PetFlow gets $10 million - <AUTHOR> http://vator.tv/news/2011-07-06-petflow-gets-10m-for-online-pet-food-shopping

<comment><USER2> Interesting. Does anyone remember what happened to Pets.com? View my post on the Top 10 dot-com flops.</comment>


Empty stadiums have shrunk football teams' home advantage - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/07/25/empty-stadiums-have-shrunk-football-teams-home-advantage <comment><USER2> Home field advantage lessening but not disappearing is as expected. There are two major sources of home field advantage (basing on US sports):

* What fans influence: subconscious referee biases (not wanting to be booed for a close call), heckling that slightly impacts players' focus, objects being waved in their line of sight, noise levels rising at inopportune times, etc.

* Travel/comfort: the home team players sleep in their own custom-tailored sleeping environments (these can include stuff like oxygen tents, not just nice mattresses), don't spend time encased in a plane / train / bus environment not designed for optimizing future athletic performance, and don't have travel stresses and logistical headaches. Also for those inclined, the local club / strip club / groupie scene doesn't hold the same mysterious allure on a random Tuesday night as it might for the lad from out of town.

The second set of factors remains even when fans aren't allowed inside the arena.

<comment><USER3> And maybe not so relevant these days because most pitches are standard size, but years ago football pitches could vary in size, 90-120m in length, and 45-90m in width, maybe in the past even more, I remember some quoting some pitches as long as 130m+

Teams who were on the boundaries of these often took advantage of it, my home team played in a larger than average pitch and you would clearly see teams that went in full pressure to lose a lot of gas by the second half, the best coaches knew how to make this count. On the other side of the spectrum, teams with shorter fields favoured playing long balls straight from goal kicks to the strikers.

Tbf I miss a little bit the days where these small inconsistencies would affect the game and require a little bit more studying on the coaches part.

<comment><USER4> The numbers you quoted are still the standard although international pitches are constrained to 64-75m wide, 100-110m long. That probably means top teams are likely to use the international standard or at least have the option to mark the pitch thusly when things like the World Cup or Euros need stadiums.

<comment><USER3> In Brazil they would vary wildly so that's where my nostalgia comes from, after the WC in 2014 pretty much all of them were standardised to 105x68

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A bit of a shameless plug, but a few years ago I Googled for scientific and statistical analyses of home field advantage and didn't find anything, so I ended up crunching the numbers for myself.

With the caveat that this is for baseball and not football, home field advantage has shrunk tremendously over the years. Just look at the curve of "field kindness" over the history of the MLB, it is insane how much of a difference the field you were visiting used to make!

[https://neosmart.net/blog/2016/homefield- advantage/](https://neosmart.net/blog/2016/homefield-advantage/)

(my favorite bit is the curve ball when it comes to fields that confer a statistical _advantage_ to the visiting team!)

<comment><USER6> tbh, I don't really understand why Coors would be such an advantage. It's not like the visiting team doesn't also benefit from the additional ball flight.

Do you think it has to do with roster building? Like the Rockies don't spend money on pitching because pitching has less value at Coors, so they load up on offensive talent instead?

<comment><USER7> In addition to farther fly ball flight, the thinner air in Coors Field lessens the amount of distance a breaking ball moves when pitched. You'd think they would spend top dollar for every pitcher with a heavy 94+ mph sinker.

While other teams play a single (or handful of) series a year at Coors Field, the Rockies have to adjust to breaking pitches being more effective while playing away half the time which would be a bigger disadvantage than the ball not flying as far at away ballparks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Freakonomics covered this in one of their podcasts. Their finding was that home-field advantage had more to do with the crowd influencing the calls of the officials. They would typically favor the home team. I wonder if this will change further with the use of VAR.

[https://freakonomics.com/2011/12/18/football-freakonomics- ho...](https://freakonomics.com/2011/12/18/football-freakonomics-how- advantageous-is-home-field-advantage-and-why/)

<comment><USER9> It's amazing that the MLB has the smallest home field advantage, despite the fact that baseball fields are actually pretty different from each other.

I would've thought stuff like being used to the visual backdrop behind a pitcher's arm would let you see a pitch better or knowing where to stand to best play a ball caroming off the outfield wall would give more of an advantage.

<comment><USER10> > It's amazing that the MLB has the smallest home field advantage

And given that, relative to the other sports, there's an actual difference in the rules and play of the game based on which team is at home (less so now hat the DH is in both leagues).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm really surprised we don't hear more about teams using tools like VR to play in the 'opponents turf'. One thing I noticed playing sports was how terrible we could feel just from not knowing where locker rooms are when one gets off a bus. I would love to see a study do something along the lines of, make players travel to opponents facilities a few times and check results.

This above result could easily take place in VR for the opponents facilities and arena. Model their locker rooms, field/court/etc, model screaming fans of the wrong color, model boos, etc etc. Essentially try and eliminate some home field advantage by making it feel more like home.

<comment><USER12> Not VR but it was reported the English rugby team were training in front of giant speakers to prepare for matches against Wales [0], who have a famously loud crowd and a stadium that amplifies it, especially if the roof is closed.

I'd be surprised if gridiron teams don't do something similar since crowd noise is genuinely a tactical issue there (it's more disruptive to the offense) in addition to a psychological one.

[0] [https://www.skysports.com/rugby- union/news/12333/9699222/six...](https://www.skysports.com/rugby- union/news/12333/9699222/six-nations-england-using-speakers-to-replicate- noise-ahead-of-wales-game)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The Italian league games I've seen played in empty stadiums have been great. I think adding the sense of hearing back into the game due to lack of crowd noise does a lot for a team's coordination and thus quality of play. Maybe this is just my opinion based on a few matches, but there is a palpable difference in play.

Also a lot less flopping on the ground in fake agony. With no crowd to play to, players fall over and then get back up again. It's very refreshing to watch.

<comment><USER14> I was under the impression that they fell over in agony for the refs, not the crowd? But then I don't know much about soccer.

<comment><USER15> Perhaps it's harder to justify internally if the only people watching know exactly what you just did? I've always been surprised by the shamelessness of soccer dives, I definitely don't understand it.

<comment> dynamite-ready A totally subjective answer here, but I think it's because of the speed the game is played at.

It's very easy to trip when sprinting at full speed while concentrating on a single object. The slightest external force will put you on the ground very quickly.

Rugby, Gridiron and Ice Hockey players will also know that, but frequent falls under pressure are expected by the rules. In soccer, it's a lot more subtle (shirt pulling, various rules around obstruction, the height at which you keep your hands... all sorts). There's plenty of opportunity fool a referee, so you will instinctively try to do so. Especially if your style of play generally draws opposing players into fouling you regularly already.

I'd say that the introduction of video referees (VAR) are probably more effective in stopping that kind of behaviour, than empty stadiums. But you'd never know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> dynamite-ready I also wonder if player performance has measurably improved (or degraded), when playing regularly without an audience.

<comment><USER16> I think this is interesting and something I've thought about since the return of football.

Jurgen Klopp was always trying to get the crowd engaged and pumped up because he believes it has a huge effect on how his Liverpool team play. Without the crowd they seem to be missing that extra 1% of intensity that made them incredible pre-lockdown.

Whereas Manchester City probably don't feed off the crowd as much as Liverpool do. Manchester City are all about rehearsed routines so they may even find it easier without a crowd as they'll be able to communicate much easier.

<comment><USER17> Hard to say because by the start of lockdown Liverpool had basically wrapped up the title. Their performance dropped after they were mathematically champions.

<comment><USER18> Yeah I agree with this. They were in top form and the crowd obviously helped. Anfield is massive for the team with supporters around. But after having such a long break due to the lockdown can change the dynamics. Its hard to produce that kind of form after a hiatus. And yes, maybe there even was something about already having won the league mathematically. It can calm the players and lower the intensity slightly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I can understand this. Portsmouth at home is pretty loud and vocal. After watching Pompey fail in the play offs, it might have helped, but then again that's probably because Kenny Jacket football style is horrible. #JacketOut

</comment><comment><USER20> Very interesting.

I don't know whether this study measures only the outcome or contributing factors. For example, in Germany, anti-COVID measurements lead to the following result: way fewer to now discussions with the umpire. Pack forming has been forbidden. Empty stadiums are only part of the measures but, in my opinion, not the contributing factors. These factors contributed massively to the pace of the game. And if no players are trying to influence the umpire - well, you get different results.

</comment><comment><USER21> Familiarity of the stadium also count, I mean you are going to play in an arena 19 times vs once, there will be differences.

</comment><comment><USER22> disadvantage for extrinsic motivators relative to internal is that work does not persist long once external rewards are removed [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#Extrinsic_motivatio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#Extrinsic_motivation)</comment>


An HTTP client in Haskell using io-streams - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.operationaldynamics.com/andrew/software/haskell/http-streams-introduction

<comment><USER2> I have to say this looks like a really convenient library!

Aside: As a Haskell beginner, I find it astonishing that 1-letter names are the norm in Haskell-land. To me, names are not just placeholders imposed on you by the language, they should convey meaning, too!

<comment><AUTHOR> As always, parametric polymorphism necessitates one-letter names, as variables can really stand for anything at all. The compiler guarantees you can't know much (or anything) about some polymorphic variables.

