Show HN: vim-github-comment - Comment commits on GitHub using Vim - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github-comment

<comment><USER2> This is going to be handy for code reviews - thanks!

edit: My thoughts after using it.

\- vim-github-commit doesn't use inline comments, the comment goes at the end of the file on GitHub, although it does say which line it refers to. I prefer GitHub's inline comments via the web interface.

\- Your comment is added to whatever commit the current line was introduced in. This isn't bad, but it can be confusing if you go to GitHub and realize you wanted to comment on that line in the current version, not some version from 6 months ago.

\- The comment cannot be edited or deleted (as far as I can tell), whereas you can do both if you make a comment via the web interface.

Here's how it compares to a regular comment on GitHub: [http://i.imgur.com/QsDNOSu.png](http://i.imgur.com/QsDNOSu.png)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback!

You're absolutely correct - and the reason I did it that way: easier to accomplish for the first version. I have the intention to take a stab at implementing inline comments, but it's not that simple. For comment to be inline, a line index in the GitHub diff has to be specified. More information about that particular API method: [http://developer.github.com/v3/repos/comments/#create-a- comm...](http://developer.github.com/v3/repos/comments/#create-a-commit- comment)

You can delete these kind of comments by clicking "Show lines notes below" checkbox and proceeding from there.

<comment><USER3> One other minor nit: I think the usage video on github is way fast, I can't read what's being done and takes a few replays to understand what's going on, plus all that fast movement is actually distracting (a bit headache inducing even) and may drive people away from reading down the readme. I'd go for something at least three times slower. Well that's how I felt, at least. But really great plugin, have you looked into vim-fugitive? There might be opportunities for interplay between the two plugins (e.g. fugitive allows navigating to commit objects with :G[edit|split|vsplit].)

<comment><AUTHOR> You're not the only one having that nit, so I'll do that :)

[https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github- comment/issues/3](https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github-comment/issues/3)

I'm using fugitive myself - so I'll definitely consider interplay opportunities with it :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is an awesome idea and has massive potential for the Open Source community. With this plugin I can immediately start an interaction with the coder of any random line, without doing any extensive research about who that might be and how I could reach him first. At the same time this interaction will be public and thus generate documentation.

</comment><comment><USER5> How do "comment commits" work on github? Are they just using git-notes?

</comment><comment><USER6> Great work! I'm definitely using it :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Hopefully helping me improve it too :)

<comment><USER6> Added a pull request for you

<comment><AUTHOR> And both of them are now merged!

[https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github- comment/pull/1](https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github-comment/pull/1) [https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github- comment/pull/2](https://github.com/mmozuras/vim-github-comment/pull/2)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


I Just Moved Back To Britain After 20 Years Abroad — Here's What's Changed - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.sg/i-just-moved-back-to-britain-after-20-years-abroad-2014-6/

<comment><USER2> Meh, just a guy making sweeping generalizations from a personal political perspective.</comment>


Ask HN: Next cycle - <AUTHOR> What do you think the next tech cycle be based on? In the first line put the technology in capital letters (AI ...)
Read this discussion.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12044872 <comment><USER2> Data.

Currently, the web is still a big collection of text documents. What is not clear to us right now because we're knee-deep in it is is how deeply sub- optimal that is. The number of people going to the Google homepage is declining because people are now just going directly to the database that represents what they're looking for. Looking to buy a home? You go to Zillow or Trulia and query their database. People want data, not text. Text is for novels and poetry, not for things you want to find. 95%, almost all, of the web was posted to be found -- it wants to be data.

What will come next is the web as a database and Google will no longer be a player there, new companies will be.

<comment><USER3> The problem with that is that natural language - written or spoken - is the natural user interface for humans.

To a certain extent we can learn how to input data in a structured manner a machine can easily process:

\- the limited subset of human language that makes sense as search engine input

\- GUIs

\- pretty much every input form in client software

However, for anything above a certain level of complexity this requires domain knowledge and often even for users with experience in that domain it's still an error-prone process.

The web as a general-purpose database is a vision that has yet to materialize. It's not that hasn't been tried before, both in a top-down (Semantic Web) and bottom-up (microformats, Wikis) fashion. It's not that those attempts have been complete failures: The tools they brought about - particularly Wikis - are a vital and highly useful part of the web.

Still, they're mostly limited to niche or domain-specific data and we still need search engines and natural language understanding to make sense of the largely unstructured free-form text that's stored in Wikis.

That's why I still see the need for a player such as Google that in one way or another makes human language comprehensible to machines. This might result in something like the web-as-a-database but it isn't all that different from what the likes of Google and Facebook are already doing today, is it?

<comment><USER2> As for natural language interfaces, you can, right now, go to Google and type in "two-bedroom homes in Paradise, California". It won't try to answer it. It will instead send you to a site that is a database, right? And as I mentioned, numbers from Google's homepage are declining _specifically_ because people are skipping that step.

 _The web as a general-purpose database is a vision that has yet to materialize._

Yes, sure. I guess that's my point: its materialization will be the basis of the next cycle. I have concrete grounds to believe that it's on its way and it will be tremendously exciting because it's the beginning of the final form. The data will get more complex, more contextual, and more refined, but it will always be data. The astonishing thing about new paradigms is that it's like suddenly being able to see; entire new dimensions open up; things that we didn't even consider before become suddenly cake.

<comment><USER3> > numbers from Google's homepage are declining specifically because people are > skipping that step.

That's only if people know already which database to query. Moreover, to some extent, Google's already trying to provide a direct answer to user queries (flights, directions, queries for which a Wikipeda / Wiktionary abstract is the best hit).

Doing a "SELECT * FROM restaurants ORDER BY review DESC" is simple, discovering the database to execute that query against is still difficult. We'd need some sort of service discovery to automate that beyond making machines understand natural language.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hype.

That's what _every_ cycle is built on.

<comment><USER5> That and alternating between fat clients and thin clients.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Space.

Planet Earth is becoming too small for mankind and technology advancement is making preliminary unmanned colonization of the Moon viable other than feasible. China going first me thinks and the US will follow accordingly in order not to lose the race.

</comment><comment><USER7> IoT

It went from mainframes -> desktops/laptops -> mobile. And next will be IoT. Huge possibilities will open up when you have internet connected devices at the sub $1 range.

<comment><USER8> I'm kind of skeptical on this one.. Why would I want an internet-connected toaster?

<comment><USER7> I'm not gonna pretend to guess what the possibilities will be. But when computers went to costing just a few hundred dollars and fitting in your pocket, there was an explosion of startups and ideas that no one could've dreamt of at the time.

Likewise, when these computers go down to the size of your fingernail and costing about $1 (like the ESP8266), suddenly a new world of possibilities open up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Data and Statistical Analysis

Companies that act on facts will succeed vs. those that act on gut instincts, egos, or something else.

</comment><comment><USER10> DECENTRALIZATION

</comment><comment><USER11> Decentralized models, blockchain(or an evolution of it), smart contracts</comment>


Powerful Radio Signal from Deep Space - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencealert.com/periodicity-has-been-detected-in-a-repeating-fast-radio-burst <comment><USER2> One thing that I wonder is whether we could ever identify an alien communication signal as an alien signal is likely to be much more advanced. In that scenario, the alien civilization is likely to be able to send their signal at the Shannon limit. Additionally an advanced civilization is likely to be sending signals optically instead of over radio waves. But even if we assume radio waves, Shannon says that the you can send the most information when using a random code. As you approach the Shannon limit the signal becomes more noise-like as the encoding tends towards random. So it's entirely possible an alien signal is likely to look like pure noise to us and hence we may miss a true alien signal.

<comment><USER3> It's too short for communication. I think it's burst of particles that are released when spaceship goes out of warp.

