Running Rails on Heroku Update - <AUTHOR> https://blog.heroku.com/archives/2013/3/13/running_rails_on_heroku_update? <comment><USER2> Still not fixing the core issue - intelligent routing.

I've played around with various routing methods before, and intelligent routing does seem to be incredibly difficult at scale. I don't think anybody gets it right? Any examples of intelligent routing at scale that works properly?

If not, might be a good place to start an OSS project into and benefit everyone. Intelligent routing should be far from impossible, all you need is very basic communication between servers and routers, possibly using some form of minimal broadcasting or multicast?

A simple solution could be having each server send 'dont send me more requests' and 'im ready for more requests'

<comment><USER3> I have working knowledge of a couple of large routing systems (Yahoo, Facebook) and built a few smaller ones. In general, _state is the enemy of scale_. You want large systems to be simpler and less stateful, not more stateful and "intelligent".

One good notion is to embed server statistics into the response, like in an HTTP header. That way the LB can be aware of queue size, queue wait, utilization, etc. But that only works if the knowledge of server health is global to all load balancers, or if some LBs only talk to some servers.

If your requests are more or less the same "size", eg they take roughly the same amount of CPU / wall / etc, all of this gets vastly easier.

<comment><USER4> For single-threaded servers, request latency dominates--it's hard to get useful state information out of a dyno, because as soon as it's returned a response, its state has changed. You can add a dedicated stats endpoint to each server, but that requires cooperation from the customer's application. There are... alternate approaches, however.

<comment><USER5> IMO, adding feedback mechanisms (e.g. LB polling app or server agent) are among the best ways to create smart, fast LBs without keeping a lot of expensive state. Calculating busyness is another question entirely but it's also a much easier problem to solve than stateful routers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's already a lot of negativity on this thread, suggesting that they only care about this because they're facing bad PR and lawsuits.

I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. They made a reasonable engineering and product tradeoff to increase their system's scalability, decrease it's latency, and allow new kinds of applications that are able to serve more than one request at once (eg. node.js servers holding onto tons of idle websockets).

Given an increasingly large infrastructure (which makes stronger queueing much harder if you don't want to add a lot of latency) and strong requests from customers to allow other languages that don't fit into the "one fast request per process" paradigm, I can absolutely see making that tradeoff. It makes the infrastructure simpler (and thus more robust), cuts some latency, and makes the many loud customers who wanted to run things like node.js happy.

Doing so, I would have been aware that in some cases, this would lead to suboptimal routing that increased latency, but I never really would have thought it would have as devastating effects on an application's overall performance as Rap Genius saw.

So yes, they do care a lot more about this issue now that there has been a big stir about it, but I think it's reasonable to assume that this may be more because they've realized it can have a huge impact on overall latency rather than a moderate one, and that it's come to their attention that some of their messaging and docs hadn't been updated reflecting the routing change.

But given how great of a company Heroku usually is, the fact that it is not in their interest to decrease their quality of service, and that there are very legitimate reasons to move away from intelligent routing (namely, the facts that it doesn't really make sense for applications that can do multiple requests concurrently and that it is extremely difficult to scale), I'm inclined to believe that this is more a mistake than a malicious lack of concern for their customer's well-being that they are only addressing due to vocal outside pressure.

</comment><comment><USER7> The title makes it seem that they may be solving the underlying problem. Unfortunately, they'd rather update their users about how the routing mesh behaves (spoiler alert: poorly) than update their routing mesh to work as they had gone to great lengths to falsely claim.

</comment><comment><USER8> Just a thought that I would love some feedback on: I would assume heroku would have tried a hierarchy of routers when the peer grid style became overwhelmed - some. Ross between BGP and DNS - the entry router simply passes the request lower down the hierarchy that is advertising that app / group of apps.

(Something like my app name is heroku.ruby.free.cheapcustomers.myapp )

There will be lots of header handling but it seems simpler

</comment><comment><USER9> Another case of re-submission. Here is the original one: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5371143>

The only difference is the URL here has a trailing question mark.

Why does this keep happening?

</comment><comment><USER10> This also is a problem for python and others stacks, or only for ruby?

<comment><USER11> It's a problem for anyone using a web framework/server combo that does't allow for concurrent requests on a single dyno. The most common such combination is Ruby on Rails/Thin Webserver, which is (I believe) the most commonly deployed app configuration on Heroku by a mile.

<comment><USER12> > It's a problem for anyone using a web framework/server combo that does't > allow for concurrent requests on a single dyno.

Or one that allows only k concurrent requests with a routing mesh that schedules m>k per server (dyno) or at least does that often enough.

Even with unlimited concurrent requests per server, similar problems may arise if the performance drops sharply with the number of concurrent requests being served (e.g. due to swapping.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13>
        Fulfilling these commitments is Heroku's number one
        priority

I think this is the part that really breaks the camel's back for me.

I don't doubt that dealing with the biggest PR disaster in the company's history is their number-one priority, don't get me wrong.

EDIT: It's probably better to make your opinion known on the blog post than here, though.

<comment><USER14> they could have been doing this all along if that was their priority. it's only a priority now that they are under a microscope and possibly facing lawsuits.

<comment><USER13> The present tense of "is" is also a bit irksome. "Was" it their priority, or has it just become that in light of recent events.

I'm not going to make it sound like this is something that can be fixed and mended by hiring some copywriters and PR consultants, but they're doing a very poor job of making me personally give them the benefit of the doubt.

It's like the asshole who says "I'm sorry you feel offended", or "I'm sorry I got caught". There isn't even a semblance of an apology and understanding of the consequences of this for their customers.

<comment><USER14> that would imply guilt and I'm sure their lawyers are pushing them very strongly to avoid such statements.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Larger dynos would mean it would be easier to run JVM apps. Looking forward to that!

</comment><comment><USER16> This still doesn't solve the issue at all, all they've done is make their documentation more honest. Switching to an app server like Unicorn just means that a dyno will lock up after it's randomly assigned more than NUMBER_OF_WORKERS requests rather than more than one request. Slightly better, sure, but it doesn't fix the core issue.

</comment><comment><USER17> It's interesting to me that in the comments at the bottom of their blog post, the Heroku guys are reaching out to people that voice objections. I'm not a Heroku customer, but I'd think they'd want to let all their customers know about their progress. Did this go out in an e-mail too?</comment>


WebM support on 4chan - <AUTHOR> http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan <comment><USER2> This is a very big moment for WebM. I feel 4chan has become the 'porn' industry of the internet. With VHS vs Betamax the largely deciding factor was which standard porn supported (this was again to a lesser extent with bluray).

The general lack of adoption of animated png's is often pointed squarely on 4chan. Since it generated most of the web's viral funny content. And since most of it was in .gif, who needs to support .apng?

Hopefully we will see the opposite with WebM. More general funny content, more drive for it to be adopted on sites like reddit (which already to some extent uses gifcat on some subs), and imgur. Which will snowball its general adoption.

<comment><USER3> > I feel 4chan has become the 'porn' industry of the internet.

This is the most flattering thing I've ever read about 4chan.

<comment><USER4> It's kind of hilarious how much easier it is to summon moot on HN than on, say, 4chan.

<comment><USER5> HN is pseudonymous, 4chan is mostly anonymous. Probably moot simply isn't a tripfag.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> More details here: [http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support- on-4chan](http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan)

<comment><USER6> What other reasons were there to limit videos to 2 minutes, without audio? They certainly aren't technical limits.

The commons reasons cited on 4chan are:

1\. All videos with sound would be "screamers", where the audio would get really loud unexpectedly halfway through, as a simple troll.

2\. 4chan is an _image_ board, not a video board.

3\. the MPAA and other copyright holders would crush 4chan with DCMA takedown requests for audio.

I feel like (1) could be solved technically with auto-mute and/or a soundcloud-style visible meter, as well as the novelty eventually wearing off.

For (2), it seems that 4chan's main goal of ephemeral content/anonymity would overrule the historical precedent for content on the site (and already does, if /f/ is any indication). If it works for vine/snapchat, why not 4chan?

(3) though seems like the major issue, especially for +2 minute videos.

<comment><USER7> >as well as the novelty eventually wearing off.

You haven't been on 4chan much, have you? I can promise you it would never get old. Anyway, what 4chan wants is basically better GIFs.

<comment><USER6> >what 4chan wants is basically better GIFs.

_And_ sound, as evidenced by anybody who posts links to youtube or soundcloud, e.g., /a/ or /mu/. Having such functionality directly in 4chan uploads would further the goal of anonymous ephemerality/content creation better than links to other sites. I can see your point if by "4chan" you mean "moot and site admins" due to the copyright concerns, but my feeling from other anons is that audio support would be awesome overall.

>You haven't been on 4chan much, have you?

If the novelty truly never wore off, every gif would still turn into cheetus after the first frame, and every link to youtube would still be Rick Astley.

Plus, think of your argument if we already had audio webms for their legitimate uses and had never known restriction. Would you give up audio on all webms just because of an occasional "screamer"? Would you give up all images just because some anons occasionally post shock pictures?

<comment><USER8> > as evidenced by anybody who posts links to youtube or soundcloud

Or people who post images that have audiodata hidden in them in increasingly sophisticated and hard to detect ways. /v/, /a/ and /mu/ have semi-regular sounds threads. I'm certain people will find a way to embed sound in video files in ways that can't be detected and update the media extension to handle those. We will have sounds one way or another.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> WebM is clearly a far inferior experience compared to gif on firefox:

\- at the start there is a stupid "fade in" effect.

\- the loading animation does sometimes not disappear even though the video has fully loaded.

