How an explorer of the South Pole did his employee recruiting - <AUTHOR> http://mathoda.com/archives/471 <comment><USER2> More interesting, I think, is the story of how they got themselves out of there after their boat was crushed in the pack ice. Utterly incredible. Navigators still regard their voyage and successful navigation to South Georgia island as practically supernatural. They traveled for 800 miles in the most hazardous south seas with scarcely any light in terrible weather. They were only able to make three readings. But they got right there.

"Most unfavourable conditions for observations. Misty with boat jumping like a flea and no limb for early am sight. Noon lat probably correct within a 10m limit."

\-- Navigator's log.

<comment><USER3> That is great stuff, but I favor Amundsen. For one thing he beat everyone to the Pole. His clearer thinking meant success and less suffering as a bonus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Compare that to the way companies like Google coddle their people.

Ever notice how founders and early hires push themselves to the brink with no regard for comfort. And then, after they make it, they change their culture and encourage fancy lunches, massages, etc?

Is that why mighty companies start languishing?

</comment><comment><USER5> "Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all- nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just for you :-)

As I mentioned a month(?) ago, I'm working on a free version of a minix- lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage where it's even usable (though may not be depending on what you want), and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution..." - Linus Torvalds

</comment><comment><USER6> Which ad is your startup putting out?

Wanted. People (realistically, mostly men, but we live in enlightened times so we cloak reality in rhetoric) for programming. Low wages. Long hours, many in darkness, illuminated primarily by monitors. Maintenance of social life and health doubtful. Success extraordinarily unlikely. Riches beyond your wildest dreams in event of success.

 _or_

Wanted. People who make things people pay for. Hours are not really remarkable. Engineering challenges are not really remarkable. Success is by no means assured but it is pretty likely. In the event of success, you'll do quite well but the honor and accolades will go to the one of the guys answering the other ad.

I kind of like ad #2 myself...

<comment><USER7>
       Luke: Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be...
       Han Solo: What?
       Luke: Well, more wealth than you can imagine!
       Han Solo: I don't know, I can *imagine* quite a bit.

Do you really think startups are the road to "riches beyond your wildest dreams"? Most of them get sold for finite amounts of cash, last time I checked. Typically, even key employees just get a few tens of thousands of dollars, and a stack of options that might be underwater before you exercise.

Becoming a millionaire is of course possible, but that barely gets you a down payment on a nice house in the Bay Area. This is very imaginable wealth.

You want to experience unimaginable wealth? Take a few thousand in savings and live in Laos for a while. Your wealth will literally be unimaginable to most of the natives you meet.

<comment><USER8> Excellent point about Laos. That place is amazing. A subway-sized sandwich for $1 on the street. People who spontaneously smile at you on the street. Beautiful nature all around you. Not only good for the pocketbook, but the psyche as well.

I burnt out working in China, saved money by teaching SAT prep in Beijing and then fully recovered my senses in Lao.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Doubtful it was the London Times, and probably entirely apocryphal: <http://www.antarctic-circle.org/advert.htm>

</comment><comment><USER10> Shackleton .. truly legendary.

For those who haven't read about his story: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans- Antarctic_Expedi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans- Antarctic_Expedition)

.. amazing stuff.

</comment><comment><USER11> Very interesting posts about the digital presidency - dig on his site.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! They got written about in the NY Times :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> A sure way of seperating the boys from the men.

<comment><USER13> Or at least suicidal (adventurous?) men from the others.</comment></comment>


Hashtag Finder - <AUTHOR> http://hashtagfinder.yomachi.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, 3 years ago I started taking some macro nature photos to put on Instagram. I noticed that there were many different types of hashtags out there and it was time consuming to try and find them and check if they are suitable for your photo. That's why I made Hashtag Finder. Along the way I discovered some hashtags work better than others and that when you post onto a hashtag matters. That's how I came up with what I think are two very unique and useful features: Hashtag Engagement Scores and the Best Times Graph which is a graph showing you the optimal times to post based on your hashtag set. I did some experiments to test the effectiveness of these features and you can check the results at [http://hashtagfinder.yomachi.com/](http://hashtagfinder.yomachi.com/). One photo with bad hashtags only got 13 impressions. That same photo posted using hashtags with a high engagement score received 616 impressions. When it was posted with those same hashtags at the peak time of day from the Best Times Graph it received 1041 impressions.

I hope Hashtag Finder will help you make rewarding and genuine connections through Instagram.</comment>


Facebook Bug That Made Mark Zuckerburg Quit His Job at Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://www.secinfinity.net/facebook-bug-that-made-mark-zuckerburg-quit-his-job-at-facebook/ <comment><USER2> I was really hoping this was the untold story of Mark introducing a bug so bad that the rest of the team made him to stop coding.

<comment><USER3> I was really hoping for something intelligible. I couldn't get past the second paragraph. Is the blog new or was it on hiatus for a year? Does he usually blog about technicalities? "me and my colleague," "write write-ups," "Bug Bounty Bugs."</comment></comment>


Mozilla unveils 'aggressive' Firefox OS schedule - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/07/20/mozilla-unveils-aggressive-firefox-os-schedule-quarterly-feature-releases-security-updates-every-six-weeks/

<comment><USER2> So will all users be able to update to the latest Firefox OS as soon as it comes out, or will there be carrier or manufacturer interference?

<comment><USER3> Partners (carriers, or whoever supports the phone, e.g. geeksphone) provides the updates, in all cases I have seen so far (Spain and Poland are the only places that have launched AFAIK). Anyone can root their phone and install the latest of course (assuming this is legal where you live and not breaking the terms of contracts you agreed to etc)

I have a geeksphone and they provide a nightly channel, or I can root the phone and install my own image - I use a T-Mobile pre-paid SIM, but could switch to any carrier the hardware supports, who will let me use their network. If you buy hardware under contract or some other conditions from a carrier, I imagine things will be different. I am not a lawyer (if it's not obvious already), I work for Mozilla but don't work with partners or have any special knowledge of this :)

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, in order to use trademarks like Firefox OS and logos etc. you must meet Mozilla's terms. I don't know if these agreements are public or just between Mozilla and their partner, all I can find from a quick search is [https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/partners/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/partners/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This would go a long way to preventing a problem like Android's "fragmentation" assuming that it extended to the device firmware level.

Mozilla's strategy along with their partners in this project seems to be to target middle-end devices and carriers, and create a consistent and supportable target platform that won't suffer from the effects of premature obsolescence as quickly as the latest Android devices pushed by the major carriers.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't see this working out in the long term. Unlike Firefox, which auto updates on it's own, these Firefox OS updates will be provided to partners, meaning it's up to handset manufacturers to push them out. I'm skeptical that we'll see these updates every 6 months, let alone six weeks.

<comment><USER6> A typical Android update will change the drivers and other low level stuff. My understanding is that a Firefox OS update will typically change only the upper layers: Gecko and Gaia. That should hopefully reduce the amount of testing necessary to push a release.

In any case, it seems unlikely that Mozilla would simply announce this without any consultation with their hardware partners. They're in a much better position to know what's possible than you or I!

<comment><USER5> We've seen a similar promise from Google at I/O 2011 about Android OS updates:

> [W]e're jointly announcing that new devices from participating partners will > receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device > is first released, as long as the hardware allows ... and that's just the > beginning. [1]

The announced partners were Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola and AT&T. Since then, many have broken that promise[2]. Three of them (Sprint, T-Mobile, and LG) are now Firefox OS partners. I'm just skeptical that this time will be any different.

[1] [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/android-momentum- mobi...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/android-momentum-mobile-and- more-at.html)

[2] [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/what-happened-to- the-...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/what-happened-to-the-android- update-alliance/)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a legitimate concern.

As part of the licensing agreement to be called a "Firefox OS phone" I believe carriers must provide updates for a certain amount of time. For how long, I do not know. If the duration is public knowledge, I do not know. If partners will actually follow through, well... the articles you linked to paint a bleak picture. Of course, since our entire OS is open source, they can just use it on their own, and never release a single update, as long as they don't brand it a "Firefox OS phone."

I'm prototyping an add on right now that would detect a connected device, download updated pre-compiled images of the layers (gonk, gecko, gaia) and allow you to update them (if I verified that the update worked on your device beforehand, to make sure you wouldn't end up bricking your phone). Just trying to raise awareness within the org right now to get a green light to work on this more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm somehow reminded of the feeling I get every time I log on to my PC and see this in the task bar alert message: "A new version of Java is available..."

<comment><USER8> That wouldn't be so bad if the stupid downloader actually worked.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm not convinced this policy is wise or helpful.

In the past couple of years, we've had major upgrades pushed out to three types of mobile device here. Moving to iOS6 infamously broke things like maps. The Android update from Samsung lost numerous settings and required more than an hour just to reconfigure things back to roughly how they were, in exchange for exactly no useful change in functionality for us. And the Windows Phone one... Well, I can't tell you what it did, because it was pushed within a day of connecting the new phone to the network, completely bricked the device, and resulted in the whole thing going back and being replaced by something completely different.

Move fast and break things rarely seems to work out well for users in practice, but it's a particularly dumb idea for the core functionality of a critical piece of equipment. Modern mobile devices are very much in that category for the individuals using them.