[https://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come- wit...](https://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come-with-a- killer-downside/)

16 day regular cycle is because it's regular transfer between two planets. Other FRBs are random because they are just random ships on random research routes.

<comment><USER4> Or they are heading straight for us but can only stay in warp for 16 days at a time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> More like "powerful radio emissions from deep space". The paper doesn't use the term "signal" at all, and a website dedicated to science probably shouldn't have either (although it did help bait my click).

<comment><USER6> I think the click-bait title is the reason why most comments here are about aliens.

Also because it has a set interval. People like to assume there is some intelligent life form that trigger the events.

But on our own planet we have geysers that erupt at set intervals. All without the help of an intelligent life form.

So I think it's more likely that it's a natural phenomena.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Alternate explanation: there really aren't 12 silent days. They have (in effect) a directional antenna that happens to be aimed at us on the 4 other days. When it's not aimed at us, the signal is way below what [https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/en/effelsberg](https://www.mpifr- bonn.mpg.de/en/effelsberg) can detect.

</comment><comment><USER8> Just imagine one day a true alien signal comes ringing, and what the public reaction would be? "Yeah, right. Again."

<comment><USER9> I guess it would depend how compelling the signal was. If it's just rogue radio waves with seemingly intelligent structure that the average person cannot understand, then the reaction would likely be "Yeah, right. Again".

If it's some kind of encoded message containing information that can be decoded and verified by scientific communicators, perhaps not.

<comment><USER10> If I were in charge of broadcasting a communication signal into space, I'd make it a very obviously square wave, or something else that doesn't usually occur on its own. So it really depends on if the signal was meant to be seen as a discovery mechanism.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Sci fi daydream here.

What would it take for us to actually try to make such a signal ourselves in space? Really huge explosions? I suppose one weird way to see if they could be alien signals is see if we can imitate them.

Of course, that would be no guarantee that we aren't just making bird calls imitating the sounds of car alarms (or other birds for that matter). But, I mean, if we can detect these signals, if we could generate one, maybe some other civilization would too. And if we proved that any civilization of a certain state could use the same technique, it would at least lend more probability to the possibility that these are something not natural phenomena.

And who knows, when the alien armada invasion force shows up, you'd know for sure it worked! Ah, such reckless abandon.

<comment><USER12> The Three Body Problem is a first-contact trilogy of books that starts just like this:

Someone ponders what the most powerful thing in our area is (the sun) and then finds a way to influence it just enough so that it can send repeating signals. From there the alien armada heads our way and sets up the plot of the rest of the trilogy!

<comment><USER13> Would it really take an Armada? Coronavirus infected 40k people, we have some of these viruses in labs. I'd send one agile team and drop a nice virus on Earth (minimal viable product).

<comment><USER12> In the book, they start by sending as little as 3 protons, and it completely debilitates humanity.

<comment><USER14> The protons as you call them are a fun quirk of the science fiction genre, "How do we explain the Great Stagnation"? Fine Structure by Sam Hughes is the first book I've ever seen do it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> What could create a natural radio signal in space?

Edit: I should have done some basic googling, turns out a few things:

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

<comment><USER15> The real question you should be asking is what doesn't. Radio signals are generated in many ways at frequencies up and down the spectrum.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> > an alien signal is likely to be much more advanced.

... and therefore they will probably think to themselves 'maybe we shouldn't talk too fast and say things as simply as possible... if we want to increase the likelihood of being understood'.

</comment><comment><USER17> Didn't we see a movie about this? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_\(1997_American_film\))

</comment><comment><USER18> Intergalactic numbers station!

</comment><comment><USER19> Just think, whether this is an alien device or a quasar / celestial body outputting this energy.

It is a truly terrifying level of radiation. I wouldn't like to be a planet in a solar system near the origin of those bursts.</comment>


Nerds Want Muscles Too; Workouts for Comic-Con Goers - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/articles/nerds-want-muscles-too-workouts-for-comic-con-goers-1412032409

<comment><USER2> I guess there's markets everywhere. That said, I lift fairly seriously, and the article repeats something silly:

       Participants say geek-themed fitness programs are less intimidating than
       big-box gyms, and more empathetic. Among the biggest reasons people don't
       join a gym is a fear of feeling intimidated or out of place.

       Being judged by the toned-and-tanned gym crowd is a real concern for many
       people, says Collin Anderson, a personal trainer who manages the "Cos-fit"
       Facebook page with workouts for people who dress in superhero and other
       costumes.

       "A lot of us may have some residual issues toward jocks," says Mr. Anderson,
       who lives in Renton, Wash.

I've been going to gyms daily for more than a decade. If you're thinking of starting a training program, know that most of your fellow gym goers will ignore you. On the chance they aren't ignoring you, it's most likely because they're waiting for equipment you're using, or you're being obnoxious (talking on your phone, leaving puddles of sweat, not racking weights when you're done.) Seriously. Most people are just there to get a workout and don't have any time to bother others. Just go regularly, and in 6 months, you'll look like you belong there too.</comment>


Show HN: Relanote – a note-taking tool to help you connect the dots - <AUTHOR> https://relanote.com/ <comment><USER2> There are so many tools like this popping up, I just wish the creators in this space realized the gap in local implementation. I've worked on numerous teams that would benefit from this type of simplified knowledge management and linking, but having it all stored on someone else's server is a hard pass for the security teams I've been on.

<comment><USER3> 100% this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Clean design, I like it.

One thing, I got stuck on the sign up because my password was too long I think. But I didn't get an error message.

When using the dark mode, the constrast is really heavy. I would brighten the background a bit and desaturate the text colors.

</comment><comment><USER5> Very sleek design - I like it very much.</comment>


Ask HN: Great movies/series you saw lately? - <AUTHOR> Preferably ones made in the last few years, but doesn't have to be. Stuff not in English is particularly welcome. Thank you! <comment><AUTHOR> _Succession_ (2018-), 2 seasons so far, which "follows a dysfunctional American global-media family", is wonderful. Although a creation of Jesse Armstrong, creator of brilliant comedies like Peep Show and Four Lions, it's more pure drama, although has many funny moments.

</comment><comment><USER2> The most unassuming movie I was recommended, but turned out to be spectacular: Upgrade. I read somewhere the producers had really low expectations for this movie as it is low budget and not about comic book superheroes. Apparently, there are no plans for the 2nd installment. But, imho, creative camerawork, beautiful cinematography and wild choreography put it anywhere above and beyond most any superhero flick out now.

The movie that shattered any expectations I had for it: Enter Nowhere. I stumbled upon it on Amazon Prime, thought the synopsis was somewhat interesting and went into watching it with extremely low expectations (the title is crap, the poster is crap, it has Clint Eastwood's son with wooden expression throughout the movie). But this movie turned out to be a trippy puzzle unlike what we are used to (Cube, Saw, Escape Room). Instead of wealthy people with kinky(?) sense of entertainment and insane philosophers, it has something to do with WW2. Unusual.

Low budget movie that takes place in a single room, yet won't bore you even for a second: Circle. It's a survival game movie where predicting the outcome of the game is half the fun. Blew all my expectations out the park. I watched a lot of survival movies of late and this is one of the (very few) best.

The movies that deserved all their hype: Arrival, It, Us, Annihilation. In Arrival I loved the design of aliens, their environment, the way the linguist tries to decipher their language and the final twist. One negative is how the movie deals with geopolitics - it's crude and laughable. For a movie led by kids, It (the movie) is really a solid one. It is polished like a huge budget superhero flick, but also, uh, literate and entertaining. Us is a beautiful, very slick movie that pops in your face. It has a couple of interesting twists and some funny bits. Refreshing break from the regular Hollywood fare(schlock). That said, Us is riddled with holes as if someone shot at it from a semi. But even with that it's fun to watch as Hollywood doesn't make movies like Us often (only on special occasions?). Annihilation is gorgeous. Period. The set design is a work of art and I love the subject matter. Again, H'wood doesn't dabble in this sort of stuff very often. The move signals the ending twist half-way through, but I am not sure it's even a twist. This movie doesn't end with a bang as it's all about the process. To me it is a meditation on research, often frustrating and unsuccessful (though, the linguist in Arrival was very much successful in her endeavor :) The soundtrack is unusual (and beautiful) for this kind of movie (although the movie itself is unusual). I love the sound design in all these four movies. Really attractive.

