China lets yuan break 7-per-dollar level for first time in over a decade - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-markets/china-lets-yuan-break-key-7-level-for-first-time-in-decade-as-trade-war-worsens-idUSKCN1UV061 <comment><USER2> So trying to parse this out as a non-economist:

\- first order effect: Yuan gets cheaper, meaning non-Chinese can buy more Yuan per dollar or unit of their currency

\- second order effect: non-Chinese can buy more units of Chinese goods, making Chinese exports more competitive.

\- second order effect: Chinese can buy less non-chinese goods per Yuan, weakening the ability of China to import items, but potentially strengthening the domestic market.

I imagine this will also create some amount of inflation.

An interesting technicality is that Chinese currency trades in two separate, mainly correlated markets. The onshore market (CNY) is regulated in a very tight band by the central bank, the offshore market (CNH) is much less controlled and trades in Hong Kong.

See [https://www.google.com/search?q=cny+vs+cnh](https://www.google.com/search?q=cny+vs+cnh) for the linkage.

<comment><USER3> > _second order effect_

The main negative effect is capital flight. If the yuan is devalued, _ceteris paribus_ , an investor holding yuan would prefer to hold anything else. For example, "in 2015, China ...[devalued] the yuan 2%...[and had to burn] through $1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to steady it" [1][2].

This time might be different, given China's tightened capital controls. But never underestimate peoples' creativity when it comes to moving their money.

[1] [https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-markets/china- lets-y...](https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-markets/china-lets-yuan- break-key-7-level-for-first-time-in-decade-as-trade-war-worsens-idUKKCN1UV06A)

[3] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-25/china- cap...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-25/china-capital- outflows-climb-to-estimated-1-trillion-in-2015)

<comment><USER4> "If the yuan is devalued, ceteris paribus, an investor holding yuan would prefer to hold anything else."

If you didn't sell your CNY at yesterday's price, why would you want to sell at today's (lower) price?

<comment><USER3> > _If you didn 't sell your CNY at yesterday's price, why would you want to > sell at today's (lower) price?_

Minorly, because tomorrow's price might be lower. Majorly, because even taking into account the price drop, the present value of the currency-swapped yield on investments in a foreign currency are greater than those prospects at home.

<comment><USER4> The first point violates your explicit 'ceteris paribus' assumption. A devaluation today doesn't on its own provide information about future moves.

I don't understand your second point. Perhaps you could give a simple illustration?

<comment><USER5> > The first point violates your explicit 'ceteris paribus' assumption.

Not necessarily. The decision of individuals to allocate in a particular manner can be thought of as a continuous function (IIRC this is called an indifference curve). In this case, the individual's preferences (given by this curve) remain constant. As the relative prices of goods (currency being one) adjust, the composition of the preferred basket also adjusts. This is consistent with _ceteris paribus_. If an individual's preferences were assumed to change, then the assumption would be violated.

> A devaluation today doesn't on its own provide information about future > moves.

In general terms, people cite 'momentum' as a trading factor. A change in price today may continue tomorrow. If you consider the feedback loops that occur as something appreciates or depreciates, it may explain why momentum can be observed.

In more concrete terms, China has very deliberately kept its currency from devaluing below this level against the dollar for quite some time. The country has attempted to undermine short positions against the currency by doing things like adjusting fixings and overnight rates massively against the shorts for a brief period. Given that China is now allowing this devaluation to occur, it signals that the nation has a new exchange target in mind, presumably lower than the previous one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone have any good links to how the trade war is affecting the Chinese economy and population? Most everything I read in the western press seems to mostly concern the "American consumer" and how him/her is hurting due to higher prices. It would be interesting to hear what's going on on the other side, too.

<comment><USER7> I've run a business in China for over a decade and follow the macroeconomic situation here closely.

Here's the deal:

The Chinese economy became investment-driven instead of export-driven following the Great Financial Crisis. Exports are less important to GDP than real estate construction and infrastructure development (subways, high speed rail, bridges, etc).

In terms of exports, Europe is the biggest trading partner, not the US. The US is number 2.

The Chinese economy has a big problem: the government can drive GDP as much as it wants via state-driven investment and debt, but much of that is malinvestment and the debt cannot be self-funded. So there is and has been a large debt problem. This is why the Chinese economy has been slowing and the government has not found a politically acceptable way to tackle the problem.

The US trade war is basically kicking the Chinese economy while it's already down, but it's not the key source of the problems here.

<comment><USER8> It's not the key source of the problem, but the "Trade War" provides a useful political foil to avert responsibility and perhaps instute harsh remedies.

<comment><USER9> I wonder how that plays if the long rumored debt problems actually create some sort of financial crisis.

The US as a foil works, but Chinese internal propaganda also talks about their strength and independence... if there is a serious crisis that hits the general populations, it's going to naturally raise questions that "If Xi and Co. made us so strong ... how is it US sanctions alone are to blame for this?"

Obviously there are options there but just from the outside looking in there seems to be a lot of pseudo "trust in Xi, he makes us strong" propaganda that would suddenly become problematic.

<comment><USER10> We should frankly be terrified the world over. You could well say the developed world all over has been investment-driven since the GFC. At least China's errors are visible. The world needed an orderly deleveraging. Instead we get trade wars and nationalism.

<comment><USER9> >At least China's errors are visible.

I'm not sure I would describe it that way. There's a real lack of visibility in China I think.

<comment><USER10> Those ghost cities are pretty visible. When negative interest rates enable a company like Color, and then Color goes away, there's little to show for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This happened when China _stopped_ "manipulating their currency", am I correct? And wasn't that a goal of the USA for a while?

<comment><USER12> China has usually been accused of devaluing their currency to make their exports cheaper, this is still in line with that.

<comment><USER13> The reality for the last few years has been that China has been manipulating the RMB to make it stronger. This drop to 7 should have come in 2016 based on market forces and everyone could see the pressure in CNH trade.

<comment><USER14> This China has been propping up their currency in reality. They chose to let it float more and it instantly crashed. There it could go all the way to 8.4 ish if they let it fully free float.

<comment><USER13> They float it but manipulate the price the way other countries do (buying/spending forex, interest rates, etc...). I doubt they it would crash all the way back down to 8 at this point (ah, to remember 1999 when it was 8.8), but it depends on how much money they've actually been printing to support their bubbly real estate market.

<comment><USER15> Is it really possible to change the value of a currency without constantly spending money on keeping it away from equilibrium? What I'm saying is, isn't it like extending a spring, where it's always going to go back to its natural state whenever you release it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Somewhat related question: does anyone know how many yuan there are? That is, how many have been issued in total by China's central bank(s)? Are such figures even made public, or is it a matter of detective work and estimation, perhaps funded by outside private investors?

Needless to say, the ability to issue more currency without anyone knowing you've done so (to increase/maintain domestic spending without the unwanted side-effects of inflation, for example) would be a very useful tool in any trade war.

<comment><USER3> > _does anyone know how many yuan there are?_

Money supply is always estimated. Modern monetary systems don't have a single person with a monopoly on creating money. The central bank "prints" a lot money, but so do private banks.

(Some systems have a tighter handle on money supply than others. But the measure is always an estimate.)

<comment><USER17> You are right that no one knows the exact money supply. But banks printing money is a misconception. Private lenders "create" money by fostering trust - I have $N in the bank, even they also loaned 90% * $N to other people. Effectively the same money is counted many times. But they don't have the right to print money the way a central bank does. They can only re-loan money that was deposited by others ("inside money") whereas the central bank creates money truly at will ("outside money").

<comment><USER3> > _they don 't have the right to print money the way a central bank does_

Yes, they do. A dollar created by JPMorgan Chase out of a loan wires exactly the same as a dollar created by the Federal Reserve out of purchasing a Treasury. (They both look exactly the same in your bank account and withdraw exactly the same as cash.)

Money supply is fascinatingly complex [1].

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

<comment><USER18> But when they have loaned out as much as they can, they will only be able to loan more money if they get more deposits (or capital). [Edit: I failed to mentions other sources of financing, including from central banks as lenders of last resort. RobertoG is right.] They cannot create money at will as a central bank can. [Edit: the point stands, the intervention of central banks may be required to inject liquidity when the banks cannot create enough money by themselves and cannot find anyone willing to lend money to them.]

<comment><USER19> No, because the dollar they created and wired away based on the 10 cents of reserve they hold might be itself deposited. Or the 10 cents might be the deposit of a bank-created dollar. It's a feedback system, it doesn't strictly need a central bank to work.

<comment><USER18> I'm sorry, it seems I misread what you wrote. That doesn't contradict what I wrote.

Yes, if the money created is in the end kept in the system as a deposit it enables new loans (but it is not necessarily so if the money goes to someone that uses it to cancel a loan of their own, for example).

And due to the fractional reserve requirement the quantity of money cannot be increased without limit by commercial banks. That's just a mathematical reality, notwithstanding the fact that it's not usually a binding constraint.

<comment><USER19> Right, there's an asymptote that caps the maximum amount of money in a system based on some initial M1 and a reserve fraction. But in practice that doesn't get hit because not all money is lent, so per upthread I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that "banks create money" in the abstract.

<comment><USER18> We agree. But note that this is in the context of the following exchange:

      >> they don't have the right to print money the way a central bank does.
      > Yes, they do.