As an added potential issue here, there is a question of how much integration with/control of the underlying transmit/receive functions the Firefox OS code would have and whether that underlying code would be affected at all by this kind of update. I would hope the answer is that the key hardware control functions are completely isolated, but if the design is poorly engineered then you also have a real risk of a bad mass update literally bringing down a national network for everyone. When these devices are how people call 911 or the local equivalent, that is obviously not a good idea.

<comment><USER10> How long have you been using Firefox OS? Also, which major software company doesn't upgrade often?

<comment><USER9> _Also, which major software company doesn 't upgrade often?_

If you're talking about core infrastructure (operating systems, servers, etc.) used by serious businesses then the answer is pretty much all of them are much slower-paced. Look at how often Microsoft releases a service pack or new version of Windows, or Debian changes stable, or Postgres bumps the minor version. These things happen every year or two, not every month or two. Even Android, to the extent that it has any meaningful version numbering or naming at all, only tends to push out a major release or two per year, and in practice people's mobile devices don't get updated that often by their networks and many phones never get a major update within their normal lifetime.

Of course many developers issue point releases with security patches and important bug fixes more frequently, but changing functionality every few weeks in infrastructure software just seems crazy to me. It doesn't work well in Firefox-the-browser, so why would we expect it to work any better in Firefox-the-operating-system?</comment></comment></comment>


Become a blockchain-secured space farmer with your hard drive - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/23/storj_labs_open_source_cloud_storage/ <comment><AUTHOR> That seems quite generous if you've spare disks and plenty of spare bandwidth.</comment>


Tesla factory operates at 1/4 workforce after negotiation with Sheriff's Office - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/tesla-fremont-factory-stays-open-coronavirus-sheriff <comment><USER2> Tesla needs 2500 employees to support basic minimum operations like payroll and security? That's laughable.

I'm not sure who I'm more annoyed with, the county officials for allowing this farce, or Elon for exacerbating a public health hazard.</comment>


Facebook letting you download your information. NOT. - <AUTHOR> http://cyberfart.blogspot.com/2011/07/facebook-letting-you-download-your.html

<comment><USER2> Flagged because of title. (Also article itself is extremely limited and contains little content).

"Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or adding a parenthetical remark saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important."

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html></comment>


Open letter on why Camera Bits doesn't release an iPad version of Photo Mechanic - <AUTHOR> http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-10052-10708

<comment><USER2> " _From what we can surmise, the iPad is meant for the consumption of media, not the production of media content._ "

<comment><USER3> It's worse than that. It's meant for the consumption of media _that Apple sells/approves_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Some reasons he listed are real technical limitations e.g. difficulty in manipulating large images due to RAM shortage. But such problems will not automatically go away just by moving to Android. i.e. they are specific to the problem domain, and not the device itself.

</comment><comment><USER5> I am reminded of the maxim "If you're not embarrassed by your first release, you released too late."</comment>


How to become super, super wealthy - <AUTHOR> http://www.roletroll.com/blog/how-to-become-super-super-wealthy/ <comment><USER2> How in the world do you justify linking to a blog-post of precisely 135 words, 101 of which are quotation, the entirety of which was lifted from a recent CNN (opinion) article?

This is insulting. Hacker News is not just another place for you to post your practically-plagiarized, "content-aggregating" garbage for a couple meager cents from advertising.

(Your "12 Life Lessons from Trading" was a much better article, even though it's similar plagiarized copypasta.)</comment>


Two aid workers infected with the Ebola virus have been discharged from hospital - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28885753 <comment><USER2> I wonder if Brantly has now immunity or resistance and can help fight the disease without worry of reinfection. How does that work? Can you be reinfected with ebola if you survive?

<comment><USER3> I don't remember which newspaper I read this in (I believe New York Times?) but apparently there are ~5 known varieties of Ebola, and recovering from an infection only grants immunity to that one variety.

So, in general, no, but if this outbreak involves only one strain they might be immune to that particular one.

<comment><USER4> According to the blood samples on 20 patients throughout West Africa, the current outbreak is a new strain. It is closely related to Ebola Zaire, but appears to have involved a different trans-species transmission event than the Zaire strain.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> More info on ZMapp, the experimental serum both patients were given: [http://mashable.com/2014/08/17/ebola-serum- zmapp/](http://mashable.com/2014/08/17/ebola-serum-zmapp/)

Also, this would make a great movie.

</comment><comment><USER6> Heroes.

<comment><USER7> I'm curious why you think that. Or did you mean the doctors that helped save them?

<comment><USER8> If he was a doctor in AIDS ward, and got infected with HIV while caring for other sick patients, wouldn't he be considered a hero? He is a missionary doctor oversea, working in some of the poorest countries in the world, clearly not doing for the money. Believe it or not, people have been called heroes for doing a lot less than that.

<comment><USER9> > If he was a doctor in AIDS ward, and got infected with HIV while caring for > other sick patients, wouldn't he be considered a hero?

Why is contraction of the virus implied as a necessary condition for being a hero? Clearly the heroic act is the treatement of others; that the hypothetical AIDS doctor or these ebola doctors contracted the disease they were treating in others should not be a necessary condition for considering them heroes.

<comment><USER10> It isn't; it's the risk of doing so that one willingly runs which makes one a hero. Since we don't see these peole at work the fact of contracting it is an indirect proof of hands-on activity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I just can't reconcile that a man of science (Brantly) credits magic ("God") for his recovery! Don't you get cognitive dissonance dude?

<comment><USER12> please note that when many people credit God they do not necessarily do for the act of curing them but for allowing them to be cured.

<comment><USER13> There are a million things that had to go right for him to take the drug (no transportation problems, no attack, hospital didn't catch on fire, medicine didn't get compromised) science and Man control none of them. So it makes since that he thanked God.

<comment><USER14> Don't forget getting ebola in the first place!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is this just poor writing, or poor representation of the science? This article contradicts itself.

> said in a statement that she was free of the virus but was significantly > weakened.

> There is no cure for Ebola, ...

> But both Dr Brantly and Mrs Writebol received an experimental treatment > known as ZMapp.

> ...it remains unclear if [ZMapp] is responsible for their recovery.

Is the virus in remission, or has it been eradicated from Writebol? If there is no cure, then it cannot have been eradicated. Maybe there's no _proven_ cure, in the sense of full medical trials?

In the 'poor writing' department (but unrelated to the above), the article also doesn't tell us who Franklin Graham is. This appears to be the only reference to the name:

> ...Franklin Graham said in a statement.

<comment><USER16> There is not cure for Ebola like there is for other diseases. Ebola is a acute infection, meaning that if the body can fight it off, it leaves the body. Think of it like influenza. There is no cure, but once you get over it, there is no more influenza virus in your system.

They were given ZMapp, but they can't tell if that worked or not. Perhaps they would have overcome their illness without it.

They likely didn't say that the male was free of the virus because it has been shown that Ebola can be transmitted through semen of men for up to 7 weeks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've been wondering about treating ebola with iodine. It's antimicrobial and antiviral. The Red Cross uses it to clean the skin before taking blood donations because it is superior to alcohol for cleaning. It is also useful to promote healing, among many other things (It seem to be helpful to the mitochondria which means wide-ranging benefit). But just due to the use for cleaning, and the aid in healing, I wonder if a few drops of Lugol's solution in a glass of water several times a day would help an ebola patient. That would hit right in the gut where the infection goes wild and does the most damage.

<comment><USER18> The iodine used in cleaning skin causes all kinds of internal damage if ingested. See [http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural- health/symptoms-o...](http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural- health/symptoms-of-iodine-overdose/)

<comment><USER17> I'm not advocating concentrated iodine. A few drops of Lugol's mixed in a glass of water isn't going to damage anything - lots of people take that exact amount on a regular basis. We could argue about long term effects of that, but I'm talking about doing it for a week or two to help with something that is killing half the people it infects.

Where is the guy with iodine user id when you need them?</comment></comment></comment>


The percentage of Americans who are employed has fallen from 61 to 51 - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/half-us-population-unemployed-341ba30c-777e-4ba2-bccf-d2274b2770f0.html <comment><USER2> Why do people focus on aggregate unemployment metrics so much? A $10/hr job with no benefits is tremendously different than a $60K/yr job with health care. The former is not a living wage. Yet both are just "jobs" \-- what does that word even imply in 2020? Even worse are "job creation numbers", proudly brought to you by Aunt Mary who works three minimum wage jobs.

Is "employing" XX% of your population in virtual indentured servitude supposed to be something politicians are proud of?

<comment><USER3> Someone with a full-time job making $10 an hour (1) makes about the same minimum wage as France; (2) is either eligible for Medicaid or pays $67/month for healthcare through an ACA exchange; (3) pays almost nothing in taxes. It's definitely a livable salary for a young person in a low cost of living area. (Half of people who make under $10 an hour are 18-30.)

Where I live, an hour outside DC and maybe 30 minutes to Baltimore, you can get a 2BR apartment in a _nice_ new building for $1,000 per month. Share that with someone, and a person making $1,500 is spending the recommended 1/3 on rent. $67/month for healthcare on an ACA silver plan, and that leaves $900/month, which is totally doable for a single person, or better yet each half of a young married couple. And frankly, around here you'd get $15/hour just working checkout. In places that have a significant number of $10/hour jobs, rent is something you spend a few hundred a month on. You can eat at a sit down place for under $10.