Among the memorable shorts (I watch a lot of them; I can recall many, but can't remember their titles) I saw are The Gun Fighter [0], Paradox (try solving the problem in the movie before it ends)[1], Thresher [2], Rakka [3].

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWs4WA-- eKU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWs4WA--eKU)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnfh3qcpBxA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnfh3qcpBxA)

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

[3] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQ2t_yNHQs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQ2t_yNHQs)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! :-) Really great answer, I shall check those out. Yup, Upgrade was awesome.</comment></comment>


Show HN: SoundCloud Grid - <AUTHOR> http://www.joncordeiro.com/projects/scgrid

<comment><USER2> broken on Chrome. I clicked a cell in the grid and the popup had just the soundcloud logo and hovering over it showed Follow button for 1 second, some timer for less than a second, some info for even less time. All in all the experience is broken for me on latest Chrome. Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 (Forbidden) [https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000081652640-jg3p1u-large.jpg...](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000081652640-jg3p1u-large.jpg?30a2558)

Waveform doesn't show up. tons of problems.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice, but we want infinite scrolling ;)

</comment><comment><USER4> LOL (NSFW) [http://i.imgur.com/G3mMvPk.png](http://i.imgur.com/G3mMvPk.png)</comment>


Google prepares for battle with Facebook (more acquisitions, Google Me) - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fd9b57ac-a879-11df-86dd-00144feabdc0.html

<comment><AUTHOR> It seems Kevin Rose mentioned Google Me about a month ago but nothing else shows up. Just found this vid: <http://vimeo.com/13033498></comment>


Have 5 mins? Help startup reducing global exploitation and poverty - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kjmn8oPdo_oWCmKS_8-c6rAlkILhGlb366LMosBHF-Y/edit?usp=sharing <comment><AUTHOR> Hi there! My name is Ilona and I need your help!

I founded a startup to reduce global exploitation and poverty.

Can you spare 5 minutes to look over my startup's application to Y Combinator? That's how long the partners spend looking at it. Does the application make sense to you? Please leave a comment what we can improve!

If you can spare 10 minutes or more I would love to hear any feedback at all on what we're doing.

It's a long shot to apply for YC but any feedback helps us. Do you know someone who we should talk to? Do you have a great idea what we should be doing? Let me know!

You can reach me at email@example.com

A big thank you for your help! I really appreciate it (especially on a Saturday night)!</comment>


Yelp Creates an API for Domainers for the SEO value - <AUTHOR> http://ethosplanning.com/admin/2007/08/02/yelp-creates-api-spam-for-domainers/ <comment><USER2> I agree. The terms are way too restrictive for much use in a mashup. I wish they would revise them because I would love to develop some cool services using the Yelp API. I understand the need to protect ones IP but as an API thier current terms are not very conducive to development and developers needs.</comment>


Did machine learning just take your job? - <AUTHOR> https://aicial.com/blog/is-machine-learning-sending-people-to-social-services <comment><USER2> In general, it is much harder to create an AI that can do one's job perfectly than it is to find better ways to make a job obsolete. In a free market economy, if there is a way to make a job obsolete and improve economic productivity, it will be done.

If AI sees freak growth in efficacy, we will have greater things to worry about than the job market.

Open to any counterarguments, although do note that I have hedged my claims by using the terms "in general" and "perfectly". So if you know of a counterexample where it is not true, do let me know.</comment>


Hacker Monthly: One year old, 5000 subscribers - <AUTHOR> http://hackermonthly.posterous.com/one-year-old-5000-subscribers <comment><AUTHOR> This might sound a bit cliche but without the support of the readers and subscribers (especially when we started charging for digital edition), the help of contributors (most notably rdela in early issues), the authors and commenters who graciously granting permission to publish their work, and most of all the HN community, Hacker Monthly wouldn't be possible at all.

Thank you! I will continue to pump out great issue + free special issue (one coming up in May) for a long time to come.

</comment><comment><USER2> I love it, fortunately at some point I was asked to contribute an article and I received a free electronic subscription. Then I purchased a Kindle. HM + Kindle = a very cool way to consume interesting articles in a relaxing way (the .mobi is one of the default formats you receive your electronic issues).

Also both the printed edition and the PDF are very well done from the point of view of graphic design IMHO.

</comment><comment><USER3> I will be honest and admit I didn't think that this would take off from the beginning. Some rough calculations show this is now looking at $100,000+ a year in revenue. Pretty impressive and goes to show that there can be a large enough market for anything if you deliver a good product.

<comment><USER4> Except the subscriber count includes students, so your revenue estimate is probably completely off.

<comment><USER3> I factored that in somewhat. Going all digital is about 140,000 a year. Dead tree is about double that. Either way I would guess over $100,000.

<comment><USER5> Plus advertisers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I haven't done enough research about available options, but most probably you could extend your subscriber base quite significantly offering a print edition to _old europeans_ without ridiculously high shipping costs. would be awesome to receive it here _on paper_ ...

<comment><USER7> Indeed. To ship in the Netherland it would cost me $120 compared to $88 for a subscription. May be finding a printer in Europe would help ?

<comment><USER6> _May be finding a printer in Europe would help?_

it definitely would! I'm not aware of any _magcloud for europe_ , but I would be happy if somebody proofs me wrong and HNM gets a distributor for europe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Because I spend most of my days and half of my nights head down and working hard, I miss many insightful articles that blow through the front page. Hacker Monthly is the reason I feel that I can keep up.

Thanks and congrats to everyone that puts this together!

<comment><USER9> Hacker Monthly is great and sometimes it is just hard to beat the reading experience with paper. If you want another way to keep up you might check out my side project - the weekly Hacker Newsletter (<http://hackernewsletter.com>). Both projects compliment each other for people that are too busy to visit HN daily.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hacker Newsletter is great and I really recommend it.

<comment><USER9> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I keep forgetting to ask anyone about this, but I signed up as a student (which I am) awhile back and never received any issues or a confirmation. (This is one of those "meant to do" tasks.) Should I e-mail the general inquiries address? It looks like the original offer isn't present any more or I'd just try again.

<comment><AUTHOR> Drop me an email.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you're willing to talk about number of subscribers you're revealing the rough revenue. You might as well just talk about revenue directly. People love to hear about someone making money, so it's much better link bait.

"Hacker Monthly breaks $100k in revenue!"

The Balsamiq Effect.

<comment><USER12> But Balsamiq isn't asking people for free content ...

<comment><USER3> Thats the exact reason I didn't expect it to work. Looking at the product though, while the content you can get for free, the presentation is excellent. The digital is somewhat lacking though and frankly I find instapaper + kindle works just as well and is free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Hacker Monthly is great. It's a great way to catch up on the gems that I missed even though I read HN daily.

Awesome support too. For some I never received a couple issues and they were able to quickly get MagCloud to send me new copies.

</comment><comment><USER14> The back issue package and having it formatted for kindle is great. Hadn't looked into it much since the first issue but having the 10 of them on the kindle to read on the go or just away from the comp will be great.

</comment><comment><USER15> Hacker Monthly is a great success story and should be more widely emulated. You don't have to start the next Google, Facebook, or recently acquired _Company X_ to have success as an entrepreneur.

