Ask HN: What will you do when you're 40 and still unsuccessful? - <AUTHOR> It was my second visit to the doctor this year due to stress-related illness (skin allergy before now ulcer)
I turned 31 this year and I have been thinking what will I do when I turn 40 and my business is still nowhere? What would I do when my body is not capable of the intense working hours of a startup?
I'll just probably go on trying but not at this rate anymore. I have been working 12hrs/day for the past 4 years. When I'm 40 i'll just probably work for 5hrs/day.
What would be yours? <comment><USER2> Speaking as a 45-year-old - your body will be just as capable 15 years from now. But I would hope that over the course of those 15 years you'd learn that if you've been working 12 hours a day for four years and haven't gotten done what you want to do, you're doing it wrong. (Sorry if that sounds too harsh.) At the risk of going cliché, sometimes you really do have to work smarter, not harder. Analyze what those 12 hours are, and eliminate or delegate whatever you can. And get some sleep.

Now excuse me, I have about 15 hours of work ahead of me today, so do as I say, not as I do.

</comment><comment><USER3> How about you try doing just the most important 11 hours and letting the last one slide? Repeat until your life is livable.

Take it from a Japanese salaryman: overwork is a disease, akin to alcoholism in its destructive potential, and people extolling it do not have your best interests at heart.

<comment><AUTHOR> I know the consequences. It's just that I don't want to get old without knowing the limits of my potential.

<comment><USER4> I'm reminded of the old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon in which Calvin asks his dad how they decide what number to put on those "Weight Limit" signs on bridges.

His dad tells him that they drive heavier and heavier trucks across each bridge until it falls down. Then they weigh the last truck and rebuild the bridge.

Perhaps you, unlike these imaginary bridge engineers, should settle for a well-informed _estimate_ of the limits of your potential, with a generous margin of safety. It sounds like your health is giving you a lot of hints about where the margin of safety might lie.

<comment><USER5> I'm definitely going to quote you on that :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You're about the age I was when I broke-down (physically and mentally) from working the same way. I moved to an island and bought a boat (on credit. I never did get rich). Now I work about 4-6 hours per day on contracts that only barely pay the bills, and spend the rest of the time sailing and fishing with my new family. I'm having the time of my life and producing better work than ever. "The limits of my potential" doesn't always mean what you think it does.

<comment><USER7> Can't tell you how good it made me feel to read this comment.

<comment><USER8> I'm glad OP posted this. I'm actually a bit surprised this sentiment hasn't been expressed more often, but I guess it's part of the bubble a lot of Valley entrepeneurs live in. I am just a 25-year old guy working as a regular employee in a small consulting company with flexible hours and freedom to take unpaid leave pretty much whenever I feel like it, but I have some pretty strong opinions on parts of the startup culture.

To be frank, it seems like a lot of startup employees suffer from OCD (literally). Working really long hours and improving the product, changing the world etc. is what it's always about. Lots of people seem to lose sight of the ultimate goal in life, which is being happy. Or maybe they didn't have a goal in the first place, and working really hard is a substitute for something else which is missing in their lives.

Unhealthily hard work is a good idea _for a period of time_, if it _seems as if it's working_, as a means to an end: Making a lot of money in a few years instead of throughout a lifetime, creating something of your own and leaving your mark on the world, reaching your true potential, etc. But if you're working 12 hours a day for _years_ with nothing to show for it, you are on the wrong track and should take a step back.

I realized this after experiencing burnout at 19, spending two years where I was capable of doing absolutely nothing traditionlly productive. Therefore, it's really surprising to me that a lot of supposedly older and wiser do this rat race for years, losing sight of the goal along the way.

Pushing really hard to achieve something great is a huge risk to your mental well-being, and this is something you should go into with both eyes open. It's better to make a tactical retreat if things seem too hard.

You can be perfectly happy not being a Steve Jobs. In fact, if it doesn't come naturally, you're almost guaranteed to be happier by being a little easier on yourself.

<comment><USER9> > I realized this after experiencing burnout at 19, spending two years where I > was capable of doing absolutely nothing traditionlly productive. Therefore, > it's really surprising to me that a lot of supposedly older and wiser do > this rat race for years, losing sight of the goal along the way.

This hit especially close to home for me. I'm 19 years old, in my second year of university, and looking to get into the industry within the next couple years. Even just finishing high school I was left with this emptiness: I had worked my ass off doing all kinds of crazy stuff--academic and otherwise--to get into a college of my choice, often getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night for weeks on end, only to start the whole thing over again right after I graduated.

I still work my ass off, deprive myself of sleep, overwork, etc, but I definitely see it all in the same context as you. It's short-term craziness for a benefit I want to see slightly down the road. And if it doesn't work out, I'm not going to force it. If you're not where you wanted to be at 35 by the time you're 40, maybe your plan wasn't the right one for you.

So yes, thank you for reminding me the point of all of this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> From the outside the answer is really obvious: if you're working for 12 hours a day and it isn't working then you're clearly working on the wrong things. Business is 90% about knowing what is important and what is a waste of your time. When you're working 12 hour days and your business isn't becoming insanely successful it's pretty obvious that most of the hours you work are wasted. Hours burned and sacrificed with nothing to show for it.

If you've been working on unsuccessful startups it's easy to get into a sort of rhythm where you keep doing the same things that didn't work in the past, but only with more vigor. It's complete and utter madness to try to brute- force your way to success. It _can_ work, of course, but the odds are stacked against you, and as a business person you should only play when the odds are highly in your favor.

My guess is that you've probably lost a bit of perspective if you've been punishing yourself like this for the past 4 years. Stop punishing yourself. You don't get rewarded for punishing yourself, and you shouldn't feel good (reward yourself) for working harder than is sustainable or harm your (mental) health. Reward yourself when you make good decisions, and punish yourself (if you have to) if you waste time on shit that doesn't matter. Because working on the wrong things will kill your startup, working 8 hour days does not.

</comment><comment><USER11> Just focus on doing what you love. I'm a FIRM believer in the notion that working on things you love will help you achieve greater success. If you're not waking up everyday excited to go to work...you need to switch careers.

If that notion scares you, frame it this way: 30 is young, you have 30 years to go before you even think of retirement! You have 3x more time ahead of you than you've worked to date...if you formed a career in the past 10 years, you could create 3 more careers before you're 60! (or one really really amazing one if you focus on what you love doing)

Doing what you love gives you the energy to work harder than your peers. Get up, switch into something that isn't killing you slowly.

</comment><comment><USER12> I know first hand how internalising stress can and will do damage to your immune system & general health.

For me it was money issues after graduating Uni. To be honest I didn't even know I was "stressed" but my health told me other wise. I had 3 years of serious illnesses that most people my age (early 20's) would never have had (pneumonia, severe tonsilitis, kidney issues) especially after having a relatively illness free child-hood.

The only thing that helped me to feel like I was making progress (and healthier long term) was working on fixing the problem at the root. Trying to step away from the frantic scrabbling around & viewing the problem from above.

When you're frantic over a situation you don't just stop being stressed as soon as you leave work. You may have been working 12 hour days but your body remains stressed out for all of it, even during sleep. Perhaps your body has had zero down-time over the last 4 years!

I think you would benefit from some analysis of your working day. What ARE you working so hard on? Where are the bottlenecks. What can you delegate or eliminate?

Spend a few days/weeks working ON your business (streamlining) instead of IN it.

Aim to achieve more with less.

Maybe you could even use the HN community to improve some aspect for you!

</comment><comment><USER13> Have you heard the proverb?:

If I had 8 hours to cut down a tree, I would spend 6 hours sharpening my axe.

Cheers from a 43 year old that is still "unsuccessful".

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm more than forty. I have a young family they get me up at 6:30, and I work full time, come home, do family stuff and then do another 4 hours on my project until later than 1 am almost every night.

The thing that keeps me going is actually not stressing about being successful. I've had plenty of good ideas turn up developed by other people (not connected in any way) and just said, "OK, they did good, move on".

No single business is so precious, that you have to die trying. For me the most important is to make sure that you can fight another day, because your _next_ task might just be the one...

</comment><comment><USER15> First, I would say take a break and get a little perspective.

What is the cause of your stress? Is it the work? Is it the lack of traction for your product or company? Is it cash flow? Is it physical exhaustion?

Assess the source of that stress and start figuring out why it stresses you out. Then do something about fixing the "being stressed out" part by changing your perspective on the problem.

Second, realize that number of hours work is not necessarily the best approach. Figure out if you are spending the time efficiently. Figure out what could be done by someone else. Compute the cost of doing some of those other tasks and if the task is non-essential to your business and the cost of the task is higher than what you would pay yourself on an hourly basis, then outsource the sucker.

Third, remember that YOU ARE NOT THE PRODUCT. The product is the product and it may need fixing but it's not you, as a person. Get that perspective and start looking at it as something that you put in customer hands, not something that you are. This should greatly alleviate the stress.

Now go on to 40 (and beyond) with those concepts in mind. It took me until a second stay in the hospital at age 39 to realize that I was doing it wrong. I had burned myself out a few times (12 hours? pfft... try 18!) and after a near-death experience, realized that I could do a better job by refocusing. My new company, as a result, is moving along nicely and I believe it will succeed but I also realize there will be bumps in the road along the way and those are part of the natural course of things when growing a business.

</comment><comment><USER16> There's a great article in the October 17th, 2011, issue of Fortune entitled "Collins on Chaos" that is an excerpt of the book "Great by Choice". It seems quite relevant to this discussion.

The authors compare the leadership at companies that consistently outperformed their competitors during good times and bad, with the leadership at the nominally-performing companies.

