I just don't want to be a software developer anymore (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@melissamcewen/i-just-dont-want-to-be-a-software-developer-anymore-a371422069a1 <comment><USER3> One thing that the article doesn't touch on is how a passion for software craftsmanship can be completely undermined by the recklessness of business decisions.

I love the experience of writing and using rock solid programs, but in the real world, there are deadlines to meet, flaky requirements, and tech debt. For people in it for the money, it doesn't affect them. For people that appreciated good software, it turns them into people just doing it for the money, except it also affects them.

I always explain it like this: imagine you were a chef, that loved the complexities of cooking; preparation, presentation, and recipe formulation. You enjoy preparing food and experiencing food. With this passion, you're forced to work in fast food, churning out meals as fast as the drive through will take them.

"Well, you can always cook in your free time!"

<comment><USER4> This is how most chefs lives look like. They prepare the same meals from a menu under time pressure years after years. Maybe it's not flipping burgers in fast food, but there is little space for artisanship in the food industry. You have to be really good to do more than prepare the same thing over and over from a menu.

<comment><USER3> This is true for brewers too. Beer is endlessly fascinating with the amount of variables to tweak, but working in a brewery is a fairly routine process of reading the recipe and executing then same steps over and over.

<comment><USER5> At a brewery, or a restaurant for that matter, aren't you there to basically recreate a product based on a recipe someone else formulated? The person tasked with creating the recipe has the opportunity to practice artistry in this scenario, but they, too, may be under business related pressure.

<comment><USER3> You're right, even the recipe makers can't escape business pressure to make undesirable products. With the hard seltzer craze going on (in the US at least), a lot of brewers are starting to make it. They didn't get into brewing to make hard seltzer, but they can't ignore the fact that they will sell well and are cheap to produce.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I totally agree with her priorities. I too don't want to work on just one tiny cog of a system where I don't know the big picture, so I try to avoid projects that sound boring, and look for projects that sound interesting. I want to keep that passion alive. Now I'm building interesting stuff and we're responsible for the entire thing. In fact, many companies have moved to fullstack devops roles, which is basically just new corporate speak for doing the whole thing as well as deploying it.

> _" Coding for a couple of hours a day in your spare time isn't the same as > coding for 8+ hours a day. Over the past decade it has worn me down. I have > regular painful migraines triggered by working long hours. I have the > beginnings of arthritis in my neck. I've tried standing desks, balance board > desks, treadmill desks, special diets, exercising more before and after > work. "_

I don't spend 8 hours per day programming either. And I only work 4 days. No single desk is ever going to solve your problems; you need regular change. Pause, get some coffee, take a walk outside. It's great for clearing your head and making a fresh start.

But I can imagine corporate culture matters a lot. If you're at a company that expects you to spend 8 hours typing hard behind your desk, that's going to suck. If your employer doesn't respect your work-life balance, that sucks. Many Dutch companies do care about those things, but I can imagine that countries like the US or Japan have a very different culture.

</comment><comment><USER7> I went through exactly the same thing.

I love the coding aspect. I love using my brain, solving problems, working with intelligent people. I can't handle sitting inside for 50 hours a week, and I can't handle business politics and nonsense.

So I quit my Software Engineering job and took 2 years to drive from Alaska to Argentina, having the time of my life. [1]

Then I worked for a bit again to save money, and quit again and just got back from 3 years driving all the way around Africa. [2]

I've decided I want to be a travel writer and photographer, because it makes me happy. I have way less money, but I'm happier than I've ever been. I have written a couple of books about my adventures, and I write for a slew of magazines now too.

Do what makes you happy.

[1] The Road Chose Me Volume 1 - [https://amzn.to/2wkxceX](https://amzn.to/2wkxceX)

[2] 999 Days Around Africa - [https://amzn.to/2H93IUH](https://amzn.to/2H93IUH)

<comment><USER8> > I love the coding aspect. I love using my brain, solving problems, working > with intelligent people. I can't handle sitting inside for 50 hours a week, > and I can't handle business politics and nonsense.

A wild consideration: Doesn't the fact that many companies "select" for people who love solving hard problems (e.g. by using brainteaser coding problems in the hiring process) cause this problem? This way, the company hires people who prefer a very different kind of work than what they have to do in their job.

A further thought: How could a hiring process look like that selects for the kind of work that one actually has to do?

<comment><USER9> > A further thought: How could a hiring process look like that selects for the > kind of work that one actually has to do?

Hire anyone that walks in? Kick them out if they mention anything like passion, only people motivated by money are accepted, but preferably as little as possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I agree with a lot of things in the article and I can relate to the author but this quote really threw me off

>"some guy who does the same work as me is getting paid 20% more" (the author being female)

Several times in my career I've found that other male developers (me being male) that I considered not even good made 50% more than me. Sometimes I found out that I made 50% more than other younger developers that I considered way better than me. I understand that women are underpaid compared to men in general but this specific situation can be explained by so much more than sexism.

<comment><USER11> I agree but it's difficult to make any comment on this sort of thing without being misinterpreted and/or seen as minimizing women's equality and the right to equal pay.

As far as the rest of her article, I agree with it and I'm a single, white, straight male. Sure, I like coding, but at the end of the day _a job is a job_ and, in the words of the author herself, _I dream of a world where we all work less._.

<comment><USER10> I hope people don't misunderstand my comment to mean that I want to live in a world where women make less than men just because they are women. I certainly don't and yet that's the world we live in.

On the other hand this particular example from the author is not a very good one since we all know men make +/\- 20% from each other

<comment><USER11> _men make + /\- 20% from each other_

It can go a lot more than 20%, and it doesn't always have to do with bias/minorities/etc.

I think plenty of people just get paid less because they aren't strong negotiators or don't know _how much_ they should be requesting. Sure, the latest salary report they saw online said people are getting $150k for similar jobs, but are they really getting $150k at XYZ company in your town, or are those numbers inflated by liars/SF|NYC|LA roles? Those are the thoughts that go through my head, at least, in addition to "Am I really worth that? They would offer me X if I was worth X, right?".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This article makes me feel a little better about my life decisions. I started programming at age 12, but as my major I chose mechanical engineering because at the time, there was a lot of talk about the US software industry crashing and it all going to India.

I'm not going to try to portray mechanical engineering as all roses - the pay is a bit lower, and the chances of becoming a break-out rock start are much lower (think of the capital investment needed to build your own business). But the work weeks are a true 40 hours for at least 90% of weeks in most places, the work is much more varied (office, shop, lab, travel), and mechanical engineers with grey hair don't seem to have problems finding a job.

<comment><USER11> _but as my major I chose mechanical engineering because at the time, there was a lot of talk about the US software industry crashing and it all going to India._

I was in college 07-11. When I later asked my dad "WTF why did I not study CS?" he told me pretty much verbatim what you said... we thought it was going to India. I wonder if you were a student around the same time period? In retrospect, things quickly changed around 2012 coming out of the recession, and I suspect the industry had been picking up steam for a while after a few generations of iPhones and mobile gaining early traction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Ultimately I think it's difficult to find a job with the correct combination of everything you want. I don't think this is unique to software development.

I've worked in places in London that I really enjoyed. Good colleagues, good environment, tip top.

But then you're in a place with a hellish cost of living, and it's basically a requirement to play office politics and earn $BIGNUM, else you'll be in a pokey flat with a shit commute forever. And that can really eat in to motivation - because suddenly your work is no longer about the craft, it's about increasing your personal numbers.

I imagine the same to be true in SV/SF.

You can then have the other extreme, whereby perhaps you have a very low cost of living, but there's 1 software company and you either work there or not.

Remote work can help to solve this, but there are a whole bunch of unsolved social issues there.

A lot of the stuff I read on here about burnout I think isn't really linked to the work itself. It's the whole environment - everything feeds in.

</comment><comment><USER14> What's 1000x worse than working on small code fragments, is designing programs by talking in meetings. Management types are drawn to it, not software geeks.

<comment><USER15> "geeks"?

<comment><USER14> Well someone passionate about thinking and implementing instead of talking and thinking loudly in a meeting room, and delegating the implementation to a low paid and low regarded individual.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Reading this, I have the feeling she quit her career in programming because of the long hours.

But why not look for a job with normal hours?