Other idioms come from math, e.g. 'x' for an unknown value, and then we get 'xs' for a list of unknown values.

        map :: (a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]
        map f (x:xs) = f x : map f xs

Is much clearer than the Zed Shaw version:

        map theFunction (firstElement:otherElements) = theFunction firstElement : map theFunction otherElements

<comment><USER2> I'm aware of polymorphism and the list convention and I'm not going to argue against them.

However, the example code uses `c' for connection and `q' for query. Surely, knowing what those are from the variable name would be a good thing?

It's not that I want to impose Obj-C's verbosity but the other extreme (1-letter names) is just as bad.

<comment><USER3> It's not often discussed in polite company, but Haskell programmers are actually not Homo sapiens sapiens. They're a whole other sentient species walking invisibly among us. Their Achilles heel is the keystroke: each one like smoking a cigarette is to us (in terms of damage, not addiction). So while you and I have the luxury of calling something "connection", a Haskell programmer considers that 9 steps closer to fingertip cancer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well, at least the monad abuse uses a real monad, but why not just use lens (<http://lens.github.com/>)?

</comment><comment><USER5> Io-streams looks nice, but I think I'll stay with pipes. Along with pipes- safe, it lets you for instance open resources safely inside your stream, which is a very convenient feature at times.

<comment><USER6> I like Snap, but I am still skeptic too. One of the nicer things of enumeratee, conduit, and pipes is that you can use them in pure code as well. io-streams drags in the IO monad if you want to structure code as streams, even if your 'enumerator', 'enumeratee' or 'iterator' is pure.

<comment><USER5> I think that's a design goal. The idea is to pipe IO streams and not arbitrary streams, which seems to make for a much less complicated machinery (just look at the types signatures from pipes :) ). It's a viable design choice, but it certainly has drawbacks as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Look Ma, no sockets?)</comment>


Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy  - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/jonathan-ive-on-apples-design-process-and-product-philosophy/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 <comment><USER2> [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Jonathan+Ive+on+Apple%27s+Design+P...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Jonathan+Ive+on+Apple%27s+Design+Process#!/story/sort_by_date/0/Jonathan%20Ive%20on%20Apple's%20Design%20Process)</comment>


Brexit could mean UK users lose Netflix and Spotify - <AUTHOR> https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/netflix-spotify-could-be-switched-off-after-brexit-1-5734720 <comment><USER2> "Spotify users might have their accounts blocked when outside the UK if there is a no-deal Brexit"

So only while traveling. Makes sense, that's a EU regulation.</comment>


White America's collapsing birth rate is changing the face of the country - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/node/18488452

<comment><USER2> Something similar is happening in Europe, with Islamic immigrants.</comment>


What can a software developer do about climate change? - <AUTHOR> https://codewithoutrules.com/2019/09/10/software-developers-climage-change/ <comment><USER3> I made a post along these lines the other day regarding how best to put money to work via charitable donations.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21024358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21024358)

A software developer in a fairly standard job in the Western world likely earns double the minimum wage. Someone at an adtech company could well be an order of magnitude higher.

5, 10 or (insert value here)% of that is an amount you won't even notice but would make a spectacular difference if we all did it, and if you're somewhere like SF or London your money will go a hell of a long way elsewhere in the world.

I've committed to putting at least $500 a month towards a selection of charities and plan to increase that over time. I don't need more toys.

The article here also mentions the idea of negotiating, or strongarming, your way into a shorter working week in order that you have time to act politically. I agree with that wholeheartedly - variety is the spice of life in any case!

</comment><comment><USER4> If you're into machine learning you might consider projects like improving crop yields from historical data and tracking deforestation using satellite imagery. Microsoft has a whole "AI for Earth Initiative", too [0], if you're looking for ideas.

[0] [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for- earth](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for-earth)

</comment><comment><USER5> I would love to invest in a fund that invests in solar and wind plants. With the investment goal to become carbon negative. What options are therefor people like us (i.e. one with detailed reporting how money was spent, perhaps options to invest more than just money, e.g. time and expertise etc.)?

</comment><comment><USER6> For anyone looking to get involved but unsure how or where, try this too: [http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/](http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/). It's been posted before, but is a great starting point.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm all for the idea of incremental positive change. Yes, no individual person, city or country can fix this, but if our response to that is to be pessimistic, defeated and do nothing, then we all fail. Advocacy for cycling is one positive thing, and there are so many more.

</comment><comment><USER7> I know how absurd this may sound but I think it's still rationally true.

We could remove all the bloat. There is a lot of bloat in modern systems that just causes unnecessary heat and energy consumption. I'm sure it adds up once we consider all the edge devices needing bigger lithium batteries and data centers needing air conditioning.

I do exactly the same kind of computing today that I did in the early 90s. The devices got way faster and way more energy efficient but my experience is fundamentally the same. Boggles the mind.

</comment><comment><USER8> Try chipping in $100 to a local business so that it can offer free or subsidized electricity to electric vehicles. If you can do that with 20 people, then you can likely get it done. Offer to repair a damaged EV charger, if it is in a place where it can be effective. I've got a list of about 20 software projects that could possibly make a difference too. Let me add, that my MacBook Pro has taken a licking from at least one cycling accident, and held up like a champ.

</comment><comment><USER9> This idea has more holes than Swiss cheese, yet heck with it: remove layers of abstraction from entire systems—hardware to software and everything in between.

Each layer consumes additional resources which ultimately consumes energy.

In today's environment, we try and abstract anything and everything away. From the services we use to the software we create and if we were to take a look at those dependencies, that graph would be stuff of nightmares.

</comment><comment><USER10> I read the article, and there was nothing in it about what you eat and how this _might_, a little bitty bit, also affect the climate/earth.

</comment><comment><USER11> Refuse to work on anything but C/C++ or Rust codebases.

</comment><comment><USER12> Buy and eat from local, sustainable farms. Consider broader impact when "upgrading". Donate used electronics to organizations that refurbish and reuse them. Donate to organizations that plant trees with minimal overhead.

Step outside the surface level boxes that have people protesting over straws and consider your larger usage. Stop buying products from countries that have horrible track records for environmental waste and pollution. Inform those politicians that represent you that you want a higher level of accountability.

To the aoc/green-new-deal supporters, drop the socialist and identity politics and push legislation centered on specific issues that can be implemented independently.

</comment><comment><USER13> Good grief, there's ONLY one thing: have less than two children! In a couple of generations this would cut the word's population in half, assuming everyone followed step.

<comment><USER14> The whole point of improving environment is to make it better _for people_. If there is no people, then any state of environment, naturally speaking, is perfectly fine.

Having less children is, in effect, refusing to solve the problem.

<comment><USER13> The other way of solving the problem is to let people kill each other fighting over dwindling resources as the planet dies and becomes sterile, because we're not smart enough as a species to find and maintain a sustainable state of equilibrium with our environment. This scenario is apparently the one we're choosing, by default.

Human industrial/economic activity is what's killing the planet. The planet cannot sustain the side effects of an economy of 7 billion people. It doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what you say, it doesn't matter if you recycle, or drink out of paper straws, or vote for the green party, or switch to hydrogen cars, or bury your head in the sand. If you want to solve the problem, but don't want to have less children, then figure out another way to reduce the population by billions of people. I can't wait to hear it.

<comment><USER14> > If you want to solve the problem, but don't want to have less children, then > figure out another way to reduce the population by billions of people. I > can't wait to hear it.

Maybe you don't need to reduce population at all - hence no need to find a way? How about just using existing resources - which are plentiful - and also new resources - which are available - to your needs without also getting those resources uses harming you (society)?

> Human industrial/economic activity is what's killing the planet.

Important here is that it's not the existence of this activity which kills, it's the way the activity is done. If so, we need to change the way. There are seemingly enough suggestions about how specifically it could be done - <USER2> efficiency, better control for exhausts, pollutions, single-use items etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Probably the best thing would be to resist all urges to get involved with bitcoin.</comment>


The Worst for U.S. Renters and Apartment Owners Is yet to Come - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-24/the-worst-for-u-s-renters-and-apartment-owners-is-yet-to-come <comment><USER2> While I am pretty worried about this...

> One in three renters failed to make their full payment in the first week of > July...

This is pretty common. There are a lot of reasons why a huge portion of US renters can't manage to get the check into the landlord by the 5th of the month. Better to check how many are consistently x days (usually 30) behind on rent.</comment>


Heroku now abides by Safe Harbor - <AUTHOR> https://www.heroku.com/policy/privacy

<comment><USER2> Safe Harbour is a complete con.

This is good news if you're a business that needs to cover its ass, bad news if your personal data ends up somewhere where it has zero legal privacy protection.</comment>


Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna - <AUTHOR> https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n06/michele-pridmore-brown/unfeeling-malice <comment><USER2> Rather than read this review, you're better off reading responses from other experts to this book such as Simon Baron-Cohen and Steve Silberman:

[http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2018/04/on-hans- asperger-...](http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2018/04/on-hans-asperger- nazis-and-autism.html)

[https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...](https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-018-0209-5)

<comment><USER3> Thank you.

This is one area of the Nazi horror that I wasn't very well acquainted with. Makes me sick to think about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Honestly? This is one of the most reactive discussions of an article i have seen on this site. I assume that suggests something about the concept of asperger's as it exists in the here and now. I haven't read the whole article, and obviously it has a slant, but i don't think it is underhanded writing. If anything of postmodernism or death of the author or critical theory has any merit at all, I don't think it's necessarily a propaganda hit piece to examine the context the diagnosis came from. Psychiatric sorts of labels are still fundamentally pretty nebulous post hoc categories to dump people in and not tests for the presence of a pathogen etc.

