The Tragedy of Systemd - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AeWu1fZ7bY <comment><USER2> This is a click-bait title.

This 32 minute talk is about:

       what came before systemd (e.g. init)?

       what is systemd trying to solve?

       Lennart Poettering is misunderstood and shouldn't
       be getting death threats

       what can systemd teach FreeBSD people?

       how can systemd inspire improvements to FreeBSD?

</comment><comment><USER3> A really excellent, thought-provoking talk. When the speaker declared UNIX to be essentially dead, it would have made sense to stop and take questions. That's the conclusion! Linux won the Unix wars. Debating the merits of systemd and whether to adopt it in BSD is irrelevant. BSD is in decline and will slowly fade away.

<comment><USER4> Linux (the kernel) is arguably in decline as well, especially now that it's clear Android and ChromeOS will both pivot to Fuschia/Zircon.

<comment><USER5> Linux has almost 3 decades of development and experience behind it, will take a lot of time and money for Google to catch up with that.

Linux has multiple communities and companies behind it, it won't disappear overnight if one of them go bust.

Linux can run on anything, Fuschia will most likely only run on things that Google cares about.

Most server software today runs on either Linux or Windows Server.

What makes you think the Linux kernel is in decline?

<comment><USER4> OSX has decimated the Linux on consumer baremetal use case. It's increasingly rare to meet anyone, even those who interact with Linux systems daily via the cloud, who has actually installed and run it on their own hardware let alone use it daily that way for significant amount of time.

I can't predict how long it will take Google to get Fuschia in good enough shape for Android/ChromeOS production use, but the intent is clear and confirmed.

The cloud is the only place where the kernel still sees a lot of usage, but containers and platforms like Kubernetes serve in part to weaken Linux's position in that space. WSL for example will very likely be utilized for running Linux userspace containers natively in Azure, and knowing Microsoft that will immediately be followed by Azure-specific features being made available through proprietary extensions making the next versions of those containers some combination of a Linux-compatible userspace mixed with WSL- specific extensions for the Azure-specific magic.

I've been heavily involved in Linux since 90s, and it pretty clearly looks to be in decline from my perspective. Hopefully puri.sm can get their mobile device off the ground successfully and get to a point where it's a sustainable business. It would be pretty sad if in another decade the only time we encounter Linux running on baremetal is on gadgets for tinkering like the raspberry pi.

<comment><USER5> > OSX has decimated the Linux on consumer baremetal use case.

By consumer baremetal you probably mean laptops and desktop PCs, because if I would include routers, NASes and phones, your argument would be dead on arrival. Even if we limit ourselves to laptop/desktops, OSX did not decimate Linux, because the Linux desktop never actually had a high market share to begin with. All the charts I have seen show that the Linux Desktop market share was consistently low, the existence of the Mac didn't affect it much.

The 3 main reasons the Linux desktop isn't reaching bigger audiences are:

\- driver issues, which is partially because of the way kernel development works \- no one good consistent UI \- too many distros and versions and configurations to support

If you would erase the Mac from history, these wouldn't be affected.

The consistently low market share has little to do with the kernel.

> but the intent is clear and confirmed.

The interest was there with Google Wave, Google Reader, Dart, Google Plus, Picasa and Google Desktop Search as well among other things, companies can change their mind.

> but containers and platforms like Kubernetes serve in part to weaken Linux's > position in that space.

Containers were made possible by Linux kernel features, the container images are all Linux, I don't see how that weakens it, at the end of the day, your application still runs on Linux.

> followed by Azure-specific features being made available through proprietary > extensions making the next versions of those containers some combination of > a Linux-compatible userspace mixed with WSL-specific extensions for the > Azure-specific magic.

I'm failing to see what does this speculation has to do with the original argument.

> It would be pretty sad if in another decade the only time we encounter Linux > running on baremetal is on gadgets for tinkering like the raspberry pi.

There are plenty of laptops and desktops that work well with Linux if that's what you need, there are vendors like System76 that are dedicated to giving you just that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A really great talk on the subject.</comment>


The US recording industry is stealing from me - <AUTHOR> http://www.aardvark.co.nz/daily/2012/0221.shtml#continue <comment><USER2> Several companies have falsely filed claims on the stock sounds in Final Cut Pro and GarageBand as well. It irritates me to no end.

More importantly though, it illustrates how Google likes to make sweeping solutions based on generalizations. They created a system which allows content owners to claim they own any and all content, regardless of the veracity of their claim.

<comment><USER3> Certainly Google doesn't "like" to make any kind of solutions to help a dying industry. The content recognition system likely cost in the tens of millions in development and is probably eating up lots and lots of processing power just to operate it.

<comment><USER4> Which makes one wonder why they pandered to the content industry with it at all. There's no requirement they make such a system, and it makes their service less desirable and usable.

Google's responsibility is to respond to DMCA notices; that's it. They have no requirement to create a Draconian copyright monitor.

(The standard response is "so the content industry would work with us!!!" Who gives a shit? Oh no, we wouldn't have any of the shitty "Vevo" channels laced with advertising without Content ID. What a terrible loss that would be.)

<comment><USER5> If the record industry is dying, how much do you imagine they're willing to spend on lobbying to delay their fate? Any regulation of the internet places a disproportionate burden on Google, simply because of their size. They know this, the RIAA/MPAA know this. The RIAA would happily spend billions and kill Google in the process if it bought them another few years of the good old days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> TL;DR - "They flagged my video as containing their content, even though it doesn't, which means they get my ad revenue."

<comment><USER6> Is there no penalty for incorrectly claiming others' content?

Perhaps the "guilty until proven innocent" mentality is justified by saying that there is so much infringement, that due process would always be 3 steps behind the uploaders.

Even if that's true, is there no financial penalty for incorrectly flagging others' content? What incentive does the RIAA currently have for not flagging every video on YouTube simultaneously, other than public opinion?

<comment><USER7> Who says they are claiming it? For all we know, the videos were flagged by Youtube's content matching system, and of course they are free to take down any video they want or share part of their ad profits with whoever they want - it's their website.

<comment><USER8> YouTube is not free to do whatever it wants with the videos of legitimate creators. The true content owners don't waive all their rights when they upload their videos.

<comment><USER7> Thankfully, I never said they could do "whatever they want" with them, I said they could take them down and share the profits of the ads on the same pages as the videos. And they can.

<comment><USER8> The TOS section quoted by simonbrown doesn't say anything about letting third parties lay claim to others' content.

If it's a DMCA claim being filed by the third party, the third party is committing perjury. If it's via an extralegal agreement set up between YouTube and the third party, then the third party is at the least defaming the legitimate uploader, and the third party taking direct action to receive royalties for a video they did not create is fraud.

Furthermore, the current copyright laws which apply the synchronization and public performance rights of music owners to home videos of dancing babies uploaded by amateurs need to be revisited. The present situation is entirely unfair and unproductive to society at large.

<comment><USER7> Like I said in the first post, Youtube has an automatic content recognition system[1], which was probably what caused this, which means that there probably was no DMCA claim, defamation or fraud. The third party probably doesn't even know the video exists.

[1]: <https://www.youtube.com/t/contentid>

<comment><USER8> Companies can be held responsible for their automated systems running amok. If this is the case, then either YT's ContentID system is overly sensitive, the third party uploaded something like a sample of white noise or silence that ContentID matched to the silence or jet engines in the video, or the third party uploaded the original author's video to ContentID.

If Google can be accused of defamation for automatically suggesting "sucks" as an additional search term after a company name, then they can be accused of defamation for automatically indicating that an original author's video contains another's content. If the third party deliberately uploaded ambiguous content, hoping to trigger spurious ContentID matches, that is fraud.

At the end of the original article, the author says the situation has been rectified, but this is not an isolated incident. The article links to another example of a third party uploading someone else's _royalty-free_ audio tracks to ContentID, giving them ad revenue from any video that includes those audio tracks.

No third party should have this kind of unchecked power over others' creations, and YouTube's ContentID system has been upheld as an example of how all sites with user-generated content should operate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Its likely I have missed something, if this guy's video matched another video, why is it his one which is the offender and not the other video? Does this mean that the videos uploaded by the record companies are flagged as being legitimate by default ? If so, who decides that one then? Must every "legit" publisher register are some how legitimate?

If it were me, I would want to find out which video was supposed to be the original of which the IP was allegedly stolen, and accuse them of taking my material. Surely by these standards one of r them must be illegal, right?

Or does this lark only work one way for the benefit of the dear old mega- corps?

<comment><USER10> His video isn't identical to another video. Rather, something within the video (it might have been a five second sample) triggered a false positive match against something else that someone thinks they own the rights to.

<comment><USER9> I understand that. But then surely that match works both ways. Something in the other video must also match with his, right? So, why is it this guys getting accused and not the other video? If his video came out first, then the newer video can be said to be copying his video.

See what I'm getting at?

<comment><USER11> The samples provided by companies who have a deal with Google - the recording industry - are the only "master" samples, not your uploaded stuff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interesting to hear about the company pursuing royalties for the use of the default sounds that ship with Sony Vegas. I've always wondered what the legal specifics of using the included loops and samples in Logic, Reason etc are, since I hear them in pop songs and commercials and so on - definitely could trigger a pattern match.

<comment><USER13> It's probably mentioned in the documents that come with the software. I know that when I bought my Korg ER-1 way too long ago, I pored over the manual and the bit about the presets definitely stuck out to me - you were apparently not allowed to use any of the preset beats in any commercial music. Is that ever enforced? I can't possibly see the legal department of a musical instrument company going after a musician for using presets. That's especially true for music software companies, which (I presume) operate on much smaller budgets.

