. Ie an oversupply of money coupled with an under supply of what people want to spend that money on.

This happens locally all the time, an over supply of VC money into SF leads to a housing shortage, which causes massive rent inflation.

The US economy (ie the balance of goods and money supply) at a national level is based on consumer consumption of cheap goods. Cheap food (locally produced) and cheap consumer goods (mostly imported - much of it from China) coupled with cheap energy (local / imported). In the US on thing matters - <USER2> consumer price - the ultimate _cost_ is not considered.

The current issue for inflation is not the over-supply of money. Its the costs of things like Trade wars, tariffs, and the like. Those costs translate into higher prices at the till (driving up prices to make US products competitive is the exact goal of tarrifs).

Ultimately some inflation would be a good thing. A lot of it is bad.

But I don't think you need to worry. Govt cheques to poor people, will ultimately end up swelling the coffers of VC accounts - which in turn will lead to more money for them to distribute.

Put another way, inflation affects all investments - especially cash - <USER3> anything it just increases the appetite for a big score.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, all those funds will finally end up in VC coffers, and exactly this I find worrying, when looking at it from the startup's side. Let me make an example with numbers: In a normal world, during a funding round a startup receives for example $10MM for 20% of their stock. They typically calculate with 2 years to spend the funds plus 18 months runway. Not calculating the extra money the startup must raise to be on the safe side, if the $10MM is worth a lot less at the end of a cycle because of inflation, part of the stock they sold went into "funding inflation". As the startup can only do so many rounds until founders are fully diluted, at some point, inflation will dilute founders so much that they may walk away, for the bad of both sides. IMHO, like so many things, the current investment model only works well when inflation is low.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Go Home, Bill: It's time for a new era at Microsoft -- if only the company were ready - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080627_005146.html <comment><USER2> Whether you like Microsoft or not I personally think Bill Gates should remain the ultimate model for all hackers.

<comment><USER3> Woz might be a better model for most hackers. What made Bill unusual was that in addition to being a fairly good hacker, he was really into business. But while someone who cares about both is a formidable force, I don't think "pay more attention to business" is the best recipe for most hackers. For most hackers a better recipe might be "build lots of great new things."</comment></comment>


A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/business/medical-tourism-mexico.html <comment><USER2> This is the most absurd escalation I've read regarding the US healthcare system. What a laugh.

Since it's this bad, it alludes to vast untapped potential for more cost saving measures that are both funny and embarrassing.

A quick google suggests prisoners have to pay 10-100$ copays in some states, but otherwise receive care. I wonder if there's a topology of illnesses where a financially optimal course of action to acquire treatment is to commit some petty crime and receiving treatment in prison? After lost wages, and earnings potential from your now tainted record, and all else. There might be!

Here's a business idea that might already exist, vocational-technical elementary / pre-school for trying to lead your own children into and through medschool. Doctors are so expensive you might as well make your own!

That one baby saving medicine that just got approved costs like 2 million dollars, right? For anything ~ 200k+ that isn't literally holding your baby hostage from imminent death, it's probably cheaper to get a degree in chemistry and some lab equipment.

[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43pngb/how-to-make- your-o...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43pngb/how-to-make-your-own- medicine-four-thieves-vinegar-collective)

It's crazy, but only in a crazy system can things like this approach rational.

Here's another idea. What if patients could rent hospital administration as a service. Put payment for a procedure in escrow, sign all the malpractice waivers and try to attract a doctor like tinder. I'll sign all malpractice waivers if you'll just cut this cancer out of my gut. We can use my living room! It's this or death anyways so fuck it! America WOO

<comment><USER3> Americans need to raze their healthcare system down to the ground. None of the bandaid fixes like getting the government to pay but still having private companies dictating the prices. The whole system has to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, with the state the main owner of hospitals and provider of healthcare. The kind of things that you read about the current system are just absurd, but it's past the financial absurdity at this point, reading about insurance companies literally deciding whether cancer treatment is "strictly necessary" for weeks without approving it is not a healthcare system, it's hell, it's barbarism.

<comment><USER4> Healthcare has been a political football for decades, with massive interventions by government up and down the stack of services.

Think about the market's provision of grocery stores: plenty of competition. Most places they don't enjoy geographic monopolies like car dealerships do. They manage to get one of the most vital goods to a huge population spread across a huge area on time and at a great price, with local variations anticipating the specific desires of local consumers. There is no central coordinator or Department of Grocery Services. The market figures it out.

How can someone look at healthcare, with its absolutely absurd outcomes, and not understand that it is precisely because of government interference that nothing makes any sense? Costs keep rising unsustainably, which is the opposite of the way markets work. Paperwork and administrative staff balloons in proportion to patient care.

Once the state gets involved, now it becomes political. Do you think the current political climate in the US should be further embedded into healthcare? If the state controlled everything, then you'd get outcomes like red/blue states losing/gaining funding depending on the results of the most recent election. One could imagine more dystopian outcomes quite easily.

<comment><USER5> I had to go to the ER yesterday. I was taken to the closest ER. You bring up geographic monopolies without any irony and yet healthcare has huge and very obvious geographical monopolies.

At the ER I was made to sign something on the way in in a state in which I couldn't really tell what I was signing. I was given various drugs and sent through a CT scan. I had no idea what was going on. I certainly was in no position, with symptoms of a life threatening condition on top of being incapacitated to say "hey hold up, I think the Safeway has cheaper CT scans can you guys transfer me there!"

Healthcare is entirely different from buying groceries. It does not and will never operate like a typical market for typical commodity items.

<comment><USER6> Emergency medicine is a small fraction of all medicinal needs.

A lot of medicinal procedures allow time for determining what the most cost effective offering is.

<comment><USER7> But is the ideal system one with several hospitals per city, duplicating expensive resources or one big centre with centralised resources?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why are people so surprised? This is a great story and everyone should do it. The US system is gridlocked regulatory capture by scammers scamming scammers. Anything to route around it is a great idea.

In Japan I had no insurance, but my shoulder bothered me so I walked in to see my doctor the next morning (no appointment, $100), he scheduled an MRI for the next day ($300), and two days later I paid extra to talk to the radiologist($75) to see the damage up close. By the time I saw the surgeon the next week, I already knew I should do physical therapy instead of surgery. In the US this would have taken many weeks and thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, a doctor said "take this paper to the emergency desk to get a scan". Bad idea, that cost me $5500 and 8 hours of imprisonment. I couldn't leave after the scan, I waited hours longer for the doctor on duty to give a diagnosis (for a scan?), and of course she billed me separately for that.

<comment><USER9> > In the US this would have taken many weeks and thousands of dollars.

The many weeks part is not true, the $ part is pretty much random and unknown.

Every time I've gotten injured, it has been a next day appointment, or I just walk into urgent care, and an MRI/Xray scheduled a day or two later.

The imaging clinic my doctor uses provides a complete price sheet before any services are given, saying exactly:

1\. How much the overall bill is

2\. How much they will be billing and reimbursed from the health insurance company

3\. What the patient's total will be

> Meanwhile, back in Seattle,

I'm also in Seattle, find a better clinic! (Also ERs are overkill for 99% of things, sucks if you get injured after Urgent Care hours though...)