The outperforming leaders set a benchmark defining "consistent progress", e.g. profitable every year (Southwest Airlines), 20% growth per year (Stryker), etc. They then fought to achieve that benchmark even during the toughest years (perhaps obvious), but they also restrained themselves so as to not exceed (by much) their benchmark during the "boom" years. Even though it might seem counter-intuitive, these "restrained" companies performed better over the long run than those companies which grew quickly during the good times.

The point is perhaps that you might achieve more by both committing to, and limiting yourself to, some more reasonable number of hours per week.

</comment><comment><USER17> From someone who has actually been there and is getting close to 40, first define what success means to you.

I too burned myself out around when I was 30, got ulcers and Chrohns disease (still have it but it's manageable now), and kept on see-sawing between falling ill and working like crazy.

My experience is that too much stress makes the body susceptible to many ills, and is just not worth it.

What does success mean to you?

\- Is is accumulation of wealth ? \- Is it a social projection (people perceiving you as successful) ? \- Is it the satisfaction of having lived a positive, constructive and happy life ?

I cannot say for everyone, but I feel that wealth is important to a certain extent, but beyond a threshold it does not matter a whole lot. Same goes for social projection, but to an even lesser degree. On the other hand if you figure out what truly makes you happy, and what gifts you have, which you can use to lead a positive and constructive life, then success and happiness is in the fact that you are doing what you really want to do.

Just my 2 cents...

</comment><comment><USER18> Many a career has been started by folks well into their 50s and 60s... what you may lack in energy and agility then is made up by experience, insight, and skill. Try never thinking you have done the greatest thing you will ever do, that just cuts your opportunities short.

</comment><comment><USER19> Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull Founder) has been age 39 and washed up when he started out on a venture that would become RB.

I guess he might feel all kind of issues when he was 45. But I guess he was too busy to rally think how he didn't accomplish anything.

<comment><USER20> Without any Red Bull at the time, where did he find the energy to create Red Bull?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Maybe you're not defining "success" the right way. It's not just about the money.

<comment><USER22> Exactly. Barry Schwartz has taught us that the secret to happiness is low expectations :)

<comment><USER22> It might sound like a joke but it's a serious point. Please watch the TED talk for more information [http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...](http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Try to imagine what you're going to be thinking on your deathbed some day. If it's "I wish I had put in more 12 hour days", then keep it up. Otherwise, figure out what actually makes you happy - and do it.

</comment><comment><USER24> When I am 40, if I'm in no good spot to be running a business, my plan is simple:

Immigrate to Nicaragua, grow vegetables and herbs, and start a bakery. Live on American tourists' dollars and spend the rest of my life surrounded by happy people.

Of course, most people aren't so ready to pick up and leave. In that case, find something you love. If you truly love running a startup — REALLY — you'll get somewhere. Make sure it's your passion above everything else before declaring the limits of your potential, though.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" or so they say. As a mid-40's veteran of multiple startups, I say do what you have a passion to do. If that's fishing, live to fish and do what you want to support that passion. If it's whatever you're working on, then you're good.

In your case, perhaps your drive and your passion are not aligned at this time. Once that's fixed, life becomes much better.

</comment><comment><USER26> I've wanted more than anything to get a business going, live the startup life, and be my own boss. But I try to put it all in to perspective: I work to live, not live to work. For me, success is being able to provide for my family and enjoy the work that I do. YMMV.

<comment><USER27> Very well put and at the 'wrong' side of 40 years of age, your statement describes were I am at as well. I had not defined that for me as of yet and you just sped that process up. For that, I thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Note that most ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection, not stress (read up on the 2005 Nobel prize for medicine: <http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/nobe-m06.shtml>)

Edit: the point I was going for was not to blame stress on everything, which itself can be stressful. Sometimes, finding a simple cause to an otherwise stressful problem can lead to big reductions in stress levels (and thus, the other symptoms others have pointed out). The _most likely_ cause of an ulcer is a bacterial infection, not the _only_ cause.

<comment><USER29> Stress increases cortisol levels which increases infections (when elevated for long periods of time).

"Chronic subtle hypercortisolism" is one term for the bevy of effects longterm stress can cause.,

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> maybe the 4hour work week (tim ferris) is the right thing for you. (i'm not related to him, nor get provisions :)

working harder and longer does not necessarily make you achieve more. try to stop investing time in actions that make you very little money or have very little benefits for you. focus on the top customers.

maybe you can start by evaluating what consumes so much of your time.

hope that helps a bit, martin

</comment><comment><USER31> "You pick up your GD leg and keep running..." that is what you do. (reference to a great ted video with Aimee Mullins)

</comment><comment><USER32> Two words "Colonel Sanders". Look him up if the name doesn't get to you. See when he figured out success.

<comment><USER33> Not bad: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Sanders>

Also makes me think of: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Moses>

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> How can stress induce a skin allergy?

<comment><USER35> Stress increases cortisol levels. Cortisol levels influence immune response. Allergies are an immune response.

<comment><USER34> Thanks for the response - also to the other commentors, it`s not like I have not heard that stress induces other problems-diseases, it is just that it is something that I find very hard to prove that an illness can be directly attributed to stress, considering that many of us have stress in our daily lives.

<comment><USER35> That usually requires a bit of experience - if your allergies go away when you take a few days off work then they're either stress related or there's something in your office that triggers them...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Why not work 5/day now?

I find I do more in 3 30 hour weeks than I do in 3 60 hour weeks.

</comment><comment><USER36> success is doing what you love, unless its partying in ibiza with the most expensive sluts, you can be succesful right now.

<comment><USER20> Prostitutes are expensive. Sluts are free spirited.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Find something you enjoy doing (love), and do it. Take a step back and asses - Do you really really love working 12 hours a day? If not, then stop doing it.

If you're working 12 hours a day in the hope that some day it'll all pay off and you'll _then_ be able to do things you love, then that's utter bullshit and you're probably deluding yourself.

Find things you love doing, and do them. Now.</comment>


American Nobel Prize winner stopped and questioned by the TSA over prize - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2788931/who-gave-king-sweden-awkward-questions-nobel-prize-winners-face-try-award-airport-security.html

<comment><USER2> I have always found it hard to believe anything published by the Daily Mail, being the pseudo-scientific site they are. Besides, I think even The Onion seems to be doing better journalism than they even bother to do.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Physicians?" Really, Daily Mail?

<comment> T-A "a finding that has transformed our understanding of the solar system" is even better. And let's not forget that he's a "revered physicist" either.</comment></comment>


DIY: build iPad3 clone from start to finish (video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPv-h51VR1E

<comment><USER2> How can one build a clone of something that doesn't yet exist?</comment>


Don't wait for the check: TabbedOut raises $2.05M - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/04/tabbedout-funding/

<comment><USER2> Are companies offering capital for 'mobile payments' apps and ideas? Is that their biggest interest here?</comment>


The Culture of Childhood: We've Almost Destroyed It - <AUTHOR> https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201610/the-culture-childhood-we-ve-almost-destroyed-it <comment><USER2> > Children are biologically designed to grow up in a culture of childhood.

By whom? I see nothing in the bible about it. I've not read the Quran or many other religious texts, so maybe thats what the author refers to?</comment>


Ask HN: Fake Traffic Generator - <AUTHOR> I have become slightly obsessed with the bloomberg article, http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-click-fraud/
Can anyone point me to some php scripts / git / gist or pastebin that generates this traffic. I just built one in php,  I'm getting the session cookie and the page downloaded, but not sure if it's counting as a hit?
I really should be working on other things, but creating a 100 twitbot army is what got me into programming in the first place. <comment><USER2> There's a few options with regards to benchmarking your server install, here's a good intro article[1] I found for this.

To follow up with 0x400614's answer, you'll want to look at `ab` - ApacheBench.

[1] [https://www.garron.me/en/go2linux/how-benchmark-stress- your-...](https://www.garron.me/en/go2linux/how-benchmark-stress-your-apache- nginx-or-iis-server.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> have you heard of `ab`

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm afraid not.

<comment><USER4> This may be more helpful. AB is apache benchmark - you can read about it here:

[http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/programs/ab.html](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/programs/ab.html)

Tutorial to use it here: [https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to- use-...](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use- apachebench-to-do-load-testing-on-an-ubuntu-13-10-vps)

Do not use this on a shared server.</comment></comment></comment>


California state legislature approves Location Privacy Act - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/california-state-legislature-approves-location-privacy-act/ <comment><USER2> This is really awesome. Usually too busy to keep up on state politics, but I'm going to call Jerry Brown's office later and ask him to please not veto this.

Having the police force be able to track your every move for any purpose on a whim is by anyone's definition a panopticon. Many people voluntarily allow this type of access to their friends, but it's a different game when you have no choice but to inform the state of your location 24/7. What are you going to do- throw away your phone?

I really hope that Jerry Brown doesn't kill this.

<comment><USER3> Is there any past behavior that would allow us to guess if it is likely that he does veto this or not? What have his past actions told us?</comment></comment>


The "phantom reference": How a made-up article got almost 400 citations (2017) - <AUTHOR> http://retractionwatch.com/2017/11/14/phantom-reference-made-article-got-almost-400-citations/ <comment><USER2> From Rota's _Ten Lessons I wish I had been Taught_ :

"8\. Give lavish acknowledgments

I have always felt miffed after reading a paper in which I felt I was not being given proper credit, and it is safe to conjecture that the same happens to everyone else. One day, I tried an experiment. After writing a rather long paper, I began to draft a thorough bibliography. On the spur of the moment, I decided to cite a few papers which had nothing whatsoever to do with the content of my paper, to see what might happen.

