Launch HN: SheerlyGenius (YC W18) – Indestructible Tights from Bulletproof Fiber - <AUTHOR> I'm Katherine Homuth and I founded Sheerly Genius - indestructible sheer tights made from bulletproof fibers. We just launched our product on Kickstarter (http://www.2e.go2.fund/tights).
Every year $8 billion dollars worth of sheer tights/pantyhose end up in the landfill after only one or two wears. Ripping sheers is as easy as accidentally catching them on a fingernail, or simply pulling too hard while putting them on. Our goal is to replace these disposable products with Sheerly Genius, which has been tested to last up to 50 wears.
We have been working on this for about 12 months so far and it has been quite an adventure. When I started out I didn't think we'd be developing our own fiber and machines, but that's what it ultimately took.
The first fibers I looked at were aramids, like kevlar, which of course were attractive for their strength. To be considered sheer (as opposed to opaque), a pair of tights needs fibers that are 30 denier or less. Denier measures the thickness or fineness of a fiber. I quickly learned that the lowest denier kevlar came in was 1000 denier! So it was a non-starter.
It turned out that none of the fibers on the market today were both fine and strong enough to make an indestructible sheer product. Ultimately we had to develop our own fiber: a finer, colored version of the non-dyeable polyethylene fibers used in higher end bulletproof vests and climbing equipment. To use these fibers we had to retrofit circular knitting machines with new feeding systems and blades, because the fibers are so strong they break typical knitting machines!
My background is in software and manufacturing - building and selling two companies prior to Sheerly Genius. But this is my first journey into textiles. In my last startup I worked directly with many hardware companies, but became increasingly skeptical of the trend in IoT towards "connected" anything. One thing I love about this project is that we've been able to innovate in wearables without being connected.
Fun Fact: Half of our backers on Kickstarter so far have been men!
I'm looking forward to talking manufacturing, textiles, and crowdfunding. Can't wait to hear your ideas and experiences in these areas. Also happy to answer any questions about our journey in developing the product so far! <comment><USER3> FYI: My neighbor developed something similar in the 70s. It was purchased by a large pantyhose company for many millions with additional revenue promised from royalties from future sales. As soon as they owned it they killed the product to maintain their revenue stream from short-lived hose. The inventor lost millions from sales that never happened. Don't let this happen to you. If you are successful, they will come knocking.

<comment><USER4> I'm always looking for evidence of planned obsolescense [1] but I didn't realize how effectively it has been implemented by "Big Pantyhose" and that move to buy out and phase out a superior product - deviously brilliant!

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

<comment><USER5> I have another one for you: Google >> Aadvark

<comment><USER6> How is this a good example ? What's the quickly obsolete thing Google pushed to effectively kill Aardvark ?

I'm with you that I'd like some better question answering service, but I don't think it's fair to blame Google for not trying ...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If this material does what you say: you should attack the cyclist market. If you have thin, anti abrasion garments, a cyclist is yur perfect market.

They have luxury funds (like the golf market) and they want thin, but protective, garments. (weekend-road-bikers are usually execs/professionals that spend ~$3-12K on just their bikes...

Put thin, D30 [0], pads at key points/joints (hips/elbows/knees) between layers of this fabric in small patches...

Now you have a performant, but protective, sheer/light competitive cycling outfit...

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D3o](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D3o)

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great market idea. Hadn't considered it, but can see a lot of overlap with what we are doing. Will definitely keep it in mind for our product roadmap!

<comment><USER8> One more athletics market: martial arts. If you train judo/jiujitsu, your existing uniform is a heavy cotton or cotton/poly weave that is built to last through the abuse of training partners gripping and yanking it every which way - and the existing stuff works, but it's bulky to carry and hard to wash. A modernized uniform that can retain the same strength at a lighter weight would be of practical interest.

<comment><USER9> Do you train jiujitsu? I don't really see existing uniforms being replaced with something lighter and potentially much thinner.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is VERY cool. It took me into rabbit-hole of learning more about this material vs. Kevlar -

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-molecular- weight_po...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-molecular- weight_polyethylene)

Dyneema vs. Kevlar data: [http://bladebuster.ca/our-products/cut-resistant- clothing/dy...](http://bladebuster.ca/our-products/cut-resistant- clothing/dyneema-vs-kevla)

Dyneema vs. Kevlar and new fibers for military: www.army- technology.com/features/feature98985/

Zylon that was used instead of Kevlar degraded due to body moisture: [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=473209...](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4732098)

Spectra a polyethylene fiber from Honeywell:: [https://www.honeywell- spectra.com/applications/textiles/](https://www.honeywell- spectra.com/applications/textiles/)

UHMWPE used in ropes: www.novabraid.com/rope-material/spectra-fiber-rope/

<comment><USER11> Friends use Dyneema and Spectra to make bowstrings (primarily for crossbows). They don't mind getting wet, don't stretch, and are extremely strong.

<comment><USER12> They do stretch a little over time. I have kite flying lines from Dyneema and Spectra, and they stretch over time and need to be equalized (move the knots so the lengths match).

But it's very little, I had about 2.5cm change in 25m over a few years. That's 1 part in 1000. This is from irregular kite flying, so not under (very) high tension or constant stress.

Fantastic materials, nevertheless.

<comment><USER7> F U HACKER NEWS for finding the ONE guy who could have possibly answered this question.

I love (f) U

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is really cool! (I too make non-connected things and it's great).

Two things:

> _Sheerly Genius sheers are patent pending and our manufacturing process is a > trade secret._

Patents are the opposite of secret, ie public. You can't patent something and have it secret at the same time. So your manufacturing process is either secret, and not patented, or patented, and public. (Of course you may have patented something other than the manufacturing process, like a specific knot, etc.)

The second thing is, what about security? Things that never tear or break can be dangerous, for example if you get caught by a moving vehicle, or other problem. It may sound far-fetched and completely improbable... until it happens. What are your thoughts about that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes - you are right. That line in the video probably wouldn't have made it by our patent lawyer. We are patent pending. Some elements of how our fiber is produced (not in our patent), and some of the R&D things we are trying are trade secret, but for the purposes of simplicity we are patent pending. The fibers are strong but can be cut with a sharp knife or pointy object - anything EMTs or emergency services would have on hand, or something like a seat belt cutter wouldn't have an issue getting through them.

<comment><USER14> Aw darn. My first thought was protection from knife attacks.

If that worked, you could also sell to that company making the anti-rape pants.

<comment><USER15> Yea but if you get incapacitated one of the first things they do to get to the wound is cut the clothes around the wound area. If you have pants make of knife proof material your life could be endangered.

<comment><USER16> Some sports clothing is designed to be resistant to sharp edges [1]. The link is for some ski basewear.

[1] [http://www.energiapura.info/158/PANTA-34-ANTICUTTING](http://www.energiapura.info/158/PANTA-34-ANTICUTTING)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I know sheer is in your company name, but please do some 40 deniers too.

Here in England sheers are for old ladies, teenagers, air hostesses and conservative offices. 40 denier black are the universal tights - take a look if you're ever in London.

Ok they're stronger than 20d, but they still hole far far too easily. I would love 40 deniers with the strength you're promising.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Anna!I totally agree. We're definitely going to be going there. We wanted to start with sheers because that is where the problem is most apparent, and where existing products last barely one wear. But I agree, 40d pantyhose still rip - and need to be innovated as well!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> That Kickstarter video's first 20 seconds are amazing - funny, informative, and arresting.

Did you guys write and direct that in house?

EDIT - After watching the entire video - including you hanging from them like a swing - I hope you are considering direct response TV as a marketing channel for these. You nailed the informative / circus show balance and I bet you could edit this into a 30 / 60 / 90.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! So glad you enjoyed the video. I wrote the script with the help of a friend/investor, and we pulled together our friends to make it happen. Elias of SoulFood productions did the camera magic - [http://soulfoodproductions.com/](http://soulfoodproductions.com/).

We've always thought television shopping would be a great channel for this product! And will definitely be cutting more versions of the video :)

<comment><USER19> Your video is the perfect balance of being professional enough to look good and amateur enough to seem sincere. Everything was clear and to the point yet nobody seemed like an actor. The reaction to the hanging scene at the end was fantastic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> So in love with this! As soon as my bf sent me the kickstarter video, I became a funder.

I love all the women-focused specialty clothing we're getting in the past few years, especially ones that use modern technology to improve our daily lives/comfort (and not just make another bra that claims to be the last bra you'll ever need but that actually still only fits one type of breast...).

And speaking of innovative women's clothing, I'm assuming you are familiar with Heist Studios and their tights?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am so glad you liked the video and that it caught your attention! That is so awesome to hear =)

I have heard of Heist, and actually bought a bunch and tested them out - <USER2> they too have the same problems as all of the other sheers out on the market today. You can see a video of my tests (including Heist) here > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXt3vNL8ILA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXt3vNL8ILA)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> hi @kathomuth. Just want to compliment the way you're answering to peoples' questions / comments / suggestions. Too many founders come off as defensive, instead of absorbing what they can from outsiders. Your comments come off as very receptive, yet informed. Good work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Mike! Appreciate you saying so. I've really been enjoying the conversation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is really cool :)

Thought, look into nanocellulose fibers for textiles, and your product could be biodegradable while still exceptionally strong[1]. Tech is probably not mature, but worth keeping an eye on for future.