<comment><USER8> It wasn't an injury. I was at Swedish for a routine checkup and the doctor handed me a piece of paper and said "take this to the emergency desk, they can get you a scan". I had no intention of being checked into the ER and no idea I was about to be imprisoned for 8 hours.

It wasn't a big deal for me to be robbed like that, but for most working people a surprise unnecessary $5500 bill would be a real problem, so it's infuriating.

<comment><USER10> > imprisoned for 8 hours

You mentioned this twice, but unless you left out some _major_ details you were never actually imprisoned. If you demand to leave it's almost always a felony to stop you.

<comment><USER8> They kept telling me I could not leave. If I knew how long it would take I would have called my lawyer to confirm, but it was always, "Just 20 more minutes and the doctor will be here"

It was especially frustrating because I'd been asked to show up to the morning appointment fasted, and of course there was no food in the ER, but I guess it was more important to run up the tab.

I'd prefer a Mexican hospital any day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is a crazy story. All that's missing is a connecting flight through Canada on the return to pickup some prescription drugs.

<comment><USER12> Probably still cheaper in Mexico.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> > Mr. Stackpole said only a limited number of Americans were willing — even > with a financial incentive — to travel abroad, because most perceive the > care won't be as good.

this meme that the US has the best and brightest in _everything_ and nobody else holds a candle is both hilarious and depressing. it is now costing people their lives and creating financial ruin, but it seems that US health parasites are still pumping it.

</comment><comment><USER14> It's incredible that medical tourism can allow people to be treated by a Mayo & Brigham and Women's trained physician at a fraction of the cost, and that the physician actually makes more. I suppose much of the expense here is what American facilities normally charge, though I wonder if the stated prices in the article are before any negotiations between the providers and payors.

<comment><USER15> Don't mistake "more than what the doctor would make from Medicare" as anything close to what they make normally. Medicare pays pennies on the dollar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is a misleading article.

If the patient truly qualified for outpatient total knee replacement (orthopedic surgeon was out of Cancun in less than 24hrs per the article), the cost of this procedure would have been around _$11,677_ in the US at an ambulatory surgical center. Per the article, the cost of the procedure in Cancun was..."but at Galenia, it is only _$12,000_ ". I will definitely give credit where it is due, as the inpatient cost in Mexico would be far cheaper than in the US.

Disclaimer: I am a medical student, so please keep my biases in mind. I have no skin in the game, and I totally get that prices in the US are abhorrently high. Please read the following articles to gain a better understanding:

[https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.22.3....](https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.22.3.89) [https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05144](https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05144)

Source: [https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/hfss- nir0313...](https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/hfss- nir031319.php)

<comment><USER17> You're mental if you think you can get a knee replacement for $12k in the us. People who make one trip to the Ed here, with insurance, for something simple like an infection end up with bills over $20k for little more than what ends up being an ultrasound, A lab test and a script for antibiotics.

<comment><USER12> $15.5k at Surgery Centre Oklahoma for a total knee replacement:

[https://surgerycenterok.com/](https://surgerycenterok.com/)

EDs don't have competition like outpatient surgical centres do.

<comment><USER16> I don't think he read my comment in full, where I specifically mentioned that it would only cost that much at an ambulatory surgical center, linked to a source, and accepted that it would definitely cost more in a hospital.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> As this grows in awareness and popularity, I can see US healthcare providers lobbying to make it illegal. Which would be tough - what do you do, put heart surgeons on the no-fly list?

<comment><USER19> We have pretty good doctors down here too, why the need to fly one form the USA other than prejudice?

<comment><USER20> As the article mentions, so you can sue if something goes wrong.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Seems like a win for the patient and the insurance company and clearly worth the surgeon's while (or he wouldn't have gone). Personally I'd have no problem signing up for a "everything over $x and we send you to Mexico" plan.

</comment><comment><USER22> I live in Mexico with my Mexican wife.

Earlier this year she had a minimally invasive heart valve replacement (instead of opening all the chest they did via a smaller cut on the side). She was walking out of the hospital 4 days after the surgery.

We paid about $6500 USD which included everything. The mechanical valve, surgery, hospitalization, etc.

Some people pay a lot less than that since the price is according to a socio economic background check the hospital makes.

<comment><USER12> In the US, the valve would have cost that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Having had a number of surgeries in my life, I do care that my surgeon is well-trained. But I care even more about the anesthesiologist.

</comment><comment><USER24> How long until someone converts a cruise ship to a hospital ship and parks it off the coast.

The US healthcare system just gets weirder and weirder, almost everything has been tried except fixing it.

</comment><comment><USER25> In 2004 I was in Cancun and met a few people doing this kind of thing. It was for plastic surgery type stuff that wasn't covered by insurances. Not nose job stuff more disfigurement or getting something unsightly fixed. 15 years later they have a hospital catering to this. It was sketchy back then and I heard of botched jobs with not so great surgeons.

Here we are 15 years later where they fly in surgeons and pay the patients.

Anyone want to build a system to connect hospitals overseas with insurance companies/patients?

<comment><USER26> In Florida they have a boat that goes out to international water, drops anchor, and lets everybody gamble for the day.[1] Perhaps we aren't too far off from Norwegian Cruise Knee Surgery and Holland America Hip Replacements.

[1] [https://victorycasinocruises.com/day-cruise-central- florida/](https://victorycasinocruises.com/day-cruise-central-florida/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> How does one find any hope in a system like this?

<comment><USER28> Despite all the structural crazy, two self-interested parties agreed to a mutually beneficial trade. That is, capitalism finds a way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Sometimes I'm thinking I'd love to work in USA. But reading this stories is very scary. When you have an emergency situation, you shouldn't need to find out if the doctor/hospital is on some network. One commenter on the article complains she was charged 65k.. waw.

I'm glad for the nhs.

</comment><comment><USER30> > Dr. Parisi, who spent less than 24 hours in Cancún, was paid $2,700, or > three times what he would have received from Medicare, the largest single > payer of hospital costs in the United States. Private insurers often base > their reimbursement rates on what Medicare pays.

This is what happens when most of the actual health care cost is going to fat administrator paychecks.

<comment><USER12> It's 25% in the US on administration. The low end is 12% in public health systems. [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/upshot/costs-health- care-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/upshot/costs-health-care-us.html)

The more likely answer is: Everyone else is paid less and everything else costs less.

The extra costs in the US will be some combination of total nonsense, marginal (you should get _some_ compensation when errors cause you harm) and very real (e.g. Replacing HVAC filters on schedule, having someone go through lab results for the last month's infections and figure out which antibiotics to use the next time when you can't wait for results).

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> > Dr. Parisi, who spent less than 24 hours in Cancún, was paid $2,700, or > three times what he would have received from Medicare

This illustrates perfectly the point I (and most everyone on Europe) tries to get to Americans and often they - for some weird reason - refuse to understand: healthcare can be cheaper and better to everyone (yes, this means that universal healthcare can and is cheaper on the taxpayers in most of the EU than for American taxpayers... with ours being universal), if you just understand that the middle man you created by wanting the state out of it, is getting most of the money.

It's really so simple to understand...

<comment><USER32> I'm not sure I understand your point. The surgery was done in a private hospital and paid for by a private health insurance company. It certainly points out that care in the U.S. is too expensive, but I'm not sure how it indicates a single payer system is the best course of action. The doctor was also paid 3x the Medicare rate which sounds like a good thing to me. Am I missing something?