Somewhat to my surprise, I received letters from two of the authors whose papers I believed were irrelevant to my article. Both letters were written in an emotionally charged tone. Each of the authors warmly congratulated me for being the first to acknowledge their contribution to the field."

[http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~cahn/life/gian-carlo- rota-10-le...](http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~cahn/life/gian-carlo- rota-10-lessons.html)

<comment><USER3> The flip side of this - helping with some stuff that the authors weren't well versed in and then getting acknowledged for some really trivial work. I've liked it but it didn't deserve any credit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > It was a "phantom reference" that had been created merely to illustrate > Elsevier's desired reference format.

I think that explains a lot. Some authors cut and paste the reference into their document to have an example, and then forget to remove it before they submit the paper. Then the reviewers don't notice or do not remark it in their review report, and it get published.

I did a very similar error myself when I was including the price of a book I cited as part of its title, and this passed through review without notice. This paper was part of my doctoral dissertation, and while none of the opponents made a remark, the institute leader that otherwise was in a completely different field and probably read only the citations did notice. During the "questions from the audience" session, he asked why I did that, which caused a bit of amusement.

<comment><USER5> There should be a distinct difference then between whether the paper is only referenced in the bibliography, or whether it is also cited.

I wonder how many of the papers actually cite the article? An article that is only referenced is pretty meaningless. Like a function that is implemented but never called. Or should be. Perhaps the problem is the way indexers assume references equal citations.

To continue yesterday's interesting discussion of Latex, references should not appear unless they are cited. I used to use a huge master bibliography for everything, and assumed that Bib/Latex would sort out the things I actually cited.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ok, so I write "The art of writing a scientific article." and change my name to Van der Geer. Publishing it eight years ago may take some faking but 400 citations out of the box.

Now: _that's_ karma whoring ...

</comment><comment><USER7> I once proposed a conference paper and had to withdraw it. Nonetheless, a citation shows up in Google Scholar, and researchgate keeps asking me to confirm authorship. I can't figure out how to get them to stop.

Edit: I just checked, and my nonexistant paper now has two citations, according to Google Scholar!

<comment><USER8> Assuming someone got ahold of a preprint, it could be appropriate to cite it even if the paper was withdrawn, right?

<comment><USER7> There was no preprint -- it didn't get that far! I'd only submitted an abstract. The citations are based on that alone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Title is a bit clickbaity... From the article:

> "most citations to the phantom reference occurred in fairly low-quality > conference papers," and were written by authors with poor English.

</comment><comment><USER10> Something similar happens quite a bit with news reporting. Someone references a non existent story online, then a whole bunch of journalists and media outlets assume it's real based on the 'source' link/text.

Saw it with a story about a game Niantic Labs was supposedly working on, all based on a non existent IGN story that linked to an error page.

But it's depressing to see something like this happen with journals and what not. Would have thought these academics would be a bit better at checking their sources than this.

<comment><USER11> I swear I've gotten stuck in reference loops online before. A cites B who cites C who cites A again. Not sure how it could happen.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, that's definitely a thing. It's especially common with wikis like Wikipedia, where the wiki article ends up being quoted in the press, which then end up as references for the wiki article etc:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reporting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reporting)

Edit: Wikipedia also calls it 'citogenesis':

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_citogenesis_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_citogenesis_incidents)

<comment><USER11> Ooooh nice find! Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> There was a fascinating Defcon 26 talk on "predatory publishing" which may explain how this kind of thing happens:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ras_VYgA77Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ras_VYgA77Q)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_open- access_publishi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_open- access_publishing)

<comment><USER13> From the article, "It was a "phantom reference" that had been created merely to illustrate Elsevier's desired reference format." and "nearly 90% of the citations were for conference proceedings papers, and nearly two-thirds of these appeared in Procedia conference volumes, which are published by Elsevier."

Thus, it is unlikely to be due to predatory publishing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Was taking forever to load for me. In case others are having trouble, here's a cached version: [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fZ-W5g...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fZ-W5ghSNWcJ:https://retractionwatch.com/2017/11/14/phantom- reference-made-article-got-almost-400-citations/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

</comment><comment><USER15> Journals don't use tools that check citation validity?

<comment><USER16> That's not a nice word for reviewers!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Fake publications get cited in fake journals. Nothing to see here. Stop the needless science bashing. Every scientist here knows how much fake journal spam we get in our emails every day. It is an industry. That industry is not science. It is spam. And frankly, people read this kinf od headline, think science is fake, corrupt, and stupid and get in their SUVs and let the world turn into an oven. OK I am ranting.

<comment><USER13> Procedia isn't a fake journal. There is no science bashing in the linked-to article. This isn't about fake journal spam. It's about people who accidentally leave an example citation in their citation list.</comment></comment>


One time at D&D camp…  - <AUTHOR> http://rpg.brouhaha.us/?p=925 <comment><USER2> cache: [http://22.214.171.124/search?q=cache:http://rpg.brouhaha.us/...](http://188.8.131.52/search?q=cache:http://rpg.brouhaha.us/%3Fp%3D925&hl=en&strip=1)

</comment><comment><USER3> Man I would have loved that camp.. :)

</comment><comment><USER4> Growing up, I was always sad that my parents signed me up for sports camps but never for Magic: The Gathering camp.</comment>


Apparently the i tag is appropriate for ship names - <AUTHOR> http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_i.asp

<comment><USER2> Please notice [http://www.w3fools.com/](http://www.w3fools.com/).

</comment><comment><USER3> <i>Kobayashi Maru</i></comment>


Go where the filters are - <AUTHOR> http://sivers.org/get-filtered <comment><USER2> This is rubbish. As Charlie Brooker stated, if you can do the idea yourself DO. Put it on Youtube, make them come to you.

As soon as you go to them they will be changing your idea, suggesting you wear a cowboy hat and you wont have a strong bargaining position to resist.

<comment><USER3> I agree it's mostly rubbish now. I wrote that article in 2001, when "The Wisdom of Crowds" was not really in effect online yet.

Still, in many places in the music industry, an artist is taken much more seriously when they are represented by a company (whether label, agency, manager, etc) - that communicates that the artist is not just one of the 2 million amateurs on MySpace.

That subtle difference in perception and image actually changes how people listen.

Read this great Brian Eno quote about that: <http://musicthoughts.com/t/112>

<comment><USER4> The article is misdated, as "2007-08-18"

The general principle still seems relevant, of relishing obstacles and difficulties because they discourage the competition. Although we don't have "yes/no" filters today, don't influencers have a role - like what youtube highlights etc? Or do these have relatively little effect, compared to the spontaneous, organic, emergent, collective choices of crowds?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This works until the filter is one who wants to maximize profits by minimizing risk. You see this in every field where there are filters:

1> Music 2> Movies 3> Publishing industry 4> Venture Capital 5> Newspapers ...

But I think there is a glimmer of hope on the internet. There are millions of blogs but the best still surface and build a large audience. There are infinite number of videos on youtube but still the best still gets 100 million views. The common element here is social media. As twitter and facebook gain popularity, general public will decide winners and not a media executive.</comment>


Pittsburgh thrives after casting steel aside. A lesson for other industrial cities? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/business/economy/08collapse.html?hp=&pagewanted=all <comment><USER2> The NYTimes really likes Pittsburgh.</comment>


Russian spy: Sergei Skripal collapsed alongside daughter - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43297638 <comment><USER2> The first reports in the Gaurdian - yesterday - indicated the substance was Fentanyl.

[https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/05/salisbury- ho...](https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/05/salisbury-hospital- police-fire-crews-attend-major-incident)

Salisbury city centre was in lock down for a while. Pizza restaurant still closed.

</comment><comment><USER3> No forgive and forget, got to admit it's a powerful deterrent. Betray us and you're dead.</comment>


Sitting, Standing, or Lay-Down Desk? - <AUTHOR>

I have just moved into a new place. The ceilings are pure white, I have a sleeping pad for a mattress, and am tempted to setup a "lay down desk" of sorts.
I picture myself laying down on the mattress, with my desktop projected onto the ceiling above me, a mouse sitting on the ground, and a wireless keyboard on my lap.
Would this be "better for you" than sitting down at a desk, do you think? How about compared to a standing desk? <comment><USER2> I think you'd probably just wind up with bedsores.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was thinking that might be a possibility as well.

If I made a point to get up from work every hour, could that prevent them? And ultimately, would this be better than a standing desk in any way?

If not, looks like I will be building a standing desk.</comment></comment>


MIT makes chip breakthrough that will allow for tunneling-transistor processors - <AUTHOR> http://www.thelatestnews.com/getting-skinny-new-ultra-thing-computing-materials/ <comment><AUTHOR> "The new fabrication method could open the door to more powerful computing if it can be used to produce tunneling-transistor processors. Fundamentally, a transistor is a device that can be modulated to either allow a charge to cross a barrier or prohibit it from crossing. In a tunneling transistor, the charge crosses the barrier by means of a counterintuitive quantum-mechanical effect, in which an electron can be thought of as disappearing at one location and reappearing at another.

These effects are subtle, so they're more pronounced at extremely small scales, like the one- to three-atom thicknesses of the layers in the researchers' experimental chip. And, because electron tunneling is immune to the thermal phenomena that limit the efficiency of conventional transistors, tunneling transistors can operate at very low power and could achieve much higher speeds."

Read more at:

[http://phys.org/news/2016-01-depositing-materials-chip- layer...](http://phys.org/news/2016-01-depositing-materials-chip-layer- efficient.html#jCp)

So it may enable decreasing the epower consumption of processors by maybe 100-1000(from another source). this could really help with 2 things:

In today's processors , we're really limits by heat , so we slow things down, leave a large part of the chip off, etc. Also the transistors themselves are faster.