[1] [https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5018](https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5018)

<comment><USER23> Polylactones are biodegradable polymers available right now, although i don't think they're particularly strong:

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

If the fibers can be made cheaply and are biodegradable, then perhaps you could make deliberately and responsibly disposable tights, in which case their strength wouldn't matter as much. It's not as cool as super-strong hosiery, but thinking about it, i quite like the idea of disposable underwear!

<comment><USER24> Polycaprolactone is actually unbelievably strong in one particular way: its fracture toughness is astounding because its elongation at break is usually over 1000%, higher even than polyethylenes. No other structural material even comes close, unless you're counting soft rubbers (latex, polyurethane, or SEBS, but not silicones), which reach high deformations through pseudoelasticity rather than plastic flow.

Unfortunately, PCL's tensile strength is kind of lame, tens of megapascals, like typical polyethylenes — but polyethylenes greatly exceed it in chemical resistance, heat resistance, and moldability. And its low tensile modulus gives it a very low speed of sound, which in turn means that in some applications where you'd really love its incredible fracture toughness, the impacts are sharp enough that it will break anyway. So, most of the time, you're better off with metals or stronger engineering plastics for fracture toughness.

However, the poor moldability and low glass transition point of PCL give it a rather unique property among reasonably stiff materials: you can _shape the freaking stuff with your hands while molten_. And so it is that you can find PCL inexpensively on Amazon under names like ShapeLock, InstaMorph, ThermoMorph, Kemilove, TechTack, Polymorph, and so on.

Just be careful about the service temperature. Like most plastics and metals, PCL loses most of its strength well before it actually melts.

As for textiles, supposing you could spin PCL into fibers (which I'm pretty sure you can, even if nobody has), PCL tights would be pretty much impossible to get runs in, but they would melt if you spilled hot coffee on them. That might be a deal-killer.

Rayon (cellophane) is also biodegradable. Usually this is considered a drawback. Polylactide is probably the most popular biodegradable plastic going around these days, but it isn't really biodegradable, it's aquadegradable. And it's probably too brittle to make a useful garment fiber, even if the hydrolysis problem wasn't a killer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very interesting! This is a fiber we hadn't looked into, seems like there would be some challenges with our use case (particularly the melting point). But definitely something I'm going to look more into.

<comment><USER24> Drop US$20 on a few hundred grams on Amazon and play with it. I used it to fix a lot of things when I was traveling around with my wife in a Volkswagen bus, even though the temperatures sometimes got too high for it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Will do!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> really like the demo of you hanging in the climbing harness for a demo of strength, but I request the following demo of strength:

A belt sander.

Put a side of beef/ham/whatever (sorry vegans) in a pair of these hose and rub it up against a belt sander.

This will emulate "road rash" that could ensue assuming you do a sports line (like sleeves/leggings/elbow/knee-pads/etc)

you have established your strength arg, but now please establish your anti- abrasion claim. Then you become a unicorn.

Also; please measure the hydrophobic properties of your material.

<comment><AUTHOR> What a creative demo suggestion! My house is under renos right now, so I'm sure we have a belt sander somewhere...lol. Our fiber is highly hydrophobic.

<comment><USER25> This begs for a willitblend.com style campaign: will it run?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Neat product! I'm in awe of anyone who can make physical products. I think the kickstarter video hit a great tone. I'm a big fan of durable products replacing disposable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! Appreciate your support and glad you liked the video!

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I posted this on /r/femalefashionadvice, should be interesting to see the commentary there also.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/femalefashionadvice/comments/7xo5jr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/femalefashionadvice/comments/7xo5jr/kickstarter_campaign_for_indestructible_sheer/)

<comment><USER28> '[removed]'

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I do not wear pantyhose, so forgive me for naiivety, but I would love to know

1) Is the price not a bit high for something that you can only wear 50 times? I suppose i'm not sure what the price per wear is of traditional pantyhose

2) Why does something so strong (e.g. you can try to pull them apart) only last 50 wears? Seems like it's stronger than any tshirt I've worn but I continue to wear them for years

<comment><USER30> My girlfriend buys generic pantyhose that's $1 (we're in Central Europe). It looks good, and lasts 1-2 wears before something pulls the fabric. In her case, SheerlyGenius would cost 3-6x as much.

Another advantage of the $1 pairs is they always look like new, since she wears a new pair almost every time. How does a SheerlyGenius pair look after 30 wears?

I imagine there's a use case here because people are funding the Kickstarter, but I feel like $150 pantyhose is a small market.

<comment><USER31> What I'm going to say is not at all against your girlfriend, but I find amazing that you could buy pantyhoses for 1$ that are single use. The amount of waste must be staggering.

<comment><USER30> I was surprised as well. Stores sell 1 packs for $1.50, or 2 packs for $2 at list price.

I never really put much thought into pantyhose during my life, and I just assumed they costed $10 and lasted a long time like a pair of socks. I didn't realize 1-2 wears is normal. It is a huge amount of waste as you said.

Nonetheless, I don't think $150 pantyhose is the solution. My girlfriend can have three different thicknesses to choose from in her closet for $3. She's not going to pay $450 to have that same level of selection. I think the price needs to come way down from $150 to $25 to make sense.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great conversation here. Unless you're going to a Costco, I'd say you'd be pretty hard pressed to find $1 pairs of pantyhose in the US or Canada (which is I'll admit where I have the most market familiarity). And even if you could get a "disposable" pair for $1, the problem generally is that you don't know when during that first where they might rip. Having your tights get a run mid day is a major inconvenience. It is why a lot of women say they no longer wear pantyhose. Not to mention the waste of the single wear product (which takes about 50 years to decompose in a landfill). I don't think everyone is going to immediately start investing in indestructible pantyhose, but I think there are very clear benefits for those that do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> while the tights are obviously not bulletproof, yet very possibly to be knife/abrasion-proof. That opens for example a market for work/sport wear, like lighter version of those kevlar gloves in Home Depot.

<comment><AUTHOR> Definitely! We've had a lot of requests from the sport/workout wear side of things in particular. For anyone interested in more of a sport related product, I actually have a list you can subscribe to for updates as we continue to explore new product variants: [http://eepurl.com/dkHD6X](http://eepurl.com/dkHD6X)

<comment><USER7> Can you please make a pair of socks from your textile/tech and report back on how good they work?

(then sell socks to the military's of the planet) (and glove liners, and Bivys)

<comment><AUTHOR> Great idea!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Great idea!! I'd love to try one out, one question though, how's the breathe- ability of the garment? I find I have trouble with ones that don't let my skin sweat or breathe out just a tad.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's very breathable! The knit in an of itself is breathable, but our fibers are also naturally cool to the touch, and are ultra light (they float on water), making them more comfortable for day to day wear than regular pantyhose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> >Our goal is to replace these disposable products with Sheerly Genius, which has been tested to last up to 50 wears.

Out of curiosity, how did you determine this?

edit: omg lol, I love the robber scene in your kickstarter video

<comment><AUTHOR> How did we determine the 50 wears metric? We've been producing prototypes since September, and have been testing them with real women for day to day wash and wear (in addition to our other more extreme tests like velcro, rings, and hanging from the ceiling...lol)

<comment> semi-extrinsic So, originally nylon stockings were pretty much bulletproof and in 30-40 denier, but what happened was, DuPont realized they could make them in 10-15 denier and still last four-five uses. And people bought those like hotcakes, since they were prettier.

If you can make stockings bulletproof at 15 denier, what's to stop you (or a competitor) from going to 3-6 denier and make an even prettier stocking that only lasts four-five uses?

<comment><AUTHOR> I totally agree, it's not in the interest of the hosiery industry to create a reusable product. 30-40 denier products in traditional nylon are definitely stronger than sheerer product, but are by no means even comparable to the strength of the product we can produce in the same denier. If we wanted to produce a 3-6 denier product with our materials, we could. So if that's where the competition wanted to push the fashion trend we could go there and still have a way better performing product. Not to mention, the industry's move towards disposable product has created a massive pain point for consumers, so we really believe consumers are ready to invest in something they can actually get through a day in.

<comment><USER35> I'm speaking completely outside of my subject area, so take this with a large grain of salt but hear me out -- I think the video is great and success from the Kickstarter is proof of that.

But, I think a business needs to have solid distinguishing characteristics. An ad that basically says, "It's more durable and just a little more expensive, so if you do the math, it will work out in your favor after a long enough period of time" doesn't sound like you're playing your strongest cards in your hand.

If you can make a product that no one else can, such as 3-6 denier, or super- strong athletic compression tights, then you create name-brand distinction. Even if it means that the bulk of sales end up being what you just advertised in Kickstarter, the tail-ends of the market is what defines the brand. "Super- sheer, super-strong."

<comment><USER34> I think "tougher and more expensive" is enough of a distinction. I buy a lot of gear in the hiking/camping/onebag world, and a lot of companies there comprise nothing other than a "our shit don't break" philosophy. For example, Goruck bags or Wolverine boots.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Have you thought about making woven products with the UHMWPE you're presumably using? I want to replace my daily-carry satchel, which is leather, and the 200 grams of leather is a big chunk out of my 1500-gram satchel budget. I'd actually thought about building a machine to unbraid UHMW fishing line and thread it onto a bobbin for weaving. And 20–30 denier was about what I was hoping for; I feel like 20–30 denier UHMW twill would make for a satchel that was satiny, lightweight, impossible to stain, easy to clean, abrasion- resistant, and damn near bulletproof.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting use case! I hadn't considered going in that direction, but it does remind me of a pitch I saw on Shark Tank where someone used UHMWPE to create a bag. [https://loctote.com/](https://loctote.com/)

<comment><USER24> Oh wow, this is super awesome! Backpacks knit from Spectra! Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> One interesting application is permeable space suit designs. The idea is that instead of encapsulating an astronaut in a flexible pressurized container you put them in a tight fitting suit that can apply the 3.5 lbs of force per square inch necessary to counter the pressure of the air they breath. Cooling is provided by normal perspiration through the fabric. (Don't forget that vacuum is a great insulator!)