<comment><USER8> He literally said "healthcare can be cheaper and better", and this story definitely proves that.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Crawling car dealerships for a real time consumer search engine - <AUTHOR> http://www.demanjo.com/

<comment><USER2> I have built something very similar to this is the past, here are a couple of observations:

Scraping:

\- Dealer web sites are run by a handful of different data brokers, for the most part if you find a good way to scrape one (say dealer who uses <http://www.dealer.com/> than you can extend your scraper to get others)

\- Dealer web sites, in general, are horrible to view.

\- Learn to love VIN explosion/decoding - <http://www.researchmaniacs.com/VIN/VIN-Decoder.html> the dealers enter features in so many different ways, it is your best chance to normalize the data.

\- Normalize the ext. color, create a distinct list of all the crazy colors of car makers give their cars and all the short hand dealers give the colors. Create a map of the colors and apply when scraping

\- Scraping is like farming, a lot of initial work, but there is constant upkeep for changing sites

Display:

\- User's don't want to search by city as much as what is close to them, you should geocode the dealerships and display distance. For instance if I search West Des Moines, I would expect inventory in Des Moines also to come up

\- Add searching by zip code, you can easily find database of the centroids. It can also be a cheap way of geocoding the dealerships

\- Switch Mileage to use miles instead of KM, it looks like most of the inventory is in the US an that is what the user will expect.

\- Use a ip2geo to set the initial location of the search, right now it looks like it is all over the place, check to see if the browser supports geo location and optionally set the initial search by that

<comment><USER3> How did you do bulk VIN explosion? Pay for it (rates are high in my research) or scrape one of the free sites?

<comment><USER2> Built my own scraping some of the free sites, You can do basic make and year off plain VIN, then scraped some of the free sites with break downs of the various VINs to build a a map.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think this is nice, and I already found a deal I haven't come across yet on a vehicle I'm interested in, so thanks!

A few initial thoughts:

\- I can't click the radio buttons themselves within each options group; only the link/label itself is clickable

\- I would rather the mileage filters be < 10k, < 20k, < 36k, etc. If I can't have this, I want to be able to select multiple mileage filters at once

\- I want to select multiples of other filters too. Year for example. eBay allows me to enter "2009-2011" or "2009-". I can only view one year at a time on this site.

\- It took me a minute to realize I had to select a make before a model (yes, I feel stupid for this); showing an empty stub where the options will appear once I have selected a make is not intuitive - how about not showing the not- yet-ready filters until they are relevant?

\- Seeing the "Contact Dealer" red button directly below the phone number made me initially think I was going to be calling the dealer. I finally clicked it after seeing no other place to view the dealer's own listing. I'd make getting to the dealer's site a bit more prominent

</comment><comment><USER5> A few thoughts: \- I _think_ CarFax has an affiliate program that might let you link through to their reports, keyed by VIN. These reports are a pretty valuable tool to shoppers as the condition of a used car is driving 50% of the buying decision.

\- One data point that is really important to dealers is how long the car has been on the lot. Hypothetically you could just track how long the same car has appeared at the same dealership. The longer the car has been sitting there, the more motivated they'll be to sell it. I remember hearing 30 days is a long time for dealerships to sit on a car. For buyers this could be good information to have.

\- Getting the mobile experience right would be a huge win. So often the cars the dealer lists aren't actually the cars they have on the site (I'm not sure how much of this is intentional and how much is a matter of how fast inventory turns over). So when you get to the dealership, you want to quickly and easily be able to comparison shop - get that right and you cover people in that really critical uncomfortable moment.

</comment><comment><USER6> What about trim levels? Trim levels are crucial in the buying decision. For example, if you search for a Ford F-150 on your site, there is no way to see if it's an XLT, King Ranch, Raptor, etc. The price and equipment difference in those vehicles is huge.

What about options and equipment? Does the car have navigation? Sunroof? Most consumers have specific option packages in mind when searching for car online.

This is why VIN explosion is necessary for any serious automotive shopping site. If a consumer can't narrow the vehicles down to a trim and option package level then it won't get wide adoption.

<comment><USER7> VIN explosion doesn't always return truck trims, as many times the actual truck beds are added after the vehicle rolled off the assembly line.

So they will probably need more than VIN explosion for that; there are some companies that do provide that data though.

<comment><USER6> Trucks are certainly the most difficult to decode. But if you are using something like ChromeData for the VIN data, and combine that with the info from the dealer's site then you can usually narrow the vehicle down to a specific trim level.

Not always however. Dealers frequently have incorrect or missing information on their websites, so garbage-in, garbage out.

This is why scraping dealer websites for data is always going to be problematic. Far better to work with the providers to have them send you the data. It's faster, easier and you get far better data.

<comment><USER7> I used to work for a competitor in the same space as AutoRevo =) Chrome was ok, but there was another provider that had exact vin matches in their catalog. It was a bit more expensive, but made it so the trim field was a non- issue. I don't remember the name, it's been too long.

<comment><USER6> It might have been AutoData, but they have merged with Chrome. Edmunds has a decoder, but it's pretty laughable. I'm not aware of any other major players in that field outside of those.

Chrome offers 1-1 matches on VIN to style Ids for most OEM's, but it's an additional cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Suggest a map that shows which dealer and where a car is located. There's a subset of car buyers where the car itself is less important than the garage they bought it from, in case they need to bring it back for repairs / tuning etc. This is especially true of used cars. And very important on mobile

<comment><USER9> Maybe it's something country-specific, but why would you do repairs in the same garage? Or did you mean the dealer's guarantee period?

<comment><USER10> For folks who lease cars (a poor financial decision long-term, but lower monthly payments) you need to take the car back to the dealership you bought it from at regular intervals (3-10K miles).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Overall, impressive data, but UI/UX could be improved.

'Refine By' menu shows an arrow on mouseover, but user can only click on words, not arrow or high-lighted area.

'Refine By' pop-out menus show a square, value as hyperlink, count. Square looks like a checkbox (with rounded corners) but clicking on square produces no result (this user expected a checkbox response, & ability to select multiple models, colors, etc.)

Change of other filters does not require a 'go' button, but change of search radius does.

Results appear to have a wide radius, but pull-down for location does not show what default/pre-selected radius is (by experimentation, 10 miles).

Generally, the user should be able to tell what filters are currently active, and what their values are.

Clear Price filter action appeared to clear all filters.

US states and placenames with multi-word names should have all elements capitalized: s/New mexico/New Mexico/ s/San luis obispo/San Luis Obispo/

Price filter should allow either end-point to be absent.

Mileage should allow arbitrary range end-points, like price.

Year should allow a range, or checkboxes.

Consider having Refine by Make hide the less popular makes behind a 'more' button. So, by default display top N makes & 'more', 'more' displays top N _2 (or all) makes & 'more', top N_4 or all, top N*8 or all, etc. (otherwise the menu may grow to many dozens of obscure makes)

Support 'open in a new tab' on the hyperlinks show below the first search box. Searching <color> <make> <letter> displayed 3 links with counts, but displays nothing - sigh. (perhaps the back-end function is not yet implemented?)

Again, impressive data.