<comment><USER4> An ACA silver plan means you have a $4500 deductible. You will NEVER go to a doctor. You will also not have sick leave, and if you don't show up for your randomly timed work shift you will be fired. Thats if you get hours in the first place.

So you pay your $500 for rent. Add 150 for utilities. Add 200 for gas and 50 for car insurance since you're gonna be living in a rural place. Thats 900 for a roof and ability to pay for it.

Now you have $600 a month for food and literally any other expense. Say you never eat out and use staples like rice and beans as the basis for every dish, thats $250 a month (maybe you can squeeze out another $50, but one must have a slight bit of slack for say, a single gallon of ice cream per month). $350 for everything else. Entertainment. A gym membership. Your medical deductible. Your sanity.

<comment><USER5> Almost 4 litres of ice cream per month? Every month? And someone wonders why there are so many type 2 diabetes cases...

<comment><USER6> 1 gallon/month is 1 scoop of ice cream each on 5 or 6 days per week, or on average about 12–15 grams of sugar per day. It's about the same amount of sugar you'd get from drinking one 12 oz can of soda every third day.

If it's the only sugary treat someone is eating, that's still well below average for people in most industrialized countries. If combined with soda/candy/cake/cookies/cocktails/... then probably not such a good idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In broad terms, USA is largely funded by global economy. This is done by setting US$ as master currency, so in effect, America's biggest export is dollar that gets consumed by rest of the world. When Fed prints out $6T, the inflation transfers to rest of the world and little to US. The ownership of US$ allows Americans to buy expensive goods manufactured by labor and materials in rest of the world by merely manufacturing currency as primary export.

I think it is possible that in future, Americans don't have to work and rely completely on their export of US$ as world currency. The global currency must be protected military might and a constitution that allows for fairness, justice and ability to challenge authority. This is necessary for the trust and stability in global economics. The country owning the global currency would also need to setup military restrictions so that other countries may not be allowed to match military power. All this might look bad but it is truly an economic service that is needed to be provided by _someone_. US citizens job is then to protect constitution, military powers and the currency. For that job, they get goods and services from rest of the world. As merely 5% of population is engaged in providing this economic service, it is probably not an inefficient either.

<comment><USER2> > The global currency must be protected military might

At the current state of geopolitics, this is basically calling for WW3 in the next decade. US economic hegemony is on super shaky ground right now.

<comment><USER8> I'd be curious what geopolitical framework/elements/theory of power you're basing your analysis on.

<comment><USER2> Thesis: US global power will continue to wane as long as the domestic situation (socioeconomic, cultural, institutional) worsens and geopolitical multipolarity is established by China. And that's okay, time's up! As long as the US doesn't do something enormously stupid in retaliation.

It's not coming out of a textbook if that's what you're wondering.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My 18 year old son has been trying to get a job for 2 years, without success. All of the jobs that used to go to high schoolers are now going to adults who are working low end jobs to help make ends meet. And then the quarantine hit making it even harder to find work.

<comment><USER10> Has he explored working holiday opportunities in other countries, perhaps Australia or Europe? Not a solution to the employment situation in the US, but perhaps an improved chance of success.

<comment><USER11> > Has he explored working holiday opportunities in other countries, perhaps > Australia or Europe? Not a solution to the employment situation in the US, > but perhaps an improved chance of success.

Why are people downvoting this? Teenagers in EU and Australia routinely travel around the world for jobs. Once they grow up, they become excellent hires at "real" jobs because of skills gained at such jobs.

<comment><USER12> > Why are people downvoting this?

Probably due to the travel ban being imposed against people from the US by those places right now.

<comment><USER10> Travel bans aren't going to last forever.

<comment><USER13> The travel bans will last as long as it takes for the US to get their pandemic under control, and given the current (lack of any) progress towards that outcome "forever" might not be much of an exaggeration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wish we were talking more about how to support the jobless long term rather than focusing on the numbers as a signal of the apocalypse (yes, I'm being hyperbolic). Seems like an inevitability we'll have to deal with one way or another.

I'm a bit of a bumpkin so I'm not familiar with various labor theory and whatnot... but in the long run we should maybe have more people working, but working less overall.

<comment><USER15> A world where most people don't do productive labor is going to require multiple radical changes. We'll have to handle that eventually, but right this second we just don't have the social bandwidth to enact any more radical changes.

<comment><USER14> Is it radical for the richest country in the world to make sure people who are out of work don't get evicted when the extended pandemic benefits end this month?

It seems with the current political climate nothing radical can really happen at all, but there are pragmatic steps that can be taken to help ensure we can keep people fed and in their homes.

<comment><USER16> > America isn't the richest country in the world. It's a poor country with a > lot of rich people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The digit may sound stunning, and shocking, but it's not really that bad with a demographic profile of USA. USA is a relatively youthful nation.

[https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/labor-force- partic...](https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/labor-force- participation-rate)

Countries with older, more experienced workforce, usually have higher employment, and are less sensitive to shocks.

<comment><USER18> data at the link you posted claims that Slovakia had a 94% labor participation in March 2020.

I find that very hard to believe.

<comment><USER19> Data indeed is not reliable, growing up in that area, I can say Slovakia and Czech Republic have similar demographics and employment rates, while occupy very different places in the linked data source.

Here is a more reliable source from worldbank, claiming ~60% labor participation rate [1].

[1] [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.NE.ZS?locat...](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.NE.ZS?locations=SK)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> note that this counts minors, retirees, etc.

pre-covid, it was 61%, so we're down 10 points in 6 months.

Yikes.

<comment><USER21> 61 to 51 is huge

<comment><USER18> even so the title is greatly misleading as it makes it sound as if half of the population that would work cannot

<comment><USER22> Exactly. I can't understand why people don't just say the thing it is, especially a thing that's already bad. Wording it like this feels very dishonest / clickbaity.

<comment><USER23> > just say the thing it is

Well, 47.2% of the U.S. population does not have a job, and the headline was "Almost half of the U.S. population does not have a job" \- what are you objecting to?

(Note: that is the headline of the Axios article - I don't know what the old headline of the HN submission was.)

This does not mean that the unemployment rate is 52.8% - and that is not what the headline claims.

FWIW, all the main indicators show a massive spike:

* Employment-Population Ratio (discussed here) [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EMRATIO](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EMRATIO)

* Labor Force Participation Rate [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART)

* Unemployment Rate [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> How is the economy even functioning at this point? We have half of the country being unemployeed. I know that a lot of organizations are running on the bare minimum.. but this is extreme.

<comment><USER25> That everyone needs to keep working to keep the economy going isn't some law of physics. If the people producing agree to keep producing everyone can get what they need. Atleast in theory.

<comment><USER26> this is the important realization from this time. This whole thing is made up - we can organize society around a model that isn't based on forcing people to work a (many times useless) job in order to eat food and sleep somewhere.

<comment><USER25> You'd think that's obvious. But even with this pandemic making it almost crystal clear this seems too hard to accept for most people. Capitalism is almost a religion at this point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Yet the stock market is having a field day, I don't get it.

<comment><USER28> The Fed is printing money.

Err.. I mean, according to them, they are expanding the pool of money available, by buying out the junk bonds issued by corporate America. The same bonds from the cheap loans that they took out at super low interest rates, in order to buy back their shares, thus increasing their stock value, and enabling them to give millions of dollars in bonuses to their executives. While everyone else, gets an unpaid furloughed vacation and unemployment.

<comment><USER29> The Fed Reserve balance sheet is up about $2 trillion dollars due to COVID policy.

The Treasury has also spent about $2 trillion on jobs programs. About 70% of people on unemployment are currently getting _more_ money than they were earning while working.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Some fraction of this change is attributable to the $2 trillion CARES Act that pays workers $600 per week, contingent on them not working. I assume that the change would still be horrific if this effect is deducted, but that it isn't insignificant.

<comment><USER31> >the $2 trillion CARES Act that pays workers $600 per week, contingent on them not _having a job available to them_.

FTFY. Your original language implied the choice to work was up to the individual person. You can't stay on unemployment insurance if you were given the option to return to work and declined. Many people believe that part of the reason many governments were so quick to reopen in the US was because opening businesses allowed people to be kicked off unemployment insurance if they refused to return to work due to health concerns.

<comment><USER32> Of course there are jobs. They may not pay as much as they used to, and they may not even be in one's chosen field, but both of my companies are hiring full-time workers with benefits and all.

<comment><USER31> What is the point of having any unemployment insurance system if no consideration is made for what job a person had previously or is qualified to do versus what is currently available? Someone is always hiring. Should no one receive any benefits as long as there is an open job somewhere that they could potentially fill?

<comment><USER32> > Should no one receive any benefits as long as there is an open job somewhere > that they could potentially fill?

