Ask HN: Would you be interested in a bundled publication subscription service? - <AUTHOR> I imagine that you could see and manage all of your subscriptions in one place, and buy packages of subscriptions to smaller independent publications that normally wouldn't attract as large of a subscriber-base. <comment><USER2> No. After subscribing to the WSJ and the Economist (tried a few others in the past too), I honestly don't see why I should anymore.

I get all the important info I need from my Twitter feed, reddit, and HN. Plus, I buy must-read books off Amazon and watch must-see documentaries to get the context needed to understand trends instead of alarming, many times clickbait, headlines.

<comment><USER3> A good reason to subscribe to a publication is that it may serve to prevent tyranny. I subscribe to NYT and WaPo, but I never even log in. I just want those publications to succeed, to support truthful journalism, and to maintain their editorial firewalls.

If you feel that WSJ and The Economist serve a similar purpose for you or your country, that would be a great reason to continue to subscribe (despite the subscription having no effect on what you read).

<comment><USER2> They support your worldview moreso than preventing tyranny. I think civilization needs a paradigm shift or we are in for a bleak future, there are many signs that show our republic (speaking to the entire developed world) is declining and around the world fanaticism is growing in momentum. If you look at economic growth and technological progress as the only viable metrics of growth, then that would prove that hubris is preventing us from evolving further. The news is actually part of the problem in my humble opinion.

I may be wrong but what if I am right?</comment></comment></comment>


On the Legitimacy of "Full-Stack" - <AUTHOR> http://blog.heapsortjobs.com/on-the-legitimacy-of-fullstack

<comment><USER2> I agree with the term "Full-Stack" Being on a small team, I got to do a bit of everything. (Cuz it need to get done)</comment>


Revision3 Offers Conan A Job - <AUTHOR> http://revision3.com/blog/2010/01/18/an-open-letter-to-conan-obrien/

<comment><USER3> How many eyeballs could Revision 3 seriously offer though? His show is geared towards an average viewership in the millions... nightly. If they couldn't offer that scale on a nightly basis, it might not be worth it.

Part of the appeal of a late night show is that it can be on as you're going to bed... something light and comedic to help get you to sleep. How many people have a device that is able to view Rev3 content hooked up to a TV in the bedroom? I'd guess that a majority of people view that content on their PCs, and rarely nightly. I'd love to see some viewship stats on that.

But, let's say that you could provide the eyes for an advertiser supported nightly show. If you really want it to work, you'd need to make deals with at least Apple for AppleTV/iTunes and/or a company like Roku to sell dedicated devices. It might even be possible to sell these at a discount if you could guarantee some sort of advertiser kick-back.

Another potential problem: with their ownership structure, I'm not sure you could count on Hulu serving it either.

<comment><USER4> I think you're taking this too seriously. Conan could likely buy Revision 3 with about half his NBC payout (if it's around what has been reported). Compete puts Revision3's uniques around 110,000 while Conan regularly averaged 2.8 million. Conan would be better off on radio at this point(Dennis Miller has a radio talk show which averages a little under a million listeners a week).

Internet TV may be the future (I wouldn't even venture a guess) but it's a future that's still a while off. This is just attention grabbing.

<comment><USER3> I'm looking at it from the point of view that this is an entirely ridiculous proposition.

But, given that, could it work? What would be needed? When do you start to move into the realm where this is possible?

It's the MythBusters philosophy at work: show that a myth is utterly busted... then figure out how to really do it. Preferably with a large amount of explosives... :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I personally would like to see Conan go over to Comedy Central. My ideal late night line up would be:

10:30 - Colbert Report

11:00 - The Daily Show

11:30 - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER6> If Conan were to actually move from NBC to Revision3, I think the event would pretty much qualify as the beginning in earnest of the long-brewing IPTV vs. broadcast TV war. What could possibly happen next?

<comment><USER7> It would, but too many people can only show IP content on small screens. Until that's fixed, big content won't go to pure IP.

<comment><USER8> Really? My flat screen has a PC port (I can use it as a 42" monitor...) It is new and big but otherwise no-frills.

Computer monitors and LCD TVs use essentially the same technology...

<comment><USER7> And I have a giant monitor. But you and me are unique in that we realize this can be done, and have a 'spare' computer 9that we're not using for personal use) to do it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In other news: Dan Rather offered a job at Daily Kos.

Get serious.

<comment><USER3> This actually isn't too far from the truth. He did take a job with HDNet, which I don't think at the time had a news division. HDNet is the TV version of a startup, so how is starting a new IPTV nightly show at Revision3 that much different?

Link: <http://www.hd.net/danrather>

<comment><USER9> My point is that Revision3 is kidding themselves if they think someone with 5 million daily viewers would consider moving to a network with 5 million views _per month_.

Internet TV will surely replace broadcast TV, but it won't be today and it won't be Conan O'Brian.

Of course Revision 3 knows this. It's just a clever PR stunt.

<comment><USER3> I agree that it's all just a PR stunt. I don't think that any IPTV company could seriously claim the ability to provide enough daily viewers to support a show like Conan's.

I suspect that even Fox will have issues getting a show like Conan's up and running. There are too many affiliate issues to start something like that up quickly. Perhaps by the fall, but then again, maybe not. Fox hasn't had the best record with late night programming. If Fox doesn't pan out, he may end up looking at a basic or premium (showtime) cable offering anyway. If that's the case, the required number of viewers goes down significantly.

But, the more I think about it, I think it just might be crazy enough to work. But it would require a big push from IPTV hardware companies to get going. Instead, I think a more likely scenario would be a traditional show with a bigger online presence. Something similar to the way the Daily Show will put up interviews that run long on their website.

Perhaps a small-ish 30-60 minute show that broadcasts normally, with extra content online. Maybe even an entire web-only show once a week.

But anything like this would require a big commitment by the host, and I don't know if Conan is enough of a geek to commit to something this risky just for the sake of pushing IPTV.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Pretty hard to move to "the future" when "the present" is paying you $20 million or so a year, and its only the delivery method that "the future" changes, not really the job itself (and even a move to Fox or Comedy Central would probably pay him at least $10 million, if not a lot closer to what he's current making). Good PR move to throw it out there through since it will get them a bit of attention.</comment>


"Im from the government and you're here to help" – The AA Act is a hackers dream - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@ben_longstaff/im-from-the-government-and-youre-here-to-help-the-aa-bill-is-a-hackers-dream-8250526eb3eb <comment><USER2> I've just gotten a response from 1Password indicating that it is their current, though not yet solidified, belief that the Australian government cannot compel its overseas developers:

"It turns out that we picked up on a popular (mis)understanding of a previous draft of the law. It does not appear that the law could be used to force any Australians work for us to go behind our backs. The law is bad for a large number of reasons, but it does not actually have that particular problem."

They went on to comment on the possibility of a rogue employee, Aussie or not, being a security risk, which I was heartened by, but I would like to ask whether the assumption that any Australian overseas can be compelled is true or not.

<comment><USER3> Does that mean companies shouldn't trust Australians?

<comment><USER4> The comment and the article just suggested they couldn't be compelled into subterfuge as an employee of an American company, at least by their interpretation.

Regardless I am not a lawyer and it is early days for this bill and how it will turn out in courts and application.

As an Australian developer, I am disappointed and worried for the future of our industry. I had planned to do software for some time yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> It would be interesting to know how they think requests would get fulfilled in practice. I called a couple of MPs offices to ask and they couldn't find anyone to provide an answer

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Hi Norm? This is Mr. Eddie Vedder from the Federal Police. Listen, we were tracking a dangerous terrorist cell when our BLT drive just went AWOL. Could you please get me a log of all the account activity of Mr. Fred Bloggs? Australian federal law requires you to comply with this request. Thanks, Norman."</comment>


Amazon Lost Some Inventory and They Don't Want to Reimburse Me - <AUTHOR> A short history of a case that was opened in November 2017 and it's still open today:<p>- I'm buying some products from a supplier and then I'm sending those products to Amazon. The invoice date is November 2017. Amazon receives the products in the same month;<p>- Things don't go according to plan and most of the products remain unsold. So, in order to avoid storage fees, on June 2018 I'm sending a removal request;<p>- In July 2018 some of the products from that removal request came back to me and I wait for the rest until 3rd of October (my mistake for waiting that long);<p>- On 3rd of October 2018 I call Amazon and a case is opened;<p>- I go back and forth with Amazon support, but the missing products are not found;<p>- In December 2018 I'm sending an invoice to Amazon in order to be reimbursed (Amazon didn't asked for it, but I was tired of that back and forth);<p>- Again, back and forth with Amazon until FEBRUARY 2019 when Amazon tells me that I will not be reimbursed because the supplier invoice was issued in November 2017 and I've sent it in December 2018. Motivation: "As per Amazon policies in order for an invoice to be eligible for a re evaluation it must have been issued within 6 months of the date the reimbursement was granted, the reimbursement for ASIN XXXXXXXXXX was granted on December 2018 and the invoice provided is dated November 2017";<p>- I must mention that a reimbursement was never granted. Amazon was only investigating IF it can be granted or not.<p>I've asked them if they want to add anything to this because I want to make the full case (not just this short history) public. My question is: what is the quickest way I can solve this case after I make it public? I just want my products back or to be reimbursed for them if those are lost or damaged. <comment><USER2> Amazon did something similar to me on a return. I returned a top end pixel book ($1500) UPS said it had been delivered to return center. Amazon said they didn't have it so they weren't going to issue the refund. Despite my receipt from UPS. I did a chargeback, and lo and behold the next day they sent me an email saying they were issuing a refund.

