It pays to be grumpy and bad-tempered (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160809-why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered <comment><USER2> This whole fake positivity thing is very US centric I feel. I remember that Walmart tried to expand here to Germany and failed, and one of the reasons I heard was that the culture of constantly smiling cashiers actually freaked customers out, and employees were stressed by 'company chants' in the morning, which I didn't even knew existed.

Many of the things mentioned in the article I don't find at all surprising. When in challenging or sad situations it's only reasonable to be grumpy, or pessimistic or what have you. Negative emotions or feelings are part of our natural range and appropriate depending on the cirumstances. Forced positivy to me always has something ghoulish, Truman-show like.

One particular thing that I've noticed about very optimistic people is that they (not always) but sometimes tend to have an overly inflated sense of agency even in situations where they are objectively not in control. When something goes wrong in these cases people like that tend to blame themselves more than appropriate. I think this can be the source of a lot of frustration.

<comment><USER3> I understand how forced positivity might seem fake, but studies have shown that forcing a smile or forcing a group activity, can actually improve people's moods (both the giver and the recipient).

It is a cultural shift though that seems alien initially, but then you really get used to it, and it really does make people feel better when they encounter it literally at every store. Positivity also disarms people and makes them more likely to purchase goods.

<comment><USER4> American here. I can't stand that forced positivity and chanting nonsense. I can't remember the standup comedian who this came from, but they had a bit where they were pointing out that it's bad enough that they have to work these awful jobs to provide for themselves, but they're forced to pretend they're enjoying themselves to boot. I've had to put on that faked positivity in a service position where my tips absolutely depended on it, and the only way I could really stand it was basically dissociating mentally and emotionally during the shift. You're a completely different person when you're in that position.

<comment><USER5> It was David Mitchell.

<comment><USER4> Thank you! I was going a bit crazy trying to remember.

It was from an episode of QI. Here's the clip if anyone is interested: [https://youtu.be/E9PSg0sQyfs](https://youtu.be/E9PSg0sQyfs)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have suffered no increase in success as my encroaching grumpiness begins to prevail ever more successfully.

Dutifully, I declare the opposite.

Life was better when I was more open, more friendly, more curious- opportunities sprouted from seemingly nothing.

Now I'm a bit long in the tooth and I've had many harrowing experiences in trying to fight the large bureaucratic machine that is my organisation and have been left curt and bitter.

Now there are no opportunities, no "connections forged" and certainly not any career progression.

I do not recommend succumbing to grumpiness, nor bad temperament..

The only thing that matters is that you're genuine, and if you feel yourself getting to be like me, take a step back and consider what the cause is. There is no happiness here.

<comment><USER7> Perhaps you should just switch jobs?

After 20 years myself, this stuff feels so rote, offices are just gonna use what Google/AWS peddle... the world you knew is gone.

You didn't "get grumpy". You didn't move on.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the advice,

I have switched jobs and I will be starting in the new job in 3 weeks. I am excited and feel my curiosity burning excitedly.

But as for bureaucracy... it wasn't that we were trying to follow Google/Amazon. It was typical large company ego-stroking. People who are in positions of power and sit on ivory towers and give commands with no input possible.

Of course the stuff like OKRs came in- but these are peripheral things, not core to the function of the job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I understand that, in some sense, this may be true. But notice that it doesn't say that not being grumpy is a recipe for failure.

I personally prefer to be good-tempered and not grumpy, and I am rarely in a bad mood. I call this dog philosophy.

It probably means that I won't have all the success and greatness and stuff that others have, but overall, I am much more content seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses.

My dog seems to agree.

<comment><USER9> Heh. I've used a very similar "live like a dog" philosophy myself to try to emulate the best traits of canine personality. Dogs are loyal and eager to please, they don't dwell on the past, they don't hold grudges, they aren't retributive.

That said, you have to be careful not to take it too seriously. Dogs are terrible philanthropists, they suck at planning, they aren't rational, they hate to share, etc.

<comment><USER10> Even the 'best traits of canine personality'... aren't even true in a general sense. That's more of a human conception of the end result of natural tendencies, training, anthropomorphism, and how dogs are portrayed in the media.

> Dogs are loyal and eager to please...

I foster, train, and board dogs. Trust me when I say this idea that dogs are 'loyal and eager to please' is very specific to certain breeds ( _e.g._ Goldens). Most breeds only become 'loyal and eager to please' if their owner is clearly in charge. I generally foster huskies. They've all been either from a puppy mill or have been feral (so in either case they have no real human interaction before I get them) and they don't really have any interest in what I want at all until they've been with me and trained for awhile.

> they don't dwell on the past...

Dogs don't _not_ dwell on the past, either. They're more or less completely unaware of it. However they experienced an event doesn't become a memory that they later recall. However they interpreted those events at the time had its influence on their future behavior and they can never go back and re-examine that event. They do have a sense of time, but it's not like ours. It's based on smell. "That girl dog I like was here, but the scent has faded, so she was here, but she's not now."

<comment><USER11> > Dogs don't not dwell on the past, either. They're more or less completely > unaware of it. However they experienced an event doesn't become a memory > that they later recall. However they interpreted those events at the time > had its influence on their future behavior and they can never go back and > re-examine that event. They do have a sense of time, but it's not like ours. > It's based on smell.