Yes? The point is to make sure people aren't starving, not to preserve their ego and satisfy the "This isn't why I got a college degree" crowd. Obviously there's a good bit of frictional unemployment, which is really what unemployment is designed to handle. That may go up a bit during times of economic stagnation or contraction, but unemployment isn't supposed to handle the "I was making X dollars before and can't maintain my lifestyle if I take a lower-paying job" sort of situation. In this sort of environment, most people will experience a significant reduction in quality of life, and probably should, as there are fewer goods and services being produced. I guess that doesn't win votes, though, so the politicians are out here telling people they shouldn't have to. And I'll get to have my retirement taken in taxes to pay for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Put another way, 1 out of 5 jobs disappeared overnight.

<comment><USER34> 10 out of 61 is 1 out of 6 (well, 6.1), not 1 out of 5. And it wasn't overnight.

<comment><USER35> Six months is pretty "overnight" for such a change.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> how does it compare to other countries? I really hate articles which claim some numbers without comparing with other countries and trend there

</comment><comment><USER37> Here's a calculation to consider. Would it be more expensive to subsidize the income of a $15/hr worker for a year, or treat them for a COVID infection? I've heard treating COVID patients can cost up to $40K in resources.

<comment><USER38> It might not be a good idea to put a dollar value on lives, but considering <1%-5% of cases require hospitalization the cost of subsidizing lower income workers is incredibly higher even at $40,000 a patient.

<comment><USER37> Wasn't trying to do that, but I see how my statement comes across that way. With something like UBI calibrated between $1-2K/mo, a worker could make the risk calculation themselves. Right now, low income workers don't have much of a choice, so are being forced to risk their health. UBI gives them an out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Most high income jobs in this country are performed by foreigners. I have data to prove this, scraped all of the top firms LinkedIn's. The labor force in the USA is way more hollow than this data even shows. It's harrowing to see how few American college graduates enter roles that have a bright future. I am currently working on a website to expose the reality of American employment.

Other factor here is the fed printing money to inflate financial assets, making the rich richer and driving up the housing market.

Ultra capitalist policies by the left and right to completely outsource American jobs.

The effects of all of these have not been realized yet. But they will. We're 15 years off from real crises when both the left and right middle class populations realize they've been had

<comment><USER40> > Most high income jobs in this country are performed by foreigners.

Citation? There are only about 3 million H1B visa holders in the US. The remaining ~120 million workers are citizens or immigrants in non-specialized work.

<comment><USER41> Commenter specified "high income jobs" of which only a small portion of the ~120 million qualifies.

<comment><USER40> 19% of US households are considered "high-income"[1]. H1B visas only account for ~2.5% of the workforce.

[1]: [https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/which- incom...](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/which-income-class- are-you.aspx)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> When you say "Americans", do you refer to US, North America or both Americas (North and South) ?

<comment><USER43> I'm pretty sure you know to what it refers and are just trying to make a point/start an argument. "American" is the only demonym of which I'm aware for a resident of the United States of America. Rarely (if ever) does someone require a demonym for residents of two continents, and I don't think I've ever heard someone use "American" to refer to a resident of "the Americas" outside of an irate non-American.

<comment><USER23> The article headline was more precise though ("Almost half of the U.S. population does not have a job"), so here editorialising made the headline worse in at least one respect.

<comment><USER43> The title was actually changed because a bunch of people thought it was sensationalized and sounded too close to a 51% unemployment rate (which isn't, "percentage of people without a job".) See here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23706562](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23706562)

<comment><USER23> Yes. The headline was changed for that reason, making it better in at least one respect (namely less confusing for people that do not know the distinction between unemployment rate and employment population ratio), and worse in at least one respect (replacing the specific "U.S. population" with the less precise "Americans"). As I said.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


EHarmony moves from SQL to MongoDB - <AUTHOR> http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/mongodb-powers-critical-eharmony-compatibility-application-processing-1-billion-matches-1820919.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> Given my experience with MongoDB over the last three years, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how they will use it for matching, since I've found the search and indexing pretty slow.

Perhaps they can leverage the auto sharding capabilities to fan out queries better? That's the only advantage I found with MongoDB over other DB systems.</comment>


Hey Carmakers: Please Stop Bullshitting About Self-Driving Cars - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedrive.com/opinion/12889/hey-carmakers-please-stop-bullshitting-about-self-driving-cars <comment><USER2> I completely fail to comprehend the tech worlds recent obsession with self- driving automobiles.

Do you realize that the consumers are not asking for this feature, by and large?

Let's focus on rolling out electric automobiles while our planet can still sustain biological life, can we please?

<comment><USER3> They like the distraction so they don't have to do actual future-proof improvements, like going all-electric with their cars. They'd much rather buy a component from Nvidia and claim their car now has a self-driving mode, than transition all future cars to being electric. That's why you also see them talk much more about the self-driving aspect.

<comment><USER4> What's not really mentioned so much. The real application is collision avoidance. There is the potential to reduce property damage, injury, and death substantially. The internet says the average annual insurance cost per driver is $900 a year. So over twenty years, $18000.

If a $3000 self-driving but really actually collision avoidance system can save you 2/3 on insurance then you win, saving $18000 - ($6000 + $3000) --> $9000/20 years total or $450 a year ($37/mo)

If you don't think those numbers are meaningful, multiply by 17 million cars sold per year and 218 million licensed drivers in the united states.</comment></comment></comment>


IPython notebook to play with Citi Bike data - <AUTHOR> https://www.wakari.io/sharing/bundle/paddy/citi_bike

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a very simplistic notebook. I just wanted to play with the data a bit. There are about 250 data points included in the bundle. I would love to see what else people will do with the data and notebook.

<comment><USER2> Where does the data come from? The "System Data" on the website doesn't have anything yet

<comment><AUTHOR> import json def bikes_available_for_set(stats): available_count = 0 for s in stats['stationBeanList']: available_count += s['availableBikes'] return available_count

def currently_available_bikes(): !curl <https://citibikenyc.com/stations/json> > latest.json stats = json.loads(open("latest.json").read()) available_count = bikes_available_for_set(stats) print "there are currently %r bikes in stations" % available_count currently_available_bikes()

That's the code block that I use to figure out how many bikes are currently available. I pull from stations/json url.

<comment><USER2> Thanks! This is awesome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> For others as confused as I was, Citibike is apparently a (NYC-based?) bicycle sharing service.

<http://citibikenyc.com>

<comment><USER4> Right, it's literally just rolling out as it's in beta at the moment and opens full time in June for non-year members. It's going to be some interesting data as it's NYC's first bike share program. Looking forward to some cool visualizations!</comment></comment>


Universe measured to 1% accuracy - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25663810 <comment><USER2> I really hope they mean 99% accuracy.

<comment><USER3> They mean +/\- 1% in terms of error.

That's really accurate considering we're talking about _the universe_.

<comment><USER4> wouldn't "discrepancy" be a more suitable term?

It's a question, I really don't know.</comment></comment></comment>


Cloud storage for Windows available anywhere - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/04/23/the-next-chapter-for-skydrive-personal-cloud-storage-for-windows-available-anywhere.aspx

<comment><USER2> I'm excited to see if they can pull this off. For me, the main dealbreaker has been clunkyness of sharing and concurrent editing. I've played with the new iPad and WP7 apps, and they are quite nice.</comment>


How I found two jobs using Twitter - <AUTHOR> https://www.hireart.com/blog/how-i-found-two-jobs-using-twitter/

<comment><USER2> I think it depends a lot on the company. I'm currently trying to get into an IT Ops position at Tesla Motors in Europe. I put my app through their HR workflow on their website, but I also found the hiring manager and other people I'd be working with on LinkedIn. Sent a personal message to them, etc, and was told I'd hear back from someone shortly. That was a week ago.

Researching the company, the people around the position, these are extremely helpful ways to get into an org. Its not always going to work though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Twitter (and GitHub) is how I, and many of my teammates, got our jobs at the company we work for. We've been hiring developers like this for years and it works.

</comment><comment><USER4> Haha, I love the story about getting the job at Shoptiques! It's brilliant. Just show up and meet the CEO...Nice.

</comment><comment><USER5> My buddy got an internship directly under Gary Vaynerchuck by tweeting. It can definitely work!

</comment><comment><USER6> Good! Pretty simple and pretty real!</comment>


Computer ownership by country - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12758865 <comment><USER2> I've never been to 'Canda' so I can't speak to the issue.

<comment><USER3> I believe they mean Canadia.

<comment><USER4> And personally I think they mean 'Canada' :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> The list is from 2006. It would be interesting to see the current numbers for Brazil and Russia given their supposed ascendancy. Plus, half the world's population live in China and India, neither of which is on the list.

<comment><USER5> It's the top 50 countries, ranked by computers per 100 population. China and India are still quite rural. I would not expect a significant percentage yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ah. Israel has more computers than people.

<comment> a-priori Yes, I'm interested in this too. I knew Israel is tech-savvy (lots of startups, etc.), but I didn't expect this statistic to be so high.

Are there any Israelis here that could shed light on this?

<comment><USER6> I'm Israeli. I did expect it to be high on the list, but that gap between it and 2nd place is quite surprising...

I can think of a few reasons:

1\. Israel is in a way similar to a big city - a small place and tightly knit. It's a young nation without much traditions so people are open to try new technologies and if they work out they quickly spread.