\- the loading animation is generally annoying. Gifs just stop when bufffering and continue as soon as there is new data.

\- a useless control bar shows at the bottom on hovering.

\- Unlike gifs the video does not stop when you scroll beyond it which causes a huge amount of processor load.

<comment><USER10> >\- at the start there is a stupid "fade in" effect.

This is only for non-embedded images. Also, I'm pretty sure this can be "fixed" with ease.

>\- the loading animation does sometimes not disappear even though the video has fully loaded.

After viewing hundreds, if not thousands, of WebM files, I have never experienced this.

>\- the loading animation is generally annoying. Gifs just stop when bufffering and continue as soon as there is new data.

Again, I have never seen this happen.

>\- a useless control bar shows at the bottom on hovering.

Since when is being able to control playback useless?

>\- Unlike gifs the video does not stop when you scroll beyond it which causes a huge amount of processor load.

Fair enough, but this will surely be implemented soon enough.

<comment><USER11> > Fair enough, but this will surely be implemented soon enough.

Starting in <[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=963922>](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=963922>).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Has anyone had experience optimizing for webm? I really want to support this codec, but it's insanely slow in my experience. I'm finding that it's generally around 4x slower than mp4, but I've also had cases where it's taken up to a minute to encode a file where h264 take under 10 seconds.

My use case is to have the best performance/quality ratio for a 30 second video under 3mb.

These are my ffmpeg flags:

h264: "-vcodec libx264 -crf 28"

webm: "-c:v libvpx -qmin 0 -qmax 50 -crf 5 -b:v 1M -c:a libvorbis -aq 4"

The video I tested with these setting last night took 5 seconds on h264 and 35 seconds for webm, both outputting to a 2.6mb file.

System Specs: \- Intel Core i7 4770 Quad-Core 3.4GHz \- 16gb 1866mhz memory \- ssd drive \- 64bit ubuntu 12.04 lts

What further frustrates this is that I can use OpenCL to improve encoding times even more, but only with h264 in ffmpeg (as far as I know).

<comment><USER13> I don't know the details, but how is the quality on both? I can image that webm takes longer, but if it creates a file that has a higher visual quality for the same filesize that is great. I think nearly all streaming providers would take an increase in processing time for a decrease in bandwith, while quality stays the same..

<comment><USER14> I'm pretty sure h264 is the superior codec in all regards except for that pesky license issue. It encodes faster and creates smaller files that look better. From (lead x264 developer and HN user) DarkShikari[1]:

"Overall, VP8 appears to be significantly weaker than H.264 compression-wise. The primary weaknesses mentioned above are the lack of proper adaptive quantization, lack of B-frames, lack of an 8×8 transform, and non-adaptive loop filter. With this in mind, I expect VP8 to be more comparable to VC-1 or H.264 Baseline Profile than with H.264. Of course, this is still significantly better than Theora, and in my tests it beats Dirac quite handily as well.

...

Finally, the problem of patents appears to be rearing its ugly head again. VP8 is simply way too similar to H.264: a pithy, if slightly inaccurate, description of VP8 would be "H.264 Baseline Profile with a better entropy coder..."

I won't pretend to know what all of those terms mean off the top of my head, but if the lead x264 developer sees absolutely no technical advantage in WebM vs. h264, that sounds pretty damning to me.

As for why x264 encodes h264 so much faster than ffmpeg or whatever encodes WebM, the simplest explanation would be that there is much greater demand for an optimized h264 encoder. WebM has some admittedly large users (Wikimedia Foundation, Youtube for browsers with no h264 support and no flash player, and now 4chan), but they're still vanishingly small in comparison to the users of h264 ("the entire video industry").

[1] [http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/archives/377](http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/archives/377)

<comment><USER15> I think you are underplaying the support of H.264. Almost every single camera (video or photo), console, handheld device, browser, editing tool, effects tool, phone, tablet, OS, digital video player, website available today supports H.264.

People complain about it being closed but actually it is far more open on the hardware side since each of the big manufacturers are part of the H.264 process.

<comment><USER14> If I came across as downplaying the adoption of H.264, it wasn't my intent.

Pretty sure Firefox doesn't support H.264 out of the box on Linux, though. I couldn't wrangle the gstreamer plugin into displaying it either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Any reason to not support h264, which seems to have similar levels of browser support? (trades Firefox on Linux/OS X/WinVista for support on IE/Safari/iOS/Android)

<comment><USER17> Probably he cares about software freedom?

<comment><USER15> WebM is not free. It is controlled by a single company.

[https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/third_party/goo...](https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/third_party/googletest/src/CONTRIBUTORS?repo=libvpx&r=f89ea3432fd213f0e7c65eceaf6553cb3191306d)

<comment><USER18> First, free software can be developed by one entity, or even one person.

Second, that's a list of contributors to the "Google C++ Testing Framework", not WebM.

<comment><USER19> Third, the AUTHORS file for libvpx lists people from nVidia, Opera, Broadcom, and many other non-Googlers.

[https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/AUTHORS?repo=li...](https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/AUTHORS?repo=libvpx)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Awesome! I'm still waiting for other sites like imgur to get with the program :D

Edit: Thread 2 (Yeah, 4chan, possibly probably nsfw, etc): [http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41215438#p41215438](http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41215438#p41215438)

<comment><USER21> [https://mediacru.sh](https://mediacru.sh) (I helped make this)

<comment><USER18> There's also [http://gfycat.com](http://gfycat.com), which seems fairly popular on reddit. And there's [https://vine.co](https://vine.co), too, though it's aimed at a different niche.

But imgur support would really drive the replacement of GIFs with HTML5 video mainstream, if/when it arrives.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> OP's link is 404ing and moot's won't connect at all for me. There's no way HN took down 4chan. Anyone have additional info/a mirror?

<comment><USER3> HN mods should probably update the submission URL to this one: [http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support- on-4chan](http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan)

And you need to disable HTTPS Everywhere for blog.4chan.org since Tumblr doesn't support HTTPS :(

<comment><USER23> That link doesn't work either: Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at blog.4chan.org.

Edit: I just noticed moot's comment about disabling HTTPS Everywhere. The XML has an exclusion for "status" but not "blog". I'll send a pull request.

<comment><USER24> The link works for me on Firefox Nightly (yesterday's update).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> WebM is a fantastic step forward. I prefer gfycat links over imgur gifs when browsing reddit (gfycat is a service that converts gifs to WebM). It does have minor teething problems (controls, loading animations, etc) but its advantages outweigh its negatives.

WebP however for some reason hasn't gained as much traction as WebM. Firefox refuses to merge support, despite the fact it leverages the same library is WebM. I'd like to see WebP gain support more than WebM, Google's mod_speed converts images to WebM if using the Chrome browser to save on bandwidth.

<comment><USER26> Gyfycat does not use WebM, it uses mp4:

[http://gfycat.com/about](http://gfycat.com/about)

<comment><USER27> They have both

[http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.webm](http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.webm)

[http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.mp4](http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.mp4)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> One problem I have is that there is no way to set format priority which would override page order. And because of some Apple's stupid bugs in Safari most pages list mp4 first. Current Firefox already supports mp4/H.264 through gstreamer, so it always picks that first even if WebM is available.

I'd prefer to set some option of "free codecs first".

</comment><comment> X-Istence Where can I go download a plugin for Safari on OS X?

</comment><comment><USER29> It doesn't autoplay.

</comment><comment><USER30> Why not use a <video> tag with the 'loop' attribute to better simulate animated GIFs?

<comment><USER31> And turn off video controls. They get in the way and lack of them never hurt gif.

<comment><USER32> Hmm... the video controls only appear when I hover above the video, atleast on the 5 or so webm files I tried on 4chan just now.</comment></comment></comment>


We  have 5 ideas and can't decide on what to build, so we made this site - <AUTHOR> http://www.ideafunnel.co?s=hn <comment><USER2> I strongly recommend against wading into the complex, political, dominated, corrupt and extremely competitive online ticket sales industry.

I'm a friend of <http://guestlistapp.com/> folks and it's a great alternative to EventBrite and TicketMaster. It's fairly minimalist and is still a huge undertaking for several people.

I suggest that you step back, take off your programmer visors and start listening for people who say "I wish" a lot. Chances are that if it's obvious enough to brainstorm, someone has already lost a lot of money discovering that the customers love it so long as it's free. You need to find something that's niche and causing great pain.

<comment><USER3> As someone in the arts administration world, I can tell you that the ticketing app is not a great shot. I'd never heard of Guestlist, and EventBrite is fairly new but used, but most people these days are using bespoke solutions (TicketMaster, Tessi, etc...) and most midsized organizations I know have floated to Brown Paper Tickets.

However, I think I can safely say most midsized resident arts organizations would love a social media reporting app. Most non-profits can only hold a social media intern for the summer, and they dip off and seem awkward during the main part of their season. To alleviate this would be awesome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice idea, but you're not really asking the target audience for each of those products are you. Best ask the people with the chequebooks in question.

<comment><USER5> Very good point! Feedback from other entrepreneurs is usually arbitrary, and you usually have to qualify the advice based on each person's unique history/background. It's nice to see if entrepreneurs agree with your idea, but it all comes down to the market agreeing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hi everyone I'm Pablo Tirado, the bald guy on the right with the glass of bourbon.

First of all I'd like to thank everyone who has voted for the story, and particularly to the commenters, which we'll be responding to individually; because we really want more feedback.

Second I'd like to give some background on what this is.

Last weekend we spitballed a list of 37 ideas which we thought could be made into something. Some were brand new, some we'd worked on for some time but most were harebrained.