</comment><comment><USER16> This is beautiful. You should be very proud of yourself.

</comment><comment><USER17> Congratulations! Just ordered my first one :)</comment>


Gutenberg's moving type propelled Europe towards the scientific revolution - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2019/03/19/gutenbergs-moving-type-propelled-europe-towards-the-scientific-revolution/ <comment><USER2> It was actually the development of cheap paper that propelled the use of Gutenberg's movable type. So long as either writing or printing was done on very expensive parchment and vellum made from animal hides, there was not much economic advantage from movable type because print runs on a very expensive medium would be short. The cost of materials dominated the labor costs.

About 1350 the price of paper began to fall exponentially in England and Holland. This made movable type economic almost 100 years later.

See Figure 5 on page 10 of "Prices and the Growth of the European Knowledge Economy, 1200-2007" [https://www.diva- portal.org/smash/get/diva2:384596/FULLTEXT0...](https://www.diva- portal.org/smash/get/diva2:384596/FULLTEXT01.pdf)

The Moore's Law of paper prices was to printing as the Moore's Law of silicon integrated circuits is to the internet.

<comment><USER3> Radical idea: Could it be that both cheap paper and Gutenberg's invention contributed directly?

<comment><USER4> It wasn't either of those things. It was only possible due to the development of novel ink: [https://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/ink.html](https://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/ink.html)

<comment><USER5> I'd argue type and ink were an integral invention.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ironically this important piece of technology invented in China 400 years before Gutenberg flourished in the West while made negligible impact in China.

The trajectory of history was so carelessly determined by a tiny factor, different choices in writing system. Manufacturing a printing machine for dozens of alphabets was much cheaper than making one for tens of thousands of characters.

<comment><USER7> For this thesis, you need to show that movable type in specific, rather than printing in general, was necessary and sufficient for the scientific revolution. China made extensive use of printing, for things like important philosophical works and also for things like recreational plays and novels.

And while the West used movable type, it often seems not to have bothered to exploit the movability of the type. From the introduction to my reprint of Smyth's 1920 _A Greek Grammar for Colleges_ :

> When the Department of Classics of Harvard University acquired the plates to > _A Greek Grammar for Colleges_ by Herbert Weir Smyth (1920), the decision > was promptly reached that this excellent and detailed treatise should again > appear in print.

> There is in fact scarcely any sector of Greek Grammar which has not marked > progress as a result of extensive research or else based upon ingenious > combinations of existing data.

> If a revision of Smyth was therefore from many points of view a desideratum, > it was clear that a complete revision would be an extremely complex task, > and also, because of the difficulty and expense of making alterations in the > plates, a very costly one. Many of the texts cited by Smyth have since been > re-edited; some of his citations would undoubtedly prove to be in conflict > with the readings of our best current texts. Yet it would be a vast and > perhaps profitless undertaking to verify all the citations, make alterations > where necessary, and change the commentary to the extent required.

> As it turned out, even the much less ambitious revision of Smyth as > originally conceived has not been possible, largely because of financial > considerations. Accordingly, it is necessary to list here exactly in what > respects the present revision of Smyth -- which might more modestly be > termed a corrected reprint -- differs from its predecessor.

> Some changes have been made in the historical comparative part of the work, > particularly in Smyth's original introduction and here and there in his > original Part I (Letters, Sounds, Syllables, Accent). A very few changes, > again bearing on historical linguistics, have been introduced in Part II > (Inflection). Prof. Sterling Dow has contributed a valuable revision of > paragraphs 348 on the Greek system of notation and 350 d on dating.

> In addition, lists of corrigenda have been supplied by several scholars, and > these have been silently inserted wherever appropriate.

> Perhaps one caveat is in order. The student unfamiliar with the > reconstruction of assumed intermediary forms may sometimes be puzzled by > Smyth's use of such forms with no indication that the actually occurred or > else are purely hypothetical. It would have been tempting to mark all the > non-existent reconstructions with the now traditional asterisk as is > customary in works on historical linguistics.

> One important lacuna in Smyth must be pointed out since it has not been > filled: there is no section on prosody.

So Harvard came into possession of the undestroyed plates for printing a classic work, and wanted to update it with the last 40 years of research in the field. But that was cost-prohibitive. They couldn't even adjust the notation, since that would have required re-setting much of the book. They _could_ insert whole pages, and they could make changes to a small number of individual pages -- and both of those things would have been true if the book had been block-printed originally instead of being set with movable type.

It is not obvious to me that Western printing with movable type offered all that much advantage over Chinese block printing, leaving the logistics of the writing system aside. Movable type made it easier to destroy works that didn't sell well, because their materials could be cannibalized for new works. But it didn't make it easier to reprint works that were in demand, and it didn't make it much easier to produce works originally -- most of the work is in the arranging, not the materials cost.

<comment><USER6> I was talking about movable type rather than printing in general. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type)

Edit:

And an example in 1920 doesn't really apply to the early days of movable type. There's a big difference between pre and post industrial revolution.

BTW in early 20th century, China entered its own Enlightenment because of shattered state control and those efficient printing machines Western colonials brought in.

<comment><USER7> Yes, I know. Check out the very first sentence of my comment:

> For this thesis, you need to show that movable type in specific, rather than > printing in general, was necessary and sufficient for the scientific > revolution.

My whole point is that movable type doesn't offer much in the way of civilizational advantages compared to block printing, so it's very odd to attribute Europe's success to its writing system. I agree that it makes sense to attribute the choice of movable type over block printing to the writing system. But saying that this choice "determined the trajectory of history" seems like a stretch. Movable type vs. block printing is a choice of no great consequence.

<comment><USER6> I updated my previous comment before you posted this.

The link between the Renaissance and moving type is quite uncontroversial. The impact of democratization of the press is hard to underestimate.

<comment><USER7> > I updated my previous comment before you posted this.

No, you didn't.

> The link between the Renaissance and moving type is quite uncontroversial. > The impact of democratization of the press is hard to underestimate.

You seem to be vacillating between "printing" and "movable type". The link between the Renaissance and printing is uncontroversial.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you're interested in topics such as these, I can highly recommend reading Ian Mortimer's Centuries of Change [1]. The moving type features heavily, as do clocks and looking glasses (mirrors).

One memorable example: thanks to moving type, women could publish views that were, at the time, at odds with views in a male-dominated society. Previously such manuscripts, being few in number, would have been easily destroyed or restricted, whereas distribution of printed books became harder to control.

Books also reduced the stranglehold of education held by the clergy, with women and common folk learning how to read and educating themselves with the help of the printed book. The Bible was the best-seller at the time -- Mortimer quips that it was one of the world's first "self help" books.

[1] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20493659-centuries-of- ch...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20493659-centuries-of-change)

</comment><comment><USER9> This is an incredibly uncontroversial thesis, but the article provides lots of supporting statistics and graphs.

</comment><comment><USER10> You can see the economic and political differences increasing in when you map the locations of the prints and look what happens within next 100 years when the number of printed books and pamphlets increases.

Scotland had eight printers by 1700, Russia had two and there were heavy controls for what could be printed. Within 100 years Scotland became a center for engineering, and many famous self taught inventors came from Scotland.

<comment><USER11> Scotland probably also had a lot more bagpipes. A fact like this is not enough to draw conclusions from.

<comment><USER12> You generally need a printing press to become a good engineer, because unless you're the new Leonardo you kind of need to read what other engineers and knowledgeable people have done before you trying out new stuff. A bag-pipe has almost nothing to do with becoming an engineer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm coming from Gernsheim were they told us that, in fact, Peter Schöffer was responsible to making Gutenbergs invention usable for the masses.

</comment><comment><USER14> Each sparked a revolution in technology:

1\. speaking

2\. writing

3\. printing press

4\. telecommunications

5\. internet

Wonder what the next one will be!