2\. Since Israel's main industry is hi-tech (it's 2nd or 3rd in number of NASDAQ traded companies) having a computer is seen by parents as important for their childrens' future prospects.

3\. There is some still kind of respect for knowledge mentality (you wouldn't know it from the reality shows on our TV channels, but it's one of the top book reading nations) which meshes well with the internet etc.

<comment><USER7> 4\. Game consoles and games are very expensive and thus not very popular in Israel. So all the kids need a computer in order to get their video game fix.

5\. There isn't much poverty in Israel.

It would probably be very difficult to find a household in Israel that doesn't have a computer. (Not counting old people who don't know what a computer is)

<comment><USER6> I didn't think about #4 - good point.

All in all, I think the amazing gap (%50) between Israel and the next nation probably also stems from the high proportion of technology companies in Israel. All these companies that go through laptops and dev machines at high cycles must make a big difference.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Welcome to the Bullshit Economy - <AUTHOR> https://prospect.org/politics/bullshit-economy-iowa-caucus-disaster/ <comment><USER2> > The voters have a rare choice in 2020 to put clamps on the bullshit economy, > to end the froth in our financial markets, to put the needs of the people > ahead of inflated stock returns and boasts about revolutionizing rental > housing or food delivery or juice machines. We don't have to live in the > bullshit economy. We can reject it.

We can reject it by voting for whom, now? Trump? Or the side that gave themselves the Iowa debacle?

No, such a pervasive bullshit economy is not solvable with the trite advice to just vote harder. If that was a solution, we would have surely done it by now.

It's more of a Moloch Trap[1] that occurs despite everyone's best efforts to avoid it.

[1] [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on- moloch/](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/)</comment>


So now that the dust has settled, the whole watch thing has been a dud, right? - <AUTHOR> I don't own an iWatch and no-one else I know has one.<p>So that's the end of the whole "watch as the future" thing, right? <comment><USER2> How many people did you know who bought the first iPod? What a bust that turned out to be.

Who knows, in a few years your post could be the next, "no wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm personally an Android user, so I see the analogy like this:

Some android users use homescreen widgets. Some don't.

Some people will use the watch, others won't.

People were dissapointed because unlike watches, everyone has a smart phone. I have a pebble and I love it. I realize others wouldn't care.

A dud, but maybe only to hype or expectations. Personally I find its value add worth any additional trouble, but its not a major part of my existence like my phone is.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you assume that we are at the end of the future, yes. Or if you believe that (in this area) what has happened is what will continue to happen, also yes.

</comment><comment><USER5> PDA's (Newtons) took 10 years to become pioneer devices (Palm OS/Smartphones) and 20 years to become mainstream.

Just like Tv, then to Color TV.

Everything has potential, if something is ahead of it's time maybe it's the use cases that are still forming

</comment><comment><USER6> If we're flinging anecdata around: I don't currently own an Apple Watch (but will get a rev2) and I know at least 10 people that do (some have bought more than one for partners, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER7> No it's not dead - I use the Pebble and find it super handy.</comment>


Proposed Who Is Hiring Spec - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/perspectivezoom/who-is-hiring-spec/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> This is not going to work unless it is enforced by software running on the HN servers. Many of the hiring posts are posted by non-hackers who don't give a flying roomba about specs and correct formatting. The ideal format would be something generated by a set of dropdowns and textareas, but then again, would it still be HN?

<comment><USER3> For job-seeking engineers, it would be interesting to then write another script that filters for only the posts in the correct formatting. This at least gives some level of comfort that you're talking to hackers and not sales/business people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I really like this, but salaries should definitely be considered something that could (optionally) be added as well.

I guess this is the HN way of turning a simple proposal by _dang_ (for feedback) into an engineering problem where we try to solve:

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>

 _The optimal method of describing a job post where the utility of most users /readers is, at least, mostly satisfied_

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>

:)

<comment><USER5> I think salaries should be required-- if not by rule, then by convention.

Companies have been asking candidates to give their salary up front ("expectations" or "history") without ever justifying it when it's obviously not in our best interest to do so...yet they do already have a budget for these positions, so let us decide if we are in the range or not. (Rather than applying for jobs which will never offer a salary commensurate with our experience because we read the demand for high end skills and "salary commensurate with experience"\-- and don't realize it's someone trying to score a deal, and not really offering a market salary.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Onsite" and "remote" are not sufficient, unfortunately. Remote should be obvious, but a lot of companies say "remote" when they mean "you can work at home a couple days a week"... rather than really remote. So we need a new word for "work from home ok" thats distinct from "remote" (Which means "work from another state ok" I don't mind employees requiring you to be in the same country, but in the same state is a problem.)

</comment><comment><USER6> Isn't this basic just a job listing micro format? [http://microformats.org/wiki/job-listing](http://microformats.org/wiki/job- listing)

</comment><comment><USER7> This spec isn't very human friendly. As a human this bothers me.

<comment><USER8> Their explanation of a line break doesn't really explain why JSON or something wouldn't work. Strip whitespace from input and it's basically the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think breaking a bit from the current de-facto format would be better. Consider the example:

==

Acme Products | Test Engineer | Las Vegas, NV; Austin, TX | Onsite; Remote | Full-Time; Part-Time | Visa (H1B) | Tunnel Theory; Kinematics

Engineer needed to test prototype products. Must be able to lift and carry anvils. metafriendly

==

The only real problem I've had with existing listings, is that people tend to list both "remote" and "no-remote" \-- making search hard.

I propose moving those "tags" to "hash-tags", and just list them at the bottom of the ad:

==

Acme Products | Test Engineer | Las Vegas, NV; Austin, TX

Engineer needed to test prototype products. Must be able to lift and carry anvils. metafriendly

#on-site #full-time #part-Time

==

Note that the two are different; I don't see how you could work remotely testing anvil-lifting... ;-)

At any rate, if we're talking about a new "spec", I'd say:

* Apart from position, and location, as little as possible on the first line.

* Replace the "text"-tags with "hash"-tags - #remote is easy to search for with text-search, and won't match #no-remote, No-remote -- and doesn't require regexp magic to match word-boundaries etc (which few (no?) browsers support anyway).

* Put the tags at the bottom -- they're really for searching (and machine parsing), with the amount of listings we are getting now -- no-one is reading just _your_ ad, they're reading a stream of ads.

* Don't go overboard with "hash"-tags. I'm not all that interested in seeing: mulitple-line lists of #python #ruby #haskell #c++ #dev-ops (...)

Now, if we _really_ want to over-engineer this thing, why not draw some inspiration from the Dewy decimal system? So 001-234 could be 001:devops 2:python and bash 3:unix-like-and-windows-nt 4:remote-or-onsite ... ;-)

</comment><comment><USER10> Is there a way to be more clear about whether the company will apply for an H1B for a candidate, as opposed to sponsoring an existing one? I have a lot of friends who talk to companies that end up saying, "we only sponsor existing visas."

<comment><USER11> It is really, really hard to apply for an H1B for a candidate unless they just graduated from college and are on OPT. If they are on OPT they basically have 2 chances to apply for an H1B. If you don't, then the employer would have to apply on your behalf on April 1, with a coin-flip probability of getting one, and even if they got one the employee couldn't start work until October 1. That makes anything except an H1B transfer prohibitively risky and inconvenient.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> The real answer, as many have tried to implement, is another site/tool entirely. One that allows filtering, notifications etc.

Pretty easy to build, not so easy to get community engagement unless the HN folks endorse it officially as an alternative.

<comment><USER13> Another site probably won't solve the underlying problem that Who is Hiring addresses - the problem of non-YC companies posting jobs on HN. Basically, Who is Hiring provides an outlet for what would otherwise be spam. Move it off to another site and then non-YC companies will still want to post on HN because that's where the eyeballs are.

The companies posting in Who is Hiring aren't posting on HN because they have no place else to post.

<comment><USER14> A simple HTML form with options that then posts to that thread and formats would solve the problem.

Then the post is still on HN and is formatted to the spec.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The parameters will need to be extensible and this only kills the proposition imho.</comment>


Which U.S. coastal areas could disappear due to sea level rise - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/24/opinion/sunday/what-could-disappear.html <comment><USER2> There's been debate over whether volcanic activity in the Canary Islands could cause a 150ft tidal wave that would cause enough damage on the east coast that long term sea rises would have little left to do: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatsunami#Canary_Islands>

</comment><comment><USER3> As Sandy made clear, it's not just _persistent_ rises in sea level, but the frequency and extent of _intermittent_ rises as a consequence of cyclonic storms or inland flooding and watershed drainage which are likely to have significant impacts.

My understanding of carbon and warming predictions is that we've trended toward the highest (most extreme and dangerous) ends of forecast ranges, which suggests that the higher seawater rises might be more appropriately used in disaster planning. And adding a few feet to storm surge, and increasing frequency of high-surge events, would be disruptive enough if not quite so much as a persistent 5-10 foot rise in sea levels.

<comment><USER4> As is also happening right now in the UK ... <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20490999>

(And to think of all the people still denying that climate change is a real thing).

<comment><USER5> _And to think of all the people still denying that climate change is a real thing_

This is a straw man.The dispute is over how much of climate change is caused by human emissions of CO2, not whether climate change occurs.