</comment><comment><USER12> Great job! Nicely done.

A suggestion, also a source of competitive advantage: Allow selecting more than one Make per search. Seems nobody does this. I would like to see all SUVs except those by the big North American manufacturers. To do this I need to execute many separate searches.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!!

Will deploy multiple selections of filters by weeks end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Servers couldn't handle it.

<comment><USER10> I really wish people would test their sites before doing this. I can understand if someone else submits your stuff and you had no idea it was going to happen (but even then...), but if you create an account with no history for the explicit purpose of submitting to HN as the OP did, you should at least test it under some semblance of load.

<comment><USER14> _I really wish people would test their sites before doing this._

I'm conflicted; whilst ultimately you're right, it's very easy to type those words, and not as easy to test for a realistic load.

It's not as simple as throwing ab at your website, you need to use a proper tool (e.g. JMeter), make sure you're testing realistic user behaviour (even basics such as whether images and CSS have an impact), and ensure that you're not getting a false sense of security (e.g. how many connections are _actually_ hitting the server at the same time?).

So yeah, whilst I kinda agree with you, I think it's a lot easier to say than to carry out.

<comment><USER15> amplified log playback works best in my experience.

of course, this requires at least some public traffic to play back. i've only used proprietary tools for this in my personal experience, but i believe jmeter has this functionality (log sampling).

<comment><USER10> This seems really interesting. When you say proprietary tools, I assume you mean more custom-built solutions and less paid tools available to anyone?

<comment><USER15> yeah, tools built in-house to test specific apps, not commercial apps

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Just a weird error. If I accept the location tracking and use this url: [http://www.demanjo.com/new/search?3=3670447604&0=3526732...](http://www.demanjo.com/new/search?3=3670447604&0=3526732295&1=2320905822)

Then it will show the search, but go to another search afterwards.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, can your provide more details into this error? What location are you in?

Works perfectly for me from my location.

Will be very helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Searched for WRX, but got a bunch of Hondas. Looks like Honda is a fallback if model is not recognized...

</comment><comment><USER18> It's clean and fast. How do you fetch the data and what's the revenue model? Cheers.

</comment><comment><USER19> Funny, I made something very similar when I was looking to change my car 2 years ago or so, but did't open sourced it. The UI was awful, but it had email notifications when a search query matched

</comment><comment><USER20> Seems very useful (looking for a car right now), but the filter by price range function seems to return zero results with no regard to the values entered.

<comment><AUTHOR> Noticed, deploying a fix.

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> How did you manage to come into agreement with car dealers to crawl their sites and use their photos in your aggregator? Congratulations!

<comment><USER22> I would guess they did so in the same way that google asks every website operator before crawling and caching. (I.e., I suspect they didn't come to any explicit agreement. If google doesn't, why should they need to?)

<comment><USER23> Given that Google has been sued over that countless times, as a small startup I would be wary of following their example.

<comment><USER24> This is probably the wrong attitude towards founding startups. In general, you shouldn't unnecessarily risk the business -- but if people are throwing roadblocks in your way, lots of startups seem to generally do pretty well when they play fast-and-loose with rules. The logic is that nobody's going to bother to sue you until you get big and can defend yourself. Obviously taking a big risk like this isn't ideal, but you shouldn't let it stop you from moving forward with a business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'm seeing a fair few duplicates in the results, probably need to work on the algorithm for filtering these out.

<comment><AUTHOR> Noticed!! some dealerships are operating under several distinct domain names which create these duplicates. We are currently working on a solution for this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> There is a similar site in Russia: <http://auto.yandex.ru/>

</comment><comment><USER27> Is there any reference for designing classified websites? In terms of usability and experience.

</comment><comment><USER28> How come there is no cars in San Francisco ? Yu should may be think of parsing craiglist ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Our crawler is currently in motion and i see about 239 cars in SF.

We are solely focusing on dealership websites.

<comment><USER28> The only suggestions I have when I type "San Fra" are : San Clara, MB San Josef Bay, BC San Josef, BC San Joseph Bay, BC"

<comment><AUTHOR> Your IP address resolves to Canada.

You can only search for cars in your country.

Will have to change this if required at some point

<comment><USER28> That's even more weird because I'm in France, using a french ISP without any proxy or whatever and I can see cars from Texas, Nevada, ...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> You should be able to click the image on the homepage to go to the listing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks.

Will incorporate.

Cheers!

<comment><USER29> Great, the website is a really good idea!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Great job. Love the idea. Can you tell us which technologies you used ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Everything is proprietary!! that is our big advantage.

Data store code name "Saycron" sits on the Demanjo's Distributed file system.

Indexing -- > uses a data structure i call "Octo-tree" Outperforms any multidimensional index i came across in any academic papers.

Web server -- > Code name "SlimAPE". simple non blocking.

Web framework -- > Code name "HerikX".

I will write about all of these technologies later on my blog whenever i get to setting up one.

<comment><USER31> I'd like to get in touch. Looked at your profile and no email so can you drop me one if you get the opportunity? Thanks!</comment></comment></comment>


Fast Bounded-Concurrency Hash Tables - <AUTHOR> http://backtrace.io/blog/blog/2015/03/13/workload-specialization

<comment><USER2> We use this in our project --- [https://github.com/aerospike/aerospike- client-c](https://github.com/aerospike/aerospike-client-c)</comment>


Google Reader + Disqus would be a better Google+ than Google+ - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/108586187359313993995/posts/5tB8VQC54hW

<comment><USER2> If you only use it as a link aggregator... sure. That's not even close to what everyone uses G+ as. I know for me and most of my social circle, we use it as a replacement for Facebook/Twitter (sans the random links from the internet we all saw on reddit anyway).

<comment><AUTHOR> My problem is that it tries to be both a replacement for Facebok/Twitter and blogs/RSS. I don't think that is what I want to see in one stream.

<comment><USER3> Your problem is exactly what I like about it. I've found much richer discussion than I ever had on Facebook or Twitter precisely because of the fact that it fits the niche of Facebook and personal blogs but doesn't entirely capture the blog area. If it attempted to more completely capture the blogging aspect then I could imagine it getting problematic really quickly, though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Robert Scoble actually blogs on G+. Other people do too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a HEAVY Google Reader user, I always wished that Google made Reader more social. It really could've been the next Digg if Google had played it right.

</comment><comment><USER5> Disagree. Disqus just doesn't work for me. They have a broken OpenID system, pages load much slower, and their points/moderation system is close to meaningless (I can't see which comments I wrote got decent votes).

I much prefer IntenseDebate (still slow, broken OpenID, but moderation is much much better) or Google+ itself. I just wish Google would "plus-ify" Reader already.

<comment><USER6> Hi r00fus, can you show me a page where you find Disqus causes a page to serve much more slowly?

We serve all our static assets from Akamai, and there's only a single dynamic request per embed load (that's also cached). My own benchmarks show Disqus loads in under a second on most pages.

<comment><USER5> It could be a local network thing, but I simply can't login to post comments over at Engadget (been this way for a week or longer)... it's bizarre, I can see comments, but the "add comment" dialog is either shrunk or shows "..." constantly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I totally agree. Google+ is trying too many things at once and attempts to be Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Reader all at the same time. Maybe some things are never meant to mix like minced meat and tuna.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you don't like it or it doesn't provide you with value you don't have to use it.