Currently we cannot build 3D circuits , which may offer a way to continue moore's law for a few years , because of heat."

Taken from laclean on reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/438jm6/mit_make...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/438jm6/mit_makes_chip_breakthrough_which_will_lead_to/czgbypd)</comment>


Making Dart a Better Language for UI - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/dartlang/making-dart-a-better-language-for-ui-f1ccaf9f546c <comment><USER2> _" We're a lot closer to the nasty low-level imperative code that drives people to using templates. When we looked at real Flutter code, we were sad to see a lot that looked like this. So, about a year ago, the Flutter team asked us on Dart to come up with language changes to make UI code written in Dart easier to write, read, and maintain."_

Nothing about this code snippet is "nasty" or "low-level". It is trivially easy to write and understand. It is fully maintainable due to its simplicity and clarity.

It's sad to see that developers think this is somehow bad code. It probably takes a lot of experience to understand _why_ it is totally fine.

Too many developers are lost trading added complexity for aesthetics. One more way to write the same thing. One more thing that will be inconsistent across the codebase. One more thing to learn how to read. It all adds up. All the tooling has to be updated to support this stuff. How will it look and feel in the debugger? (Does Dart even have proper debugger support?)

In the end, all you get is the _looks_ of being declarative while having none of the benefits of being declarative.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Nasty" may be an exaggeration, but readability improvements do matter.

Yes, Dart has a debugger, not to mention "hot reload" that's a big selling point for Flutter. The Dart team maintains their own tools and is well aware of the cost of maintaining and improving them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The way list comprehensions are a logical consequence of the new features rather than an intended feature themselves is very satisfying, and speaks to the general and composable nature of the new features. This was an exciting read!</comment>


The 8bit democracy - <AUTHOR>

You don't need to be a great artist to make a 16x16 pixel art drawing, this is the 8bit democracy.<p>You can find a proof of concept at Draw! latest drawings gallery. <comment><AUTHOR> Gallery: <http://drawbang.com></comment>


A Boy and His Atom: Smallest Stop-Motion Film [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0 <comment><USER2> You can find another movie of actual atoms taken by me at my website.

[https://avsteele.com/index.html#science](https://avsteele.com/index.html#science) (scroll down a little)

Each dot is fluorescence from a single trapped barium ion. Excitation/fluorescence is at 493 nm, so the false-color map in the video is almost realistic.

More details are in the figure caption.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is one of my favorite SPM videos.

My company makes an Scanning Probe Microscope (more commonly known as an AFM) which goes into a Zeiss Scanning Electron Microscope. You can unlock some really neat applications with the combination - scanning areas which would be hard to locate, observing the tip interaction with the sample and using the Focused Ion Beam to remove material from the sample.

With SPM, you can do a variety of measurements - measure the topology, measure the electrical properties, surface potential, conductivity, etc.

Here's a neat video of the system in action:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrsoS5e39H8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrsoS5e39H8)

</comment><comment><USER4> The video explaining how this is done is also very interesting: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA)

<comment><USER5> The informative part is 2:57–3:23.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA&t=2m57s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA&t=2m57s)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> One thing that I don't quite get. If a single atom is the smallest thing (other than quantum foam etc), then what is it resting on in this movie. IE what is the background made of?

<comment><USER7> The background is a copper plate.

 _" Copper plate: The scientists used copper 111 as the surface of the animation — the same material they used 10 years ago when they built the first computer that performed digital computation operations. Carbon monoxide (CO): ok The scientists chose carbon monoxide molecules to move around the plate. Carbon monoxide has one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, stacked on top of each other."_

[http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/madewithatoms.shtml#fbi...](http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/madewithatoms.shtml#fbid=87N25qtYtKA)

I assume focus / depth of field is why the surface looks smooth. Or whatever the equivalent of that is for a scanning/tunnelling microscope.

<comment><USER8> One thing I don't understand with that quote: it seems to imply this video was made only ten years after "first computer that performed digital computation operations". Is this a typo in the original or are they referring to something else?

<comment><USER7> Probably something like logic gates assembled by moving atoms around?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Pedantically speaking, most movies are made by filming actual atoms.

<comment><USER10> In that case, all data storage is already atomic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is interesting, but it was also posted to Youtube in 2013. Could we get an updated title with that information?

</comment><comment><USER12> Could you build a super advanced processor with this SPM technology? Has this been done already by anyone?

</comment><comment><USER13> How many other tech companies fund fundamental research like this? Has it come down to just IBM?

</comment><comment><USER14> What exactly are the fields appearing around each atom?

<comment><USER15> They are part of the atom - the electron cloud around the nucleus. [https://phys.org/news/2015-10-electron-orbitals- molecules-d....](https://phys.org/news/2015-10-electron-orbitals- molecules-d.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Reminds me of Dancing Demon for the TRS-80

</comment><comment><USER17> What kind of atoms are they?

<comment><USER18> They're molecules of carbon monoxide, according to the making-of clip.</comment></comment>


Facebook changes its news feed, yet again - <AUTHOR> https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/04/news-feed-fyi-balancing-content-from-friends-and-pages/

<comment><USER2> " In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline." \- It seems to me like Facebook tries to make companies pump more and more money in ads by decreasing the reach a page can have.</comment>


"When you get right down to it, most security is based on the honor system." - <AUTHOR> http://fjhqjv.tumblr.com/post/13394731443/ill-create-a-gui-interface-in-visual-basic

<comment><USER2> Far more than security. Most of society is built on the honor system.

In half-full bar at an hour when there isn't a bouncer (usually before 9pm in NYC), the only thing keeping twenty or thirty people from pouring their own booze for free is a large slab of wood and a person behind it. The name tags and maybe a counter do the same thing at a retail store with one or two checkout people.

Society is almost entirely built on a simple trust system and the fear we've built into ourselves of the repercussions for going against societal norms.

<comment><USER3> I would hope that it's also a mutual respect for others work as well. I don't refrain from theft because I might get caught but because society functions because of a mutual respect for their work.

This is partly why we have such a business problem in finance and the media, both severely lack mutual respect between parties.

<comment><USER4> Mutual respect is merely a social norm, and a desire not to break "mutual respect" is a reflection of the natural human pressure to avoid breaking social norms.

<comment><USER5> You're conflating social construct with social norm.

You can make claims about why _you_ express mutual respect, that doesn't make it the _only_ reason why someone might do so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> at first i thought this was just the standard party line. but then i got to the part that describes how i develop over-complex systems just so that i can charge more, and i realised just how deep the insight was.

then an amazing hn-libertarian-market-forces thought hit me: why not have a _market_ for software, where people have to _pay_ for it? and then _competition_ would push the people that make over-complex software out of business.

of course, if that happened, then the world described in the article would be replaced by a different one: one where no-one wants to spend money on things that don't immediately show a profit. like security. but that would be a different article...

<comment><USER7> Exactly. The article was quite interesting up until the introduction of the trojan kitten that systems are only overly complex because the people who build them need to justify spending 40 hours a week in a cubicle to build them.

Systems are complex because the world is complex. If it could be done simpler, faster and more secure, it would be done simpler, faster and more secure.

<comment><USER8> >If it could be done simpler, faster and more secure, it would be done simpler, faster and more secure.

With imperfect information, an optimal market cannot exist, security and complexity is one of those things that is very hard to assess before, and even after a purchase.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_for_lemons>

I think purely from personal experience, what you are saying is absolutely untrue.

<comment><USER7> Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> No network of any reasonable size/complexity can keep out a focused attacker. If you think yours can, you are wrong.

Today's threat models are dominated by the criminal, opportunistic attackers looking for user information or computing power. Real discussion and countermeasures for focused attacks are severely lacking.

Governments know this. CISOs know this. They speak of it privately to each other, but rarely in public because the issues are so sensitive. Messaging from industry is dominated by the vendors who both have significant equities in the "we're secure!" message and speak very narrowly about the security of their applications, but rarely/never about the collection of those applications into these beasts we call networks.

Posts like this are becoming more commonplace, but neither industry nor academia are making tangible strides to solutions. If you want a startup idea, focus on security and go disrupt.

<comment><USER10> Good luck with that. Security is lousy with product startups.

The opportunities for technical disruption are clearly there.

But no sector outside Business Process Software like SAS and Oracle has so much built-up institutional knowledge of how to run direct sales and marketing to enterprise customers as security. The crappiest me-too products are weaponized for enterprise sales 6 months before they're launched.

It's hard to break through the noise.

<comment><USER9> The noise is incredibly annoying. There's no industry-accepted way to distinguish between a security expert and the guy with the A+ cert. We really need to raise the bar and instuitionalize better standards.

Your points re: difficulty of enterprise sales are hard-learned, I assume. My intuition says there's an opportunity to exploit there, given the disconnect between users and industry. Of course, the same is true of cell providers, but no one has managed that one yet either.

<comment><USER10> The one disruptive approach I've seen work over the last 10 years is open source.

There are early adopters and there are influencers. But in enterprise sales, they're rarely the same people.

Among 2000 billion dollar enterprises, there are perhaps 20-30 with strong security teams with the bandwidth to truly engage with new technology (as opposed to simply running a bakeoff and deploying a product in a category that a trade press magazine says is important). Those are influencer early adopters.

Open source allows you to release something early and maybe catch the attention of those influencer early adopters. A scrappy sales team that can take a meeting with a new customer and put a couple F-500 deployments on the logo slide because they've got Github followers has a shot at getting pilot deployments.