I have my own slant, so sure, i am agreeing with points that articulate my own feelings better than I have. But even if you disagree there has to be some mechanism for elevating a dialogue, and i think that's one.

In my own personal experience, people who had or fit the diagnostic model were socially isolated, basically unfulfilled and uncomfortable in some way, and i could see that by the way they engaged verbally and i was happy to engage back wherever i could. Sure; i don't actually want to talk about star wars novels or what snack foods someone ate 20 years ago at summer camp for two hours. But sometimes if you are socially isolated too, it can feel good just to know you gave someone else the chance to open up and be animated. That requires an investment though, and i can understand how tired a "normal" person would get of doing that essentially as charity.

But you guys sure could have been more charitable in the discussion here, and not so deeply polarized. My experience with mental health issues is that they polarize people kind of abusively. You guys are generally the smartest and most mature place i can go to lurk a discussion. I'm sad to see that personal stake being used against that comity and intellectual atmosphere.

<comment><USER5> I try to let lonely people speak about their passions with me for sort of the same reason.

Multiple times I have gotten shocked reactions when they discover after several conversations that I have never played World of Warcraft, or watched Doctor Who, because we have been talking about it for so long. This is usually because the more isolated someone is the less questions they ask and they more 1-way the conversation is, but it can result in hurt feelings if they feel mislead. So now I am sure to position myself early as interested but not experienced for whatever made up reason.

This not only helps them connect with someone, but has given me the most fascinating insights into the thought process, inner lives, and domain expertise of people very different from me. But I also wonder if this intense listening, but not participating psychological voyeurism is part of my own personality disorder... and preventing me from fully engaging with the world.

I took this strange passion so far that I attempted to make a startup where semi-famous people read Audio Books from OTHER authors, and then paused in between chapters to give you their reflections on what they had just read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Some of the remains of those children were not buried until 2002. [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/29/world/vienna-buries- child...](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/29/world/vienna-buries-child- victims-of-the-nazis.html)

When I was six years old, I found in an old 'news annual' book a terrible photo from one of the concentration camps. I was upset for days. To this day, I struggle to understand how such intense psychopaths come into power.

<comment><USER7> Here you can see a video of how they're treated now in Western Europe: locked up, zero choices for the kid, constantly locked up, isolation cells, ... the Netherlands is even worse.

Yes, it's probably better than Nazi Poland. It's still a moral disaster.

Note that while it _is_ true that some kids have committed a crime, there's 2 big remarks to be made there:

1) only <10% have been accused of a crime at all, 90% is there "for their own protection". Doesn't save them from the isolation cells.

2) even for those 10%, they have only been accused. Youth laws do not require any kind of proof. Nor is there defense.

3) The same goes for the 90%, all there is to say the home situation is not safe is the word of one youth worker. This youth worker has never seen the child before the trial, they have only received a single document from another youth worker who is supposed to have seen the child (but often hasn't, in fact that they fail to see those children is often a reason for passing the case to the justice system in the first place: "lack of cooperation")

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzFaNx1Y-fY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzFaNx1Y-fY)

(if you set the captions on and to English you should be able to understand)

<comment><USER6> Ow. Putting teens who haven't committed crimes into an institution is bad enough ... but isolation without cause is much more wrong-headed, especially at that age. Thanks for opening my eyes to this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I can see why Psychology has moved away from using the name "Asperger's." Everything this article describes (and it is a high quality article) is messed up on so many levels.

<comment><USER9> Psychology didn't move on because they didn't like Hans. They changed because they identifir a spectrum from mild to severe. The problem is that by collapsing the vocabulary, it obfuscates communication where one person thinks you're talking about Asperger's and the other is thinking of someone who can't speak or hold down a job and communicates by screaming and kicking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Some ideas from this should be rewritten into a more readable/ADHD-friendly piece to warn highly-functioning-Aspergers people and those with somewhat similar "less sociable" personalities _against growing fond of any ultra- right-wing /(techno)fascist and neo-natzy ideologies that may seem seem appealing!_ Some of them, and even some who are normally sociable but more ultra-individualistic, or more order-loving, can be attracted to order and clear patterns, and right-wing-ish groups tend to disguise themselves as being "ordered and rational" despite their hate-spreading and homicidal agendas...

 _Any heavy-right-wing and /or ultra-nationalistic or xenophobic ideology is at its core anti-individualistic anti-"people who develop their minds along their own tracks separate from society"._

There is a _huge_ difference between people who are less-integrated / less- affective / less-social / Gemüt-poor, and people with hateful, resentful and genocidal-friendly attitudes. "Gemüt-rich people" simply have a higher inertia by being anchored to their societies so they may seem "better" because it's harder to make them do horrible things when they are in a healthy society. _But as in physics, inertia works both ways, "Gemüt-rich" or more conformist people will keep doing horrible things (and competing + cooperating to be more horrible) once they start doing them!_

"Badly socially integrated", asocial, highly-functional-autism or "Gemüt-poor" individuals can also function as a society's immune system that helps it fight back and recover from malignant ideologies like nazism and extremist- communism!

<comment><USER11> People are products of their social environments. Outcomes are hardly determined solely by a single personality trait, like how "sociable" or "not sociable" (or whatever you want to call this) they are.

<comment><USER10> > People are products of their social environments

This is both a useless platitude and deeply offensive to state... we may be the product of an environment, but we also produce/reshape the environment on our turn, that's _the important part of the loop, and the part we can act upon!_

Focusing on the other is both counter-productive and depression-inducing. We're humans because we create / build / forge / destroy / reshape our environment, otherwise we could just as well imagine we're vegetables growing in a "social garden" fed by "societal night soil fertilizer" \- such an attitude can only promote apathy and justify not taking responsibility for things!

All people have innate characteristics/talents/deficiencies etc., we're not blank slates programmed by "the social environment", it's about understanding how to work with what we get from the gene + "random chaos of the natural environment" lottery...

<comment><USER11> I think there is a failure to communicate somewhere. I'm certainly not suggesting that people are born as blank slates. I'm just suggesting that there is a lot that happens in the years between birth and adulthood that influence outcomes. Whatever stuff we are born with is not some kind of predetermined fate that "we will do/behave X."

I've raised two special needs sons. They are late twenties/early thirties. This is a problem space I've thought a lot about. My thoughts on the subject seem to generally not plug into the current public narrative.

I'm still trying to figure out how to write effectively about it so it's clear to other people.

<comment><USER10> Sorry, yes, there's probably a communication issue :) You surely have a lot of valuable things to say.

Just _don 't ever starts with_ "people are products of their social environments", it can send the totally wrong vibe to many people and make cause the rest of the message be misunderstood. At least reword it somehow. Lots of people are "violently allergic" to this kind of social-determinism style discourse.

<comment><USER11> It's not social determinism. It's more like "nature _and_ nurture."

But I will try to be clearer in the future.

Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Speaking as someone with Asperger's, the idea that the disorder would be a "modern invention" or like a thing invented by Nazis is completely ludicrous. It's on the same level as claiming homosexuality is a life-style choice. :)

One of the main difficulties for me is determining closeness of relationships. Like a distance metric; close relatives being closer than friends which are closer than acquaintances which in turn are closer than unknowns and enemies are very far away. I have never been able to understand how that distance metric works and therefore been unable to distinguish between friends and foes. Autism is not an evolutionary adaptation. It could be a remnant from the Neanderthal genome, as some scientists suggests, as that species were less group-oriented than Homo Sapiens.

<comment><USER13> _" One of the main difficulties for me is determining closeness of relationships. Like a distance metric; close relatives being closer than friends which are closer than acquaintances which in turn are closer than unknowns and enemies are very far away. I have never been able to understand how that distance metric works and therefore been unable to distinguish between friends and foes. Autism is not an evolutionary"_

If someone intends to hurt you, where would you put that person on the friend or foe spectrum?

If someone intends to help you, where would you put that person on the friend or foe spectrum?

If someone likes you and you like them, where would you put that person on the friend or foe spectrum?

If you don't like someone and they don't like you, where would you put that person on the friend or foe spectrum?

How about for a person who doesn't like you and you don't like them and they intend to hurt you?

Those are the kinds of questions the answers to which would help me to determine whether someone is a friend or foe.

<comment><USER14> Except:

How do you know that someone intends to hurt you?

How do you know that someone intends to help you?

How do you know that someone likes you?

How do you know that someone doesn't like you?

Unless you can accurately answer those questions, you'll never know the closeness of your relationships.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Awful title.

<comment><USER16> If you can suggest a more accurate and neutral title, preferably using language drawn from the article, we'll be happy to change it.

<comment><USER15> I'd be up for most anything that's not this unfortunate combination of the article title with the partial title of the book being reviewed; that combo leads to a headline that sounds like it's intending an unfortunate and incorrect (and Nazi-originated, which is the point of the article!) description of kids who have been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.

I'd tentatively suggest "Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna (LRB review)" but I'm sure others could come up with better suggestions.

Thanks!

(To be clear: I'm sure there was zero malice behind this title, it's just an unfortunate display issue.)