</comment><comment><USER9> Maybe if Google buys Disqus. Disqus has far too many outages and performance issues for my liking.

</comment><comment><USER10> agree</comment>


Self-Awareness for Introverts [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://cliffc.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AWarOfWords.pdf <comment><USER3> I'm sure some people react this way, but to me what he describes sounds more like a trait of being over-emotional and a bit immature in dealing with the stress, than being specifically introvert. I don't see how being extrovert would change the situations described, except maybe that person would get into a verbal fight-back to defend it's hurt ego? And that would surely make the situation even worse. From my point of view (and I consider myself very introvert) the only correct answer to someone telling you that you fucked up something is to get over you ego, take the blame (if it's yours) and try to fix the problem asap.

<comment><USER4> And what if it is not your fault?

<comment><USER5> One thing I learned from "Winning friends and influencing people" is that when there's an argument, start by pointing out the things you agree with. "Yes, there was a bug. Yes, a bug caused it to freeze at an inopportune time. I agree that this was a terrible thing you went through."

Focusing on the "yes, I agree" areas helps you to connect with them and get on the same side. From there, they will be much more willing to reciprocate by listening to your side of things.

<comment><USER6> You are missing the point that in the moment one can not even remember what they have planned to do in that situation.

<comment><USER5> That's the gist of what the author was saying, and he also goes on to recommend memorizing something in advance and then walking away. I too get this "can't process verbal and emotional at the same time," but I have found that I can at least be aware of "this is one of those challenging situations." From there I can go through the motions of the "agree" strategy, and stumble my way back to my feet from there.

Maybe it wouldn't work for the author, but I've found success with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> >About an hour later I come up with the snappy comeback

> But I never figure it out "in the moment"

Nobody ever does. My attempt at solving this is to eliminate as much of the "surprise!" moments as I can by delaying things. It doesn't work always, but I have found saying no to things initially helps a lot. Somebody comes to bug you, someone just wants to talk NOW, ask them for some time. More often than not, we know what the other person would say. Think about it clearly and then talk with them.

As this doesn't always works,one more technique is "let silence speak". Instead of rambling about and saying things you would regret later, just stay silent and ask for more time to think and talk later.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, seriously, this isn't some introvert/extrovert thing. Most people are really bad at confrontation. I confronted an extrovert who owed me a couple hundred bucks once, and he was most definitely, definitely "stun-locked." It takes a pretty aggressive personality to think on their feet when faced with a personal attack.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just for context:

Cliff Click ([https://twitter.com/cliff_click](https://twitter.com/cliff_click)), the author of the presentation is probably one of the smartest and fastest talking people around. He wrote the original Hotspot JVM and have done tons of interesting work.

<comment><USER10> right. his (1995) phd thesis is a classic for anyone interested in optimizing compilers [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.17....](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.17.8510&rep=rep1&type=pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think salary notifications in general are a sign of the company compensating in a fundamentally unfair way. Unless you are being hired to negotiate, paying you based on your negotiation skills seems unfair. It's harder -- a lot harder -- but I'd encourage the CEOs reading this to create a compensation scheme that is "fair by design" and pays correctly without the need to negotiate. Here's what we do, though I imagine there are likely even better ways available: [https://blog.expensify.com/2016/06/17/expensifys-comp- review...](https://blog.expensify.com/2016/06/17/expensifys-comp-review- process/)

</comment><comment><USER12> A very important part I think is "the fool was not me". It's important to not to hear others and to take your time to analyze your thoughts (it's not an introvert thing of course).

First you may want to experience your feelings (you feel hurt, vulnerable, angry), but then try to understand what made you angry. Maybe you have an inner need for contribution and the other person states that instead of contributing, you made something terribly stupid (from his point of view) so you feel hurt.

And then, think about the abusive manager in this case. what may he feel, what may be his needs? Isn't is possible that he felt ashamed because he needed stability, but that need was undermined during his presentation?

Most of these are in the presentation in a form or another, but in fact this is a mediating thechnique by Marshall Rosenberg, called NVC. Anyway, take your time. Don't be ashamed to look into your heart. This is easier said than done, but it's possible to get better in it.

</comment><comment><USER13> It seems to me that this is not about introversion but instead about insecurities or emotional issues.

<comment><USER14> I disagree. Introversion at it's core is about sensitivity to over stimulation. This sensitivity to over stimulation is not something that you can control, it's baked into the biology, into the neural connectivity of the brain.

This means that something that is not very stimulating to you, can be practically overwhelming to me.

It's not insecurity, it's not emotional issues. It's biology.

And turning it into something that sensitive people should be able to overcome - turning it into a personal failing is _not_ helpful.

[https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/revenge-of-the- introvert...](https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/revenge-of-the- introverts.html)

<comment><USER15> introvert doesn't mean nearly autistic

Also, turning it into a personal failing is absolutely helpful. What isn't is thinking that a personal failing is a _bad_ thing and not just a thing which isn't as good as it can be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Lol. Does this thing happen in real life and are there adults taking this crap constantly in their work environment?

You don't need "comeback" words, you really just need to report this bullying behavior immediately to who's in charge(if that's not your boss) or simply quit for fucks sake.

<comment><USER17> Where does it say "constantly", it sounds like a one off.

Can people not take the occasional bit of criticism any more?

<comment><USER16> "Your crap is crap, get outta my sight"

So this doesn't offend you? If someone is able to talk with you like that at your workplace that's really bad...constantly or not.

<comment><USER18> If someone says to me "your crap is crap, get outta my sight" then maybe I need to evaluate if what i created is in fact actual "crap".

If it's not crap, then why the fuck do I care if someone else thinks it is. If it isn't, then I can justify all the decisions that were made and why they were made and why the result behaves as it does.

If i can't then that's a problem, and that problem is on me to fix. Why am I making "crap" ?

Is this maybe an age thing? Is this a problem with young people needing to be handled with kid gloves?

Never mind the fact that if someone can say to me "your crap is crap, get outta my sight" then we obviously have an environment where I can tell that person to go fuck themselves.

Jesus people have some self esteem / self confidence.

<comment><USER16> Oh man...this is cringey.

So it's nothing wrong when somebody is talking with you like that? Doesn't give you a hint how much that person respects you? Maybe some of you guys here are just used to be pushed around...but if that's ok with you, fine.

<comment><USER18> >> Doesn't give you a hint how much that person respects you?

SOmeone that talks to me (or anyone) like that, why should I want their respect?

Shrug it off and ignore them, or tell them to fuck off.

They people aren't worth your time or any form of emotional investment. BUt occasionally they might be right, yhou might have fucked up and I think it's important, regardless of the delivery, to look at criticism objectively.

<comment><USER19> It's not that you should want that specific persons respect, it's that you should want a person who respects you instead of one who doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I have struggled to work with similar issues in the past (especially the initial part of the presentation) and appreciate the author addressing this. More often than not I go back to the strategy of separating the opinions from the person.

The separation of opinions from the person changes the dynamics in my head. I still find it hard to work with people who don't do that separation. Discussions with them can be tricky. If I am fortunate, I come out of the discussion learning a lot with wider spectrum of things to consider. However in some occasions I am just drained intellectually and emotionally with opinions such as: I have done this before and just trust me.