<comment><USER14> I know Native Instruments doesn't pursue anything if they have the same clause; dance music producers love Massive and it's presets, you here them all over the place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Can non-US-citizens sue US corporations in small-claims court?

Because at $5k or $10k a pop, you might find them stop this behavior.

They do it now because there is no downside for them for false DMCA claims.

$10k a pop might become a downside.

<comment><USER16> Nobody sent DMCA claims in this case (at least, this was not covered in the story). It is Youtube's automagic copyright-infringement-detector falsely labeled one of author's genuine clips as something using copyrighted material.

Author need contact Youtube in this case to fix this.

<comment><USER17> DMCA or not Google's negligent algorithm is causing people with a legitimate income to lose out. Maybe they should be at the end of the lawsuit to have them drop their automated system?

<comment><USER7> Lawsuit for what? Google has every _legal_ right of rejecting any video they feel like it. That's defined in their ToS and there's no law that overrules it.

<comment><USER8> Sure, Google can ostensibly reject any video they want. But this video wasn't rejected, it was erroneously given to a third party.

<comment><USER7> Google didn't "give" the video to anyone. They gave part of the income of the ads they happen to show alongside the video.

Legally, they're their ads and they can give its income to whoever they want. And they'd never be given to the video author unless he registered in Youtube's Content-ID, anyway.

<comment><USER17> Now I'll concede and say you may be right so long as the contract or ToS reads that way. My intuition would tell me that when a user agrees to allow youtube to use their content as a revenue stream in exchange for a cut of the revenue then that is what the uploader/owner is entitled to.

Contract law is extremely clear on what is necessary for what's called "consideration" and allowing one party of the contract to willfully provide that consideration to an unauthorized 3rd party without the contractual party's consent opens themselves to lawsuit.

Again, I'm going to go on the record here and admit you're probably right. Contracts by youtube and the like will be as vague as possible providing the maximum power to themselves in order to run the system. I would fully expect terms of the contract to provide the uploader with next to 0 rights regarding their content once its handed over.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Just on youtube's copy checking, I got a FB message from a friend who stumbled on a vid that uses one of my songs, it has 280k + views and advertises a motorcycle shop. No mention of the song or my band. Normally we license stuff through jamendo pro (all our music is cc). Anyone know how youtube polices this kind of thing? It's obviously a commercial usage but we got ne'er a penny nor even an attribution.

<comment><USER8> Maybe you can fill out an application for ContentID: <https://www.youtube.com/t/contentid>, or try contacting the video uploader first.

<comment><USER18> Thanks, just looking at that link now I'll get on it. We did have a licensing issue before with a video blogger who asked my permission to use one of our songs as his theme. Youtube were fairly sticky about it, that's why I was surprised something like this slipped through.

I did contact the uploader nothing back from them yet.

I'm a massive advocate of CC and I'm old school in that I believe the number one consideration for an artist is to be heard (as opposed to being paid) but being open and with so many platforms holding your work it's hard to keep track of things.

I wonder is there a way to use a Shazam like system to index audio usages on the web? Then scale could come into play and perhaps help to get cc artists paid on a fair and rational basis.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is there a viable alternative to YouTube that isn't as persuaded by the powers that be? If so, and if this problem were pervasive enough, wouldn't the independent content providers prefer that service over YouTube. Then most independent content would eventually be on the other service which would drastically reduce the value of YouTube.

<comment><USER20> Well, there is <http://megavideo.com/>

Oh yeah, the FBI seized that domain didn't they? ;)

<comment><USER19> That's probably why YT is being so aggressive then: to keep the FBI off them. It is truly a depressing world when film/recording industry lobbies and law enforcement agencies get away with stifling free market competition in order to maintain the status quo distribution of wealth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'd be interested to know what the YouTube ToS says about this. It's likely that they can take away your ad revenue for no reason at all. Instead of complaining that someone stole your ad revenue, you should be thanking the all mighty Google every time they are gracious enough to give you a single cent of _their_ ad revenue.

</comment><comment><USER22> Wow, all I can say is fuck Google, three passes in as many weeks is to much for me. The golden child has surely now turned to rust.

</comment><comment><USER23> The only language riaa understands is money, to fight back, it will take far more than whining about morality or fairness or justice. They need to be destroyed, and the only way this will be possible is to starve the corruption engine of its fuel: money.

</comment><comment><USER24> Oh, the solution's simple: YouTube should just not check for _rap_ music!</comment>


Using Go for Scalable Operating System Analytics - <AUTHOR> https://blog.kolide.com/using-go-for-scalable-operating-system-analytics-cb170d85b1c5 <comment><USER2> Interesting article but I am not sure about the recommendation of writing your own command parsing instead of using something like mow.cli[1] which seems fairly lightweight and self-contained.

In terms of logging I am also wondering if something like zerolog[2] might be a better choice than go-kit's logger given its higher performance

[1] [https://github.com/jawher/mow.cli](https://github.com/jawher/mow.cli) [2] [https://github.com/rs/zerolog](https://github.com/rs/zerolog)

<comment><AUTHOR> I use cobra sometimes, it's not that cobra or mow is too heavy, but I think that the oklog-style command parsing pattern is no more code or boiler-plate than using a library (for many use-cases) and it reduces developer overhead because most people are already familiar with how `flag` works. The whole pattern is really just the normal `flag` library and a switch statement, but it works really nicely because `flag` is really great and has a lot of features.

<comment><USER3> Yeah.. I like cobra, but it seems to somewhat force you into using a lot of globals to accomplish things.

The only downside to the oklog-style seems to be that you can't introspect the full cli tool at runtime, which rules out things like outputting documentation or shell completion files.

<comment><USER4> We did use cobra in fleet, and worked hard not to use globals [https://github.com/kolide/fleet/blob/f909f4808b17ffd5616c6c8...](https://github.com/kolide/fleet/blob/f909f4808b17ffd5616c6c837cb86206c61dbe20/cmd/fleet/serve.go#L45)

It's doable, but it was hard and while cobra is a nice library, it's probably overkill unless you're a project like kubernetes.

Most projects in Go are very small in terms of configuration surface, and something like [https://github.com/kolide/launcher/blob/9dcf149957b9e9757a24...](https://github.com/kolide/launcher/blob/9dcf149957b9e9757a24c300a019b3b8b95a0b3c/cmd/package- builder/package-builder.go#L153-L174) is much cleaner IMO.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I think I will try the simpler approach. I generally just have stuff like

      tool [-debug] [-store sqlite] cmd [-opt] [arg]

So, main needs to bootstraps logger and store and then delegate to downstream commands that almost always will consume the store and logger.

I'm currently using PersistentPreRunE to bootstrap the logging and store.. but I'm not really happy with the end result and some things are awkward. Maybe it would be less awkward if cobra had a 'Context' I could stick things in. The last issue was I added a version subcommand, which kept creating the store. I ended up having to do

      PersistentPreRunE:  func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error { return nil },
      PersistentPostRunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error { return nil },

Which would have been a lot simpler if I was doing things manually.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There's at least a few factual issues in the article. The big one I noticed is that it attributed the update framework to Docker. Which isn't true at least historically.

<comment><USER4> Yes that's true. But Docker did popularize it, at least that's how I initially read about it.

It's exciting to see that TUF is now a CNCF project.</comment></comment>


Review my iPad app for Comics - Comimix - <AUTHOR> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comimix/id412645752?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2 Developed over the last few months - Just a fun way to browse 180+ comic strips on the iPad. There are a many loose ends as this is v1 - but we already took too much time to develop this and wanted real feedback before working on new features.<p>How do you like it HN? We'd love to hear your feedback! <comment><AUTHOR> Developed over the last few months - Just a fun way to browse 180+ comic strips on the iPad. There are a many loose ends as this is v1 - but we already took too much time to develop this and wanted real feedback before working on new features.

I have a few coupons to enable free downloads, message me if you want them. Also, what are good ways for generating some buzz? We are already contacting relevant bloggers/forums.

How do you like it HN? We'd love to hear your feedback!</comment>


I hired someone with Asperger's – now what? - <AUTHOR> http://on.cnn.com/16WwSKG <comment><USER2> I find it rather annoying that people like myself get lumped into this as well when such broad definitions are being used.

Do I prefer to be alone/ in a small group most of the time? Hell yes! It's more exclusive and I get more work done. In a social situation, less people means more signal, less noise.

Do I sometimes completely avoid social situations? Of course! But it's solely due to the fact that sometimes, I just can't be arsed to care about dealing with someones trite problems.

When push comes to shove and I need to be social with large groups, there isn't an issue aside from the usual inherent "stage fright", but this is a quality that can affect anyone that doesn't spend the majority of their time as a public speaker.

Some of us exhibit the "qualities" in the article purely by choice, not by challenge. I'm pretty sure at some point in my youth, some poor misguided soul tried to diagnose me with some placement on the spectrum, but I would say that nowadays this incorrect classification is more common than not. Had someone told me every day that I was an autist, maybe I would have ended up exhibiting more of those behaviors simply by association. Maybe we should make a slight effort to stop telling schoolchildren that they're special or different, and more time letting people fend for themselves a bit first.

<comment><USER3> You clearly don't understand how the diagnosis of these things works.

There is a spectrum of behaviors, raging from healthy to problematic.

Drinking alcohol has a range too: from abstaining to enjoying in moderation to alcoholism. Neither abstaining nor moderate enjoyment are problematic. While the parallel is awkward, just as occasionally having one beer too many doesn't constitute alcoholism, occasionally avoiding social situations is different from always avoiding them (the reasons for avoiding them are important too!).