<comment><USER17> If she lives in the U.S. it can be difficult to find an employer who's willing to cover the cost of living in exchange for labor. Sounds like she's stuck in a positive feedback loop of medical expenses, and that makes it hard to be picky about jobs.

<comment><USER18> > Sounds like she's stuck in a positive feedback loop of medical expenses, and > that makes it hard to be picky about jobs.

Just imagine the US would have some kind of system where your medical condition does not force you to stick with the job that makes you ill. Wonder if anyone has tested that before and it works. /sarcasm

In all honesty: I don't understand why the US is not having a public health care system like Europe which stops stuff like this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> After reading this, I felt the she is painting all the industry that software is applicable to with the same brush.

Software development as a discipline is applicable across many types of industry (automotive, mobile, communications, aerospace, Internet, etc).

I wonder how much of her wanting to quit software development is due to the industry that she is in.

<comment><USER20> I've been wondering about this. I've heard that it can be preferable for various reasons to work at a company that does something other than software as its main thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I agree with most of what she says about being a software dev, expect, for the long hours - how many companies has she worked in? I have worked in 7 companies over the last few years (mostly as a contractor though a few were permanent) and in not one of them had employees working more than 40 hours a week.

</comment><comment><USER22> A sad story indeed, but I've never felt any of my work has been "Snow Crashy" or monotonous or lacking the need for autonomy and creativity. I doubt it's representative of the entire industry, and it's not even fair to treat the industry as a monolith to begin with.

<comment><USER23> most of people have jobs like she mentions, but they need money badly to live, so they have no choice than to accept it.

<comment><USER24> Most of my male colleagues and myself included also hate the industry because the pay sucks, the hours are long, you are expected to do impossible things in impossible amounts of time, and we are so removed from the end users that it's hard to get an idea of the impact we are having on their day to day grind.

It may have something to do with the local scene as well, as I'm pretty confident that not all workplaces are like that, it wasn't at all like that where I was before.

That being said I find anonymously contributing code to open source projects rewarding enough to offset the daily grind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I don't see this particular story as a problem with the industry itself, but seems like a terrible employer to work for if you need to hide your pain. Good companies don't push people this far, and even help employees when needed. Some have even health-preserving programs.

</comment><comment><USER26> Inst this more of a rant against corporate, big companies only offering desk jobs? There are many other types of companies. Smaller ones with flexible and/or remote work exist out there

<comment><USER27> Finding right place to work is tricky. My experience in Germany: public research organizations have funny salaries, but job might be very interesting and fulfilling. Small owner led companies can be great with great conditions, but can also be exactly opposite. Big companies pay best, it's a good argument to stay there at certain age.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> IMO a lot of problems with our work culture come down to too many hours. If we cut down full-time to mean 20 hours a week, I think a lot of the suffering would disappear. Health conditions would be reduced, ennui from the meaninglessness of tasks wouldn't seem as stark, balancing work and life would be a breeze. It just seems so weird to me that employers are willing to pay me $X for 40-50 hours a week but not $X/2 for 20-25.

</comment><comment><USER29> I'd love to be a programmer but it seems that my job would likely consist of some database programming or nuts and bolts of a internal corporate program. Not exactly exciting or fulfilling work! Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not in the industry but that's my impression. This blog kinda confirms my concerns.

<comment><USER30> The cool thing about being a programmer is that you can use it in basically every field of endeavor out there. If you want to work with movies, you can work with movies. Are you passionate about urban planning, ecology or archaeology, there are lots of roles for programming in all those fields. Want to be a journalist, lots of programming and data mining happening within journalism these days.

There are basically two ways to approach a career as a programmer, one is to see programming in itself as your passion and solving the programming problem you're facing at any given moment as an ends in itself. The other is to see programming as a force multiplier to give yourself 'super powers' for doing the thing you actually care about.

<comment><USER31> That is a naive opinion IMHO. In all but the core SW roles you would merely be a simple cog being told what to do. If for example you'd be coding for an archaelogy department you would be the code monkey of the professor heads. Even worse you would have to battle their ignorant views on SW. My guess is that you'd hate playing that role and that you would run as fast as you could back to a SW house doing fragmented work with people that at least understand a bit of software.

At least that's my experience of venturing into a non-hardcore SW field (health sector).

<comment><USER30> I've worked both ends of this 'spectrum' several times in my career and your experience doesn't match mine at all. I've rarely had the problem of domain experts treating me as a cog, and certainly not more so that in a 'normal' SW house. If you come in humble, ask a lot of questions and listen to people you'll quickly become a respected member of the team.

The important part is to understand, enjoy and respect the domain you are working in. Then working with domain experts to use software to solve problems you both care about can be both fun and rewarding. And

You are right that you will have to 'battle' their ignorant views of SW development. But those battles are rarely hard to win if you're a bit diplomatic, because people don't care to much. They might not have any version control in place when you start and might not see the need for it, but I've never experienced anyone forbidding me from using version control. Most of the time they even come around to it as being pretty good idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Work culture in the western world is broken.

We face so many issues because when it comes down to it, humans spend most of their time in very cold, disconnected working environments that are designed to break your soul and turn you into a drone.

I think what should be remembered is that swdev is a high demand job, and you should have high demands and standards of yourself and your needs.

The author admits to hiding away her flaws as to not show weakness, this is the wrong approach. Admit your weaknesses, be honest with yourself, your colleagues and your boss. If they don't understand or reciprocate, tell them to go get fucked.

Become a freelancer or consultant.

</comment><comment><USER33> There are good workplaces out there and you have to really seek them out!

</comment><comment><USER34> It sounds like what she's discovered that 40+ hours a week sitting in a cubicle is not the most physically or mentally fulfilling task to be had in life.

Seems pretty straight-forward to me!

</comment><comment><USER35> By no means should we ever stop trying to improve working conditions for all, but we should also keep in mind that throughout history, most workers haven't had the luxury of being able to feed their families by doing fun- or personally-fulfilling work. At least we don't have to wrestle a heavy plow behind a balky ox or mule for hours on end in hot, humid weather (to give just one example).

</comment><comment><USER36> If you don't like most of the software development lifecycle and are not willing to learn new strategies, you probably shouldn't "write code" for a living, and that's ok. You are more than just a requirement to code translator. Learn to grow a little task into something special. There is always a way to make it better. Spend more time designing and less typing. That's my 2 cents

</comment><comment><USER37> That did spiral quickly into a rant about women in the tech field.

But maybe all that ranting explains the lack of women in the field.

<comment><USER38> Can you elaborate please?

<comment><USER37> Maybe her concerns are shared amongst _a majority_ of her female peers - <USER2> leading to women either not wanting to join the field or leaving shortly after entering it.

I mean men and women are different. We _tend_ to excel at different things, have different thought processes, process things differently, different strengths and weaknesses (generally, right? - there is obviously overlap).

Maybe her complaints help explain the lack of women in the field.

<comment><USER38> > We tend to excel at different things, have different thought processes, > process things differently, different strengths and weaknesses (generally, > right? - there is obviously overlap).

This could also be said of all individuals, sex aside.

Either way, I don't buy it. Nurses tend to mostly be women and yet the job is far harder than any software development job. It's more grueling hours, physically demanding, and mentally challenging. I think it's absurd to suggest that women as a whole can't handle the hours and demands of software development.

<comment><USER39> But being a nurse is more _social_ than software is. And that aligns with what we know about the differences between where women tend to excel and where men tend to excel.[1]

And of course you can then argue that parts of software are more social and my argument would be that there are more women in those parts of software.

[1] [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rabble- rouser/201707...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rabble- rouser/201707/why-brilliant-girls-tend-favor-non-stem-careers)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is it common for people under ~35 to have so much back pain and medical issues? I thought back pain in young people is usually related to something like a bad injury.

I get back pain when I'm working at the desk _a lot_ , but that's at the end of 14+ hour days sitting around with minimal movement.

</comment><comment><USER18> If she earns 20% less, she probably just negotiated not that good. Not everything is some structural problem.

<comment><USER40> Well... the pay gap between men and women is a well documented structural problem.

You see it both relatively (equal competence, seniority and position) and absolutely across the whole work force (women tend to have an harder time getting top positions).

The statistics may vary from country to country, but just as an example here in France, the overall gap is at ~25% while the gap even when considering equal positions and responsibilities is at ~12%.