My experience would match lixtra's either get an attorney or write it off, they're punks about this sort of thing.

</comment><comment><USER3> Talk to a lawyer if it is a significant amount. Otherwise write it off as doing business with Amazon.</comment>


Solving All the Wrong Problems - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/solving-all-the-wrong-problems.html <comment><USER2> I think it's a phase entrepreneurs go through. I know I spent time during college trying to get little social apps or other services off the ground.

With the passage of time and a couple failed startups, working on one of these pointless apps now holds no interest. I started a side project after my last failed company that turned into something and which I've been bootstrapping since, but I don't have any illusions about it saving the world or anything like that.

I do however have a laundry list of 3-5 big hairy societal problems that I want to take a stab at some day, and I regularly find myself thinking about how I can take this side project-turned-company into something more meaningful. Otherwise, what's the point in working on it long term?

I think over time, a lot of these founders will tend toward more impactful ideas. Blaming them, calling it a "problem" misses the point hat it's all part of the maturation process.

</comment><comment><USER3> Eh, most of these services are essentially get-rich-quick schemes and there's nothing (too) wrong with that. Most will be gone in a few years, falling victim to unsustainable business models, regulatory obstacles, or a sheer inability to monetize. Some will live on, giving us new services to spend our money on.

This is Silicon Valley's way of throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. I don't know why the writer takes such an issue with the fact that everyone claims their idea will change the world; we know better. And if we're pleasantly surprised, we'll know in the end.

<comment><USER4> > I don't know why the writer takes such an issue with the fact that everyone > claims their idea will change the world; we know better. And if we're > pleasantly surprised, we'll know in the end.

Because important decisions are being made based on assumptions that, while we know are false, the rest of the world doesn't.</comment></comment>


Canvas Beat - <AUTHOR> https://experiments.kevinboudot.me/canvas-beat/ <comment><USER2> Circular pattern UI similar in some ways to the iOS app _Figure_ : [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/figure-make-music- beats/id51...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/figure-make-music- beats/id511269223?mt=8)

<comment><USER3> It's mentioned in the source:

        <meta name="Beat is a html5 audio/canvas experiment inspired by Propellerheads Figure iOS App.">

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _Acid Defender_ is another WebAudio drum machine simulator/game:

[http://cappel-nord.de/webaudio/acid-defender/](http://cappel- nord.de/webaudio/acid-defender/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Looks cool, and sounds cool, but I've been playing with it a few minutes and still haven't _quite_ worked out the UI.

Clicking on one of the rings but in the left half of the screen modifies the beat for the "pattern", and the right hand is "sample". I think I understand "pattern" but still trying to work out what "sample" does.

EDIT: Clicking on the left hand side changes the beat pattern, and the right hand side changes the sound associated with that ring! Got it :)

Would benefit from some instructions IMO.

Also there has to be a better way to increase the BPM than by getting 1 increase per mouse click.

<comment><AUTHOR> IMO discovering the interface is part of the fun :)

<comment><USER6> have you found a mixer in it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Super tight. Adding a better way to change the BPM would be my only suggestion.

</comment><comment><USER8> Looks slick - but Firefox complains about invalid audio buffer data, and doesn't play anything.

</comment><comment><USER9> pretty cool! I would appreciate an easier way to turn rings off too</comment>


Arrests in a String of High-Profile Old Master Forgeries - <AUTHOR> https://news.artnet.com/art-world/arrests-old-master-forgery-scandal-1649779 <comment><USER2> From the millions of dollars pumped into money laundering, tax avoidance, and forgery that seems to perpetuate high price art sales - it find it hard to see any benefit to the industry and practice of private ownership of such pieces.

<comment><USER3> The preseevation is the benefit really. Although money laundering goes into whatever the hell will launder money period.

Forgery is also the reverse of perperuating high prices at the cost of authenticity - to the market usually and if indistinguishable from the original.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How is the painter breaking the law? He painted the forgeries, but didn't pass them off as real. Isn't that legal?

<comment><USER5> I have been told that you have to make the copy obvious. Usually this is done by changing the size of the canvas. To be honest, though, as all of the works will be out of copyright, I'm not entirely sure what law is broken simply by painting a copy.

<comment><USER6> I don't believe it's illegal to make a copy, even a perfect copy (see my comment below about the Nova episode paying an artist to repeat the process on camera of creating a duplicate). What's illegal is fraud in selling it as an original.

The point of making it obviously a copy is to have a clear defense of "obviously I wasn't trying to make a perfect copy" should it later be sold as authentic--as happened to the 'forger' in the Nova episode. He genuinely sold it as a copy; it was only after several more sales (to which he had no connection) that it was fraudulently sold as authentic.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you know when to walk away? - <AUTHOR>

Throw away account
The company:
Pros: 8 years old.  $8m revenue, $1.5m earnings.  Solid fundamentals.  Decent barrier to entry, so not many competitors.  High customer switching costs, so our customer base is stable.
Cons: High human touch (think professional services), so very unlikely to see software style "hockey stick" growth.  In a highly regulated industry, so lots of bureaucracy hindering everything.  Financials are plateuing due to complexity of scaling.
My deal:  Founders want out, so I was brought in two years ago to operate, "professionalize" and prepare for sale.  I get 15% of profits.  In the event of sale, I get 15% of proceeds (somewhere between 500k-1m).  If I walk, I get nothing.
We've been sitting in deal stagnation for about 18 months.  Niche industry, so not many buyers (we know all of them and have shopped to all of them).  Highly regulated, so everything is over-scrutinzed.
We've tried throwing money at the problem (lowering valuation, hiring bankers/lawyers to assist), but nothing seems to "unstick" us.
Founders are all-or-nothing kind of guys.  I've floated the idea of dialing down to part time, but they're not interested.
I'm not sure how much longer to stay.  I just want to move on with my life.  How stupid would it be to walk?  Would I regret it?  Will I regret staying?  Will it be a black mark on my career if I don't get this thing sold?  Will it be a black mark on my career if I stick with it for too long?
Any help/advice would be appreciated.  Thanks. <comment><USER2> There are enough details in there that if the founders were to read the post they would most likely see themselves.

If you aren't seeing an end then don't expect it to come to you by waiting. I'd say move on and find another opportunity. I'm sure you have the resume to land another position and at the very least anything new you move into would be exciting for it's newness. You might regret it if they sell for $X in the future but you can only make decisions based on what you know now and what you think is best for you.

At first I thought you were the company owner to which I would have suggested to do exactly what they did which is to higher someone else to manage the company and incentivise them on a sale. All the pressure it sell is on you now and if you don't think it will happen you might want to move on.

</comment><comment><USER3> Move on as nicely as possible to everyone, including yourself, but move on. If you don't have ideas and plans on what will make the sale happen, don't sit around waiting for lighting to strike.

Tell the founders your thoughts. Tell them that you will stick around for 2 months to interview and train your successor, or that you can just walk away if they want to go "clean" for a replacement, and indicate that if you are presented with the replacement to train you'll leave early. Spin it along the lines of "This situation is not one that I am improving, so I need to find a different position somewhere, where I bring a lot more value; this is in your interest and mine. We both need to be doing something different, because the current track isn't giving us our sale, so if isn't going to happen with me hopefully it will happen with a new person."

It's possible you might regret it later, but that's true of all big decisions. If they are sold soon after you leave, it's not necessarily that you missed something, it may be that your leaving catalyzed things and lit a fire under the appropriate asses, either buyers or sellers, and that it wasn't something that would have happened if you had stayed.

It's impossible to say what will happen to your reputation or etc; but after all, just coasting for a couple of years doesn't necessarily look good either.

I say all this mainly because it sounds like you want to leave anyway. Many people would regard 15% of 1.5 million in a stable company a very good position, and would stay and accumulate savings.

You don't mention what opportunities you have elsewhere.

</comment><comment><USER4> Flip a coin. While it is in the air, think about which side you want to land up. That's what you really want to do.

Seriously, though, your question is really only something that you can evaluate. If I were you, I would evaluate the probability of it getting sold in the next N months (where N is your limit before burnout/explosion). Then go to the founders and voice your concerns.