Open source is also "free", in the sense that enterprises can't not spend money on software; deployment decisions follow purchasing decisions, not the other way around, so the drumbeat of technology at an enterprise is purchase orders. Try hard to give your software away at an enterprise; nothing will happen until you give them a way to pay you money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That's an unrealistically elaborate hack. Try "someone showed up in an orange overall and carted it off".

(Also, people trying to pad their work exist, but are not the chief cause of software complexity.)

<comment><USER12> We don't need to pad our work. Two e-mails a day, updating the requirements document (sometimes in contradictory ways, sometimes in self-contradictory ways) is enough to turn a two-week CRUD app into a six-month application.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> It's not an honor system.

It's a system in which most participants have a vested interest in the system itself working with integrity as a whole, and a substantial downside cost of being caught.

While single-round shorting of a system is highly feasible in many systems, an iterative game (there is more than one round being played) means that cheaters have to contend with the possibility of detection and retaliation. This is what keeps many meatspace systems largely honest: it's a restricted domain, biological socialization tendencies work fairly effectively (even a large city can have a "small town" feel), and reputations matter.

In the online/digital space, complexity throws most of this to whack. Any public IP is exposed, largely equivalently, to any other public IP. Attacks are generally launched through compromised systems, and those systems themselves have little reputation risk (Joe/Jane Sixpack's WinXP box doesn't particularly care if it's considered "untrusted" by small segments of the Internet).

The complexity of systems being defended makes detection of attacks in realtime (and distinguishing these from self-inflicted damage) difficult. Most attacks, if detected at all, are detected well after the fact. The noise level of constant low-grade attacks has to be factored in (or more likely: ignored). And it may be a slight escalation of an otherwise largely benign attack that takes down a system -- too high a hit rate on an expensive query, resource exhaustion, cascade effects.

Complex attacks (like complex systems) are prone to failure. Your attacker is also most likely going to KISS -- unless she has a very specific and high- payoff interest in your systems (say, Stuxnet / Duqu).

The main difference between online and physical security systems is that honor and socialization systems _don't_ work nearly as effectively. There are measures which can help resolve this: while the Internet is vast, its infrastructure is highly concentrated among a small number of firms and entities: major routing centers, backbone links, registrars, hosting centers, and payment processors. Countering attackers at any of these points can be effective, though this usually comes with significant friendly casualties.

I'd call the premise of the article flawed, and I don't watch TV.

</comment><comment><USER14> I would watch his TV show.

<comment><USER15> Maybe we should have TV shows like this, I can't help but feel anything that gets the general public a bit more aware about how this stuff really works and makes them more suspicious about "bad" practices is a net win. Not to mention that if it had some pretty good writers it would make for quite compelling TV. I'm thinking something in the Crime genre, maybe like CSI?

Heck, I'd watch it! I might learn something =D...

<comment><USER9> It wouldn't be very interesting. Here's what real hacking looks like: <http://imgur.com/YAnUh>

(sorry for the reddit-esque share, originally there. But it's relevant and accurate)

<comment><USER15> It doesn't have to be like that though, your focusing on the parts that just wouldn't be interesting enough to get air time.

I was thinking about it more in terms of a show where a fake independent group get called in to deal with security situations. A corp getting hacked repeatedly and they have to deal with it. Being called in to audit security and finding illegal activities, etc.

If you sit and analyse real processes like the judicial system, or actual crime scene investigation or corporate law, or hospital systems. You rarely find things that make for immediately interesting and compelling television. However that hasn't stopped very successful tv shows being produced that are about these areas. Mostly because these shows focus on the people and issues than the system.

I'm only saying that it should be possible to create a entertaining tv program that does highlight the issues in this area. Greater public awareness here can't be a bad thing. :)

<comment><USER16> People find culture fascinating and any show which can present new cultures and institutions in an easily digestible fashion will be popular.

With the "easily digestible" part in in mind I would have to disagree that there is room for a show about software security, The IT crowd is about as close as you are going to get. Obviously I would love for a West Wing or The Wire-esque show in this area but we know how popular they turned out to be.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Her life stretched 3 centuries - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/24/nyregion/jean-macarthur-general-s-widow-dies-at-101.html <comment><USER2> Interesting that this obit from 2000 should turn-up on HN.

Recently read Manchester's brilliant biography on MacArthur, his wife was a prominent force in his life. Highly recommend it >[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20949.American_Caesar](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20949.American_Caesar)</comment>


Android 6.0.1 (CM13) on Microsoft Lumia 525 - <AUTHOR> http://forum.xda-developers.com/windows-phone-8/development/android-6-0-1-cm13-lumia-525-t3442630 <comment><USER2> Is this as a result of the golden key attack[1] from a few days ago?

[1] Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12259911](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12259911)

</comment><comment><USER3> LK boots Linux boots TWRP boots Android boots Display works Touchscreen works, but needs some calibration Virtual buttons (Back, Windows, Search) not works yet Sound not works yet Modem not works yet Wifi not works yet

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> youtube link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNlHMMWZm6U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNlHMMWZm6U)

</comment><comment><USER4> Isn't it the NOKIA Lumia 525?...

</comment><comment><USER5> At last, something useful I can do with my 520</comment>


An absurd number of jobs around the world are going unfilled - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/595653/how-and-where-an-absurd-number-of-jobs-around-the-world-are-going-unfilled/ <comment><USER2> I notice that not a single sentence was devoted to "perhaps the employers aren't offering appropriate compensation to attract suitable talent to the roles". If there's any of those employers reading this comment section, try doubling the salary offered and see if that doesn't spur a little action in filling your role.

<comment><USER3> Double the price‽ But my H1B visas let me get them for half the price!

I just have to pretend that there are not qualified Americans.

Unless there are, in which case I just make up outlandishly impossible job requirements.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What do you know, low wage low skill jobs that require huge amounts of physical labor are going unfilled? And would you look at that ... employers would rather import cheap H1-B labor for higher skill jobs than pay the wages that would fill all these positions.

As Fox News likes to say, if we take away social program people will have to take theses jobs or they'll starve to death. The "free market" will fix everything!</comment>


The Lives of Elevators (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/21/up-and-then-down

<comment><USER2> > Still, he now sees that it wasn't so much the elevator that changed him as > his reaction to it.

It's crazy how our interpretation of the events around us is even more potent than the event itself. Some people could have gone through this and it would have been a funny anecdote at office holiday parties, for others, complete life upheaval. (Not to diminish how terrible this must have been for Nick.)

But I'm reminded of this constantly now with a 5 month old baby. I'm exhausted. So much sleep deprivation. And the things that happen around me take a much different "color". I have to constantly keep asking: is this event occuring like I think it is, or is it simply my exhausted interpretation of it. And more often than not, it's the interpretation. When I finally get a nap in, things go back to looking just great.

</comment><comment><USER3> > _In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early > nineties, the door-close button doesn't work._

This sounds likely, but also sounds too cute to be true, i.e. a perfect candidate for an urban legend.

It's of course possible that this is the result of the manufacturers having to serve _some_ markets where a functioning door-close button is needed/wanted, and simply disable the button where customers do not want or need the functionality - i.e. a similar reason as the reason there are braille dots on the drive-through ATM.

<comment><USER4> In all seriousness, that's one of my favorite things about Japan: those buttons always work.

And the braille on the drive-through ATMs is for blind people in taxis.

<comment><USER5> I always thought the braille on drive-through ATMs was for scales of economy - it's easier and cheaper to have N molds than to have 2N molds (in this case N molds for "everything has the braille and 2N for the case where there is and is not braille).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This reminds me of an excellent talk on elevator hacking [0] given by Deviant Ollam and Howard Payne at [HOPE X] a little while ago.

It changed my entire view of elevators and if you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend you watch. it

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzrJjdZDRQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzrJjdZDRQ)

<comment><USER7> Long video but it was worth the watch thanks for sharing! I'd suggest others watch if they think they know anything about elevators...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's the link to the video mentioned in the article.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_bMhNI_TY8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_bMhNI_TY8)

Warning: Watching the section between 1:20 and 1:45 will cause your blood pressure to rise to unhealthy levels.

<comment><USER8> "Let's see...29, 31, 32. Seems like we're missing something here, but I can't put my finger on it...hey, you see the Braves give the Mets a pounding? What a bunch of lazy bums. Well, see you tomorrow!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> >>The Bronx family-court system, for example, was in a shambles last year because the elevators at its courthouse kept breaking down. ((The stairs are closed, owing to security concerns.)

Anyone has any idea why the stairs would be closed, and what are those "security concerns"?

<comment><USER10> It could be that floor access is governed by key cards. The elevator having a key card reader, but the doors in the stairwell not, maybe because they hadn't yet been retrofitted.</comment></comment>


The bursting of the Bitcoin bubble  - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/10/virtual-currencies?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/burstingofthebitcoinbubble

<comment><USER2> It's going [back up](<http://sd-12155.dedibox.fr/~joel/btc/mtgox_weekly.png>)!

Seriously, bitcoin is simply too new and too revolutionary to settle in just a year. We need to give the concept a few more years before it can reveal its full potential.

</comment><comment><USER3> FYI: Things in the bitcoin world can change really fast.

The price of bitcoin at the time of this comment is $3.12 USD.

</comment><comment><USER4> The speculative bubble that burst was one of the best things to happen to BitCoin as it meant people stopped using it as a investment vehicle. Once people are done speculating with it then it can taken more seriously as a real currency rather than being yet another alternative currency experiment.

</comment><comment><USER5> Heatmap for financial chart? Awesome.</comment>


What's More Efficient Than a Person on a Bike? - <AUTHOR> https://www.bike.nyc/blog/news/how-cyclists-beat-every-other-moving-creature-and-machine/ <comment><USER2> Hence the quote "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds." It never really caught on, though.