What is the evidence for this?

<comment><USER10> As a for-instance: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29261497/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29261497/) The article is in French, but the abstract is in English.

If you search for "animals" and "episodic memory"[0] (the type of memory you think of as a 'memory') you'll find a lot of studies claiming _no_ animals other than humans have episodic memory. I'm not certain that's entirely true (and a lot of the studies will have caveats). If you search for "dogs" and "episodic memory" you'll find some disagreement as well; not arguing that dogs have human-like memory, but more that whether an animal has "episodic memory" isn't binary ( _e.g._ , [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216311423) ).

Also interesting is this study on short term memory in animals: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03766...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376635714003027)

[0] - [https://www.livescience.com/43713-memory.html](https://www.livescience.com/43713-memory.html)

Edit: Fixed links.

<comment><USER11> I can't read French, but the abstract states "dogs remember who and what happened but no study evidenced yet that they remember the precise time it was done."

That is a much lesser claim than "they're more or less completely unaware of it (the past)"

<comment><USER10> There's plenty of more studies out there, many paywalled. I just offered you one so you'd get the idea and have a place to start if you were actually interested.

My point is that dogs don't have a "past" to dwell on the way we do. Where you or I have a specific memory of playing fetch that we can replay, analyze, and put into new contexts, dogs have a sort of database of facts: "Rules of fetch", "ball = fun", "this human plays fetch". They are "things remembered" versus "memories".

<comment><USER11> I read all of your provided links, but I'm not convinced they support what you claim about dog memories.

<comment><USER10> I don't know what to tell you, man. I don't keep a list of books and papers I've read about every topic and sharing my direct experience isn't possible. I gave you a starting point to sate your own curiosity. I don't have any interest in defending a claim I know to be true on an off-handed comment on a low stakes topic. I'm not here to convince you or educate you.

<comment><USER11> Thank you for providing the links.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> There's a difference between being grumpy and being an abusive asshole. Unfortunately, this article seems to conflate the two and seems to be rationalizing bullshit behavior from CEOs as being indicative of success rather than being too-big-to-fail.

I've worked with plenty of grumpy people that had a no-nonsense attitude but never let it get in the way of being genuinely helpful or used it to put down people.

I've also worked with assholes that were bad at their jobs and pretended that their no-nonsense attitude was helpful when it was not. It's a very fine line to walk.

<comment><USER13> An asshole behavior is not asshole behavior if you can accept. That is a judgement the observer has to make

<comment><USER14> I'm not entirely sure what you're saying, here. Are you saying that, if someone is acting like an asshole, those around them should just accept it? What if everyone they work with judges their behavior to be that of an asshole? Does that make others wrong and the asshole right?

Having worked with (and for) a few assholes in my day, I can say that most of the time they aren't as smart, helpful, or clever as they believe themselves to be. Most of the time they add friction to a work environment and make other people around them miserable, and eventually those other people quit.

<comment><USER13> Thank you for your reply. I meant that grumpy/angry is an objective emotional state it doesn't need judgement based on our opinions. "Asshole" on the other hand is a subjective feeling. And actually thinking again of your comment now I think you were referring to people who likes to complain but failed to point out the problem and couldn't find out a solution..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is the traditional Give and Take dilemma. Givers are just as likely to be successful, if not more. This is a good summary, in case you want to skip Adam Grant's book [0]

[0]: [https://www.lemonade.com/blog/psychology-givers-takers- match...](https://www.lemonade.com/blog/psychology-givers-takers-matchers-2/)

<comment><USER16> I don't think that's quite true.

Optimists are predisposed to fall into the echo chamber trap. They don't have the muscles to question the status quo routinely. Everything is awesome, why change it?

They may be more charitable overall, but glaringly deficient where empathy demands action.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> From the comments here I'm pretty sure "grumpy" and "bad tempered" are being used to describe far too many things and some of them are pretty bad.

Getting in to a rage and throwing things or just being vitriolic is not grumpy or bad tempered. You can be grumpy with how things are and state your mind firmly and easily be categorized as such. I wouldn't think that's a wrong category either, but it's absolutely different from disagreeing with others and then throwing things.

<comment><USER13> > Getting in to a rage and throwing things or just being vitriolic is not > grumpy or bad tempered.

It is true these behaviors are not desirable and can cause stress with all participants. But they happen likely as too much had been oppressed and it was just too strong to hold any longer.

When you are angry you might do something violent. Continue to oppress with force without fixing the real issue will lead to more escalations..

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> >if I hear that idea again, I'm gonna have to kill myself

If he said that to me, I'd just repeat the idea.

Snark generally counters grumpy people and brilliant jerks.

<comment><USER16> Good way to filter the drama queens.

Productive pessimists tend to value or at least tolerate snark, the drama queen will just make everything about them and nobody gets anything done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Causality is reversed. Being rich or at least comfortably wealthy allows you to act as you wish. How about we do a twins study on this, coaching one to be an unmitigated dick while coaching the other to be kind. Does anyone really think the dick twin will get ahead on average?