The founders obviously want you on board (potentially, they might need you). Explain to them that you're looking to exit, and discuss possible terms with them. Let them know that you're not particularly confident with the direction of the sale, and would like some quantitative numbers and timelines for the sale or sales goals. Negotiate, with them, terms of your departure. This way, you don't leave them in the lurch during a crucial time; in exchange, negotiate an exit route that still gets you some compensation (maybe if you leave in 6 months, company unsold, you still a smaller cut of the sale).

I doubt they want you leaving during a sale; they brought you in for that purpose. Discuss your concerns, determine a plan, a timeline, and metrics to evaluate success/failure. In exchange for your continued efforts, make sure you have an exit plan that advantages you as well as is considerate to them.

</comment><comment><USER5> I do not think the bankers you hired are doing a good job. There is a lot of money sitting in private equity which will love to have this company at the correct price.

</comment><comment><USER6> There must be some price at which you can sell a company making $1.5m of profit.

</comment><comment><USER7> Have you talked to an investment bank?

</comment><comment><USER8> My approach to issues of this sort:

Pick a time frame for _not deciding_ , usually less than six months. Decide that at X time (and/or in the event of X), you will make your decision. Make this a firm commitment that you will make your decision at that time.

During that time, mull over which details are the "make or break". For me, if I leave a situation, the "make or break" frequently hinges on the person/people in charge and my judgment of the direction they are taking. So, to me, this is probably the single most important thing you have said:

"Founders are all-or-nothing kind of guys. I've floated the idea of dialing down to part time, but they're not interested."

Maybe not a deal killer, but certainly a red flag. Most details in life are a case of "it has it's good points and it has its bad points". But if the folks in charge are The Problem, the odds of fixing it are slim to none (with strong leanings towards "none").

Good luck, whatever you end up doing.</comment>


FBI warns US companies about backdoors in Chinese tax software - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-warns-us-companies-about-backdoors-in-chinese-tax-software/ <comment><USER2> Groups running companies never learn...isolate sensitive stuff and take a few minutes to do things safely.</comment>


The Inside Story of Donald Trump's Only High-Tech Venture - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/3060360/the-inside-story-of-donald-trumps-only-high-tech-venture <comment><USER2> It's a bit strange to call this a venture in the way the article does. From the last paragraph, Trump didn't actually invest any money at all into the business, and it doesn't seem like he provided much input or help in the way of media connections, design, etc. FreelinQ developed the hardware and Trump let them install it in his tower, then cut ties when it didn't work well.</comment>


Parody of an interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++ - <AUTHOR> http://odgaard.org/jeod/funny/interview.html

<comment><USER2> Please make this thing stop; this is the Hacker News equivalent of those joke faxes that offices used to circulate in the '90s.

</comment><comment><USER3> Parody, What Parody?

Most of us have held this to be a true confession

</comment><comment><USER4> For a moment I actually found myself believing the interview. I could relate and identify with.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you cannot learn C++, you are either plain old stupid or you don't belong in programming. C++ is very easy, the syntax is picked up in a week, and you can work without any libraries, you mostly just need to learn the API of the host system. If you can program in Ruby, you are capable enough to program in C++, and the only thing stopping you is just this 'myth' that C++ is hard.

<comment><USER6> _C++ is very easy, the syntax is picked up in a week, and you can work without any libraries, you mostly just need to learn the API of the host system._

You don't know C++.

<comment><USER5> What's the hard part of the syntax compared to a language like ruby? Interfaces? Classes? Inheritance? Templates? Exceptions? Ruby has equivalent interface elements, and there is not much of a difference in difficulty level between learning the one or the other.

I learnt C++ in 2 weeks 7 years ago, and it was easy. The difficulty comes with learning to use the libraries and host APIs, but that is exactly the same for every other language I've learnt since then.

<comment><USER7> Things Ruby isn't concerned with that people typically have problems with in C++:

\- No compiling or linking phase in Ruby. Linking problems can be hairy in large systems.

\- Header file hell

\- The static keyword (there are four different contexts)

\- Difference between a pointer and reference

\- public, private, protected inheritance

\- Differences between dispatch (and underlying impl) of virtual and nonvirtual methods

\- method hiding

\- diamond of death

\- visibility vs accessibility

\- casting idioms (static, dynamic, const, reinterpret)

\- ugly libraries (STL, ATL, MFC, COM) yeah, i said STL is ugly.

\- templates (Ruby doesn't need templates since everything is dynamic)

\- No language level string data type (our product has at least six representations of strings here and there that need to be converted at the bit level).</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Getting Started Reverse Engineering the Diablo 3 Auction House - <AUTHOR> http://larrystechblog.tumblr.com/post/21373715469/getting-started-reverse-engineering-the-diablo-3

<comment><USER2> _Once you have all this data, simulate mouse clicks on the next and previous buttons to paginate and get more data. It's all a tricky process, very hacky, but you're getting really valuable data._

If you go all the way to simulate mouse clicks, why not OCR the prices off the screen? I guess that's somewhat simpler (I used to do it for a poker bot, there's a few open source screen scraping tools available). Maybe there's more information available in memory than is shown to the user, of course.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure how easy it would be to do OCR due to the weird font the game uses. The numbers seem easy enough to read though (Way better than the ones used diablo I/II), and I guess that's what count. If they changed the font to the old one it would probably not work though, since the '5' and the '6' characters where pretty similar.

<comment><USER2> Well, the advantage that screen scraping has over paper OCR is that the font is completely deterministic and there's (usually) no degrading effects. Even if '5' and '6' are pretty similar, there must be some pixel that can be used to distinguish them.

What _could_ make it more tricky is if alpha transparency is used for both the foreground and background. Still, the complexity isn't anywhere near "real life" OCR.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This guy is a badass.</comment>


Scouts and guides provide 'mental health boost for life' - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37923133 <comment><USER2> I was in scouts and cadets here in New Zealand when I was a teenager and continue to spend a fair amount of time in the outdoors (I also did Outward Bound when I was 16), and I can definitely relate to the researcher's findings.

When you're 2 days walk from civilisation, it's pissing down with rain, and you're cold, wet, hungry, and tired, you get a different perspective on life and the "soft" challenges that you face in life back home.

By "soft" challenges I mean things that aren't really life threatening, if you fail to pay the bills, you aren't going to die. If you get soaking wet and get hypothermia in the bush, you could very well die (although it's very unlikely in a structured environment like scouts).

I used to ignore problems that I didn't like, and more or less wait for them to go away, this approach obviously didn't work too well. One thing that spending a lot of time in the outdoors did was teach me that when you're in the shit, the only thing that you can do is keep on going forward. When it's dark and cold, and you're tired and your feet hurt, sitting down and resting and waiting isn't going to help you, you need to keep on walking to the hut. And there's nobody else who's going to help you; you can't phone a friend and get them to do the walking for you.

The teamwork skills you learn are different to the ones you learn in a soft environment too. Everyone works together for a group benefit, because you're all stuck there together.

I've never served in the military, but from the people I know that have, they pretty much learn to take the same attitude. I think that these experiences are something that everyone should have exposure to earlier in life. I've had some experiences where I was absolutely miserable at the time, but in retrospect have been very powerful character building and learning experiences. I spent a week cold and wet in the rain, with a wet tent and a wet sleeping bag on Outward Bound and for 2 nights I was sleeping on an open sailboat and managed about 3 hours of sleep total, I hated it at the time, but it was one of the most character building experiences of my life in retrospect.

<comment><USER3> > I've never served in the military, but from the people I know that have, > they pretty much learn to take the same attitude.

The phrase used in the US military for this is "Embrace the suck". Which means "The situation is bad, but deal with it."

<comment><USER4> As an Eagle Scout and former Army officer, one of my enduring life lessons has been "false motivation is better than no motivation."

When you're cold, wet, and tired it helps to pretend you love it. It's infectious, too.

It is actually a good feeling when you realize you're not as fragile as you thought you were. "I would have thought that I'd be miserable in this situation, but I'm actually OK" is a good thought to have.

<comment><USER5> The same mechanism is probably why studies show that forcing a smile even when you don't feel happy can lead you to slowly become happier.

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/smile-it-could- ma...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/smile-it-could-make-you- happier/)

<comment><USER6> This result has been cast into doubt by a recent replication attempt, which failed to find any such forced-smile effect.

[https://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/StrackRRR_manuscrip...](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/StrackRRR_manuscript_accepted.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It might be one of the cases where correlation doesn't imply causation. For an objective study, we would need to assign children to groups randomly. Otherwise, we can miss various obscure selection effects. (For example, if children who are more likely to be scouts, are also likely to be from a particular socioeconomic background).

<comment><USER8> This is almost certainly the case. Being a scout/guide strongly correlates with parental income in the US at least – I don't know how it is in the UK. But if that is true, the headline might as well be "Being rich provides a mental health boost for life".