This list of 5 are the survivors of our own elimination process. We made this landing page to send to friends in the industry whose opinion we trust. Giovanni (flexterra) decided to post it on Hacker News to see what the community thought and here we are.

We have other projects that are very close to launch (receiptsloader.com [if your purchase receipts are a mess, you want this]) and this 5 piece voting site, is to help us decide on what to concentrate our efforts on next.

Again, thanks to everyone for commenting and voting.

<comment><USER7> Add to the site a textbox where people can add their own ideas. Allow them to make it public or private(hidden).

Personally I think you'll get much better ideas than the ones you've listed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Okay, I'll bite. I've researched and critiqued dozens of ideas; I've also had my ideas ripped apart by others. So here's my feedback; playing devil's advocate here because there's no mention of these ideas being a true passion for your team.

 _Customer Service a la Zappos_

I like the area that you are targeting, I think there's opportunity, but I don't see/understand what you're providing that's new. Are you managing/offering awesome people to provide the customer service or is it software that will help guide an existing company's support staff to be awesome? Perhaps a training program with some sort of systematic reminds of how to be awesome (could be interesting).

 _While You Were Out Notes_

I know people use different hardware/software for communications but I don't see how there's any value here. Making voicemail accessible outside the office? If someone visits, do they need to know YOUR system for leaving a note or is someone in the office going to add it to this unnecessary system? There's a thing called email, and it works if you don't suck at it. Not convinced there's a pain/need here.

 _One Click Social Media Reports - My pick_

Another area that is appealing to me, but I'd like to know more. List the kinds of things you'll be collecting. I do think there's data missing from other related services/tools.

 _Recurly for Dummies_

Not to say there isn't a market/possibility to make money here, but doesn't Paypal offer subscriptions. Not everyone is accustomed to using/managing their subscriptions with Paypal but how will you make it any easier with your service?

 _Online Ticket Sales_

Again, with limited information it's hard to see how you're going to approach this differently than Eventbrite. I think the opportunity here is the promotion aspect, but how you accomplish this is a mystery. I just feel a lot of people aren't aware of events in their area until it's too late. However, getting them to subscribe to your service to receive updates about events is going to be hard. You have to solve the relevancy/quality issue in addition to marketing to these people who don't search out for things on their own. Maybe some sort of partnering/incentive program can make this more possible. Make it fun and rewarding.

<comment><USER6> These are great observations. I visited your website, and you have a pretty cool, trajectory. I'm gonna shoot you an email, I'd like to pick your brain a little more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> What about turning <http://www.ideafunnel.co> into a web app to allow other entrepreneurs to ask the same question?

I am not sure people would pay for it though.

<comment><USER9> I built <http://www.sparkmuse.com> just for that purpose. We've gotten nearly 100 ideas now, but not alot of traction, so I wouldn't build another :)

<comment><USER7> You don't have a lot of traction because you don't show how you add value. If you need a signup before getting to the app, you're already behind the 8 ball. The best you can do is to make the landing page really sell me on why I should do that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I am a big fan of these guys. While engineers are underpaid and schools don't promote the startup culture _at all_ in Puerto Rico, they have stayed loyal to hack and build stuff in their own in the island. They deserve at least your vote or advice.

</comment><comment><USER11> For your ticket sales idea, I believe Ticketmaster has exclusivity agreements with many venues that will block you out. I remember reading some time ago about a startup (this was long ago, can't remember the name) trying to upset Ticketmaster that ran into that problem.

Your Recurly idea will also probably be a headache regulation and compliance- wise.

Not to say they aren't great ideas, but probably not something you'd want to get in to without investor backing and a specialized team in mind to maximize your chances.

<comment><USER8> "Your Recurly idea will also probably be a headache regulation and compliance- wise."

What if you simply run on top of Paypal?

<comment><USER11> That might work depending on Paypal's TOS, but then again building your main revenue stream on someone else's API is asking for a headache too. Think Twitter or Facebook apps, but even more sensitive because it involves cash transactions.

Plus Paypal's reputation might make them think twice, depending on how they plan on implementing things.

<comment><USER12> I'd be very careful recommending PayPal for "recurring professional services billing" without doing a lot of research first...

PayPal is great if you're selling physical objects delivered within a day or two preferably with trackable delivery methods - thats PayPal's most favored transaction type since it minimizes their possible fraud losses about as far as you possibly can. The further away from that you move, the more likely you are to end up being another one of the many PayPal horror stories that are all too common. Things that can't be confirmed "shipped" by a disinterested 3rd party raise a flag. Things that can't be verified as having been delivered to a specific physical address raise a flag. Things that have long delivery lead- times raise a flag. I suspect recurring billing rasies a flag. I suspect high dollar amounts both raise a flag and act as a multiplier on other flags...

I strongly suspect this idea would end up with the PayPal account being stuck in the "can't make withdrawals for 180 days, but we'll continue taking your customers money so you're still on e hook for providing the goods/services right now" state, pretty much permanently...

<comment><USER8> "I suspect" "I suspect" "I suspect"

I have both recurring payments and one-off payment for virtual services on my website and never had any issue with Paypal.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, it is all suspicion - Paypal (necessarily) keep details of their fraud detection algorithm very opaque.

And I too, have many happy clients who've never had Paypal issues, even ones doing some of the things I listed above.

_BUT_, if you think Paypal in general are _not_ a source of _major_ headaches for some people, "I suspect" (there's my phrase again) that you've not been here long. Paypal account freezing has a long history of being discussed here (and elsewhere). I've been through that particular drama myself, in fact I've got one client who it happens to annually when he starts accepting pre-orders in Sept for a book that gets printed every December...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> _Event promoters need a service that will allow them to sell tickets and promote their events online._

I disagree. There are kick-ass startups already doing this, e.g. TicketFly, Eventbrite, and TicketLeap. That isn't to say that you couldn't beat those folks, but I don't get the sense that there's a desperate need in the marketplace that those companies aren't filling. The real battles for promoters are structural and legal (Ticketmasters long-term exclusive contracts).

</comment><comment><USER14> ok not a fan of the ticketing idea, reasons have been rehashed here a dozen times (venue lockout, ticketmaster/eventbrite, brown paper tix, etc)

Social media reporting, this is a tough one, as someone who built an early social media reporting tool years ago, I'd say the market is tough to get people to pay for the functionality. However, if you can get the right clients they will pay large sums. The market for this is very fickle and competition is tough (salesforce/radian6 for one). One key thing I learned: small business/midsize biz don't have enough chatter to validate spending on reporting yet (imagine how many people are talking about John Doe dry cleaner in San Juan on twitter on a given day).

recurly for dummies, can't you do that with a paypal widget that is an embed code anyway? right now my fav of the ideas though

i don't see value in while you were out notes system. maybe the way its presented doesn't make sense. i could definitely see a use for a push notification of incoming things (i.e. voicemail to your desk line, package received via fedex at front desk, etc)

zappos customer service one is tough to do, as a huge part of zappos customer service is not the crm they are using, but the policies they've put in place.

<comment><USER15> social media reporting is also very costly to do now. Most social media tools license the data and costs for licenses are very high right now.

<comment><USER14> very very true. anyone who wants to sell a "complete" report has to get twitter firehose. or talk to gnip. that will run you $2k/month EASILY.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Build all of them.

One at a time.

Until you win.

You don't know which one is the best idea, so just pick one you most want to finish and build it. Market it. And if it doesn't work pivot or move on to the next idea.

The way I look at it is you build ideas into products and sell those products. Always charge. That way it is relatively easy to turn a small, but meaningful profit. Then, keep building products until you find a "hit".

Even if you don't get to your home run you have some nice cash flow so you can keep doing what you love.

Think of yourself as a band. You love making and performing music. The first record might not be a hit but you keep making music until you come up with something that resonates. Your startup is a band. Keep cranking out albums until something resonates.

<comment><USER8> "Build all of them."

I hear so many people saying "just build it". Do these people have so much time in their lives that what they build is irrelevant because they will have time to build everything anyway?

Time is a precious resource to me and if I must build something, I'd rather increase my chances of success by picking the one people need more.

<comment><USER17> The difficult part is knowing what people need more.

It's just an opinion until you find out for real. We all bring our own biases into what is essential/pain point for people.

Until the rubber meets the road, you never know.

<comment><USER4> You can do a fair bit of work up front to get a pretty good idea though I think. At least about which of them don't stand a chance. People just don't like doing it, including me, because it's hard.

<comment><USER17> I have gotten opinions both ways. People who do not want to critique an idea until they see something they can lay their hands on aka demo. And the other side where people who want to make sure the idea has market before they write a single line of code.

I am not sure which one works. Being a coder and as someone who tends to code before evaluating, I would like to know specifics on how to do evaluation before execution.

<comment><USER4> If a prototype is trivial to build then absolutely. But I don't think there's ever an excuse for not going out and asking people who might have these problems some good questions. "Would you pay for this?" being one of them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> To quote the great Piet Hein:

A Psychological Tip:

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,

and you're hampered by not having any,

the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,

is simply by spinning a penny.

No - not so that chance shall decide the affair

while you're passively standing there moping;

but the moment the penny is up in the air,

you suddenly know what you're hoping.

</comment><comment><USER19> None of them. The only suggestion listed that you seemed vested in was away notes, so do that one if any.

None of the others really cover the main problem you're aiming to fix, and you don't sound like you are excited about the task they exist to help with.

You don't have to be personally invested in a problem to build a winnning application solving it. But you need to have became excited by the possibily that you could solve it - that suddenly, you will be making someone's life better. Withouth this, you'll just repeat the existing mistakes with what's on the market.