<comment><USER20> Yes? DickTwin's coaching should essentially guarantee this to be true. Maybe rename it to Psychopathy Training.

edit: that said, not all dicks are charming; so it's clearly not 100% success rate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I got fired two times being frumpy angry with my team mates/lead/manager and I thought I could have changed the general hypocrisy in my last job. Instead I spent three years set myself straight with someone even more frustrated than me. I wasn't authentic but now I've learnt to accept myself as i am. However if I wanted to throw an object or hit something really hard in fury now I will stop for a fraction of second to think if it worth(as I'm more sensitive to my heart feeling even in a rage, where I tended to ignore in my past hypocritical self). I once destroyed the phone when I got frustrated with my ex.

<comment><USER13> I realized now, that when you are in rage there's still ration trying to speak not to over exaggerate or burning too much of the bridge — but someone not trained to respect self/heart feeling will tend to ignore that little sound...

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> In a previous job, some coworkers and my boss perceived me as being grumpy. Resting B*tch Face, more reserved, generally didn't partipate in break time video game sessions. In reality I just wanted to get my work done and go home to the family. It was one of (though not the reason) I was let go from that position. I've tried to learn from that experience, but still struggle with fitting in with those who think work is social hour and seem to get ahead by schmoozing and not head-down work. I know it's a balance, but it seems rigged for the outwardly social.

<comment><USER22> Yeah I totally understand that. I think it's important to remember that people are social creatures generally speaking. So what one may view as schmoozing, others may see as simply being social and relating to each other. People enjoy feeling good and liked.

<comment><USER16> I got off on the wrong foot with a coworker. The first time I needed to talk to him was because his code wasn't working, he tried to blame user error, it did not go well.

It took me months at the coffee machine talking about anything he wanted to talk about before he warmed up. Now he's often the first to say 'hi' when I enter a meeting room or support an idea I presented, instead of avoiding me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This article is a load of malarkey.

Being grumpy and bad-tempered are predispositions toward having negative emotions in more situations than most people would.

There are two classes of evidence in the article.

The first is evidence that negative emotions are useful in certain situations. One does not need to be grumpy and bad-tempered to recognize such situations and act appropriately.

The second is anecdotes where successful people had emotional outbursts. I assert that the outbursts did not cause the success. Passion caused both the outbursts and the success, separately. Thus there's correlation between outbursts and success but not causation.

</comment><comment><USER24> A friend once said to me:

"Some people say the glass is half full, some that it's half empty. You say: 'this water sucks.'"

:-)

</comment><comment><USER25> Didn't Bezos just have a high profile and very expensive divorce?

Weird. I guess being grumpy and bad tempered can cause problems in work and personal relationships too.

<comment><USER26> Isn't Bezos still the most wealthy person on earth, even after said divorce?

<comment><USER27> Yeah, but we're here enjoying HN, and he's 'working'. So who's got the better lifestyle ?

<comment><USER26> Some people actually enjoy their work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> What's not mentioned in the article is that grumpiness is also associated with self-criticism. Look, I am a grumpy and cynical person in general. I play the piano as a hobby. I've played for almost 25 years at this point. Many people compliment me on my playing, and objectively, perhaps they're right. However, when I hear myself, I can't stand it. It drives me up the wall, and as I play, in my mind, I still sound like the five year old whose parents just enrolled him in piano lessons. It sounds bad to me continuously, but others seem to like it (and I've also won awards and such, so i know it's not just poor taste on my listener's parts).

But really, this kind of unfulfilable self-expectation leads to more practice, more doing, and more motivation. It's hard to motivate yourself when you think you're already the best at what you do (or are happy with however good you are right now). When you cannot stand the way you sound on the piano though, and you keep practicing to reach a the metaphorical carrot, then you naturally get better.

</comment><comment><USER29> Awesome, glad to hear i don't have to change.

<comment><USER30> That's the spirit!

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I've observed that grumpiness in a business setting is often a learned behavior of individuals who are too frequently distracted from their work by colleagues.

Constantly responding to questions with a gruff demeanor eventually decreases the number of interruptions and becomes self-reinforcing.

</comment><comment><USER32> > Hugh Grant apparently hates every film he's been in, even though they've > made him $80m

Hey, we've got the first part in common. Why can't I afford a house.

(this is a sarcastic, er, ill-tempered, remark on correlation vs causation)

</comment><comment><USER33> >Being bad-tempered and pessimistic helps you to earn more, live longer and enjoy a healthier marriage

but evidently it didn't help Hugh Grant stay with Elizabeth Hurley so how good could it really be?

</comment><comment><USER34> Indeed, to strive to (even more of) perfection, you need to be discontent with the current state of things.

That is, you have to be discontent with things like 99% of the time. Because of this, you'll feel compelled to improve them. But the price of it would be being less than happy most of the time.

<comment><USER35> Wouldn't that make you more happy, not less? Always figuring out how to improve things and having endless possibilities to improve them is almost a definition of fun.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Just keep in mind: sometimes there's a fine line between being grumpy and being an _asshole_.

<comment><USER13> The word has a strong emotional direction and.. can we say it's judgemental.. however I do agree there is a line of over exaggeration. It is not a physical line but heart knows when you crossed it

</comment></comment><comment> user00012-ab Sometimes I wonder if I live in a reality where everything is just created with a GPT-2 algorithm.

</comment><comment><USER37> This is the most HN post ever.