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't be surprised if this fiber was already used in space suits! But definitely a great application if they aren't already.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I love this project, but I detest control-top garments—if you branch into stockings or hold-ups, I promise to invest in some!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your support! Yes, stay tuned - we definitely hope to expand the product range down the line.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> My instant thought is "I want an opaque version with custom prints".

<comment><USER31> So, a legging ? I agree that it would be nice. Specially for the sports market

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Have you got already got a fabric sample? How do the material properties of HDPE knitted fabric compare to nylon?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes we already have a number of prototypes out in the wild. Everything shown on our kickstarter is real product. They look and feel just like traditional pantyhose, which was actually a bit of a surprise to us too! They have some perks over traditional nylon knits as well, the PE fibers are natually cool to the touch and bacterial resistant, making them great for hosiery/intimates. The biggest challenge for us in getting the knit to work properly was stretch. PE fibers don't stretch, so we had to fiber out ways to knit/combine with other fibers, to create stretch, without compromising on strength.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Can you make a bodysuit of this? Others have mentioned that it might be knife / abrasion proof.

Also, other than the resistance to being broken does it have any other capabilities such as wicking, odor resistance?

Are there any disadvantages to wearing the fiber?

What about allergic reactions?

<comment><AUTHOR> You could make a bodysuit, can't see why not - was there a particular application you were thinking of?

The fiber is bacteria resistant, odor resistant, and naturally cool to the touch. We have yet to find any disadvantages of this product compared to a traditional nylon. This fiber has been used in safety equipment like gloves for some time without issues like allergic reactions - and we haven't see anything like that in our own testing.

<comment><USER40> Since someone said that they might be knife/abrasion-proof you could have a sporting line of undershirts (or would it be overshirts) that one could wear for these types of applications. I would think that maybe a leotard or some type of bodysuit might be appropriate for that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sporting has been a very popular use case/product request. So much so, I actually started a mailing list to collect interest/to learn more about what people would like to see from that type of product: [http://eepurl.com/dkHD6X](http://eepurl.com/dkHD6X)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Material science is so interesting to me. Like real life mad scientists.

<comment><USER42> Yup:) We wanted to create something that was truly indestructible. There are many on the market claiming to be, but we tested them and they were very easily ripped. We set out to push the envelope and also to try and revolutionize the hosiery industry- which we have and we are really excited for everyone to try them out!

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> how did the process of fiber development go? sounds like kevlar was a non- starter, but you ended up with something similar? How many pairs of tights would I need to stop a 9mm @ ten meters?

<comment><AUTHOR> We ended up using polyethylene based fibers, which have similar applications to aramids. They have taken the place of Kevlar in many applications because they are lighter and stronger. They were a better starting point for us due to the fact they come in lower deniers, but were still not fine enough - or the right color for our application. So we went directly to the manufacturers to develop our own variant.

<comment><USER42> They are also naturally cooling and antibacterial.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> You mentioned Kevlar, which hemp can do too. Is hemp a viable option for tights?

Hemp is also antibacterial; this article mentions a 60/40 hemp/rayon blend by EnviroTextile for antibacterial teddy bears, scrubs, : [https://herb.co/marijuana/news/anti-bacterial-hemp-fabric- wi...](https://herb.co/marijuana/news/anti-bacterial-hemp-fabric-will-bring- happiness-sick-kids)

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. I wouldn't expect hemp would have the tenacity as the fibers we're using. But reading more about it now, it looks like people are trying to do some interesting things with hemp in bulletproof. One challenge might be how fine the fiber can be made. But I'm going to look into it!

<comment><USER44> It took a few searches, but I found these useful and relevant:

"Bulletproof with Hemp" [https://culturemagazine.com/bulletproof-with- hemp/](https://culturemagazine.com/bulletproof-with-hemp/)

> Naturally Advanced Technologies is a company that takes hemp fibers and > treats them with a patented enzymatic solution that further enhances their > already protective qualities by making the final material softer and thinner > than silk, but stronger and lighter. This material, called Crailar, can also > be converted into plastic materials similar to the kind Henry Ford's famous > Model T Ford was made of.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> >Fun Fact: Half of our backers on Kickstarter so far have been men!

New startup idea: pantyhose marketed towards men. YC 2018 here I come!

<comment><AUTHOR> Honestly - the more I'm learning about this market - the more I'm thinking we need to launch a line / brand marketed just for men. The more you know!

<comment><USER45> I wonder if it's the marketing or if it's just men that are into feminine stuff. Will running commercials playing industrial rock music and starring big burly construction workers wearing pantyhose like it's badass really sell?

Probably you should just keep the marketing low key and just add extra space in the crotch area for the balls.

<comment><USER46> For men they're called base layers - like long johns but made of thin nylon in manly colors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> My wife is 6'2", any plans for longer pairs? There is definitely a market for them, particularly internationally.

<comment><AUTHOR> Given that pantyhose are stretchy - your wife would likely be fine in one of our larger sizes, dependant on her build. I'm not 6'2", but I'm 5'10" and have found that as long as I'm buying a larger pair I'm usually fine. You just trade give horizonally, for give vertically if that makes sense. I'll also take a closer look at our size chat are see what extending the height range in the listed chart might look like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> This is dope. I studied polymer-textile-fiber engineering til my engineering school shut down the program, it's still incredibly relevant, but it has kind of gone away in the USA for obvious reasons as a practice.

Wish there was a site where I could learn about new textiles initiatives/technologies like this.

I was YCS2012.

Textile dye causes 20% of all industrial waste water pollution.

This is a huge win, well done. Very relevant.

Rooting for you(all)

<comment><USER49> This site has textile news, here an article about textile bike spokes: [https://textile-network.com/en/Technische-Textilien/TU- Chemn...](https://textile-network.com/en/Technische-Textilien/TU-Chemnitz- Textile-Speichen)

And here another interesting application, a textile bike lock: [https://www.tex-lock.com/en/](https://www.tex-lock.com/en/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> 10x stronger than steel, and floats on water - sounds a bit like Dyneema. Best of luck!

<comment><USER51> Or Spectra.

Though I imagine to get the fibers fine enough, you would need even _higher_ molecular weight and a little more crosslinking. Possibly with a better plasticizer so you could get tighter loops (from the knitting process) without breaking the strands.

This is awesome. If you can get this to succeed as hosiery, gloves are the obvious next step, then the inner liners for multilayer outerwear garments.

<comment><USER39> Apparently you _can 't_ have crosslinking - the melt would be too viscous to be extruded from a tiny spinneret. You wouldn't use plasticizers in polyethylene, the "plasticizer" in LLDPE is a tiny amount of long-chain terminal alkenes that serve as domain breakers.

Fibers is truly where chemistry and engineering collide.

<comment><USER24> This problem is even worse with PCL, which is so viscous it's almost unusable for most purposes. Thinking about PCL fibers in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16380491](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16380491), it occurred to me that I had made some crude PCL fibers by hand — while the plastic _wasn 't_ molten. So it occurred to me that you could probably make PCL fibers by the process of die drawing, the same way you make copper fibers or steel fibers, maybe without even the annealing steps in the middle. Presumably this would work for a variety of plastics with high elongation at break.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> I read "indestructible tights" and thought immediately of Edna Mode...

</comment><comment><USER53> Great idea! This seems more like a shark-tank play than a YC, because it's a mass consumer product, tv publicity, distribution channels etc. What made you go the VC route?

<comment><AUTHOR> From my perspective, I see a lot of R&D in the company's future, not to mention a need to invest in growth/marketing - things we wouldn't be able to do quickly, if at all without VC funding. But I'm curious to learn more about your perspective - can you expand on what made you think this was less VC suitable? Would love to hear as it will prepare me for what questions I might get fundraising!

<comment><USER53> The Sharks do a lot of business with mass consumer retail, so they are well connected. They have existing businesses. E.g. selling on QVC. Not sure if the Silicon Valley investors deal with that kind of stuff? Maybe the YC MO is to let the founder figure that out (so basically the founder is treated less with kid gloves). The sharks do ask for lower valuations than other investors so that kind of goes hand in hand.

I am not an expert in this area, this is more of an armchair comment / question.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> So this is what The Hulk's pants are made of!

</comment><comment><USER55> What were the other two companies you sold?

<comment><AUTHOR> ShopLocket (to PCH Intl) and Female Funders (to Highline Beta)

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> This could be a SaaS "Socks as a service".

</comment><comment><USER57> Did you ever look at synthetic spider silk?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes! Very promising fiber. Sadly none of the manufacturers we spoke to were ready for any sort of mass production yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> great product!! are you raising any angel funding?

</comment><comment><USER59> Congrats on the launch! Excited to see this, I'll definitely forward this to my wife.

Personally, I think the Kickstarter video might be a bit long and/or verbose? I know nothing about Kickstarter campaigns, but there's plenty of folks who do within the YC network.

Also, there was a missed opportunity for a cameo by Zak! (Kidding of course!)