<comment><USER16> OK, we've replaced the title. I've been thinking recently that for book review articles maybe we should just use the book title anyhow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Somehow every time I read anything about psychology, I think of astrology and alchemy. Such an underdeveloped field, full of self-serving and self- projecting dangerous charlatans.

<comment><USER16> Maybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

<comment><USER18> Will you please open up my giant black ass cheeks and suck the shit from my anus?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Where is the value in this article? It is just gossip.

OK, I have aspergers and I have kids with aspergers, all professionally diagnosed. And I have read the history of Dr Asperger multiple times already, it really is not that hard to find. So with that I try to read this article...and I can't. I reads too much like gossip magazine.

The entire purpose, whether the author wants to admit it or not, is to create a negative association between Asperger's syndrome and Dr. Asperger. So now, if you find out someone has Aspergers your thought process will start with "oh, that is horrible". This creates a new wave of idiots who start conversations with "Did you know Dr Asperger was a bad man?"...Yes, and he is dead now, so how is that relevant to anything?

So, if you like reading gossip, I'm sure this is a fun read for you. But there it contains nothing of value.

<comment><USER11> _The entire purpose, whether the author wants to admit it or not, is to create a negative association between Asperger 's syndrome and Dr. Asperger._

No, that's not the point at all. The point is to question the validity of the concept.

It's apparently the Nazi version of so much race based BS in the US. The US has a long history of saying people of color are less intelligent, unfit to lead, are happier as servants and so forth. It justifies condemning them to a permanent underclass.

If autism is really what the Nazi regime chose to call people it found inadequately emotionally manipulable for its purposes, then you have to question the validity of the label at all.

Then you have to wonder if maybe they are just people and maybe people come in a wide variety of flavors and maybe the flavor we call "autism" isn't some inherent defect after all.

<comment><USER19> That would be true if no further research has been done in the field and no progress has been made, as if we are only using the exact definitions described 80 years ago. But we haven't. There has been more research done, and the notions have progressed. If we throw it all out, we will have to recreate it again. If you rename it, you still don't escape the legacy. All of this is futile.

<comment><USER11> Such labels start from an assumption that there is some "normal" or "standard" human being to compare us all against and if you aren't "normal," then you are defective. The neurodiversity movement generally seems to posit that being different isn't fundamentally defective.

I used to spend a lot of time on parenting lists and even was a low level presenter at a gifted conference when I was briefly Director of Community Life for The TAG Project. I have two special needs sons who likely qualify for a label somewhere on the autism spectrum, though neither has a formal diagnosis.

I just gave them a lot of instruction on why people do the things they do and how social stuff works while respecting the fact that my sons didn't innately want to interact with others in the "standard" manner. I get along well with them.

I think it is fundamentally problematic to label people as defective simply for being different. Their father likely also qualifies for a diagnosis somewhere on the autism spectrum. As far as I know, he has never sought a diagnosis.

He joined the army when he was twenty and we had an old fashioned marriage.

In the army, everyone where's a uniform. This fits well with the current standard recommendation to let ASD people get multiple copies of their favorite items and dress the same everyday. Wearing a uniform for the job is something most people complain about. For him, it worked well. Bonus points: He wasn't "weird" or "defective" for dressing the same everyday. He was just doing what was required of him by the job.

Military uniforms have the person's last name on the front above the pocket. The fact that he had trouble recognizing faces was not important. All his coworkers had labels.

He was very good at his job, but I handled a lot of the traditional duties typically handled by a full-time wife. This is part of why he excelled at his job. It was the only thing he really needed to focus on.

Over the years, I've seen some research indicating that men with full-time wives typically rise through the ranks at work faster. I've discussed such with other college educated women and so forth.

In the lifetime of my children, the world stopped being predominantly agrarian and became predominantly urban. Most people now live in cities and this has been true for less than thirty years.

In short, the world has changed tremendously. Yet, rather than positing that the world we created is ill-suited to the needs of many humans, we posit that folks who don't readily fit into this never-before-seen highly technologically advanced society were simply born broken. We posit that there is suddenly a shockingly high percentage of defective humans.

I have to question that framing. It doesn't fit with my understanding at all of life, the universe and everything.

It isn't meant to threaten your coping mechanisms.

<comment><USER3> I think you make excellent points worth thinking about here.

Personally, I was struck when I saw how kids in my son's kindergarten were bucketed on the angel->troublemaker spectrum. It's a very one-dimensional approach.

At the end of the day, people usually find their role where they click. A top- tier salesperson or engineer have very different personalities and traits that make them effective, but aren't inherently better or worse than each other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> For those that read the comments first - content warning for discussion of Nazi mass murder of children.</comment>


Blender 2.8 project status - <AUTHOR> https://code.blender.org/2016/11/blender-2-8-project-status/ <comment><USER2> "Better news: the Blender Game Engine project might be getting a revival. The UPBGE team is very motivated to keep Blender engine work, and help with aligning BGE with the goals we set for 2.8 – at least to use the new viewport and pbr shader system. A new logic system is still undefined."

Very excited about this. I deeply want to use Py with BGE, but I had been worried about learning a soon to be deprecated game framework. There have been a couple tickets open on the main blender tracker about completely deprecating BGE and it seemed like a lot of core developers were in favor of doing that so as to not divert away valuable dev time from core development.

<comment><USER3> I feel like Blender Game Engine is a massive waste of dev resources. There are much better game engines out there. I wish Blender concentrated on their core software. Full OpenCL support in Cycles would be nice.

<comment><USER2> I don't think it's an unreasonable position, and I have read similar arguments on the mailing list. I think you're correct that there are much better game engines out there. But, I like that BGE is open source, I like how well it integrates with Blender, and I like that it has Python as a first class citizen. For that reason, I don't know if it necessarily has to compete with other game engines, especially AAA ones. It could just be something which integrates well with numpy, SciPy, etc.

<comment><USER4> Ironically the license (GPL) is one of the biggest show stoppers for BGE to get taken seriously.

I feel like building the engine in to blender is not very viable because of the GPL license, but using Blender as a game editor is not a bad idea at all - so if you're going to do an OSS game engine I think the best solution would be to start with a more permissive license (eg. MIT or something like that) and not have any dependencies on blender in the actual engine, instead the blender integration code should be strictly separate, that part would be covered by GPL, but the engine core would still remain MIT as it's not derived from GPL code, so you could distribute your game without releasing the source.

<comment><USER5> I'm sorry, but this is just not true. You do not need to release your source code or assets for a commercial game.

According to the licensing page[1], you just need to distribute your executable and core .blend file separately. You would have a (GPL) small python script which loads your (commercial, closed source) blend file containing all of your artwork and Python code.

[1] [https://www.blender.org/manual/game_engine/licensing.html#st...](https://www.blender.org/manual/game_engine/licensing.html#standalone- games)

<comment><USER6> u realize blend file isn't encrypted or obfuscated?

<comment><USER7> Obfuscation doesn't work for copy protection anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I know that it's not really something that can be changed on a whim, but I feel like Blender's UI is deeply strange and often quite dreadful.

<comment><USER9> Before 2.5 I hated the UI. But after 2.5, I realized I could work so much faster once I learned the keys and layout. I have used 3ds Max for years and even knowing a lot about that software, I still find myself exporting to blender so I can do something. Usually I can do something in blender with only a couple key presses where in other software I have to click a few different buttons in various popup windows, etc.

I do think some of the UI needs to be a little more logical, but aside from that I honestly want to see their UI in more.

<comment><USER10> it's basically the vi of 3d modellers (:

<comment><USER11> I wouldn't call it vi. I'd call it the Windows API of 3d modelers.

vi is easy. Type vi file.txt

1\. To delete, type x. 2\. To insert, type a. 3\. To save and quit, type ZZ. 4\. To move up, down, right left (in "classic" vi), use "KJLH"

There. You can be productive.

Not fully, but enough to get basics done.

To use blender's relatively basic tools, say to draw a glass wall, you need a step by step guide, using quite obscure commands.

Reminds me of Windows API (or GIMP, by the way)

<comment><USER12> It is very close to vi/vim's philosophy - different modes for different task, key bindings are mnemonics, you combine basic commands to more complex tasks. Even window manipulation is the same with the hierarchy of content->splits as viewports->layouts.

It is harder to do work without understanding these concepts in blender because editing text is simpler, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is fantastic news! I use mostly blender for 3d printing, but I expect the 3d scene to get quite frantic when mixed reality will be around. Really hope we may get an opensource alternative to Unity3d (even if Unity is great by itself, but you know, competition never hurt users).

<comment><USER14> The opensource alternative to Unity is Godot. The 3D isn't great yet, but they're working on it.

<comment><USER15> The open source alternative to Unity is UnrealEngine4. Epic's licensing is royalty based, if you make more than a certain amount per quarter. Unreal has both a mature AAA-grade toolkit, and a convenient graphical language for quickly prototyping before optimizing into the C++.

<comment><USER16> UnrealEngine4 isn't open source. Just because the source is available doesn't make something open source. The source code to Windows 2000 is available but it's definitely not open source.

The agreed definition is "Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose."[1]

There is a modern trend to redefine it as "something for which I can freely get the source code" but that ignores the original ideals of collaboration and cooperation.