If you don't understand the criteria for determining when a behavior is problematic enough to warrant a symptom and when it is not, and you read through the DSM-IV (which defines mental disorders), you will think you qualify for many of the disorders listed: in all likelihood you do not qualify for any of them. Why are the definitions written this way? Because mental disorders are often characterized by normal behaviors happening to an extreme degree (being anxious before a big potentially career-altering presentation is healthy, having panic attacks as a result of everyday situations is problematic). Also because the DSM-IV is meant to be used by trained professionals who already understand this distinction.

<comment><USER2> My issue is not with the vetted characterizations of symptoms in DSM-IV, but with the nature of the original article and pseudo psychologists like some middle school counselors. This is a subject that needs to be treated with some form of scientific rigor, not feel good fluff pieces.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As someone who was diagnosed with Aspberger syndrome, reading that article made me want to throw up. There can be significant differences between a number of people with the same diagnosis, and generalizing them all under one mocking nickname of "aspie" is disrespectful. My diagnosis is not obvious to anyone talking to me unless I were to disclose it, and I have done very well in school leadership activities; I particularly enjoyed being involved in a debate club. I don't want Aspberger's to define me, and I wish that CNN would be more supportive of people who are working to overcome their disabilities instead of writing a puff piece about how special and disabled we are.

<comment><USER5> Completely agreed. I found the article mildly infuriating. Aside from the fact that it manifests in many different ways, I wouldn't even think of Aspergers as a disability in the "traditional" sense; people with Aspergers are just _different_ , it's not like they function any less well than people without Aspergers. I don't have Aspergers myself but a good friend of mine does, and the casual stigma and misinformation I've observed drives me crazy.

<comment><USER4> I agree completely about the "disability" description - I think that I became used to calling it that because in situations where I did need to get support for it in college (ie. requesting a single room, which seems to be a natural human need and not just an aspberger issue) it always had to be done through the disability services office, and maybe that definition stuck in my mind. It's good to be aware of how bureaucracy can unconsciously influence our mental thought patterns.

<comment><USER6> Bureaucracy thrives on classification. If something does not fit in a pigeonhole, it will either be pounded until it does fit or discarded as useless.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A kid in my CS program and my dorms in college had Asperger's and I'd probably hire him, depending on the company. He is an absolutely brilliant person who would read a textbook in a night and immediately have all of it committed to memory and able to use in a problem. He would program in classes because he already knew everything the professor was lecturing on, only stopping to raise his hand and correct the teacher when they flubbed up or weren't totally clear. (By the end of our program teachers were trying to make sure they didn't have him in their classes.)

He did a few jobs during school and a buddy of mine worked with him at a software development shop. He said that they put him (my co-student with Asperger's), in an office by himself with a computer and a desk phone and gave him assignments of things to code. His code was awesome, but whenever he wanted to ask someone about a project he was working on, people rarely answered him. Being the genius that he was, he figured out how to hack his office phone to be able to transmit his voice through every office speaker in the entire office without anyone having to pick up their phone. They quickly started answering him more.

So my $.02 are the same with working with any individual - understand who they are, what they care about, and give them what they need. My co-student with Asperger's was a total genius in CS (actually he was a CE double major now that I think of it), but ultimately had trouble getting people to just listen to him.

</comment><comment><USER8> The posed question is kind of offensive and arrogant if you think of it. It is kind of along the lines of 'Will/do you hire someone who is a woman/foreign/handicapped/ugly?' Suddenly the proposed properties are super offensive. "Women are smart", "Women think differently", etc. "Dave Wellman has managed several employees who were women." Eh what?

How about asking "Will/do you hire someone who is good for the job?". The question asked here though is more along the lines of "Will/do discriminate in your hiring process and how much?"

Furthermore the article is pretty biased, for example: "Aspies are intelligent -- and independent".

I have met dumb 'aspies'. I don't know about figures, but I would argue that there are both dumb and intelligent 'aspies'.

<comment><USER9> > The posed question is kind of offensive and arrogant if you think of it. It > is kind of along the lines of 'Will/do you hire someone who is a > woman/foreign/handicapped/ugly?'

...

> How about asking "Will/do you hire someone who is good for the job?". The > question asked here though is more along the lines of "Will/do discriminate > in your hiring process and how much?"

I don't disagree with you, but I think it's important to realize that this article is written to address and correct some common human biases. People whose moral development exceeds a certain level are less likely to subconsciously classify and stereotype people based on a handful of social cues, but are more likely to evaluate people as individuals. This article is not written for such people. It is written for people whose moral model of a person is so simple as to equate "autistic" with "dysfunctional" and ignore the individual characteristics of a person.

It may be offensive or arrogant to discuss autistic spectrum individuals in this way, but it's also necessary because most people are simply going to stereotype and dismiss them unless they're prompted to think more thoroughly about the issue. Decades in the future, when humanity's collective moral reasoning has hopefully progressed, we will be able to look back on articles like this and marvel at how simpleminded people were at the time. But articles like this are a necessary step to getting there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> As others here have pointed out, "Asperger's" covers a broad spectrum of behaviors and it's not fair to a) put this label on anyone who displays some of the behaviors (that covers too many people), nor b) try to minimize the diversity of behaviors by focusing on just a few (the diversity is much, much greater). The same thing happens with the horribly named "gifted" label. People only focus on the high achievers and completely miss the fact that not all gifted or Asperger's fit that stereotype. It's just so easy to label people and move on without really considering what's going on. A great article called the "Misunderstood face of giftedness" on this was just in Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-kuzujanakis/gifted- ch...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-kuzujanakis/gifted- children_b_2948258.html)

</comment><comment><USER11> Don't worry. Asperger's syndrome will be removed from DSM-5 next month. So next month, the person won't have the syndrome anymore...The syndrome won't even exist anymore...

[http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/12/04/aspergers-syndrome-to- be-...](http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/12/04/aspergers-syndrome-to-be-removed- from-psychiatrists-diagnostic-guide/)

<comment><USER12> Much of the DSM is toxic legacy from the dark ages of psychiatry -- an era that we've yet to transcend.

Meanwhile, your conclusion doesn't seem to fit with the text of the article you linked.

You say:

        > Asperger's syndrome will be removed from DSM-5 next month.
        > So next month, the person won't have the syndrome anymore...
        > The syndrome won't even exist anymore...

From the article:

        > DSM-V, will come out in May and Asperger's will be
        > notably absent, replaced with the broader definition
        > of "autism spectrum disorder." Previously, Asperger's
        > was thought to be a milder form of autism.

My interpretation is that it's still the generic spectrum disorder that we never really understood, but now the DSM reflects this reality better than it did previously.

Of course, I concede to the prevailing stance of people more experienced in and affected by this decision.

<comment><USER13> Currently there are several disorders inside the spectrum for high functioning autism (PDD-NOS, Asperger, High functioning classic autism) and the line between them most of the time is very thin, on the other hand therapies for treatment are the same, so DSM just took the obvious decision of put them together in one big umbrella.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The UK has concepts of "Reasonable adjustments". Some things are intrinsic parts of a job. A taxi driver must be able to drive. An accountant does not need to be able to drive. Thus, you can justifiably not employ someone for a taxi driver if their disability prevents them from driving, but you could not justifiably not employ an accountant if their disability meant they could not drive.

> _As a manager, you should understand how to handle the unique opportunities > and challenges that come with hiring an Aspie._

Wait, what? This is weird. Now tell us what it's like employing Jews.

I generally agree with the intent of the article but it comes over a bit "Oh the proud and noble Aspie".

> They will never accept "no" for an answer without being told the reason for > it.

That's probably true, but some people with Asperger's will have given up on asking why, knowing that sometimes people use stupid incomprehensible bizarre sub-optimal reasons. When someone tells me no I tend to just accept it, because I know that asking why leads to a rabbit-hole of bitter argument and disappointment.

I sound overly critical of the article. I don't mean to. Oh well.

<comment><USER15> Honestly, halfway through the article the question popped up on whether I was reading an Article on understanding "Aspies" or whether I was reading an Article on "Aspie"keeping. "Dog's become agressive when stared into the eyes by humans as for Dog's, this signals a fight" vs. "Many people with Asperger's are challenged by large crowds, looking people in the eye and reading common social cues". I don't mean to bash the article, but if anybody shares that feeling about the language used in it...

<comment><USER16> I thought that was just cats, not really dogs. My dogs look me in the eyes all the time.

<comment><USER15> My cat also looks me in the eyes very often. I should write an article on it, called "I bought a cat that looks me in the eye - now what?"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If I was a person with Aspergers, I would be extremely annoyed that the term 'Aspie' is used here. Why not, 'for these people,' type of wording? Coining or perpetuating a term like that only serves to isolate anyone that might otherwise have been just a person with Aspergers.

<comment><USER18> I thought it was a term of endearment and wasn't considered offensive by Aspergers folks... er.. "those with Aspergers"... seeing why the diminutive label is useful here. What do you call such a person? You don't call them an "Aspergers". "Aspie" seems to work.

<comment><USER19> I believe with most psychological or mental conditions, the phrase "a person with ..." is used, putting the person before the condition. Just like you don't call a person with mental retardation a "retard."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Reading this post makes me wonder if I have Asperger's...it pretty much described me to a tee.

Extremely uncomfortable in crowds/parties (actually, I pretty much refuse to attend parties at all), always looking at something else when speaking to someone 1 on 1, "rambling" when describing something or telling a story when someone else would only take 1~2 sentences, speaking my mind and a tendency to avoid small talk, and sensitive in terms of how I react to something (I tend to over-analyze and find a reason for everything that involves me).

That being said, does anyone know how accurate his list is?