</comment><comment><USER38> Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12263794](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12263794)

</comment><comment><USER39> > Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is famed for his angry outbursts and insults (such > as "I'm sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?") yet they haven't stopped > him building a _$300 billion company._

That's how you know the article was written in 2016!

(Amazon's market cap is now $1.5T)

</comment><comment><USER40> Pollyanna's are the most annoying and fake people around. I'd rather be with Grumpy people who are factual, realistic and capable, than the "its always a beautiful day" Pollyanna crowd...

<comment><USER14> > _I 'd rather be with Grumpy people who are factual, realistic and capable_

It's possible to be positive and also be factual, realistic, and capable. Being positive doesn't mean ignoring reality and glossing over everything negative. I'm a fairly positive person, but I definitely still have conversations where I say, "Yeah, this totally sucks, I'm not happy with it, and I think it needs to be fixed".

Approaching things in a positive, friendly, and collaborative manner has always served me and my teams far better than being grumpy and pessimistic about everything.

<comment><USER13> Yes. Can't you be both grumpy and positive ? You are not satisfied with reality then you are positive because you are seeking change. However forced positivity needs attention. When you are in a bad situation and feeling stressed out is it more important to keep a smiling, or admit that you are stressed out and focus on solution ?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Of course this message is brought to you by the British...

</comment><comment><USER42> What a toxic message to push out to readers, especially in times of crisis.

<comment><USER43> (2016)

<comment><USER38> Added. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> (2016)

<comment><USER38> Added. Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Wow 2016 was a different time. A lot of the controversy around the CEO of Away revolved around behavior that could be categorized as "Grumpy" or "Bad- Tempered" [1]. I guess it only pays to be "Grumpy" if you're a white man, or if the media attitude toward your industry is positive.

[1] [https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage- ceo...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph- korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion)

<comment><USER46> The Away's CEO behavior sounds exactly like Steve Jobs' legendary quality- obsessive behavior, except that he would fire the responsible persons without giving them a second chance.</comment></comment>


Facebook "virus" - don't try it on your real account - <AUTHOR> http://www.facebook.com/pages/-CLUTION-WLTCHING-THIS-VIDE0-MAKES-YOU-SLEXP-ISTANTLY-/112031712165724?v=wall

<comment><AUTHOR> I found this fascinating so I'm posting it. It asks the user to copy-paste JS code in the URL bar, which is obfuscated code that automatically suggests the page to all your friends. And it redirects to a SMS scam. Wow!

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I'm ashamed to say that I fell for it. Thinking that it would simply show a request dialog with all of my friends selected (like other pages), I ran the Javascript. In hindsight, that was a moronic and dangerous thing to do, and I ended up bugging all of my friends about it...

<comment><USER3> If you want I can send you an .exe file that will protect you from scams like these.

<comment><USER4> Too bad I run Linux.

<comment><USER5> Most viruses run fine under wine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't get it. It says "watching this video makes you sleep instantly".

I guess it's sort of true. If sleep means "closing the window out of boredom".

</comment><comment><USER6> Wow, I have created a monster. I didn't create this javascript code to be used with promoting malware/viruses. Jesus christ, I love how people ruin everything.</comment>


WordPress to Native Android App in 5 Minutes - <AUTHOR> https://appock.com/ <comment><USER2> Amazing tool ;) works like charm!</comment>


Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web  - <AUTHOR> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html <comment><USER2> In an advertising dominated web, the product is the view of the advertisement. The advertisement is displayed in the interface. The reason the data is not available outside the interface, is because the advertisement will not be seen. Facebook cannot open its data, because if its data was open, the ads on the Facebook pages would not be seen by the users of the data, and therefore Facebook would not make money.

We can only open data when we change the business model on top of the data.

<comment><USER3> Good point, but I don't think TBL or whoever else started building the Web with him at the time thought about advertisement or how content providers could make money. Same story now. I think we can leave that problem to those interested and surely enough ads will find their way to any new medium. It's a technical problem literally.

<comment><USER4> Governments don't have this issue. Raw data from government should be posted on the web. We've already paid for it, after all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm in a bad mood today, but this made me chuckle:

 _Talks Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web

You either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of the Adobe Flash Player. To view this video you need to get the latest Flash player._

<comment><USER2> Yep, ... that's why I don't like flash!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The bunch has lost the plot years ago: the hijacking of HTML and [ecma|java]script has done already the damage to the initial "universal access" that made the Web popular in the first place. Try browsing this web without subordinating yourself to Adobe Inc.'s unilaterally imposed licensing...

<comment><USER7> As a beta tester for the original Mozilla when there were about 10 websites (and I was too unimaginative to exploit it profitably), I had trouble selling people on the idea at first, because that functionality existed (in distributed form) with WAIS, Archie, Veronica, and something else whose name I forget right now.

There was a parallel with the problems you mention in that the www looked like eye candy but didn't deliver much obvious new _functionality_ ; however, the eye candy served the important function of making things much more attractive and accessible to an audience, whereas effectively using the services mentioned above required a kind of command-line machismo that most people had no wish to acquire - and so those services which delivered information of equivalent or better quality to that available on the web withered away because their cost:benefit ratio was too high.