<comment><AUTHOR> Zak is the robber accomplice - sitting in the car beside the robber that has lines :)

Really appreciate your feedback on the video! We're always trying new things, so I'm sure there are more edits of this in our future. Right now Kickstarter is showing that 32% of visitors watch the whole video - which I think is probably pretty good?

<comment><USER59> That's a very subtle cameo, but upon rewatching it, I can clearly see his long, luscious hair.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> I don't want to seem like a grammar nazi of sorts, but it seems to me that there are a couple of typos in the points 7 and 8 of the "How we did it":

7/ >the ->them?

8/ >ridicuously ->ridiculously

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for pointing those out! Fixed :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> > Half of our backers on Kickstarter so far have been men!

really makes you think

<comment><USER45> Those backers are planning on wearing it. It's a hidden market.. a niche that hasn't been exploited.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Notion-like design system in React - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tugboatcoding/react-potion <comment><USER2> Editor.js[1] seems to be the more mature block-based editor for React. What does react-potion offer beyond block-based editing?

[1]: [https://editorjs.io/](https://editorjs.io/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Editor.js — this is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

react-potion I suppose is a possibly less feature-rich but Notion- like/targeted block-based design system in that regard.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Notion is great for writing content but also has a nice design system for blocks-based design. react-potion attempts to replicate some of the benefits that Notion offers.

Disclaimer: the project isn't affiliated to Notion.</comment>


Nokia launch 808 pureview with 41 megapixel camera. - <AUTHOR> http://techdistance.com/nokia-808-pureview-specifications-price-india/

<comment><USER2> Progress. Wow, look at all my megapixels.

I mean as an achievement (from the technical point of view), this is pretty amazing, but this feels as more of a "look at what we can do" thing, than a real attempt at a phone.

Much love for nokia though, hope they reclaim the throne one day.

</comment><comment><USER3> Symbian? lol?</comment>


The surprising benefit of hiring interns to write your code - <AUTHOR> https://swizec.com/blog/surprising-benefit-hiring-interns/swizec/8519 <comment><USER2> That's not what you should be hiring interns for interns are meant to learn from you and this is a legal requirement in some countries.

Don't take this to unkindly your coming off as some one who is taking advantage.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Don't take this to unkindly your coming off as some one who is taking > advantage.

What makes it seem like I'm taking advantage? They're getting paid to build useful things and I'm providing guidance on how to do that.

<comment><USER2> What your called has meaning and if your hiring junior/trainee developers call them that.

As I said its "perception" that matters here.</comment></comment></comment>


'Go mod download' (to cache) and 'go mod why' added - <AUTHOR> http://golang.org/cl/128359 <comment><USER2> That's real funny. Remember [https://twitter.com/_rsc/status/1022589123482267650](https://twitter.com/_rsc/status/1022589123482267650) ?

> If we just put 'go dep' as the hook to current draft dep, then users would > need to run things like 'go dep ensure' and so on, and those would be the > first ever go sub-sub-commands. That feels not quite right to me.

<comment><USER3> `go mod download` is for explicitly populating the cache. If you just run `go build`, the cache will be implicitly populated. You don't need to run `go mod download` before doing a build.

<comment><USER4> Here's the issue it comes out of: [https://github.com/golang/go/issues/26610](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/26610)

<comment><USER2> Wait, so this command was born out of necessity to get dep feature parity? This just gets better and better.

<comment><USER5> no it was added at the request of the athens project (github.com/gomods/athens) so there would be a canonical way to download modules that we could use to prime the cache.

<comment><USER6> Categorically wrong - please don't spread lies.

I opened the original issue in question due to lack of feature parity and it got quickly closed ([https://github.com/golang/go/issues/26610#event-1753880630](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/26610#event-1753880630)). Then after some twitter back-and-forth ([https://twitter.com/sgnn7/status/1022547467466956802](https://twitter.com/sgnn7/status/1022547467466956802)) the issue got reopened.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This can be viewed with JS disabled:

[https://github.com/golang/go/commit/7aa9855704a766a1a16fbed7...](https://github.com/golang/go/commit/7aa9855704a766a1a16fbed79f9f6e34fc83bdf0)

</comment><comment><USER8> "go mod why" sounds shockingly close to "Oh god why". I'd assume this is intentional, but it still strikes me as odd.

<comment><USER9> I don't know why you would assume that at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> go mod why generics

(main module does not need package generics)</comment>


How to secure Windows 10: The paranoid's guide - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-secure-windows-10-the-paranoids-guide/

<comment><USER2> >while Windows 10 doesn't have a keylogger it does collect your keystrokes

This seems to be a distinction without difference. The use of euphemisms to describe surveillance are antithetical to an informed public and discourse about the advantages and disadvantages of such technologies.</comment>


Abolish The Reference Check - <AUTHOR> http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/04/abolish-the-reference-check.html <comment><USER2> There are many, many bogus things about this post.

First of all, I'm ready to stab myself in the eye every time I have to see someone they only hire "A" players. This is getting tiresome and unbelievable - I don't know of any startup that has nothing but "A-player type work" to do. Almost every plausible startup has some work that will be comfortably addressed by a range of abilities and the idea that you're going to stuff your startup full of absolute super-stars (and do well as a result) is just posturing.

I am also not entirely sure that someone whose references are, I dunno, busy doing actual work or "on holiday" deserves to be penalized with respect to someone whose references are all hanging around in their office with nothing to do but promote the living shit out of each other in some kind of mutual admiration society.

Speaking from experience, I have seen many such cliques of utterly mediocre, self-serving people who would unhesitatingly tell happy stories of how wonderful everyone in their clique was to anyone who asked - even if a more conventional response from further up the management chain would have given a very tepid review of the actual performance of said people.

Finally, if you're going to contact a bunch of people out of the blue, adding self-promoting line about your blog is not appropriate. Under the signature line, maybe, but putting it the body text is a dick move.

<comment><USER3> Yes. Thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants to retch when I read posts like that. The underlying ego and assumptions are laughable, at best.

Beyond that, however, the poster needs to learn about ROC curves ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receiver_operating_characterist...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receiver_operating_characteristic)) – for just a moment, let's assume we're genuinely only hiring "A" players – then the challenge is a signal detection problem, pure and simple – sorting the signal from the noise and avoiding both false positives and false negatives.

While I have _huge_ issues with the post's method, it's clearly only focused on avoiding false-positives – avoiding hiring someone who's bad but is sold as good/great. Unfortunately, there are real issues with false negatives as well – you may miss out on a fantastic candidate, first and foremost...

But, of course, decisions aren't that simple. Anyone who understands decision making knows that decisions depend highly on context – including the context provided by the other options... and if you systematically fail to account for eliminating some number of options, you may well be (foolishly) limiting the range of options and the context of your decision. In short, "A players" are relative...

And that idea goes even further. Many stellar employees, innovators, coders, etc. don't start out that way. Sure, some do, but those aren't the people applying and giving you references.

Your job, when hiring from a resume pool, is precisely to find those diamonds in the rough – those false negatives.

<comment><USER4> This is particularly interesting because it is common to hear complaints that (A) it is hard to find "good" people, and (B) it is hard to go through huge quantities of resumes. If those are both true then clearly it's time to worry about false negatives. Maybe failing to hire isn't such a big deal? Maybe there's an element of bravado in claiming that nobody's good enough? Or is a lot of tech hiring just horribly misguided? I'm not sure.

Personally I've got to say that I also find the "rock star" rhetoric to be a huge turn-off. When I see it in a job ad I think of how horrible it would be to have to work with a club of self-described "A" players.

The gruelling interviews are another perverse system that I think has a negative effect. If you can easily get lots of interviews are you going to bother with the five stage interview with four hours of quiz questions and "homework"?

<comment><USER3> Well – the one thing I'll say is that interview processes like that screen out people who are both good and know what they're worth – which is one of the subtle subtexts in much of the hiring processes being discussed/described here – everyone wants the _cheap_ rockstar – not the rockstar that expects rockstar prices and rockstar access... or well, few people do and those people don't use these sorts of hiring mechanisms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A long time ago, I was a VC/growth equity investor. Reference checks were _incredibly_ important, as a startup's chances of success, are, on average, very much correlated with the strength of the team in a variety of areas.

First, obviously, we were looking for red flags. We had ways of phrasing questions designed to get people talking (esp about negatives). Also, more importantly, we were looking for names/contact info of other people who worked with the person we were checking that weren't on the reference list they provided to us. We'd do the same thing with customer references.

Second, we didn't know most of the people provided as references. A random stranger's opinion is interesting, but not that useful, especially when phrased in terms of "good/bad" or "exceptional/not exceptional." What was more valuable was to find out what _kind_ of person we were dealing with, which is something that you really can learn from a few random strangers. For example, in past lives, has the CEO been an effective salesperson? Does s/he need a strong COO because s/he tends to let details drop here and there? The line of questioning went something like: "If you were going to build a team around this person, who else would you want on it? What qualities would the other team members have?"

In other words, references are just another data point, and I believe their value is not a binary determination of that person's ninja-rockstar-astronaut- whatever-ness, but a more nuanced read on that person's abilities as they contribute to the team overall.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is it just me, or does the person who wrote this sound like a snob?

* "In a startup, you can't afford to hire B-players."

* "...a technique I've come to call it the "average-need-not-apply" method."

* "You saved yourself from hiring a B-player, or worse."

* "...employers can make better hiring decisions and make the hiring process better for everyone involved – except maybe the B-players."

<comment><USER7> This is the language of "TopGrading", a hiring methodology.