<comment><USER15> Brain interfaces.

<comment><USER16> Imagine the speed and intensity of the Facebook/YouTube/Twitter/Reddit comments section once you take out the necessity to type.

<comment><USER17> Sounds very close to a definition of hell.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> So why Europe and not the East Asia? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_As...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_Asia)

I personally like the theory that it was constant war and conflict which propelled the scientific revolution. The need to compete and outdo others which went hand in hand with the industrial revolution and the politics and economics of the time that led to the french revolution.

<comment><USER6> Because it's much cheaper to build a printing machine for alphabets. Cheap transmission of information caused a grassroot intellectual explosion, i.e. the Enlightenment. While in China only the ruling class could afford a printing machine for tens of thousands of characters.

<comment><USER7> Huh? In China they just didn't bother with movable type. They _printed_ everything, using wood block printing. (Instead of assembling each page from sorts, carve each page into the surface of a wooden block.) The _press_ looks exactly the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Tangent: While I get the gist of Figure 1, expressing historical prices in "daily wages" that disregard the place and the profession strikes me as sloppy [1].

[1] [https://marcinciura.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/earnings-in- pol...](https://marcinciura.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/earnings-in-poland/)

</comment><comment><USER20> A different but very related paper, "How the medium shapes the message: Printing and the rise of the arts and sciences ": [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205771).</comment>


Mailinator Launches Private Domains - <AUTHOR> http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2014/10/mailinator-launches-private-domains_25.html

<comment><USER2> Essentially, a free catch-all for any domain with forwarding to your Gmail (Gmail only for now) inbox. Not quite Google Apps but covers a decent chunk of what I used free Google Apps for.

Speaking of which, maybe someone here will know if/how you can set up catch- all with Yandex Mail for domains[1]? The only thing I couldn't figure out.

[1] [https://pdd.yandex.ru/domains_add/](https://pdd.yandex.ru/domains_add/)

<comment><USER3> Regarding catch-all for Yandex Mail: you can enable it. I guess you have already registered for yandex mail and added your domain. Not sure if the configuration page is available in english (couldn't find it), but on the russian page click on the second of the three top links (Мои домены) to go to your domain list. Then click on the second item of the secondary menu - (Настроить домен - configure domain). The first entry in the drop-down menu is the default address - the catch all address. Select an e-mail address to use for it and save using the button next to it. Should work now.

<comment><USER3> Interestingly, while yandex webmail has an English interface available, the page to change your password presents you with a cyrillic captcha. I run into this issue when setting up webmail for a Kenyan NGO team - since google wouldn't approve Google Apps for Education without some serious bureaucracy, Yandex Mail was used quite successfully, well, except for the password change issue.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Graphite Publishing – A decentralized, user owned blogging platform - <AUTHOR> https://publishing.graphitedocs.com <comment><USER2> Just a little feedback: as someone not deep in the blockchain world, I have no idea what Blockstack is, or why nothing happens when I click "sign in" or "start writing now". The page does a good job of describing the product benefits, but it doesn't cover square 1 and describe what I need in order to actually start _using_ the product.

Otherwise I know this was a fun project, but it always helps to hone in on your audience on the landing page. Answer, Who's going to appreciate this the most?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! This is really helpful. I'll make sure to get the landing page updated.

Just so it's covered here, Blockstack is a decentralized application platform. It provides an authentication strategy that anchors your username/ID to the bitcoin blockchain. The benefit of this is not having to rely on a central authority for your username. Example: Google could terminate your access to your gmail account anytime they want. Graphite/Graphite Publishing can't do that with your Blockstack username.

As for your question about who would appreciate this most, I think Graphite Publishing is probably going to benefit people already interested in decentralization the most initially. However, it really does provide a more secure solution than using something like Squarespace, for example. If we stick with the Squarespace example, your content (design and words) are stored in Squarespace's database. The content can be accessed and changed (or deleted) by Squarespace at any time. With Graphite Publishing, your content is stored either in the default storage hub provided by Blockstack and encrypted, or it's stored in your own custom storage hub if you so choose. In either case, the content can't be accessed by anyone other than the user creating that content.

Again, thanks so much for the feedback! I really appreciate it.

<comment><USER3> That clarifies some questions for me: I didn't know that Blockstack stores the content. The Graphite site looks like it's a hosting platform. The marketing angle might rely on getting the platform to look like something different or new, that seems less centralized. I don't know what that is.

<comment><USER4> "Blockstack stores the content" \-- today this is true in that you are provided with a default storage bucket by Blockstack that amounts to Microsoft Azure space. It's been Blockstack's vision that you could select your own cloud storage upon account configuration (i.e. your own S3/Dropbox/IPFS storage), thus decentralizing your data storage away from the App developer. If you're willing to get your hands dirty, you can theoretically spin up your own Blockstack GAIA node and store your data there instead of the provided defaults. More info here: [https://github.com/blockstack/gaia](https://github.com/blockstack/gaia)

<comment><USER5> By the end of this month we will have instructions on how to host your own gaia hub in DO spaces (on Digital Ocean) using the develop branch of gaia in our Blockstack docs located here:

[https://docs.blockstack.org/](https://docs.blockstack.org/)

So stay tuned.

I personally find Digital Ocean to be the most user friendly, so we are trying to lower barriers to make it as easy as possible to roll out gaia hubs by providing instructions for these kind of platforms.

We are also rolling out instructions and images for the major cloud hosting platforms. If you have any preferences for a particular platform you would like supported or any other feedback, let me know.

Currently on master branch, gaia supports the following drivers:

Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Local disk (you must set up static web-hosting to point at this driver), and Google Cloud Storage

You can learn more about how to set up your own gaia hub here: [https://github.com/blockstack/gaia/blob/master/hub/README.md](https://github.com/blockstack/gaia/blob/master/hub/README.md)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN!

I'm Justin Hunter, the founder of Graphite. Graphite is a decentralized and encrypted productivity suite, but the original app stemmed from my desire to own my writing. I'm a writer at my core, not a programmer, so anything tied to writing is always important to me, including blogging.

As a fun side project/experiment as an extension of the core Graphite product, I built Graphite Publishing. It uses Blockstack's authentication system for decentralized usernames, and it uses Blockstack's Gaia storage for decentralized storage. What this means is that Graphite Publishing never has access to any of your blog posts. Everything is encrypted until the moment you choose to publish it publicly.

The cool thing, in my opinion, is that you can design your entire site. Graphite Publishing has a built-in HTML editor for your main page and your individual posts page. Much like the old days of Blogger, where you could tinker with the underlying code, Graphite Publishing lets you customize your blog as much as you want...but it's much simpler than Blogger ever was ;)

It's still very much a beta product and will surely have bugs, but I'm excited to get some feedback and see what the community thinks.

Thanks!

</comment><comment> 52-6F-62 I have a question common to ventures like this, but I'll start with something objectively positive.

It works well in Chrome, and it seems quite user-friendly. It looks like the posts/actual site won't really load—or they partially load. But the story editing, etc works well— just maybe focus on the UX a touch—make publishing the post easier to find.

Now for the stuff that always bothers me about decentralized publishing platforms like this—

if nobody can remove or alter your content, what is preventing people from posting harmful content (need I explain)? It also doesn't sound like there's any recourse for removal. It also sounds like you intend to monetize the platform, or at least parts of it. This could render you a provider of paid services to people who wish to find a space for permanently publishing those kinds of materials.

As a comparison, a publishing house would not print child pornography in the name of free speech. They're operating a business— it would be suicide.

I've just never heard a good answer to that one, so I'm curious about your take.

<comment> jude- Blockstack engineer here. Your points are well-taken, and are straightforward to address.