<comment><USER21> If you really are curious, you should go to a psychologist. Self-diagnosis will do no good.

<comment><USER22> Does there is any interest to diagnosis you are aspie or not? From what I read here, it can be very helpfull for children, but it is not clear for adult people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> In the US it's illegal for any employee to flat out refuse to hire people with Asperger's syndrome under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Just something to keep in mind before you answer the question in the title!

<comment><USER24> So therefore, "it wasn't a cultural fit" or "he didn't have enough experience" or "he wasn't an A player"...

<comment><USER23> Unfortunately yes. I don't see how you enforce anti-descrimination laws if the relevant descrimination takes place entirely in the hiring manager's head.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Asperger's doesn't particularly exist. IIRC it is being removed from the DSM-V; 99.5% of sufferers are self-diagnosed with information that they found on the internet, and sometimes have confirmed with helpful psychiatrists.

The criteria seems to be that one has a terrible personality, is simultaneously high-maintenance and inconsiderate of others, thinks very highly of one's self, but lacks any other connection with the autism spectrum.

<comment><USER26> I'm not even sure how to respond to this. For one, there's a distinct difference between Asperger's and High-Functioning Autistics, and while they may have taken it out of the DSM, it doesn't change the fact that these changes in characteristics exist and when diagnosed correctly, can still identify the subset of issues each are facing and how to respond/deal with those issues.

Secondly, people forget that autism, as a spectrum, is being studied further and further and as such, we are finding more reason to believe that it actually does affect a lot of people -- not necessarily that it is grossly misdiagnosed. Furthermore, the number of doctors knowledgeable enough in diagnosing someone at any range of the spectrum is low. As we learn more about it, we are seeing people their 20s, 30s, some even well into their 50s and 60s finally being diagnosed because they were able to adapt well-enough that it seemed nothing was wrong on the outset.

Similarly, females on the spectrum are also often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression or eating disorders because of how it affects them, and therefore we think that autism primarily affects men even though that may not be the case at all. Society tends to prime girls at a young age to be more sociable (but doesn't frown upon them being shy either), so they are often able hide under the radar, but continue to suffer in other ways. I'm on the spectrum myself, and I've had doctors laugh at me for wanting to be tested because "I 'look' and 'act' 'normal'," to them, which is incredibly insulting. Additionally, those that are trained to detect autism are often pediatricians, not general practitioners that aren't taking into consideration the adult patient's learned-skills over time. This is often what leads people to try to figure out what is wrong with them through other means, and I don't think we should be going around telling other people who they are and aren't. There will always be hypochondriacs, but this is one of those situations where I feel like we should try to take people seriously before we write them off entirely.

So thanks for the armchair neuropsychology, but nobody needs it; we still have _a lot_ to learn.

<comment><USER25> The DSM isn't armchair psychology, it surveys accepted professional practice. The rest is just my personal opinion: terrible personality isn't commonly considered a medical diagnosis, so I don't think I need a license.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Coming to a blog post, why most computer specialists relate to autism. It is very important to keep in mind there is a broad spectrum. Holding two strong relationships with a total of three children with Asperger's or high functioning autism (ages: 3-6, 7-9, 10-12) and a few here and there, it has really broadened my view on the subject.

First, language is a barrier. Social awkwardness naturally follows that barrier. Trained social reflexes and loosely coupled connections and relationships. From an industry perspective, computer specialists seem to form a deeper relationship and bonds with the logical machine.

Social skills are a technical trait that can be trained... 'why are you looking at me while I use the urinal?' In my experience, these children live on rules, and the rules define them as an adult. Computers are rule based too.

Zoning, stimming, and hyperfocusing seem to be common characteristics in the spectrum. Countless hours spinning objects, humming notes, doing routines, slightly ocd to an extent. Much like the caffeinated nights at the terminal for endless hours.

Multitasking as an obvious detour from an objective. Focus on a, achieve a, move on to b. Multitasking skills are found in the ADHD varieties, but interestingly, my observation has been a determined rigorous approach to solve solutions. Tinker until it is done. Modify. Read the rules manual word for word XOR ignore it completely. We see this behavior in our field.

Egos and emotions. Nothing more to say.

And I too have Asperger's syndrome. I have never been formally diagnosed with testing, partly because it was unheard of in my time. I visited a psych last year and she was shocked that my symptoms had not been tied to the spectrum. Yet, I am a trained individual, hyperfocusing my way to my goals and have been without guidance. My main issues stem from processing/speaking language. I am strong willed, persistent, introverted, curious, clever, quirky, and shy. I've self medicated my Asperger's and ADD with depression and anxiety... ruining my social reflection to the world.

The computer is my relationship. It is my mind, body, and soul. If something goes wrong, it is either my fault, someone's fault, or fixable. No quirky social rules to interpret and apply to the problem. Phone conferences in the phreaking days and IRC had my friends for the longest time.

The question 'is will/do you hire someone with Asperger's syndrome?', and the answer is: 'if they are qualified.'

Some of you will be parents soon. If you see the signs, get your children enrolled in a speech therapy program.

Peak their interests with gears (KNEX), LEDs and motors and batteries, circular/cylindrical objects, simple math/chemistry in the home.

The sooner the rules begin to form, the less the fear applies, grabs hold, and ruins the experience. Warn them about the quadratic equation, Bayes', matrices... years in advance. Eradicate the fear, spawn the curiosity.

<comment><USER28> As a father with a child with autism spectrum disorder (it is not fully diagnosed until 6-8) I strongly second to have your children tested and enrolled as soon as possible (ideally as soon as you have any doubt or see any sign). Therapies can have almost magical effects if started early, much less as time passes.

<comment><USER27> This, a hundred times this. Confronting the possibility prior to frontal lobe development can radically redirect a life. In the spectrum, frontal lobe development can almost equate to tabula rasa on certain traits. It annoys me when parents ignore the signs and are literally altering the path of their child. Embrace it, because when the teen years approach and the decade following, they will fall into place and you will most likely get rewarded with the relationship that every parent wants with their grown kids.

I think this goes out to all parents. If your kid does not enjoy the things you want to do with them, set aside time and do some of the things they want to do. You're investing in a lifelong relationship. Years will pass and that opportunity will not come back.

<comment><USER29> well said!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Sounds like a lot of us here fit the description pretty well.

I'm not convinced this is anything more than the various styles of potential people. Take for example that I don't read or watch fiction. I haven't been able to cope with it my whole life. I read non-fiction and much prefer it.

Is that a preference? Is that some meaningful indication about who I am?

I don't know. I am hearing the spectrum answer from a lot of people. That sounds like an answer with no way to refute it, so the value of it is meaningless.

I really don't know much about this topic, and haven't given it the time to learn. My input is not particularly valuable in this discussion.

However my best guess is that this is trying to explain the range of human possibility with a diagnosis as opposed to simply thinking that there are different people with different traits, and that's all okay.

I used to be "unable" to do a lot of tasks of a business professional and just coded and worked alone.

Then I was promoted until I was unable to do what I was good at, and has to learn how to do the business tasks. Now I am doing them.

It wasn't that I was unable. I just didn't desire to do it on my own, and wasn't in a position where I had to regardless.

I sort of think of all of this like ADHD. The majority of parents I know tell me their kid has ADHD, and many are on medication for it.

And I watch them feed their children coke regularly.

<comment><USER31> I worked with someone who has Aspergers and I would definitely say it's a legitimate condition and not simply a case of people having "various styles" or "different traits". I think it's one of those things that you can't really understand until you experience it first hand.

To be completely honest, although he was very smart and I understood his condition, I found him extremely difficult and uncomfortable to work with. Which is really unfortunate.

<comment><USER30> Completely reasonable. I was extremely difficult to work with for a long time until I learned how to change my tactics.

But maybe that's the core difference. I can learn how to change my tactics, even if it took me years to figure it out.

Edit: The real key for me was turning social interaction into a programming problem. Once I did that, I went from completely inept terrible person to work for, to a person who works with C levels regularly, and does upper level VC work.

And all that really happened was I turned the business social interaction into a programming problem mentally. Once I turned it into a game, I started to succeed at it. But it's not organic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> If the consequences weren't so tragic, I would laugh out loud at all this about Asperger's. Consider the following points:

1\. Human evolution is still going on, and in the long term, Asperger's might represent a positive evolutionary adaptation, especially in a world increasingly dependent on technology. Only nature knows, and nature doesn't reveal her secrets willingly.

2 After a recent epidemic of overdiagnoses, psychologists are reluctantly abandoning the Asperger's diagnosis -- it's being removed from the DSM. The reason? Too many people wanted the diagnosis -- it was the first truly fashionable mental illness. After all, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Bill Gates are/were thought to have this "disease".

3\. There is a positive psychological trait called "Grit":

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grit_(personality_trait)>

People who have "grit" tend to focus on a few objectives, or just one, for months or years. It's a "good thing™" -- psychologists say so. But the exact same behavior can lead to an Asperger's diagnosis. Have psychologists resolved this contradiction? Not remotely.

As far as I'm concerned, and in the opinion of an increasing number of psychologists, Asperger's refers to something real, but it shouldn't have been categorized as a mental illness -- unless intelligence should also be listed.

If psychology was a science this might all be different, but there's little hope for that.

More on this topic: <http://arachnoid.com/building_science>

</comment><comment><USER33> Hmm I sometimes wonder if I might not have this thing. I do share quite a lot of characteristics they describe...

<comment><USER34> Asperger isn't a binary diagnosis; it's more of a continuum.

The skills that make you a good programmer place you a little further out on that continuum almost by definition. [1]

Therefore the real question is: Do you feel you would benefit from the treatments that become available to you were you to receive the diagnosis?