I think TB-L is on the right track here because although much content of value is silo-ed in multiple ways, once there is enough good open-source (or 'linked data' or whatever you like to call it) material available, people will either abandon or never get into the websites which provide it.

<comment><USER8> _once there is enough good open-source (or 'linked data' or whatever you like to call it) material available_

As far as I understand things, _linked data_ is just a euphemism for RDF (or RDF + microformats), and there's no shortage of open source RDF implementations.

<comment><USER9> <http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Reasons to use Haskell as a Mathematician - Open-Juicer http://blog.sigfpe.com/2006/01/eleven-reasons-to-use-haskell-as.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I like mathematica for stream-of-consciousness type stuff. Personal notes rather than something I'd publish. I can code up some functions, try a few things, show the important results, and talk about it with typeset equations all in the same printable page. Latex input would be nicer, but it's not terrible once you learn some of the keyboard shortcuts.

Matlab seems an odd thing to ignore. It's pretty good for doing more computationally intensive work. It's not fantastic, but it gets the job done and has good plotting features. I generate a lot of publishable figures with matlab.

I've done some simulations using Fortran, and it's surprisingly good for a language it's age. It's been continually updated. Legacy features occasionally bite you in the ass. C is for drivers. I use it in the lab only when forced to.

So, what does Haskell offer? It looks nicer than C. Can I write drivers for odd-ball devices in it? Probably. Then again, I'm often just modifying some C-code from a vendor, so the choice is already made for me. Fortran is so well entrenched that I'm still going to wind up using it if I ever want to run something through some crazy hydrodynamics code somebody else already wrote. If I want to do stream-of-consciousness type stuff I'll still be using mathematica. How is it at plotting things? Probably not very good since it wasn't worth mentioning.

Sounds like another language I'll learn if I'm forced to.

If you really want to make this physicist drool the single best thing you can do is give me a development environment that combines rich plotting features and Latex input for comments. NOBODY HAS DONE THIS!!! Put a pleasant to use language under the hood and you might have a winner.

<comment><USER2> > So, what does Haskell offer? It looks nicer than C. Can I write drivers for > odd-ball devices in it? Probably. Then again, I'm often just modifying some > C-code from a vendor, so the choice is already made for me. Fortran is so > well entrenched that I'm still going to wind up using it if I ever want to > run something through some crazy hydrodynamics code somebody else already > wrote.

Actually, the FFI story in Haskell is pretty neat. In the past I've written Haskell plugins which interface to a C api for commercial, closed-source software which isn't a million miles from crazy hydrodynamics code. The idea of walling off statefulness behind a well-defined FFI interface and going to town on the functional side is _nice_. I certainly found it easier to make progress with GHC than with OCaml.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It seems ironic that in an article on a programming language named after Haskell Curry, it says:

 _...to take a function of two arguments, say f(.,.), and construct from it a function of a single variable defined by f_x(y) = f(x,y). Computer scientists call such a thing a closure..._

<comment><USER4> I wouldn't consider its use ironic. A curried function is generally implemented using closures (i.e., a function that remembers the lexical environment of its definition). It might be a slight abuse of terminology, but not one that should give much pause.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Has the Prelude been rewritten since?

If not, are there plans to do this soon?

<comment><USER6> No, the Prelude has not been rewritten and there are no plans to do so. Which axiomatic set should be the basis of a Mathematical Prelude? That's a rather tough question to answer, being that there are many arbitrary but not quite compatible answers. Instead, the focus has shifted to shrinking the Prelude, at least in Haskell':

<http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/haskell-prime/wiki/Prelude>

</comment></comment><comment> Open-Juicer >(9) Haskell Eats Circular Definitions for Breakfast

It's __recursive __, not circular, definition. A circular definition never ends while a recursive one does.

<comment><USER7> I think sigpfe is talking about corecursive definitions, which can produce infinite data structures: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corecursion>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Don't be silly. Haskell Curry _was_ a mathematician.

Oh... It seems I got the title wrong ;-)</comment>


Ask HN: Did you find it hard to date if you immigrated to US? - <AUTHOR> I am an immigrant. I came to US on h1b visa and work for a top company.
Only caveat is - I find east and west coast are extremely hard to date women, especially if you are dark skin color.
Once I get started, I am pretty funny guy. I guess in US looks matter a lot when everyone around you is 10x handsome.
I am in shape and very hygienic kind of guy. But,still its hard to get a match.
What are your experiences if you have immigranted to US. <comment><USER2> Interesting, this is a topic that very rarely get discussed on this website, but which is probably top of mind for many here.

I am an immigrant myself, I don't think I have anything to complain about, but it is definitively harder to find a date when you're a guy on the West Coast (especially Silicon Valley) than on the east coast or anywhere else... If you are in a place like the Bay Area two things play against you:

* First the gender balance is not in your favor (Not sure how accurate it is, but check that out: [http://visualizing.nyc/bay-area-zip-codes-singles-map/](http://visualizing.nyc/bay-area-zip-codes-singles-map/) ) no matter what, you will have a limited dating pool.

* Second, Silicon Valley tends to be pretty normative and it sometimes can feel like every male in tech fits a defined stereotype, which is not attractive. It's a cliche but it's one that people believe in.