<comment><USER3> I've seen denials on several counts. That climate change is occurring, that it's anthropogenic, and that the mechanism is CO2 (and other greenhouse gasses released on account of human activities). Much of that confusion being sown by direct and deliberate disinformation campaigns by carbon-aligned interests.

The evidence to my mind is rather incontrovertible in favor of significant anthropogenic climate change.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 100-300 years is a _long_ time to build some dikes and flood barriers.

<comment><USER7> Think about the engineering involved. A 25ft rise would require what, a 35ft high reinforced concrete structure? It has to be capable of dissipating the wave energy from a storm like sandy. The foundations have to be pretty deep to guarantee resistance to scour. The buttressing structure will extend back at least 35/tan(45) ft back. Where and when do you decide to build it? What political process allows you to demolish all those houses without an impossible political deadlock about compensation land rights etc? What about rights of light for all the others? Re-routing subway lines, highways, utilities etc. How long is one these for New York/Jersey/Long Island? 50miles 100miles 250?

Edit: tan(45)/35 to 35/tan(45), whoops.

<comment><USER8> We're talking about 300 years from now. Even 100 years from now the global economy is going to be around 1 quadrillion dollars (in today's dollar) and technology will be unimaginably advanced. As much as I think long term planning is often important, I think this is a case where it's better to leave things to our much wealthier, much more technologically advanced future selves / children.

<comment><USER9> Unimaginably advanced? I'm not so sure. What unimaginable advances have happened to the jet engine in the last 30 years?

If you spend all day focusing on silicon chips, then it looks like "technology" moves very fast. But most technologies don't advance at anything near the rate at which integrated circuits have been improving. And even that rate appears to be slowing dramatically.

<comment><USER6> What's the significance of jet engines? I'm not an aerospace engineer, but I'm pretty sure the 787 Dreamliner would be rather impressive to a 1982 aircraft designer.

But more relevant to the issue at hand, structural engineering: The height of the tallest building in the world has doubled over just the past decade. I don't know if it's downright unimaginable, but it's very real and significant progress.

<comment><USER9> The significance is that I have friends in the aerospace industry and from talking to them, I've learned that technological progress in this area has been much much slower than in IC fabrication. Would a 1982 aircraft designer be impressed with a 787? Sure. There have been a bunch of incremental improvements. But those improvements are on the order of 1%/year rather than Moore's law.

My point is that if you're spending all your time dealing with Moore's law, it may not occur to you that Moore's law doesn't apply anywhere else.

 _The height of the tallest building in the world has doubled over just the past decade. I don't know if it's downright unimaginable, but it's very real and significant progress._

Really? What technological innovations in structural engineering were needed? It seems to me that construction costs are not falling very significantly and that a handful of very tall buildings has more to do with the infusion of cash to isolated areas where land is (relatively) cheap than it does with major advances in structural engineering.

<comment><USER5> 1%/year over 300 years is nearly a 20-fold improvement.

Also, while the construction improvements in the past 30 years may not be major, framed-tube and trussed-tube construction will be 50 years old next year.

You may be right that we have currently reached the pinnacle of technology, and that nothing else is possible except in the fields of iPhone games and social dating sites. The dead end in robotics may be approaching, even though it has resulting in a 150% improvement in manufacturing productivity since 1985 (we currently produce 70% more with 30% fewer people).

But that's not a bet I'd be willing to take.

<comment><USER9> _1%/year over 300 years is nearly a 20-fold improvement._

I'm not sure it makes sense to assume steady incremental growth over such long time frames. I mentioned 1%/yr when considering improvements over the last 3 decades.

 _You may be right that we have currently reached the pinnacle of technology_

This is not a claim I've made.

<comment><USER5> Either you believe technological progress will make building dikes/etc easier in 200-300 years, or you don't. Which is it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> By then we won't care

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/03/sea_level_rise_barel...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/03/sea_level_rise_barely_30cm_by_2100/)

<comment><USER11> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_sea_level#Potential_to_E...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_sea_level#Potential_to_Exceed_1_m)

Unless we got our sums wrong and the ice melts quicker than we thought.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Long-term real-estate play: buy land near urban areas that will be soon submerged (100 year time frame) and near the "new" coast.

<comment><USER13> I find it implausible that some of the richest and most densely populated cities in America would just passively await submersion for decades when this could be averted with good old levees.

What I do believe is that a major UN climate conference is starting today in Doha and that their PR people yet again managed to sell the idea of disaster to the newspapers.

<comment><USER14> Just have the levees built and maintained by private enterprise rather than U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and you should be all golden with no unexpected problems or failures

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> 1\. Set up a booth outside Yankee Stadium, display the Boston map, and sell coal-powered anything.

2\. Repeat at Fenway Park with the NY map.

3\. Profit!

</comment><comment><USER16> could = may or may not

what's the aim of the article which claims that something may or may not happen? Of course besides to scary people of 'global warming' or how it is nowadays called, because scientists are not sure if the temperature is going up or down, 'global changes'? And of course, when people are scared, they'll pay whatever money to ecoterrorists to save 'the environment'

</comment><comment><USER17> Interesting just how little this matters to San Francisco (they'd need to put a wall around SFO, OAK, and maybe SJC, and not sure about the parts of Mountain View and Menlo Park where tech offices are).

Unfortunate that DC doesn't have more flooding planned.

<comment><USER18> At 25 feet, it looks like the shoreline moves up (at least) to highway 101, but that map doesn't go far enough south to really be sure. Look at this and you can really see the impact: <http://cal-adapt.org/sealevel/>

Just at a glance, I'd write off Oracle, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Moffett, Alviso, the new 49ers stadium, lots of Cisco buildings around Tasman, and that industrial park up in Fremont where they shot the T2 Cyberdyne office scenes. The inundation of the SJ/SC water treatment plant would also make things even worse, I imagine.

Plus, you know, everything else in between.

<comment><USER6> Unless you spend a few billion dollars on a flood barrier across the bay mouth next to Golden Gate bridge.

<comment><USER17> That might be complex, at least without killing the #4 port in the US. I guess maybe you could build a lock or something?

<comment> daniel-cussen Move the port out past the seawall, move the hipsters in to the abandoned industrial flats.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I can't remember the exact figures, but Bjorn Lomborg has argued that during the 19th century sea levels around New York rose by tens of feet, to no great impact.

<comment><USER20> Would it be too much to provide a reference for those claims. And tell us if you think it's relevant to the future.

For those of us who are only passingly familiar with New York it doesn't really seem like a new increase of 10 feet would not be a disaster.

<comment><USER19> My google-fu was weak today :-(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The New Orleans projections _assume_ a levee breach.

"If levees breach, almost all of the city would flood. The surrounding region is also mostly flooded."

<comment><USER3> No precedent there ....

New Orleans is already almost completely below mean sea level. In many places, the highest geographic point _is the Mississippi River_. Building levees and flood-control structures directly contributes to the further erosion and loss of delta lands in the Gulf. The very structures that would save New Orleans also doom it. John McPhee's writing on the Atchafalya Old River Control Structure is fascinating.

[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/02/23/1987_02_23_039_T...](http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/02/23/1987_02_23_039_TNY_CARDS_000347146)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Note to self: move to higher ground/buy a canoe.

<comment> chao- And rather than pass it down to your children, consider selling any property in Galveston, New Orleans or Miami Beach. Even on the lower-end estimates, those areas are thoroughly deluged. Or pass it on and let them sell it, whichever is smarter from a tax perspective.

<comment><USER22> Thanks, but I rent :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I had no idea how low-lying some cities are. Especially in the southeast US.

</comment><comment><USER24> Are the great lakes effected by global warming.

<comment><USER25> Winter ice helps to protect lake water from evaporation and keep water levels high. In recent years ice hasn't been as plentiful: [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/31/455612/great- lak...](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/31/455612/great-lakes-ice- cover-down-71-since-1973/)

Keep in mind that 2012 was an very, very warm winter even compared to the years leading up to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Anything similar out there for Europe or Asia?

<comment><USER27> this: <http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Special:SeaLevel> and: <http://www.elstel.com/SeaLevelRise.html#Maps>

<comment><USER26> That first link is exactly what I hoped existed. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Brought to you by jashkenas no doubt.</comment>


GMs Cruise Is Replacing Drivers with Riders – Warning - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3E7p4S_1m4 <comment><USER2> Honestly I don't really understand why they didn't opt for either 6 seats or a smaller 4 seat. Without a table in the middle staring at the other drivers with a large air gap in between is just strange and wierd

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder how house prices will be affected with self driving cars on the road?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is the first step before eliminating personal vehicles.</comment>


How MacArthur Geniuses Handle Their Money Windfalls - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/26/your-money/how-macarthur-geniuses-handle-their-money-windfalls.html <comment><USER2> Most people who are passionate enough about something to receive these fellowships will take the opportunity to pursue their passion.

I had a Shuttleworth Fellowship for 2 years which is very similar to the MacArthur Genius grant. They are both often enough to not worry about having to work a job to pay your bills and feed your family. (The Shuttleworth fellowship includes enough to pay for legal, financial, travel, contractors, etc)

I worked harder during my fellowship than I can recall otherwise. I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that I only had a finite amount of time to do something great.