<comment><USER8> Oh dear. Is this a thing now? Thanks for the heads up...looks like I have another set of snake-oil buzzwords to watch out for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm not really fond of references for a couple of primary reasons:

1) IMO, they are relatively unreliable indicators for technical candidates

2) They leak the candidates active job seeking status to potentially untrusted colleagues

1 occurs primarily because references are self-selected to be people that the candidate has friendships with rather than people who will give the the most honest assessment. In large companies, this can often be especially easy for a candidate to game. The technique in the linked article will do nothing to resolve this, IMO.

And 2 is made worse by this person's desire to interview people who aren't even listed as a reference by the candidate. I've worked for companies before where I would have had to turn down a restriction like this.

</comment><comment><USER10> The obsession with finding super-employees is the flip side of the obsession with finding the perfect process.

Does pretending you hire only exceptional employees help you believe that you're exceptional? Or does running an exceptional workplace help you hire exceptional employees? Would an exceptional employee REALLY be able to make a difference where you work? Or would they just ground down by an ordinary organization?

<comment><USER11> My definition of "A" people is "can do the job without being taught how to do the job." This is a necessity at a start-up where there is no one else to teach you how to perform your role, because your role is new.

"B" people are fine for large organizations where there is someone to show you the ropes, but smaller orgs need people making fast and correct decisions without organizational tradition/experience to support them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This technique exposes you to a new pool of mediocrity. Sure, you're guaranteed _exceptional_ candidates, but what how are they _exceptional_?

Did they, in the past, work for _exceptionally_ abusive employers who need them back? (The new guy quit after his fourth month of unpaid overtime!)

Did they work for _exceptionally_ dimwitted individuals who can't measure their new workers? (The new guy doesn't understand the old system! Fred said it was SO EASY!)

Did they do _exceptionally_ niche work, where almost no other candidate will do ? (e.g. managing physical linotype inventory -- no one ever got our 'e' and 't' counts in the same place as Fred! His database management was magic!)

Using former bosses as an uncalibrated barometer isn't very much better than phoning them up and trying to draw inferences from their tone of voice. Garbage in, garbage out. (But I bet it saves time on collecting your crap data.)

</comment><comment><USER13> My answer, not really, but what that part of me that flies off the handle feels like answering:

Dear interviewer,

This is _not_ a reference. I don't respond to douchebags with manipulative reference requests.

Thanks for letting me know that Jane Doe is in the job market. In the case that Jane is indeed exceptional (and she might be for all you know, or you wouldn't be annoying me at my place of work), I have done the following:

I have just written to all my friends in a position to hire developers to let them know there is an exceptional candidate doing the rounds, and they should call her for an interview asap.

In fact, I may have done this even if I don't think Jane is exceptional. By definition, only a few people can be exceptional. Some developers are just solid and dependably conscientious, creative and productive, and I also hire and recommend those whenever I can, because in doing that I help two people: the developer and the employer.

Which is also why I would never give you references for good people. The industry needs good people, and good people need good places to work. Which isn't your shop. Good developers deserve better than your manipulative sports- metaphor elitism.

Regards, etc.

[edit: took out an unprofessional bit of invective at the end]

</comment><comment><USER14> This method falls victim to self-selection bias. Consider this scenario: Tom is an mediocre developer but he has a great personality. People who don't like him or his work won't answer. But his friends will.

</comment><comment><USER15> This deserves a downvote.

Horrible idea. Most companies have their policies of not giving references either way. Lawsuits over good references (for people who turned out not to be good) have occurred, and even though the probability of a plaintiff victory is low, who wants to deal with that pain in the ass? Most people are fine saying that someone was essentially decent and worked hard, but aren't going to go out on a limb to say that someone who no longer works for them is "EXCEPTIONAL".

Also, what if the person doesn't remember his boss's email or gets it wrong? What if his boss is three companies away by now? Lots of false negatives here.

I think reference checks are not essential for junior hires-- not having references is a warning sign, but I'd take a chance and decide fast on someone if necessary _if_ he wasn't going to be in a managerial role-- but I'd require references from past subordinates (2 per company) from anyone being hired into a managerial role. I actually think subordinate and peer references are far more useful than managerial ones: if you want to see someone's true character, ask people he had power over.

<comment><USER16> It was written by some dude who "sold two companies". Quite out of touch with the working man who needs references. Safe to ignore in that case.

<comment><USER15> Oh, come on! If you're just going to be an employee, possibly _for ten years_ making money for other people, instead of taking some initiative and having your dad set up a lunch between you and the VCs he prepped with and having them teach you how to work for yourself and join Those Who Have Completed An Exit, well then... then you deserve the mediocrity you get!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Ah the good old stalking technique. I remember the first time a potential employer tracked down and telephoned my mother.

Sure that would have been OK if this was an FBI background check. But it wasn't. So the answer to the job offer was "Sorry friend, but go to hell."

</comment><comment><USER18> I think most employees (and perhaps many managers) fail to understand the purpose of a reference check. It is _not_ to find out whether the employee will be any good - that can only be determined by observing the employee in your new workplace for some probationary period.

The hiring decision is traditionally made on the strength of a hiring- manager's conviction and only the hiring manager - the interview pool can inform, but never make a decision. I've seen many situations in which the entire interview group said no to an individual who was hired, and became a star player. I've also seen scenarios where everyone said yes, and the employee was terminated for non performance within a year.

The interview is just a numbskull filter - you usually can't identify great people, but usually (particularly for technical positions) - you can eliminate the people who don't know anything.

So, what then, is the purpose of the "Reference Check" - it's to determine if this employee you are hiring burned down, assaulted, or otherwise was convicted of some horrible crime at a previous company. In general, with larger corporations, all you'll ever get out of them was "He was an employee from XXX to YYY in the position of ZZZ" - but, if he was terminated for killing a coworker, you might discover he was terminated for cause. (unclear whether they'll tell you _what_ cause, but do you really need to know?)

I've done over a 100 reference checks for employees - and, over time, I've realized that's all I'll ever get. And, when an employee does not give you _any_ prior bosses (particularly if they've had a lot of them) - that's a warning sign as well, that you are allowed to discriminate on in at least California.

</comment><comment><USER19> Am I the only person here that is offended by "Don't let the candidate return the call" or was that meant metaphorically?

I might not be "A-level" yet but as a potential candidate I would be furious if my employer kept my options away from me, especially if he's likely to toss me away if everything isn't going perfect for him, as the language of this post seems to dictate as a very real possibility.

<comment><USER20> I assumed that meant "Give a good enough offer that the candidate doesn't bother returning the other call", as a truly exceptional candidate is likely to say no if you press them to decide immediately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'd probably ignore the mail specifically because of the marketing effort for the blog at the bottom (and would have already been a bit hackle-raised at the attempt to define exceptional as top-10%. One, that's wrong. Two, it's patronizing.)

There is something reasonable related to this, though. Let people recommend with different weightings. Say, a way to say "no, this person is a bozo" without directly saying it.

It's like you could come up with a simple web UI to do this. Assign -1 to "this person is a bozo, avoid", 0 to "I am only doing this out of social obligation", 1 to "weak rec", 2 to "good, competent", 3 to "indeed, far better than average", and 4 to "you are an utter moron if you don't hit this."

Maybe add a comment field at the bottom.

The key is to give the recommender a social out -- they can tell the candidate "yes, I recommended you", even if it was a 0 or 1 (or, in some cases, a -1).

Facebook and Google do "recommend" (no-op) vs. "strongly recommend" (actually significant), but adding more levels is good.

</comment><comment><USER22> This seems like a good strategy but I would only try it if you had a few different good references to check. The danger that the email gets ignored because the person let it slip through the cracks is fairly substantial.

Maybe it could be improved to be super short and only ask for a simple "yes" answer so they can answer it right away instead of flagging and moving back to it.

<comment><USER15> I wouldn't respond. I would just find it douchey.

You should already be convinced that the person is exceptional (in talent) or at least good enough to hire before you start messing around with references. The purpose of a reference check is to make sure the person isn't either (a) lying about his background, or (b) seriously harmful. For (b), I don't think references are the solution but I can't think of anything better. Unfortunately, there's no character test that can be done in a few hours of interaction.

<comment><USER23> Not only would I not respond, I'd let my (former) colleague know what kind of potential employer (s)he was considering.

I don't know that I've encountered such an ill-conceived idea in quite awhile. Forget all the false negatives this method would be sure to "detect", I wouldn't feel comfortable spamming the candidates contact list.

<comment><USER15> Yeah, all this nonsense about "we don't hire B-players" is ridiculous. Narcissists always think their loyalists are the best people in the world and everyone else is an idiot. Classic sign.

If we're going to ignore the douchebag baggage ("douchebaggage"? 'tis a new word) associated with "A-player" and "B-player", I'd say I _really_ want the person who turns B-players into A-players.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I've done some hiring of math tutors for a small tutoring company I used to run and I was extremely diligent about reference checking. It made a big difference. I never got a bad reference, but I got some where there were pauses on the other end of the line that made me curious. I was naive then and hired the people anyway. In one case it was worth it, but in both cases, it became clear early on what might _give pause_. Other than that it helped because a lot of people with cheerful demeanor and astonishing resumes simply disappeared when it became clear that I really did make calls and verify every degree they listed. That happened with _a lot_ of people.

</comment><comment><USER25> I'm not sure this is the solution. The problem is hiring (or accepting for YC, College, etc) in general is a complicated process where the generally accepted solution doesn't work as well as we want it to.