In terms of solutions, I have two beyond maintaining a good physical appearance. The first one is to cultivate a real and genuine personality and find a way to let it shine by not being shy and unafraid to show who you are (haters be damned). The second one is to truly work on being OK being alone and single!

</comment><comment><USER3> If you're on an H1-B, then you're a nonimmigrant, not an immigrant.

Anyway, I'm a nonimmigrant too. I found dating a little harder than in other places, but I put it down to being in a city with a _lot_ of options, high achievers, so people can afford to be picky. I ended up with another foreigner - there are plenty of those around too.

</comment><comment><USER4> I imagine that it's mostly that folks like folks who are similar to them: similar philosophies, similar religions, similar classes, similar incomes, similar families, similar physical types, similar habits &c. The unfortunate thing for you is that much of America is dissimilar to you. That says nothing wrong about you (or about much of America) — it's just a fact.

It's tough for anyone who's outside the norm (again, no fault attached). You might have some success looking for others who are similarly dissimilar. Perhaps there are meetups for expats from your region of the world in your city?

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER5> I recommend you read the book Dale's How to Make Friends and Roosh V's "Bang".

Dating game in USA is different from that of India as women essentially judge on 100 paramters if say and Indian/Chinese woman might judge you on 10 parameters. Also USA does not have the kind of inequality other nations have it is perfectly possible that the hot girl you meet is merely a waitress at Danny's.

Silicon Valley is useless as there are very few women here and among most women out there dating they are over-aged. I suggest you make trips to places where there is higher density of liberal arts colleges.

Remember dating is like salesmanship. If you are ugly you might have to approach 70 women to score 1 compared to a blue eyed white guy. But remember that with each failed attempt you will hone your various others skills and you will eventually beat the blue eyed guy like whipped cream! :)

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER6> Looks do matter but they only get you so far. What's more important is how you carry the conversation. You can make up for pretty much everything if you are good with words.

</comment><comment><USER7> Well to be honest there's a lot of difficulties in dating foreigners. Aside from the skin-color aspect, you've got several things working against you:

1) this is probably the biggest one: different culture. I've dated a couple of foreign women (still am dating one), and the culture difference is definitely an issue. It's a lot to ask someone to just ignore it or put up with it; not everyone is prepared for that or wants to invest the energy needed, or deal with the inevitable issues. Some things to consider here: a) how good is your command of English? (And be realistic here; I've noticed a lot of Indians in particular think their English is great, but from an American perspective it really isn't, with a lot of odd phrasings, odd use of words, etc.) The accent is also an issue. b) How will your family take it? That's a really big issue I've found with people from other cultures: they're young and all into dating interracially, but their parents are completely against it, and that makes things very difficult. That doesn't mean we Americans never have family issues like this (we definitely do), but it's a lot less likely, especially if you're dating within your socioeconomic group (e.g. two white non-religious liberals aren't likely to have serious family issues when they try to get married). c) What kind of food do you like? Not many Americans are going to want to date someone who insists on eating their native food all the time, and never wants to eat a burger or pizza or whatever. There's a bunch more issues under this category, which can make it very hard to live with someone. Dating someone who's different and exotic can be fun, but after you get over the newness and novelty, and start thinking about having a serious relationship and moving in together, these issues will manifest and can break up the relationship. This kind of thing happens with Americans dating Americans too, but with someone from a very different culture you're at a huge disadvantage already, and anyone who's thinking long-term is going to think about this.

2) Looks. It's not just racism; different people are attracted to different types of people and looks. A lot of white men, for instance, are very attracted to far-east Asian women, but not black women. Some people from certain ethnic groups just seem to be more attractive to people from other ethnic groups than people from certain other ethnic groups. Another big factor here, though, is height: this is a lot easier for foreign women than men, because men don't usually care so much if a woman is shorter, but women almost always want to date men who are taller than themselves. Foreign men who aren't from western Europe are going to be at a huge disadvantage here because white American women tend to be rather tall. Finally, what kind of women are you pursuing? White, black, Hispanic? You'll probably have far more success with black women if you have darker skin, but have a good job. Hispanic women might also be interested: they tend to be rather short so a man who isn't really tall can still be taller than them. Sometimes men who are a little lacking in the looks department (but not too much) can compensate with a really great personality that wins over a woman, but that's not easy, esp. if you're trying to meet women online rather than at in-person events.

3) Immigration status. You said you have an H1-B visa. This is already a big red-flag, because it means you're neither a citizen, nor a permanent resident alien ("green card"). You can be deported at almost any time really, especially if something goes badly at your job. How many women really want to date a guy who may or may not be around long-term? If you were a permanent resident, you'd probably have an easier time, though it's hard to say how much.

It really sounds to me like you want to date women casually, rather than looking for a marriage partner; maybe I'm wrong about that. There's plenty of women who like to do that, but those women tend to be both young, and shallow. They're not likely to be interested in someone who isn't extremely attractive to them. I think a lot of foreigners have a perception, probably because of Hollywood, that American women are "easy". This isn't really true. It's true for a certain subset of them, but they're going to be divided into two groups: young women who want a really hot-looking guy to show them a good time (80% of American men who pursue them don't even meet this bar), and desperate women who you probably wouldn't be interested in anyway (fat, ugly, self-esteem problems, etc.). You're not going to hook up with some hot 26 year old woman who's a 9/10 if you're not also a 9/10.