How about a person in a glider playing in thermals.

</comment><comment><USER3> Two people on a bike?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> TLDR: nothing.</comment>


Coronavirus: Belgian woman infected her cat - <AUTHOR> https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/103003/coronavirus-belgian-woman-infected-her-cat/ <comment><USER2> I can't imagine it's terribly likely, but imagine if you infected your outdoor cat, which then infected other neighbourhood cats, which then infected people who were otherwise isolating themselves?

<comment><USER3> It's like a diabolical apocalyptic sci-fi plot twist.

<comment><USER4> The truly diabolical twist is a nefarious virus mutation in the pet strain, for a 2nd deadly wave after general societal fatigue.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Earlier, WHO tested canines to see if they could contract the virus. After extensive quarantine and testing, WHO determined the dogs could not carry the virus and released them back to their owners.

That's right, WHO let the dogs out.

(Downvote as you must. It was worth it.)

<comment><USER6> Woofff..wof..wooof

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Assuming virus structure doesn't change inside pets, why pet to human transmission is not possible? Shouldn't it be very likely?

You've a virus which can go from humans to pets and reverse, why? Any other virus where it's proven to be only one way street?

<comment><USER8> No. Viruses from humans cannot be carried by dogs or other pets, except in very extreme cases. Stastically speaking it doesn't happen and it's not something to worry about.

<comment><USER9> Wonder how long the virus can survive on the fur of a pet. This is very different than the animal being infected and becoming a production factory for a virus but if we're being cautious about spreading the virus through contact with shared objects, pets seem like they could be a vector for a period of time. Perhaps a day or two?

<comment><USER10> The observation is sound. And also note that pets may be much more likely than (adult) humans to go into contact with some things and areas contaminated by saliva.

As for the stability, unless fur is more hostile than plastic or stainless steel, detectable viable virus at 72 hours is indicated in this recent article by van Doremalen et al.

[https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973](https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973)

Experience from other coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, shows even longer persistence for some surfaces and environmental conditions. Please see Table I in Kampf et al. this January

[https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-670...](https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701\(20\)30046-3/abstract)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have been wondering about this myself. I have a cat that lives entirely outside, the second sweetest cat ever. If I get sick I sure don't want to infect my cat. Now, I wouldn't mind if the cat caught it, was not sick herself and then passed it on to some of the rat population around here as long as the rats got sick.

Also, are there any reports that this virus can jump to birds like chickens? I have been looking for chickens since eggs seem to be in short supply around here.

Good luck to all of y'all.

<comment><USER12> What? How could a cat pass anything on to a rat?

You think rats go looking for cats to snuggle up with? Prey animals generally try to avoid their predictors.

<comment><USER13> > What? How could a cat pass anything on to a rat?

Everybody poops.

Everybody eats and drinks.

Sometimes these two overlap more than is sanitary.

It's not a virus, but check out the parasite toxoplasma gondii for an example of an organism that uses this mechanism to get from cats (it only can reproduce in cat intestines) to rats (where it lives in their brains).

It needs to get back to cats from the rats when it is time to reproduce, which is the really interesting part of its life cycle. It doesn't just wait around on the off chance a cat will happen to eat the rat. No, it alters the rat's brain to make the rat lose its fear of the smell of cat urine. Normally, rats avoid territory marked by cats, but not those with a toxoplasma gondii infestation. It even makes male rats confuse that smell with that of a female rat, so they actually end up seeking out cats.

Truly something out of a horror movie [1].

PS: it's also not uncommon in humans.

[1] [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the- parasite-t...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-parasite- that-makes-a-rat-love-a-cat-86515093/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Perhaps someone with a better understanding of virology can clarify this for me.

My understanding is that the coronavirus binds to relatively generic cell receptors present on lots of different cell types (ACE-2 and possibly others) and this is responsible for the wide variety of symptoms, depending on which of the many susceptible areas of the body get infected first.

This may also enable lots of different species with these similar generic receptors to become infected. This virus seems like the ultimate generalist.

<comment><USER10> Hardly ultimate, but coronaviruses are apparently (in)famous for a relatively high propensity to cross species barriers.

This review from 2017 looks very relevant [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2017.01.002](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2017.01.002)

I'll leave the rest to people who may have specialist level competence on the topic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is weird.

> the cheetahs, but developed no overt symptoms [6]. Also, experimental > transmission of the Aju-CoV to three domestic kittens failed to cause > disease [6]. Perhaps also relevant is that when the human SARS-CoV was > induced in domestic cats, they developed no symptoms

1\. [https://www.cell.com/current- biology/pdf/S0960-9822(04)00143...](https://www.cell.com/current- biology/pdf/S0960-9822\(04\)00143-5.pdf)

<comment><USER16> I also find this weirdly dubious, but not impossible. I do know that to study human coronavirus in mice, we had to create a mouse line expressing the human ACE2 protein.

I just did a quick protein alignment and the %sequence identity between human and select animals are:

Bats: 81.5% Mice: 81.9% Dogs: 84.1% Cats: 85.2%

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Related: further corroboration of infection in the dogs in Hong Kong.

[https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health- environment/artic...](https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health- environment/article/3077177/coronavirus-final-testing-hong-kong-dogs-blood)

</comment><comment><USER17> And pets will practice social distancing even worse than people, if you can imagine that.

<comment><USER18> Cats are probably better at social distancing than dogs.

<comment><USER19> Tell that to Hillary, who insists on sitting on my wife's chest any time she lies down. Or Henry who insists on sleeping on my shoulder when I lie down.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Good luck teaching social distance to cats and dogs.</comment>


Ask HN: Book Like SICP but for Drawing? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Understanding Comics by Scott Mccloud [http://scottmccloud.com/2-print/1-uc/index.html](http://scottmccloud.com/2-print/1-uc/index.html)

The four printed books by Edward Tufte [https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/](https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/)

Successful Drawing by Andrew Loomis

Composition: Understanding Line, Notan and Color by Arthur Wesley Dow

</comment><comment><USER3> _Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain_ [https://www.drawright.com/](https://www.drawright.com/) by Betty Edwards and _Keys to Drawing_ by Bert Dodson might be in that line. (I don't have lots of experience with them myself.) Alan Kay is a big fan of Betty Edwards (and of Timothy Gallway's _Inner Game of Tennis_ ).</comment>


Does the Tech Industry Have a Drinking Problem? - <AUTHOR> https://softwareiseasypeoplearehard.com/does-the-tech-industry-has-a-drinking-problem/ <comment><USER2> No. The tech industry has a "driving people to drink" problem. This industry is toxic, the pay sucks for most people, the hours and working conditions are often those of a white collar sweatshop, and too many people use a bottle to cope because they don't know or have access to a better way.</comment>


Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill - <AUTHOR> https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-27/cash-is-more-popular-than-ever <comment><USER2> Every time you swipe your credit card innumerable processes and algorithms begin to parse and reevaluate your personality profile. Every purchase you make changes their opinion and assessment of your shopping habits and needs.

Google may start showing ads for pet food if you bought something at PetSmart. Your bank may start sending you car loan ads if you spend at the repair shop. Everything has a side effect.

Cash is great because it is very simple. I gave you money for product, no one knows anything else. Sometimes it's nice not to be data mined for buying a cup of coffee.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, but I get paid for that in a combination of cash back and points.

I limit my credit card information sharing as much as the privacy preferences allow, but I'm not about to give up hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in value because Google might show me an ad I won't click on anyway.

<comment><USER4> I had the same concern and tracked it. In my family's case, making cash our primary spending vehicle reduced our 2018 spending 7% vs 2017 when we were card focused.

The value of the credit card point is about 2% best case. Points exist to create a fomo attachment to the card.

<comment><USER5> Was this because of using cash or simply paying more attention to spending?

I'd love to see a well done research paper to get a sense of the expected value of cash vs credit.

<comment><USER6> It's pretty obvious and well known that if you disassociate the cost of something from the actual monetary value, people find it harder to conflate the two.

This is the reason that you didn't buy a $20 XBox game, you brought a game with 1,700 Microsoft points.

You don't buy this skin for a game for $14, that's way too expensive! Who would pay that! However when it's on sale for 3,200 Riot points? That's a great deal!

If you wanted to strike a death blow to the micropayments industry you'd just need to force them to put the actual monetary price against each loot box/gem bundle/whatever rather than obscuring it with a made up currency that nobody can evaluate cost against.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting topic, but seems like they left out one possible explanation.

Things in general are more expensive. So over time usage of higher denomination bills will increase.

Eventually a $100 bill is equivalent to what a $20 bill was when I was a kid, and those were common then.

<comment><USER8> This is the main reason I get $2 bills instead $1 bills from my bank now. The latter is a lot more useful for picking something up from the corner store or for a small tip, simply because the value of the dollar bill has gone down.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I use cash primarily because I enjoy promiscuous arithmetic with strangers

<comment><USER10> It's good practice for your math skills, too!

Cashier: "That will be $3.86"

Me: [hands over a $5 bill, a dime, and a penny]

Cashier: "..."

Cashier: "..."

Cashier: [hands back a dollar and a quarter]

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> After hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the blackout lasted for months. I assume no one was getting any money out of ATMs or using credit/debit cards or Apple pay or anything like that. You don't have to distrust the financial system to want cash on hand. You just need to have a rudimentary understanding of the fragility of the current system. I simply cannot see a cash less society ever existing while the only alternative is powered by electricity. Electricity can fail way to easily.