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open- source_software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Yes. We are reviving the BGE. But we need the collaboration from the community (make games so the engine doesn't die). Currently it suffers from abandon syndrome, where every user abandon it to use other engines. If you want to ask questions (in real time), just join #upbgecoders on IRC (freenode). We will answer all the questions :)

Thanks for mentioning us!

</comment><comment><USER14> Exciting! I do wish we'd get "everything nodes," but I understand why we can't.

It's also nice that the VSE isn't getting cut (as was hinted might happen at one phase).

</comment><comment><USER18> One thing I'd love to see is better distributed network rendering. Right now it's neither easy nor intuitive to set up, and last time I tried it (a year or so ago) I couldn't get distributed still rendering to work...

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't see Rust in their timeline, this must be a project for old people.

<comment><USER20> I was just thinking it would be neat to get some Rust in there. Yes, very predictable I know.

<comment><USER20> Downvotes on a mea culpa? Sheesh.</comment></comment></comment>


A Proof About Where Symmetries Can't Exist - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-proof-about-where-symmetries-cant-exist-20181023/ <comment><USER2> Layman's question: Does this have any implications for string theory, given the 10 spacial dimensions in which it operates (if including M-theory)?</comment>


Tell PG: Cal football game (same day/campus as Startup School) to start @ 1:30 - <AUTHOR> http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101209aaa.html

<comment><AUTHOR> With a 1:30 pm kick off time there won't be any conflict with crowds in terms of starting Startup School at 9am. I would, however, suggest a late lunch (at or after 1:30pm) to avoid fans and long lines at the local restaurants. The biggest problems will probably be at the end given that the game will probably end around 4:30 pm and it's generally a couple of hours before the crowds in/around campus and traffic out of Berkeley start to die down.

I'd recommend people park outside of Berkeley and BART (www.bart.gov) in.

Other notes:

\- parking fines are doubled on game days

\- many parking lots that are normally public lots on weekends are more expensive and/or reserved specifically for fans with season parking passes

\- many streets that normally allow street parking don't allow parking on game days.

Finally - Go Bears!

<comment><USER2> Definitely take Bart in if you can. Almost all of the UC Berkeley parking garages/ lots are reserved, and the street parking is either limited or metered. The only other option is to pay the $40-$60 fee some people charge to park in their driveway.

<comment><USER2> The other option would be to park further away if you can't find parking and take the bus in.

Parking along University, you can take the 52L. [http://www.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?version_i...](http://www.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?version_id=11&quick_line=52l&Go=Go&maps_line=52l&current_schedule=5734)

Or on Telegraph, take the 1. [http://www.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?version_i...](http://www.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?version_id=11&quick_line=1&Go=Go&maps_line=1&current_schedule=5649)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Protip: on a game day, Berkeley traffic grinds to a standstill. This is due to the fact that in Berkeley, some things (well, most things) are backwards, so traffic engineers figure out new and creative ways to _impede_ the flow of traffic rather than improve it. Don't delude yourself into thinking you can find a parking space.

<comment><USER4> That's not entirely senseless--traffic engineers have tried and failed to improve the flow of traffic in almost all major metropolitan areas where automobiles are the primary means of transport. It appears that automobile traffic simply does not scale. As a result, encouraging people to abandon automobiles for other forms of transportation is the best solution left.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> We did know that. We're going to advise people not to even try to park in Berkeley.

<comment><AUTHOR> Okay. I knew that you knew about the game as I had mentioned it before (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=764601>) but wasn't sure if you knew about the start time as it was just announced.

Thought the game's start time would be useful info to know when scheduling the lunch break and such (eg - Trying to get a bite to eat when the fans are already in the stadium will be a lot faster than going when they're all having their pre-game chow).

Thanks for putting together another Startup School!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You should still be able to park if you are parking 10-15 blocks away from campus. Go south or west. When I was living on Berkeley you could still always find a spot to park on game day if you went south of Ward street or so.

</comment><comment><USER7> He knows: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=764601>

<comment><AUTHOR> He knows there is a game (I posted that) but kick off time wasn't announced until yesterday and YC/PG may want to take it under consideration when scheduling the day's itinerary (particularly when to have the lunch break). Hence my submission.

<comment><USER8> Actually, you could make it a Tell PG/HN, because I was planning on driving there. Now, I know BART is the way to go. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Meh... it's against the Cougars. Worst team in the Pac-10... I'd be surprised if anyone shows up ;-)

<comment><USER10> Versus the (previously) most overrated team in the pac-10 :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Stanford's BASES (<http://bases.stanford.edu>) is getting interest from people riding up from South Bay to see if we can get a bus. Sit tight you'll get a notice soon. =)

<comment><USER11> Hey all - you should have gotten the email, but sign up here if you need a ride from Stanford area. <http://bit.ly/startup-school-rides>

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> If you're in the south bay and want to travel in a group, let me know (email in profile). We can organize carpools for travel to BART.

The best route I see from the south bay is Freemont BART to Downtown Berkeley BART: [http://www.bart.gov/schedules/quickplanner.aspx?orig=FRMT...](http://www.bart.gov/schedules/quickplanner.aspx?orig=FRMT&addr1=&dest=DBRK&addr2=&type=arrival&date=10%2F24%2F2009&time=8%3A30+AM)

</comment><comment><USER13> good thing it's only washington state.</comment>


Finding the Energy to Work on Your Side Hustle - <AUTHOR> https://www.startups.co/articles/finding-the-energy-to-work-on-your-sidehustle?ref=quuu&utm_content=buffer98172&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer <comment><USER2> I do the opposite, I work on my side project right after I wake up and make my coffee. Then I go to the gym and workout, then head into work. The workout is the perfect reset and I have not really had any issues with my side project taking over my thoughts while doing my full time job.

<comment><USER3> I cannot get more than 4-5 hours of pure brain work out of my day. Usually, those hours are spent at work, except on weekends. I have no idea how other people do that but if I regularly spend more than 8 hours working per day and then add a few hours of _even more_ programming in the evening, I go insane.

<comment><USER4> I regularly feel that way. But when I stop working on side projects, I feel worthless. I'm sure it's not a healthy place to be. I don't see how side projects could get anywhere without a little irrationality - it's inherently unhealthy to take on what amounts to a second job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been working on side projects for about 7 years now. All my side projects are open source. I wouldn't advise going into open source to make money but it's a great way to build connections. Considering the failure rate of for- profit side-projects among people I know, I think that maybe open source isn't such a bad idea from a career point of view.

My first open source project was a failure; I worked on it for 3 years for maybe 20 hours per week. At around the same time, a number of hot SV startups started building very similar products 'as a service' \- I felt that I could not compete with that kind of VC money so I gave up (I felt that open source did not stand a chance in that industry against the 'as-a-service' model). It was my first project so I wasn't too disappointed; it was mostly a learning experience. It was good to know that I could at least come up with the right ideas but that I had to improve execution. Also, picking an area/industry where open source software can thrive is important. Open source is not easy; it still has to compete with big advertising dollars and VC money.

I've been working on my second open source project for almost 4 years now. It's quite well known in its area (it got traction pretty soon after launch and kept growing steadily).

Looking back, it does feel like I could have spent my time on more lucrative things; but the problem with money is that everyone wants it; so things get very competitive and marketing-oriented. So maybe from a career/networking point of view, my open source work wasn't a bad ROI after all... For a side hustle.

<comment><USER6> Why don't you try marketing your opensource experience or software? It seems like you have a product that has traction.

<comment><USER5> I did get some consulting contracts from companies over the past year. Also, very recently, I accepted a sponsorship deal from a very interesting company which is using my project.

I feel that it's just starting to settle into a niche which might have commercial potential but I don't want to rush anything. Commercial stuff is secondary for me.

<comment> k-mcgrady I think what OP may have been hinting at (although I may be wrong) was a book/course/blog on what it's like working on a OS project and teaching other people how they can do the same while avoiding common mistakes.

<comment><USER6> No, I wasn't but those are good ideas!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Who among us have called in sick to the day job just to put in a solid block of daytime hours on a side project? It's happened to me a few times over the years, and I've been 97% guilt-free about it.

<comment><USER8> I do that regularly, especially when I'm particularly excited about something new. I've woken up in the middle of the night, registered a new domain, and then emailed the office to tell them I'm not coming in that day. More than a few times.

You do what is best for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I didn't know Ryan Hoover built product hunt as a side hustle. I always thought he worked on it full-time, blogging and sending email newsletters to organically build his audience.