<comment><USER18> For Germany it's something like 22% with "uncleaned" data and somewhat like 6% (some statisticians even calculate it as low as 2%) for cleaned data. According to Wikipedia [0] the US seems to have something like 6-7%, too for cleaned data.

Based on that her 30% sound like real bad negotiation and not asking for a raise regularly. But the article lacks detail information on this. Also, nobody knows that, maybe she is just not very good at her job and did not get a raise for that reason.

She also only changed her job once since college, too. While her medical condition might make it harder to change jobs, I wonder how long this condition exists and whether this always was the reason not to look for a better paying job.

All in all: Lots of reasons why she earns not as much as her colleagues, but probably no structural reasons.

[0]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap_in_the_United_S...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap_in_the_United_States)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> > But for a long time I pretended it was fun. That I loved it. Because there > is a lot of social pressure to portray yourself that way in the industry. > People hiring you will run the other way as soon as they see a crack in that > facade.

Yes, having to put up this facade is one of my least favorite things about this industry. It's all a load of bullsh*t, I'm only in my technical area because there are jobs and money - if money weren't an issue I'd be working on my own FOSS projects that are way more interesting and meaningful to me.

> Because it's not really "passion" they are looking for, but people who are > merely willing to endure long hours. They aren't really looking for the > person who spends a few hours on the weekend on an open-source project, they > are looking for the person who comes home from work and spends all night on > it.

Yup, it's a tough pill to swallow when one realizes the exploitative nature of wage labor, and the lie we've been fed our whole lives about employers being benevolent and treating employees like family. The reality is sociopathic managers who won't hesitate to stab you in the back to cover their asses and/or get that promotion.

> It's really hard to celebrate "women's day" with free feminist speakers when > I just found out some guy who does the same work as me is getting paid 20% > more.

I agree with most of the sentiment of the article so I don't want to be arguing here, but getting underpaid isn't an issue exclusive to women. Just because you're underpaid doesn't mean that it's because of your gender.

Ultimately, this article is the perspective of a wage laborer waking up to the bullshit of the system, and the meaninglessness of 8 hours/day of mandated "ass in seat" time doing boring work for a boss and having to put a smile on your face and pretend like it's your passion.

Everything she writes, all of us but the most brainwashed lemmings already know, but we're not allowed to say it for fear of being blacklisted from the industry. I appreciate her having the courage to speak out what everyone secretly wants to say, and wish her success in her new endeavors.

</comment><comment><USER42> > It's really hard to celebrate "women's day" with free feminist speakers when > I just found out some guy who does the same work as me is getting paid 20% > more.

Please stop this. STOP. If "a man" is paid 20% less, they're expected to change job and ask 20% more at the new one. This is what is expected of "men".

<comment><USER43> There's so little transparency as to what employees get paid that "outsiders", i.e. those who don't have an informal network of pals providing them confidential salary information on-the-side, don't have a way to determine what numbers to shoot for.

Someone well-connected would have avoided the company with the salary discrepancy before they accepted a job; those less well-connected incur the costly overhead of a job search when they finally find out the real deal.

<comment><USER44> > There's so little transparency as to what employees get paid that > "outsiders", i.e. those who don't have an informal network of pals providing > them confidential salary information on-the-side, don't have a way to > determine what numbers to shoot for.

Glassdoor? levels.fyi? Why would anyone need a "network of pals" to get average salary information? Who even cares what the average is? Just shoot for whatever number you want and then stop comparing yourself to everyone else.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I'll agree that the job is not fun, but it's still a decent job overall I think. I have definitely been miserable at many points, on the other hand. The real problem is that a lot of other jobs seem worse, not that coding is so great. I definitely do not have any sort of passion for it, that left long ago. Just a job.

</comment><comment><USER46> The OP needs to place (2017) in the title.

> I still love coding, but I hate this industry

This essentially can be summarised by only doing software development as a hobby rather than as a profession. But again, this industry isn't for everyone.

While its always unfortunate that people who once enter this industry have now quit due to the 'long hours', 'deadlines' or 'burnout', perhaps they should have looked twice at the job requirements or questioned the number of hours before applying in the first place, rather than finding out the hard way.

This industry is unforgiving for those who cannot handle it or have no passion in the trade and only do it for the money. If you think a job as a SWE or a SDET is 'bad', wait until you go for a software engineering interview at a FAANG or FTSE 100 company.

If this sounds too 'hard' I have heard many vacancies for easier roles in the circus though who are willing to hire what they call 'clowns' and 'idiots'...

<comment><USER47> Do you have any idea how hard it can be to get a job in any decent circus? Most of them require decades of training and education and pay less than most manual labour jobs. Honestly working as a software developer (which I do) required far less investment of time and money then circus. (Where I am now a Partner Acrobatics trainer)

<comment><USER48> Clearly accepted Cirque du Soleil performers are scarcer than Google developers. This can also be applied to top performers in classical music as well.

<comment><USER47> The thing that shocked me is it isn't just the best. Even the worst usually have massive amounts of time and effort invested and the pay is normally awful. It's the hobby effect, similar to art and music, however the top performers make vastly less. Cirque du Soleil performers who are some of the best in the world still mostly make < 100k/year.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Daniel Bell at 100 - <AUTHOR> https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/daniel-bell-at-100 <comment><USER2> Just copped a copy of Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism last month after Zizek namedropped his book on that debate.</comment>


Surfer-Physicist's Unified Theory Leads to Fame, Backlash - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/ted_lisi

<comment><USER2> "Surfing is simply the most fun I know how to have on this planet. And physics, and science in general, is the best way of understanding how everything works. So this is what I spend my time doing. I do what I love, and follow my interests. Shouldn't everyone?"

Now that is truly insightful.

<comment><USER3> It's more inspiring than insightful, probably.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, that might be the word I was looking for.

See the above comment :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> <http://zunger.livejournal.com/160426.html>

"The non-technical version is that it makes for a great news story and all, but this is the sort of idea that most high-energy physicists come up with sometime during grad school, think about for a few minutes, and then realize why it doesn't work."

</comment><comment><USER5> I read about Kerry Black in Wired a while back. Another fascinating surfer- physicist who is well on his way to delivering perfect surf waves on demand to bored teens at indoor land-locked malls.

"It's evening, and Black is hosting a dinner party with his girlfriend and a few guests at his house just blocks from ASR. As he throws a couple of fresh red snapper on the grill, Black talks about his quest to decipher the physics of surfing. It's one that's taken him more than 30 years, most of which had more to do with mundane coastal dynamics and oceanography than with surfing per se."Before you can understand surfing reefs," he says, "there's so much other knowledge you need. Wave dynamics. Sediment transport. Computer modeling. I was really in a long process to get those things before I could start on surf breaks."

<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/surfing_pr.html>

</comment><comment><USER6> Physics is like it's own religion with it's own priests, and a social caste. Ideas matter only depending who they come from. This guy, is basically nobody, hence he will face a lot of this backlash from the estabilishment.

There are so many theories out there, that are just madeup mathematic formulas with lot's of wholes, and new concepts being invented just to fill those gapping wholes, from which those theories wouldn't make sense.

Gravitron, dark mass, dark energy, gravitational waves, all made up. They may or may not exist. Until there if concrete proof, they just exist just as god exist for religious people. You can't prove they exist, but you can't really prove they don't exist.

I am still counting the number of "dimensions" comming out from the string theorists, from 9 to 10, to 11, and now the brane theory...things that just we cannot test with our current technology.

This guy's theory, should be partially testable, especially with the new particle accelerator comming out of Cern. But the problem, he is not in the establishment. He is not an insider of the religion.

<comment><USER7> The problem with this theory is that it's factually false. Physicists simply do not behave that way. A handful do, but physicists in general are much more principled than most other specialists in other fields, which is why physics has been so successful.

PS you don't have to attack science to defend religion

<comment><USER3> Is string theory also 'factually false' according your definition?

<comment><USER6> I don't say it is false, but there is a huge camp on the physics community saying, as long as all those theories are not testable in any way with our current techonology, then they are just philosophical theories, and not science.

Remember, hard science is based on observation, and testing. When I say testing, means that they are proven correct for some kind of settings. Just as Newton's Gravitational Law, is correct for most human (small, or large scale), but it is incorrect for the very very tiny (quantum scale), or it may be incorrect for the very very large.