</comment><comment><USER20> Hefty competition on all fronts, I'd probably try looking for another not so congested market if I was you, unless you have some marvelous mechanism big players won't be able to implement.

But if you must I'd possibly look at the social networking reporting for a couple of reasons.

\- The market is hot and you might be able to get funding or flick it easy

\- It looks like all the other projects are going to need an decent advertising base, and (as long as you build carefully) you'll be able to re- purpose parts of the social networking... so can look at as an investment

</comment><comment><USER21> I strongly suggest one of you start using a Windows PC, at the very least to experience your app like many of your customers will- that font doesn't turn out so well with Windows' ClearType.

<comment><USER22> This was my first thought (FF4 on Win7) - looks really bad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> None. Continue brainstorming, guys ;)

</comment><comment><USER24> "Customer Service a la Zappos" strikes me as the most interesting of the lot.

The Ticketmaster clone won't work due to venue lock-out, as others have mentioned. "One Click Social Media Reports" seems kind of vague. "Recurly for Dummies" - the name is kind of a turnoff. One would also need a high volume of recurring payments to make such a service attractive. Then it also has to interface to existing accounting systems. "While You Were Out Notes" seems a bit too trivial. Who will pay for it?

</comment><comment><USER17> The problem I see with recurly for non-technical people is that non-technical people will find it complicated to embed a widget, tab, javascript etc into their sites.

Yeah, it comes down to execution. But if you can execute it so well that it is dead easy and doesn't require any technical know how, you might win over even technical people.

<comment><USER25> But if you make it easy to embed in Facebook, or Wordpress, or other social networks, it may catch on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Ticket Sales - <http://www.eventbrite.com> is doing similar, might want to see how they stack up to your ideas before going that route.

</comment><comment><USER27> For a second I thought you made a site where people could contribute their ideas and try to gain public support. At which point I would have just pointed at Kickstarter.

</comment><comment><USER28> I've found does not matter what you do, what matters is how you do it. IMHO you should ask yourself "Which of these we can make the most kick-ass ever in the world!?"

</comment><comment><USER29> While You Were Out Notes, a stupid idea. Email simple done and existing support for push notifications

</comment><comment><USER30> I would start by changing the text so its legible

<comment><USER22> The text is quite hard to read in Chrome on Win7: <http://i.imgur.com/CQM9Y.png>

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> You need to randomize the positioning of each idea, whatever you put in the top left will most likely get the most votes regardless. Randomization helps account for this.

<comment><USER8> Have you tried to refresh the page before posting this comment?

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Isn't "Recurly for Dummies" just...Recurly?

</comment><comment><USER33> I like the ticket idea. If well built and reliable, the described would be a great system.

</comment><comment><USER34> s/Costumer Service/Customer Service/

<comment><USER35> Perhaps they wanted to service people who make/sell costumes. A very niche market indeed :)

<comment><USER36> Plus the word is costumier.

<comment><USER35> In the UK, yes. In the US, the word is Costumer.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to reduce emergency workload for small startup - <AUTHOR>

We're a 3 person team launching a web app soon.  Only one of us is a developer.  What are other options rather than just having him on call for technical emergencies 24/7? <comment><USER2> If he is the most capable IT guy you have, there really is no choice but to have him as the "fixer of last resort". You can minimize his burden by:

\- making sure you don't call him if you can fix it yourself, or if anyone else BUT him can fix it

\- identifying probable or possible areas of failure and have him provide a little advanced training for how to handle incidents

\- making ABSOLUTELY sure that any incidents that do occur, are addressed with systems to prevent or repair any recurrence of the same problem. Preferably automated systems whenever possible. You should be doing this anyway, but if you want to know how to minimize the emergency workload, the best way is to make sure each emergency happens only once and never happens again. Thus the number and severity of emergencies will naturally decrease over time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Even hiring more staff just before launch doesn't really solve this problem.

If you've got good code and tested the product well the quantity of emergencies at launch should be quite low as unless you are launching a new product to a lot of existing users you're unlikely to get a large amount of usage at launch.

As you scale up your customer base and your business, be sure to think of your lone developer first and provide him with extra resources (and you with less risk) by increasing your development team.

Good luck!</comment>


Finno-Ugric language may give Finland's schools the edge - <AUTHOR> http://finnish-and-pisa.blogspot.com/

<comment><USER2> As the post I linked on an earlier submission about Finnish schools ([http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2010/12/pisa_scores_sho...](http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2010/12/pisa_scores_sho.php)) shows, European descended students in the United States did better than Estonians, and every other European country except Finland. And Koreans and Asian-Americans did better than Finland. So the language issue is mostly to totally irrelevant.</comment>


Ask HN: There was one Aerospace company in W15. Who is it or what do they do? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9219079](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9219079)</comment>


Testing a HN text document on Stypi (YC S11) - <AUTHOR> http://stypi.com/br5o9y5y

<comment><USER3> Sorry this is off topic, but did you ever analyze the results of your google spreadsheets survey here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2763932> ?

<comment><AUTHOR> hey coderrr - a little delayed as I try to finish our product release - <USER2> post it as soon as I can</comment></comment>


Clojure Web Development Made Simple - <AUTHOR> http://www.luminusweb.net/

<comment><USER2> What exactly is "compiled for production" supposed to mean in the feature description?</comment>


Review: Amazon Kindle 3 Wi-Fi (pics/vid) - <AUTHOR> http://paulstamatiou.com/review-amazon-kindle-3-wi-fi-reading-device

<comment><USER2> The instapaper workflow mentioned in the article is awesome. Instapaper will send articles daily or weekly (to suit your reading habits/desire to avoid the download charge) and the device treats it just like the magazines and newspapers you can buy through amazon's website.

<comment><USER3> I've found that over time, I prefer services like rekindle.it to instapaper. Mostly this is because I only tend to push _really_ long content to my kindle, and I usually want it titled correctly (everything coming from from Instapaper ends up on the kindle as 'Instapaper', and the new content pushes out the old).

<comment><USER4> Another option, if you don't mind USB, is to use Wordcycler (<http://www.wordcycler.com>). It's free, and allows you to two-way-sync individual articles to your Kindle. When you delete them from your Kindle, it will be automatically archived on the Instapaper website the next time you sync. And it titles the articles correctly.

(I'm the developer of Wordcycler.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been using my Kindle 3 for hours every day since it arrived. I actually prefer it to a printed book now. Definitely my favorite gadget of the last several years. The only significant downside is the selection in the Kindle store, which is still pretty uneven.

</comment><comment><USER6> I want one... but I'm absolutely not touching the stuff until the SDK is spread more freely. I cannot fathom why it's locked down so tight, except that they may have an incompletely-implemented API. Finish it! You'll get _loads_ of side-channels of revenue. How can that not be worth it?

<comment><USER7> I'm also waiting to get my KDK access but I would imagine they're trying to figure out the market lifecycle: from who gets to sell in the market, to how they will be paid, to how strict their app policies will be (especially after all the Apple Store hub bub), blah blah blah.

<comment><USER6> None of which they are likely to find out without _far_ more sellers. Maybe not thousands, but certainly not _three_.

<comment><USER7> I would imagine that these three publishers already had a good relationship with Amazon so a very vague contract was safe to launch with.

Anyone from inside Amazon want to comment on this? Or at least give me KDK access? :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "11 out of 10 Stammys... despite the DRM speed bumps." Sorry ahead of time for being pedantic, but a score of a perfect 10 should mean that there are no issues. That it is the definition of unobtainable perfection. The perfect e-reader would be one that never runs out of battery, weighs nothing but feels good in the hand, never breaks down, always has wifi signal wherever you are in the world, and who's display is indiscernible from a color lithograph print. This is by no means that. Is it an amazing device? Absolutely. But saying it's a perfect 10 (let alone an 11) is like saying that there's no way that it can be improved. Things can always be improved, saying otherwise is giving up on human creativity.

<comment><USER9> _a score of a perfect 10 should mean that there are no issues_

That seems rather arbitrary, and quite pointless. Why have a grade that is impossible to attain. Should an A+ only be given to students who's paper conclusively solves every open question in the field? 10 should simply mean best in class and very very good.

<comment><USER10> I believe that it should be given to a student answering perfectly to the given problem. If you give A+ it to the best in class it would mean that a mediocre student in a class of terrible students would get away with perfect marks all the time.

Which is what happened to me until I got to the uiversity, (as the mediocre one) and I felt it was wrong all the time (though it did save me a lot of work :)

<comment><USER9> That's the point though. Very few questions (and even fewer interesting questions) have 'perfect' answers. Saying that A+ or 10 is only given for perfection is equivalent of saying A+ or 10 does not exists as a grade and the highest grade is A or 9. And then we start the discussion all over.

Now (on a slight tangent) I'm in no way saying that best kid in the class should always get the A+.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> One more thing: Get the 3G version. It's free-for-life for $50, and you can buy books, and even surf (even though the browsing experience is horrible) whereever you are and have them on the Kindle in seconds, even abroad.

When travelling, I always end up packing too many books because I'm afraid I'll run out or get bored if a book is bad. I was afraid the pattern could repeat on the Kindle, that I'd be scramming to buy a bunch of books before leaving "friendly" wifi coverage. Last week I bought a book on the bus going to the airport on the 3G connection.

</comment><comment><USER12> Lack of decent PDF support is what sucks for me. I have a ton of PDF books I'd love to read on the Kindle but after reviewing features available on the DX version, I was forced to send mine back.

I feel that while this is a good article, it glazes over a lot of the shortcomings of the reader and appears to try and sell me on the product. Meh.