</comment><comment><USER10> clickbait article</comment>


Ask HN: Quit job to avoid burnout? - <AUTHOR> Hi HN!
Apologies for throwaway, I'd rather minimize chances anyone I know reads that.
I could really use some advice here. I'm a 28 years old robotics engineer working at a small startup near one of the most expensive cities in the world (my partner received once in a lifetime opportunity here).
I feel like I'm heavily burned out. I'm the most senior person in my team (at 4 years of experience!!!) and for the past six months I've been doing nothing but writing documents, presentations and coaching junior devs (that's actually the most enjoyable part). What contributes to me feeling burned out is the management micromanaging everything I do and undermining most of my decisions (even though they don't have engineering background and and are quite open about not knowing much about technicalities). I brought those facts up to my manager attention lately but it didn't change anything.
The only way I grow my technical skills is through learning at home or making side projects but I feel I can't catch up properly with any technologies after hours.
I've been trying to find some alternative job but find it quite difficult because of language barrier, not having a CS degree and the fact that there are not many robotics companies in the area. I sent out over 20 CVs in the past month and I received negative answer for every one of them.
I have enough money to support myself for 6-8 months and my partner willing to help out if things go really south. I also have one freelance project on a table that would add another month support. I also have a SaS idea and a hardware startup idea that I think could take off if I spend some time on them.
I'm your view is it worth it to quit without having secured a job and go into freelance/consulting? I would need to earn 1000 Euro a month to pay my bills and have something to eat.
I would love to hear your opinion and experiences. <comment><USER2> I have a lot of experience with burnout, and I've formed a pretty strong opinion of it. The risk of burnout has practically unlimited downsides. If you can 'tough it out' then it isn't really burnout. If not, then the upside is limited to collecting another month or two of salary, at ever increasing risk of serious health issues. If you believe you're actually burning out, my advice is to just get out. There are a lot of jobs out there. A lot. No need to make yourself miserable over one job. I don't have a degree either. Also from experience: living on a tight budget is much better than health problems. Living on a tight budget is much better than hating your career.

</comment><comment><USER3> Woof, that's rough.

RE: Robotics firms - start looking at adjacent industries that value sensors/hardware/computing knowledge - things like IoT, manufacturing, or home automation all seem reasonable side jumps.

RE: Consulting - you have a specialized skill set, so the initial set of jobs may be harder. If you feel you can learn quickly on the fly, it may work out. From the euro comment, you're overseas? I'm unfamiliar with labor law, so I don't know how bad/good consulting is in your area.

I'm open to chatting more if you'd like - email is in my profile. Us robot folk have to stick together.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the encouragement. It's a very good idea about IoT companies. I'll definitely give it a shot.

You are right, I'm based in Europe now (moved to Geneva, Switzerland from other EU country).

I'll try to follow up in an email in a couple of days after I digest what others suggested in this thread. Thanks again!

<comment><USER4> I am working on a medical device with a (simple) robotic arm, most people we have recruited have done low level/middleware development in automotive or aerospace. All these domains are using very similar technologies with very similar hw or timing constraints (not mentioning regulatory). So you could probably also work in these areas too (if you have some inclination to writing specifications for days).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am only a stranger on the internet, but if I were you I'd leave the toxic environment you're in.

You're 28 years old, burned out and have 6-8 months saved up. I'm 30+ now and live a happy life, but I was severely burnt out between the years 23-26.

It took me those years to get back to my normal self after crashing. I feel like those years are lost for me. I felt numb and didn't care about anything. All because of bad management and me being a constant overachiever. Life is not about working until there's nothing left of you - get out and try not to worry too much. The change will probably be scary but you'll find a new path.

</comment><comment><USER6> Consulting is highly risky at this point, until you have a couple of clients lined up. The way it's worked for me is that one of my job's partner contacts me on a deal, I do a good job, they recommend me to 5 of their friends (as they know people in the industry), and it snowballs from there.

You just have to get to that sweet spot of meeting the client. Managers are usually smart to put a barrier between the person who does the work and the person who pays for it.

But in your case I would take the risk as your job seems quite dead end.

</comment><comment><USER7> I told my employer I planned to leave 3 years ago and they were kind enough to let me go part-time. I have a sideline which pays the bills the other two days of the week.

Two thoughts. When you are in a dark place sometimes things are darker than they seem. Is part time an option?

The truth is it's hard making your own money. I was all set for downing tools but retrospectively this would have been hard financially.

I can also see now some of my stress was expectations I put on myself. If you are more stressed as an employee than your employer there's something wrong in my book. You sound like a high output person. I now have an attitude of, "you want to pay me for doing stupid things, go ahead". I chose my battles and don't get so wound up as much about other's decisions. Having my own side business helps in this regard as well.

Finally, my stress was stressing my wife. Looking back she had stomach problems which mapped to my unhappiness. A great help for me was taking an hour after work and not bringing all the aggravation home.

Things will get better for you, the transition may just take a little longer than you hope.

</comment><comment><USER8> From what I've read, I feel like you have the ability to weld considerable power to change your circumstances. You are the most senior engineer at a technical startup. If you leave it could kill the company. At the same time the management might not have the wisdom to see that.

What is making you feel burnt out? Long hours? Management? Long commutes?

How can you mitigate the feeling of burnout in the short term to give you some room to think and plan your next move? Could you take a holiday. Could you work less hours? Could you bring in healthier boundaries with your manager and colleagues.

If you can alleviate the stress in the short-term, it could make it easier to find another job/opportunity.

If you see no way of doing this, then quit. Your health is your most important asset.

Believe in yourself that you can find something and the future is bright. :) You make your own luck and fortune favors the brave.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a lot for those questions, they are really helpful in self evaluation and deciding on further steps. Sometimes I think I should be more patient but somedays I feel like I should just drop it and hope for the best.

<comment><USER8> Glad you found them helpful.

I might also suggest meditation and using the Headspace app to get started :) I found doing just 10 minutes a day helped me through a stressful period.

<comment><AUTHOR> I just started meditating last week, after realizing I'm starting to feel miserable. Did you feel better after first sessions or did it take some time before you saw some changes?

<comment><USER8> It takes time so keep at it.

It won't necessity solve your problems but you'll be able to better process your feelings.

I found it helped give me more clarity over what I wanted.

Stay strong and find a solution that works for you. We all hate uncertainty but it's a big part of life. Reading Buddhist philosophy helped me realize I'm going to be okay no matter what happens. Even if I lose my job. No matter what happens I can deal with it

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you are thinking of quitting anyway, why don't you take the risk of telling management that you need them to change the way they work with you or you may look elsewhere for work?

If you make some gentle demands and explain the way you're feeling, while offering constructive suggestions, and say it all politely and nicely but with the threat of leaving if things don't improve, then the worst case scenario is they fire you. But you wanted to quit anyway so it's OK. The best case is they change and things improve and you either decide to stay or you have more time to look for another job while it's less mentally taxing.

</comment><comment><USER10> My 2 cents, do more to try to fix the environment you're in. If you're adding the kind of value it sounds like you are, then you might have more power than you realize. Worst case scenario they push you out, in which case you're in a similar position to just leaving.

6-8 months of savings is okay, but might not be enough especially if you haven't yet gotten traction when applying to new jobs. Burn out is bad, but the desperation that can come from a long job hunt as your savings dwindle can be a different kind of hell.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm really trying to make things better however for most of the ideas the reaction I get is "make a proper business case and we will look into it". Sometimes I'm even wondering if I should give up with trying to change things. I just want to do some proper engineering work for a change

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> as a recent burnout recoveree, it is possible at this point you have already lost a significant portion of your reserves and capacity to recover. You need to make immediate changes which allow you to recover energy. Burnout recovery is painful and you do not come out the same person.

If you are having a hard time sleeping or have unexplainable pains and aches this is your wake up call to act, your body WILL stop you at some point.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm in a similar situation and considering quitting. I also have had a mvp built for a saas idea but I don't know if that can give me financial independence. Maybe 6 months later, after spending too much savings, I will need to look for a new job again.

I'm being approached by a startup also. What they promised (the work I will be doing) seems to be nice. But I am hesitating. Don't want to be burnt out again.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you have a partner who offers to support you, there's nothing wrong with accepting that offer. That's the nice thing about having a partner -- you don't need to support yourself 100% of the time -- you can also rely on your partner some of the time.

<comment><USER14> This is risky, could shift relationship dynamic and add more onto OPs plate.

<comment><USER8> Life is full of risk. If people stopped doing things because they were risky.... well then nothing would happen. Computers wouldn't exist.....ahhhhh

<comment><USER15> And there is only the Tao. In other words the 'bad thing' that one is 'at risk of' is a blessing, and it isn't.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Launch HN: Boost Biomes (YC S19) – Microbes for better crop yields, shelf life - <AUTHOR> Hi Hacker News, we're Jamie and Adam, cofounders of Boost Biomes (http://boostbiomes.com/).  Boost is developing spray treatments for fruits and crops to prevent mold, mildew and fungi.  Packagers can use our products to extend shelf-life for fruits, and farmers can increase yield of crops.  The active ingredients are live microbes.
I (Jamie) have been in biotech for over a dozen years.  A decade ago, I was at a biofuels company working to grow algae, and fungi ruined our crop.  At the time I realized that if we could control the ecosystem, we could prevent these kinds of agricultural disasters.  In the meantime, Adam, as a professor at Berkeley National Lab and UC-Berkeley over the last two decades, had been developing a technology platform to understand microbial ecology.  When Adam and I met a few years ago, we realized that his technology could address these kinds of challenges.  No longer interested in algae as a crop, we saw the opportunity in high-value crops.  These include strawberries in the field, apples post-harvest and cannabis as an exploding opportunity.
We're clearly not the first ones to think about microbial products for ag.  What sets our approach apart is the technology that Adam developed.  Using his approach, we are able to determine what we call an interaction map - the complete set of interactions between microbes from a given environment.  The interaction map generates leads for us, including groups of microbes that work together as 'consortia'.  Our current lead product candidates are in fact consortia.
Our first product is a soil amendment being sold into the cannabis market.  There's a real excitement of the opportunities for the market to expand, and it's an industry full of early-adopters.  We're looking longer term, though, as our products will address food production and waste.  Fungi destroy enough food to feed 600M people every year—this represents 60% of the people going hungry every year!  This is the kind of impact we're after with our tech and with the company.
We look forward to discussing the opportunity and technology! <comment><USER2> I was under the impression that the presence of fungi often boosts crop yields, not the other way around. i.e. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28708056](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28708056)

I'm assuming that when you say microbes, you mean bacteria. What about using engineered fungi, which often already act as pesticides? i.e. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28905488](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28905488)

<comment><AUTHOR> From the pub you reference, it looks like some fungi can be beneficial. But many are not - many fungi cause wilts, rots, etc.