<comment><USER9> My scouts (was Scoutmaster for 20 years) definitely did not fit the 'rich kid' profile. Farm kids, rural community, parents working 2 jobs or driving a truck.

We went to mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes. We swam in a lake on an island in a lake. We canoed, hiked, camped, cooked, woodworked, laughed and ran.

Our Troop tried to keep event costs down to around $15, so everybody could participate. Succeeded for the most part. And we did regular fundraisers so anybody who wanted to go, had a way to get there.

Scout Troops can be expensive too. Our district has that kind. That can drive the perception of the demographic. But our Troop was top-rated in our District for years. And not because of money. It was because our youth led a very rigorous program, invested themselves in it, and expected a lot from one another.

That's actually the whole point of Scouting - getting the youth invested in something worthwhile. In the process, modeling behaviors and training skills and leadership.

<comment><USER10> Depends on your troop, I know by far we were the best funded troop in our council, but that was purely due to the area we were able to sell christmas trees in. Without that, we would not have been able to get half our troop to go on trips, or get the proper gear (wool clothing, a good pack, tent, sleeping pad, etc) due to a lack of affordability.

I do feel bad for the other troops in our area though, I know at least 2 folded while we were going strong, one got kicked out of the district cause the BSA hates gay scoutmasters, and the other had no place to meet and severe funding issues. Running a troop requires a ton of parental involvement and effort, and outside the Mormons most troops are dying in the US.

It is really quite sad, but I get why. None of the gay guys in my troop could participate in leadership due to the BSA's policies at the time, and in a small troop that is lethal, you need every warm body that is willing to do the fundraising, planning, organizing, paperwork, etc. and they are few and far between

<comment><USER9> Our Troop required only a little parental involvement. The youth leadership decided most things. The parents were needed to drive, to serve on the committee (one meeting a month). It helps to have a strong Patrol Leader Council.

The gay youth in my Troop never had a problem taking leadership roles. The BSA national (read: Mormon) policy was no gay Adult leaders?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I recently went to an army reserve training for 13 days.

It was intense but really great. Days were from 6AM to 21pm. I really appreciated how everything was structured and very organized. Pressure was there and could be felt, the purpose was to learn everything a soldier needs to know, so the purpose was clear and well defined. You could not hang there and pretend that you don't understand why you're learning this or that.

Everything was demonstrated, explained and shown.

What I remember from these two weeks is how 3 guys started threatening me because they thought I reported the showers not being cleaned properly, while I was just talking about using flip flops in showers.

Lack of popularity caught up on me, and a guy threw a fake grenade at me, and I went to emergency care but lost no hearing, but could not complete the training, so I came back disappointed, but still happy of those 2 weeks since most of my scores were okay.

So like usual, those types of programs are great, but unless you prevent people from behaving like predators, people won't take is seriously.

</comment><comment><USER12> On the flip side I personally found the Scouts to be a safe haven for bullying that, when it happens to a child at the wrong time, will wreck their mental health for years to come.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, I agree that the Scouts can be a bad place for that kind of things, which is why I think it might not be good for all childrens.

(I had been a Scout for a few year and got a lot of benefits from it, but I know that my brother bullied a lot the younger scouts, so this is a real problem)

<comment><USER14> I help to run a Scout group in the UK. All adult volunteers receive anti- bullying and child safeguarding training. In my experience - bullying is not tolerated in 'these times'.

But for sure, do what you think is best for your kids.

<comment><USER15> 'these times' being the crucial distinctor.

I was a cub in the early '90s in a deprived ex-mining town in the UK. Fighting and bullying were rife.

My parents were warned by other parents they knew not to send me to the scout troop, as it operated more like a gang than a troop.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I was a boy scout in the late '70s and early '80s. Loved it, and although I was too young to care at the time, my son will probably not join because religion. Yes, they have a "non-religious promise" now, but you're still subjected to it. I don't care for it, and my son will (like I did) get to choose for himself but (unlike me) without being forcibly subjected to the propaganda.

All that said, scouting has changed since I did it. We had a pretty heavy focus on pioneering (my favourite memory is being given an hour to build a suspended platform 2m above the ground before a fictional flood came), first aid (still invaluable today) and orienteering. These days it's the above as well as everything from computers to being a chef and performing arts.

<comment><USER17> What country did you have that experience in?

I'm an atheist and a Scout leader in the UK. When writing my programme I always include a spiritual component to it but leave it non-religious. We definitely discuss and explore different religions (in past year visited a Mosque, an Abbey and a Synagogue to learn about their cultures) but never focus hard on a religion or even suggest that holding a religious belief is necessary to be a Scout.

Recently at an event where I renewed my promise I took the Atheist promise which is as follows:

I promise that I will do my best Uphold our Scout values Do my duty to the Queen Help other people And to keep the Scout laws

I find the majority of Scouters I meet, despite saying the original promise follow this non-denominational one throughout their Scouting. We promote the "worldwide family of Scouts" more than a religious grouping.

If you do look for a Scout group for your son, make sure to talk to the leader there. Different groups approach the issue differently so try to find one that suits you and lets your son avoid being 'forcible subjected to the propaganda' though it can be good for a young person to experience it and make that decision for themselves.

<comment><USER18> > I promise that I will do my best Uphold our Scout values Do my duty to the > Queen Help other people And to keep the Scout laws

Well I'm an atheist and a republican, so that wouldn't work for me.

<comment><USER19> Being an atheist is expressly OK in the UK Scout movement (in fact, I'd say it's probably true of a decent majority of our adult and young members), and there's nothing in the scout values that people promise to uphold which require religion in any sense.

The duty to the Queen bit is a little bit more tricky. I'm a republican (and a scout leader) and concluded I was happy to follow the wording. The reason being that it doesn't define the scope of the duty, especially not in terms I would find problematic. The traditional scope of the duty is to keep the peace and not commit treason, both of which are required by statute law in any case. I don't see it as incompatible with wanting a change in the country's constitutional arrangements. And certainly the Scout movement wouldn't insist otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> How does this account for more anxious /less well adjusted kids not becoming scouts in the first place due to the difficulty they already have in being part of heavily conformist group activities ?

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm going to say that the study probably did uncover the truth. I was in the USA Boy Scouts, and one thing I noticed (and disagree with) is the unspoken limitations placed on participants. For instance, what's the highest assignment one can have as a Boy Scout? _Junior_ Assistant Scoutmaster. The Scoutmaster is always very firmly in control. In Scouts, I learned not to expect to rise to the top, indeed, not to even have ambitions to do so, as this is just not possible. This is probably good for all but a vanishingly small number of people: virtually everyone will not be in command, but will be at most a middle manager. It's probably good for your mental health to not be disappointed when your ambitions to become President, or General or CEO are revealed to be impossible. If you learn "your place" instinctively, you won't spend effort trying to be someone that the system just won't let you be. Good all around, I say.

<comment><USER22> > "For instance, what's the highest assignment one can have as a Boy Scout? > Junior Assistant Scoutmaster. The Scoutmaster is always very firmly in > control."

It sounds like you were in a Boy Scout troop being run with a Cub Scout mindset, rather than one operating according to the official rules and goals. I've never seen JASM described as the highest job assignment a scout can hold; most people would say that's the Senior Patrol Leader, while JASM is a transitional job for experienced scouts to learn how to step back from being a direct leader to being a mentor who helps enable the boys to lead their troop.

<comment><USER23> Yeah. SPL is the highest position a boy can have. JASM is just a position for older scouts to transition to a more adult mentor role as they're approaching adulthood.

<comment><USER21> Senior Patrol Leader, Junior Assistance Scout master, what's the difference, really? If a use a military, rather than a business metaphor, a boy can be a non-commissioned officer at best, not even a lieutenant.

<comment><USER22> The point that you are refusing to understand is that what you describe and apparently experienced is at most a common failure mode. It is not what the program is intended to be, and it is not representative of a typical troop with properly trained adult leadership. I'm sorry you had an asshole scoutmaster who couldn't internalize even the first half hour of the training he was supposed to receive before serving in that role.

<comment><USER21> I don't think I'm making my point, or you're deliberately mis-reading me. I had at least decent scoutmasters, and some were very good. I was an Eagle scout. I worked 3 summers at Great Rivers Council's Camp Thunderbird. I worked 3 summers at Philmont Scout Ranch, as a Range and at Cimmaroncito. I was in the Order of the Arrow. I've seen more scouts and scoutmasters in more situations than almost everyone. Most scoutmasters are good, a few are very good, and virtually all of them are trying hard.

I guess I should say that I gained a lot from Scouting, and Scoutmasters. Hopefully, I passed on some knowledge to the Scouts I interacted with as a camp staff member. Hopefully those Scouts gained a lot from their experiences. But all of that was outside the bounds of the Patrol Method, and at least secondary to it. The true message of Scouting appears to be "know your place". The "learn your place, and get better at things to serve the upper crust" is a problem built into Scouting at its very beginning, and imbues it to this day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I was in cubs, I was bullied out of it. Any social club can go both ways.