The only real solution would be to get to know the people better, which takes too much time. We resort to things like the reference check because it's the only option that doesn't require massive amounts of time. Unfortunately there is no substitute for the time it takes to get to know someone.

<comment><USER26> Companies complain and complain about the hiring process, with people like the OP even resorting to subversion in an attempt to "de-risk" the process.

"The only real solution would be to get to know the people better..."

I totally agree. Read the resume/CV, run the technical test (if required), conduct the interview. If they seem good enough, hire them.

All the jobs I've ever had (perm and contract), had a probationary period during which I could be fired at will.

If a company cannot handle the financial strain of hiring and subsequently firing someone within the probationary period then perhaps they shouldn't be hiring someone in the first place?!

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Hire base on employee referrals have always worked the best.

</comment><comment><USER28> _Congratulations! Looks like you found a star_

Uh, why are you looking for a star? Why does everything think they need or even want a star? How about just someone who gets things done?

As for reference checks, they're a great way to assure that a past, toxic work environment will continue to haunt a candidate indefinitely.

This article is just more of the "I eliminate _X_ out of _Y_ candidates, so I know I'm hiring the best!" B.S.</comment>


V.I. Arnold: On teaching mathematics (1997) - <AUTHOR> http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/~munsteg/arnold.html?

<comment><USER2> "Mathematics is a part of physics."

Oh? I suppose making this assertion is the same as proving it.

"The ugly building, built by undereducated mathematicians who were exhausted by their inferiority complex and who were unable to make themselves familiar with physics, reminds one of the rigorous axiomatic theory of odd numbers."

How vile.</comment>


ASK HN: What is HN's current overall job satisfaction? - <AUTHOR>

Are you satisfied with your current employment status or position? Or are you unhappy and looking for a move? <comment><USER2> That's a hard question to answer. I am working a $DAYJOB while working on a startup, and - to be quite honest - I really chafe at having a "boss" and having to answer to somebody in the $DAYJOB. My ambition is absolutely to get this startup off the ground and be in a position where I'm calling the shots and not answering to somebody who's "above" me. (And yes, I get that you have a "boss" in an abstract sense when you run a company... investors, customers, etc. But that's OK, I'm talking about there being one discrete person that you have to answer to and do exactly what he/she says). So in that regard, I hate the dayjob.

But, as dayjobs go, the one I have isn't too bad, and it pays the bills while we work on bootstrapping the startup. So it's kind of a mixed bag. Probably the more troubling part is the sense of the "opportunity cost" of every hour I spend playing code monkey for somebody else, and thinking about the value we could be creating in that hour, and what it could mean to the startup. When I think about that, I find myself getting pretty frustrated. But, I like the people I work with and what-not. And the travel is an opportunity to meet some new people, explore new cities, etc. But, again with the opportunity cost... and travel wears on you in a way as well.

I guess that's a lot of words to say "I have mixed feelings about my dayjob, but it suffices while I work on the startup." :-)

<comment><USER3> Amen. (I'm in this position.)

<comment><USER4> The same here. I have savings for two years also, but is hard to give up the money you earn in the dayjob and also to burn everything I accumulated during my whole life. While I'm not confortable to do that, I'll keep my dayjob while building my Startup.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am unsatisfied and would like to make a change.

I work in an odd environment. It is an academic/research institution, but my role is a standard IT position. I am primarily expected to do system administration tasks and small data management assignments. In general, development is frowned upon. There seems to be a ceiling in opportunity here due to both my "lower" credential (MS rather than PhD) and perception of what my role is by outsiders.

From a more general perspective, I made a critical error when entering the job market at the end of the first Internet boom (early 2000s). I did not take a development job, but rather a test role at a large IT company. It took me several years at that big IT company to realize that this colored perception of my skills and limited internal opportunities despite a MS in CS and significant programming work on the side.

I left for another company where my job role was related to db skills I had picked up but was a greenfield project. That was enjoyable and a learning experience, but the project was cancelled and the entire team laid off in the early days of the financial crisis.

I landed on my feet in my current role. The role has turned out to be quite different that originally pitched to me, but I have a senior title and pay level. The job just doesn't provide much in the way of personal growth.

For family and lifestyle reasons, I will not leave for at least a year. I have been developing some interest in statistics, modeling, and machine learning. While I would prefer not to simply seek another credential, my employer would probably allow me to obtain a MS in statistics at their expense. Perhaps this would lead to more interesting and challenging work, but to be completely honest with myself, my current role is where many people with that background windup anyway.

To somewhat worsen matters, I am often much more attracted to niche technologies (APL,KDB+,J,Common Lisp, Clojure, Ruby) than the market in my area seems to offer employment opportunties for. I probably need to consider re-entering the Java enterprise programming world and not be a prima-donna about programming language.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd call myself "chronically unfulfilled" with my day job. I simply don't like the rat race lifestyle (trains, traffic, playing dress-up), and the industry I'm in (financial services) is so crippled by regulation and a culture of risk aversion that it's basically impossible to try new ideas and move the needle.

I've given myself 9 more months to replace my salary with consulting and product revenue (hopefully more of the latter). I have dependents, so I have to plot my escape from the cubicle with care.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm quite happy with my current position at Mapquest, to the point that I'd say it's the best job I've ever had. I've got my frustrating moments with management, but the work is exciting and, most of all, I feel very much like I am heard when I bring up engineering concerns. We're hiring, but I've not posted on the Who's Hiring thread as I'm currently arguing with HR about interviewing the resumes I got last month (hence the frustrations with management).

The only thing that would entice me to move would be a job abroad: my family and I are planning a move to New Zealand or Australia in the mid-term future and it would be a fantastic stroke of luck to get a job offer now that would let me work from one of those countries.

<comment><USER8> I am a Kiwi currently living in London(UK). I am more than happy to answer any questions about living/working in New Zealand.

<comment><USER7> Ayers -

Will do. Thanks for the offer! You'll hear from me this week.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Bear in mind that this is a self-selecting group.

A lot of us will be interested and happy in our jobs, but we will also have the yearnings to have a crack at entrepreneurship ourselves.

This definetly gives me a bit of an unsettled feeling, and I need to get it out of my system before I can _really_ accept full time employment with 100% satisfaction.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm a designer cofounder at a startup in a accelerator program. I feel like everyday I'm contributing to something and choosing which path to take. I work close with my other two cofounders and we all respect each others final decision in their departments. We get to meet with top industry folks and investors that give is tremendous insight into our product and help us shape it to be more and more useful.

We work in a cool office with the other teams and the community is amazing. I absolutely love it. That feeling where you just love coming in and working and spending time with everyone. This helps our product but also improves the quality of life. I do remote work for two other companies to help with living expenses, and the I still like that but it's nothing compared to being a cofounder and getting to do the things that come along with that.

Note: I'm 18, and just one year out of high school so I have some flexibility and can handle a decent bit.

<comment><USER11> I envy that you are doing all of this at 18. Right around that age I took my eye off the ball. When I snapped out of it I realized I was 34.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I am a relatively unhappy consultant. I have reached premium billing status within my industry, but seem to be offered to work on relatively repetitive problems that are anything but challenging. Also, although I've made a fair number of contributions to the ecosystem, the community that contributes back is quite thin and despite some positive press, I don't feel that there is hardly any impetus behind the open source ecosystem (full disclosure: i work in the enterprise).

That said, consulting fits my lifestyle well. I get on a project, complete it, and then am done and can pursue some of my other interests (music, poetry, human languages, travel) with a minimum of interference. As a long term solution I think I would kill myself if I had to keep doing this forever, but as a solution to make money for the last couple years it hasn't been terrible.

The problem is that the transition isn't particularly easy. Most of the skills I've acquired do transfer into other industry sectors, but I haven't stayed on top of the newest stuff in any of them (e.g. Rails magic, Javascript frameworks, etc.). I've thought about jumping ship once there is the crest of a new wave that becomes financially viable (e.g. Meteor) or even transitioning into a completely new line of work (e.g. management consulting/book writing) that kills less brain cells.

As of now, however, I am simply unhappy and seeking the next best thing. Creating my own company or joining a fledging startup has always been of interest, but my lifestyle doesn't allow a 60hr/week commitment as of right now.

<comment><USER13> " I have reached premium billing status within my industry, but seem to be offered to work on relatively repetitive problems that are anything but challenging"

I sometimes get that feeling and I have _almost_ reached premium billing in my specific niche as well. But then I realize that some of thte things that don't seem challenging anymore is because we have become really good at doing it over the years. Thats why you get the big bucks even though it might seem like an easy task. The real issue for me is repetitive work as a consultant.

<comment><USER12> I would say this is true in my case. I suppose you could say that I've become "really good" at what I do, but I feel that I am mostly great compared to what Mark Suster would call the "B Team" so this doesn't serve as a great motivating factor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Used to be pretty happy couple years ago, the work is exciting and interesting.

But early lack of good management and now a chronic lack of resources has turned it into a stressful drag. I'm pretty much angry at everybody all the time now and it's not good on my health or well being.

Looking to move soon, but waiting for company to sell first (imminent). Probably wanting to move to the West Coast -- Seattle or Bay Area next. Probably end of the year is my goal.

<comment><USER9> +1 on the dwindling resources in the big companies since the financial crisis hit. We used to have the headroom to do things properly and invest for the future, but that is a thing of the past.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Just quit a full-time job of 8 years working for an industry leading company to become a remote freelance web developer with startups on the side.

Couldn't be happier!