I suppose if you're using the Kindle as a casual reader and not necessarily a tool for getting work done, then it will suit your needs. But if you require something more than this... just keep waiting.

<comment><AUTHOR> > I suppose if you're using the Kindle as a casual reader > and not > necessarily a tool for getting work done, then > it will suit your needs.

You have a good point there. I would consider myself a simple kindle user. Most of my reading is done through books purchased in the Kindle Store, so I don't have to deal with the lackluster PDF support.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The author mentions that code becomes wrapped in a bad way, can anyone confirm that?

I'm tend to read more tech books than other genres, so if code becomes hard to read, then the Kindle would not be for me...

<comment><AUTHOR> That was only for a _converted_ PDF I loaded on there and the Kindle PDF conversion process tries to make documents "flowable" so code did wrap. If I load the PDF on there without conversion it loads exactly the same though the Kindle is too small to display it natively so you'll have to zoom in on it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm mostly sold on getting one... I just wonder what became of the SDK.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know.. I applied for it but never heard back. So far there are 3 kindle active content/apps out and they're all games.

<comment><USER14> Same here.

I'm curious about the browser too - does it work at all for something like gmail, or is it just too painful?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have used it for logging into gmail but it's painful and slow. didn't try the html only version of gmail though.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Desktop Backup: Traditional, and Torrent-Like - <AUTHOR> http://shmichael.com/2009/12/desktop-backup-traditional-and-torrent-like/ <comment><USER2> No mention of tarsnap? <http://www.tarsnap.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Is there any special feature of tarsnap that I'm overlooking, or is it just another kid down the block?

<comment><USER3> Tarsnap is unique in a few ways, but I don't know if you consider these important enough to be worth mentioning. For example:

* Tarsnap was designed to be secure against even the most skilled attackers -- and was written by someone (myself) with non-trivial expertise in cryptography and computer security.

* Because Tarsnap is built around tar(1), it is heavily scriptable; for experienced users this makes it far more flexible than any other tools.

* Tarsnap is AFAIK the only backup system which works as a metered service -- pricing per byte of bandwidth and per byte-month of storage used, starting at a (very small) fraction of a cent per month. Where other services have fixed monthly fees, Tarsnap just looks at your usage and charges you accordingly.

* I'm not sure if Tarsnap's snapshotting model is unique, but it's certainly unusual; and once Tarsnap users follow my advice of "forget everything you know about incremental backups", they all tell me that it's far more intuitive than other approaches.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the clarification. I've added tarsnap to the post.

<comment><USER3> Thanks! Just one small correction: Tarsnap isn't linux-only. It runs quite happily on BSD, Linux, OS X, Solaris, Cygwin... basically anything UNIXy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Corrected.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So, what's wrong with a tape backup drive and a box (for the tapes)? My dataset's 6gb. I currently use zfs incremental and full snapshots to generate a single file per backup to save.

There are two issues I haven't seen addressed:

(1) No guarantee of privacy: all my data's on someone else's box. I haven't seen any of them go to court to defend a person's data yet. And this isn't a phone log or URL list, it's _everything_ _they_ _have_. Backup privacy is not an area where you screw around.

(2) Upload bandwidth. Most network links available anywhere I've lived are asymmetric, with a massive bias downlink-side. Uplink speeds are still measured in 100s of kilobits/sec. $160/month bought me 1.5 mb down, and 768kb up, with a static ip.

I'd rather run my dataset through gpg and write it out to tape.

<comment><AUTHOR> A tape has several downsides:

a. It is physically close to your original data's location.

b. It's a hassle to back up (remember to perform backup, insert tape, zfs, label tape).

c. Redundancy and versioning is at an extra cost.

d. Cannot be utilized for remote access to files.

.

As for the two issues missing -

(1) The data is encrypted before uploading. In addition, it is sliced. So, no single machine should have access to the whole file - nor would it even know what the other parts are. Moreover, requests for slices would be digitally signed, so a different machine could not even request slices it does not "own".

(2) Upload bandwidth is indeed an issue, but not a serious one. The general argument goes that what works for torrents would work for backups in this matter.

<comment><USER5> I don't know if you are adequately addressing issue number 1. He is talking more about the rule of law and a court ordering the data to be disclosed versus what you are talking about which is the technical issue of one person gaining access to another persons files via technology. One would imagine that seeing as this is a backup solution for total/partial failures, one would need to be able to bootstrap a machine from this information. If all the required information to recreate a machine was on the machine that failed then this backup solution would be an expensive waste of time. By that logic there must be a centralized repository of information at the server side thus they could in theory be forced to divulge the information on the server if there was a court order. I am not a lawyer though.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can't comment on the legal issues of this, since I too am not a lawyer, and don't live in the US.

What I can say is that your key - whether automatically generated or your favorite pass phrase - is known only to you, and without it all of your data is lost.

Thus, if you want to you could store it at the server (so you'd never lose the data) or you'd keep it to yourself (and never risk the data being exposed).</comment></comment></comment></comment>


With Their Own QR Code Trick, Bit.ly Eats Google's Balls - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/13/bitly-qr/ <comment><USER2> So, which one of these depends on the stability and goodwill of nic.ly ?</comment>


What to Expect When Working with a Woman in Technology (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/cool-code-pal/what-to-expect-when-working-with-a-woman-in-technology-9f1ac2195519

<comment><AUTHOR> Classic blog post. I was reminded of this today, and couldn't resist posting it here.</comment>


Ask HN: Does anyone else notice increased incompetence? - <AUTHOR> I'm not talking about lower level jobs, but in important areas. I'm noticing incompetence and complacency from people in positions which could very negatively impact lives. I'm seeing it more now than ever before.
For example, I've been trying to get medical records for 3 weeks and the office keeps: faxing the wrong number, faxing the wrong release forms, giving us incorrect status info, etc.
Another example is a legal matter I'm now involved with. The officer wrote the citation for the wrong statute (more serious), gave us incorrect information in how to request records, misspelled a name on the citation, and put the wrong time (by hours) on the citation. The court also gave us incorrect information on requesting records, gave us the wrong kind of subpeona and won't correct it, and the staff doesn't even know what an affidavit is.
We saw several doctors during an SVT event 48 hours after multiple simultaneous immunizations. They all said unequivocally that the events were unrelated, but could not produce data to support their opinion nor refute the thousands of arrhythmia events in VAERS data. (There's no data to concretely prove or disprove, so it's unknown). So now I have to submit ther VAERS report. Doctors like this will lead to under reporting, impacting studies on safety. <comment><USER3> I worry often that my perception of this is biased because I'm young and "this has always happened" but I fully agree with you, and it's across the spectrum of importance.

Hire a contractor to power wash part of a house, and they simply _did not do half the work._ Not a matter of a half-assed job, simply was not even done. When called back, they proceeded to skimp in almost the same way, except when confronted over there being literal clumps of dirt still on sections they did claimed "oh I guess it just came off easier a second time."

What's absurd is like you I've experienced it in life-threatening fields as well. I'm currently contesting a rather pricy medical bill as a result of a surgery, that should be covered, when I call my insurance provider they claim should be covered, but then I... keep getting bills for. Even calling the university sending the bills, they claim it should be covered, claim they put a "note on my account" but then the bills keep coming. I've spent 12+ man hours being fed BS by a string of companies who have shown no real ability to actually rectify a glaring, financially critical issue.

It's just crazy to me how pervasive it is, even for well-reputed companies. I feel like if I was this bad at my job I'd be fired in an instant, but then I see managers in my stack whom engineers have _abysmally_ low reputations of (have had HR reports for bullying, have pushed individuals out of the company, regularly are caught in lies/misdirection) get continual promotions and praise.

There really seems to be two classes of accountability in this world, and for those jobs where there really isn't any, I get the sense it's become a race to the bottom. (Look in govt. as well. It's basically dogma that campaign promises are full-of-shit, but we continually accept them at face value/there's no recompense when they're inevitably not met.)

<comment><AUTHOR> "I feel like if I was this bad at my job I'd be fired in an instant..."

Yes! I look at these other jobs and think how great it would be to work in a position that had no accountability.

<comment><USER4> I think that's probably impostor syndrome working. My bet is that a lot of people could be significantly worse at their jobs without the system detecting it

<comment><AUTHOR> True. Possibly observation bias too - I only observed an issue, but I could be the only one out of a hundred or thousand with a problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think it is due to the change in the nature of employment while human beings have remained the same. In the modern world, to live a semblance of a normal lifestyle, you have to commit to a job or labour that requires putting in thought and effort. 100 years ago, the white collar jobs only went to those who chose education and hard work and worked towards it because it was an objectively better lifestlye than what most people were doing. People were motivated to change their circumstances because the difference between a bad job and good job on the lifestyle was massive. So people were motivated were to keep those jobs and do good at them. Nowadays, a lot of people will sleepwalk through life and end up in a situation that they can't handle on a daily basis. There is a feeling of people not really wanting to be here - wherever they are in life. The mind is distracted and focused on petty things like personal conflicts and day to day inconveniences. It is not really their fault. It is just how the time is. The people who for centuries would have gotten along fine with manual labour are suddenly forced into jobs that require continuous mental thought all during the day. Most people can't handle it or they don't want to and you can't really blame them.

</comment><comment><USER6> Well it is basically the pandemic, which put stress on lots of different level. Both within and outside of their Job.

And the other factor in the modern era is that everyone is overworked and / or underpaid. The motivation to do something properly is gone. I would not be surprised those jobs you mentioned are now doing 2x the workload compare to 20 to 30 years ago while earning a quality of life ( Even Money over inflation may not be a clear indicator ) that is lower than what it was 20 - 30 years ago. Comparatively Speaking.