<comment><USER25> Maybe bullying someone provides a "mental health boost".

I'm being a bit facetious but there seems to be at least a correlation.

Bullies live happier lives.

<comment><USER26> I don't know about this, a lot of bullies bully out of their own inner pain.

<comment><USER25> Not really: [http://www.today.com/parents/study-bullies-have-higher- self-...](http://www.today.com/parents/study-bullies-have-higher-self-esteem- social-status-lower-levels-t36271)

> the study by researchers at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, > Canada, also found that bullies had the lowest levels of depression, the > highest levels of self-esteem and the highest social status.

> The study supports the evolutionary process theory that there is a > biological explanation for bullying because bullies gain benefits from being > aggressive. That is contrary to the theory that bullies are often exhibiting > this type of behavior because they have difficult home or school lives or > have been the target of bullying or harassment themselves.

Most speech like that is just rationalizations that bullied people say to feel better.

<comment><USER24> High self-esteem is what I was referring to, in essence.

High self-esteem is not equal to sound mental health. Psychopaths have high self-esteem.

Not every bully is a psychopath. Unwarranted self-esteem leads to problems in life whether it's high or low.

<comment><USER25> The comment I was responding to mentioned bullying as a response to "inner pain". If the study I quoted is accurate that is not the case.

I'm not going to dwell into self-esteem and socio/psycopathy labels.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> As someone who came from a single parent family of two boys... I am 40, I have had depression for much of my life. We didn't have much money when I was growing up. I was in the scouts and did the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The single biggest lessons I learned from both are:

1\. When you have nothing left to give, sometimes will power and discipline are the only things left in your toolbox that will get you where you need to go.

2\. Self reliance - as someone noted earlier in the thread about a cyclist "there is only one way home." It also gave me the skills and a sense of confidence in my ability to survive without any of the trappings of city life. If shit falls to pieces, as having depression has proven to me it can and has and could again, I know I'll survive, regardless of anything - because I have the skills, the will power and discipline to survive the worst.

So... I have a sample size of one that goes against the grain of this research. Of course, being 15% less likely doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

</comment><comment><USER28> Reminds me of a great Rachel Carson quote:

"A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full or wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later year…the alienation from the sources of our strength." ― Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

</comment><comment><USER29> This is a counterpoint article to this:

[https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-introduces- nat...](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-introduces-national- citizen-service-ncs-bill-to-parliament)

The NCS is being beefed up to become almost mandatory for young people. Whereas UK Scouting has quite rightly pointed out they they've been doing this for over 100 years already.

I can first hand (and second hand via my daughter) validate that being an active Scout brings many benefits to the child, and helps shape their identity for life.

<comment><USER13> I also got a lot of benefits from my years as a Scout, as did my brothers, but I think that it might not be a good fit for all children and some might not get any benefits from it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I greatly enjoyed my time in the Scouts as a kid in the US. Unfortunately, when I moved to France and joined the scouts there, I found it to be a hotbed for far-right beliefs that I was deeply uncomfortable around.

There's something about getting a bunch of guys out in the forest that brings out the worst in us I suppose. People who I would otherwise assume to be nice talking about ethnic cleansing positively.

It's a strange, macho environment that I didn't expect after such a fun time in the states...

<comment><USER10> That is really quite sad, outside the Mormon run troops, most are very accepting here in the US, that being said it can get pretty fucked up pretty quick conversation wise. Making me think back to singing "Killing the baby seals" & jokes about the handy ole multicolored abortion scoop & coat hanger, but all in good jest usually.

I do imagine having a few openly gay scouts in our troop and good leadership did keep things from skewing far right, its hard to advocate against a race or orientation when you spend hundreds of hours with people of said race or orientation over the course of a year doing constructive things.

We had a great scout here from Hong Kong on exchange, so not all scouting programs outside the US suck! It may just be a bad troop too, the Mormon troops in the US are like a whole different organization policy wise. Very clannish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Chronic depression guy here. Was in scouts. Had depressed episodes just as much in as out. I remember one time I was close to suicide, and watching everyone else enjoying themselves made it worse. Would not recommend. I think people with depression wouldn't have gone voluntarily, but I was kind of forced. If you're going through depression scouts is the last fucking place you want to be.

Maybe those who develop it in later years have less chance because you're less likely to join if you're prone to depression in the first place? Mehbeh?

edit: I was never bullied. Had some fun times, but mostly struggling to keep head above the pits of darkness. Good parents. Lucky guy. I always appreciated my position from an abstract point of view.

Best way to describe it: Fatigue is an emotion ([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3323922/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3323922/)). You can only work through fatigue for so long. That's what it's like with depression, except sleep doesn't refresh you. Wake up and it's still there. Crippling.

</comment><comment><USER32> Worth pointing out that this refers to Scouting in the UK. While other scouting movements are based on the original UK scouting movement, there are notable differences between all the scouting movements so this doesn't necessarily apply to other movements. Regardless, good to see some solid press for scouting, gave me some of the best experiences of my life and via Gang Show introduced me to performing arts which plays a huge role in my life.

</comment><comment><USER33> This must vary from country to country. The adventures I participated in with scouts were not even remotely as adventurous as some school trips and holidays.

</comment><comment><USER34> All I remember from Scouts (USA, 1980s) was continuous fund raising. It was all about learning how to sell candy bars and T-shirts every month. I don't recall ever going on any actual outings in the woods or learning how to tie knots--there was never time amid the constant fund raising.

</comment><comment><USER35> Link to the paper:

[http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2016/10/05/jech-2016-20789...](http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2016/10/05/jech-2016-207898.full.pdf+html)

</comment><comment><USER36> Interesting article. I just featured a guest on my show talking about computational psycholinguistics and using Language as a Window to the Brain. He became interested in the subject after reading about the famous "nun study" predicting dementia. [https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294/michael- covington](https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294/michael-covington)

</comment><comment><USER37> I spent a lot of time in Scouts learning close order drill, indoors. Seriously. Not much use, although definitely true to the "muscular Christianity" that gave rise to Scouting. However, I spent plenty of time in the woods when I didn't have to go to Scouts in the indoor community hall, so that was good. The Hitler Youth movement was modeled after the Scouts, so it would be interesting to see a study there...

</comment><comment><USER38> I recently heard some advice from foreign students in the Netherlands, to not mention ones time in the scouts to Dutch co-students.

Apparently it's looked down upon enough that it's best to keep it quiet, especially if you're trying to get a room in a house rented by students.

Can a Dutch person comment on this? Is this true, and if so, why?

<comment><USER39> Dutch scout here, I've been a scout since I was 7 and I'm now 28 and a cub scout leader (kids aged 7-11).

Being in scouting can be perceived (in NL at least) as for nerds/geeks or 'corny' (don't know what is a good translation for the Dutch 'oubollig')

Especially when the kids hit puberty (the scouts/guides age), this negative image thing among school peers can be a reason for kids to quit. When I was that age, I didn't really care about much of that sort of talk and really enjoyed my time at scouting. Although there definitely was a negative image among school peers.

The image is changing for the better though. I certainly would not hide it.

I heard some nice stories from the scouts/guides at high school telling they hiked through the woods for the weekend with a backpack and went canyoning etc, while their non-scout peers only played video games inside.

When I was older and went to university, I noticed a lot of people did scouts when they were little kids. Not sure why they quit.

The social aspect is definitely a plus in some professions.

<comment><USER38> Thanks!

I remember more details: this was about the 'instemming' (in Delft), a sort of interview you need to go through to get a room. So I suppose being uncool could be a factor there.

<comment><USER39> Never been to such a night, but apparently it helps if you have a washing machine or dishwasher or stuff like that to bring into the student house.

There are some student-scout groups in some Dutch student cities, maybe Delft has one too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> The general rule of thumb to use with correlation studies like this is any result under three fold is not likely to hold up in a randomised study. The correlation between smoking and lung cancer is 15 fold.

</comment><comment><USER41> Think how many variables are involved in this? I just don't accept it.

</comment><comment><USER42> Defund all 'social research'. This article is should be proof enough of all the money and opportunity lost, not to mention harmful influence on policies, on make work research.

<comment><USER43> All of it?

You _really_ don't think that it's important to understand the factors that affect people's quality of life, or how groups interact? You don't see any practical applications for this? No possible way that understanding group dynamics could pay off, say in an workplace or military situation?

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> correlation != causation.

<comment><USER45> I dunno why you're getting down voted as this is a clear point to make. A fun game I like to play when I read these sorts of things in the news is to reverse the causation implied by what I'm reading. Often times it make more sense. In this case:

Those with better mental health are more likely to do Scouts and guides in their youth.