<comment><AUTHOR> Congrats! If you don't mind me asking, how do you come about your projects? Are you doing any self-marketing, or are you getting by with word-of-mouth?

<comment><USER15> It started with a really non-serious posting of a profile to djangogigs.com which I posted well before I was really ready to go "pro"... which was almost forgotten about. But out of nowhere, an email came, an interview went well, and I got a 6 month gig that payed enough for me to quit my job. Since then, I've learned a ton, and kept the ball rolling, mostly through contacts from my previous career who heard I was doing web stuff now. Also, the original 6 month contract refuses to end...(not my fault!) I have yet to make a resume or a website... I really should. I feel very lucky.

<comment><USER3> What type of clients are you looking for? Are you looking for more 6-month contracts with agencies, or one-time projects helping entrepreneurs build beta versions of their ideas?

I ask because we're working on matchist.com (launching at the end of the summer) to help freelancers like yourself find quality work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Maybe this should be a poll?

Happy at a 9-17 job which involves Linux, network, concurrency and C++ and is close to the metal yet still involves a huge set of features. This combination makes it challenging.

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't see an option for making a poll, but I can tabulate the responses once this has run it's course and write up a quick blog post about it with the data laid out so we can get an better idea. I'll have to use some liberty in analyzing answers that are vague though.

<comment><USER16> To be honest I don't know myself how to mske HN polls. Perhaps it's one of the _"if you need to ask, then it's not for you"_ things :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> My work is currently uninteresting, which makes me bored/unmotivated. The salary isn't good either.

Looking into moving to a developed nation.

</comment><comment><USER18> I just changed job, so yes, still very happy right now.

</comment><comment><USER13> Currently self-employed/consultant: Happy

Industry that I work with: Semi-happy

Billing rate: Happy

Working for large corporate clients doing challenging but repetitive tasks: Not happy

Bottomline is that I have the "bootstrap a company" itch that I am looking to scratch asap.

<comment><USER19> Do you make more than you did in your last day job?

<comment><USER13> Yes but with added responsibility of running my own payroll etc using my corporation. However, no more red tape stuff like performance management, raises, bonus etc. Client and I agree on a rate, I get paid and when done, I move on.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you use beta testers? - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone in the HN community use the old paradigm of the beta tester? That is, do you have a select group of tech-savvy, early-adopter, high-feedback users that you use to test new features or new products? OR do you just throw a MVP out there and A/B test every iteration on all your users.
The discussion earlier today about 'toxic clients' got me thinking that the reverse could be true too and that there could be a class of, we'll call them 'gem clients,' who not only use your product with minimum fuss, telling their friends how great it is, but who also provide valuable feedback and suggestions?  It seems to me the idea of a beta-tester still has value in-so-far as you can use it to get these high quality users early on, lowering the feature-set and polish necessary for a product to be minimally viable and providing real-world feedback at an earlier stage in your product development.
So how do you get those customers to adopt your platform? Where do they come from? Are they as valuable as my musings think? <comment><USER2> I generally do a preview release for techie friends, but I've never had a formal beta for BCC or AR. If the software is stable enough to provide value, then I release it and start charging money. You get much better feedback when someone is invested in your software and wants to use it to get their work done, versus someone who is not invested in your software and for whom using it is uncompensated work.

(My conscience is totally clear about doing this: I give refunds for any reason as a matter of policy, and if people didn't sell buggy software then there would be no software on the market. In return for higher than average suffering compared to later users, they get me at their beck and call for the first few weeks. In the very unlikely event that AR failed to phone the customers' customers, I am more than capable of calling Lucinda Smith to tell her that her appointment with Mindy's Hair Salon is on Tuesday at 3 PM.)

BCC 1.0 was terrible software. Somebody bought it anyhow. (He got a refund.) 1.02 was heavily influenced by his comments, and sucked a little less.

AR 1.0 is not terrible. It is bare-bones, and it certainly isn't right for all customers, but it does what it says on the tin. It will probably improve fairly rapidly with customer feedback.

I get users for software four weeks old the same way I get users for software four years old: organic search. (There is a reason I got AR's website up and some links pointed at it six months before I actually had software to sell: I now get a couple hundred searches a month "for free", which gives me a small trickle of brave souls to try it out on.)</comment>


Clear Linux Project - <AUTHOR> https://clearlinux.org/ <comment><USER2> Isn't this Intel's Linux distro?

Why don't they take credit for it?</comment>


Soon, hundreds of tourists will go to space. What should we call them? - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/soon-hundreds-of-tourists-will-go-to-space-what-should-we-call-them/ <comment><USER2> Space tourist or passenger.

It would make sense that only those who qualify for astronaut wings to be called an astronaut. FAA has wings for commercial astronauts, but they must have completed the flight crew qualifications and training.

</comment><comment><USER3> Astrotourists

</comment><comment><USER4> Legal aliens

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> The 1%.

</comment><comment><USER5> elitonauts</comment>


18F: Rapid Implementation of Policy as Code - <AUTHOR> https://18f.gsa.gov/2020/05/12/rapid-implementation-of-policy-as-code/ <comment><USER2> Shame to see this doesn't get much attention here, as this seems like an attempt to solve a common efficiency problem.</comment>


What's the cost (in fish) between 1.5 and 3 degrees of warming? - <AUTHOR> http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2019/03/cost-in-fish-between-degrees-warming/ <comment><USER2> Maybe we should approach the question from the other side.

\- We need more fish than can be sustainably caught.

\- Most of the ocean is a desert [1] due to the lack of essential elements close to the surface, and only near the shore or in places where current brings nutrients up from the depth there is a significant amount of life.

\- Ocean surface acts as a giant solar battery because of termocline.

This means we can create floating platforms that would pump water from seabed to the surface, creating vast new fisheries and at the same time removing carbon from the atmosphere since this essentially is a controlled form of iron fertilization.

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

<comment> toper-centage Leave it to humans to develop convuluted engineering for problems nature already solved but we destroyed, just to avoid solving the real problem: we eat way too much fish and meat.

<comment><USER2> So far nature have not solved the problem of most of the earth being desert and all of the live ending in 600mln years [1]. One could argue that having humans (trillions of them) is natures way of solving these problems, and having less people that eat less fish doesn't help with any of these.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The article is scarce on details but the first part: "Climate change is already affecting oceans, fisheries, and the livelihoods that depend on them. Some local fish stocks are declining, while other fish populations are shifting their distributions, forcing fishers to travel farther to make their catch."

Already has me thinking that they are blaming the effects of over-fishing on climate change. A nice way to shift the blame.

<comment><USER4> Uh, you object that the _anthropocene_ magazine concentrates on climate change?

<comment><USER5> Anthropocene as a term focuses on the human-shaped nature of Earth in general. Overfishing qualifies as a component.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can never tell if studies like this take into account much evolution and adaptation? They always seem to assume that current trendlines will continue.

<comment><USER7> Finally, my PhD research is relevant. This particular work doesn't, but other work in the land of organismal responses to climate change does. There's a good review of this [0] (disclaimer: written by my advisor). Here's [1] another one by two of the greats in the field (Ray Huey/Kearney)

[0]: [https://sci- hub.se/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10...](https://sci- hub.se/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev- ecolsys-110411-160516)

[1]: [https://sci- hub.se/https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/fu...](https://sci- hub.se/https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2012.0005)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> So, does this show that fisheries will be more productive with 1.5C or 3.5C warming vs 0C? A difference of 6.5% biomass between 1.5C and 3.5C doesn't warrant trillions of spending, IMO. This along with 1-4ft increase in sealevel[1] over 100 years begs the question, so what?

[1] [https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/](https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/)

<comment><USER9> We want a zero degree increase things are good as they have been for thousands of years. Now if we go up to 1.5C we lose a lot of fish. We will have 6.5% more fish then if we go to 3C increase so the "so what" is we stand to lose millions of peoples jobs, livelihoods, and the only way they feed their families. It means by doing nothing we are potentially sentencing millions of people to their demise. I just don't get how anyone can sit here and say "so what". And I truly do think this is a rich person problem too because you watch what happens when millions of people are pushed from their homes in a short period of time it will be pandemonium. What are we going to do when essentially an entire nation is pushed from their homes? What country is going to accept them or do we just let them die? So for me there is a huge amount at risk if their estimates in this study are true. I have kids that I want to leave a future earth to.

<comment><USER10> Here's the thing though: if we actively do something to stop carbon production, we will also be losing economic wellbeing. Developing nations will be hit harder by this cutback, too. The question is is the trade-off worth it, relative to other things we could be putting our time and attention to. According to this think tank (1), it doesn't pay out so well, compared to other goals.

1: [https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/top- outcomes](https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/top-outcomes)</comment></comment></comment>


Bup - git based (git inspired) backup tool - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/apenwarr/bup

<comment><USER2> They already implemented _bup save_ but there is no _bup restore_ yet :). I know that it's possible to restore backup with git checkout but it's funny anyway.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, just wow. Looking at the docs, it seems the two major limitations IMHO at this point are the inability to backup file metadata, and the inability to remove old backups (that's kind of a biggy). Once they get those two things worked out this is gonna be incredible!

</comment><comment><USER4> Awesome! I was just contemplating an idea similar to this yesterday.

</comment><comment><USER5> I can't resist speculating about what you get if it fails...

;-)</comment>


Statistics vs. Machine Learning, fight - <AUTHOR> http://anyall.org/blog/2008/12/statistics-vs-machine-learning-fight/

<comment><USER2> Statistics has a pretty interesting stigma in science. _It's something you're not allowed to question._ Generally.