Blockstack uses a storage system called Gaia, which in a nutshell acts as an overlay on top of existing commodity storage systems (including cloud storage, your personal server, decentralized storage systems, etc.). Blockstack apps like Graphite Publishing interact with the user's data via the user's preferred Gaia hub. The Gaia hub holds the user's storage credentials (if applicable) and uses a storage driver to store data to the underlying storage system, so applications don't have to care about interfacing with a specific storage implementation (Gaia and Blockstack implement their own authentication mechanism for applications). In the default on-boarding flow, you get signed up to use a Gaia hub that uses Azure blob storage to host and serve data.

That said, if the operator of your Gaia hub's underlying storage system can determine that content you store is objectionable, then it would be obliged to take it down. However, to prevent such power from being abused, the user has the ability to switch Gaia hubs and migrate their data between Gaia hubs. If you notice someone storing objectionable material in Blockstack, you should notify the user's Gaia hub's storage provider so they can take the appropriate action.

<comment> 52-6F-62 This was helpful, thanks. I have to admit ignorance when it come to how Blockstack works. I had imagined it was more similar to how IPFS/similar systems functioned, where distributed permanence is a major goal.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that's what most people think of when they hear of decentralized protocols. I chose Blockstack for Graphite and for this project specifically because it handles decentralization differently.

<comment> 52-6F-62 Well good luck with it

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have a question about the block chain aspect.

Does blogging need block chain? Can't you be decentralized and encrypted without BC? From what I'm aware, the benefit of BC is that you get an audit- able history. Do we need that here? Like I get that it can serve as a backup, but does that work in practice? By using BC here can I roll back my blog (like in git)? And do you really need a full history? Couldn't you do just like 10 revisions? I'd even argue that a complete history could be dangerous.

This is a fundamental question that I have with block chain. It seems really cool, but from what I understand, there are other tools that solve these problems, don't require as many resources, and work faster.

Am I wrong in this? If so can someone explain?

If I'm right, can someone expand?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the question! Graphite Publishing only uses blockchain for user identity. And even then, a user creating an account doesn't really see that in the experience.

All data is stored in the storage hub of the user's choosing rather than being stored in a database centralized to Graphite Publishing. In fact, Graphite Publishing doesn't have access to anyone's data.

But you're right, a blockchain is not necessary for decentralized blogging and is not used for data storage at all in this app.

<comment><USER7> Can't it use standardized technology for auth / user identity?

I suspect most users don't like dealing with multiple services for the same thing.

<comment><USER8> And when somebody takes your existing chain then generates a bunch of new users in a 51% attack, how do you recover the usernames on the alternate chain?

edit: sorry for reply to wrong post. Should have responded to jhunter1016 below.

<comment><USER5> The nice thing about Blockstack is it is not dependent on any one Blockchain. It can be ported to other blockchains and has been previously. Right now it sits on top of bitcoin as it is very hard to perform a 51% attack.

if Bitcoin was under 51% attack, then we would simply accept the name state on the best fork. To learn more about how we would handle this case, you can look here: [https://forum.blockstack.org/t/bitcoin-network- disruption/13...](https://forum.blockstack.org/t/bitcoin-network- disruption/1344)

Blockstack Core implements BNS and Atlas, the storage routing system for Gaia. Blockstack Core nodes form the backbone of the Blockstack network. Each node indexes the Bitcoin blockchain and maintains a full replica of all names, public keys, and storage routing information. This makes the Blockstack network particularly resilient to node failure---applications only need to talk to a single Blockstack Core node to work, and a new or recovering node can quickly reconstruct all of its missing state from its peers.

All Atlas nodes lie on top maintain a 100% state replica, and they organize into an unstructured overlay network. The unstructured approach is easier to implement, has no overhead for maintaining routing structure and is resilient against targeted node attacks. When a new Atlas node boots up, it first gets the index of all data keys and hashes of values stored in the blockchain. After getting the index, Atlas nodes talk to their peers to fetch key/value pairs they dont have. The Atlas network implements a K-regular random graph.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Very cool. Two questions:

1\. How do you plan to make money with this?

2\. If the data is owned by me, is there also an easy way to get all my blog posts out of the system in a usable format (e.g. so I could put it on my own server later)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the questions!

Quite honestly, we may not ever charge for this product. But some ideas are:

-Provide a custom Gaia Hub with encrypted storage that has higher limits than the default Blockstack hub. -Charge for additional features (integrations, team publications, etc) -Just charge a small amount for access and allow those who don't want to pay that the option to clone the open source repo and deploy it themselves

An export feature will be built into Graphite Publishing (much like the one that already exists in Graphite). But one of the core tenets of data ownership is you should not need to rely on the app to access your data. In that vein, there is still work to be done. But it is already possible to use the command line to export all your data without ever touching Graphite Publishing.

All content is in HTML format, so it should be usable in many different apps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Does Graphite Publishing/Gaia/Blockchain/Blockstack work with traditional domains? Eg, how/could I hook my custom domain into all this?

<comment> jude- Blockstack engineer here. AFAIK Graphite Publishing will make your files accessible as URLs under graphitedocs.com, but since the code is open [1], you could run an instance on your own domain.

[1] [https://github.com/graphite-docs/graphite- publishing](https://github.com/graphite-docs/graphite-publishing)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep this is spot-on. You can clone the repository today and run it on your own custom domain. Now, doing so will result in kind of a wonky URL structure unless you customize the code. Your site would live on something like:

[https://yourname.com/sites/[yourblockstackid]](https://yourname.com/sites/\[yourblockstackid\])

But it's definitely an option! In fact, we deployed an example of this to another Blockstack app (Xor) that hosts static content and it worked like a charm.</comment></comment></comment>


There's More to Life Than Being Happy - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/ <comment><USER2> Nice comment on the origional article: _The modern definition of "happiness" certainly refers to the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. But it is instructive to consider how the term has evolved since the time Thomas Jefferson enshrined the "pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence as being a fundamental human right. Jefferson most likely borrowed this idea from John Locke, one Jefferson's key intellectual influences. In his essay "Concerning Human Understanding", Locke stated that, "The necessity of pursuing happiness [is] the foundation of liberty. As therefore the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty." Locke was not referring to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, but to the Aristotelian meaning of "happiness", which Aristotle had described not as the satisfaction of our desire for sensual pleasures, but a person's active pursuit of virtue or excellence, or, in other words, the pursuit of meaning (the phrase "pursuit of happiness" is actually redundant since pursuit is an essential part of Aristotle's definition of happiness). So during the 18th Century and at the time of the birth of this nation, the search for happiness and the search for meaning in life were actually one in the same._

<comment><USER3> I agree, but I don't think 'pursuit' was redundant. To pursue hedonism would contradict his definition.

<comment><USER4> I think it was saying that if "happiness"="the pursuit of meaning" then "pursuit of happiness"="pursuit of the pursuit of meaning." Which is redundant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _In his bestselling 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life._

It's interesting to contrast this with the stories from Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea.

 _Yet another gratuitous cruelty: the killer targets the most innocent, the people who would never steal food, lie, cheat, break the law, or betray a friend. It was a phenomenon that the Italian writer Primo Levi identified after emerging from Auschwitz, when he wrote that he and his fellow survivors never wanted to see one another again after the war because they had all done something of which they were ashamed. As Mrs. Song would observe a decade later, when she thought back on all the people she knew who died during those years in Chongjin, it was the "simple and kindhearted people who did what they were told—they were the first to die."_

That book has many tales of people surviving by cheating, stealing, and ignoring the plights of others. That's the real truth: In a starvation situation, nice people die first. A sense of meaning contains zero calories.