[1] The simplest way to (sort of) get that is this quote from Inventing on Principle: "People we consider to be skilled software engineers are just the people really good at 'playing computer.'" (<http://vimeo.com/36579366> @ 17m40s)

<comment><USER35> The only reason I gave you a single karma point is because there's no "give this person all of my karma for that comment" button.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Reminds me of working at Noom. The management were complete crooks. They'd lie in job ads and justify it by saying they get more people to apply, agree to things in public company wide meetings then quash them in private when it didn't look as bad, pirate software then toot their PR horn saying if any employee needs any software for their job they'd buy it, frequently forget to pay you or pay too little unless you fought for the right amount, etc.. Very difficult culture for someone who likes logical connection between things and details that all make sense put together.

</comment><comment><USER37> I believe, without hard date to support, that the more HR people a company has in general, the less likely they are to hire people with Asperger's. And if those same companies do hire an employee review process that becomes very political/subjective/social is going to filter employees with asperger's out.

      If you have a job that fits their skills and don't ding them for not say golfing with the "team" I think there are opportunities to pick up highly talented people that other companies are not chasing who will stick around.

</comment><comment><USER38> I'm a sperg. I'm getting better. Meditation, vipassana. It uncramps your soul, unravels deep habits of attention, or something. It's miraculous.

Anybody here relate?

<comment><USER39> When were you diagnosed with Asperger's? Was pursuing meditation a choice you made primarily due to the clinical diagnosis? (I'm just curious)

<comment><USER38> In HS. No, I just fell into it as a freshman in college.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> "I have Asperger's: I am just like you"

Um, not to hate or anything, but there is a reason it is called autistic syndrome. Autistic people lack the ability to form a "theory of brain", which means they just do not understand other people's intentions that well. You can't ignore this fact and hope it will go away.

<comment><USER35> Aspergers is a relatively minor form of autism. (Not that the effects on one's life are always "minor", but it's minor compared to e.g. folks with severe autism that require assisted living)

All cases are different, but those with Aspergers can learn to understand others with effort. It's not impossible for them, it just doesn't come very naturally and will perhaps require extra effort and dedication.

<comment><USER41> You're being rather tunnel-visioned about it. It's a much wider thing than just the social aspect.

<comment><USER42> It's definitely wider but I wouldn't say JohnBooty has tunnel vision. He was just responding to p6v53as's comment which was about understanding people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra How do you know you haven't already? It's not that they walk with "ASPERGER" painted on their backs.

<comment><USER43> That's a great diagnostic. Paint ASPERGER on everyone's back. The ones who don't care to remove the mark are likely to have Asperger's (or be John Asperger).

<comment><USER15> Unless they realize they should fix those paint blots on their jacket that say something unimportant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> [http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html)

This TedTalks takes an interesting approach to Autism in the professional world. Enjoy.

</comment><comment><USER45> You might need to adjust your leadership style. For example, use hand puppets rather than giving instructions directly. Also start referring to yourself in the third person; that usually helps.

</comment><comment><USER46> Do I have Aspergers if I fit the description of one almost exactly? The author seemed to be describing me.. I am pretty socially capable and I can look people in the eye, so I don't know.

<comment><USER47> Strictly speaking, when the DSM-V comes out, no one will have Asperger's _per se_ since they've removed it (under the assumption that people will either be classified under the revised definition of Autism, or not at all).

Under the DSM-IV, one of the criteria reads: "(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning." -- generally, it's up to a psychiatrist's professional judgement to determine this. Sometimes it will be obvious; sometimes it won't. Don't self-diagnose.

<comment><USER46> Thanks for the perspective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> According to this article, I have Aspergers. Or maybe I'm a low functioning dyslexic. Or maybe I'm a high functioning autistic.

Oh forget about it. I'm going back to work.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is relevant:

Simon Baron-Cohen Autistic Spectrum Test

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYys7rhRcDU>

</comment><comment><USER49> This brings me to one of the ways in which humans fail. People understand that ethical character is important-- far more important than talent-- but it's also hard-to-impossible to assess at an individual level based on real-world imperfection of information, so they fall back on social polish and low-signal bullshit that might even be negatively correlated with genuine moral decency, autism and psychopathy being opposites of a certain spectrum.

People just don't have the tools to assess others' intentions or real character. Instead of admitting that their machinery for doing this is error- prone, they come up with stories about other people that have no basis in reality. The socially marginal or unskilled get screwed.

If anything, I think that people with Asperger's are, on average, slightly better (morally speaking) than the general population. Most people get stuck at Kohlberg's Stage 3 of moral development (although, in the corporate world, they speak a Stage 4 language, dressing social smears up as "performance problems"). People with Asperger's tend to skip Stage 3 (because they fundamentally _don't get it_ ) and land early in 4, which means they have an above-normal likelihood of progressing to 5-6.</comment>


Shit My Dad Says Gets a TV Deal after 72 tweets - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/sometimes-twitter-accounts-about-sht-your-dad-says-get-you-tv-deals/

<comment><USER2>
      "Son, it doesn't take a fucking genius to make up bullshit
      people agree with, add 'fuck', then slap on an old-man icon." ~ Dad, saying shit

<http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/statuses/5427392585>

<comment><USER3> Merlin bugs me when he gets cynical about stuff. He spends most of his career looking at how things are deeper and more meaningful than they seem, and then on occasion he dismisses something with a line or two that's got more to it. He does the same thing when he writes about the Beatles, because he always implies that a) the only reason they broke up was Yoko Ono, and b) Yoko was a stupid woman who couldn't write good music, and c) she seduced John.

It's annoying that somebody so smart is occasionally so willing to get snippy without contributing to the conversation.

<comment><USER2> He had a follow up.

      I kid 'em, but I truly am super-happy for "Shit My Dad Says."
      Seems disingenuous to front like YOU wouldn't be thrilled by the same offer.

<http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/status/5590745881>

I think he is correct that the tweets are somewhat fabricated, but also right that this is cool to see a twitterer get a tv deal.

<comment><USER3> Ah, okay. That context makes it seem more nudge-and-wink. Thanks for following up!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Shit My Dad Says is now more profitable than Twitter, despite being a flash in the pan sustained mostly by transient hype.

<comment><USER5> Twitter gets payments from some telcos because it helps to drive text usage. It's not quite the furnace fed with hundred dollar bills that it's sometimes portrayed as.

<comment><USER6> Do you have any further info on this? It seems like a likely story, but I've never heard anything about it.

<comment><USER5> I saw a story about it when they reenabled text for canadians and a couple of friends of mine were able to start using twitter from their phones again.

I find this story <http://www.thestar.com/article/592619> but it doesn't mention any deal w/ twitter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm guessing the guy got hired to be a TV writer because those tweets were written by him and the tv producers liked his writing, and not because they randomly chose some guy who tweeted what his dad said.

<comment><USER8> It's probably more because the guy owns the rights to the tweets, so he added him being hired as part of the deal. He probably won't do much in the way of writing the actual show.

<comment><USER9> <http://canyoucopyrightatweet.com/>

Lawyer Says: "I have read hundreds if not thousands of Tweets and have yet to read one I believe would be protectable, but the possibility exists."

<comment><USER10> But if they use all or a large part of the Tweets from that one account there might well be some legal footing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Only 72, but they are hilarious as hell. Quality, not quantity.

<comment><USER11> I looked through them all and found not the slightest bit of "quality". Not sure what you mean by "quality". Cheap, fake crap?

ED: Quit downmodding me and read the god damned things, people:

 _"When I used to live in Los Angeles, I used to step in human feces a lot."_

It's absolute garbage. Raise your standards a bit. You only get one life and one brain.

<comment><USER3> The meter is beautiful, the phrasing is eloquent, and the concept is hilarious.

 _You don't know shit, and you're not shit. Don't take that the wrong way, that was meant to cheer you up._

 _Sometimes life leaves a hundred dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't realize until later that it's because it fucked you._

 _We didn't have a prom. Dancing wasn't allowed...What's Footloose?...That's the plot of the movie? That sounds like a pile of shit._

It's identifiable, it's beautiful, and it's poetic.

These are the sorts of phrasings that can only come out of an old and wise and hilarious person. The confidence in forming his thoughts that way; the lazy beat of the language. I spend an inordinate amount of time learning to write dialogue, and let me tell you: If Justin's writing that himself, he's got a career as a screenwriter ahead of him. That's some brilliance right there.

Hopefully the examples I've picked do justice without my having to say too much. If you'd like to press your luck, and feel like spreading your smug cockery online without warrant, then I'll go Communications major on your ass and comprehensively make you look stupid in front of people on a web forum that you won't ever know in real life, but I think that would be a waste of both our times.

<comment><USER12> At the risk of getting downmodded because people disagree with me, it's hackneyed dull crap. Hey, my opinion's as valid as yours, right?

<comment><USER11> Well, yours are. Mine aren't.

It's really weird when a bunch of people you _thought_ were intelligent all seem to enjoy the same kind of fart jokes or whatever.

"No, no, listen. It's really eloquent..."

[PHHHHBBBBGGGTTTTHHHH..!!!]

Maybe that's the joke? Like, it's really fucking stupid, everyone knows it, but stands around laughing trying to sucker innocents into laughing as well?

<comment><USER3> You're allowed to state your opinion. You're not allowed to be a smug turd about it. Making the absurd implication that by reading this guy's 72 tweets we're wasting our life and our brain comes across as massively egodouche. Even if this guy was making fart jokes, you wouldn't be justified in the comment you made.