[http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/phy03/sci/phys/fund/...](http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/phy03/sci/phys/fund/theoryorphil/index.html)

<comment><USER8> >are not testable in any way with our current techonology

It'd be cool if we hit singularity soon and build a planet size particle accelerator.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Does he really claim to have a complete unified theory of physics, or is that just media hype?

<comment><USER8> No, he doesn't, it's just media hype. He claims that the E8 is probably significant to the fundamental forces.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E8_polytope>

<comment><USER3> Huh? He indeed does claim that his model unifies all the forces. The title of his paper was: "An exceptionally simple theory of everything".

From: <http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.0770>

      All fields of the standard model and gravity are unified as an E8 principal bundle connection.

<comment><USER8> I have recalled my own incomplete recollection here.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=81332></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Startups, Memory, and Why Games Are Fun - <AUTHOR> http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/06/why-games-are-fun-the-psychology-explanation/ <comment><USER2> SMART Goals have been around for a while. Amazing how often we neglect them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, Brian Johnson says we already know what to do, it's the process of actually implementing it is what's difficult. Another perspective is that if we know how to do, but we're not actually doing it, then we really don't know how to do it. Perhaps the reason we neglect SMART goals is because they haven't been formulated in a way such that after learning about them, they become properly embedded into our consciousness framework.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I know this article is really long, but I feel conflicted. On one hand, I want to satisfy the intellectual curiosity of the interested reader, and feel compelled to go into tangents into any points I deem relevant. On the other hand, it's probably better from an ethical perspective to make things short and digestible: what good is information that doesn't get understood and remembered? And it'd probably drive more traffic it was more fun to read. The Slideshow itself is an excellent example of how you can have fun learning about the science of fun.. my article is more inclusive, though. Maybe I can integrate the two perspectives?

Maybe breaking it up into multiple blog days would be appreciated? Do people _like_ that? I personally can't stand it; when something interests me, I want to have all the information at my disposal _now_. And I don't like having to click through to multiple pages.

<comment><USER3> I think what people don't like is the _idea_ of having it broken up and having to wait for the rest, but in _practice_ they like articles they can read in 10 or 15 minutes.

I vote for breaking out any tangents that could make for an interesting 10-15 minute read on their own.

<comment><USER2> +1</comment></comment></comment>


$A100K Equity-Free Startup Grant from Queensland Government - <AUTHOR> http://www.hotdesq.com.au/application-process#mu <comment><USER3> Queensland-based startup here in the fintech space. Having been through the wringer several times applying for Qld and Federal government grants, I'd be very cautious before getting too enthusiastic about this offer. Here are my experiences:

Applied and was offered a $75k COMET (Commercialisation of Emerging Technologies) grant a few years back. Before accepting, I had a chat with another recipient, who warned me off. The grant wasn't a grant at all; you had to take a government appointed 'advisor', and when you raised your first round they were entitled to take a percentage of the funds (which could have been a multiple of the original $75k), even if their contribution had been zero. I declined the funding.

Applied twice for Commercialisation Australia (2010, $200k) and Early Stage Commercialisation (2014, 100k) grants. Both were grants without taking equity. Spent several thousand dollars and many weeks crafting the strongest possible application. Both times we were told we had extremely strong applications (great market fit, previous entrepreneurial experience, strong interest from overseas) and were highly likely to get the grant. Both times there was a change of government two weeks before the final signoff date, and both times the funding programs were closed down without warning, to be replaced by something very similar a year later. To cap it off they didn't even bother sending out a formal letter to applicants – I got a phone call in the first instance and a brush-off email in the second.

I'm not saying don't apply, but personally the time spent in applying for these grants would have been far better spent working on our product.

<comment><USER4> CA grant is such a weird premise as you essentially need to be in a position where you've done the R&D (i.e. spent all the cash) but don't have enough sales yet.

Having applied for $150k for another STEM related grant in NSW with a very strong application in hindsight I would rather have spent the time and effort focusing on the core business.

If you consider grants and applications as an expected value calculation (grant size * % chance of award * implications of being awarded) a business is often doing themselves a disservice by applying.

<comment><USER3> I completely agree. About the only grant program that sounds worthwhile is the EMDG (Export Market Development Grant) which reimburses some of your sales- related travel costs - up to 50% from a minimum spend of $15k. Apparently this isn't too hard to get, but you have to have spent the cash first.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A similar thing for NSW: $25k without revenue or up to $100k with revenue.

[https://www.jobsfornsw.com.au/how-we-help/start- ups](https://www.jobsfornsw.com.au/how-we-help/start-ups)

I haven't looked at other states, but the Australian states are competitive enough that what one does the others often follow.

Edit: Victoria: [https://launchvic.org/funding- guidelines](https://launchvic.org/funding-guidelines)

<comment><USER6> wow, having recently moved to nsw that is very interesting.

<comment><USER7> This seems to be from SA: [http://www.innovyz.com/](http://www.innovyz.com/) according to [https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/business-and-trade/running-a- bu...](https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/business-and-trade/running-a- business/funding-and-grants)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> All the Australian funding programs are designed to support the community of leeches that have grown to live off them like incubators and advisors.

Real support would be cash for salaries and then leave the developers alone to get stuff built from the living room.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm the CEO of a startup based outside Qld. Area of development is bespoke AI and its application in Health, Social Services, Education, Employment and Training.

We were looking at moving to California to secure funding but if it's $100K cold hard cash with no strings we could be persuaded to move to the Sunshine Coast. Good weather, good surfs. Like California only different. Email me - email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER10> As someone who lives in Qld, our Gov't only provides funding to those who are the most connected and don't need the funding. As per the FAQ's section saying they will give the money not to those who it would benefit most, but those who are most connected and have the most experience and successful startups.

<comment><USER11> "Any entrepreneur currently based outside of Queensland with an existing startup or entrepreneurial experience can apply. "

Note, you have to currently be outside of qld to apply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> From someone who's already in the program: [https://medium.com/@hollyc/whats- hot-desq-really-like-faqs-f...](https://medium.com/@hollyc/whats-hot-desq- really-like-faqs-from-someone-who-knows-5dc453d86da6)

</comment><comment><USER13> This is more meant to be an incentive for people to bring (back) an already successful venture to QLD, not a way to get seed money.

</comment><comment><USER14> It's specifically for founders with existing startups, outside of Queensland, in case others missed that on first glance.

</comment><comment><USER15> The gamification-sounding element of accumulating "Network Points" is pretty entertaining. Aside from that, providing $AUD100K without taking equity is nice - as long as the process of farming the government isn't so complex that your startup lives to regret it...

<comment><USER14> Well doing work for Queensland Health (front-end websites and apps for marketing purposes, not client data or anything) was an exercise in absolute frustration. But hey, I'll give our gvt the benefit of the doubt for now; we have to move to a tech economy or we will fail the moment we run out of resources to pull out of the ground.

Interestingly, a small data centre is being built pretty close to me in Fortitude Valley, so there is some investment going on. The Advance Queensland Innovation Summit I attended talked the big talk, let's see how well they've learned how to walk I guess!

<comment><USER16> Mining is actually not the predominant part of the national income - <USER2> like 8% of GDP. We're not as dependent on it as people think. Might be different for the state of QLD though.

Another way to look at it - mining has been deflating for the past few years as demand has dried up a bit, but the nation still hasn't had a recession (two quarters of negative growth).

<comment><USER14> Yeah sorry I should've been clear, I'm talking specifically about Queensland (and WA is another state that's at risk, and are were in a recession as of the beginning of this year, from what I can see).

This doc is a couple years out of date, but worth looking at: [https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/economy/the-queensland- econo...](https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/economy/the-queensland-economy/qld- resources-sector.php)

While in raw numbers it might not seem grim, the effects from what I've seen can be rather outsized; more to the point, a lot of communities in Queensland are reliant on mining to exist at all and are struggling with the current downturn in mining investment and work (though, local effects don't generalise well, of course).

The current effects are having an impact on Brisbane's GDP:

"Significant drags on the Brisbane economy included Professional Services (-0.3 percentage points) and Mining (-0.3 percentage points)."

[https://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/brisbane- gdp-2015-2016](https://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/brisbane-gdp-2015-2016)

Anyway, thanks for sending me on a neat research journey :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Wish Canada did something like startup chile .. I'd move and do a startup in a heartbeat.