<comment><USER46> He's getting downvoted because he's short quip is not a useful addition to the discussion.

If you already know that correlation != causation, then his quip is useless. If you don't, then those two words are also useless to you.

Either way it's a useless post and if he can't be bothered to explain more, then don't bother making the post.

<comment><USER47> I find such a comment to contribute more to the discussion (if it's actually discussed) than all the anecdotes from many of the other top-level comments. They are nicely worded and afford many points that can be discussed, most of them irrelevant to the matter of the article.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Observable's Not JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/observables-not-javascript <comment><USER2> Observable is great, and I hope more people learn about it and try it out, but I am afraid that outside of the audience of people who already have worked with it a bit, both the title and content of this particular notebook are going to be a bit misleading and out of context. The intended audience isn't really people new to the platform.

One of the most important things about Observable is that it _is_ mostly just javascript.

<comment><USER3> I loved the title. Because indeed, I personally thought that Observable was mostly just Javascript. But now I understand it a lot more and more importantly have an idea now of where they are going with it. I love JupyterLab, but I think long-term it is boxed in by its design of being Python/R in the browser. Observable is breaking from Javascript more than I thought, which will allow it to do really cool things and hit an audience that doesn't necessarily care that it's not quite Javascript.

<comment><USER4> I kinda want Observable to be it's own language that can compile to JS... not saying it would be a good general purpose lang by any means, but it would be interesting to experiment with a 'first-class observable' language.

<comment><USER5> And it kinda is. We provide a parser¹ and a runtime², and you can download a copy of any notebook compiled to a JavaScript module: [https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and- embed...](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embedding- notebooks)

That said, we're explicitly designing for the reactivity of the notebook environment. Working on fundamentally reactive code in a traditional text editor is ... alright, I guess. You're still stuck reloading the whole enchilada any time you make a change. It's nowhere near as exciting as working on reactive code in an editor that understands and respects the reactivity, and can keep your program running and re-evaluating as you tweak it!

That said, if you're interested something less notebook-y, check out what Rich Harris is doing with Svelte 3. It's totally a not-so-distant cousin.

1\. [https://github.com/observablehq/parser](https://github.com/observablehq/parser)

2\. [https://github.com/observablehq/runtime](https://github.com/observablehq/runtime)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the information. Also, yes, I've been keeping a very close eye on Svelte 3 and have been experimenting with it :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As much I try to like this project, still, something feels clunky. I am an avid user of Jupyter Notebooks for prototyping and code sharing in data science / deep learning.

Fir JavaScript (and D3.js in particular), still - I don't have a default go-to solutig. Gist -> blocks? GitHub and and a standalone page? JSFiddle or CodePen? Observable? (I would love to be convinced to one or the other approach.)

My main concerns with observable are:

1\. Unlike Jupyter notebook, the code is non-linear. Very often it refers to some pieces.

2\. It takes some clicking to reveal the code. (Also, maybe a Jupyter habits, but I am used to results below code.)

3\. I am still not sure what is the full syntax besides JavaScript and Markdown.

4\. I am not sure if it is easy (or possible) to backup / self-host the code. (Pretty much a requirement to make sure a project won't disappear in a few years.)

BTW: Once I gave Obserbavle a try, [https://observablehq.com/@stared/tree-of- reddit-sex-life](https://observablehq.com/@stared/tree-of-reddit-sex-life) (and it got really popular here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19640562](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19640562)).

<comment><USER5> With the gentle caveat that this list of concerns feels fairly low effort — surely, with a little elbow grease, you can think of much more damning complaints! ;) — I'll try to respond in good faith:

1\. The non-linearity of the code is really the whole point here. Reactivity means that you wan work on any little piece of the code at any time, and you don't have to reload the page, or re-evaluate the entire notebook. It closes the feedback loop, and speeds up the process of iterating on your ideas immensely.

2\. We've added more keyboard shortcuts, so you can now "Shift-A" to select every cell, and then press "P" to pin every cell open at once (and then to close them again).

3\. The full syntax is just the "Observable JavaScript" described in the OP. The Markdown tagged template literal is part of the standard library, and you can define your own that work just like it. In that sense, the syntax is extensible. For example, here's a different "pl" tagged template literal that runs Prolog programs: [https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/hello-tau- prolog](https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/hello-tau-prolog)

4\. Every notebook is available for download and self-hosting. You can download the code as an ES Module, or as a tarball that you can install with npm, or load and render on a web page: [https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and- embed...](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embedding- notebooks)

<comment><USER7> What's the rationale for results above code?

<comment><USER5> Great question!

On Observable, each cell is a unit that can be evaluated independently, with two sides to it — you have the source code editor, and you have the rendered display (either a chunk of DOM or canvas that you've drawn, or an interactive inspector for JS values).

Now, the important thing is that the code half of the cell is often collapsed. You navigate around the notebook, toggling open and closed the code editors, and typing into them. If the code is on top, the entire cell jumps when it opens and closes, pushing the rendered display up and down. If the code is on the bottom, it emerges from the half of the cell that is always there, and the display is stable.

Ultimately, that's why each cell has content before source code — the content is always there, and the code may or may not be visible, so working with the notebook as a whole feels much more stable and less jumpy with the rendered value as primary and the source code as secondary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Am I right in thinking that this is mostly interesting for statistics-adjacent fields? I imagine someone using this mostly to embed charts and graphs alongside code a la Jupyter Notebooks.

What would be fascinating to me is if these tools made it significantly easier to make "Explorable Explanations" (nicky case, bret victor).

I love the Raft visualization ([https://raft.github.io/](https://raft.github.io/)) and would be ecstatic to see more stuff like that surfacing around, making it easier to grok sophisticated distributed systems. Next logical step would be to actually control said systems from the visualization itself.

<comment><USER5> In that case, you may be interested in checking out some of the fancy explorable explanations folks have been publishing: [https://observablehq.com/collection/@observablehq/explorable...](https://observablehq.com/collection/@observablehq/explorables)

Here's a sequence of sound wave primers by Dylan Freedman: [https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds](https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds)

Mike wrote an exploration of the Lotka-Volterra equations for simulating the dynamics of populations of predators and prey: [https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/predator-and- prey](https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/predator-and-prey)

Or something physical, like Jacob Rus figuring out how a chunk of metal from a machinist's workshop can scribe out a perfect sine curve: [https://observablehq.com/@jrus/sinebar](https://observablehq.com/@jrus/sinebar)

Or something fun, with Krist Wongsuphasawat's tapioca pearl to tea level Boba Calculator: [https://observablehq.com/@kristw/boba- science](https://observablehq.com/@kristw/boba-science)

Or my personal favorite (although I can't view it in Chrome), Toph Tucker's poignant reverie on correlation, eugenics, and the morality of applying statistics to human affairs: [https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/inferring- chart-type-fr...](https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/inferring-chart-type- from-autocorrelation-and-other-evils)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I thought they were talking about Observables as in the Reactive Observables (1) from RxJS (2) et al.

Unfortunate naming! No doubt SEO will be super difficult for them considering how much "javascript" && "observable" keyword stuff there is out there already.

1 - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_programming) 2 - [https://rxjs.dev/guide/observable](https://rxjs.dev/guide/observable)

<comment><USER5> Your comment made me curious about our current SEO rankings, so I used a VPN and fresh incognito windows in a browser I never use (Safari) to Google for "observable" from Silicon Valley, New York City and Madrid.

ObservableHQ.com is in the top spot in Silicon Valley and NYC, and a few spots down the first page in Madrid, after Angular Observables and RXJS Observables. So it looks like we're doing pretty alright so far.

<comment><USER10> That's for users who have never searched for anything regarding observables and clicked links which will tailor their ranking algorithm. Not sure how much optimization for "pure" ranking we should do nowadays.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> While this is great, I'm still waiting for Observable to include a Vim-like editing environment in the cells.

Working in Emacs and Vim all day, I can't tell you how immensely annoying it is to switch between mouse and keyboard when editing code blocks.

<comment><USER12> We did just launch a big improvement to keyboard controls this week that mirrors vim's "Normal Mode":

[https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/cell- shortcuts](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/cell-shortcuts)

<comment><USER11> I saw that. What I'm talking about is editing code with Vim-like keys INSIDE the cells. An implementation of the Ace Editor[1] or something similar would be amazing.

[1] [https://ace.c9.io/](https://ace.c9.io/)

<comment><USER12> Got it. We use CodeMirror and are considering the vim bindings, but it'd probably be something we launch at the same time as user-configurable key bindings.

[https://codemirror.net/demo/vim.html](https://codemirror.net/demo/vim.html)

<comment><USER11> I'm happy to hear there is some consideration. I'll be the first, as a user, to say YES to this implementation. That'll encourage me to use Observable more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Observable is SUCH a clever piece of software design. Every time I read more about how it works I learn something new and interesting.