Where the response ignores that that limit exists (may not be relevant in practice but it is in theory: a commercial bank can only give the loans that it can support with its existing reserves or those it may have access to, while for a central bank sky is the limit).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This might explain the sudden bitcoin spike today?

<comment><USER21> It might, but 7% isn't much of a spike -- that happens anyway once every week or so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The US and China are a lot alike and a lot different.

The US debases its currency, to pay for welfare and social services and to pay Pakistan for the privilege of fighting its clients in Afghanistan.

China debases its currency but then uses the resulting funds to build factories in Shenzhen and coal mines in Inner Mongolia.

<comment><USER23> Debasing currency is a product of ensuring low interest rates by printing money. The Federal Reserve and the Chinese Central Bank neither directly loans money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I am wondering what does this mean (if anything) to the huge amount of US public debt that China holds.

</comment><comment><USER25> Does anyone know what happens if we label them a currency manipulator?

<comment><USER26> I don't think this is just cause for labeling them. This, if anything, is them manipulating _less_ than they used to.

That said, labeling them would be a political act, not necessarily one based on objective evidence. In the current climate, it might happen.

And to answer your question: I at least do not know.

<comment><USER25> Gotcha, thanks!

I was reading some background, and someone mentioned an estimate of 10 per dollar to be a really true free-floating variable...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Bitcoin is up, gold at all time highs.

Who are the losers when a government prints money?

<comment><USER28> The government that doesn't.

<comment><USER13> That isn't true. The Swiss are not hurting much atm, keeping ones currency strong means imports are cheaper even if exports are more dear, which is useful if you import a lot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> is this why bitcoin is mooning?</comment>


Getting Paid for Open Source Work - <AUTHOR> http://www.acucciniello.com/2017/02/11/How-to-Add-PayPal-Donation-Link-to-GitHub-Repo.html <comment><USER2> Flagged because the title of the actual article is "How to Add PayPal Donation Link to GitHub Repo" and that is its exact scope. Title on HN is not representative.

<comment><USER3> If the title needs correcting, you can email the mods via the Contact link in the footer. They're quite responsive and often fix titles.</comment></comment>


Google Docs Now Makes It Easy to Add MLA, APA, and Chicago-Style Citations - <AUTHOR> http://lifehacker.com/google-docs-in-g-suite-now-makes-it-easy-to-add-mla-ap-1789723482 <comment><USER2> It makes it easy to add the citations but students will want to double check that the citations are correct. I just tested it on the NY Times and it didn't grab the author name so it cited the page incorrectly.</comment>


Ask HN:What's the biggest problem in your business that software can solve? - <AUTHOR>

Fellow Entrepreneurs,
Hope things are amazing with all of you guys:)
 My name is Daniel and i'm a coder looking to help businesses with the challenges they have and i was wondering what the biggest problem in your business is that can be solved by software.How do you tackle it? I would appreciate any kind of info or advice and would indeed do my best to help you) With best regards, Daniel K.W. <comment><USER2> From what I've seen, and once being a systems consultant, and now being embedded in an old client, I can say you really need to have exposure to business to answer that question yourself. The most successful solutions I've seen are created by a person or (even better) a large group of people who come from an industry and already have groundwork expertise in that industry. You can "grab the ear" of an embedded experienced person, but then why would business owners, C-level execs, VPs, or engineers not just create the solution themselves? (aim to become one of those people)

Here are a few generic super-saturated software solutions I've seen: \- Issue tracker: anything from helpdesk, to facilities management, to bug tracking, to project management and everything in between. \- Accounting software: Yes. Accounts payable, accounts receivable. \- Stock tracking: I'm a vendor, I'm a distributor, I'm an end user... all still relevant to me! (integrate into the other stuff, for sure!). CRM would fall into this, if you're crafty with your nouns.

l0gicpath already expressed the value of a thread like this, I doubt you will get specific answers to your specific question. Humbly, I believe your best bet is to connect with people involved in businesses (in real life), try to focus on an industry, and see what's needed there.

I've been working with this client for almost five years, and I can say I have several ideas of what's needed for them. But as with l0gicpath, I can't share them...

Here's a magic path: 1) Start focusing on a thing you like doing: coding, working on cars, painting, a trade, furniture design, music, ceramics, clothes... (sorry I'm looking around my room)... 2) Start working harder on that until you understand business operations a bit more. 3) Find a niche that needs filling and fill it. 4) ??? 5) Profit.

I'm on step 2 and have been working for nine years generally in two industries. Many people don't have the motivation to move passed step 2, or arguably never even complete step 1 (just live a mundane life collecting a paycheck in something they don't actually enjoy). Some people are able to bypass step 2-3 by riding on other peoples' coat tails (like working for a company that does this thing). Then they expand just beyond what the company does, sort of like: [http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in- pictures/](http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/) and blammo... you've got a business.

Here's a trivial example of the magic path... I just remembered an ad on the NYC subway about a dude who graduated from Monroe College in The Bronx and opened a dry cleaner: [http://www.norwoodnews.org/id=11530&story=monroe- graduate-op...](http://www.norwoodnews.org/id=11530&story=monroe-graduate- opens-dry-cleaner-in-front-of-alma-mater/) [http://www.stopanddropcleaners.com/v1/](http://www.stopanddropcleaners.com/v1/)

He saw a pretty saturated niche service, used some business-analysis stuff to figure out where to put the service, filled it, and now he's running a successful business. If he has the business acumen, his business will grow, and he will make more money. He will spend it on himself, or on his kids education, and he will start the long line of Jimenezes, successful dry cleaners.

Tom Cat Bakery, Shake Shake, Dewalt, Seguso glass, github, Google... they all started somewhere and provided something to some clients. They all had motivation, controlled risk, and had some insight into their customers' needs and wants.

You can do the same with hard work, perseverance and motivation! I've followed you on github and look forward to seeing what you produce!

</comment><comment><USER3> Quite a few in particular that come to my mind but for various reasons I'm neither inclined to share nor my team can't resolve so I'm just writing to say cheers to you.

I checked your profile, you are quite young. A small tip, might want to point out to a few things you've done. Maybe small side projects, weekend hacks or any open source contributions just to add some context to your post.

> I'm a coder looking to help businesses with the challenges they have

With your age and little experience, that statement doesn't project much.

All the Best and keep pushing forward.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey,thanks i get that. But still,i'm just searching for an idea,for pain that businesses have,guess there is no problem if people can share problems they have...

<comment><USER4> Don't let anybody discourage you--that's most important. Just do stuff.

It isn't hard to find examples of young millionaires and billionaires in this industry.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I run a < 10 man company. Still looking for Nirvana with...

1\. What is my balance if I shut the business down today and paid off all creditors and pulled in all debts? What does the business look like if I hire someone new? I need financial planning and forecasting that goes way beyond excel. Which is lighting fast to work with.

2\. Where are my projects really at? I'm a service business. I have to sell our deliverables. Need agile planning, rich documentation and project costing. The bastard child of Google Docs, Excel and Pivotal Tracker.

</comment><comment><USER6> Sounds like you need a 'Problem Exchange' site. In all seriousness, this could be a valuable way to aggregate pain points, get community feedback and see how much impact the solution could bring. Also, if lots of small organisations are suffering the same issues, there could be the option for crowd funding the work.

Maybe something like this already out there, if someone knows then please let me know!

<comment><USER7> This is a great idea. You should build it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Check below ideas shared in another HN post. Even you can't work on those ideas, you might be able to learn how he finds/describes his ideas.

[http://thedannorris.com/startup-ideas/](http://thedannorris.com/startup- ideas/)

</comment><comment><USER9> To expound a little bit on l0gicpath's question, really, we need more to go on.

In my experience, finding a random problem is only a small part of the battle. What kind of customer do you want? The problems at Fortune 50 companies are very different to the problems of 20-man shops. 37Signals made their mark on the world by recognizing that, and by focusing on the latter.

They were able to do this, probably, because that was the size of their own company, and they were likely scratching their own itch. That gave them insight into what they needed, and the problems they had, which gave them a bit of experience that they never would have had otherwise.

So, what kind of customer do you want? There aren't very many good solutions for 360 feedback, but the target market for those kinds of products are enterprise customers, and they're painfully hard to sell to.

What kind of problems can you solve? If I told you that we had problems calibrating our nuclear cooling systems, is that something you can solve? Is that a problem you can even approach?

These things matter, really, and it's hard to just spit out problems at random without knowing the kind of problems you're looking for. On top of that, there's very little practicality to someone trying to solve a problem that they don't experience themselves... or, at least, it rarely works.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey,thanks for your comment:) I'm talking mostly about small-size businesses.I've already made a similar post on Reddit and got a whole list of problems that small-size companies have:) But yeah,i see you're absolutely right and i realize i should have been more concrete...

<comment><USER9> Word. I'm not trying to not be helpful or anything... but I work at a tech company, so for the most part, all the problems that we've identified, we've either found solutions for or built solutions for. I can think of very little in my immediate knowledge that could be considered a problem that I think could be solved.

In the absence of a problem, I thought I'd try to be helpful by helping you help me more.

What are you own areas of expertise? I know a local company that's making a few million a year by building an accounting, inventory management, estimation solution that's targeted to landscaping companies. They know the market, and basically built the 'Basecamp-sized' alternative to the million dollar solutions that only exist for very large companies. Generally, even very large landscaping companies (which are their target market) aren't making enough money to move to an SAP-caliber solution and hire a team of developers and engineers to run / administer it.