I feel soft emotional skills are as much important as core intellectual competency of a person. More study/awareness on this front is always welcome!

[Edit 1: Typos]

</comment><comment><USER21> The person in question forgets that some people build their whole careers on how to manage people and situations like that. You'll always be taken advantage of by people like these until you finally learn that coming up with a comeback is not really a creative problem, but rather a problem of military- like training in communications.

In the rare scenario someone would come up to me this way, I would have already been prepared by knowing what exact wrong things they themselves did in the past (not because I am a horrible person, but because people did and would take advantage of me this way in the past). I would directly retaliate and then make sure the person in question learns this lesson for the rest of our relationship. Rinse and repeat.

More importantly, the fact that the person in question can approach you this way and in such a manner is already a good indicator of either you working with someone who is an incredible idiot or there're some organisational issues.

<comment><USER22> Took me a while to find your comment which I fully agree with.

Most managers are unwilling to deal with situations like that. They immediately reduce the importance of it and try to (gently or not so gently) coerce both sides to just get back to work.

It's kind of sad but also rather interesting to learn to deal with such bullies quickly and efficiently.

(1) "Remember those 20 minutes of outage on production because you couldn't be bothered to check for a nil, smartass? How about you get the fuck out of here and let me finish this?"

(2) "If you never screwed up at work in your life then by all means, please fire me. Right here and now. No? Then get the fuck away, my contract doesn't include listening to people with anger issues. I can hand you a therapist bill later if you really wanna talk. I take $150 an hour. Bye."

...are the rough formats I almost always use, depending on if I caught the attacker making a mistake in the past or not. Bullies aren't ethical. They don't care if they hurt you. Most of them actually _want_ to hurt you. And as much as we want to believe in organizational systems, my experience has been that 99% of managers simply don't care.

We must learn to defend ourselves. And yes that includes being aggressive yourself. As a guy who was severely physically bullied as a teenager I can tell you that bullies don't listen and respond to logic. They are hyenas: if they sense you are weak they will push their attack even further. Only when you show teeth and bite back _hard_ will they back off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> This looks more like bullying.

If you have a team of whatever sport, and the goalkeeper fails to catch the ball, you don't blame the goalkeeper. It's a team effort.

If the goalkeeper is busy catching balls is because the defense didn't work, because the forwards' attack wasn't working, or because the coach strategy was ineffective... etc. You get the idea.

Then, just like goals, bugs will always happen.

Unless you refused to do your job, or went against protocols/procedures, you should not be treated this way.

What you do is try to understand what happened and try to make it better next time.

<comment><USER24> Of course it's bullying. It's also a thing that happens in reality.

Imagine that it's a paying client. You can't go run to HR. You can't just say "take your money and leave". It's not ideal, but yeah, you're going to have to deal with this level of conflict and confrontation sometime in your life. (Heaven forbid you go through divorce negotiations, like the author; "your crap is crap" is probably the nicest thing you'd hear all day.)

You also assume that the attacker's words are rooted in fact. One strategy that 'warriors' _intentionally_ use against others is to undermine them and make them feel threatened. It works remarkably well against tech people because we put so much importance on our skills.

It's uncool, but it happens. Better that you be prepared.

<comment><USER23> > You also assume that the attacker's words are rooted in fact.

What if your boss says: "It's too cloudy today! It's your fault Ian, you suck!"?

\- is it acceptable behavior?

\- is it a correct statement?

\- is it constructive? does it help solving a problem at all?

<comment><USER24> But that's exactly my point. With rational reflection you know that none of those things are true. In the moment, the delivery is going to push you into a threatened, emotional place.

Assuming that the attacker is correct and that it's your fault is not always the right thing to do. Some attackers are malicious and will use your emotions against you.

Power dynamics will not always permit you to appeal to a superior. Sometimes you need to deal with a bully yourself.

<comment><USER23> Right. But when that happens what needs to be fresh in your mind is the sole idea that a person is put in charge of a team of people if they can coordinate those people to collaborate towards a solution. If that is not happening they're not doing their job... Meaning, it's their fault not yours.

More specifically, you need to be given actionable, specific feedback... hopefully without noise or personal, emotional drama.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Some of the described attacks would make me want to get the fuck out of wherever they work.

Seems like some good advice though.

</comment><comment><USER26> >OP– [http://cliffc.org/blog/wp- content/uploads/2018/05/AWarOfWord...](http://cliffc.org/blog/wp- content/uploads/2018/05/AWarOfWords.pdf)

I'm getting a 404 on the current OP URL, but this works:

[http://cliffc.org/blog/wp- content/uploads/2018/05/2018_AWarO...](http://cliffc.org/blog/wp- content/uploads/2018/05/2018_AWarOfWords.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER27> I was initially put off by the format (slides with an aesthetic that is... definitely not mine), but there's a lot of good material here.

</comment><comment><USER28> Don't analyze too much, just let it pour off. Ask if there's anything to be learned, if no, then don't bother. In fight or flight it helps to control your breath to get back brain control. Good advice about walking away, leave the battle before you get more injuries. It might be awkward to walk out of a meeting, but at least the other party will recognizing they did something wrong. For the red people, it can help improving your relationship, spend more time with them! It's no surprise that the green people are the ones you've spent most time with. Good advice to be prepared, never get walked into a room!

</comment><comment><USER29> I know I'm late to the party, but as an FYI, it seems as if this presentation is adapted from this:

[http://www.cliffc.org/blog/2017/07/30/introverts- emotional-p...](http://www.cliffc.org/blog/2017/07/30/introverts-emotional- processing-self-esteem-and-salary-negotiations/)

</comment><comment><USER30> IMO it's not self-awareness that most people lack but lack of willingness to self-control fueled by the notion that 'being natural' is a good thing.

Given that the will is there, the best way to influence your behavior is mental modeling because how you see things will affect not only your mind but your body and imagination is a way to see what you want to see.

Whether the model is correct or not doesn't matter. Half-believing it is sufficient. That's how superstition works. Beware that models, not unlike drugs, not only can but often do have side-effects.

</comment><comment><USER31> The following is stated with total compassion not criticism.

This reminds me of the fine grained steps that non-technical people will write down when handling computer tasks. Every click and every menu mentioned. Even down to describing what the icons look like. Then each step will be followed with exacting caution. The interaction never becomes comfortable or natural. Instead it stutters along from one step to the next. Like counting off steps when dancing.

Whereas a skilled user will intuitively understand the UI cues. Even in an unfamiliar situation, where they don't know what menu or setting they need, they will move around trying things just to see what happens. The difference between skilled and unskilled is not planning, or knowing an ever larger number of correct steps. It's about a knowledge of the basics and a feeling of safety in taking risks.

When I read this post I see someone not comfortable enough in their own skin. Perhaps flagging people and making battle plans will help get him started, but imho the goal should be to gain a level of comfort that you can act without careful planning. That will allow you to avoid being 'stun locked'.

<comment><USER32> I totally agree with you. I've seen this in people before and honestly would like to understand more.