You can question if someone's models are right. You can question if their controls narrowed the experiment well enough. You can question if their interpretation makes any sense. What you can't question is if something like a t-test, LLS, or ANOVA is the best way to pull meaningful parameters out of the data. Just look at how much resistance Bayesian methods face in publication.

This is a fundamental friction that statistics has to overcome as long as its still called statistics. I think of ML as the parts of statistical research that escaped through the window opened by Shannon back when he invented information theory. It's a bird now, free to invent its words for the world and try crazy stuff that the religion of "Statistics" could never accept.

This isn't to say that Statistics isn't growing. The article itself does a good job pointing out just how similar recent Stat has been to ML. However, if you see a research paper in some of the more core, less data intensive sciences that dares to drop "SVM", "Ridge Regression", "Clustering", "Bayes", or god forbid "Machine Learning" itself you see scowls: isn't your data _normal enough_? Why do you need to do something fancy when I can work out the z-score of that result right here on my pocket calculator/slide rule.

( _Lets go ahead and concede that ML certainly has a lot of broken yet overhyped parts which helps form the nucleus of an argument not to infect scientific knowledge with some untested infrastructure. Growing pains._ )

It's a classic fight between tradition and innovation with all the usual arguments available, but what makes this different is that such a huge community of people who thrive off the image of really, _really_ knowing things pretty much take the frequentist methodologies as an unimpeachable gold standard. Things can get dicey when you start to ask what the actual meaning of a p-value is, how we really know anything about "estimators", why people work so hard not to use computers. _It works! Stop asking questions._

</comment><comment><USER3> "What differs most is the teaching style. CS has far better lecture notes. Of course, the stats people wrote a very good book; but better lecture notes win because I can access them later and send them to people for free."

So very true. When I was a freshman in high school, we had mandatory "study hall" periods where we just had to sit in a room and be quiet. I spent most of them doing crosswords and sleeping, but I also spent a lot of time looking at printouts of these notes:

<http://rutherglen.ics.mq.edu.au/wchen/lnentfolder/lnent.html>

It's really important to realize that not everyone who is interested in a field has access to a library full of relevant publications.

</comment><comment><USER4> And AI is the red-headed stepchild caught in the crossfire, where any approach that actually produces worthwhile results is promptly excommunicated from the field.

"If I create a program which successfully predicts which humans are trustworthy and which are untrustworthy, would that be AI?"

"Are you kidding?! That would revolutionize the field! That's harder than winning the Turing Prize! That's so far ahead of anything ever done it is hard to even imagine what it would look like!"

"The algorithm exists. Its output is called a FICO score."

"Bah, that isn't AI."

<comment><USER5> Better examples: the face recognition in a camera, the route finding in a GPS map, and Google.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is Kubernetes a viable option for monoliths? - <AUTHOR> I work for a company that does dev ops consulting for SMB's. Recently we've looking into Kubernetes as a method of orchestrating clusters for our clients, who generally seem a little overwhelmed by the complexity that Kubernetes brings to the table. In short, they don't really know what they want, or how Kubernetes can help them.
Generally these organizations are using a cloud provider like AWS running a monolith of some kind. Is Kubernetes still the way to go even though their applications are not architected in the way Kubernetes suggests?
My question for you is how can Kubernetes help these organizations? What are some common use cases of Kubernetes for SMB's? <comment><USER2> I can't really answer your question, but will say if you're hosting on Google Cloud already, you have little to lose by using Kubernetes, since Google Container Engine provides a nice cluster out of the box, and many of Kubernetes' advantages hold true to monoliths.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you provides some insight into how an SMB who is using k8s would benefit? Most of the people I have talked to don't seem to think it is worth the added complexity. Do you agree?

<comment><USER2> For example, they might benefit from the set of opinions baked into k8s. I'm partial to convention over configuration, and I appreciate that there is a "Kubernetes way" you can follow and rapidly have a robust and conventional set of infrastructure. I like that Kubernetes encompasses a pretty large footprint of functionality. For example, I haven't used Terraform personally, but from what I understand, Terraform is not opinionated about secrets management; I imagine some Terraform users are using Vault for secrets, and some are using other solutions. Kubernetes has secrets management built-in, so most k8s users are going to use that functionality; it's one less decision for the team to debate.

Edit: to be clear, there are important things that k8s _doesn 't_ do, like templating, that run counter to convention over configuration, so this benefit is certainly arguable...

<comment><AUTHOR> So much of the benefit comes from adopting Kubernetes in in entirety? As in it could potentially bundle and replace commonly needed operation tools like secret management, etc?

<comment><USER2> Yes, I think that's fair to say.

I thought of something else rather important: k8s is truly "containers-first", IE containers are first-class in k8s. So it allowed me to get containers in production in a rock-solid manner without being a Docker expert. This is nice if you're seeking the advantages of promoting the exact same docker image from staging to production, for example.

<comment><AUTHOR> What if your application is not necessarily architected for containers? Have you heard of existing systems being successfully migrated without significant changes in software architecture?

<comment><USER2> Hmm, if it's a monolith, it should be dockerizable without too much trouble. Yes I've migrated several legacy ish systems. Sometimes you have to take shortcuts and be "un-dockerish", for example by running nginx alongside your app server in the same image, but that's not a big deal really in practice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Indeed, monoliths can be containerised and orchestrated by kubernetes. The benefit is high availability ( replica) and self healing. Monoliths can still scale out, however their components will not scale independently.</comment>


Ask HN: Alternative to Google Chrome for web developers on macOS? - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I use Google Chrome mainly because I need it for my job (web development) and therefore almost all of the time.
I keep fighting against all the google servics, trying to keep them as muted and blocked as possible. One annoying thing is that I always have to update rules in Little Snitch after every minor chrome update.
I tried to install Chromium directly from the Chromium project website (precompiled installers) [1] just to find out that at the very first execution it tries to connect to Google...
Then I tried out Brave, but it also is full of Google's stuff.
Does anyone have a usefull alternative for web developers? I need to develop on the chromium browser engine but without all the - from my perspective - unecessary google services baked in (I don't use google services at all).
[1] https://chromium.woolyss.com/download/#mac
Thanks and have a nice sunday. <comment><USER2> Use the Ungoogled version from [https://chromium.woolyss.com/](https://chromium.woolyss.com/) or [https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled- chromium/](https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I will try this out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _the very first execution it tries to connect to Google_

Just don't connect when it tries. In my experience it does not try again until you make a new profile. Then you have to tell it "no" again.

</comment><comment><USER4> There is Vivaldi, but I haven't checked whether they removed most google services.

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't tried it jet but it seems like vivaldi still integrates google services?

See [https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/47101/google-services- apk](https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/47101/google-services-apk)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Any reason you can't use Firefox?</comment>


AI and the future of humanity - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/+RickWayne/posts/1dSHV4drhvj <comment><AUTHOR> The course of technology strikes me as useful, but this paragraph particularly resonates:

 _True AI has the genuine potential to render the great mass of people not just superfluous but an outright burden. There will be no reason, in a politico-economic sense, for most of them to exist since neither their labor nor their vote will empower the ruling class. There will no longer be anything to stop the powers-that-be from reproducing and extending the "solutions" that have repeatedly occurred throughout human history across many times and circumstances: from Stalinist Russia to the pogroms of medieval Europe to the Khmer Rouge to the Rwandan genocide and on and on._</comment>


Offer HN: I will get you into Y Combinator - <AUTHOR>

Google "ycombinator application".  Excluding YCombinator itself, my guide for applying is the top hit.  I have coached several teams over the past 3 years into getting an interview and accepted into YCombinator.
Obviously, I can't guarantee that every team will get in, but I can help the right teams (smart, passionate hackers) express themselves to maximize their chances.  I understand precisely what he is looking for in a founder.  Having taught several teams, including myself, to write the application, I have learned exactly how to express your best qualities.
The first time I applied, I did not know how to present myself.  I did not get in.  Since then, I have learned to do so through myself and also through helping others.  I want to help other applicants avoid the same mistakes I did.
Also, I just love to talk to smart entrepreneurs about startup ideas. <comment><USER2> While the offer of application coaching is nice, the headline could use rewording. It seems spammy due to overpromising. "I will coach you on how to get into Y Combinator" or something similar will probably go over better.

<comment><USER3> The secret ingredient is the bribes! ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Are you simply pointing people to your guide or offering coaching? If the latter, why not offer a way to contact you?

I will admit I'm intrigued (only because I'm an information junkie and like getting as many people's opinions as possible) but the lack of contact makes it looks like you're just spamming.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't get the impression that the YCombinator app is one that needs coaching for. Questions are straightforward, answers should be too. This isn't a college app.

</comment><comment><USER6> isn't it abit too late?

</comment><comment><USER7> You're an incubator incubator?</comment>


Ask HN: Who Will Win the Race to $1 Trillion? - <AUTHOR> At the open of trading today, 7/27/2018, the top 3 are:
AAPL: $955 Billion
GOOG: $882 Billion
AMZN: $877 Billion
Momentum favors AMZN, which is up 4% pre-market. But AAPL only needs to gain 5% to hit $1 Trillion.
Who gets there first? <comment><USER2> PetroChina was in 2007.</comment>


Boston University files patent lawsuits as 2014 expiry date looms - <AUTHOR> http://dailyfreepress.com/2013/09/04/bu-fights-time-sensitive-patent-infringement-battle/

<comment><USER2> If it brings tuition down for the students, every school should.</comment>