<comment><USER6> what ? If you don't live in Canada why would you want to the grant to be there ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Sounds like they're buying the time of an already successful startup in the hopes that their hard work will "rub off" on the rest of the community.

</comment><comment><USER19> You posted this too late:

> Hot DesQ applications will be accepted from 31 March 2017 until midday > (AEST), 3 May 2017

<comment><USER20> I assume that he posted it late enough so that there won't be any extra competition from HN, and yet early enough so that it's still relevant and thus will yield sufficient internet points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Dammit - I'm already in Queensland, but I do have a startup! Haha!

</comment><comment><USER22> If anyone's thinking about coming, pls post about your startup.</comment>


Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice - <AUTHOR> http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/internet/2012/06/dear-internet-why-you-cant-have-anything-nice

<comment><USER2> The idea that there are a limited pool of stereotypes that most female characters in video games are drawn doesn't seem to me to be at all controversial. Anita Sarkeesian is possibly the dullest, least-controversial feminist ever; that she would be targeted for this basically says any woman could be.

These harassers are attempting censorship through intimidation and abuse. The question is how we stand up and condemn their cruel, petty, misogynistic behavior in a way that will do any good.

<comment><USER3> One example: when Heroku/Mongo/Apigee/etc rescinded their support from the Sqoot API Jam after women were offered as one of the perks alongside beer.

There are many things to do, but a solid first step is not tacitly condoning hateful speech or deeds.

The next step is to create a welcoming environment. It's not obvious how to do it (for example, avoid employees taking a dark unsupervised walk to their mode of transit to go home), but would you want to be somewhere where random anonymous strangers could verbally assault you, and you had no legal recourse? That's the social environment that YouTube has made.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> More internet misogyny. Fortunately, this one comes with a way to actual give for the cause.

</comment><comment><USER5> This has been here an hour and only one comment (prior to mine). I wonder why.

<comment><USER6> Hacker News is about as receptive of this topic as a porcupine is of balloons.

"Stay away stay away stay away!"

<comment><USER5> Thank you for replying. Yes, I am aware of the trend. I have been a member for around three years. But I wonder _why_ that is.

There is a fair amount of discussion of things like women in tech and sexual harassment in the work place. I wonder why these types of posts seem to put such a chill in the air and get a reaction of "I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole..." even though other related topics generate quite a bit of serious, mostly respectful discussion.

<comment><USER6> People on HN are there to talk about tech, and they prefer it to happen within the confines of what is currently the majority demographic: young male tech person who's every-day life doesn't involve constant harassment.

Talking about the subject of sexism in tech means the members of the majority demographic have to start acknowledging their own privileges and mistakes (made in the past), two things they'd rather avoid altogether. Understandable, but unhelpful.

There are lots of great folks on HN, and lots of women, too. However, their voices often get drowned out by the other group. I know of many female developers / engineers who have abandoned HN because the systemic misogyny became too unbearable to be confronted with on a daily basis.

<comment><USER5> Again, thank you for replying and have an upvote, but I respectfully disagree. My impression is that it scares people in a way that makes them afraid to talk about it.

I am not afraid of difficult subjects of this sort but many people are, and usually with very good reason. You and another commenter have already come out gunning for people here when the only "crime" may be discomfort or fear of saying the wrong thing on a very loaded topic. God forbid they give you and others actual ammo against them by opening their mouths.

<comment><USER6> This explanation operates on the assumption that all of these people lack the capacity to ask why, or ask for an elaboration or clearer explanation. It assumes that every member here that avoids these conversations Must! At all times! Assert! Their! Knowledge! on the issue and speak out as if they're experts.

There really is no discomfort in asking someone to elaborate on a complicated subject, except a self-imposed reputation you think you might need to uphold.

My experience from seeing HN threads discuss this topic shows anything but a fear that people have to discuss it; I'm sure the fearful ones are the ones not speaking out either way, which makes the size of that group really hard to determine, but the ones that do speak up seem anything but fearful.

There are two ways of learning: investigate resources for yourself, and asking "why". Maybe it's time for HN to try either of the two more often?

<comment><USER5> I am asking "why" and I am a member here. I said that quite clearly. I really don't see where you are getting your first paragraph. I don't really understand this reply at all.

Back to working on my blog post.

Later.

<comment><USER6> Well, and I gave you my explanation of why as an answer, which you then dismissed and provided your own explanation instead. Since you were the one wondering why, I'm now left to wonder what made you ask the question in the first place.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Government not found - without a government 249 days and counting - <AUTHOR> http://belgiq.eu/

<comment><AUTHOR> Some background [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/17/belgium-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/17/belgium- elect-government-split)</comment>


Stun Belts in Court - <AUTHOR> https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/07/29/shock-treatment-in-court <comment><USER2> > County officers authorized to use stun cuffs are required to go through > training and are only allowed to use them "to overcome active resistance" or > when "active aggression is an immediate or credible threat to the safety of > the deputy(s), the public" or the defendant, Christian wrote in an email.

...

> "If I'm sitting here, I'm no security threat," Calvert said, according to > court records cited in an appeal later filed by Calvert's lawyer.

> "I'm not talking a security threat," Skeen replied. "I'm talking about you > listening to me."

> Later, Skeen ordered Calvert to sit down and then, a moment later, to answer > a question. When Calvert again failed to stand up to address the judge, an > officer activated the device, according to court records.

So. This officer who activated the device. What happened to them? Have they been reprimanded? Criminally charged? Are they still given the ability to shock defendents in Smith County courts?

<comment><USER3> I mean technically it's both threat OR to overcome active resistance.

It could be argued that he was actively resisting by not standing.

<comment><USER4> > It could be argued that he was actively resisting by not standing.

If that's active resistance, what would an example of passive resistance be?

<comment><USER5> Following the orders... but with insufficient enthusiasm?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think the disturbing question that this brings up is: Given that so many judges are willing to abuse stun belts and turn them into a morbid torture device, how can we trust these people to adequately decide important criminal cases. In my opinion, the answer in an alarmingly many number of cases is we can't.

This could be solved quickly if we require the prosecutor and criminal lawyer or self represented defendant to agree on a judge before going to trial. If there are judges out there that very few of one side or the other is willing to agree to, those judges should be reviewed for making biased decisions and be at risk of losing their judgeship. Or we could pay judges by the number of cases they get and hope the ones who don't get many agreements will go away on their own.

This can be a workable system: Just require that the parties keep going if their first choice is not available. For example: we could have 6 judges at random and give each party 3 vetoes to get rid of judges they don't want. We could even just let the parties choose a judge and only have the court intervene when they are unable to select a judge who is available in a reasonable amount of time. I can almost guarantee that the fear of random choice will make most litigants cooperate to pick a good judge.

In any case, the current system of having old lawyers with almost no accountability be judges is wanting.

<comment><USER7> I think the point is, you don't trust judges. Their decisions are open to appeal - and if they're found to be contrary to the law, they're regularly overturned.

The problem is more with non-lethal weapons. If you don't really heavily regulate them, they're obviously going to be used to torture people into compliance, because that's what they are for. A taser electrocutes somebody until they cannot resist. Pepper spray causes so much pain people stop doing whatever they are doing. There's simply a very subtle distinction between using a torture device to stop somebody from doing something dangerous to themselves or others, and using it to stop them from doing something that's simply problematic or against the law.

Non-lethal weapons ask their users to make these distinctions every day, in stressful situations. If the job in general blurs the line, then you can expect their decisions to be equally blurry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My 6 year old son and I have constant battles when I correct him for poor choices. He will do the same types of things they described in this article, interrupting, being rude. It's what people in a place with no other options do.

My choices are to escalate and spank or hit him. I've never done that.

He always hears what I say. In the moments of greatest conflict when I'm sure he is ignoring what I'm saying I know he hears it all, because he uses the same techniques on his sisters weeks later, verbatim.

These judges are in a position of power. What they say will be supported and enforced by the massive system all around them. These defendants might pretend to ignore it, but they will hear what is being said.

These judges want to make sure they are being paid respect, and are willing to do something barbaric to achieve that. But, worse than anything this is really stupid because they will provide an avenue for someone who might actually have committed a crime to find a way out. This is pure stupidity and arrogance on the part of the judges. They are putting their own arrogance over the due process of law.