<comment><USER6> It might be that the experiences/conditions were a bit different: perhaps (shameless utter speculation) Viktor Frankl had in mind those cases in which people were not intentionally murdered, but rather died themselves (starvation / reluctance to eat / falling apart / suicide). e.g. (wiki):

"On 25 September 1942, Frankl, his wife and his parents were deported to the Nazi Theresienstadt Ghetto. There Frankl worked as a general practitioner in a clinic. When his skills in psychiatry were noticed, he was assigned to the psychiatric care ward in block B IV, establishing a camp service of "psychohygiene" or mental health care. He organized a unit to help newcomers to the camp overcome shock and grief. Later he set up a suicide watch, assisted by Regina Jonas."

Then again, e.g. his mother was killed intentionally in gas chambers. etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> While I agree with the gist of this article, I think it's walking a razor's edge to differentiate between a "happy" life and a "meaningful" life. I could argue that perhaps there isn't more to life than being happy, and what a meaningful life brings is a more complex form of happiness, a lasting reprieve from the existential terror that envelopes us between acts of isolated pleasure-seeking. So yes, you may report higher life satisfaction with a meaningful life vs. a "happy" one, but if you're going to define happiness in such a narrow, superficial way, then you're kind of guaranteeing this conclusion.

I think a better title would've been "There's more to life than seeking selfish pleasure." But this is more linguistic nitpicking than anything else.

<comment><USER8> This post can be added to the pile of why HN discussions are getting more and more pedantically lame.

The post adds so little. And even in the post, it acknowledges this, yet has so many words/syllables/phrases to read through just for everyone, even the poster, to come to the same conclusion.

I really don't like being negative. I guess it's the negative pedantry that has bothered me to the point of saying something. If I'm in the minority and just venting, apologies (My comment might just be the ticket to get it out of my system).

<comment><USER9> This is just a reflection of the sorry state of the publishing industry.

We are fast approaching the point when one cannot expect a robust piece of writing (specialized or general) of lasting worth, unless its behind a paywall.

Frankly I don't blame them. Although some new entrants like QZ (dot) com and very few others are trying, there have been no inroads made in this direction, over the past five years.

We need some form of a micropayments mechanism to incentivize good work.

<comment><USER10> Agreed, and the saddest part is I think anybody with half a brain can see it coming, and nobody wants it, but we'll wind up there anyway.

It's sort of a great example why the idea of a good "race to the bottom" no longer excites but rather uneases me. We've just gotten so darn good at reaching new lows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Along with other commenters, I think our society redefined happiness to mean something it doesn't. I normally dislike self-help books ("The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one."), but on someone else's recommend I picked up: "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William Irvine ( [http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient- Stoic/dp/01953...](http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient- Stoic/dp/0195374614/) )

It is written by a philosopher and its aim is to rehabilitate the Stoics and explain how their philosophy could be useful in modern society. I'd highly suggest reading it (along with the works of actual Stoics as well as pre- Socratic philosophers), particularly to those who like the core message of Zen Buddhism but find it less suited to their way of thinking and difficult to practice.

</comment><comment><USER12> Inside your brain there's a monkey brain. It is very certain about what it wants: tasty food, sexy partners, leisure time to sit in a tree and do absolutely nothing. You can use your amazing powers of reasoning and problem solving to give the monkey all it wants. Or you could question its wisdom, give it the occasional snub, and work on things that will still be important in a hundred years instead.

<comment><USER13> Your comment and this article remind me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslows_hierarchy_of_needs>).

Maslow conceptualized human beings' needs into a hierarchical system. Where things like food and sex are lower level (and more necessary) than things like friendships and family.

Viktor Frankl chose to remain with his family rather than pursue his career in America. In Maslow's hierarchy, Frankl was rational in pursuing familial ties over his own "self-actualization".

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The article never actually gives a reason for preferring the pursuit of some meaning to the pursuit of happiness[1], does it? At most it provides anecdotal evidence you are more likely to survive a concentration camp.

[1] Ignoring the debate on how much they are, or can be, mutually exclusive.

</comment><comment><USER15> Pure ambition is the most naked representation of this principle at work -- an infinite purpose that is never achieved. There is a surprising level of unhappiness in those individuals who have risen to the greatest heights of professional success for precisely this reason. Happiness and contentedness seem to require an ability to say "that's enough for now"... so can a highly, intrinsically driven individual truly achieve happiness?

</comment><comment><USER16> "Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life."

So the thousands who died on the camps were some kind of nihilists, eh?

Why people always want life to be meaningful. Life may very well be absurd.

Is the pursuit of meaning a requirement for living a good life? I don't think so.

<comment><USER17> Well, I think the trick is the find meaning in small things and not to worry too much (all of the time) about how what you do fits in the grand scheme of things. Because, indeed, things that are meaningful on a small scale might be absurd when you put them in a bigger context.

So I don't see a contradiction here.

Of course worrying about what things mean on a larger scale can be virtuous, but you also want to come to terms with your limitations as a human being in a specific context.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is purely a philosophical article. Everything boils down to happiness, call it anything. It's about happiness.

EDIT - I have immense respect for Dr.Victor. I didn't intend to sound arrogant.

</comment><comment><USER19> If suffering makes life more meaningful, should we set out to inflict suffering on others for their own good?

<comment><USER11> First, not all suffering makes lives more meaningful. It's the process of suffering through something and prevailing or even being overwhelmed and yet later finding a way to get back up that gives us meaning.

Second, we do not have the right to make others' lives more meaningful if they do not want them to be. The state's core role is to protect our rights. Libertarians and conservatives define rights negatively, while liberals also speak of positive liberties in addition to negative one, but this is the core premise of liberal democracy. What we do with these rights and liberties is up to us.

Of course there are exceptions: this is a big argument for having national service or conscription even in countries that can afford professional militaries and don't have hostile neighbors. I happen to disagree strongly with the idea of any kind of national service or conscription, but I don't find it something that should be dismissed outright and without debate.

More to the point, we do voluntarily inflict suffering on ourselves all the time: most obvious being physical exercise, pain of childbirth, but less obviously difficult academic programs (e.g., EECS at UC Berkeley or CMU). Indeed, we pay a great deal of money to have others inflict suffering on us as long as we're able to extract meaning from it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Articles such as these are very strange to me. There always is some unspoken nebulous assumptions which the author doesn't even bother to justify. What is the "better" that the author is referring to? She seems to think that it is better to be a person who could survive living in a Nazi prison camp than someone who could not. But what are you giving up to gain this ability? And why is it so important?

Listing out a recipe for how to become a "better" person is also a strange way of trying to help somebody. I mean, doesn't the idea of becoming a better person appeal the old base instincts of greed and fear? Greed of having the ability to appear confident, strong and satisfied, thereby the social status ladder, and fear of falling behind. By following her advice from such a viewpoint, you might be allowing yourself to be ever more aligned to instincts that drive people to despair.. ever chasing the carrot just out of reach.

Of course, it's just my interpretation. The author may never have intended to appeal to such base emotions, and is simply trying to help you achieve a higher plane of thought by example. And the book she pushes may truly be full of insight to guide you to the next step in your path to enlightenment and fulfillment.

All these self-help guru's all do seem to follow the same pattern though, it's always some sort of plan to appeal to your basic instinct to be better than the people around you. If they were truly altruistic, then why is it always a solution to your problem their peddling, and there is usually some next step tied to giving someone somewhere money?

I think they are often doing a disservice to people who take this stuff too seriously. By constantly bombarding you with the assumption that you're broken and they have the fix, they leave you feeling not to bright, helpless and insecure, when in fact if you just trust in yourself, you'll get over it. But telling people to do that doesn't sell.

</comment><comment><USER21> He had a pregnant wife, that he chose not to protect, in favor of staying with his parents.

That's a tough position, and I am slightly critical of his decision, but recognize it as a tough call. Optimally, he would have put her on a ship and stayed with them, I suppose.