I wrote about my experience as a fellow here.

[http://jaisenmathai.com/articles/shuttleworth/](http://jaisenmathai.com/articles/shuttleworth/)

<comment><USER3> These seems like very different programs to me. The MarArthur Fellowship is a no strings attached financial grant to nominated individuals in any field, they do not allow applications. The Shuttleworth is by application and specifically funds individuals working on projects related to "openness".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Most people who randomly get a windfall of money were previously poor. If you're poor and suddenly get lots of money, you most probably can't handle it; " _#4. Extra Money Has to Be Spent Right Goddamn Now!_ ": [http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you- devel...](http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop- growing-up-poor/)

MacArthur winners have two advantages: First, they are probably good at something, and therefore are likely not poor. Secondly, even if they _are_ poor, they are probably _very_ focused on their thing which made them get the prize, and any money goes to _their thing_ , not to themselves, which makes most people a little more rational when deciding things.

<comment><USER5> I think this depends on your poverty culture. Growing up poor as an Asian immigrant, my experience has been "Extra money must go in the savings account, no luxuries EVER!", which is bad in its own way.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure I would call it bad.

[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The article misses the point that people who've achieved enough to warrant the award needed to have a financial system in place already that allowed them to focus on whatever they're doing. For people with such a system the award money itself is a relatively minor change, which is pretty much what the article reports.

</comment><comment><USER7> >Steve Coleman, a saxophonist who won last year at age 57, said he had created a life over decades that required little money to maintain and could be supported with even less when times were tough.

I spend quite a bit of time thinking about this but it doesn't appear to be a solveable problem for people with kids/family even if their earnings as an IT/SDEV person are well above average.

<comment><USER8> Renowned indie games developer Jason Rohrer raised his family for several years on a budget of $10,000 per year. It's possible to live on very little if a) you're prepared to move to somewhere cheap and b) you're prepared to examine your definition of the word "essential". Possible, but not necessarily pleasant.

[http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/jason- rohrer/simpleLife.ht...](http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/jason- rohrer/simpleLife.html)

<comment><USER9> Doable as long as nobody gets sick and requires the attention of a doctor.

<comment><USER10> And as long as you don't plan on retiring, paying for college, leaving town to survive a hurricane, etc. "Living on" 10k typically doesn't include responsible levels of savings.

<comment><USER11> You don't think it's possible "living on" refers to day-to-day expenses and retirement/emergency savings are in addition to that?

<comment><USER12> Yes, that's how I always understood it.

Living on $10k doesn't have to mean only having income of $10k. I personally say "we live on $50k" but our income is more than 3x that.

<comment><USER11> Currently in the process of cutting our "living on" budget from 110% of our yearly income to 50% or less. It is a painful process for sure.

<comment><USER12> Good luck! I really wish you the very best.

It might be easier to start with a goal of maybe 80% first before moving to 50%? Seems overly ambitious to start with.

<comment><USER11> Yeah just one bill at a time at the moment, 50% is the ultimate goal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There was no mention in this article of Lin-Manuel Miranda (who won a MacArthur genius grant in 2015), but he reported on Twitter at the time that he had used his grant to pay off his and his wife's student loans.

<comment><USER7> Maybe because they covered one case of a grantee repaying their $180k(!) student loan.

<comment><USER14> The doesn't seem all that large for someone with a professional degree, like a M.D. or J.D. America is the land of the free until you get to university.

<comment><USER15> Really? This is an incredible amount IMO, regardless of profession. That is a massive amount of debt that can't ever be absolved without paying, and an incredible amount of interest.

<comment><USER12> I just looked it up and according to a nerdwallet survey (highly unscientific) the average debt for new physician is $166,000.

<comment><USER16> That's lower than I would have guessed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Richard Stallman made good use of his $240,000 grant when he used it to fund the Free Software Foundation.

</comment><comment><USER18> I found it a little disconcerting that the most selfish usecase (spent it on "her children") among the 5 or 6 reported got a picture. Apparently looks matter even in the genius world.

<comment><USER3> I don't follow this at all, what are you saying?

First off, there are two pictures in the article, so the idea that "looks matter" as pertains to selfishness, whatever that means, is in question.

Secondly, the idea that "looks matter" doesn't make sense. She seems rather regular looking, not picked out specifically because of her looks.

Lastly, spending money on your children to me is far less selfish than paying off your personal debt, which did not get a photo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The TLDR of this is basically that the MacArthur Geniuses have a solid trajectory/purpose in life so the sudden windfall does not seem to affect them in the way that the lottery does to some people.

However, while this is certainly a windfall and I wouldn't turn it down its not a lifestyle changing windfall. I would say this is enough money to do anything for at least a short amount of time, but it is certainly not enough to do nothing. I think that combined with the fact that the awards are given to people who are pursuing their passion is a large differentiator to those who've won the lottery and aren't rooted in some cause.

<comment><USER20> For me—in my 20's living at home—this kind of money would mean I could buy a house/apartment without needing a mortgage.

It would be a huge kickstart to my independent adult life, and the savings over the decades from not having a mortgage would absolutely be lifestyle changing. I'm not talking about yatchs and lamborghinis, but it would certainly provide the freedom to live on less income in exchange for more free time to pursue hobbies and side projects.

Not that I have any reason to complain, I'm very grateful for who and what I have in my life right now.

<comment><USER3> I get the sentiment, but I'd just like the point out that with current interest rates it makes sense put 20% down and invest the rest in mutual funds. You get mortgage interest deduction and are paying 4% interest while making 7% market gains. Buying a house all cash is not the way to do it.

<comment><USER21> You get an interest deduction, but you need to pay taxes on capital gains. The added flexibility is probably worth more in theory but risks spending that money on other things.

A larger issue IMO, is condo's / houses have large upkeep costs and reduce mobility. So, simply renting while investing 90% of the money for a very early retirement is probably the best bet.

<comment><USER12> They, yes, the nebulous "they," say you should expect to spend around 1% of the house's value a year for repairs, upkeep, and maintenance. This rule of thumb doesn't quite work when the local housing market is in a bubble though.

Of course, there will be years you spend much less and years your roof needs replacing so you'll spend much more, so that's why you amortize.

<comment><USER21> Not just repairs. Depending on what you get your facing everything from condo fees, taxes, lawn care, etc and it can all add up quickly.

The real savings from renting is the flexibility to up size, downsize, relocate etc as needed and with minimal transaction costs. Thinking of starting a family some day? That does not mean you need to pay for more space today, unless your planing to stay put for 15+ years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> In all seriousness, what does it take to get a Macarthur grant?

<comment><USER23> You don't apply. You get nominated; and nominators are invited by the foundation.

[https://www.macfound.org/fellows-faq/](https://www.macfound.org/fellows-faq/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> What a nonsensical article. Similar to Malcolm Gladwells revisionist podcast (episode: My Little Hundred Million) these awards predominantly go to well connected faculty at elite schools who are already well funded and who don't need the money (other than to add to their palmares). Many of these awardees are already millionaires. They should just split this award into smaller grants and give it to faculty/teachers at smaller unknown schools in the midwest. You don't have to be a genius to see this would do more good.

<comment><USER25> > other than to add to their palmares

I learned an interesting, though obscure, word today:

palmarès: a list of races a (bicycle) rider has won. (French, meaning list of achievements or list of winners).

<comment><USER26> I don't think it's that obscure in British english usage, even outside of cycling contexts (source: American living in the UK)

<comment><USER27> Interesting. It's not in the Oxford Dictionary of English powering the Dictionary bundled with macOS, and it's not known to dictionary.com, so I'd say it's fairly obscure.

[http://www.dictionary.com/misspelling?term=palmares](http://www.dictionary.com/misspelling?term=palmares)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


European Copyright Ruling Ushers in New Dark Era for Hyperlinks - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/european-copyright-ruling-ushers-new-dark-era-hyperlinks <comment><USER2> Wonder how/if this will effect google? They profit from providing links.

<comment><USER3> The EU is slowly cutting itself off from the Internet anyways, with the continued nonsensical idiocy they keep doing.

Eventually, either the problem with solve itself, or, well, a different kind of problem will find it's solution. Dark era, indeed.

<comment><USER4> The evil has a name: Günther Öttinger.

Öttinger is pushing for what he calls the "Digital Single Market". The main idea is to facilitate the free flow of online services and entertainment across national borders (of the EU). So far so good. But given that he, the commissioner for Digital Economy and !Society!, apparently only cares about the market and not what I'd call the indigenous Internet population/culture (which apparently all bigger political and economic players want to eliminate or at least don't care about) the dark era approaches indeed.