<comment><USER9> i have a feeling that the places where this sort of crime occurs, also have similar attitudes and detours around due process in a J.D. hogg-esque way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Even if the stun belts were banned, these malicious judges would still have significant power to harm people via their authority. A judge that would shock a person to punish them for non-violent disobedience cannot be trusted to decide matters of law fairly.

</comment><comment><USER11> Article 1 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment:

 _" Torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions."_

Can anyone, devil's advocate or otherwise, argue that the use of these belts does not constitute torture under international law?

[https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CAT.aspx](https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CAT.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER12> I had no idea this was happening in todays world, it is utterly barbaric. To be electrocuting someone constantly throughout their trial, it is so saddening to see society get to this point.

<comment><USER13> Just FYI, the word "electrocute" is a portmanteau of "electricity" and "execute", which ends with the death of the electrocuted.

<comment><USER14> But it no longer means that in common use.

<comment><USER15> No it still means that.

<comment><USER16> Many people use "electrocute" to mean "receive an electric shock".

Whether the word still means "to receive a fatal electric shock" in spite of this common use is a question of semantics - whether you believe the dictionary ought to be prescriptive or descriptive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Merriam Webster says [https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/electrocute](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/electrocute) to kill or severely injure

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > A Maryland judge was ousted from office for shocking a defendant who did not > stop talking when asked, leaving the man hollering on the ground in pain > while the court took a recess.

The video of the shock is linked in the article. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYfzrof2g4o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYfzrof2g4o)

It's much more jarring that just reading the description of the event. How can we organize our society to ensure these events are never incentivized to happen?

<comment><USER18> It's absolutely unbelievable that something like this could occur in modern society. It makes me fearful for the future, not convinced that we are much more advanced than aggressive apes. The way everyone else in the court just ignores the man is like something out of my worst nightmare of the Milgram experiment. Despicable.

<comment><USER17> I agree, the way everyone else ignores him is unreal. I didn't believe this could occur in modern society either.

There doesn't seem to be an easy fix. The judge is at least partly conditioned by the environment they were raised in. The engineers fed their families with the income earned from building the pain belt.

It makes me wonder how I might be complicit in harmful consequences I can't predict. I'm wondering what actions I could take personally to avoid doing damage like this in the future.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> THE COURT: YOU ARE WEARING A VERY BAD INSTRUMENT, AND IF YOU WANT TO FEEL IT, YOU CAN, BUT STOP INTERRUPTING.

MR. HAWKINS: YOU ARE GOING TO ELECTROCUTE ME FOR TALKING?

THE COURT: NO, SIR, BUT THEY WILL ZAP YOU IF YOU KEEP DOING IT. THE DEFENDANT ALSO ALLEGES THAT THE COURT HAS AN EX PARTE CONTACT WITH THE D.A. THAT IS NOT TRUE, AND I AM NOT AWARE THAT THIS DEPUTY D.A. —

MR. HAWKINS: THE TRANSCRIPT WILL REFLECT THAT.

THE COURT: ONE MORE TIME. ONE MORE TIME. GO AHEAD.

MR. HAWKINS: THAT'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL. (AT THIS TIME THE BELT WAS ACTIVATED.) * * *

...

MR. HAWKINS: I THINK YOU HAVE BEEN VERY UNFAIR. I THINK THESE ELECTRONIC SHOCKS TO ME WITHOUT DISPLAYING ANY VIOLENT BEHAVIOR — I THINK IT IS VERY IN- HUMANE ON YOUR PART.

THE COURT: SIR, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BECAUSE YOU REFUSED TO OBEY MY ORDER TO STOP INTERRUPTING ME. SO DON'T MISSTATE THE RECORD. THERE WAS ONLY ONE, NOT PLURAL.

MR. HAWKINS: BUT FOR A VERBAL INTERRUPTION, YOUR HONOR.

THE COURT: YES, SIR, THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT.

MR. HAWKINS: THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS THING IS DESIGNED FOR. YOU ARE OVERSTEPPING YOUR AUTHORITY.

THE COURT: NO. SIR, ANYTHING ELSE?

Hawkins v. Comparet-Cassani, 251 F.3d 1230, 1232 n.2 (9th Cir. 2001)

<comment><USER20> That judge should be convicted of assault, if not something more.

<comment><USER21> Simply privately admonished, it seems, while the county picked up the bill for a $275,000 settlement.

[http://www.metnews.com/articles/2011/cjpx081711.htm](http://www.metnews.com/articles/2011/cjpx081711.htm)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Why make these devices be manually triggered by someone? The first thing I thought of is if you "had" to have a shock system in place, why not make it like an "invisible fence" for a dog. I get wanting to protect everyone in the court but having this be manually triggered will always lead to abuse.

It would only trigger if the person in question were to actually attempt to harm another and leave their designated area or if they somehow raised their voice higher than a set dB level (Dog barking shock collar type).

Obviously have manual override to turn it OFF when it malfunctions but do not let someone manually be able to turn it ON.

Not advocating for treating people like dogs, however this would be more reactionary to a situation rather than leaving the control be in the hands of a person who may make decisions based on personal preference or emotion.

<comment><USER23> > Not advocating for treating people like dogs, however...

It's like saying "I'm not racist but..." \-- you are in fact advocating treating people like dogs.

There are other solutions to this, as evidenced by it being illegal in all of Europe and Europe and the United Nations pushing to make it illegal in the rest of the world.

<comment><USER24> Europe's solution to this is glass cages. I'm not sure that's much better on the "not treating people like dogs" scale.

<comment><USER23> People are confined in many different settings, home, office, prison, etc. This is not dramatically out of line. People are not usually electrocuted for speaking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> How can you possibly have a fair trial this way? It's impossible. I hope this guy wins his appeal. It's incredible that the courts are now more despicable than a murderer and kidnapper in their practices. Let's skip the jury and have the judge administer punishment, even death. Right there in front of everyone. And why? Because the court officers can't restrain one person? What kind of officers are these? They can't keep one person in line? Then fire them. Get someone who can. That's their whole fucking job. What a bunch of weak, useless cowards who would rather torture a man than do their fucking job. Of course the job is dangerous. That's what these cowards signed up for.

</comment><comment><USER9> Taken to its full extension, when could we see an attempt to include electrocution with ankle monitor systems for bailees, or parolees.

<comment><USER26> Leave the county, and then Zap! It continues every 60 seconds until you return or the battery dies. It saves the court money by not needing to send a police officer after someone

<comment><USER27> Oops, they actually just went into a tunnel and it couldn't get a GPS lock.

<comment><USER28> The "effective" option would be to make it start zapping if it loses a GPS lock.

Good luck if you ever need to go through a tunnel.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> 08-15 Why do they keep calling the pain belt a stun belt?

<comment><USER29> Because euphemisms are a weapon of evil - if we called them pain belts people would immediately realize they are the baddies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Judge should be fired. The fact that he is still practising shows the crookedness of the American legal system. It's fine for a judge to have such a tool, but to use it in this way is unacceptable.

<comment> 08-15 No. Judge should be jailed. It's assault, plain and simple.

<comment><USER28> ¿Por qué no los dos?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The root of these and similar problems is that agents of the state are not held accountable to the people.

Ideally the judge, DA, etc would be also be equipped with stun cuffs and then members of the jury may activate them whenever unconstitutional behavior occurs.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm motivated by always have enough money for representation and representation through appeals court

A general, perpetual socioeconomic exemption

</comment><comment><USER33> I wish journalists would learn how much more persuasive they can be if they are matter-of-fact. The particulars of this triggered my skepticism in the 4 paragraphs following "Heightening the tension...", and I assumed that important details were being left out, and that there was some sort of scuffle, etc., going on, leading to the shock.

In fact, reading the appeal, the fact pattern looks very bad for the court. The man was shocked mid-sentence as he spoke while sitting down. There appears to have been no scuffle.

So I'm fairly convinced now, but no thanks to this article trying to be "persuasive."

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm fine with this. If you can't behave yourself in court, you get a zap. Either that or a bailiff cracks you over the head with a club.