I have a friend who is very analytical but gets flustered by many social situations and conflicts. When I ask him what's going on he explains he doesn't understand how to act or what's going on. I've no idea how to help. I've developed instincts, through experience, rather than calculated responses. My instincts can be off and need adjustment over time but it's a totally different way of reacting. Much less taxing on me emotionally than what he goes through. I don't need to think I just need to practise. But this doesn't seem to work for some people and I have no idea why?

I remember in my late teens and early twenties experiencing this but I just grew out of it. How do you help someone develop interpersonal skills and instincts?

<comment><USER33> Social anxiety is a real condition, and works at a subconscious level. In a state of anxiety, the brain simply does not work optimally.

<comment><USER34> I deal with it on occasion, even though I'm normally 100% perfectly fine with strangers, groups, etc... But, when I speak in public, and especially when the focus is on me... It's so rough. No amount of practice, conditioning, preparedness does any good when you try to talk and _literally_ nothing comes out. I've found myself having to force speech and it _sounds_ forced in my head. I've never had the presence of mind to ask a friend or colleague what it sounds like to them, I'll have to try to remember to do that next time. I've just always kind of dealt with it because it only happens infrequently that I'm in those situations (1-2 times a year, maybe).

<comment><USER35> That sounds normal to me. Getting over anxiety requires exposure and most people aren't doing a lot of public speaking on a regular basis. Toastmasters could help with that if it really bothers you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> If this is happening to you, check the laws and guidelines about bullying at work in your country / jurisdiction.

If the laws don't help, or you aren't up for that kind of fight, perhaps look for another job and think about how you suss out if this will happen in the next job. Perhaps get a job via a friend who can vouch.

</comment><comment><USER37> This is about setting a standard, if the most sensitive persons set the standard we are all in troubles (and the other way around)

The standard should be assertiveness.

</comment><comment><USER38> Good content but very hard to read due to the format

</comment><comment><USER39> Self awareness has two parts;

\- One's awareness of how they are perceived by other people.

\- One's awareness of their own feelings and emotions, irrespective of other people.

Extroverts rank highly for the first point and poorly in the second point. For introverts it's the opposite.

I don't think it makes sense to discuss self awareness if you don't separate the two different types.

<comment><USER35> I myself am somewhat introverted but feel I'm fairly high on both of those points. I have a friend who is very extroverted who I would say also scores well on both of those points but the main difference between him and I, he just seems to do or say things without much thought beforehand and sometimes comes to regret it later. I've always thought impulsivity may lead to more extroverted people and inhibition to more introverted people.

<comment><USER39> I think there are different levels and I'm pretty sure that a lot of people who think that they have really good self awareness actually don't.

You need to be exposed to a lot of difficult and unusual situations in order to learn about yourself. Also you need to be honest with yourself because most people have a habit of post rationalizing their behaviour as a way to maintain labels like "I'm a good person", "I'm a winner", "I'm smart", etc... People who subconsciously try to assign labels to themselves usually don't have good internal self awareness because labels are the product of external advertising; it's an externalized/socialized way to think about yourself...

<comment><USER35> Guess I'll have to take your word for it as I must be too self deluded to see otherwise :).

Edit: I'd also like to add that as someone who meditates daily, I actually disagree that being exposed to a lot of different situations is automatically going to help you get to know yourself better. You can be exposed to all sorts of situations and not be mindful of what is going on inside. Alternatively, you can be doing something totally mundane like sitting and watching your breath and come across new and interesting things going on in your own mind that you had never noticed before. The difference is going to come from how mindful you are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I find a lot of this has more to do with the organization and management than the coder itself.

Taking a pre-production build to a customer and getting angry when it doesn't work? That's an organizational problem, and the developer is justified in getting angry at someone for doing that.

</comment><comment><USER41> This is super cool although one thing that I would do differently--after running--is to grab a beer and act a little more casual. Alcohol can help you relax if you're an occasional user, and there's the concern that you can make events like this traumatic by calling them traumatic.

<comment><USER42> I don't think you should recommend this. Using alcohol (or xanax from the other comment) to treat symptoms (e.g. to relax) can lead to having it as a crutch. Additionally when you get rid of a symptom of a problem will mean you will have less motivation to eliminate the root cause of problem in the first place (e.g. if someone bullies you, it's easier to "just have a beer" rather than report it or speak to them, or find out ways not to get traumatised in the first place).

Using crutches like this can lead to psychological addiction, because if the situation does not improve the person can too easily choose to "have more beers".

Of course there's also the chemical addiction to alcohol which will be even worse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> An "introvert" is simply a person that gets tired from interacting with new acquaintances, not refreshed. Introversion has nothing to do with whatever his problems are.

<comment><USER44> My first thought reading this was that it reminded me of the two people I know with high functioning autism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I haven't read all the frames, but I do know about what the author is talking about in the first few frames. Usually, such attackers are very much extroverted and thrive on attention. The way I deal with them is to simply ignore them in every way. I make sure they realize I am avoiding them. Often wear facial expression of contempt around them. Etc. This behavior really gets to the core of such attackers, especially if they are female. After a while, they do change their attitude and demeanor, but you can't go back to being nice again just yet because these people will gladly relapse. They are roundly defeated when _they_ start avoiding you. Just my experience.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm not sure I understand what he means by emotional processing?

<comment><USER46> Being to upset to think straight, I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> I think these things are dangerous, and I think that guy needs a better work environment. I manage people, I do a lot of personality profiling too, from belbin to mbti and disc profiles to our own HR departments people tools, and they are largely as useless as horoscopes at defining people.

Everyone is a bit of everything, and the point of realizing or learning things about yourself, such as the fact that you're more introverted than extroverted isn't to say "oh well, I guess I'm an introvert" and then define yourself around that. The point is to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are so that you can work on bettering both.

That's not what always happens though. Some people do these tests and learn nothing about themselves or how to be themselves. They read that they are introverted and then they google what that means, and then they start becoming more and more like what their google results told them.

I see nothing in those slides that aren't an exploitation of this.

Obviously you need safe spaces and concentration zones at a workplaces for people who primarily use their brains. But are you seriously trying to tell me that "extroverted" programmers don't need places where they aren't distracted? I'd say people with more extroverted traits need those even more, as they get distracted easier and are worse at setting up the "do not disturb" boundaries by themselves. Obviously you need to manage people differently. Some people won't speak up as much and it's import to make sure they feel heard, but even people who speak up, might not feel heard or come up with a better "come back" two hours later, and there needs to be room for all of that. Typically the how depends a lot more on the day/situation than what their "personality profile" is like.

<comment><USER48> > I think that guy needs a better work environment

How do you make this conclusion when you know nothing about the author's current work environment?

Consider that what you see in the slides could be hypothetical examples or examples inspired from someone else's life or from his previous work environment. Also consider that some people, although aware that they need a better work environment, are unable to find that better work environment in near future. They need the skills and techniques to be able to deal with the current work environment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> get your testosterone levels checked.

often problems that manifest themselves between human beings have an underlying physical cause. take up a character building sport like BJJ where it is difficult to cheat. this acclimates you to physical closeness and the human touch (non-sexual intimacy, fellowship, brotherhood), strength and dominance (power, abuse, corruption), technique and body mechanics (spatial awareness, developing creativity), practice and repetition (dedication, art), competition and individual effort (confidence, respect), teamwork and collaboration (being human). sports teach children how to navigate and are used to develop the mind and strengthen the body for life. they are miniature wars with battles, leaders, and self discovery. if you did play sports as a child maybe revisit that time and try to understand if something was getting in the way of your learning.

expecting the world to change for you while remaining adamant about not changing yourself is exactly where species meets extinction.