But, as it happens, his jokes _aren't_ fart jokes. They're smart and superbly funny, and I say this as something of a Humor Asshole. You're not the Smart Person Who Reprimands Stupid People in this archetypal Internet conversation. You are the Person Who Doesn't Get It And So Projects His Dislike. You know how there're people online who insist that Shakespeare was a hack writer and people that like him are only pretending? That's who you are in this scenario.

Shitmydadsays is one of two huge Internet joke site loves in my world, along with MLIA. The reason I think it's brilliant is that it does such a good job of communicating who Justin's dad is. He's apathetic, entirely tactless, calls out bullshit when he sees it, and still feels a fondness for his son. Now, it sounds easy in theory to convey those things, but in practice, creating short pieces of dialogue that manages to both be engaging and sounds like a certain character is really, really difficult. Most _people_ aren't capable of doing it and being amusing. Write down the words most people you know speak in a day, and you couldn't make a site like this. I've seen spinoffs. They serve to remind me just how rare it is to find somebody that speaks in a unique voice, particularly one that's also entertaining.

If you feel like it, and I do this morning, you can break down the words he says to understand why people are finding it funny.

"Just pay the parking ticket. Don't be so outraged. You're not a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement. You double parked."

It's fascinating that these tweets set up an entire story. That's hard, too. From these four lines, we know that Justin is upset over a parking ticket. That's the establishment of the scenario, conveyed entirely in the _response_ to his feelings, and in a natural way that doesn't come across as a set-up. You didn't read that and think "What a superficial set-up," because it's not.

The joke's funny for three reasons at once. First off, yes, it's funny that the father's not taking Justin's side, because grouchy old men are funny, especially when they're snapping at youngsters. But that's the absolute surface of the joke. The juxtaposition between the parking ticket and his likening to the civil rights movement is hilarious. Partly that's because the father was old enough to see the civil rights movement and Justin wasn't. Another part is that it also serves to show just how absurd it was that Justin's so mad at the parking ticket. It really _doesn't_ compare to civil rights, does it? So it's such a ridiculous perspective that still manages to have the realism of the father's age.

And finally, there's identification. We've been in situations like this, getting mad at small shit. So Justin's dad's words both make us identify with Justin and make us realize how foolish we were being. There's wisdom in his words that requires his sense of humor to fully work.

You get all that in four sentences. I've seen a lot of passages of Shakespeare's that didn't work so well. And this guy will never be as prolific in his brilliance, that's the genius of the short form. You can focus on the best stuff and eliminate the crap. So these lines fit Twitter perfectly as a medium.

"You worry too much. Eat some bacon... What? No, I got no idea if it'll make you feel better, I just made too much bacon."

The comedic twist, where the father's advice turns out not to be advice, comes across as perfectly deadpan. He's sympathizing with Justin, and offers him food—then turns it around, says it's not going to help him, and gives a more mundane reason for his advice that's hilarious in its own right. (Making too much bacon is a mental image that I find pretty chortle-worthy.) So, again, you get a lot going on in a short timeframe. You also get the dialect coming across ("No, I got no idea") that's subtle but still really fits what he's saying. As I wrote before: It adds a rhythm to the proceedings. I can hear this guy's voice in my head. It convinces me. If, on the other hand, a young twenty-year-old were to say:

"Maybe that's the joke? Like, it's really fucking stupid, everyone knows it, but stands around laughing trying to sucker innocents into laughing as well?"

I read that as overwrought, wordy, and not particularly brilliant of an observation, all respect to you. You could say the same much more quickly and less wound up; as it is, I could use the father's words as dialogue but yours would sound unnatural and a bit boring.

"Son, people will always try and fuck you. Don't waste your life planning for a fucking, just be alert when your pants are down."

This is _good advice_. I can see an earnest guy rewriting this into an entire For Hacker News post, but here it's said marvelously succinctly. It's not funny. It's _smart_. And it further creates the character of the father in our minds.

Now, you could argue that Justin's father's swears detract from his humor, but you'd be wrong and kneejerk. Here's why:

"Does anyone your age know how to comb their fucking hair? It looks like two squirrels crawled on their head and started fucking."

Consider the impact of the first use of "fucking." If he said "Does anyone your age know how to comb their hair?", then the second line would sound far too much like an attempt at a joke. With that first "fucking" in place, though, his tone is conveyed to us over the Internet. He's being sassy and rude, and so we've established a flow of conversation. That first "fucking" is an essential part of those two sentences; it lets him get away with the incredible image of the second sentence. I've seen two squirrels fucking, and the image of a hairdo that looks like that is priceless.

"A scar ain't 13 god damned stitches. I'll introduce you to men with REAL scars, then we'll all laugh at your fucking 13 stitches together."

Hopefully at this point you're getting into the flow of it. The first sentence establishes he's irate, he provides that little bit of perspective, opens the world to other people, to "men with REAL scars", and then places the perfect punchline of having all those REAL men laughing at his son, which is both funny in the "haha 20-something gets mocked" sense and in the "juxtaposition of real men with real scars still taking the time to laugh at a 20-something" sense. There's something for everybody! Fart joke people get their "fart joke", sophisticates like me get something a bit more delactable.

A good test is to ask yourself: Could Fireland, or Steven Wright, or Emo Philips, or Jack Handey, say those two lines better? I'd bet that in most situations they couldn't improve upon those lines significantly if at all. It's gold from the start.

There you go, mynameishere. You asked why you thought it was funny and I've responded to you in detail. I eagerly await your enlightened counterpoints. Otherwise, let's admit that maybe there's something special about Shitmydadsays, even if you don't see it.

<comment><USER13> It seems to me you have the core of a doctoral thesis in literary criticism here (said as someone who knows absolutely nothing about literary criticism). In any case, it seems like someone _should_ write a thesis on Shit My Dad Says.

(Maybe literary criticism is the wrong discipline? Is there something more applicable?)

<comment><USER3> Well, it's early in the morning and I might come to my senses later, but what the hell, the Internet's got a lot of free space: <http://shitmydadsaysexplained.tumblr.com/>

I promise you within four entries you'll never be able to read SMDS without breaking it down into components, and the humor will be lost, and you'll hate me forever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's a great story -- especially since Shit My Dad Says is hilarious -- but this does more to prove how desperate the networks are for hits in the 18-34 demographic and how poor their judgement has become (see 'Cavemen') than it does to prove anything about Twitter talent shining through, etc.

<comment><USER15> This doesn't look especially "desperate" to me. They gave the guy "a deal". The article doesn't mention the price. It doesn't mention a pilot, let alone an order of six episodes. It says there's a writer, a co-writer, a producer, and a press release. That's all just paper, and precious little paper so far. The sunk cost of this for the network could literally range all the way down to: The cost of printing out that press release.

(Because, believe me, if you're an aspiring screenwriter and a studio calls and offers to read your spec script, put out a press release, introduce you to a producer whose name you've actually _heard_ , and pay you as little as _one nickel_ , you _take_ that call. Because having a studio on the other end of a phone line may be all you need to get an _agent_ , who will not only help you negotiate your way up to _fifty whole bucks_ above union scale, but will also probably shop your next script or two around. Which is where the value is. Many aspiring screenwriters never get this far.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Here's an insightful interview with Justin before this happened: [http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83977/interview- justin...](http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83977/interview-justin-from- twitters-shitmydadsays.html)

<comment><USER17> Good to know that he's actually a writer for Maxim. Makes the TV deal seem less bizarre.

<comment><USER18> I had a subscription to a magazine that went out of business. They sold the rest of my subscription to Maxim, and sent me a letter letting me know that I could get a check for the remainder of my money instead of getting Maxim. There were only a couple of issues left in the subscription anyway, so I figured it wasn't worth the trouble to get the check.

I read through the first issue of Maxim that showed up and realized that it was 1.) basically porn for kids too young to get actual porn and 2.) actually insulting to the reader. I'm not saying that the writing quality was so poor that it was an insult to the reader, I'm saying that the writers actually insult the reader by calling the reader a loser, telling the reader that his penis is tiny, and calling into question the reader's sexuality.

I don't know how they make any money by actually insulting the people that bother to buy the magazine. If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the people buying the magazine aren't doing it for the articles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Poor _1001 Rules for My Unborn Son_. 406 updates and all I got was this lousy book deal. <http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/>

<comment><USER20> Great site! I just checked it out and couldn't stop reading.

<comment><USER3> If you need to break the addiction, read a few pages looking for misogyny, bigotry, and casual discrimination against various sorts of people. Your habit'll break by sun-up.

<comment><USER21> what are you the joke police?

<comment><USER3> Am I not allowed to state a dissenting opinion online anymore? Shitmydadsays is a brilliant Internet source, and Rules For My Unborn Son strikes me as bigoted and outdated.

<comment><USER22> Opinions, sure. Libel and threats, not so much.

"misogyny, bigotry, and casual discrimination"

"I'll go Communications major on your ass"

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to become as serious a thread as it was. I meant my response lightheartedly, as in: "Hey, you _could_ look at it like that and you'll find it." It's got a very 1950s mindset, and I was saying that if you get hooked that's what I realized that made me stop reading it.

Libel? It's an Internet comment, and it's not one taking itself that seriously. It's not like I'm launching a massive anti-Rules campaign. It's my opinion, and I was trying not to be a douche about it. Sorry if I came across as douchey.

But, seriously, "I'll go Communications major on your ass" is a _threat_? I was implying that if he wanted to be an asshole, I'd devote some major time to explaining what makes Shitmydadsays such a compelling read for me, from the perspective of somebody who's career is going to be focused on the written word.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Almost makes me wonder what we're doing busting our ass writing software. </sarcasm>

I'm a little surprised at this - are they turning the blog into the idea for a show? Those 72 one liners would be burned up in as little as half a season (not that I even know how long that is because I don't watch TV).