We only use naturally-occurring microbes, without genetic engineering. We focus on the unit of the cell, rather than the unit of the gene, to make our products.

<comment><USER2> Are you able to target detrimental fungi while sparing nitrogen-fixing species, along with those that naturally prey on insects?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I dig the concept and the name. Have you done any testing? (greenhouse or field)

In regards to the "consortia" products, how many different species/genera/etc. are we talking about here? Is it just bacteria or are fungi part of this? What about e.g. nematodes, etc.

Would love to get some more info, but currently website is a little light on the details. Otherwise, kudos and good work. The more development in this space the better.

<comment><AUTHOR> We've done over 25 field trials, including post-harvest trials.

The first consortia we've assembled is just two members, one bacteria and one yeast. We envision that it can get pretty complex (but probably won't include multicellular organisms like nematodes).

<comment><USER3> Interesting that you're inoculating with yeast. I imagine it's a very particular strain? Seems like yeast would be everywhere and in the soils already, but I guess maybe not in the required amount?

How are you profiling the microbial ecosystem anyway? E.g. how do you know that 2+ species actually work synergistically with one another? I suspect a lot of trial and error based on what your profiling data suggests?

Sry for the many questions, it's a fascinating topic.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it's an uncommon yeast - not Saccharomyces. And, yes, the product is meant to 'bring forward' the effects from these members of the soil microbiome, from minor players to treatments at higher concentration.

The microbial ecology work comes from Adam's lab at LBNL. His tech (that Boost has licensed) experimentally determines interactions (ie, causative relationships, not correlations).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Have you thought about the potential harmful side effects this might cause, and what are your thoughts/strategies on it?

'Controlling the environment to make things better' has a spotty history (DDT, Monsanto, etc), and I would evaluate good biotech/agtech by how they are actively thinking about these issues.

<comment><AUTHOR> The microbes we're using as products come from the soil. The tech to identify them uses understanding the interaction between microbes, so that we can thoughtfully determine which microbes are best suited for a product - we can exclude candidates with any known toxicity issues or negative externalities.

Biological pesticides have a much lower threshold for regulatory approval specifically because they are deemed safer than chemical pesticides.

Customers like replacing their chemical pesticides with our product to lower residual levels of chemicals on their produce. Other countries have more restrictive MRLs (maximum residue levels) permitted on imports than the US does, so products like these are valuable.

<comment><USER5> To me it sounds like your 'consortia' are much like what Permaculture calls 'guilds': sets of species that work together synergistically.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not familiar with Permaculture, but yes, that sounds right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Are these synthetic bio constructs of the single bacterium and yeast? Or are these soil isolates?

<comment><AUTHOR> These are soil isolates - no generic engineering of the strains. One of the lead product active ingredients includes both the bacterium and the yeast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Love the work that you guys are doing here - coming up with permutations of natural basic organisms that may result in synergistic effects for human consumer benefit!

Have you found any interesting, but not marketable interactions while looking for viable solutions?

Is Boost Biomes planning on granting academic or other licensing to other parties?

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting question! We're not currently granting licenses, but may be interested in research collaborations in the future. We did find one very interesting mystery, three morphotypes of a single bacteria (as determined by 16S sequence), that could grow together and influence each others' frequency in the population.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How do you track changes in micro-ecosystems over time?

How aware are you guys of the recent work in mycoremediation?

Congratulations and good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the good wishes!

We can track changes in the micro-ecosystems by sequencing the soil or root metagenomes. We aren't doing this yet, but it's on the path forward.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Can you share any data on how the consortia works relative to existing products on the market?

<comment><AUTHOR> In grapes, our lead consortium prevented botrytis, a key fungal pathogen, to a level statistically indistinguishable from chemical pesticides. Biological don't typically do that well.

We anticipate benefits that we have yet to prove: higher efficacy, lower risk that the target will evolve resistance, and better persistence in the soil.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Best of luck. Something like 25% of food that's grown won't be eaten because of, among other things, spoilage. Keeping food fresh for longer would mean not using as much land or as much fertilizer for agriculture.

<comment><USER10> Isn't a decent amount of spoilage due to processes internal to the product (e.g. over ripening) versus some external microbe?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes. There are other companies that seek to preserve freshness. Our products specifically target fungal infections.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I am concerned that a one-size-fits-all approach could introduce in invasive species to regions that don't have them.

What steps are you taking to prevent damaging existing ecosystems with your products?

<comment><AUTHOR> The types of microbes used in our products naturally occur in the soil. Our products pass through the required registration processes to ensure safety.

<comment><USER11> Yes, but which soil and sourced from where? This is an insufficient answer to the question "will our selection of microbes destroy existing biomes?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Very nice! How is this different from compost teas & ACT?

</comment><comment><USER13> Off topic but are there any startups working on GM foods that modify food to increase protein/nutrient content for poor communities with systemic deficiencies?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not aware of these.

There are a number of meat-replacement startup companies, developing replacements for fish, chicken, beef, etc., either by formulating products with protein or animal cells, or with vegetable protein that is formulated to taste and mouthfeel of actual meat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> really impressed by your work! Best wishes for the demo day!</comment>


Open Languages Are Not Required - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/apache-asserts/2010/10/open-languages-are-not-required/

<comment><USER2> the last paragraph is the first one you should read in order to decide whether this editorial is worth reading. it is

"The right choice is to not worry about the state of Java's open or proprietary nature, despite some of the discussion occurring in the news today. It is not relevant to your business needs or the long term health of your enterprise software ecosystem."

<comment><USER3> It was the sentence before that which caught my eye:

"The cost of a move, in terms of training, hiring experts, rewriting entire application and tool suites, rounds of testing, and final deployment, will easily run higher than continuing to build and deploy Java applications."

so... your costs will go up; whether you end up licensing java, or switching. I'm not sure about you, but that is relevant to my business needs.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Looking to contribute to open source? - <AUTHOR>

I'm working on an open board status board as an alternative to https://statuspage.io
It's had a lot of feedback over the last couple of days and an increase in stars. Although I've done my best, the design is... mediocre at best.
Since adding a Deploy to Heroku button, I figured it could do with a setup page, but have no plans to make it anything fancy.
So if you're looking to contribute to open source the Cachet may be the project for you!
You can see the issue for the Setup Page at https://github.com/jbrooksuk/Cachet/issues/12
Thanks :) <comment><AUTHOR> This post is a follow up to my recent blog post "What's next for Cachet?" [http://james-brooks.uk/whats-next-for-cachet/](http://james-brooks.uk/whats- next-for-cachet/)</comment>


Uber Surge Price? Research Says Walk a Few Blocks, Wait a Few Minutes - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/10/29/452585089/uber-surge-price-research-says-walk-a-few-blocks-wait-a-few-minutes <comment><USER2> Or use this app: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/surgeprotector/id925613132?m...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/surgeprotector/id925613132?mt=8)

<comment><USER3> Cool concept, but it keeps crashing (iPhone 6, iOS8.4)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Last time I encountered a 4x surge pricing, I downloaded Lyft ... the minute I ordered it, surge pricing ended (really annoyed me and I went with Lyft anyways). If it wasn't for surge pricing, I'd be cheerleading for Uber. Surge pricing adds a level of uncertainty ... and 4x on a 50 dollar ride is insane if it ends in a few minutes.

<comment><USER5> Isn't that the whole point of surge pricing? It's attempting to balance supply and demand. On the supply side it's trying to get more drivers where there's more demand. On the demand side, it's trying to see if you really need a ride, or if you can walk a couple blocks or if you can wait a few minutes.

<comment><USER6> If surge pricing is enabled in order to temper demand until supply can catch up, it promotes supply from places Uber may not like (Lyft).

No app yet to query Lyft and Uber, see who is cheaper at the moment, and launch the cheaper provider?

<comment><USER7> Here is a website that does the comparison between the 2, but you have to manually enter the surge percentage, [http://www.whatsthefare.com/](http://www.whatsthefare.com/)

I think someone mentioned it at least a year ago in a discussion about Uber vs. Lyft.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In my experience, surge pricing on a nice day doesn't last long. When the weather is nuts, you're gonna pay. Too bad I'm not a researcher.

</comment><comment><USER9> just like I refuse to pay covers at bars, I refuse to pay surge pricing. Uber is my go to app, but if they are doing surge pricing than I switch to ihail (an Uber clone run by a taxi company). if they ate busy, than I use lyft as a last resort. I hate using lyft because they don't offer a fare estimate.

using this process I have saved myself 100s of dollars in ride fares.

<comment><USER10> > I hate using lyft because they don't offer a fare estimate.