<comment><USER12> After the hurricane, for the next 2-3 days there were no working ATMs (that we found) in San Juan. Luckily, we had around 120$ in cash handy which we carefully spent. After that we had to queue up for 1h+ in the torrid sun at one of the few ATMs which had any cash. If I remember well there was a limit of 100$ withdrawal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> What's the motivation for a store to not accept cash? Is it possible that cash has a > 3% "fee"(or whatever stores pay for cc processing) when you roll in cash registers, armored car services, employee handling time, theft, etc?

<comment><USER14> From the article: "Businesses are experimenting with going cashless, hoping to speed up transactions, combat theft and create a safer environment for their employees."

As the owner of a brick and mortar business (a bar), I can tell you that we do about 60% cash transactions. I just put in an ATM to try to up that number. I'm tired of paying close to 3% fees on cards.

We have had some cash theft from employees but to eliminate that would require 100% credit, which isn't an option for me. A big part of our clientele is service industry, and they're bringing in their cash tips and spending them.

<comment><USER15> I never thought about cashless places doing it because they were worried about theft from employees. I assumed it was to prevent thieves from coming in and robbing the place.

(Makes total sense though that employees would be much more likely to do the stealing)

<comment><USER4> My grandfather owned bars and would fire any honest bartender. His philosophy was that a bartender who wasn't stealing was smarter than he was.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I closed my bank accounts in 2011. Cash is my currency of choice for most things. I use bitcoin for long term savings. Cold storage is safer than a bunch of cash under the mattress.

<comment><USER17> Who needs things like FDIC insurance anyways /s

<comment><USER18> Funny thing is, FDIC is insuring you against the bank collapsing, not your bank accounts from theft. I don't think you can even do that, since protecting your deposits against theft is supposed to be the service your bank provides.

You can insure cash with most homeowner's policies, though.

<comment><USER19> This is called "bank fraud". In general, no need for you to insure against this because the bank has to eat the loss.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I also believe people are more conscious of their spending habits being sold by everyone.

The most anonymous way is cash. Cash is King.

</comment><comment><USER21> I've never had a 100$ bill and find 50$ bills are frowned on in retail. I carry a few 20$ bills just in case Apple Pay is not accepted.

<comment><USER22> > 50$ bills are frowned on in retail

Where would that be? On every trip to the US I have exchanged cash, EUR to USD, resulting in mostly $100 bills which I've used everywhere, sometimes even for rather small purchases, and there's been no frown upon that (after few purchases I also get my hands on smaller bills which are also more convenient).

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> It's somewhat ironic that the people I know who are into crypto are somewhat more likely to use cash than your average person for privacy reasons...

<comment><USER10> Yeah, exactly. I take out $400 at a time on an ATM and then use it at farmers markets and stores over the next few weeks. I only use my credit card for refilling my transit pass, online ordering, and medical bill pay.

No one needs to have a full record of every purchase I make in real time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Paying for various expenses with apple pay feels downright magical. I love it and use it constantly. But I don't want currency to go away outright. There are definite perks. The biggest one for me is that I'm much more cognizant of much I'm spending when I have a physical representation of my money in my pocket. I'm less inclined to overspend when I have physical cash.

</comment><comment><USER25> The $100 bill would obviously be more popular nowadays. For a lot of people on here, since they were kids, the purchasing power of that $100 has fallen to about $50. You have to carry twice as much currency to carry the same amount of purchasing power around.

<comment><USER26> I wonder if it's time for a $200 bill

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> >>>> One recent study, by a pair of economists in Asia, found a link to aging populations. It seems that older folks — perhaps because they're less inclined to trust numbers on a screen — have a greater affinity for cash.

It may also be harder to be swindled out of your money by telemarketers, if you ditch your credit cards. And dealing with anything online or on a phone can be physically laborious and error prone for the elderly -- then you have to re-learn it when it changes.

For me, cash is actually a hassle. As a part time musician, I occasionally get paid in cash -- often a $100 bill, preferably but rarely more -- and then I have to deal with the bills and coins until it's finally spent.

</comment><comment><USER28> [http://archive.is/tM2oW](http://archive.is/tM2oW)</comment>


Cue YouTube: create/share playlists without logging in (Sunday night project) - <AUTHOR> http://cueyoutube.com/

<comment><USER2> I love it! Can I offer some suggestions?

1\. Change the name. Make it pretty.

2\. The landing page should be a list of what people are listening to right now. (If not enough people, fake it. Come up with a few dozen playlists based on radio stations, etc.) I should be able to jump right in to a playlist.

3\. Offer to let people sign in via FB, Twitter, or G+. Promote sharing their playlists.

4\. Recommendations. If I have The Eels 'My Timing Is Off', let me find other playlists with that song, and of those that have the song, what comes next in their playlist?

5\. Cue playlists, so that when one ends, the next begins. Offer shuffle.

Personally, I always thought YouTube was the big disrupter in music, and no one seemed to use it. If you play this right, you have a hit on your hands.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much for this great feedback. One thing I am interested in maintaining is the "non-logging in-ness" of the system - in fact if I wanted to create a tool for managing it I might even create it as a kind of optional add-on maybe even on a different domain.

My personal ideal way for this to play out is that each morning I can look at the #cueyoutube hashtag on Twitter and just list to some lists, then if I feel like it post my own, but that I don't have any sense of posession or investment.

For example here is a quick list I made of some African style guitar music that I like: <http://ly1.fr/_pApFA>

The other important thing for me is that I need to be fixing or changing things in response to demand from lots of people. This was a weekend project but I have several other "real" projects[1][2][3] that are taking up vast amounts of my time.

For this purpose I've setup a UserVoice forum and I would love it if you could add your voice to the crowd!

<http://cueyoutube.uservoice.com/>

[1] <http://decalcms.com/> [2] <http://8centsms.com/> [3] <http://flymessage.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice work! It kinda reminds me of the "dj-esque" site a friend and I made: <http://www.turntubelist.com> \- but more "now" ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Incidentally if anyone wants to see what my friends and I were listening to today search #cueyoutube on Twitter!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Brilliant ... specially helpful when I just wanna listen to a music! May be a small icon in the search results will be helpful

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello and thanks, yes some others have mentioned this, want to add your voice?

[http://cueyoutube.uservoice.com/forums/123853-general/sugges...](http://cueyoutube.uservoice.com/forums/123853-general/suggestions/2020577-show- thumbnails-of-search-results)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks everyone for your feedback, sorry I wasn't around to respond (I live in Australia so had to go to bed :)

</comment><comment><USER5> I like it!! I have been struggling with youtube playlist. pretty cool!</comment>


Ask HN: What kind of CRM do you use? - <AUTHOR>

Hello HN!
We need some basic data to our survey. We'd love your answers so please vote or share our poll with others who are involved! Thanks in advance, you are awesome!<p>[Poll here] http://blog.getinch.com/help-us-salespeople-kind-crm-use/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hello HN! We need some basic data to our survey. We'd love your answers so please vote or share our poll with others who are involved! Thanks in advance, you are awesome!

[Poll here] [http://blog.getinch.com/help-us-salespeople-kind-crm- use/](http://blog.getinch.com/help-us-salespeople-kind-crm-use/)

</comment><comment><USER2> I don't use it, but I came across Base CRM today. Looks useful. [https://getbase.com/](https://getbase.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks hkarthik!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> pipedrive

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks nigekelly!</comment></comment>


The Disappearance of Self in Japan - <AUTHOR> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pico-iyer/disappearance-self-japan_b_8258678.html <comment><USER2> Putting aside the content of the article, the photo of the "Cherry tree with temple in background. Chubu Region, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. " is actually a photo of Matsumoto Castle (in Nagano Prefecture).

<comment><USER3> Came here to say this. I'm also pretty certain that the picture of the boat on the lake is a painting, not a photo.

28 years of living in Japan and the author can't identify Matsumoto Castle (one of the country's most notable) at a glance? Not a good start.

<comment><USER4> As noted, they likely had nothing to do with it... but I take all of Iyer's writing about Japan with a grain of salt, because despite those 28 years, he can't read a word of Japanese and is apparently proud of it.

[http://www.onbeing.org/program/pico-iyer-the-art-of- stillnes...](http://www.onbeing.org/program/pico-iyer-the-art-of- stillness/transcript/7635)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for pointing that out, considering he can't really participate in the culture or even read Japanese literature he has a pretty limited perspective I wager.

From article: \</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment></comment><comment> I can't read — I can't — to this day, I can't read or write Japanese. And I'm at the mercy of things around me. I can't have the illusion that I'm on top of things. Japan was a place that I had a huge amount to learn from, and I'm still learning it.

<comment><USER6> This has to be hyperbole - how can you live in a country for 28 years without learning what a single word looks like?

reminds me of teens today who feign ignorance of popular music and only listen to classic rock or some other specific genre and love to criticise others' taste in music.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> A linguist once told me (angrily) that Japanese sentences do have subjects, they're just very easily implied from context.

<comment><USER8> Almost any time someone tries to make a point about a culture based on their language, ignore them. Languages, for the most part, evolve on their own, independent of cultural considerations. For example, in Spanish, the word for house (casa) is female, just like (almost?) all nouns in Spanish are gendered. This does not mean that gender plays a stronger role in Spanish speaking cultures than in cultures that speak a less gendered language, it is simply the way the language evolved.

It is worth pointing out that English also lets you omit the subject in some circumstances, namly commands. For example, we consider "clear your room" to be a complete sentence, despite the fact that it omits the subject, "you".

<comment><USER9> English almost always drops the pronoun in the imperative, for example like Portuguese and the familiar form of you in German. English doesn't really ever drop the subject of the sentence otherwise...