That said, a sit com that had cankerous old farts in it is nothing new. "There's Something about Raymond", "Seinfield", ... jeez the list goes on.

Ok, I _used_ to watch _a lot_ of TV.

</comment><comment><USER24> So there is some use for Twitter after all, isn't this just the "old media" attempting to get cool and "with it" by jumping onto what is a bona-fide internet hit ?

Well good on you Justin.

</comment><comment><USER25> A great outcome for a truly hilarious collection of tweets. I've always wondered whether the 'dad' was real, but I ultimately decided it didn't matter - the tweets are simply hilarious.

</comment><comment><USER26> I hope this guy turns out to be a smashing success and inspires more quality content on Twitter.</comment>


France Bashing Is So 2012 (Here Is Why) - <AUTHOR> http://insights.qunb.com/france-bashing-is-so-2012

<comment><USER2> Oh, also, don't forget that we have a few "minor" companies represented in France, such as Mozilla, Microsoft R&D, Apple R&D, Google R&D, IBM R&D, Intel R&D, etc. all of them involved in some extent in the French startup ecosystem.

For instance, Mozilla (where I work) hosts events with startups, has its own accelerator for startups, and provides some mentorship. Of course, that's for startups that aim for open source, open web, open government, privacy, or any other form of greater good.

</comment><comment><USER3> This sounds better than French government propaganda. Don't listen to this guy. France has great food, wine and architecture, I know that, I live here in Paris. But it's a hell hole if you're an entrepreneur, taxes are killing (+60%), investors get most of their money taken away, the State is bordering on insanity, social security doesn't reimburse much anymore and yet you're forced to pay for it+a private insurance and firing people is extremely costly, you can end up paying someone for years even though he's not doing anything anymore. And you can get sued for firing someone and the judge will side by default with the employee, most judges here are communists/far left to begin with or at least socialist if you wish.

Also, here, 99% of people are statists. Every political debates revolve around this: "how can the state fix our problems and pay our bills". Depressing. Recently, many entrepreneurs decided to go on strike and stop paying some of their unfair taxes, Atlas Shrugged is literally happening here, all the richest have left, many entrepreneurs have left, many who stayed are going on strike. You know something is wrong with a country when Ayn Rand's exaggerated prophecies are becoming a reality. Anyway. Just my two cents.

Edit: Dear fellow French. Please argue, don't just downvote and call BS.

<comment><USER4> You want me to argue?

> taxes are killing (+60%)

Taxes are NOT 60% for business, it's 30%. It can go up to a bit less than 60% on personal incomes. That is if your are extremely rich. In 2012, the average taxation was less than 6%. The 45% slice of imposition (which to date is the highest) applies only if you earn more than 500,000€, and only on your incomes _above_ that threshold.

For instance if you earn 1,000,000€ you will pay 458,140.05€ of taxes on incomes, which is a bit less than 46%. To get up to 60% of taxes on incomes, you have to be immensely rich, you won't be suffering from your contribution to society.

> the State is bordering on insanity

Your personal (and imho, stupid as fuck, even if I don't particularly like our government) opinion.

> social security doesn't reimburse much anymore and yet you're forced to pay > for it+a private insurance

This couldn't be more wrong. I don't have a private insurance (nor what we call a "mutuelle" to be clear), I only have the minimum public social security. I went to the hospital twice last month, and both time got a small surgical act in addition to the consultation of a doctor (she's one of the best in her domain, worldwide, fwiw). This cost me 21€ the first time and 7.5€ the second time. Most of the medicine I had to take after that were reimbursed almost entirely. _This is not a special case_ , this is the rule.

> firing people is extremely costly, you can end up paying someone for years > even though he's not doing anything anymore.

Other people responded to that one. But I may add that if you end up paying people for years after they stop working for you it's either for a non- competition contract or that you fired people without being able to give a reason. Too bad for you, workers are a bit protected in this country.

> you can get sued for firing someone and the judge will side by default with > the employee, most judges here are communists/far left to begin with or at > least socialist if you wish.

Let me laugh a bit I'll come back when I'm done.

Your next paragraph is pure speculations and is plain wrong. No the richest didn't leave. A few cunt like Depardieu left and made a lot of noise about it, but that's all. But if _you_ want to leave, feel free, nobody will stop you.

<comment><USER3> > Taxes are NOT 60% for business, it's 30%.

Oh come on, you know that when you sum up all taxes and regulations, it costs way more than 30%, it's more like 50% minimum.

> It can go up to a bit less than 60% on personal incomes.That is if your are > extremely rich

How naive, when you make 2000€, you cost 4000€ to your employer. That means your real salary is 4000 € minus 50% that goes through taxes that your employer pays but really he's passing the costs on you unless you think he's paying you a free meal. So that's 50% already for everyone, then you have to subtract 20 to 30% on the 2000€. So yeah, my 60% is pretty accurate.

> Your personal (and imho, stupid as fuck, even if I don't particularly like > our government) opinion.

First of all, no need to be so rude. Second, it is being insane. Their answer to everything is more tax even though this is killing the economy. It's clear now that France is governed by a theocracy, a new serfdom where God is Public spending, the clergé is the public workers that pay no taxes and get to retire early with big salaries and lots of privileges and the Tiers état is the people paying for the rest. [http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave- la-france-es...](http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-la-france- est-gouvernee-par-une-theocratie/)

> a doctor (she's one of the best in her domain, worldwide, fwiw). This cost > me 21€ the first time and 7.5€

So one of the best doctors is paid 21€ and 7.5€? Wow, that's less than flipping burgers at your local burger joint. Do you do consulting at this price too? Anyway, this is an anecdotical evidence of yours. It's a fact that Securité social does not reimburse much any more and yet you still have to pay for it and get a private insurance on the side. This is well documented [http://www.securite-sociale.info/](http://www.securite-sociale.info/)

> it's either for a non-competition contract or that you fired people without > being able to give a reason. Too bad for you, workers are a bit protected in > this country.

See, this is where we disagree. It is my company, my private property. I should be able to do as I please with it as long as don't mess with other's freedom, this is a constitutional right in the declaration of human rights, private property is sacred. I should be allowed to employ and stop employing whoever I want, whenever I want. This is why there is so much unemployment in France, it's so hard and costly to fire people that we'd rather not employ them. You think you're helping workers but you're not, you're creating more unemployment. Countries like Switzerland that don't have such "protection" have much less unemployment.

> A few cunt like Depardieu left

Are you serious? The richest man in France has left and many of the top richest famillies have left: LVMH, Lacoste, Peugeot etc. Not only that but most of our artists and sports men have left. Anyone who creates lots of wealth has left the country. Don't you see a wrong pattern here? How blind can one be. [http://www.latribune.fr/vos- finances/impots/fiscalite/201112...](http://www.latribune.fr/vos- finances/impots/fiscalite/20111201trib000668201/decouvrez-la-liste- des-44-plus-grandes-fortunes-francaises-exilees-en-suisse.html)

<comment><USER5> >God is Public spending, the clergé is the public workers that pay no taxes and get to retire early with big salaries and lots of privileges and the Tiers état is the people paying for the rest. [http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-la-france- es...](http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-la-france-est- gouvernee-par-une-theocratie/)

Yep, because as any Friedman loving economist (like Charles Gave you're linking to) will tell you, there's only one God and it's the Market.

>So one of the best doctors is paid 21€ and 7.5€?

No, you see, that's the thing about Social Security (you seem to know so much about), that's what the OP paid, the rest was paid to the doctor by the Social Security. This is well documented in [http://www.securite- sociale.info/](http://www.securite-sociale.info/) you should take a look.

>See, this is where we disagree. It is my company, my private property. I should be able to do as I please with it as long as don't mess with other's freedom, this is a constitutional right in the declaration of human rights, private property is sacred.

"There is just one God, and it's private property". Where did you find "private property is sacred" anywhere in the declaration of human rights?

>Are you serious? The richest man in France has left and many of the top richest famillies have left: LVMH, Lacoste, Peugeot etc.

Yep and Apple, Google et al. don't pay any corporate taxes. Surely, the problem is the taxes.

<comment><USER3> > Yep, because as any Friedman loving economist (like Charles Gave you're > linking to) will tell you, there's only one God and it's the Market.

Oh but I love Friedman too. And what's wrong with the market? What else is the market but people freely exchanging goods and services voluntary? What is more peaceful than two people making a voluntary deal? What are we entrepreneurs doing if not that? See Friedman's famous pencil example [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlTRau_XgGs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlTRau_XgGs)

> No, you see, that's the thing about Social Security (you seem to know so > much about), that's what the OP paid, the rest was paid to the doctor by the > Social Security.

That's my point, 21€ and 7.5€ is what you see, what you don't see is the 60% income tax we all pay to get this. Not really that cheap anymore.

> Where did you find "private property is sacred" anywhere in the declaration > of human rights?

omg, really? You haven't even read the first line of the declaration? Here you go:

"dans une Déclaration solennelle, les droits naturels, inaliénables et __sacrés __de l'homme "

Article 2:

"Ces droits sont la liberté, la propriété, la sûreté et la résistance à l'oppression."

Well, that was easy :) [http://www.assemblee- nationale.fr/histoire/dudh/1789.asp](http://www.assemblee- nationale.fr/histoire/dudh/1789.asp)

> Surely, the problem is the taxes.

Good, now you get it.