The ideal problem for you to solve is something that you have enough expertise in that you could identify with the pain point and be able to execute well. Either way, good luck in finding something and nailing it.

Care to link to the reddit discussion?

<comment><AUTHOR> [http://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1q128m/whats_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1q128m/whats_the_biggest_challenge_in_your_businesshow/) I also found a bunch of other promising ideas on reddit that are not that technically difficult to implement... Just have to validate them completely and then build&market:)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Papier – Open a new tab and trap your best thoughts - <AUTHOR> http://getpapier.com/ <comment><USER2> There is a clever and simple code snippet to convert a tab into a notepad:

      data:text/html, <html contenteditable>

Copy and paste into your browser address bar. Just bookmark that and you have a notepad with content that you can italicize, embolden, print, export, etc. I'm sure someone here can tweak this code to be even more feature-rich yet still compact. Or check the comments from the original web page.

This snippet was shared a while ago on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5135194](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5135194)

<comment><USER3> Either FF or Noscript disables that for me in Firefox. Works in Chrome though.

<comment><USER2> What version of FF? On FF 44 this code works with the following warning in the console:

 _The character encoding of the HTML document was not declared. The document will render with garbled text in some browser configurations if the document contains characters from outside the US-ASCII range. The character encoding of the page must be declared in the document or in the transfer protocol._

<comment><USER3> FF44 for me too. Must be Noscript disabling it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Feature request: through force of habit, I obsessively mash Ctrl+S whenever I'm in a text editor - browser or not. Most web editors override this to prevent the giant "Save page as..." dialog from jumping up all the time. I know it's ridiculous, but I literally can't handle typing without Ctrl+S-ing almost every paragraph.

Edit: couple other thoughts: I just now realized how much I depend on the "New Tab" tab title to find new tabs in the tab bar. I realized that making the page name "Papier" is good marketing, but it makes it feel like a separate app instead of a better new tab page, and also harder to find if I open it, leave, and try to come back. Also, the page - even with no text on it - is about 150% the height of my window, and I despise unnecessary scrollbars (Chrome on Ubuntu). And it's "0 characters", not "0 character".

I'm only nitpicking because I will use this every day for the rest of my life.

<comment><USER5> It's an important reflex that anyone who used computers in the 80s or 90s knows :)

<comment><USER4> Which always surprises me that this is a habit of _mine_ : I was born in '96.

Not to make you feel old or anything.

<comment><USER6> Why does it surprise you? Do people not save anymore?

<comment><USER5> People in the 80s and 90s experienced computers crashing regularly, thus instilling the reflex of constant saving. I'm not sure young people have that reflex.

<comment><USER6> If my memory is not totally off, I started my computer usage in the early 00s. I don't recall crashing as a ticking time-bomb so I certainly didn't have that issue. And I save manually frequently.

I think it is more of a power user thing and/or a paranoia thing or similar - not the fear of crashing. For me, anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very nice, love the simplicity. Full syncing is going to be key though.

The biggest "complaint" I have after 5 mins is having a quick way to jump to a new line at the bottom. You wouldn't want to override the default of the omnibar having focus, but a simple keyboard shortcut would be nice. Currently it seems I need to tab down into the page, but then that still leaves my cursor at the beginning of the document.

</comment><comment><USER8> A couple of the unicode characters on that page don't render in Firefox on Windows:

* the character after "Choose Day"

* the character before "About"

I know character isn't the right word for unicode. What is? Code point?

<comment><USER9> Character is fine when talking about Unicode. As in: "That character at code point U+1F918 is not showing up as a proper glyph for me."

You might be thinking of how a single Unicode character does not necessarily map to a single byte in UTF-8 (the most common Unicode encoding). Some programming languages call a single byte variable a char or character; is that what you are referring to?

Incidentally, the U+1F918 before 'about' is not available as a glyph on my system — i.e., I don't have a font installed that has it. The creator probably uses a Mac (as evidenced by his exclusive use of ⌘).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I suggest loading Papier on the new tab page only if it isn't yet open. If it's already open, the new tab page could show frequently visited, bookmarks, and search as before.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is nice, but you can lose notes if you write in multiple Papier tabs. One has to be careful that they don't have another open Papier tab before they start note-taking.

<comment><USER12> Yep, ran into this as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you live in the web browser, I guess this is what you use. Here's a nickel, kid, get yourself a better program. Yes, I'm one of those condescending Emacs users. We have org-mode.

… — …

I'm not really that condescending, I hope, but it annoys me slightly that the web browser, of all things, is expanding to be the single one program that everybody lives "inside", when Emacs has been more suited for this task for decades. Emacs takes its role as a framework seriously (if a bit ancient in its design), but web browser developers seem to insist that browsers are for web browsing _only_ , and even seem to be more and more hostile towards plugins and extensions, and only allow them begrudgingly; each day edging closer to being a walled garden.

Even if Emacs is not to your liking, another consequence of the _web browser_ being the "framework" is that the programs that people use from within it are not programs, but _web sites_ – web sites that are under the control of third parties and can change for the worse or disappear at any time. (Not to mention the lack of privacy; even with HTTPS the server operator have all the logs.) Contrast this with runnning programs in a desktop environment; the only downside there is the lack of automatic updates, and the lack of automatic access to large shared data sets. However, far from all programs can really benefit very much from these things, and even in the cases where they do benefit, at least the privacy concerns often make it worth it to do without those benefits.

Sorry for the unexpected rant.

(For those who didn't recognize the reference: [http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-06-24](http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-06-24))

<comment><USER8> I think the web browser is where people want to live because it's so well connected.

And programs in the web browser don't have to be web sites under control of third parties. My favorite example is [http://tiddlywiki.com](http://tiddlywiki.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Offtopic, but has anyone an idea how the demo video is made? Is this a simple tool like LICEcap or do you need a bigger production app like AfterEffects?

<comment><AUTHOR> It was made with AfterEffects. For more details you can ask @LucChaissac.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is awesome, I absolutely adore the idea and implementation. Couple of small points in terms of feedback:

* A new tab with no notes has a height greater than 100% of the browser window, and adds a scrollbar. Small point, but annoying for people like me :)

* There are some issues with links: clicking could be more intuitive, and highlighting is inconsistent with certain characters. (Try pasting a YouTube link.)

</comment><comment><USER16> Shamelesly plugging one my apps here, very identically: save your thoughts or a todo list without installation of any extension or signups >> [http://www.doit.eddywebs.com/](http://www.doit.eddywebs.com/) When you come back on same browser it remembers everything.

</comment><comment><USER17> Really nicely executed. I noticed that the editor uses the new Draft.js from Facebook under the hood? If the authors are around, I'd love to hear how Draft.js has been treating you so far, and how much you've been customizing it.

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly! For what we have needed so far, Draft-js is an amazing editor. The only weird issue I had was with the default css who must be used, otherwise you're gonna have a hard time debugging it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> My use case: I use Papier to write down the single thing I'm (trying to) work on. That way if I idly open a tab in order to start getting distracted, I have a reminder of my actual top priority staring back at me. Magic.

</comment><comment><USER19> Love it. I'd like to see something like this with markdown capabilities.

<comment><USER20> Why? Is markdown so important for you to take some notes?

<comment><USER21> Markdown support means that I already know how to use it. I don't have to figure out what hotkey bolds text, underlines text, turns things into bullet points, etc.

How do I add links to this? Is it even possible? If it was markdown, I already know how to add a link, no extra thought required.

<comment><USER22> Why do I feel like it's strangely 1995 again?

<comment><USER23> Ya. My flashback is to 1988, painstakingly crafting manuals for my shareware.

<comment><USER21> I don't mind that this doesn't support markdown, or have super-specific instructions, or w/e. It's a fun bit of software, and I'm going to play around with it for a while :)

I'm just answering the question of "why would you want markdown support?"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I never try these todo/organizing apps that are just another burden, but this seems different. The fact that it has no accounts its simplicity feels very good. I'll use it.

<comment><USER8> I like the simplicity as well, but not being able to use tab is a tough habit for me to break. That alone will probably keep me using my current application.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I like the simplicity.

Been happily using workflowy for some time. It has the ability to drill down and makes lists of lists of lists. I like to map out all my projects with it, can cross them off or add descriptions.

If you try it here I get free space:

[https://workflowy.com/invite/5f5e43d.lnx](https://workflowy.com/invite/5f5e43d.lnx)

Otherwise:

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

</comment><comment><USER25> So many services use the New Tab today, so you have to prioritize what you actually need. For me, such service would better work as an online tool/service, not an extension. A similar concept has been implemented in idonthaveadamnpen.com which sends your notes to your email address.

Anyway, thank you for a nice note-taking service. Keep it up!

</comment><comment><USER26> I tried to copy and paste code into the note. Indentation doesn't translate over. Otherwise a useful tool.

</comment><comment><USER27> Feature Request - Dots! The deputy loves Dots! Seriously though, I want bullet points and enumeration please.

</comment><comment><USER28> Very nice! Hopefully it'll support syncing to google user account too.

<comment><USER29> Working on it ;)

<comment><USER28> Also instead of taking over the newtab page it could use it own page :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Is the data sync to any cloud services? Looks good by the way!