Where are you using these apps? In the Bay Area, I like Lyft better than Uber because Lyft gives you a specific fare but Uber gives you a range. (FWIW, there are many other reasons I like Lyft better than Uber.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> How does customer need to counteract if he needs a time sensitive ride? Lets say, I need to go to Airport at time x. Neither I can book earlier to guarantee a ride nor can I wait out the surge.

<comment><USER12> Use a transfer service, which offers pre-orders. Uber is losing all my airport rides because they don't have it.

<comment><USER13> They probably don't want it anyway. It's more profitable for both Uber and the drivers to not take such rides; in the time to and back from airport they could take several within the city.

<comment><USER12> If it's profitable for a generic limousine transfer services, why it's not profitable for Uber? Blacklane seems to be profitable too.

<comment><USER14> Logistics of planning all those orders and rides is expensive.

<comment><USER15> Sounds like a job for software.

<comment><USER14> It'd be interesting to see how someone handles vehicle routing problem on a large scale, quickly and optimally.

<comment><USER13> Isn't that a solved problem since like the early 70s? Even computing power is not a limiting factor now, only those pesky humans bickering about "central planning" and "democratization".

<comment><USER14> Haha, solved?

Put in the time windows, put the capacity limits, put the pickup and delivery (this isn't same as just delivery).

It's far from solved, and far from efficient. Field isn't even mature as theoretical computer science, not even rigorous enough :D

You have papers talking about their newest hybrid genetic memetic evolutionary deep simulated annealing bullcrap algorithm getting hundreds of citations.

You have services like Routific, Routyn, Viamente, WorkWave, and others struggling with it. No one in this world has the technology powerful enough to optimize at scale. Example. WorkWave is talking about exploiting 45Billion dollar market of optimizing thousands of technicians and their routes, but they can't even scale that on a daily basis for large number of delivery points, given how slow their optimization engine is. Same goes for every service mentioned above. Oh yeah, WorkWave bought Viamente for $4M, that's how much their tech was worth. Seems a little bit low for something that could attack the 45Billion market.

I have not stumbled upon a single one in the last 10 years that has any potential. All are leeching or would like to leech the big companies that can afford a 1 day waiting time for optimization. UPS seems to be all happy about its routing engine, but they too are being weird about it, if it's good then show it.

Someone who solves this for Uber will definitely get its first billion.

This would be a huge engineering effort since the problem is NP-hard :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I always just try the request again a minute later and surge pricing is usually gone.

</comment><comment><USER17> Or use a new company like [https://fasten.com/](https://fasten.com/) who doesnt do surge pricing.

<comment><USER18> >No surge pricing ... however if you're late for work ... you can always Boost your ride.

The website explains to boost ones ride is to apply a multiplier to the price. One might call this a surge.

<comment><USER17> That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does.

Uber is the classic case of aggressive government style intervention in a market causing it to collapse - no riders or drivers in high demand areas during surge pricing. This is a total failure of market policy because no price discrimination is allowed.

Fasten is akin to setting minimum wage. They set a low base price but if you want to get somewhere faster or get preference during a busy period then YOU can raise your price by what it's worth to you.

This is a big stumbling block for Uber to which Fasten has a rather decent solution.

<comment><USER19> > _That 's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and > incentives far better than Uber does._

It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.

<comment><USER20> > It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it > represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, > which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.

Uber's system is a central planner trying to simulate the results of a two- sided auction by centrally setting prices to try to achieve a desired result given supply and demand signals.

Fasten's system strips out the simulation and just _is_ an auction, which allows supply and demand to align without requiring central planning.

I think its pretty fair to describe the latter as evidencing a better understanding of economics.

<comment><USER6> Especially since its been proven that surge pricing doesn't incentivize more supply.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/ho...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/how- uber-surge-pricing-really-works/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The simplest way is to move the pickup point ever so slightly until you reach a spot without surge pricing, then simply walk there as it arrives.

</comment><comment><USER22> Nope.

This doesn't work.

I've walked more than a couple of miles, and waited more than an hour.. the surge stays between 4X to 5X.</comment>


You'll Probably Never Upload Your Mind Into A Computer - <AUTHOR> http://io9.com/you-ll-probably-never-upload-your-mind-into-a-computer-474941498 <comment><USER2> The only thing I let count is the mind-body-dualism.

Since our mind is basically the "physical" wiring of our braincells, the brain is more like a FPGA so the mind IS the brain.</comment>


Das Capitalist (review of new biography of Adam Smith) - <AUTHOR> http://www.amconmag.com/blog/das_capitalist_adam_smith/ <comment><USER2> After hearing so much about it for years, I've recently made time and read _The Wealth of Nations_. It's full of amazing insights that are still valid three centuries later. Thoughtful arguments in favor of free markets are balanced with lucid exposure of capitalism's limitations and inefficiencies. Overall, a thoroughly anti-dogmatic read, and a big improvement over 99% of subsequent economic writings.

<comment><USER3> If you can read German, I suggest perusing Silvio Gesell's "Die natürliche Wirtschaftsordnung". The author belongs to the rare-breed of free-market socialists, and has some interesting ideas about money and land.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'll be reading. Smith was a great mind and his writing holds up.

Apropos of nothing, I used to live across the street from his old house in Lochend Close, Edinburgh [http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Enlightened- crusade-to-sav...](http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Enlightened-crusade-to- save-Adam.6696240.jp)

I also used to pop up the road, The Royal Mile, to stretch my legs and have a sandwich near his grave in the Canongate kirk.

Read along with Hume and find out that the 1700s aren't ancient history. Heck, read Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (written during the English Civil War. Yes, we had one) and discover the 1600s.

</comment><comment><USER5> "But Smith was wrong. Every successful economy, without exception, has prospered by subsidizing key industries and protecting them from foreign competition. And nearly without exception, every developed society has then, with consummate hypocrisy, preached free trade to less-developed countries."

Comeon, really? That no country has practiced complete free-trade means Smith was wrong about free-trade?

<comment><AUTHOR> _That no country has practiced complete free-trade means Smith was wrong about free-trade?_

Scialabba is saying Smith was wrong to argue that protectionism would never be a net economic benefit because richer countries have in fact been more protectionist than poorer ones. Admittedly this doesn't follow strictly logically, but that's a technical point. More interesting is whether the claim about rich vs. poor countries is true. If it is, it's significant. Has anyone here read Ha-Joon Chang?

<comment><USER3> As a counter-anecdote: India only started getting rich, when they dropped the protectionism somewhat.

Perhaps rich countries can get away with more protectionism than poorer ones, and they are rich despite it, not because?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It is strange that a book about the great Scottish economist should have a faux-German title.

<comment><USER7> it's a pun on Marx's book title, Das Kapital

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Kapital>

<comment><USER8> its wrong though, it would have to be Der Kapitalist to be a pun on it.

<comment><USER3> Yes. So it's even more funny. It allows us to laugh about those mono-lingual English speakers.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


TabLib: Pythonic Tabular Data Library - <AUTHOR> http://thechangelog.com/post/1112527716/tablib-pythonic-tabular-data-library

<comment><USER2> Looks like a nice little module.

However, just some comments on the (lack of) Pythonicity in this function:

        def is_string(obj):
            """Tests if an object is a string"""
            return True if type(obj).__name__ == 'str' else False

First, you don't need the "True if ... else False", because == is already a boolean operator which returns True or False.

Also, you don't need to look at the type's __name__. You can just say:

        type(obj) == str

But Python already has an isinstance() function which will also work properly with subclasses of str, so suddenly you don't need the is_string() helper function anymore, and it becomes:

        isinstance(obj, str)

(Though you should probably use "basestring" in Python 2.x so it works with Unicode keys too.)

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks pretty interesting. We have a similar home-grown library at work with a lot more structure built into the headers. For example, a header can specify what datatype the column is (number, text, icon), as well as a title in various formats (html, text, spreadsheet). The basic idea is the same, though. Take a bunch of data, throw it in a container object, and export it in a bunch of different formats.</comment>


Ask HN: How to build a Codiqa-like interface? - <AUTHOR>

Any good tutorials to learn how to build one? <comment><USER2> The codiqa developers might have a clue ;) [http://blog.codiqa.com/2012/05/how-we-use-backbone-js-to- bui...](http://blog.codiqa.com/2012/05/how-we-use-backbone-js-to-build-codiqa- part-1-api/)

</comment><comment><USER3> :) :) this just popped up on my Google Alerts. I built Codiqa, what do you want to know?

<comment><AUTHOR> nice! I want to learn how to build a simple iphone/android emulator running on the web, which I can drag drop elements into.

<comment><USER3> Well, there are a lot of drag and drop libraries that can help you with basic DnD, I suggest starting there (for example, jQuery UI). After that it's a matter of positioning and rendering elements. It's really a deep topic, perhaps do some studying of an interface builder like Glade to see how they do certain things. For component object model stuff I really like AWT and Swing.</comment></comment></comment>


Hacking a Banksy with Bash and Varanid - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@benichmt1/hacking-a-banksy-with-bash-and-varanid-a21422f96019 <comment><USER2> It's crazy how critiques of commodification and consumerism almost always become commodified.

IMO Banksy's art loses it's meaning now that it's being sold and mass produced. A huge part of the art was it's form. The art is subversive and anti-establishment. It was best when it was graffiti - an illegal art form that was free for everyone to enjoy.

I suppose it's still possible this may end up being some elaborate art piece, but I'm not sure how.</comment>