<comment><USER14> JsLive or JsLiveDoc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This blog is very frustrating to read. When I try and select text to mark my place, it starts editing markdown instead.

<comment><USER16> I notice whenever I highlight a paragraph, clicking the paragraph again doesn't de-select it, unlike every other program and webpage. I have to click outside of the paragraph to unhighlight it. As a compulsive highlighter who often double-clicks and then clicks paragraphs to highlight them and then unhighlight them, this is so bothering to me. (Also, if I click on a code snippet, a highlight appears to the left of it, and then gets left behind and doesn't reset when I click outside of the code snippet!) It feels like I've picked up an object and it was sticky and got residue left behind on my hands each time I interact with it. Sure, I could just stop repeatedly touching the object so much, but I fidget with what I'm holding. An object that's not fidgetable like every other of its kind is unnecessarily hostile. I'm baffled that a webpage went through extra work to make highlighting act differently and infuriatingly.

Highly related xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/1271/](https://xkcd.com/1271/), and highly related alt-text: "And if clicking on any word pops up a site-search for articles about that word, I will close all windows in a panic and never come back."

<comment><USER17> Interestingly enough, from my quick tests, the highlighting behaviour works as normal in Firefox, but not in Chrome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Just checked out live commenting feature on Observable [1], the ability to send code suggestions and preview + merge suggestion with 1-click looks amazing.

I built a tool [2] for Jupyter notebook code reviews which has commenting feature for GitHub pull requests (regular text comments). It would be great to have actual code edits/suggestions as review comments.

[1] [https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/suggestions-and- comme...](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/suggestions-and-comments)

[2] [https://www.reviewnb.com/](https://www.reviewnb.com/)

</comment><comment><USER19> I really wish tools like this or Jupyter Notebooks were around when I first started studying CS in school. Mixing notes and code is such an interesting use-case.

<comment><USER2> Knuth has been doing literate programming for 35+ years [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming)

I have really enjoyed Observable as a literate programming platform though. Being able to mix text, diagrams, data tables, multimedia output, interactive inputs, easily modified subroutine implementations, imports of external data and subroutine libraries, ... makes for a very expressive and reader-friendly (albeit with a bit of reading learning curve) platform for writing interactive documents and for doing research.

For example, here's a recent relatively literate-programming style notebook of mine (this one was mostly done in an afternoon for fun as a way of procrastinating from other work, not as a research project), [https://observablehq.com/@jrus/munsell- spin](https://observablehq.com/@jrus/munsell-spin)

It's very low-friction to set up a new notebook and just start writing, or to open an existing draft notebook and work on it. I have found this to be extremely helpful in the past year or two trying to work during my 2-year- old's nap time.

Pen and paper and Observable notebooks are the two most important tools of my recent research efforts.

<comment><USER19> > _Knuth has been doing literate programming for 35 years_

I shouldn't be surprised, that man had a lot going on. Just TeX and Big-O notation alone would be enough to permanently enshrine him in the CS heap of fame, but the hits don't stop there!

Kinda funny how much just one guy could affect research.

<comment><USER20> That's not true, big-O notation (also called Landau symbols) was used as early as 1894 by Paul Bachmann ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation))

<comment><USER21> According to that Wikipedia article, Knuth popularized the notation in computer science, which might be what the comment to which you replied is referencing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The title is a bit click-baity since I don't think anyone would think Observable would run javascript as if it were in editable <script> tags in a html document. But this is what most of the points try to explain: that there is a framework around the js it runs (so errors don't leak to other blocks (cells)), some types of imports are not supported since they are not needed, etc.

Not saying Observable isn't great, just pointing out that it is javascript - other languages have playgrounds as well.

<comment><USER23> JavaScript is the runtime executing it yes... but if you write C code and transpile it using Wasm you are confusing people if you say that what you wrote initially is not C code; so for the sake of comprehension (what language was created for) it is indeed "not JavaScript" but a new word we can agree to use to make it clear what plataform we are talking about: Observable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is insanely cool - I didn't know an implicit DAG notebook was on the market already.

<comment><USER25> Is it acyclic? Can you make cycles of cell changes?

<comment><USER12> By default it is acyclic: any circular definitions will thrown an error. (I added an example to the notebook.) But you can opt-in to circular relationships using mutables or side-effects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I get blank page without running javascript. Not observable.

<comment><USER27> It is a project about highly interactive content on the web. That does require JavaScript.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is off-topic, but Observable's layout code seems to have some kind of rounding issue. The farther I scroll down the page, the more the sections overlap: [https://i.imgur.com/zuYh3j4.png](https://i.imgur.com/zuYh3j4.png)

It's a very gradual progression into that. Running Chrome Version 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit) on Ubuntu 18.04.

</comment><comment><USER29> The demo notebook at [https://observablehq.com/demo](https://observablehq.com/demo) works on Safari 11.1.2 but at this link I just see a JSON object starting `{"@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@type": "Article",...`.

</comment><comment><USER30> I somehow didn't realize the article itself was a notebook until I got to the bottom. I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, and whether it says more about me or observable. The whole thing is way impressive though.

<comment><USER31> I figured out it was a notebook when it just showed a blank page in the first two browsers I tried to read it in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> You know what would be nice, in a scifi universe? Being able to hover over HN links and get a short context for the topic.

E.g. "Observable is a <something something> used for <something something>. Since the language used in its <something something> appears similar to JavaScript, they put together a blog post clarifying the differences."

It would be great if the HN submissions form had a field you could optionally fill out with such a text. Because if you can't tell from my example above, I have _no idea_ what this is.

</comment><comment><USER33> The site CSS is broken: [https://emil.fi/m/2019-06-15_13-17-36_siU3iwbN.png](https://emil.fi/m/2019-06-15_13-17-36_siU3iwbN.png)

</comment><comment><USER34> I thought this would be referring to the Observable ie Observer/Subscriber pattern as a primitive in JavaScript, of which RxJS (Reactive Extensions) is the best known implementation followed closely by MobX. I like this project quite a bit, but it is unfortunately named.

It feels kinda like naming your project "Array map for JavaScript."

<comment><USER35> Come on, RxJS stole that (and "reactive") terms from prior work, which was arguably more interesting for anyone except web developers. So we can keep passing the blame about who steals SEO from who...

<comment><USER34> To be clear, I was only quoting RxJS as the most popular implementation in js for the Observable primitive. This has nothing to do with the Observable primitive. My complaint isn't that this steals SEO, it's that this becomes less searchable because any search for "Observable JavaScript" is going to turn up RxJS/MobX or one of the other libraries that implement Observable primitive types.

Edit: with regard to ReactiveX...well yeah. But it's nice that it's implemented in so many languages! (Not just RxJS) [http://reactivex.io/languages.html](http://reactivex.io/languages.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> This product is very confusing. What is a "magic notebook" and why do I need one?

I wish companies like these would just explain their product in simple language like a normal person.

<comment><USER2> You might enjoy one of these as a starting place:

[https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/five-minute- introduct...](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/five-minute-introduction)

[https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/introduction-to- noteb...](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/introduction-to-notebooks)

[https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/why- observable](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/why-observable)

<comment><USER36> Thanks, those are good articles :)

This is what should be on the homepage!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Click-bait title, it's not what you think, not about RxJS Observable, but some company/product.

</comment><comment><USER38> IMHO call it something other Observable? Observables in JavaScript and development are something else, only reason I clicked the headline is due to the confusion, and I'm slighly upset and baseline hostile to the product. This hostility is probably because I suspect the confusing name is intentionally confusing.

<comment><USER39> No need to assume malice, other human foibles like attribution bias and hubris nicely explain the horrific idea of calling your language/tool/project 'Observable'.

I, for one, am irritated by the name and hope they either change it or that the project fades. Things are confusing enough without this kind of nonsense. Yes, I get that each cell in a spreadsheet is observing its neigbors. Yes, it's nice that you can "observe" your code auto updating. Yes it's nice that people are trying to improve upon spreadsheets as a programming model. Don't be purposely obtuse right out of the gate by naming your project after a widely used pattern, tool or technique. Call it Cells or Panopticon or something. Please.

In other news, check out my new web framework, called MVC.

<comment><USER2> Is this really that common a term in computer programming? I can't say I see it used with any regularity. Maybe it's a common term in some specific programming subcultures? Apparently it's a deprecated Java class, [https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/api/java.base...](https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/api/java.base/java/util/Observable.html) and something in RxJS (which I had never heard of before doing a web search just now) [https://www.learnrxjs.io/concepts/rxjs- primer.html](https://www.learnrxjs.io/concepts/rxjs-primer.html)

The term "observable" used as a noun in a programming context seems to me very clunky and vague. YMMV.