</comment><comment><USER31> Is there a way to export in order to backup somewhere else?</comment>


'Mega-Round' Investors Shower Startups with Millions - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/technology/venture-capital-mega-round.html <comment><USER2> "...Moving aggressively is not a choice. Well-funded start-ups, called "super- haves" by some investors, can afford to pay their employees more and lower their prices, losing money in the short term to win more customers."

</comment><comment><USER2> "...They must move even faster, expand their ambitions and collect more investment money than ever — even if they might not be ready. They risk becoming too reliant on funding and never finding a path to profit."</comment>


Forensic Ballistics: How Apollo 12 Helped Solve the Skydiver Meteorite Mystery - <AUTHOR> http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2014/0419-forensic-ballistics.html <comment><USER2> The article's discussion of golf balls reads completely opposite to standard well-accepted theory. The author writes:

> _[The "drag catastrophe"] is when an object is falling so fast that the > boundary layer of gas separates off the object and the drag force suddenly > drops by a factor of almost 10. The reason why golf balls have dimples is to > cause this drag catastrophe to happen at slightly slower speeds, so the ball > will travel a lot farther._

This is very confused. Golf balls have dimples to _prevent_ flow separation. The dimples are turbulators meant to induce turbulent flow around the golf ball before the laminar flow would otherwise give way to flow separation. Far from decreasing the drag force, flow separation increases it substantially.

[Also, the term "drag catastrophe" appears to have no relevant hits on Google other than this one article.]

[Edit 1]: The author is well qualified and unlikely to be confused himself; so I don't doubt his conclusion. Reading charitably, turbulent flow might be called a form of separated flow, and this must be what the author means. His coefficient of drag graph supports this interpretation as his "drag catastrophe" would be happening when you would expect a transition flow (from separated laminar to turbulent). Pedagogically he should have more clearly distinguished it from the typical laminar separated flow.

<comment><USER3> I'd never heard of "drag catastrophe" before either, but I think you're right that he's referring to the onset of turbulent flow that reduces drag on a bluff body.

That's the sudden drop at the right in all of these graphs: www.google.ro/search?q=drag+reynolds+number (same as his own Figure 9, really).

There are a lot of surprising nonlinearities in those graphs. I wish there was a more detailed article/paper somewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Submissions like this is the reason I frequent HN! A thorough well written and well researched article that point by point dissects an interesting event and comes to a surprising conclusion.

If you come across other articles of this calibre please submit them!

<comment><USER5> They took a few seemingly unrelated things and uncovered just how intimately intwined they actually are. Although abstract, isn't that essentially what a good hacker does on the daily? I think so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sounds a bit like the fighter pilot who shot himself down

[http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Tiger138260](http://www.check- six.com/Crash_Sites/Tiger138260)

</comment><comment><USER7> Sad conclusion, but that's what science is all about. Fantastic analysis.

</comment><comment><USER8> tl;dr: Occam's Razor demands the simplest explanation and so it probably was a stowaway piece of gravel

<comment><USER9> I came here to post that it was a great article - except for the needless invocation and anthropomorphization of Occam's Razor.

I. It is not clear that a rock falling out is _simpler_ than a meteorite falling out. How exactly is a meteor less simple? Sure, it's rarer and less likely, but it is not simpler.

II. A simple explanation of a how an iPhone works is "magic." But we know that's not the case. Our invocation of Occam is tautological - we only call on it when we think it's right, not when we're making a decision. We note that the article did not begin with: "there must be a simple explanation, because Occam's Razor always works." Instead, it invoked Occam after the fact.

Conclusion: Occam's Razor is a fetishized social construction and carries no magical properties and is of no use in predicted phenomena using a scientific model. It is simply a feel-good mantra like prayer and rosary beads.

<comment><USER10> "Simpler" is how it was formulated at the time... nowadays we'd probably formulate it in terms of going with the possibility that least amount of "luck" in its explanation. Something that requires four events with 99% probability is still more likely than an explanation that requires one at 0.004%, even if it is not "simpler". (Those numbers are just made up, not my guess at the odds in question... in reality, the gulf is probably even larger.)

I don't think the odds on filming a meteorite are _so_ bad that it will absolutely never happen, low probability events do happen in the real world (people have been directly hit by meteorites, after all [1], and that's much lower probability than a meteorite passing through a camera's field of vision, which has a _much_ larger volume per second), but for a given claimed meteorite filmed, the mundane explanations are more likely.

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_%28meteorite%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_%28meteorite%29)

<comment><USER11> Your reformulation reduces Occam's Razor to tautology- "the most probable explanation is the most probable." You might want to rethink that.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Formulations_be...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Formulations_before_Ockham)

<comment><USER12> Isn't that sort of the point? It's true, because it's a disguised tautology.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> " _It turns out that when the rock size is set to about 3 centimeters in the simulation, it passes the skydiver at 12 seconds. This rock size just happens to have the same terminal velocity as the solution we found by matching the velocity seen in the video._ "

Hm. Poking around[1], drogue/pilot chutes seem to be around 30 inches or 75 centimeters in diameter. I wonder how you'd get a 3cm piece of "gravel" mixed up in that?

[1] [http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/chernis-collapsible- main-...](http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/chernis-collapsible-main-pilot- chute)

<comment><USER14> The pilot chute can be hastily scrunched up and shoved into the bottom of the container ("backpack") without any adverse effects to parachute deployment, so it's plausible that the rock was stowed by accident.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is this a second rock? [http://i.imgur.com/j88wa4u.png](http://i.imgur.com/j88wa4u.png)

Sorurce [http://youtu.be/jfEdEIwhj6s](http://youtu.be/jfEdEIwhj6s)

<comment><USER16> It's been said to be a second skydiver

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is someone going to resolve the golf ball drag debate conclusively?

</comment><comment><USER18> Very interesting but, a little disappointing. Like the author, I was hoping it really was a meteorite.

</comment><comment><USER19> It was all going so well...

 _"It can't be anything else. The shape is typical of meteorites – a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded," said geologist Hans Amundsen._

Every hoax just needs one credible expert to put their name to it. This story may not have been a deliberate hoax but it ultimately was a hoax. It is good to see something debunked with some good, old-fashioned science!

<comment><USER20> I'm pretty sure a hoax requires a deliberate deception.

From the definition:

 _Noun: something intended to deceive or defraud_

Otherwise it's just a mistake, misunderstanding, or other form of "just being incorrect". If they said "we know it's not a meteor, let's tell everyone it is anyway" \- then it's a hoax.

Let's not dilute the word.</comment></comment>


If I could do it all over again... - <AUTHOR> http://www.livemint.com/2010/08/09193841/IF-I-COULD-DO-IT-ALL-OVER-AGAI.html?atype=tp <comment><USER2> Title could include that the implied question is being answered by Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin (and lots more) fame. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson> if you need a refresher.

</comment><comment><USER3> A good read, but I find it interesting that his answer to the "what would you do if just starting out" question is the bland and obvious:

"some kind of web based business"

Well, yeah, thanks Rich that's a great help!

This is why I love the openness of PG&co - compare their "ideas we'd like to fund" section - <http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

<comment><USER4> He's not being bland and obvious, it's just bland and obvious to us. Online business is still a smart part of business in general, to someone of Richard's age who gets as many pitches as he does "web based" is not bland and obvious. That's my take anyway.

<comment><USER5> I agree, I thought it was interesting that someone who started in business a long time ago has adapted and updated to stay fresh with what is important at any given time.

As someone who started with a print magazine, it's nice to hear that he now sees the future on the web, compared to many from that era who would stubbornly stick to what they had originally started with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _Q: What are the top three ways to find funding for a new business?_

OP's answer overlooks the top _one_ way to fund a new business: your first customer.

Think about it, most of us already have everything we need to go into a software business: a computer, bandwidth, a little gray matter, a little desire, and a decent chair. All that's really missing is a customer.

Find someone who is willing to pay for something, build it for them, and get paid. You've just knocked off multiple birds with one stone.

Funny how often this is overlooked.

<comment><USER7> I guess for Richard Branson cases, the initial capital requirement for consumer oriented media/air line/mobile/finance ventures probably is larger than revenue from initial customers.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, it's completely different when your first "customer" is in fact many small sales to consumers over several months _after_ you've had to lay down the capital in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Linked URL displays blank page; alternate link: [http://www.livemint.com/2010/08/09203655/If-I-could-do-it- al...](http://www.livemint.com/2010/08/09203655/If-I-could-do-it-all-over- agai.html?d=1)

</comment><comment><USER10> Very good read. I was very amused to see the author, at the end ! I didn't know richard Branson was living in India ?

<comment><USER11> Yeah, I hear he summers at the Taj Mahal. :)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are you reading this weekend? - <AUTHOR> Whether it's a new book, a magazine, or something long-form online, what have you been reading this weekend? <comment><USER2> Steps to an Ecology of Mind - Gregory Bateson.