<comment><USER22> That she ended up dead, as well as both his parents, is sad. I would personally have probably tried to find a third way of doing things (sneak parents out of the country through any means necessary), but given some strange binary choice, I would have left with my wife. It isn't like the parents would survive conditions that got bad enough to kill his wife.

<comment><USER23> Like many others, he may simply have underestimated just how bad things were going to get.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I submitted this article a while ago when it was first published in The Atlantic, but it received no up-votes, so I deleted it. I wanted there to be a discussion on HN even though I doubted whether this was the appropriate place to have such a discussion.

The reason I posted it was because I wanted to see where people's logic would allow them to go regarding happiness and human action. I wanted to contrast what The Atlantic had written on Frankl with one of his contemporaries and Auschwitz inmate, Jean Améry. Améry was a Holocaust writer and survivor, but his ideas were in extremely stark contrast to Frankl. Améry was an intellectual in the old sense of the word. As in, he treated the world logically. He believed he had nothing in common with Jewish people. And, more to the point, he didn't theorise or philosophise his way out of the concentration camp like Frankl did. That is, Améry preferred to see the real, raw, tangible truth of how many Nazis treated them.

To quote a blog post about Améry, which I recommend ([http://dgmyers.blogspot.com/p/jean-amery-biographical- introd...](http://dgmyers.blogspot.com/p/jean-amery-biographical- introduction.html)), that quotes him:

'"[W]hoever is, in the broadest sense, a believing person, whether his belief be metaphysical or bound to concrete reality, transcends himself," Améry says. "He is not the captive of his individuality; rather he is part of a spiritual continuity that is interrupted nowhere, not even in Auschwitz.'

This, of course, Améry was not. Before publishing On Suicide: A Discourse on Voluntary Death, he tried to take his own life but failed. After the book's publication, he tried once again and was successful. In this book, he talks about an internal, "other" logic that is only attained when one is suicidal. Yes, he is in favour of suicide once it has been thought about 'objectively' (even though he admits subjective occurrences are what drives the suicide). I highly recommend reading him.

But I must say, I've read some posts/submissions on suicide here and have never commented, because my opinions are unintentionally controversial and probably not systematic enough on the matter. I believe if given the option, one should always choose life, but I could never fault those for wanting to end theirs, because given the current state of many Western, developed countries, societies are unfortunately too cruel for some individuals. I remember when I wrote an essay in favour of suicide, my professor accused me of being hypersensitive. That may be true, but this is just one way how society has suppressed any real helpful way to have a discourse on voluntary death--by marginalising and labeling the "minor" numbers that end their lives; that is, "we" have to fix "them"; surely, nothing can be wrong with "us".

All this is just an excuse to recommend Améry. Reading him was, despite my young age, just like Kafka wrote:

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Happiness" means so many things. Almost all of our pursuits are just achieve this nebulous goal: To be happy.

Through meditation I came to the conclusion that what we typically call happiness is just a temporary satisfaction of desires that won't last.

True happiness seems to be accepting what is, without judgment by realizing "emptiness" (a term describing that nothing exists on its own or has a distinct identity, including the self).

Once you see this you'll wonder how you could have missed this all this time, since it is so obviously true. The problem is remembering this when things go wrong; that is distinguishes people truly at peace from the rest of us.

<comment><USER16> If nothing exists, why seek anything? I don't disagree with your assertion, I just think it could be further developted to explain some reasons why it would be interesting to struggle to live and not throw the baby out with the bathtub. I believe Nietzsche was going to tackle this question, but died before he could.

<comment><USER25> Yep, that's the interesting question. Along with: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Note that I did not say "nothing exists" I said "nothing exists on its own". Could have said "Don't take the self so seriously, in only exists in relation to other things".

Indeed, why seek anything? That only makes sense if there's something missing. Meditation would have it that there is nothing missing and that we just don't know that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> My Catholic grandmother - who was born Jewish but orphaned and survived Nazism in Vienna - bought my my teenage atheist self this book. It worked on me in a way religion did not and has shaped my life since, leading me towards Ruskin being a pin-up in my historical studies.

It's a little crude but really is a great book, and the older I get the truer I think its premise is.

</comment><comment><USER27> I can't imagine any parents expecting, encouraging, or wanting their children to remain in Nazi-controlled Europe when their children had an opportunity to flee to the US, as Frankl did.

(Also, every Western country who denied visas in the 1930s to the vast majority of Jews...wtf?)

</comment><comment><USER28> Meaning is happiness for grown-ups.

</comment><comment><USER29> "Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war." \-- William S. Burroughs

</comment><comment><USER30> If you have not read the original book ("Man's Search for Meaning), do so.

</comment><comment><USER31> The article would have benefited from some clarity about the different meanings of happiness: Frankl's, which isn't discussed at all, and the definition used in the psychological research cited by the article. I think the author wrote a short article about a very provocative point raised in psychological research, dressed it up by bookending it with references to Frankl, and then completely ignored the contradictions and interesting questions raised by juxtaposing the two.

I mean, look at the transition from the Frankl intro to the meat of the article. First, the discussion of Frankl seems to imply that happiness depends on meaning. Quite possibly -- depending on the definition of happiness. "Research" is invoked to support Frankl: "having purpose and meaning in life increases overall well-being and life satisfaction" and so on. Then this non- sequitur:

 _"It is the very pursuit of happiness," Frankl knew, "that thwarts happiness."

\---

This is why some researchers are cautioning against the pursuit of mere happiness._

... followed by a discussion of how meaning and happiness are _different_ and can be achieved independently. The article jumps from Frankl's point, which is that happiness cannot be pursued because it must "ensue" from meaning, to a very different point, which is that happiness _can_ be achieved without meaning, and this is a socially harmful thing because it is associated with selfish feelings and behaviors! They're completely different ideas going in completely different directions, and the article just staples them together, with Frankl being the piece incongruously tacked on.

However, at the heart of the article is a psychological study that tackles a challenging question that goes back at least to Socrates' discussion of the Ring of Gyges. It is a common feature of many Greek schools of philosophy that they start from the assumption that the purpose of life is to be happy and conclude that happiness requires living (roughly) a moral life. This is a convenient but dubious coincidence: we may not be convinced, but we dearly wish it to be true.

Now we have psychologists apparently warning that scientific evidence is accumulating against this cherished link between "happiness" and virtuous, socially constructive living. This is a fascinating point. It's a scientific challenge to what you might call a very common "religious" belief that is a core belief of many non-religious people as well. The Greek philosophers, and many people today whom we might call progressives or liberals, believe that to make people good, you only have to educate them[1]. Understanding will compel them to act virtuously, even if their only concern is their own happiness. The belief that people who properly understand themselves will be good, compassionate people continues to be widespread today, bolstered by research into our empathic, social nature. Against this is the conservative view of people as innately morally flawed beings, driven by selfish desires, socially redeemable only through order and punishment, morally redeemable only through divine grace. The conservative view is bolstered by the evolutionary reasoning, which points out that genetic self-interest is only partially and accidentally congruent with ordinary notions of morality.

Anyway, I'm off to read the new study that prompted the article[2], and I can at least appreciate the article for surfacing this study, linking to it, and prompting me to think about these things again.

[1] Buddhists can be included in this group, and I'm sure there are many others I've left out.

[2] [http://faculty- gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/SomeKe...](http://faculty- gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/SomeKeyDifferencesHappyLifeMeaningfulLife_2012.pdf)</comment>


LEAKED: All Of Ron Conway's Investments Since 2005 - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/sv-angel-portfolio-2011-2#-1

<comment><USER2> CrunchBase has all this data from 2009 including the size of the round and the other investors. <http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/sv-angel>

Does knowing of deals more than 3 years old really make much of a difference?</comment>