I am much more familiar with the term "observable" in physics. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable)

<comment><USER40> The Java class and many other occurrences grew out of the name of the Observer/Observable design pattern[1] in the "Gang of Four" "Design Patterns" book.[2]

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

2\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns)

<comment><USER2> The Go4 call this a "Subject" rather than an "Observable". As far as I can tell the only occurrence of the word "observable" in the Go4 book is:

> _Other user interface toolkits that employ this [Observer] pattern are > InterViews [LVC89], the Andrew Toolkit [P+88], and Unidraw [VL90]. > InterViews defines Observer and Observable (for subjects) classes > explicitly. Andrew calls them "view" and "data object," respectively. > Unidraw splits graphical editor objects into View (for observers) and > Subject parts._</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Batch Normalization for deep networks - <AUTHOR> http://rohanvarma.me/Batch-Norm/ <comment><USER2> This paper might be interesting regarding this post.

'Batch Normalization for Improved DNN Performance, My Ass' [http://nyus.joshuawise.com/batchnorm.pdf](http://nyus.joshuawise.com/batchnorm.pdf)

<comment><USER3> That made me chuckle. So true. Thanks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A couple of things: 1\. How can activations be below 0 in a ReLU network? It seems like:

> h_out = z * (z > 0)

is the line that you're using to store activations. How can that be below 0 for any values of z?

EDIT: Whups, missed that he was storing the output of activations + batchnorm. I think it would make more sense to just store the output of the activations. The goal here is to show that batch norm provides good properties throughout the entire network. In this case, you're storing h_out/std(h_out). Which is trivially normalizing your layers to have the same variance.

2\. Using initialization distributions to motivate batch norm is a little bit misleading. Prior to batch norm, people had realized that initializing uniformly was a problem, and had switched to using xavier initialization (specifically, a follow up by Kaiming He found the initialization that works best for ReLU).

I do think that the intuition for why both make sense are fairly similar. Although xavier initialization fixes the variances initially, batch norm allows you to maintain it through training.

Another thing that's cool about your post is that my intuition was that xavier initialization was not necessary if one was also using batch norm. It's cool to see that vindicated.

<comment><USER5> also there are 'leaking' ReLUs

f(x) = a if x<0 else b

usually 0 < a << b

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually think the idea of using leaky ReLUs is interesting, because it'll still provide a small gradient when x < 0, which perhaps may slightly alleviate the vanishing gradients issue</comment></comment></comment>


Obama Calls For $9 Minimum Wage - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-calls-for-9-minimum-wage-2013-2

<comment><AUTHOR> this would bankrupt most local stores overnight.

<comment><USER2> The minimum wage for Washington state is $9.19.

<http://www.lni.wa.gov/workplacerights/wages/minimum/></comment></comment>


How to get your email newsletter out of promotions tab to primary in Gmail - <AUTHOR> http://www.7loops.com/get-email-out-of-promotions-tab-gmail-land-primary-tab/ <comment><USER2> "Off course click through and conversion rates don't increase as much as open rates but increases from 20% to 50% are normal, and that's a lot."

Or in other words, this methodology STUFFS SPAM into people's main inboxes. DIAF, "email marketers".

<comment><AUTHOR> I am talking about people who actually subscribed to the newsletter. If you don't like to read that kind of emails you can always unsubscribe. I would actually prefer if people not reading the newsletter unsubscribed from it so I can send it only to people who would like to read it and lower my costs.</comment></comment>


CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta Looks @ 5 Hour Energy Drinks (Video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/07/15/cb.hole.plane.cnn

<comment><USER2> This is the correct link: [http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/07/15/am.gupta....](http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/07/15/am.gupta.energy.drinks.cnn?iref=videosearch)

</comment><comment><USER3> the link doesn't work, click on the health news section of the videos then the first one is the clip</comment>


Probability and Risk in the Real World [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50282823/chaptersprobability.pdf

<comment><USER2> GMO risk

Taleb: _" Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs. Top-down modifications to the system (through GMOs) are categorically and statistically different from bottom up ones (regular farming, progressive tinkering with crops, etc.) To borrow from Rupert Read, there is no comparison between the tinkering of selective breeding and the top-down engineering of taking a gene from a fish and putting it into a tomato. Saying that such a product is natural misses the statistical process by which things become "natural".

What people miss is that the modification of crops impacts everyone and exports the error from the local to the global. I do not wish to pay —or have my descendants pay — for errors by executives of Monsanto. We should exert the precautionary principle there —our non-naive version — simply because we would discover errors after considerable damage."_

[http://blog.longnow.org/02013/07/08/the-artangel- longplayer-...](http://blog.longnow.org/02013/07/08/the-artangel-longplayer- letters-nassim-taleb-writes-to-stewart-brand/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Crank science time!

What I think he is doing, he is basically taking his philosophical musings, finds concepts from very high level mathematics that seem corresponding, buries it all under a mountain of formalism introduced for no particular reason and then... does absolutely nothing with it. He will plug in some numbers or show some trivial (except for the mountain of formalism) inequality as a supposed mathematical "proof" of his revelations. I don't think he himself understands the mathematics he attempts to write about.

If you would like, for a change, to look at a "probability in the real world" book that would make any actual sense, and by someone who has used probability theory successfully in practice, have a look at "The Art of Probability" by Richard Hamming, the inventor of coding theory. He treats things like robustness of models to violation of assumptions that are not often found in other books, and he uses only calculus, although as opposed to Mr Taleb he actually is able to do derivations.

<comment><USER4> He got his PhD in the pricing of derivatives, and wrote the book Dynamic Hedging almost 20 years ago, far before he started with his so called "philosophical musings".

If you are gonna criticize someone, it would be better to criticize something that person has said rather than calling him a crank.

That aside, the book you posted seems interesting indeed.

[http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Hedging-Managing-Vanilla- Optio...](http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Hedging-Managing-Vanilla- Options/dp/0471152803/)

<comment><USER3> The thing with cranks is that there is really nothing to criticize, the words just don't make any sense - terminology is misused or invented and not explained, formalism is introduced without apparent reason, established best practices for communication are not followed (like stating your objectives and conclusions from your work) and so forth. I mean, what the hell is this supposed to mean I can't even imagine:

 _Definition 1.

A rule is a decision-making heuristic that operates under a broad set of circumstances. Unlike a theorem, which depends on a specific (and closed) set of assumptions, it holds across a broad range of environments which is precisely the point. In that sense it is stronger than a theorem for decision- making._

This is outright nonsense, if he doesn't understand what a theorem is, how can he possibly understand Lebesgue integration and functional analysis?

<comment><USER4> His attitude on academica and proofs are different from most contemporary researchers/scholars, something that he has talked about extensively in his books and other writings. Being well-read in the classics and spending a lot of his time on the trade floor probably has something to do with it. As hackers I think this attitude isn't that far off, when it comes to the hacker/compsci "divide".

While I see your point about the quote, I think his intent of the definition is very clear. If you are curious and want to know what he means by something, he's very active on both facebook and twitter.

As a specific example, you have probably heard of the saying "premature optimization is the root of all evil". This is a rule which holds in pretty much any domain. It's obviously not a theorem, but you can still talk about the _payoff_ of the rule. This is what Taleb means when he says "probability in the real world" \- it's all about payoffs and consequences.

<comment><USER5> I haven't read the book, but your justifications here send up as many red flags as the quote you are addressing. First, a proof is either valid or it is not. You cannot have a "different view" on this. Second, there is no hacker/compsci divide. Terms like 'the real world' are used solely to demean the work of another person and offer nothing useful.

Your example is especially frightening. You cannot build proofs on weak rules- of-thumb. In fact, it is difficult to even quantify values surrounding heuristics like the one you give. There simply is no valid data.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In the stock market, probability theory is (mis)used to model the typical random behavior of the market, as Nassim Taleb as seen many times. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%E2%80%93Scholes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%E2%80%93Scholes) [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17866646](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17866646)

frequentist probability seems like an okay tool for the stock market, but these who knows if the motion of stocks are correctly separated into "drift" and "noise" by Ito processes or whatever model they choose

Rare events - "risk" \- can and will occur if we leave a process running sufficiently long, and sooner than we predict. This is Taleb's "Black Swan".

Game-theoretic strategies seem better here, playing stocks off each other accounting for the "black swan" as much as we can.

</comment><comment><USER2> taleb: "New link (Dropbox had too much traffic) "

[http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/chaptersprobability.pdf](http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/chaptersprobability.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER7> New url for those getting 404 : [http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/chaptersprobability.pdf](http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/chaptersprobability.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER2> Nassim Nicholas Taleb : "comments are welcome on the aesthetics of this LaTeX formatted technical companion (available for free). The book is half converted."

[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1015172601...](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151726010213375&id=13012333374)

</comment><comment><USER8> getting a 404.

<comment><USER2> taleb: "New link (Dropbox had too much traffic) "

[http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/chaptersprobability.pdf](http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/chaptersprobability.pdf) reply</comment></comment>