I found it by reading the Wikipedia's article on map-territory relation, which I came to know by reading a blog post about Cyberpunk on RibbonFarm. I'm having a blast. The book is a collection of essays in many matters, including anthropology, biology, psychology and others.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map–territory_relation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map–territory_relation) [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/10/27/the-cyberpunk- sensibili...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/10/27/the-cyberpunk-sensibility/)

</comment><comment><USER3> The Year Without Pants - Wordpress.com and the future of work - Scott Berkun

[https://www.amazon.com/Year-Without-Pants-WordPress-com- Futu...](https://www.amazon.com/Year-Without-Pants-WordPress-com- Future/dp/1118660633/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Just finished Dune by Frank Herbert. Now I need to decide if I should go on with the next books in the original Dune series.

<comment><USER5> My personal recommendation, if you like the first, is to at least read the next two ( _Dune Messiah_ and _Children of Dune_ ). If you're still liking the series, finish the next three (the tone does change with _God Emperor_ and again with the last two).

It should be noted, the first three books form a trilogy. The fourth book is a bridge to what was intended to be a second trilogy. Herbert finished the first two in it (books five and six). His son (with Kevin J. Anderson) wrote several prequel trilogies (I did not enjoy, YMMV, read at least one of them if you've made it this far to determine if you'll continue, quick reads), and eventually concluded the original series with two additional novels (I haven't read them, I was turned off by the style of the first prequel trilogy and haven't returned to it).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

A few different sections in the D&D 5ed DMG and PHB

A couple of comic books.

</comment><comment><USER7> J.G. Ballard's _Drowned World_ and Hakim Bey's _Temporary Autonomous Zones_.

</comment><comment><USER8> _Towers of Midnight_ \- book 13 of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series.

</comment><comment><USER9> Just finished Last Days by Brian Evenson and started An Everyone Culture by Kegan and Lahey.

</comment><comment><USER10> The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin

</comment><comment><USER11> The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks

Ghost Wars by Steve Coll

Power by Jeffrey Pfeffer

</comment><comment><USER12> Michael Freeman - The Photographer's Eye

</comment><comment><USER13> Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

</comment><comment><USER14> _The Obelisk Gate_ by Nora K Jemisin.

</comment><comment><USER15> The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi.

</comment><comment><USER16> Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom

</comment><comment><USER17> Animal Farm by George Orwell

</comment><comment><USER18> Peppa pig!

</comment><comment> ely-s Life Work by Donald Hall</comment>


Show HN: Compatipal – Find like-minded people nearby - <AUTHOR> https://www.compatipal.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi! Chris from Compatipal here.

Compatipal is a free platform to find friends, like-minded people and soulmates with just a few clicks.

Describe yourself with short attributes (tags), say "JustinBieber" and "Slipknot"... then find others with an interesting combination of tags in your proximity and contact them, or let others find you.

The coolest new feature IMO is the map, where you can actually see how people from around the the world share your interests.

The main problems I faced were: Where do you find people when you spend 95% of your time at home/work? And: I believe part of the reason, why I don't want to talk to just anybody I meet on the street is not because I'm an introvert, but rather because it's highly inefficient to talk to hundreds of people and spend hours of awkward conversation just to maybe find one that I can get along with.

If you want, you can enter your location and up to 4 tags, it's free. The vision is to someday find your true soulmate(s) with just a few clicks.

I mean, if you're lucky you'll find one BFF or maybe one soulmate during your lifetime. How awesome would it be if you found 5 or 10? Or 100?

Let me know what you think.</comment>


Justin Bieber Has Dedicated Servers at Twitter - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5632095/

<comment><USER2> I must be totally out of touch but I haven't a clue who 'Justin Bieber' is...

<comment><USER3> If you live in America then yes, you are fortunately out of touch.

*edit, cannot type

<comment><USER2> Europe, nl.</comment></comment></comment>


Announcing Docker Cloud - <AUTHOR> https://blog.docker.com/2016/03/announcing-docker-cloud/ <comment><USER2> They rebranded Tutum which they just bought Docker Cloud, or am I missing something? Are they going to do the hosting part too now?

<comment><USER3> No, that's exactly it. The container images still reference "tutum". They're not doing hosting, but "bring your own node" works. Kinda.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Where's the video? I kind of expect an announcement like this to come with a video demo that is impressive or else why bother?

</comment><comment><USER5> Heh, from dotCloud to Docker and back again. I wonder how the investors in the insolved dotCloud feel about this.

<comment><USER6> dotCloud provided infrastructure (compute nodes with memory/cpu limits), which they wanted to quickly distance from. Docker Cloud is BYOI (bring your own infrastructure) such as Digital Ocean, AWS, Azure, Softlayer. It's basically Tutum out of beta, similar to CoreOS tectonic but less enterprise targetted (pricing upfront, freemium, can use $5/mo DO droplets). It's a managed control panel essentially. CPAS - Control panel as a service?

I liked Tutum (and thus Docker Cloud) as a rapid path to get up and running, but the higher level concepts of Kubernetes appeal more to me for real worl projects.. (note: Kubernetes uses docker and docker images)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> So does anyone actually intend to use this?

<comment><USER3> I spent today using it. I don't intend to do it again.

<comment><USER8> Sounds about like my experience using Docker Hub. I'll be back in a few years.</comment></comment></comment>


Acoustic Camera Uses Many, Many Microphones - <AUTHOR> https://hackaday.com/2020/08/10/acoustic-camera-uses-many-many-microphones/ <comment><USER2> Link to the author's presentation explaining the algorithm and construction: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G44M0HbIIBQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G44M0HbIIBQ)

</comment><comment><USER3> Fluke's new ii900 industrial imager is already for sale and is used to locate compressed air leaks:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wx9B_0n1co](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wx9B_0n1co)</comment>


Big Cloud Is Trademarked by Dollar Shave Club - <AUTHOR> http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4802:eik0ru.2.6 <comment><USER2> Search session is expired.</comment>


Give all my data to Google and the CDC - <AUTHOR> https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/google-cdc-data-privacy-covid19.html <comment><USER2> Google is a publicly traded multinational advertising company. I do not and never will trust them to do the right thing with my data. That ship sailed years ago.

If we have to trust private data mining companies in a pandemic it shows just how absolutely stupid all of this is.</comment>


Ask HN: Favorite inspiring quotes or verses? - <AUTHOR>

OK, this is just for entertainment.  I enjoy collecting great quotes and pieces of verse that inspire me in my entrepreneurial ventures, and indeed in pursuit of a life well-lived.  I've seen a few of my favorites posted here, so I know I'm not the only one.  What are some written words that have inspired you? <comment><USER2>
        The sons of Hermes love to play
        And only do their best when they
          Are told they oughtn't.
        Apollo's children never shrink
        From boring jobs but have to think
          Their work important.

The rest is good too.

<comment><USER3> I like how one needs a British accent to get lines 3 and 6 to rhyme.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not all inspirational in my entrepreneurial ventures, but here is a selection from my TftD file that I'm compiling. Some are designed to make me smile when I think about some of my customers, others are to make me focus on more important things in life.

      "Never argue with idiots.  They drag you down
          to their level and beat you with experience."
          -- Dilbert

       Always do right. This will gratify some and
          astonish others.  -- Mark Twain

       Practise random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

       Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good
          for anything, but you still can't help but smile
          when you see one tumble down the stairs.

       The hardest job kids face today is learning
          good manners without ever seeing any.
          -- Fred Astaire.

       The whole theory of modern education is radically
          unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate,
          education produces no effect whatsoever.
          -- Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Earnest.

       The young today are casual, bad mannered and have
          no respect for the old. -- Socrates

       Why do we bother bringing this canary down the
          mine?   All the damn thing does is sleep ...

       What we have done for ourselves alone dies with
          us.  What we have done for others and the world
          remains and is immortal. -- Albert Pike

Finally:

       "Bother," said the Borg as they assimilated Pooh.

</comment><comment><USER5>
       * Just keep walking! *

my latest inspiring quote. (I wish I could make it bold)

this quote is not from a book, not a website, not from a blog, but from a post right here on HN. (and quoted by the OP in another post): <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=625644>

I find quotes with a background/anecdote attached to it more inspiring. They inspire me on a whole different level...much much better than ones in "look before you leap" and the likes in the idiom based quotes league.

<comment><USER6> Er...it's actually a quote from Johnnie Walker. You know, the booze? Their official tagline is "Keep walking" - but they use "Just keep walking" in many of their advertisements.

EX: "There's no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. Just keep walking. - Johnnie Walker."

I first saw the quote "Just Keep Walking" in THIS specific context several years ago when Johnnie Walker published an in-magazine booklet targeted to entrepreneurs. I think it was in Fast Company or Business 2.0. Maybe both of them. I sent off and received a free t-shirt from them with that quote and their logo of a silhouetted man walking. The striding man. The booklet talked about persistence and determination, etc. It was called something like "Just keep walking: A handbook for entrepreneurs."

[P.S. - Sorry to ruin your story/anecdote.]

<comment><USER5> " Sorry to ruin your story/anecdote" ..not at all. I am aware of the johnnie walker whiskey ad. But story that " _pj_ " wrote about his experience in the library meant more than the ad tagline 'keep walking' - in my opinion. I didn't mention about the tagline coincidence - to avoid diluting the meaning.

It's akin to the "just do it", which we always see all around, but _i_ see it as an ad, not a motivation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> My current favorite from poetry:

      It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
      It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
      And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
      Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
      We are not now that strength which in old days
      Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
      One equal temper of heroic hearts,
      Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
      To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

      from "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

My favorite quote:

 _"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."_

-T.E. Lawrence

</comment><comment><USER7> Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

\-- Mark Twain

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

\-- George Patton

</comment><comment><USER8> Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat

That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

What shall be right: fardest from him is best

Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream

Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields

Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings

A mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.