<comment><USER10> Sure, it does. If you're talking casually with friends, it's pretty common to drop the initial pronoun, especially when it's implied from context... which is exactly what happens in Japanese, except the context is larger.

"[You] Gonna eat that pizza?"

"[I'm] Gonna go to the store."

"Where's John?" / "[He's] Eating."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> You know if you go to Japan, beneath the mystique is a fairly normal country with fairly normal people going about fairly normal day to day lives.

<comment><USER12> I'm a big fan of Zen and it's ilk, but the Japan fetish in this article is way too strong. I bet the author thinks that samurai swords were way better than their contemporaries in Europe

<comment><USER13> Yeah, this annoys me. Japanese swords were folded over hundreds of times not because it was a superior crafting technique, but because they were using inferior steel with more impurities.

<comment><USER14> Damascus Steel is probably the coolest kind of sword from the past. Carbon nanotubes have been found in ancient Damascus steel swords, proving that the advanced metallurgy strengthened Damascus Steel above and beyond all other steel of that era.

And while Japanese metallurgy exists today... the secret of Damascus steel has been lost in time. No one knows how to make it anymore.

\</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

With regards to Katanas vs Longswords...

Katanas are almost equivalent to Long Swords. The martial arts between the two styles are relatively similar. Sometimes Katanas were dual-wielded with wakizashi, while Long Swords would sometimes be dual-wielded with a dagger.

Sometimes Katanas are wielded with two hands, but sometimes you switch to one- hand for extra reach. Ditto with Long Swords (being used with "Bastard Sword" style)

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>

In all cases, the fetish with swords is universal across cultures. Polearms were the king of the battlefield in both the West and in the East... and the favored weapons of soldiers, and yet the stories all glorify sword-wielders. Swords were expensive in all cultures, and are therefore associated with the respective nobility class.

<comment><USER15> Meh, you can get carbon nanotubes out of soot too [0], they occur in any high carbon and high temp environment. Their existence in something is not proof that metallurgy is advanced in any sense, just luck.

European and Japanese fighting styles are also very different, as the katana is made with much more brittle steels [1]. In Japan, the block is not hard and the other blade has to slide along your's to not break the sword.

You use Damascus steel if your steel is of poor quality or you don't have the chemical know how to make good steel. You do what you can with what you have.

Still, swords cost a lot to make and end up as a status symbol. Look at the Japanese officers in WW2 [2].

[0][http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044580305...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044580305001051)

[1][https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/5729/how-do- tama...](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/5729/how-do-tamahagane- damascus-and-toledo-steel-compare)

[2][https://41.media.tumblr.com/ab40ee35c57c64a56570035045f61c4e...](https://41.media.tumblr.com/ab40ee35c57c64a56570035045f61c4e/tumblr_nwhsjgxrz01tjjchto1_500.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've been very lucky to have visited Japan. I can say, having visited many other places, there is no such place like it. The social awareness of the Japanese people is on a level never seen elsewhere. One truly great nation, with a truly great population.

<comment><USER17> Social awareness? I'd be interested if you elaborate, what makes them more "socially aware" than any other culture?

What do you think about the alleged xenophobia?

Personally I'd love to visit Japan sometime.

<comment><USER18> I can give you some examples for what can be described as micro-aggression (even if SJWs are totally abusing this term and take away any legitimacy when claiming to be a victim of it) Keep in mind that either of these things happen to me on a daily basis.

1) I speak JLPT ~N2 level with almost no accent, but get handed the English menu in a restaurant in Tokyo.

2) I get complimented for being able to eat various Japanese things (natto, umeboshi) or being able to handle chopsticks.

3) I get compliments for being able to read Kanji after talking to someone for the past few hours. How do they think I learned the language? With romaji?

4) Speaking to staff in Japanese, staff answers to my Japanese friends instead of speaking with me.

The last three ones are almost symptomatic for 日本人論, where it is common to think that certain Japanese cultural habits or attributes cannot be mastered or understood by outsiders, thus it is necessary to point them out or try to compensate for them.

Some of these attributes are reasoned to exist because of biological differences (google Japanese Brain), others because of the 'rich' cultural heritage of Japan that was never tainted by other countries (as if China and Korea are not close to Japan...).

Don't take this as me being unhappy to be in Japan. I just wish that people were a bit more self-aware around here. The problem is just that there is not the necessary vocabulary around to address these problems. It's not as if 人種差別 is a popular subject.

<comment><USER19> I've lived in Japan for 14 years, and I'm doing a startup here.

In my experience, if you stay in Japan for more than a year, you go through several phases.

The first phase is confusion. Why am I being treated differently, even though I'm doing and saying the same things as another Japanese person.

The second phase that quickly follows is anger. This is bullshit! I know my accent and pronunciation is correct! Why are they saying they don't understand me! WTF!

The third is dull acceptance. You're not going to change Japan. They're not like this because they're bad people. They're just inexperienced with foreigners and foreign things, and they're overcompensating and trying to be nice in the way they think is nice.

The final stage is fun. This is the best stage. You understand all the social patterns and why everything is happening, so you just relax and start enjoying it.

When you go into a restaurant and order in Japanese and the waiters response is "I can't speak English! Sorry!" you respond in Japanese "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Is there anyone here who speaks Japanese?"

This often (not always) has the interesting effect of changing the "foreigners cannot speak or understand Japanese" mindset, if only for a moment.

Sounds like you're in between stages two and three. It gets better.

To quickly respond to your list:

1) It's your face. It's nothing personal. They're just trying to be accommodating.

2) My typical response is "I've been using chopsticks since I've been four, since we used to order Chinese takeout. So complimenting me on my chopstick skills feels the same as me complimenting you on your deft fork techniques." This may result in enlightening your Japanese friends as to why it's challenging to be overly grateful for their well-intended compliment.

3) Kanji is hard. They're just impressed that you can read it, since they spent years as kids studying and repeating kanji over and over again. Having said that, my typical response here is "Actually, I think English is much, much harder than Japanese. Sure Japanese is difficult, but it's logical. English is full of exceptions, weird spellings, inconsistent grammar, because it's a mix of languages. If I wasn't born a native speaker, I can't imagine how I'd learn English from scratch."

4) Yep - you're definitely not alone. It can be hard to avoid feeling a bit slighted here. If you haven't seen this already: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80) I gently correct people here. "Excuse me - since I'm ordering, could you please look at me?"

By the way, thinking of these things as "micro-aggressions" is a terrible way to think. They're not being aggressive. They're often just not very familiar with foreign people, and they're doing their best to be accommodating. Once you get to stage four, this becomes a lot easier.

Good luck, and don't forget to swing by the Hacker News Tokyo Meetups if you're in Tokyo - [https://hntokyo.doorkeeper.jp/](https://hntokyo.doorkeeper.jp/) \- we're just about to announce another one.

<comment><USER18> Thank you a lot for the nice response and the kind explanation. You are definitely right that there are never any bad intentions behind the various experiences that can be had as a foreigner.

Perhaps my problem is not really the experience itself, but that I don't know how to deal with certain situations in a smooth and sociable way. I also have not lived in Japan long enough to really master all social interactions. It's quite easy to forget when you're from another culture how much routine your own culture already has and how different it can be.

So, stage4目指せ!

<comment><USER19> My pleasure. Lack of experience in the unique social situations that Japan presents is also completely understandable, and part of the adventure.

頑張れ!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> For anyone who didn't take the time to read the entire thing,go back and find the section about the shopkeepers and read that. It pretty much sums out what the author is trying to get at.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'd begin with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases)

<comment><USER22> And [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentialism)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> First, I'd be pissed at the asshole that failed to tie their boat up properly. Second, I'd be excited at the prospect of a free boat.

</comment><comment><USER24> I think the author's location skews their perspective. Kyoto is quite different culturally to the big cities, and you'll find the same kind of "individualism" that you find in Western cities in Tokyo etc. By "individualism" I mean the poisoned kind where you're defined by the articles- of-self you've purchased, whether it's a Gucci bag on your shoulder, a collection of charms dangling from your wrist, where you go to eat and what phone you have as opposed to the form of individualism which is to define yourself by what you do and how you conduct yourself.

<comment><USER25> > Kyoto is quite different culturally to the big cities

Having lived in and around Kyoto I would disagree. There are some minor differences, but it doesn't add up to a major difference.

<comment><USER26> I've lived in Kyoto and Tokyo and tend to agree with you there. Although people outside of Tokyo are much friendlier in general. Which is the same of most big cities/areas outside of them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> > As a result, perhaps, my Japanese neighbors seem unusually good at adapting > themselves to circumstance -- fire or nuclear meltdown, sudden earthquake or > infidelity (to which the local response is nearly always "It can't be > helped") -- and unusually good at following orders (hence, perhaps, their > celebrated brutality in war).

But orders come from somewhere, no? From some self, no?

</comment><comment><USER28> JIBUNWO

</comment><comment><USER29> Pico Iyer the author should not be writing or submitting for the Huff Post. A person has to have standards.

<comment><USER30> Too true, although you could have stopped after the word "writing". :)

I quickly decided that the article was full of crap and closed the tab. I only learned that it was written by one of the authors fullest of shit in a world full of many full of shit authors due to your comment.

<comment><USER31> After reading this comment, I Googled "pico iyer full of crap" and this comment was the second result.

I was hoping to get some insight into why you guys have such a negative reaction to this guy. Instead I found out that Google has gotten scary fast at indexing.

<comment><USER30> Fair question. To me he comes across as remarkably insincere, someone with a history of publishing and saying things no properly skeptical person could take seriously.</comment></comment></comment></comment>