</comment><comment><USER7> I have been calling this "Haeberli's corollary" to the Third Law of Thermodynamics - "globally, competence is not conserved" \- it's leaking out of the universe, somehow...

</comment><comment><USER8> Part of it is automation. "Peopleware" has an episode about human-mediated processes vs. machine-mediated processes that explains a lot of it:

In the past, whatever you needed done, was done through human action even if they used machines. So there was a good chance that _somewhere_ along the way, there would be _someone_ who'd notice and check/fix, or at least would be able to help you when things go wrong.

But with increased automation, every mistake is amplified and carried to completion much more efficiently -- and the humans you _can_ talk to are often minimum wage people who are not very familiar and are not authorized to modify anything about the processing stages. There are 1/100 or 1/1000 as many people who can actually help you as there were 40 years ago -- and by that I mean _actually_ help you, that is - fix wrong data, override automated processes, etc; not just read from a script.

</comment><comment><USER9> I would like to comment on this. My real name and also email I believe are in my profile, as well as in a couple of past comments.

Incompetence is sometimes a brilliant intelligence and counterintelligence strategy.

The old saying of "don't suspect malice when stupidity is possible" or whatever was a favorite saying of Aldrich Ames. And of course that is what one would say if they were doing what he did.

It's also a great recruitment strategy for spies. The CIA realized by the mid 70's that hey didn't have to ask ppl to defect, or to pass secrets, often they would just say, "can you make sure that if this security concern ever gets filed, you just just make sure it gets lost, or that you are really confused and don't understand?"

Incompetence happened a great deal in the Soviet Union. It mentally killed people to see it everyday. People had just given up on society and accepted a corrupt incompetent way of life. Ultimately, incompetence, even if begun as a malicious strategy, eventually inspires it in others, which is tragic.

<comment><USER10> > Incompetence happened a great deal in the Soviet Union. It mentally killed > people to see it everyday.

Wasn't it result of communism? At least that's my impression after reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago".

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > which could very negatively impact lives.

Yeah, but the lives of people that the worker who actually produces the citation/form/record/whatever will never see, doesn't care about, and just views as an annoyance who's making them do something.

The bigger populations and communities get, and the more remotely everyone can work, the less likely it is you'll deal with someone who has any interest, knowledge or fucks to give about you. I'm sure if these companies had to get it right for the boss's friend, they'd magically become competent.

</comment><comment><USER12> The seemingly innocuous mistakes of morons in society will always cause immeasurable amounts of pain both through wasted time and anxiety.

I'm not even that smart, but heck I have a college degree and for me I had to stop assuming others had the best of intentions and / or were as smart as I was. When you just double check and clarify when appropriate - you can avoid dumb pitfalls like this.

For instance, "Here's my bank acct number, can you confirm this is the number you are submitting for the request?" or "thank you officer, I would like to ensure we are on the same page, I understand you underlined this check box, but I'd like to have a new slip without the underline".

Interacting with morons sucks, but if you put a bit of effort into these things, in time you might avoid wasted time or anxiety.

<comment><USER13> If there is one thing I have learned, it is this - most people don't care about anything other than themselves. At least in part, it is not their fault - they have their own crappy life to deal with, so why bother having good intentions and care for others (work or otherwise)?

It is tolerable most of the time, except when it comes to powerful jobs like cops/doctors/lawyers etc where even a small mistake can wreck someone's life. I had a colleague whose lawyer made a mistake while filing paperwork. He lost his visa and move back to his home country, all because a lawyer (well paid one at that) couldn't bother to do simple paper work correctly. I don't know if it was incompetence or _I don 't care attitude_, my colleague's life is ruined either way.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree.

I think in many cases the lawyers are overpaid. I'm doing all the legal leg work for my wife - researching case law, scrutinizing statutes, combing through code, placing calls, and talking to my LEO buddies (they think the officer made a mistake).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> None of this sounds any different from thirty years ago. And the interaction with law enforcement sounds like high competency it's just that high competency doesn't look like what you thought it did.

Generally I find greater competency on average. I just accept that a person can be competent at doing something I don't like.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why do you say the interaction with law enforcement shows competence? You mean gaming the system to increase convictions/charges by essentially lying (incorrect charges)?

<comment><USER14> They are fucking with you. Competently. They are doing so on behalf of people on the other side of the "who gets fucked with" line. You thought you were on the other side of the line but it appears you were mistaken. Behaviors premised on a belief law enforcement is incompetent won't do much for a defendant. Defendants are even further along the "who gets fucked with" spectrum.

<comment><AUTHOR> I completely get that they can lie and do other tricks in the course of the investigation (hence subpeona the investigation file). They are not supposed to file false charges. The entire premise of our legal system is based on the idea that two equal parties in a fair contest (court) will yield the truth. Abusing the system (violating regulations) is a completely different level.

Actually, the behavior premised on incompetent law enforcement is the only way to go. If you assume they are competent, then you would plead guilty because there's no way to win. Cases are routinely thrown out over incompetent actions by law enforcement. This is all a big waste if time and tax dollars when we show up and show the judge that we don't meet the elements of the offense and he dismisses the case.

I know what competent policing looks like. I have many friends who are officers and I am state licensed/trained as a armed guard. My friends and the dog warden have also said this is odd and that he wrote it up wrong. For the record the citation was supposed to be for a dog being off leash and they instead wrote it as a dangerous dog - a big screw up.

<comment><USER14> _The entire premise of our legal system is based on the idea that two equal parties in a fair contest_

One side decides who is an equal party. The other side is you.

<comment><AUTHOR> If the entire premise of our rule of law is being ignored, then one has no reason to abide by it. Declare it tyranny and become a scofflaw. This disenfranchised mentality is how empires crumble.

<comment><USER14> The premise of common law is the _Magna Carta_. it was between the king and _his_ nobles. Everyone wasn't a noble.

<comment><AUTHOR> Common law is a different thing. Common law is based on historical customs and English Common law is different from American Common law. It can even vary by state.

We aren't governed by the divine right of kings. Our system is based on limited sovereignty and trial by "combat" (truth comes from a fair fight in the courts). The Magna Carta is listed as the beginning of the evolution towards limited sovereignty - it is not the premise on which the current court system is based (it's that truth comes out during a fair fight).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Wild speculation: Customer service, support, and other direct interactions are difficult to scale. Large corporations tend to optimize direct-contact positions for cost and speed over quality. This act of endlessly "optimizing staff time" to control costs inevitably ends up with people rushing through things in order to satisfy an unforgiving productivity algorithm. Consolidation/competition displaces local businesses that solve the service problem with higher-cost service offerings, leaving everyone with worse-off except for the beneficial owners of these consolidated behemoths.

</comment><comment><USER16> I don't think it is incompetence. It seems more like laziness. Everyone is on their phone or trying hard to get back to their phone and small mistakes are adding up.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can see that. I probably should have included it.

I think the lazy part might be more prominent in low power positions. The specific example I have of these positions of power (LEO, court officials, healthcare) seem to let the power power go to their heads. In my opinion it seems they let that feeling of mastery lead to incompetence. I do think laziness is part of the equation that leads to that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've got a feeling when I was younger in the 80s/90s people stayed in the same job for most of their career and had a huge hierarchy of people above them. Processes were largely manual and paper based and so completely understood by administrative staff in most business areas. Now most things are computerised and dumbed down, no-one needs to understand them. Add to that outsourcing and people moving quickly between low skilled jobs where is the incentive to care deeply about these issues?

</comment><comment><USER18> I don't know that its increased. I rather think that with the pandemic, and WFH and everything else, weaknesses in the process -- and whole new processes are being exposed.

\- People are being challenged

\- Situations are rapidly changing course, and people have to adapt quickly.

\- People are trying to do their jobs while worrying about their finances, or how they're going to home school their kids, or daycare, or them or their spouses losing their job.

It's fine, everyone will adapt to the new normal, whatever that ends up looking like.

</comment><comment><USER19> I am clearly much more incompetent at my job than I was in 2019. My performance is much worse and this is very noticeable to my boss and anybody who tries to pay attention.

Working from home is hard in my situation, and I have all the symptoms of depression yet I'm not treating them.

I expect a huge part of the population to be in the same position as I am.

</comment><comment><USER20> No, I notice increased competence. So much I depend on the competence others have which I myself don't. Everything from getting a haircut, to calibrating the ventilation in my apartment, to politicians holding speeches.

<comment><USER13> _politicians holding speeches_

Curious about this. I can count on one hand the politicians I truly admire/respect, including the world leaders (among the ones I am familiar with, and I am familiar with a few). Why do you think politicians are getting better with speeches? All I see are useless, meaningless, confusing soup of words that they blabber (with few exceptions)

<comment><AUTHOR> And even the ones typically highly regarded lie. See Obama's comment on the wage gap from the state of the union a few years back. I doubt it was incompetence, but probably a calculated lie.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why is this downvoted?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> 2020 has taken a toll on everyone.

<comment><USER22> This. A lot of people lost their routine. People who never experienced stress and anxiety before are now bathing in it.

Maybe the stress is making them care less. "Why should I care about washing this house when the world is falling apart?"

Some of them may care more. "If I make a mistake here, I'll get fired and never find a job in 2020."

Either way, stress WILL increase the amount of mistakes done.

For example, this study saying that surgeons make up to 66% more mistakes during stressful situations. [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181219191052.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181219191052.htm)

It's daily stress, they describe it as people talking, machines beeping, etc.