The mind is its own place, and in it self

Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less then he

Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.

\-- Lucifer in Milton's Paradise Lost

</comment><comment><USER9> " We cannont solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them" \--Albert Einstein

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery" \--James Joyce

"Where will you be when you get where you are going?" \--unknown

"We are not so much anti-capitalist (...) We're fortunate enough to have built a very healthy business, even though we haven't attempted to. All we have done is stop short of trying to become insanely wealthy. We have met billionaires and it sounds funny but it's not necessarily a bed of roses to have that kind of money. (...) Their life becomes about figuring out how to employ all that money either by philanthropy or other means. So we don't consider it that revolutionary to have stopped short of that." \--Jim Buckmaster, CEO Craigslist

</comment><comment><USER10> "Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some mood of passion or insight or intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and attractive to us for that moment only. Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end. A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is to be seen in them by the finest senses? How shall we pass most swiftly from point to point, and be present always at the focus where the greatest number of vital forces unite in their purest energy? To burn always with this hard, gem like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life."

Quoted from Randy Komisar's "The Monk and the Riddle"

</comment><comment><USER3> _Fleeing cold whiteness, I would sit alone--

Not in the sun--I feared his bronzing light,

But in his radiance back around me thrown

By fulgent mirrors tempering his might;

Thus bathing in a moon-bath not too bright,

My skin I tinted slow to ivory tone._

</comment><comment><USER11> "...there are other kinds of globalization, the globalization of cooperation and sharing knowledge" -rms (the real one)

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

"Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism." -Hunter S. Thompson

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

Teen2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?

Teen1: I don't even know anymore. - [3F21] Homerpalooza

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

"And AC said, 'LET THERE BE LIGHT!'

And there was light --" -Asimov

<comment><AUTHOR> "The Last Question" is perhaps the best short story I have ever read. Thanks for the reminder to read it again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you...Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question..Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use".

From "The Teachings of Don Juan"

</comment><comment><USER12> "The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care."

\- Hugh Macleod

</comment><comment><USER13> Whether we fall from ambition, blood or lust Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.

\-- John Webster

</comment><comment><USER14> "If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." -- Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery

</comment><comment><USER15> Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication -– Leonardo Da Vinci

</comment><comment><USER10> "Be so good they can't ignore you." - Steve Martin

</comment><comment><USER16> "I don't look to jump over 7 foot bars, I look around for 1 foot bars that I can step over."

Attributed to Warren Buffet.

</comment><comment><USER17> Only the wasteful virtues earn the sun. \-- W.B. Yeats, poem introducing _Responsibilities_

</comment><comment><USER18> Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.

</comment><comment><USER19> Steve Jobs (allegedly): "Real artists ship."

</comment><comment><USER20> "Truth is a pathless land" - JK</comment>


DragonBox creator launches new game to teach geometry to kids - <AUTHOR> http://wewanttoknow.com/elements/

<comment><AUTHOR> Their first game DragonBox, that teaches algebra, managed to beat Angry Birds in the App Store rankings</comment>


Solving the cash problems from self-funding rapid growth - <AUTHOR> http://nathanbarry.com/cash/ <comment><USER2> Not enough companies bootstrap. Some people work 45 hours / week at their job and 55 hours / week on their side business. That is less risky to me than taking investment and working 100 hours / week on a VC funded business.

<comment><USER3> Also, for every startup that takes VC the total wealth and power that tech can bring society is further consolidated, which of course has a huge snowball effect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> All of ConvertKit's SaaS metrics are visible to the public at [https://convertkit.baremetrics.com](https://convertkit.baremetrics.com)

Fascinating company to follow, an "overnight success" after years of hard work. Look at that MRR go [https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/stats/mrr#start_date=2013...](https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/stats/mrr#start_date=2013-03-03&end_date=2016-04-02)

I remember hearing about Nathan and ConvertKit years ago on patio11's podcast when they were discussing pricing. Congrats on bootstrapping to some impressive numbers, don't forget to enjoy some of the benefits now!

<comment><USER5> Sidenote — I find it odd that Baremetrics make customer details public — eg if you view the images at [https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/stats/reactivations](https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/stats/reactivations), you can see everyone's Twitter handle, despite the "anonymous" customer names

<comment><USER6> [http://www.uifaces.com/authorized](http://www.uifaces.com/authorized)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting read, but… Specifics? "Hope and teamwork" was all it took to get on top of a crushing backlog of support requests? Sounds like a fairytale…

<comment><USER8> Doesn't sound like a fairytale to me.

It's been my general experience that startups, especially startups built by dev-focussed folk, tend to radically underestimate the impact of people issues (moral, amount of sleep, work/life balance, etc.) on their effectiveness of their business.

In fact I saw almost exactly this story, but with dev rather than support. Going from _perception_ of their being an ever growing list of new features, massive overtime, general feeling of being overwhelmed. To showing that folk were actually getting on top of things with numbers. To some scope adjustment so we could make the hours sane. The team getting happier, _and faster_ at every step.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for sharing this. It's exactly as you said: we were getting bogged down because the work felt impossible. That was affecting the attitude and productivity of the entire team. It's amazing how much more you can do when it feels possible.

The other thing is we had focused our entire 5 person dev team on helping support with bug fixes and help text / documentation for common problems. That took a while to kick in and lower the support load, but it's definitely helped!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Thanks for sharing Nathan, glad to see things are working out so well for Convertkit! And very glad to see a bootstrapping story in such detail.

Nathan's book Authority led to my creating a website from my books in 2013, and it's grown handily. I currently have the opposite issue: my revenue growth slowed, but expenses are low so I have a largish runway. Recently started investing more in capital and look to be on a path to grow revenue with a new product very shortly.

Specifically a Macbook pro. I had been trying to launch an initial video product using a macbook air, figuring I'd buy the better computer once I had proven revenue. But that delayed me for months due to technical slowdowns. I bought the pro last week and will probably have a very minimal product out this week.

Slack's been a big help. Several years into the business my processes had gotten too complex and it was slowing progress.

</comment><comment><USER11> What's the trade off here? Say he raised money instead, would that have meant that he can focus on growth and product instead of doing house keeping?

<comment><USER12> But the "house keeping" as you call it is what it really means to run a business. Any idiot can make progress when you've got millions in the bank to throw at a problem, real progress is made when your revenue/expenses ratio keeps growing, raw revenue growth is useless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Great story and congrats. Could you provide a little more color on what was going on in support and how the improvements came about?</comment>


Ask HN: Validate my idea - <AUTHOR>

I'm in building stage this idea and I would like to hear from you what you think about this. I did make in an hour small concept design of the webapp and one page website to describe the idea better. Please check out it here www.arsua.com
I've already spoke some possible future corporate clients, all of them found it great and would like to use it after it's ready.
Sorry for my bad english. <comment><USER2> "I've already spoke some possible future corporate clients, all of them found it great and would like to use it after it's ready."

If that's the case, then they should be willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Ask them how much they would be willing to pay for a solution like yours and whether they would be willing to pay (even half of) that upfront. If they don't want to, perhaps they don't really need it or are not your real customers.

There is nothing that will validate your idea better than pre-paying customers.

<comment><USER3> Great customer development recommendation.

People saying something is worth the oxygen it took for them to say it. If they put up something of value, then that's worth pursuing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well, this is a problem many businesses have and I assume they will pay for a solution.

However, to me it seems like an itch that is very hard to scratch. It all really depends on your execution. Can you really build a product that doesn't annoy the costumers? If so, then it's an idea worth pursuing.

One good way to validate your idea is to look at competitors. Are there any players in this field? Are they making money? Can you provide something better?

Another way might be to perform some sort of "smoke test". Build only the software component that calls and talks to people. Then start calling people you know (without them knowing it's you), and have the service ask them simple questions. Do they hang up instinctively? Do they provide any info? You might even want to call them in person afterwards and ask about the experience, though they might not want to speak to you ever again...

By the way the site has way too much text.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good points. I live in Germany and here sometimes some strangers call me and ask me if it's ok if they ask some questions, they say they do a research etc. and I didn't feel me annoyed. I don't think that if a computer that asks some "if you will come to the appointment press 1 if not 2" will annoy anyone. The main point of the question is it really worth of execution?!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not sure if there is any market for this. For small businesses and hair salons, there are already scheduling apps like schedulicity, which have reminding functionality built-in. I think you should try doing automated debt collection. Something like this => [http://www.debtordaddy.com/](http://www.debtordaddy.com/)

</comment><comment><USER6> This already exists in a few forms. How do you plan to compete?

Also the page doesn't work well on browser windows less than 1300px. Just an FYI. Wish you the best!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, but it's not a landing page, I just made this for this thread. I'll look for that. Do you know any startups in this industry?!

<comment><USER7> The 'appointment reminder' functionality that you stressed on the linked page has been done, almost ad nauseum.

The biggest ones I'm aware of are AppointmentReminder.org, which is helmed by our very own Patio11, ReminderCall.com, and Inphonite. Beyond that, there are specific appointment reminder applications per given niche (there are like, 3 very large, very expensive ones geared towards health care appointments, for instance).

<comment><USER8> > The 'appointment reminder' functionality that you stressed on the linked > page has been done, almost ad nauseum.