</comment><comment><USER8> I am from here, so I can't give you relevant experiences, but your question leaves a lot out. What is dating like where you came from before, and what was your success rate there, and what aspects of a relationship do you consider to be "success"? Is your goal a short term relationship or a long term one? Are you measuring your disappointment against what you are used to or what you imagined it would be like here or what you see? Specifically what I'm thinking is, when western women travel to Arab countries or to India (or many other places) where the sexual mores are more conservative, their behavior might be considered "promiscuous" by local standards. Are you judging women here on a basis that they seem to be available and they are not interested?

Or, are you dark skinned but come from places in Europe where you feel more integrated socially and you feel less integrated here? You could have moved from a more liberal place to a more conservative one. Are there other people here from your country here that you could ask how they are doing, or are you simply looking for the magic formula here because it looks to you like the people around you are dating and you want in on it too? We have many skin colors here, with many cultures represented, have you tried socializing with enough different groups here?

I'm not judging, I just wouldn't know where to begin answering your question if I had the relevant information. I'll tell you this, women here who care about "top companies" probably also care about other social status signs, and they might not consider most foreigners to have the social status they would be seeking, so you may be trying to appeal to the wrong groups in the wrong way. I'm not judging them either.

</comment><comment><USER9> This sort of post is not what HN is for. Find dating and sef help advice elsewhere.

(This comment comes from an immigrant to the US.)

<comment><USER10> _" This sort of post is not what HN is for."_

If the poster finds this ^interesting^, why not? Within the bounds of HN. Not interested? don't read it.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you market a new app that's adaptable, like a web browser is? - <AUTHOR> Along with the web browser, the other examples of adaptable tools I think of are text editors and terminals. These are tools that aren't designed to solve any one problem, instead they can shape themselves to solve many problems.
Traditional product development says to know your customer, and what their problem is, and then create a product for them that solves that problem. But you don't get products like web browsers, terminals, and text editors through that process.
There's one obvious answer: That when you launch your product, you focus on a single problem, and a single type of user. Which is what I've tried to do. There are some benefits to this approach. It certainly makes some conversations easier. But it also simultaneously has a negative effect, in that it ends up making the product seem less magical, and correspondingly it's harder to tap into my own enthusiasm for the product when I'm so focused on one use case.
To me, web browsers, terminals, and text editors are special. Because they're so adaptable, they become less of just a solution to a problem I'm currently solving, and more of a part of my identity. Something feel I can bring with me to any problem I might be trying to solve. I've tried to design a new tool that I feel the same way about.
I'm wondering if there's a way of tapping into my own, and what I hope is others, interest in open-ended tools like these. Perhaps in addition to focusing on one specific use case, or maybe even instead of?
One interesting thought experiment might be: If a web browser, a terminal, or text editor didn't exist today, then how would you market them? <comment><USER2> For each of these examples, we can go back to the actual time when the product category didn't exist, and ask how they were introduced.

Before video-display terminals, there were teletype terminals. A VDT was faster at displaying information, could be addressed randomly in a 2D matrix, and didn't run out of paper.

Before text editors, there were line editors, and before line editors, there were card stacks.

Before web browsers, we had GOPHER, and FTP, and TELNET. When I first saw a web browser, I dismissed it as an extravagant way of navigating GOPHERspace.

So: what's the predecessor for your invention, and what are the improvements that your invention offers? Make them obvious enough, and you'll have a hit.

<comment><AUTHOR> Love this approach. I tried my best to summarize what each of those apps improved on when they first appeared below:

Like a teletype, but it doesn't need paper.

Like a line editor, but you can see all of your text at once.

Like a gopher, but with better multimedia.

For my own product, this gives me: like a web browser, but with its own local apps. Which seems pretty decent?

<comment><USER2> Well, maybe. Right now we have webapps like Google Docs, where you get a clean copy of the update application, the data is handled on someone else's computer, and you can copy it locally or load it from local storage. Is this better than that?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure, to be honest. Google Docs local technology feels more like something made to supplement their online web apps. What I'm making is for more for local apps that don't have an online component. I guess that's the distinction, and it seems that a different set of uses cases emerge from that focus. To give an example, would you use the Chrome app technology Google Docs uses to install a web-base Git client? That particular example gets covered by Electron, which I also have overlap with. But Electron feels heavy for a lot of uses cases. This is why I always come back to text editors, web browsers, and terminals, these are all apps where people make a host of small customizations to fit their needs, I want an app like that that's based on a web rendering engine (and that isn't already a text editor or a terminal like VS Code or Hyper). I.e., what I'm making is more something you'd rig up to solve your problems by installing some plugins and customizations rather than a full-blown app development platform like Electron or Chrome apps.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Turn Your Career into a Work of Art - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/turn_your_career_into_a_work_o.html

<comment><USER2> New-age pablum. _Everything_ is art now?

> First, you need a foundation of knowledge and skills. You can't be Picasso > if you can't handle brushes. Second, you need to use those skills to express > something that is both deeply personal and that resonates with an audience.

This applies to all skill sets, not just art.

> Making art is not an artist's job. It is an artist's life. This is why it is > exciting. But it also creates anxiety, and second-guessing. Putting your > passion on display can be scary. How do you know what is your true passion? > What if your work is ignored, derided or misunderstood?