Finally here's another good one from the 1789 act:

"Un peuple libre n'acquitte que des contributions, un peuple esclave paie des impôts »". A free people pays bills (ie from private companies), a people of slaves pays taxes. Yep, that's from our founding fathers. Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand could not have put it better. Have a nice day citoyen :)

<comment><USER6> Friedman is a hack ignored by anyone with half a brain. Same with Ayn Rand. They say incredible things, if you don't spend much time thinking about it.

<comment><USER3> Anonymous coward fivethree says Nobel price Friedman and best sellers Ayn Rand are hacks. Hey people, pay attention, we should ignore these two starting today!

<comment><USER6> Also the entirety of respected academics in economic, philosophy, and literature. Those guys probably aren't important.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Ok, Paris will never compete with San Francisco"

Not so sure about that. Never is a very long word. I bet Paris can compete with San Francisco on tech before San Francisco can compete on charm.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are soooo damn right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > Plus, French engineers compensations are half US engineers compensations in > average.

Hmm... yeah, how is that a good thing? There's also that common thing where startups hire interns and ask for the knowledge of a very specific stack, 10 different skills, bachelor's degree level and offer 600e/month (min. is 436.05e which makes it 2.875e per hour -- if your internship is longer than two months, 0 if shorter) because "oh yeah, you're an intern, you're here to learn. plus we're a start up, we don't have any money".

I love working at startups but sometimes their offers are a fucking joke around here.

I know internships shouldn't be done for the money, I've already done some 436.05e/month ones, don't worry about that.

<comment><USER2> As a former startup CTO, I confirm that "we" (== the start-ups) love interns, for all the bad reasons.

They are dirt cheap, they often don't have enough experience to say no when they are handed the crap tasks, and if we decide to hire them, we can offer very low wages, because they often don't take the time to check out the competition. Oh, and they can be blamed for just about anything wrong that happens, too.

Sorry about this, interns, that wasn't my call.

<comment><USER9> I remember my days as intern. So true! It's a dirty game, but it is played dirty (most of the time) by both sides. The (presumably) naïve intern only stays until he wakes up, then having now the luxury of time on his side and the leverage of already being employed, just bids himself to better offers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I really like the point this story is making, but I've really not seen much "France Bashing" going around lately. Did I miss anything?

Additionally, the points made seem to apply to a large extent to many European countries. Which is a good thing, of course.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. The #pigeons did hurt a lot last year, and after a few months in SF and in Boston I've been amazed how many beliefs foreign observers have about the French startup ecosystem. You're probably right about France (vs) Europe. Would be happy to have some comments from European folks here.

<comment><USER10> Some links about that "pigeons" thing would strenghten your article. I had to google the term to understand what it meant - a national political pressure campaign about taxes that backfired in terms of reputation, am I right?

When reading the article I just skipped that particular point thinking it was some kind of inside joke I didn't get.

One thing I'd like to know about Paris is how non-French-speaking-friendly the startup scene there is. I'm Dutch, my French goes as far as "je m'appelle une baguette". I'm weary of moving to Paris simply because of my experience that the French are, well, less comfortable communicating in English than the inhabitants of some other countries around here, even among the higher educated.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, thanks @skrebbel. "Pigeons" were indeed a group of entrepreneurs fighting a new tax project of the newly elected socialist government in 2012. If they were right or wrong, I won't debate, I'm just thinking they did a terrible job in downgrading the image of France abroad. Non-French-speaking entrepreneurs are welcome in Paris, I can help putting you in touch with good accelerators that can host you and provide guidance. The startup scene in France today is totally fluent in English, you should feel comfortale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What's 2012 got to do with anything? It's a national pastime in some corners of the world...

</comment><comment><USER12> Way to go !

</comment><comment><USER13> $5000 to incorporate in the US? I paid $80. Also, they're talking about how it is "easy" to fire people... if you give them 3 months of notice? Craziness.</comment>


Press and Viral aren't the only two marketing and distribution strategies - <AUTHOR> http://www.immadsnewworld.com/2008/08/press-and-viral-arent-only-two.html <comment><USER3> This is one major problem 90% of startups/businesses face. Most entrepreneurs are usually skilled individuals who build products. But what they fail to realize is that now they have to place their product in front of your customers. That is the hard part.

Most startups launch will not be covered by TC, Mashable, RWW....Even when your startup does you cannot guarantee the audience will come back. Why would they? So what does an entrepreneur do?

A few startup entrepreneurs believe they do not need a "business guy" in their team. Well, save the case in which you are building a Google Killer or a super viral app, you do. While you are busy responding to those 50 hard core users and not the 5k who signed up and never came back, the business guy is supposed to be busy creating and/or attracting business.

That one guy should be the one selling your product, looking for distributions deals and spend his time emailing/calling (harassing works too) established players who may be able to take advantage of your product/service. Sales prove your product is worth something. Distribution is another important part of your business. You cannot easily acquire 1 million users, but you can add a tiny value to someone else's 1 million users (Facebook applications). In this case you are usually generating revenue as well. Once you sign one decent deal (and make sure they announce it publicly) other players will follow. "Monkey see , Monkey do".

Hackers can certainly learn to be great negotiators and great business development managers, but usually they do not want anything to do with bureaucracy.

If you are a team of 2 hackers, having a third co-founder or early part time employee as your VP of sales and Business Development will only benefit your company.

<comment><USER4> Does YC require all founders to hack or can one be the business guy you describe? I can't code - I have enough trouble with SQL SELECT statements - but I do think I'm not too shabby at the partnership/sales stuff.

<comment><USER5> I can barely code. I know a tiny bit of python and some basic html & css and suck at them. That's it - mostly because I've never put in the time like I should have.

I plan on writing on this very topic (how to market without TC - <USER2> thread) as soon as I have some free time.

Edit: For those who don't know I'm in YC (ticketstumbler.com). So yes they accept business types. My cofounder, Tom, is a superb hacker though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think SEO is one of the best options for product builders to market their products, but it's really only a HUGE win if you have a huge body of content (and a means for that to keep growing). User-generated content + SEO really a viral loop: 100 pages get indexed, which generates X views per day. Eventually, a user creates some new content. Now 101 pages get indexed, increasing the views per day. Rinse repeat, wait for glory. :-)

Of course, for a lot of startups (like RescueTime unfortunately) SEO isn't a huge/viral win (though we still give it a lot of love).

</comment><comment><USER7> This article reminded me to go buy some Google ads. I just allocated $20 for them and we'll see how it turns out.

<comment><USER8> Unfortunately the price of Google ads is driven up by people that don't measure or don't care about their ROI's.

<comment><AUTHOR> In your experience; is that always true or only for certain keywords?

Sounds like it would be amazingly good for Google if it was true but not sustainable.

<comment><USER5> It's 100% true. If you're just "experimenting" use some back alley place like Microsoft Adcenter. You can find coupon codes for $75 in free ad words with them. Until you know what you're doing, don't use Google Adwords.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Asana isn't the king of project management software anymore - <AUTHOR> https://quire.io/free-asana-alternative-migration <comment><USER2> I find this very useful, since I have used Asana for several years now. Thanks for sharing this!</comment>


Trump pitches 0% payroll tax rate for the rest of 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/10/trump-pitched-0percent-payroll-tax-rate-for-the-rest-of-this-year-white-house-officials-say.html <comment><USER2> These taxes fund Medicare and Social Security which his administration and the GOP wants to cut back. Although reducing payroll taxes would be helpful to businesses, these programs may be necessary to help citizens infected or displaced by COVID-19. Medicare may need a buff to compensate for strain on the program if only for testing while those of retirement age (and more likely to be impacted by the virus) might opt to leave the workforce during this period and start drawing on their entitlements like Social Security. They have been paying into it their entire lives, they are entitled to now draw on those benefits.

<comment><USER3> Money is fungible. They could just make medical care free for all for 2020 also if they want... but this will have more of a general economic stimulus that think.

<comment><USER2> How they go about that would be interesting. Would they make it so offices can right of the cost and gt it back next tax season? Would they inject cash to pay off those bills directly? Would they subsidize care in addition or in place of insurance?

Each could have a different long term outcome. A future payoff will still hurt the offices that are 'made whole' but don't have cash now to pay employees or bills. Paying bills directly would emulate basic income or universal healthcare without taking part in the pricing discussion possible leading to gouging. And subsidies would do something similar as offices could raise prices above insurance minimums up to whatever the government pays out but could allow more control long term as the government muscles into the insurance space generally and can start setting prices like universal healthcare.

I think this is the perfect opportunity to be a bit authoritarian on healthcare policy. The left wants a universal system like medicare for all and the right wants the current administration to look good ahead of the 2020 election especialy if the 'economy' (stock market) is tanking.

The administration could declare a medical emergency and gain access to additional funding or work with congress to up funding or work on a universal medicare for all implementation. The emergency allows quick action and a scapegoat to point at if things don't work well initially (something like the ACA websites issues). The administration can then expand medicare to all citizens (emphasis on citizens for better optics to the right) and move to partner with insurance groups for outreach or expansion while paying health care offices directly and naming their price.

Win Win. The US has a psuedo universal system, the government can manage pricing for all bringing down prices for care and drugs, insurance companies become the hands actually doing the work and any layoffs can be pointed at the emergency or slow down vs the new policy.

Of course insurance groups will not want to work on this as it would mean they would lose a ton of money or die off but then again I'm not a policy maker or educated to write policy, just posing hypotheticals on the internet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Funny when you figure he's funding DOD spending to the tune of almost $1 trillion. Besides, the exalted Mitch McConnell has already nixed the idea of a payroll tax cut-funded stimulus.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't understand how anybody collecting social security can continue to root for politicians that want to cut it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Surely there's a better way than raiding medicare and (especially) social security. This is madness.</comment>