Do you know of a list of problems which have been solved ad nauseam? It would be useful when coming up with a 'revolutionary' new idea, to quickly check if it is :)

<comment><USER7> Well, I said that it had been 'done', ad nauseum, but I don't have any special insight as to whether or not it's been solved, or that even if it has, that there isn't room for improvement, or differentiation. Search was considered 'solved' well before Google got into the market, for example.

That said, I'm not aware of any such lists, though market research is always encouraged before spending time on development.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How the Internet works. Infographic. - <AUTHOR> http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/how-the-internet-works/internet_infographic.jpg

<comment><USER2> Nice, but part 5 omits an important concept: Your data are broken up into packets which are routed in such a way as to ensure reliable delivery should one or another part of the network be unavailable. These packets can be reassembled into a cogent whole when needed because they contain information about their data. This same information can be used by the systems transporting and relaying your packets to treat them in special ways; all packet should be treated the same, but that's not guaranteed. [INSERT ADDITIONAL AGITPROP CONTENT HERE]</comment>


Is everything an MLM - <AUTHOR> https://annehelen.substack.com/p/is-everything-an-mlm <comment><USER2> Most of the economy in the so called "developed countries" is nowadays a zero- sum game between winners and losers. Seen from a macro perspective, it resembles a multi-agent system where independent agents compete to provide inessential products and services in exchange for being able to afford basic necessities like housing, food and child care. The finite resource that such companies are fighting for is people's attention and time. Some win, others lose, but the status quo is that we are sweating from work in order to live in a world with smart refrigerators, automatic garage doors and pointless baby toys. And if we had more spare time, why would we even think of that.

What we really need is a change in paradigm because market forces will mostly solve only small "consumer" problems and cannot reorganise our society in a more efficient way.

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry that this is your world view, because it is deeply flawed and focusing on such cynicism leads to depression.

Most of HN lives in a tech bubble where everyone is focused on building semi- useless software like you describe. However the majority of society still does "normal" things like construction, manufacturing, sales, etc. and some sort of fundamental reorganizing of society on non-market principles doesn't change that someone needs to maintain our physical infrastructure and keep the lights on.

The economy is not a zero-sum game. If I make more money there is not someone else losing. The more jobs there are, the more needs fulfilled, the more services provided the better it is for everyone as more money moves around.

It's not on someone else to tell me what I should and should not want. If I desire it and a company provides it for a price, it doesn't matter that the smart refrigerator is a waste in your vision. The market demands, and entrepreneurs provide.

<comment><USER4> Almost every job i've worked outside of tech is pretty much some non essential service or product. Right now I turn mountains into countertops and fireplaces using large, expensive machines so rich people can have stone inside their homes. I provide nothing that is essential, yet every day customers spend tens of thousands of dollars and my spends thousands so rich people can have nice shiny stone inside their homes.

In order to get this stone, they literally dismantle mountains one block at a time, slice them into slabs and ship them all over the world. Again, all so rich people can have nice shiny stone in their kitchens.

<comment><USER5> Why aren't you arguing directly that we should all live in soviet-style housing blocks? Concrete is good enough, right? Then we'd all be equal.

<comment><USER4> I'm not saying they're wrong to have them. I'm pointing out spending $20,000 on some piece of stone for you to prepare your food on is fairly non- essential.

Though again, they remove mountains for this, the shop produces a bunch of toxic, fish killing dust and sediment every day that's slowly killing me and my coworkers and destroying the planet.

But my main point was, the things I create every day are not essential. They are luxury items. Many of the other jobs i've had were also along the same line.

Not that they don't make people happy or improve their lives I suppose,(though the people that got soapstone in their kitchen recently are in for a some trouble the first time they drop something on it or spill something acidic on it.) But, in the end, it's definitely not essential and detrimental to the world as a whole in many ways.

<comment><USER5> I understand, but from that perspective, pretty much everything in "developed" countries is non-essential, including personal computers (whether desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet) and forums like this one to discuss such things. Think of the toxic waste created by all those computers, and the greenhouse gases created by shipping them all over the place! And to what end?

<comment><USER4> Yeah you're right. I think that's the point the gp comment was making originally. It's not just developed countries either. There are massive industries supporting millions of people that are non-essential. The problem is many of them actually do provide a large increase to quality of life. The improvement granite counters make is questionable, things like computers, phones, vehicles and other large scale damaging things, while not necessarily essential, do bring a dramatic improvement to quality of life and paradoxically enough allow people to make money providing.what is likely another non-essential service or product.

It's always been like this though. In the end, there's no reason for humans to have ever made most of the things we have over the millenia other than because we can and did. Once we had food and shelter and all these things pretty much taken care of, everythong else after was pretty much just for the fuck of it and we've always been at odds with the world and destroyed and altered our environments. The scale has just kept increasing to the point where there are massive global industries devoted to this.

At the same time, humanity still follows our basic survival insticts. We still have that inner subconcious mentality of scarcity when it comes to essentials. So it ends up being treated the same way in our economy as luxury goods and you end up in this situation where people are trading non-essential things for essential things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _Life_ is a pyramid scheme. Rather than figure out a way to exist in a steady- state forever, our cells divide exponentially, accumulate genetic mutations until they can't take it anymore, and then rather than fix themselves, we just make new humans and let the old one die. Humanity in developed countries at least has the kindness not to make more humans than we believe have a reasonable chance of survival, but that restraint is not universal either within humanity or within the animal kingdom. Most animals just spray & pray and whatever happens to survive carries on the mantle of the next generation.

The universe is a pyramid scheme too - we know that thermodynamically, the ending state is the eventual heat death of the universe, but until it happens gravity creates this big positive feedback loop where smaller clouds of hydrogen coalesce with bigger ones, which eventually start fusing, which generates all the energy the universe will ever have.

We've grown to believe in steady-states and sustainable systems because until recently, the pyramids have not been birthed and died within the span of a human lifetime. Far enough down a pyramid's base and it looks like a steady- state, at least until it collapses. But now that we can watch economic systems get conceived, grow, IPO, and die all within a decade or two, we're waking up to the fact that pyramid schemes are far more ubiquitous than previously thought.

<comment><USER7> There's another big aspect to this: the orientation of the economy towards growth.

When you start asking "What happens when the population and the economy are in a steady state, where we don't expect things to increase at 2% forever", and the answers are pretty grim.

Retirement systems, for example, need a certain ratio of productive workers for each retiree, and I can't figure out any math that makes sense for the next ~20 years.

<comment><USER8> 1 thing I never understood is this obsession towards jobs growth. Every month, when this number is released, everyone wants this number to be better than the last month.

Yet if everyone who wants a job eventually gets one, this number will eventually go to zero. And if it goes to zero, that would be a good thing. Yet everyone panics if the number of jobs created that month goes down.

People are freaking crazy.

<comment><USER9> > Yet if everyone who wants a job eventually gets one, this number will > eventually go to zero. And if it goes to zero, that would be a good thing. > Yet everyone panics if the number of jobs created that month goes down.

Unless there's a labor shortage?

<comment><USER8> True but the narrative is always about the possibility of a recession and companies being afraid to invest in their businesses. Rarely do I see this point being made.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > everything

Article is just about CorePower Yoga and grad school.

<comment><USER11> It also contains this passage:

> When I first suggested that yoga teacher training was an MLM, someone > rightly responded: "it feels like everything today is an MLM." That's what > happens when an industry is fully enveloped by capitalism: When a hedge fund > buys a yoga company — or when universities are figured as money-making > businesses, with actual consultants hired to lead them.

That's the source for the title.

<comment><USER12> So you're saying it's clickbait.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Any decent grad department will give the grad students a tuition waiver and stipend so it's actually the opposite of a pyramid scheme. In a pyramid scheme, you pay to join the pyramid. In academia, the pyramid pays you. I spent two years in a grad department in Boston that paid me to hang out and read books and occasionally grade papers. It probably wasn't the best life decision but there wasn't any exploitation.

<comment><USER14> Is it really free given the labor they get from you? Say your labor could get you $100k from a tech company but you're getting a $20k stipend + $20k fee remission from a university to do coding instead, aren't they benefitting from underpaying you by $60k?

<comment><USER15> The opportunity cost is offset by the student wanting to work in academia more than the industry. I know several grad students who know full well they'd be paid more at Google, but enjoy doing research at a lower salary far more. Money isn't the only value you get out of a job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I think all of the above is very specific to higher-education in the US. I'm a PhD resarch student in a UK university and that's really not what I see from where I stand. And keep in mind that universities here too are for-pay and the tuition fees can be very high and the UK society has very much embraced free- market capitalism. And UK universities these days will take on just anyone for a PhD (see: me). But, really- Avon? I mean, come on.

Or perhaps it has to do with the field the author was in? I'm not sure what that was, but in my case, nobody has ever asked me to do any sort of "lab work" at all. I have been asked to help with invigilation and TA duties, because I receive a stipend from the dept. of eng. as part of my funding, and they "expect" you to do that sort of thing if you get funding from them, but I do get paid for my trouble and even my advisor has to mark exam papers (from courses he doesn't deliver himself) once in a while. Like, honestly, if this is exploitation I don't think my university is doing it right.