It's amazing how effective corporal punishment is even past childhood years. Singapore has some of the lowest crime rates in the world, but act out there and you'll get a caning.</comment>


9 Ways to make your Business Website more Lead - Friendly - <AUTHOR> https://news.ycombinator.com/bookmarklet.html

<comment><USER2> They say that for some, the fastest way to make it in the music industry is to sleep your way to the [http://www.meltbuzz.com/2014/09/porn-hub-to-launch- music-rec...](http://www.meltbuzz.com/2014/09/porn-hub-to-launch-music- recording.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> In a world where everyone is busy, even something as serious as a job interview can easily become a wasted endeavor. Phone interviews are often considered as nothing more than a simple piece of the screening process and every Onsite interview more or less reflecting a marathon endeavor, its a wonder we ever take the plunge to apply in the first place! Often the interview process is just as painful for the person on the other end or sitting across the table from you. There are just so many things that are frustrating about the interview process!

Enter EzInterview, an application that provides the ultimate in interview flexibility. Create an interview at anytime and connect from any computer using Chrome or Firefox! When in the interview one can join with video & audio chat, interactively walk through a problem using the WhiteBoard or write out or code a problem using the new interactive text editor!

Through the use of the latest in technologies such as WebRTC, Socket.IO, Django, and Node.js we believe we can find that sweet spot of the flexibility of a phone interview combined with the seriousness of an Onsite one</comment>


Facebook platform developers could see $500M in revenue this year - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2009/05/08/facebook-platform-developers-could-see-500m-in-revenue-this-year/

<comment><USER2> Back of the envelope calculations are fun. I think a typical app will make $1-$10 (ad based vs. virtual currency based) per month for each 1000 monthly active users. Let's say about 20% of apps are virtual currency based, so $2.8. The top 20 apps on facebook have total 179M active users, so they would make $6M per year. If the top 20 accounts for 50% of traffic, that would pin total Facebook app earnings to $12M/year.

If I recall correctly, Joel has once said that the cost of office space accounts for something like 6% of their revenue. At another time I think he mentioned their new office costs $50000/month, so their revenue would be $10M/year.

So Fog Creek software makes as much as all apps on Facebook combined?-)

Edit: Read the article. Even Zynga alone seems to be making more than my whole estimate. Oopsie.

</comment><comment><USER3> I finally figured it out.

When reading headlines,

s/could/won't/g

and

s/\?$/? No./g

<comment><USER4> lol - very good, Joel. Perhaps the seed of a new Fog Creek product, "Forum Scrubber".

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> In other news Microsoft employees could see Linus Torvalds around campus in Redmond attending Windows 7 Evangelist training.</comment>


TermsFeed – Privacy Policy Generator - <AUTHOR> https://termsfeed.com/ <comment><USER2> The word free is littered around the home/pre-questionnaire pages, but click on generate to start the process and free vanishes rather quickly to be replaced with dollar signs. Strange marketing.

<comment><USER3> It _is_ possible to generate a free privacy policy, although in my case that required selecting "no" when asked if I would pass over user details if faced with a subpoena (allowing for the possibility I might choose to comply would have been $3). It strikes me as highly unlikely that refusing to respond to a subpoena would have no serious ramifications, and I'd expect any information service with any shred of credibility to offer a view on that, and whether if I preferred to live dangerously, noncompliance with a subpoena is _really_ a worse alternative than complying with a subpoena without express prior acknowledgment I might do so in the t&cs.

Of course, a decent general explanation is perhaps less likely to result in me paying for a "100% free" set of documents to "prevent legal issues" that are, according to this site's extremely short terms of use, "provided without any warranty, express or implied, including as to their legal effect and completeness".

Frankly I'd be more comfortable writing my own t&cs than trusting these guys...

<comment><USER4> > Frankly I'd be more comfortable writing my own t&cs than trusting these > guys...

Agreed. Based on the free template this emits I don't think it's worth paying for the rest of them.

<comment><USER5> We're aware of this on the Free Agreements and looking into it.

As replied below, we're looking to extend these Free Agreements to include much more clauses to make them more attractive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It looks like a useful service and it says their legal documents are prepared by professional lawyers, however, the footer, contact page and terms of their website do not state their company's registered address, or number – in fact I can't find this information anywhere?

<comment><USER7> I agree that's important for confidence, plus some social proof is going to be needed on the website too.

Otherwise yes it has reasonable price points and a sensible service, I can easily see myself using this service.

<comment><USER8> reasonable price points? I dunno about that, have you actually gone through the process?

after the second or third page it is nickel and diming or 'death by a thousand cuts' pricing strategy.

I'd much prefer an upfront fee, like $50 or $100 or whatever

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I tried this, like a week or so ago actually. I paid $46 for a terms doc and it wasn't good. Like the idea, and it's very similar in principal to one of my products (generate a document based on your needs), but it's simply not sophisticated enough yet. I wrote them and the refunded the purchase immediately so as far as who's behind it and their integrity, they were top shelf for me.

I would've paid more for a better, more tailored document.

</comment><comment><USER10> You may also be interested in checking out iubenda ([http://www.iubenda.com/en](http://www.iubenda.com/en)).

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this company other that I use it for MailCharts ([http://www.mailcharts.com/](http://www.mailcharts.com/)).

Edit: Your first license with iubenda is free: [https://www.iubenda.com/en/pricing](https://www.iubenda.com/en/pricing)

<comment><USER8> why in the world would this be a monthly plan fee? does a lawyer charge you a monthly fee for drafting a contract? or a mortgage?

the terms don't change and I can't think of any good reason to pay monthly, except of course that iubenda makes more money that way!

not everything needs to be crammed face first into an SaaS model

<comment><USER10> Agreed. I would definitely not pay for this on a monthly basis. That being said, if you stick to the free plan, it does just what you'd expect.

<comment><USER11> Hi guys, part of iubenda here. First, we know we have to work on driving a couple of points home.

There's a free, yearly or monthly subscription. The subscriptions really just divide a bigger chunk of money into smaller very affordable bits.

If you need the basic, free bit, perfect. Otherwise the SaaS system is in place for us to deliver a sophisticated service at very little up front cost. If you keep using it you get the updates pushed right to your app. The license can be reused on new projects, too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This seems like a useful service, but a bit more information on who is vetting these agreements and about the company behind the service would be helpful.

The following page results in a 403, as a heads up.

[https://termsfeed.com/terms-use/?ref=tour](https://termsfeed.com/terms- use/?ref=tour)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for pointing this out! Fixed now.

We're working on a new design and would include much more info. on this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> It's Free*

*Not actually free.

<comment><USER5> Hi there!

We do have a Free variant on all agreements available.

We're looking to extend these Free Agreements to include much more clauses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> question - "Users can create an account" & "We collect email..."

Do comment forms count? What about contact forms that do name, email, phone etc?

<comment><USER5> Yes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> text generation using template costs a lot more much money than i thought.

</comment><comment><USER16> really ?</comment>


Sizing with CSS3's vw and vh units - <AUTHOR> http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/vm-vh-units

<comment><USER2> Man, that fixed background is annoying. Contrast is too high vs. the text (on my dtp-94 calibrated monitor).

IE9-only? No wonder I've never heard of this one. But it is in the spec, according to w3.org: <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-values/>

<comment><USER3> Complain and it shall be (no longer) fixed!

Read: he heard you and now the background is no longer fixed. ;)</comment></comment>


The burgeoning evolution of eSports: From the fringes to front and center [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.pwc.com/us/en/industry/entertainment-media/assets/pwc_consumer-intelligence-series_esports_april-2016.pdf <comment><USER2> They featured Smash on the cover page, and yet despite both Melee and Smash 4 having robust and _entirely home-grown_ eSports scenes (sponsored and covered by both Red Bull and Twitch), there's not one mention of the word "Smash" anywhere in the doc. The only fighting game mentioned appears to be Mortal Kombat, and as far as I can tell, that scene is negligible compared to Street Fighter and especially Melee. (source: [http://www.esportsearnings.com/games](http://www.esportsearnings.com/games) both tournament count and award size)

I'm not even a participant in any eSports scene let alone Smash, but from the perspective of an outsider such as myself, this would seem to be a grave oversight by PWC.</comment>


Pensions Research Council via Forbes: Blockchain Pensions Can Never Go Bankrupt - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/pensionresearchcouncil/2018/01/30/fintechs-answer-to-the-global-retirement-crisis/#58b573a1ff36 <comment><USER2> The headline isn't a very good summary of the article, or the basic idea expressed therein. The author proposes the use of a tontine, an investment trust arrangement dating back to the 1600's. A tontine, correctly administered, won't go bankrupt. A tontine can be implemented using a blockchain.