Since he appears to view the Internet as nothing but a market and comes across like a guy from the past I'd speculate that he strives for some sort of protectionism for the European Internet (/"market") truly believing that this is what the EU really needs.</comment></comment></comment>


When Medieval Monks Couldn't Cure the Plague, They Launched a Skincare Line - <AUTHOR> http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/medieval-monks-couldnt-cure-the-plague/ <comment><USER2> _At some point in their studies, the friars noticed that rose petals were resistant to certain pests, and concluded that distilling the petals would create a disinfectant that could prevent humans from catching the bubonic plague. "It didn't work at all," Foà says, "but by 1380, they had created this rosewater tonic, which is still one of our bestsellers." Today, the company's rosewater products based on this original recipe are sold as skin toner._

I guess innovation can't always be planned.</comment>


Mandelbrot Fractal Generator - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/rafrex/fractal <comment><USER2> Cool :) It reminds me my own web-fractal :) my fractal has smaller resolution, but runs smoothly in 10 - 60 FPS (mouse down to zoom) ... and you can zoom in twice as much, because I use doubles instead of floats [http://lib.ivank.net/demos/mandelbrot.html](http://lib.ivank.net/demos/mandelbrot.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Cool, I love fractals and Mandlebrot. During Uni I too wrote a JS based generator[0]. It was pretty nice, but horribly slow. Prompted by the poor performance in JS I built a C++, OpenCL version[1]. Seeing the difference in performance was quite amazing. Settings that took 20 seconds in JS rendered in 200ms using OpenCL.

Planning to write a new version using Apple's Metal and Swift at some point too.

0: [https://github.com/k0nserv/mandelbrot.js](https://github.com/k0nserv/mandelbrot.js)

1: [https://github.com/k0nserv/CLBrot](https://github.com/k0nserv/CLBrot)

</comment><comment><USER4> Nice, but I'd rather not be forced to use Firefox in full screen.

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice project. I built one of these once on a C128 some years ago in interpreted BASIC of all things. I let it run through a few iterations to gauge its speed, saw that it was pretty quick and didn't even bother to compile it, completely forgetting that the speed of an iteration is determined by how many cycles are required before an escape and that the early ones all escaped quickly. The silly thing ran for over a week...

</comment><comment><USER6> I would appreciate an in-viewer option to change the image resolution. It is taking ~10 sec to redraw on zoom-in, but I don't immediately need that much detail.

Nice work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. It calculates the escape time for every single pixel on the screen to produce the sharpest image possible - it can be kind of slow on retina/4k displays. It will run faster on 1080p displays (or if you change your monitor resolution).

<comment><USER7> Calculating the escape time for every single pixel isn't "sharper", just slower.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I know it's called the Mandelbrot set, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it as fractal.

<comment><USER8> The boundary of the set is certainly a fractal. A much more pedantic point would be that you are drawing the points that are _outside_ the set, and leaving the set itself black. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ah ha! A usage case for Web Assembly!</comment>


Your Heartbeat Could Be Your Password - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5884650/your-heartbeat-could-be-your-password

<comment><USER2> Rewrite of [http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328516.500-your- hear...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328516.500-your-heartbeat- could-keep-your-data-safe.html)</comment>


CarWoo (YC S09): Dispelling 3 myths about Y Combinator - <AUTHOR> http://carwoo.com/blog/dispelling-3-myths-about-y-combinator/

<comment><USER2> The irony of a 32-year-old considering himself "old" and claiming that therefore ageism doesn't exist at YC is great. I'm not saying YC is at all ageist, but the fact that at 32 he believes it would already apply to him speaks volumes about how endemic ageism is in tech.

<comment><USER3> I wouldn't read too much into it. I think he simply meant he's old in the sense of not a college kid-- that he has a wife and kids etc. You probably know better if you are an HN user, but a lot of people still think that YC only funds 22 year olds.

<comment><USER4> as a 26 year old single man, I must say it takes a lot of stress away when I don't have to explain it to my SO, my son/daughter, etc. I also don't have to worry if someone else will starve (I can handle myself, of course).

That said, for those entrepreneurial types, age is rarely a factor outside of family concerns. I"m just glad i have the opportunity to try this before I get married and settle down.

<comment><USER5> Why would you marry at all? As you point out yourself, before you succeed it carries a lot of ballast, and increases the risk; and once you're successful, why would one want to tie himself (or herself, for that matter) down?

<comment><USER6> Ah, youth.

When you fall in love, you fall in love. Spending time on the relationship at that point is highly worthwhile. And kids are their own reward. Seriously, most of us come hard wired to want kids, and a large portion never realize that until you have your own.

But if you're not ready, then by all means don't get married. But be aware that you're missing out.

<comment><USER5> The only thing you're missing is a lot of misunderstandings, unreasonable demands and endless fights. Who would want that?

<comment><USER7> I've been _very_ happily married for 10 years, so I wouldn't so readily dismiss it, but if it seems constricting to you, then that's cool - don't do it.

Not directed at you, but at the overall thread: honestly, I don't completely get why folks get so revved about others' decisions to get/not get married and have/not have kids. How are your lifestyle choices threatening to my lifestyle choices?

<comment><USER8> People feel threatened? Grass is always greener, etc. Each path has its pros and cons. People would prefer to feel more comfortable in their choice. That's why they do, not why they should though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm currently searching for a new car, so I thought I'll check out CarWoo.

Here are some issues I ran into:

1\. Can we have photos of the different models next to the drop down list? and maybe a short summary of the differences? I know I want a MINI, but I didn't even know there are three different kinds, so obviously I don't know which one I want.

2\. Same for trims. At least a link to the manufacturer site to help me figure this out.

3\. Mention payments only after I entered all my details? This seems unfair!

4\. I feel incredibly uncomfortable to pay for the privilege of you giving my details to dealers. Shouldn't they be paying you because you are sending them buyers?

5\. Also, why should I pay upfront? What if I don't get a good deal out of this?

6\. I tried to ask all this at the nice chat, but after typing my question and clicking "submit" my text just disappeared and I never got a reply. I'm using Chrome, btw.

7\. So no, I'm not convinced, and I see no reason to spend time watching videos of happy customers. I'm not into testimonials anyway. How about some statistics? What's the expected dollar value of savings for the model I'm trying to buy?

I hope my comments are at least somewhat useful, and my apologies if the tone is snarky - I got upset at the non-working chat.

<comment><USER10> Sorry about that! Let me address your questions one-by-one:

1\. We'll consider this. However, the vast majority of our users already know what model they want (i.e. they've done their research before using CarWoo!)

2\. Same.

3\. Split tests don't lie.

4\. Actually, you're paying for the privilege of us keeping your information anonymous from 10 dealers and only giving it to the one dealer you want to work with after you've vetted them all through our app (i.e. we save you from spam), among many other benefits we provide, such as better prices from competition.

5\. We have a 100% Happiness Guarantee and we're not afraid to use it.

6\. Sorry about that, we use a 3rd-party service called SnapEngage, I'll have to look into this.

7\. Some statistics for the analytically-inclined:

\- CarWoo! buyers save an average of over $3000 off MSRP (but this is meaningless without context) \- CarWoo! buyers save an average of $450 more than any other car-buying service (Costco, AAA, USAA) \- For Minis, CarWoo! buyers save an average of about $500 off MSRP (relatively low, but Mini dealers generally aren't that willing to negotiate on price)

Thank you for your comments. Please let me know if you have any other questions or if you'd like a coupon to use CarWoo!

<comment><USER11> I question that was bothering me: where does the test drive fit into your model? Are you supposed to go to dealers beforehand to do that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Right now most people take the test drive prior to using our service. We know it opens the door for dealers to do what they do, but our target customers tend to avoid the games dealers play anyway so it's sort of a self selection process that works... for now. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Thanks for sharing.

On a completely side note I noticed that Brendan Schaub had a CarWoo logo on his shorts at UFC121, so someone at CarWoo must like MMA. Anyway, I've always been curious about how much those fighters charge to have advertisers on their shorts...would you mind sharing how much it cost you? :)

Apologies to the moderator gods for the random and off topic question.

</comment><comment><USER13> _We have raised over $6M and while YC helped us and we are extremely appreciative, the hard work we put into CarWoo! and our determination to build a huge company was the key to our success._

raising venture capital != success. Not for a scalable, repeatable _business_ anyways.

<comment><AUTHOR> I meant our success in getting to the funding milestone. We are very well aware that we are at the beginning, not the end.

<comment><USER13> Good to know that you are not counting your chickens before they are hatched.

Best of luck! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'd love to hear more about how they lined up their dealer network.

<comment><AUTHOR> Through a ton of phone calls :). We followed our buyers and built some scheduling software to help us prioritize notifying existing dealers and contacting new ones to satisfy the buyers. Another great topic for another blog post. Stay tuned.

<comment><USER14> Very interesting. Looking forward to the post!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I was biting my fingernails as I read your first paragraph...well played sir.</comment>


Cryptocurrency is a giant multi-level marketing scheme - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1217460/cryptocurrency-is-a-giant-multi-level-marketing-scheme/ <comment><USER2> I'm probably going to get dinged for this but, kind of like open source is like a multi-level marketing scheme.

Some one develops a code base developers contribute to it the more people that use the open source project the more valuable your skills with the code base become.

<comment><USER2> I think both are closer to a community with freeloaders.

People that hoard coins/tokens to drive up prices and don't use it as a medium of exchange are freeloaders of the community.

Sometimes that's the people that start the community.</comment></comment>


From Occasionally Great to Consistently Good - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-12.html#e2010-12-20T15_32_50.htm

<comment><USER2> It's even better to be consistently good _and_ occasionally great.

<comment><USER3> The post already says that you will be occasionally great just by sticking around for a long enough time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "We are what we repeatedly do."</comment>