Now imagine the result if you replace this daily regular stress with a fear of a pandemic, a fear of the economy crashing, a fear of the environmental crisis, etc.

People are bound to make more mistakes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Perceptions are deceptive. I will await data.

<comment><AUTHOR> Perception of the data can be deceptive too (the process of turning data into information).

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I've had a cop try to boost charges from non-injury careless driving to injury careless driving. The ticket had a check-box for "injury" on it. The cop underlined it instead of checking the box when the other driver was unharmed. If confronted she would just say she meant to strike through. If I did nothing and pleaded no-contest I would be getting myself into a massive injury lawsuit. Sometimes incompetence is not incompetence.

<comment><AUTHOR> True, and it can be hard to tell sometimes. Sometimes they'll upgrade the charge or write a false charge because many people just plead guilty so they can pay the fine and get on with their lives. I'm glad you paid attention.

My wife once picked up an old traffic cone that had been abandoned in a ditch for more than 30 days. An officer wrote her a citation and she just plead guilty and mailed the fine in. She didn't realize it was for a misdemeanor when the officer was supposed to write it for a summary offense. She kept getting denied when applying for jobs and found out that was the reason. She had to get a lawyer to get it correct - at her expense. (This was long before we met)

A local police department was spreading similar misinformation on Facebook about something being a misdemeanor when it should have been a summary offense. I ended up having to get the DA involved to set them straight so they wouldn't ruin someone else's life.

<comment><USER25> >Sometimes they'll upgrade the charge or write a false charge because many people just plead guilty

How do you know that, and where do you live that the police file charges? That's typically the job of a prosecutor.

>A local police department was spreading similar misinformation on Facebook about something being a misdemeanor when it should have been a summary offense. I ended up having to get the DA involved to set them straight so they wouldn't ruin someone else's life.

Would you provide more information about the local police department and the "something?"

And how would it ruin someone's life if they thought that 'something' carried greater consequences than it actually did?

For example, if the police refer to "jaywalking" as "felony jaywalking," that doesn't actually make it a felony, nor does it mean that if someone jaywalks that they would have a felony on their record.

No?

<comment><AUTHOR> Many lesser offenses are handled via a summary trial at the local Magistrate in Pennsylvania. The officer is the one representing the state/prosecution in those instances. The DA will typically not get involved (currently going through this). Most of the time I believe it is incompetence or complacency/laziness that would be the cause for incorrect charges. But I have heard of cops screwing someone over by writing the wrong thing (I have friend who are cops and tell stories).

The township police posted info stating that the new 'purple paint' law makes trespassing (defiant) an M3 when a property is posted with purple paint. In reality it only adds purple paint as an alternative to using a sign and carries the same grading as signs (summary offense). If they issue a citation under the wrong grading and someone just pleads guilty to pay the fine, then that misdemeanor can ruin their life by preventing them from passing background checks required by most 'good' jobs and would require expensive legal representation to correct it (see my previous comment on my wife's situation).

The jaywalking example isn't really the same since there is no felony grading of jaywalking. If you look at the prior example of trespassing, that could be graded as S, M3, or M1 depending on the elements of the offense. If the officer is complacent, lazy, incompetent, or malicious, then they might write your citation for the M3 grading even if you didn't meet the definition - <USER2> would have to be told in-person to leave and refuse to leave for it to be an M3.

<comment><USER25> Thank you for the detailed explanation. That was helpful and clear.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I think it is more likely that the change is in you. It has been a stressful year and you may be keeping score more than you did in the past. When things are hard we try to find fault in others, which is a painfully easy thing to do.

It might help to see these not as opportunities to be frustrated but as opportunities to be gracious and forgiving. It's like seeing money fall out of a stranger's pocket: it can be an opportunity to steal or an opportunity to help.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think I've changed. I'm pretty forgiving. For example, I could have the other person involved in the legal situation issued a $300 fine, but I'm not reporting it. I also understand people make mistakes, which is why I contacted to officer involved to give him the correct information and ask that he make the correction to the citation. Instead he was complacent and said even if it's wrong he won't change it and we have to go to court. I could file a professional complaint against the officer, but I'm not.

So there's a lot of stuff I could do against people, but I'm not. I'm trying to give people the benefit of doubt or correct their mistake, but they are making it very difficult.</comment></comment>


You should probably quit your job - <AUTHOR> http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/should+probably+quit+your/5093085/story.html <comment><USER2> I don't actually feel the need to change the world.

There are some things I enjoy tinkering with, and I've been involved in a couple of minor political causes, but I clearly don't feel the same urge that this person does to get out there and remake the world.

And so I am not likely to quit my job (which pays quite nicely, doesn't overstress me, and brings me the security to relax at the weekends and in the evenings) and go change the world.

I don't feel bad about that.

<comment><USER3> People who feel some overwhelming need to Change The World are basically projecting: Their "world" (internal mental landscape, personal life, whatever) is in desperate need of an overhaul. (Edit: I know because this was me, say, 20 to 30 years ago. Then I fixed my personal crap. I no longer feel like lecturing everyone else about what _they_ "should" be doing.)

I won't even read the piece. I skimmed it. This is the closing line: _You should quit your job. But, sadly, you probably won't._ (It feels like a kick in the gut to even read that much.) That and the title tell me all I need to know: This individual has poor boundaries and feels entitled to screw with other people and their lives due to his dissatisfaction.

Thank you so much for _not_ being like him. You have absolutely nothing to feel bad about (so I am glad you don't). The world would be a better place if more people were, like you, basically happy with their lives and trying to do some little things to make the world better rather than trying to promote their own Final Solution and running around lecturing people on how they _should_ live. As a general rule of thumb, I will read things that are titled "Why _I_ did X" and won't read things titled "Why _you_ should do X". He knows nothing about me or my life. It is hugely egomaniacal (not to mention delusional) to presume he knows what's best for me.

Peace.

<comment><USER4> While I agree with some of your sentiments about the author, it feels like you're doing a bit of the same by claiming that everybody who wants to change the world are doing so only because they're projecting.

I say so with some defensiveness because one of my greatest goals in life is to do just that, to make a difference, as cliche as it is. And yes, I've quit my old job so I could pursue it. We all look around this world and see things that aren't quite right, that we'd like to see changed, and I'm no different. I'd like to be able to do something about it though, big things, not just sit idly by.

All too often in life I've been happy just coasting along, taking the easy road in front of me, pursuing good grades in earnest, working hard, and making a good living at interesting jobs. That brings me no closer to my goals in life though, that's not my dream. Some of us have dreams that can be achieved while working 9-5, that's great, but if you have a dream that's important to you, that requires you to quit, do give it some thought. You only have one life.

<comment><USER5> "Some of us have dreams that can be achieved while working 9-5, that's great, but if you have a dream that's important to you, that requires you to quit, do give it some thought. You only have one life."

I think that pretty much sums it up. I Agree on the preference for "Why I did this" rather than "Why you should" but I'm guessing the author was trying to make the point that there seem to be an awful lot of people who fall into the "I'll pursue my dream sometime" category.

For them - and I assume they are the authors target audience - an article with a title which is a direct call to an action already in the back of their minds, is one they're likely to read. Perhaps a better title would have been "If this describes you, quit your job"...but that isn't quite as good as link bait!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I agree that life is way too short to NOT be screwing around, and people should be doing what they feel makes a difference (and have fun doing it). It's hard to agree with this one, however:

      And shorter yet are the "productive years"; that period in your life when
      you can make a difference, when your knowledge, experience, and influence
      add up to something.

Advances in both biomedical research and the culture of work will mean that we can expect to look forward to the "productive/creative years" lasting the majority of our total lifespan. Of course, you can always opt out, as I've seen with many middle-aged friends recently: have kids, build house, and then wait for death in a cushy bourgeois setting.

<comment><USER7> That promised land of perfect health at high age is not here yet, though. It's a nice perspective, but no guarantee.

<comment><USER6> That's right, it depends on the priorities we set as a society for this kind of thing. Not just living longer, but extending the enjoyable and productive period of a person's life. Of course, I'm in the minority (otherwise I wouldn't have gotten modded into oblivion while the guy who says that he doesn't want to have an impact on the world is praised and congratulated) but I still firmly believe it's worthwhile.

What I don't get is why many people are so violently opposed to this. I'm not even talking about transhumanism or anything as controversial as that, just preventing "old" people from degenerating.

As a med student I saw so many people wasting away in retirement homes, many of them were not even _that_ old. With advances in biotech, I hope we'll give my generation a much more active and empowered existence when we come into this age group.

<comment><USER8> _What I don't get is why many people are so violently opposed to this. I'm not even talking about transhumanism or anything as controversial as that, just preventing "old" people from degenerating._

I think it's an Ugh Field: <http://lesswrong.com/lw/21b/ugh_fields/>. The prospect of having your body and mind slowly fall apart is appalling, and most people really really don't want to think about it, to the point of dismissing possible solutions.

Which reminds me, it's about time for another donation to SENS.

<comment><USER6> That's an interesting thought, thanks for sharing this link! I never thought about it this way before.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Judging by this example of navel-gazing journalism, yes, maybe it's good the author quit his job and started a charity. The fact that he feels it's ok to publicly question his daughters ambitions to prove a dubious point further illustrates that he's not in a spot to contribute to the discussion about the value of people's career choices.

The whole idea of a limited time in your life where you can make a difference is ridiculous and choosing other journalists and managers as examples of people who have seen the light and quit their jobs just reaffirms my choice of an engineering career. Maybe I'm not finding the cure for cancer but at least I'm not sitting around dispensing bad advice.