<comment><USER17> In the US I saw engineering labs using PhDs from abroad as almost slave labor. A bit hyperbolic perhaps, but the students were not allowed to progress without the advisor's say so, and the advisors would not allow them to top- author papers they were basically sole contributing. On top of that, between their own work and lab work, they were expected to put in 60 to 80 hours a week.

The point is, the power dynamics were out of whack.

<comment><USER18> _> advisors would not allow them to top-author papers they were basically sole contributing_

As an aside, how is this possible, or legal? Can't a student (can't anyone) submit a paper to a journal on their own? IIRC Einstein was a free-agent when he submitted all those papers in 1905.

<comment><USER19> Modern science isn't a one-person affair. Few papers have single authorships nowadays because science is done in teams rather than by lone geniuses (and even in the case of Einstein it looks like his first wife, the mathematician Mileva Marić, should probably have been given co-authorships on some of those early papers). While some fields simply have authors listed in alphabetical order, many have special meaning to the first and last authors -- the first author is given to the person who supposedly contributed the most (which can be contentious; typically a grad student or post-doc) and the last author is given to the mentor of the first author.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Reminds me of the Norm MacDonald joke: "When I was a child, they told me to crush the cans, recycle and plant trees. It's for your own future.

Then I grew up and 'here I am', and they said, 'not you, it's for the future generation'.

I know a pyramid scheme when I see one."

</comment><comment><USER21> > Any decent grad department will give the grad students a tuition waiver and > stipend so it's actually the opposite of a pyramid scheme.

If you're interested, UChicago just released a report [1] on graduate education that highlights large numbers of areas that need improvement. It is unlikely that all of these problems are specific to them. The actual report is available [2] and is about 100 pages with an additional 200 pages of appendixes that contain a LOT of data.

[1] [https://csl.uchicago.edu/announcement/daniel-diermeier- repor...](https://csl.uchicago.edu/announcement/daniel-diermeier-report- committee-graduate-education) [2] [https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/r...](https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/reports/Committee%20on%20Graduate%20Education%20Report.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER22> "The fault with thinking of academia as a pyramid scheme is that there's no one at the top — just the increasingly ambivalent structure, the ever- reproducing base. You could say administration profits, or football coaches profit. But it increasingly feels like a system in which no one wins: not the students, not their parents, not the graduate students, not professors facing increased belt-tightening, axing of departments, and continual fights for whatever meager resources remain." This is a very naive statement from a dedicated academic who has written an otherwise great, and deserves-to-be-read article. Who benefits? Administrators and tenured professors, all effectively with lifetime positions, large guaranteed pensions. To duplicate the expected cashflows, here, for a mid-careered 50-year-old, requires capital of ca. $5M. THAT's who benefits.

</comment><comment><USER23> Life itself is a MLM scheme. When my daughter was born, our parents all displayed an almost indescribable satisfaction. Biological MLM is called "fitness".

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_(biology)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_\(biology\))

</comment><comment><USER24> My goal is to extract as much money as I can out of the tech industry, without compromising on my values. While I'm doing that I'm trying to build up a small food forest which will help me avoid the pyramid altogether.

My only hope for humanity is for at least 30% of the population to do the same, but I'm not holding my breath.

<comment><USER12> I don't understand. You want 30% of the population of earth to farm their own food? Does economy of scale not apply to food production?

<comment><USER24> Yes I want at least 30% of the population on Earth to farm their own food.

I want the food system to become localized which will prevent a crisis which makes people starve and stops "food islands" where people in certain locations only have access to junk food and fast food.

<comment><USER25> > "food islands" where people in certain locations only have access to junk > food and fast food.

Surely they also have access to the food that they can buy at the store and cook themselves?

<comment><USER26> I think OP meant "food desert". Food deserts are typically defined by not having access to such a store or that the only available ones are overpriced

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I too was asked to be a teacher after maybe a couple months of classes at Core Power. Keep in mind there were a great many ordinary poses I could not do properly because of my back injuries (one of the reasons I was going in the first place). I was flattered that someone noticed my dedication. Now I feel like a fool.

</comment><comment><USER11> > just the increasingly ambivalent structure, the ever-reproducing base

This reminds me of the city from Blame! manga. Ever-growing megastructure without any thought. Without any external control, just expanding. Something that began on Earth and now is becoming a Dyson sphere.

Even though there are specific people that profit from current economy, will they profit forever if things will proceed as they are? Will they remain on top when the environment will crumble around us? It certainly is a different scale, so on small scale they will win, but in the long run no-one wins.

</comment><comment><USER28> While there is more going on, the subtle comment about hustle culture resonates with me. Cheap labor exploitation called "hustling", and currently everyone seems to want to have a hustle. It's because we are getting screwed at our day jobs, folks, and those same employers are exploiting you again when you leave and start your hustle.

<comment><USER29> What does exploitation mean exactly in this context? What does it mean to be exploited by an employer?

<comment><USER30> I guess any sort of significant power imbalance.

Does your team generate good revenue for the company but you still get paid peanuts? Does your work ask for overtime but fail to allow you to take time off when you need it? Do they ask for commitment to the job, while being prepared to terminate you at a moment's notice when time gets tough?

<comment><USER29> Yeah, but you get into that contract _voluntarily_ , so you sort of know what you signed up for, and regardless, you have the option to quit. This is why I do not understand the complaints.

<comment><USER31> No, it's not entirely voluntary. It's a necessity to live. I might be able to pick and choose between several employers, but ultimately I'm going to have to choose _one_ of them. There's a power imbalance between employee and employer, and that will translate into a negotiating disadvantage; the future employee is at a disadvantage here.

<comment><USER29> > No, it's not entirely voluntary.

In this case, it is not entirely voluntary for the employers either as they need employees for their business to function.

> but ultimately I'm going to have to choose one of them

No, you can become your own employer, for example.

> There's a power imbalance between employee and employer, and that will > translate into a negotiating disadvantage

It depends on the state of the market. Right now, the job market is supposedly very good for programmers (employees).

Employers are offering to trade their money in exchange for other people doing some task they want done. If you do not think it is fair trade, then do not do it. You are allowed to grow your own food, or pick berries.

<comment><USER30> > Employers are offering to trade their money in exchange for other people > doing some task they want done. If you do not think it is fair trade, then > do not do it. You are allowed to grow your own food, or pick berries.

You're also free to die in the gutter, don't forget that one.

<comment><USER29> I am not sure what you are trying to say. I brought up perfectly reasonable alternatives.

Regardless, both parties are made better off by the trade. Employers are the ones helping those unfortunate people avoid the thing that is even worse than having a job, such as: suffering and dying in the gutter. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Within the monetary market model, the fundamental factors are money supply and money flow. To solve poverty and ensure that everyone has basic necessities satisfied, either buy from the poor or donate to them. These are the only civil options.

</comment><comment><USER33> > The yoga teacher recruitment model is strikingly similar to an MLM (Multi > Level Marketing scheme; think Avon and Amway

Whatever a business model there is, there is a difference: yoga is a real thing that actually improves your health, beauty and psyche you actually get with you wherever you go while the most of the other MLM projects are consumerist bullshit.

</comment><comment><USER34> Capitalism is broken. Or rather, it breaks things.

</comment><comment><USER35> TLDR: A reflexion on wether graduate school is a form of pyramid scheme.

<comment><USER36> Academia not graduate school.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> The argument in this article is that everything is a pyramid scheme, if by "everything" you mean postgrad humanities academia.

Also rails against the evils of capitalism, using examples from a system funded by government grants and loans, and peopled by vehement anti- capitalists.

</comment><comment><USER38> It is an effective strategy, my observation is that way more energy is expended in debating the term MLM by assuming it is a pejorative term and the potential legal ramifications

Without a government stance on any particular viral campaign I typically try to avoid MLMs as I find them unattractive

With government stance and intervention I notice that the only result is for people to understand exactly how to operate an MLM to avoid government intervention

Most ideas simply arent self sustaining without the productivity of new participants getting diminishing returns from that idea

Adding a pejorative label to that reality is arbitrary

<comment><USER39> From my internet researching a while ago the main difference, and why MLMs are legal, is that an MLM sells a product, whereas a pyramid scheme sells people. That is, you can make money solely by acquiring more people who pay to be apart of it, in a pyramid scheme.

I'm still not sure how I feel about MLMs. If it's actually a good product maybe it's not a bad thing, but when it is not, that's where it seems to get sketchy.

<comment><USER40> Yes, but many/most nominal MLMs are effectively pyramid schemes in disguise. New entrants at the bottom rungs of the network are typically sold a "starter kit" by whomever one rung up the network recruited them. The starter kit is going to be some marketing materials and an initial inventory of product to sell. The marketing materials convince them they're getting a great deal on the wholesale value of the product and will make their money back in no time just by selling off the starter products (and then order/sell more and keep making more!), but the truth turns out to be that the upstream is banking on turning a mild profit selling the starter kit to the new member and doesn't care whether individuals ever buy the products, and the actual product doesn't sell very well to individuals because it's not a very good product. Then the only realistic way to make back the starter kit money is to sell more starter kits to another layer of idiots who think they'll be able to sell the worthless product, ad infinitum. In such a scheme there is a "product", but the vast majority of the product that's ever manufactured just changes hands through the starter-kit system between various levels of salespersons as a form of pyramid currency and almost no consumers end up buying it.</comment></comment></comment>