<comment><USER50> I agree with the adoption of a sport. If BJJ is not quite up your alley may I suggest running? 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon... which ever you can see yourself enjoying most. I've tried running, BJJ (blue belt), crossfit (injured myself), softball, flag football, and soccer and I alway come home to racing. There is nothing quite like it. When I, as a man in my mid 30's am racing down the last 100 meters against a 65 year old I can't help but think they have found the fountain of youth. The confidence, friendships, and experiences races build are things you can treasure forever. The only drawback I have found is the emaciated look that serious runners develop after prolonged training (months to years). It does sound vain but in reality that is what has kept me from pursuing it even more competitively. I'd love to hear the thoughts of other runners out there, is this an issue you struggle with?

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Introverts? This guy is talking about autism isn't he?

<comment><USER52> People lacking social skills/abilities be it through autism or any other reason took "introvert" long ago.

As someone drained by social situations who needs alone time to recharge - <USER2> who successfully works in sales and has no trouble working a room, hitting on women, dealing with hostile confrontation, etc - I wouldn't use the word to describe myself.

It's socialisings "curvy".

<comment><USER53> 100% agree. I dislike the label. It changes how people perceive you.

<comment><USER54> Why? I'm proud of being an introvert. It's a source of strength. Most of my best ideas come from solitude.

I think this is a case of haters gonna hate.

The defining characteristic of an introvert is that you feel drained being in a social situation. Extroverts feed off the energy of a crowd.

<comment><USER52> You can be proud of the term as per your understanding of it, but if you use it as a description of yourself then you're relying on people sharing that understanding. From my experience that's often not the case.

<comment><USER54> If it's who you are, there's no way to change it. Why go through life being ashamed or treating it with a cold distance?

pg's "Keep your identity small" comes to mind. But when it's a description of your mental status, it seems less like a label you choose and more like a label that chooses you.

In particular, it's different from wanting a smaller belly or bigger muscles or more money. All of those things are mutable. But being an introvert seems like a fundamental fact of your existence that's unlikely to change. In that context, isn't it better to wear it on your sleeve?

It's hard, certainly. But that's where a sense of community can help.

<comment><USER52> I am tall. If I visited a hypothetical land where they spoke English with the exception that the word "tall" now means "a rapist" I would avoid using the word. Not because of any height related shame but because I don't want anyone thinking I'm a rapist.

<comment><USER54> I respect that, but... I don't know. It's been a mistake in the past to let other peoples' perceptions define who I am. I was just hoping to convince you it's not worth it.

As a closing point, it wasn't until minorities started being proud of their labels that they made significant progress toward equality and justice. There's no reason to tolerate society's perceptions when they're unfair.

<comment><USER55> To phrase what he's saying in another way, you would not refer to yourself as something when it does not accurately represent what you are. And the meanings of various qualifiers changes over time. This has nothing to do with perception beyond the point of a shared understanding of the meaning of words.

"Label pride" played little role in the success of the vast majority of success of minority groups over time in the US. At one time Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Irish, Catholics, Italians, Jews, and countless other groups faced hardships and issues in our, sometimes not so melty, melting pot. They invariably overcame by actions, not words. Their degree of success can be shown by considering the fact that when you refer to "minorities" you're mostly not referring to these groups even though they are even smaller groups than those you do implicitly refer to with the word. Again with the meanings of the words!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Facebook Can Fight the Hate - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-25/how-facebook-can-fight-the-hate <comment><USER3> The Guardian recently published leaked training documents for Facebook moderators. The instructions quoted in the Guardian article depict very minimal moderation. For example:

 _\- Remarks such as "Someone shoot Trump" should be deleted, because as a head of state he is in a protected category. But it can be permissible to say: "To snap a bitch's neck, make sure to apply all your pressure to the middle of her throat", or "fuck off and die" because they are not regarded as credible threats.

\- Videos of violent deaths, while marked as disturbing, do not always have to be deleted because they can help create awareness of issues such as mental illness.

\- Some photos of non-sexual physical abuse and bullying of children do not have to be deleted or "actioned" unless there is a sadistic or celebratory element.

\- Photos of animal abuse can be shared, with only extremely upsetting imagery to be marked as "disturbing"._

[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/21/revealed- facebo...](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/21/revealed-facebook- internal-rulebook-sex-terrorism-violence)

</comment><comment><USER3> > "We review over 100 million pieces of content every month," Facebook Chief > Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his page on Feb. 16. "Even if our > reviewers get 99% of the calls right, that's still millions of errors over > time."

On one hand, that's a good point. On the other, that's the response of many people to things they are pressured to do. If it's something they really care about - e.g., a big new market or a trend-setting tech - then the response is that they can 'innovate', 'disrupt', change the world, and they'll tell you to ignore the naysayers who talk like Zuckerberg did above.

</comment><comment><USER4> How do people feel about a Zuckerberg presidency? As president, is Zuckerberg going to "fight the hate" in America? Is Bloomberg asking Zuckerberg to outline such an agenda?

> During a daylong brainstorming session, the group came up with a meme that > subtly mocks people who blame minorities for the mundane frustrations of > daily life, such as packed subway cars.

It seems that Bloomberg approves of hate speech in the form of mockery when it is directed at "people who blame minorities". It sounds like Bloomberg wants Zuckerberg to channel hate speech, not stamp it out.

What do you think? Is Zuckerberg going to take action against Baldauf for launching a hate campaign?

I doubt it.

Mockery is clearly a form of hatred, and Bloomberg wants Zuckerberg to permit this form of hatred while _claiming_ to advocate a policy of retaliation against hate speech.

This is very misleading.

> Their mission was to come up with a social media campaign that might make > Germans less susceptible to the wave of fake news and right-wing propaganda > scapegoating Europe's growing population of immigrants and refugees.

It appears that this is little more than an attempt to subvert German nationalism and German ethnic identity.

> you can hate people as long as you hate people I hate

Is it any wonder that two - Bloomberg and Zuckerberg - find common cause in directing hatred toward ethnic Germans?

Can you think of any reason why this might be?

Well I can: the holocaust. I think these two want to create a culture of hatred directed at ethnic Germans, all while _claiming_ to be against hatred in principle.

What do you think? Is this kind of misrepresentation acceptable? Or do you find it as repugnant as I do?

<comment><USER3> I wish HN would ban comments like the parent. It's such an old tactic for spreading hate, I don't need to describe it. It adds nothing to HN - <USER2> pseudo-rational is just old propaganda - and is in fact a great detriment. I can speak only for myself, but please take your hate elsewhere.

<comment><USER4> Out of curiosity, do you believe mockery is a form of hatred?</comment></comment></comment>


Bitcoins have surged 40% in just the last 48 hours. - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoins-surged-40-in-48-hours-2013-3?0=moneygame

<comment><USER2> do people reckon they are going to keep rising?</comment>


13 things you should give up if you want to be successful - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/30/13-things-you-should-give-up-if-you-want-to-be-successful.html <comment><USER2> Give up listicles.</comment>