<comment><USER10> It seems like the journalist never realized that his personal situation doesn't apply to everyone. We could use the same anecdotes and say something far more meaningful, like "life is too short, do something you value."

A career isn't mutually exclusive with a life goal. For some, a career is a means to that goal, for others, it is the goal. To each his own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why would I quit my job? I _like_ my job! Dammit, stop projecting your own dislikes on to me!

I get to work with really bright people on really cool projects. My work environment is somewhat laid back. I get plenty of time off. Nobody bothers me for not showing up right at 9am. Plus, I have fun here!

<comment><USER12> Where do you work, if you don't mind me asking? It sounds like a really great place.

<comment><USER11> <http://lasp.colorado.edu/> :D

<comment><USER13> Hope you get paid well too :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Although it's tempting to just quit to pursue your dream, I would advise against it until you have put your financial life in order and save up some money. It's called a fuck-you fund for a reason.

<comment><USER15> Good point, it's interesting to note the 2 people referenced in the article were fairly well off--I mean one was a manager at Microsoft.

The idea that you need financial success to do this though is a bit strange. I think it's easier to just quit your job when you're poor from an outside perspective because you're not giving up very much in terms of the grand scheme--you'd throw away a penny before you'd throw away a $20 bill right, but speaking from experience when you're poor, these shit jobs mean a whole helluva lot.

<comment><USER16> How much is only relative to your situation.

If you live cheaply, saving up a few thousand will allow you do things you'd like to pursue without worrying about money; if you have big house mortgage, fancy car, expensive wife, then giving up a luxury job suddenly becomes not so easy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "Master, what shall I do until I reach enlightenment?" "Chop wood, carry water." "And what will I do after I reach enlightenment?" "Chop wood, carry water."

<comment><USER18> I think the point is:

"Master, then why bother?". "Before you will hate it. After you will love it."

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It's not quit your job. It's stop doing shit. Some companies like Facebook are changing the world. So by working on Facebook you are contributing to the world change that Facebook does.

The problem isn't with that. Life is full shit. You may not be a contributor to that, but many people are. Stop doing Shit. If you are a programmer and you know that your presence adds no _value_ then quit!

Stop doing Shit. Go and do interesting things. Doesn't matter if you are working for someone else or you are employing people.

<comment><USER20>
      > It's not quit your job. It's stop doing shit.

Yep. Just yesterday I came across the great piece (imho) on this topic. Just ignore the introductory first sentence in Lithuanian and read on: [http://www.dansu.lt/2011/07/13/svecio-irasas-daniel- vaarik-m...](http://www.dansu.lt/2011/07/13/svecio-irasas-daniel-vaarik- market-made-me-do-it/)

I think it applies to much more than one industry in one small country.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Ambition, entrepreneurialism, etc. They are all diseases… to some extent they are likely genetic; something you're born with.

The writer was born with one of these, or like, diseases or is channeling someone who has been. He is therefore of the mindset that he must make a difference… do something that alters the course of history… make a mark.

We cannot blame this person for what they cannot control for they were born with this disease.

The article is certainly not meant for the overall public and this should have been stated. Your interest in making a change, putting your stamp on the world, leaving a memory, etc has nothing to do with whether you are a good or bad person or whether you are making the most of your life. Some are happy to change the life on one person (child, friend, etc) while others feel compelled to do so on a mass level. It is entirely a personal decision. It is most likely driven by whether you are infected with the disease of ambition, entrepreneurialism, etc…

I can speak to this as I too was born with both of the above mentioned diseases. I don't wish them upon everyone but at the same time I am not sure life would be even fractionally as enjoyable without them.

<comment><USER22> I agree with everything you've said but I don't think we can classify it as a disease.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> If you're tired of your job, do like I may or may not have done; wait for a performance review or a meeting with a new supervisor, and when they ask what you see yourself doing in five years, reply with something in a completely different industry. Then, hopefully, you'll be terminated and have a chance at collecting unemployment while you work full-time on your web startup.

</comment><comment><USER24> In the current economic climate I would encourage people to think really carefully before quitting their jobs. No matter how dynamic or talented you may be, it's a pretty tough environment.

</comment><comment><USER25> In a way, this article reminds me of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. The journey of a shepherd boy who leaves his world to discover the treasures of his personal legend.

"They represent the Promised Land where, one day, we'll start doing something meaningful."

If you don't have an urge to go out and do something different than what you're doing now, then this article probably doesn't apply to you. I think It's more related to people who say you're going to one day start your own company, or work for a startup, or "travel to Montreal" but immediate problems always get in the way. You don't have to change the world necessarily, just be happy and follow your dreams NOW because life is too short.

<comment><USER26> I completely agree with this sentiment (and I love The Alchemist). I think it's equally virtuous for someone who has little aspirations but to be happy with the life they've been given as it is for someone who wants to achieve a lot in his/her life. Isn't the goal in the end to simply find what makes you happy and live it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Quitting your job" seems like the wrong directive. Find a better job.

<comment><USER27> I wouldn't even go that far. 'Evaluate your job' is more like it. Take stock of what you have, what you want, and what you can get.

And IF it makes sense to change, seriously consider it.

That all seems like common sense, but it's harder than it sounds.

<comment><USER28> Oh, common, guys. "Evaluate your job and all the possibilities and if necessary stay until you have reached financial stability or have another offer, in which case you can contemplate quitting" just has a bit less zing than "Storm into your boss's office say 'I QUIT' then defecate on his desk and leave with Metallica - Battery playing all around you.'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> It's not about the quitting, it's about the charity or the startup or whatever. You can run away from things all your life, but you'll never get to a place called 'there'; you'll find that everywhere you go is still 'here'. You have to go _towards_ what you want, not away from what you don't.

</comment><comment><USER30> _You should quit your job. But, sadly, you probably won't._

This line probably sounds best in the voice of Darrell Hammond's embittered- but-resigned, progressively drunker Jack Perkins from SNL about 15 years ago.

"That's a song. It's called 'Shadows of the Night' by Pat Benatar. We should do a Biography about her. But, I bet we won't."

</comment><comment><USER31> I don't understand, since every single comment disagrees, why was this in the frontpage? Maybe because people like inspiring, loud words; they soothe, make you feel enlightened and accomplished without doing anything. I hate all this new age self-help enlightening crap telling people how to live their life, mostly because some of the world's greatest oppressors used the same methods in the past.</comment>


Pentagon Video Warns of Unavoidable Dystopian Future for World's Biggest Cities - <AUTHOR> https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/pentagon-video-warns-of-unavoidable-dystopian-future-for-worlds-biggest-cities/ <comment><USER2> > "impoverishment, slums," "open landfills, over-burdened sewers," and a > "growing mass of unemployed." ... "Growth will magnify the increasing > separation between rich and poor,"

I like that those facts are presented as sort of acts of God. I understand it is a video made for the military who is not supposed to ask questions of "why are there slums" or "how come there is such a divide between rich and poor" despite all this amazing technological progress.

On the political side, it is funny to imagine an honest US Army Pentagon video:

"So years ago we really screwed up and supported this brutal dictator who murdered hundreds of thousands of its people. And now the whole region hates and considers us the Great Satan. You'll have to go in there and deal with it".

Or maybe the camera pans down to the sewer and a voicer-over starts: "20 years ago the CIA overthrew the democratically elected president and installed one who is friendly to US corporations. One of those corporations (say Bechtel) privatized the water and sewage management. This resulted in people getting sick, dying, unable to afford clean water. Everyone is angry at us but you'll have to go in and extract this and that group of people from the embassy, Good luck"

</comment><comment><USER3> I watched this video cognizant of the close relationship between the Pentagon and Hollywood, and interpreted it essentially as marketing. I think it's worth wondering where society would be without the DoD's multi-trillion-dollar black-budget-vacuum sucking away at it. I think it would be wise to look elsewhere for solutions to dystopian futures - at least until the DoD opens itself to audits.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-audit-army- idUSKCN10U1...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-audit-army- idUSKCN10U1IG)

<comment><USER4> Maybe if we took that money and invested in infrastructure, education, and welfare then we wouldn't have to live in a dystopian future with substandard infrastructure and an under-educated underclass... I mean, while we're spending the money anyways...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's revealing how many times they admit their inability to control everything.

And their total blindness to the fact that most of these conflicts are proxy wars for powerful nation-states is obvious to anyone paying attention.

The truly beautiful thing is how well people are cooperating in such dense areas. For example, the favellas in Rio are much better off when the corrupt police there aren't selling arms to the residents. The large neighborhoods in Mexico City don't require American intervention to survive, just access to fields to grow food in.

The power vacuums where warlords threaten to organize everyday people against Western intervention are where we have destroyed the infrastructure (Iraq), fought decades-long proxy wars (Afghanistan), propped up cruel dictators (Libya), or drained nations of their resources (most of Africa).

This video is essentially pumping up the young, underprivileged American "volunteers" (those with no options for success in the industrialized world) to protect the investments of world bankers.

</comment><comment><USER6> Looking at the video with the sound muted most of the slides they've chosen demonstrate a common problem: wealth concentration/economic inequality leading to destabilization.

If you want to avoid such a future: instead of spending billions upgrading your tanks so that they can fly and shoot lasers from their wheel hubs you should educate your population as well as provide free fundamental health care.

</comment><comment><USER7> It seems to me that the way armies traditionally conquered uncontrollable cities was to raze them. Assad and Russia are doing that to Aleppo right now. If the us army is ever in a situation where they need to subjugate a megacity, someone has fucked up on an unbelievable scale.</comment>