That's as far as the article goes is showing how blockchains can prevent pension failures.</comment>


Show HN: Community based ask and answer for car questions - <AUTHOR> http://www.infinacar.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Built with django running osqa. My question is, how can I grow a community that would find this useful?

Any suggestions welcomed.</comment>


How to be happy in business - venn diagram - <AUTHOR> http://whatconsumesme.com/2009/what-im-writing/how-to-be-happy-in-business-venn-diagram/

<comment><USER2> A very nice description of the goal of marrying skill, demand, and passion:

If what you want to do and what you do well overlap, you still need to monetize it. If what you do well and what you can get paid to do overlap, you still need to make sure the work is desired. If what you want to do and what you can get paid to do overlap, you still need to do it better than your competition.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like this new trend of info-graphic philosophy.</comment>


Cars Will Talk to One Another. Exactly How Is Less Certain - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/business/cars-v2v-dsrc-communication.html <comment><USER2> Next think you know cars will transmit information to cop cars such as the number of passengers, speed history, red light violations, and seat belt buckle status.</comment>


Justin Kan is good at Snapchat: Startups I didn't know about - <AUTHOR> http://blog.tedmiston.com/justin-kan-is-good-at-snapchat/ <comment><USER2> Not to discount the usefulness of the idea but there are quite a few "pharmacy delivery as a service" companies in India [1] where startup market is still in its infancy. I would have assumed that something like "ScriptDash" is already a mature growing business in US. Can anyone tell me why "ScriptDash" is such a new addition ? Is there anything about the startup that I missed?

[1]: [http://www.pharmeasy.in/](http://www.pharmeasy.in/)

<comment><USER3> There's lots of mail order pharmacies.

For stuff like antibiotics where it is less possible to schedule in advance, there isn't much margin on $5 prescriptions. Which doesn't mean that there aren't people that will pay $10 extra to have their stuff delivered, it just means that there aren't lots of people clamoring for it.

<comment><USER4> I worked at a similar place in NYC:

[https://www.capsulecares.com](https://www.capsulecares.com)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I too have been following Justin for a few months. Love the startup takeovers of his account. Justin if you're reading this please do more of them.

Also highly recommend following Mark Suster.

<comment><AUTHOR> I had no idea Mark Suster was so into Snapchat. He's even blogged about it [1].

What type of content have you seen from Mark?

[1]: _Snapchat 101 for VCs and Old Folks_ [https://bothsidesofthetable.com/snapchat-101-for-vcs-and- old...](https://bothsidesofthetable.com/snapchat-101-for-vcs-and-old- folks-47fbfcb29f78)

<comment><USER6> All of Mark's snapstorms are archived here by category, learned a lot from them [http://snapstorms.com/](http://snapstorms.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> That site is quite the goldmine. It would be awesome to have this preserving other people's snap stories too. I wonder if it's an official site from Mark.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I've been following Justin on Snapchat for a few months now, and this blog post was inspired by that. The three startups that I wrote about are Simple Contacts, ScriptDash, and Wave.

With his experience & role at YC, I think Justin is in a unique position to share a glimpse at companies changing the future more than almost anyone else. Also I think it's cool how he responds to questions from followers.

</comment><comment><USER7> stupid question: is there anyway to watch this stuff without downloading snapchat?</comment>


Ask HN : Who's in NYC for YC StartUp School - <AUTHOR>

I'm here two days early for Startup school and thought it would be cool to catch up with other people attending. So let's meet up? <comment><USER2> NYC'ers: any suggestions for good places to work from in manhattan? (Eg. Coffee shop)

<comment><USER2> Thanks all for the recommendations. I also found the CapitalOne 360 cafe to be pretty nice on the second floor (bonus: TV for world cup games :)). Interest is a bit slow, but the area is nice. I'll check out the other recommendations. I'm also down to meet up, I'll be here until Wednesday (traveling from SF, where I worked at a Startup there)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm here right now with a friend at We Work 222 Broadway, Fulton. Seems like a pretty place to work and chill. Spent the day looking for other co-working spaces and narrowed down to this one. Wasn't too keen on doing the coffee shop thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just as a warning for you out-of-towners, Obama is coming to town today so leave an extra hour for travel to/from Manhattan.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the heads up... Appreciate it

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm a tech guy at Fog Creek. If you'd like to swing by our office for lunch, shoot me an email. firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Sent you a mail. Let's catch up for lunch today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I will be arriving on Wednesday (commuting from Long Island). We should get a group to meet up before the event!

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds good. I'll think of a meet up place nearby

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> alright</comment>


U.S. Senators demand small business loan data from SBA and Treasury [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.sbc.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/d/8/d8e32c58-d0c9-4bd2-a022-188680dc80e9/0EF809C9847CBF95A71D3ECBECD5DF8F.newdataletter417.pdf <comment><USER2> Would love to see this data as well. We applied within 15 minutes of our bank, First Republic, opening up applications on April 3rd. Yesterday we got a notification they were unable to submit it before funds ran out and now I have to go in Monday and lay off employees. Horrible experience and terrible customer service from First Republic. I guess since we are a startup they prioritized other businesses.

<comment><USER3> While your bank may have screwed up, it's also possible that you were further down the list than you know. And while it sucks if your bank prioritized other people ahead of you, it might be that they had valid reasons, even if it hurt you. Another possibility is that the larger banks were able to process applications faster and they got their loan money first so you bank just didn't have the funds for more than a few people.

Now if you want to complain, how about complaining to your congress person and asking them why the sba isn't getting more funds. Presumably, if it looks like the program will get more money, it might be worth asking your bank how far down the list you are, so you'll know if you make it in the next round. And it will suck to lay people off on Monday, but if you have a good feel for when the program will get more money, and when you might expect it, maybe you might be able to get your employees back sooner.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> AFAIK banks can discriminate based on their internal judgements about who to approve and for how much.

Given that, it should come as no surprise to anyone in America that they prioritized funding for business customers deemed of greatest value to them.

Random question, but can a pre-revenue company qualify for this type of bailout?

</comment><comment><USER5> Application #300-something at PNC bank. Informed today they ran out of money and cannot make loan. We will survive this - hopefully - and I will close my PNC accounts. There's. That's more consequence than I can deliver to China whose output I cannot do business without, and who is far more responsible for this mess.

</comment><comment> grayed-down This is a pretty rich request from this particular gang of signatories. I'm sure if Trump was a D they'd be nowhere near a request like this. But to their credit, it would be good to know these figures and the timing of applications and dispersals.</comment>


Email clients hacks that almost worked - <AUTHOR> https://www.pythondashboard.com/articles/2020-02-08-email-hacks.html <comment><USER2> I'm working on an inbox that does exactly those things. Exactly. It's pretty funny to see the overlap with your list. Would you be interested in chatting? Would love to hear your thoughts on what could make it work if it was done in a less hacky way.</comment>


My startup, Tidal Labs, launched today with a TechCrunch writeup - <AUTHOR>

I just wanted to share my excitement with HN -- I've been lurking here for a long time, and I figured "what better reason to post than this?"
We started Tidal Labs about a year ago, and today marks our official launch. We're now out in the wild with a handful of good clients, a nifty tech platform, and that persistent headache that comes with any startup.
The TechCrunch article is here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/tidal-bloggers/
If you don't love TechCrunch for whatever reasons, then you can skip the article and check us out directly at http://tid.al (though the article does a good job of explaining what we do -- we need to clean up the copy on our site a bit).
Anyways, thanks for reading. I just wanted to vent excitement on you guys. Love you all! <comment><USER2> Congratulations. As a side question, how did you go about getting TC to cover the launch?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! They're a little tricky with that stuff, and my partner handles all the bizdev stuff so I don't know exactly how he did it--I think he has an old contact there. With that being said, TC will likely ignore you if your site has been live for a while, but their ears perk up if you offer an exclusive on an actual launch. Email them in the middle of the week, with some time to spare, because they get loaded up with emails on Mondays and are more likely to ignore you.</comment></comment>