OMG Fred from Accounting isn't expressing his inner angst the right way.

Puhleeze.

edit: I've been a professional artist, musician, and engineer for 30 years. IMO the author is mixing up a career with artistic expression.

<comment><AUTHOR> As someone who has dabbled in art (taking art classes with people who are much better than me), what I get from the article is more an exhortation for people to act more like artists.

The best definition of an artist I've personally heard is that the job of the artist is to make people feel something.

To do something that causes people to feel something. To take risks. To be part of something larger than themselves. Good or bad. Good art challenges you. Bad art bores you. But you can't affect everyone.

As we all know - being a professional artist is very difficult since it is very competitive (and sometimes more about self-marketing than most self- professed artists care to admit). And, for an adult who wants to be an artist later in life - the stakes are so so much higher - peer approval (and rejection) come into play. What would get you on the refrigerator at single- digit ages is irrelevant. Adults have a higher snob level - of what truly is art - usually it has to be good. So many friends of mine - I can't draw etc. (but it really is more that they don't want to struggle)

Maybe, they can be an "artist" in their career. What the author was hinting at. To take more risks, more challenging projects.

Sometimes the "career" they are in is not the right outlet. I've worked with or known many programmers at companies that just do it for a day job (e.g. litmus test - do they program for fun?) - and that is ok - their main focus is their family. But almost always - there is a project/a hobby of varying scope. For example, building your own house, a non-profit to promote ethnic dance, or running a Toastmasters chapter. Or even a hedge funder playing clarinet in the band pit for a friend's little off-off-off-off-off Broadway production (who got more out of that little musical play than earning money ever would).

It comes down to looking at your life as not just what you do - but what you really like to do. And trying to get the two tracks to converge.

Thank you for your response. Being an artist isn't black and white. I wish I could be a better artist or even singer - but really - I am happy with just getting better - without external expectations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > Whose life am I living? I'm sure you ask yourself that kind of question from > time to time. What am I really good at? What is the purpose of my work? > These are not new questions. Sooner or later, we all seek answers to them.

This reminds me very much of the recording "Here we all are" by Ram Dass. It's 2 hours long, top result on YouTube with that query.

</comment><comment><USER4> Dbpokorny your comments are all dead for some reason. Not sure when it happened but just wanted to let you know.</comment>


Show HN: Weekend Project - Website Uptime Monitoring Service - <AUTHOR> A couple of months back, I had come across this promising-looking app on github - a website uptime monitoring service[1] built with  Node.js, MongoDB, and Bootstrap, so I had whipped up a DO droplet[2], registered a (free) .tk domain[3] and after a weekend of messing about (mainly via ssh), had created a (stock) working service (and then promptly forgotten about it):
http://monitup.tk:8082/dashboard/checks
Turned out to be a lot better than I had expected!
Now, while there are many such (free and paid) services available out there, I do think one more can't hurt, especially with some more value additions thrown-in, that I have thought about. What do you all think? All comments, ideas, suggestions welcomed. :-)
Note: As of now, you can freely add site/s too.
[1] https://github.com/fzaninotto/uptime [2] https://www.digitalocean.com/ [3] http://www.freenom.com <comment><USER2> > This site can't be reached

> monitup.tk refused to connect.

> ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

Seems to be down?

<comment><AUTHOR> The node app had stalled. It is up now.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable:

[http://monitup.tk:8082/dashboard/checks](http://monitup.tk:8082/dashboard/checks)

</comment><comment><USER3> still down</comment>


Why do Google searches return Python 2 docs instead of Python 3 docs? - <AUTHOR> Usually the Python 2 docs are displayed above the Python 3 docs, but both are displayed. Today, I was searching for "python set operator syntax" and the Python 3 results didn't even show up.<p>This is incredibly annoying, as 99.9999% of the time I want to see Python 3.6 docs. I'm sure that I've compounded the problem in the past by not reading the actual URL and clicking into Python 2.7 docs, but I've been better at it in the last year or so and I still am overwhelmed with same-title content that leads me to old docs. Any ideas / help? <comment><USER2> It probably happens because there are still more links to the Python 2 docs out there and because they've been online longer, which in the absence of extreme recency gives them greater authority.

My solution is usually to use "python3" as a search term instead of just "python".</comment>


Don't Abandon CSS Just Yet - <AUTHOR> http://www.intridea.com/blog/2015/7/28/dont-abandon-css-yet

<comment><USER2> Did you check "CSS in JS" from @vjeux ? [https://speakerdeck.com/vjeux/react- css-in-js](https://speakerdeck.com/vjeux/react-css-in-js) It can be an interesting alternative with an isomorphic app.

<comment><USER2> React CSS is a good alternative too. You keep it simple in your JS and it exports it to a CSS file: [https://github.com/js-next/react- style](https://github.com/js-next/react-style)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Good article/rant, since I really hate, when websites require JS to be more than just a blank white screen...</comment>


Amazon's redesigned Kindle is thinner, lighter, and comes in white - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/22/11993868/amazon-kindle-e-reader-redesign-white-paperwhite <comment><USER2> > The changes here are as subtle as we've come to expect from Amazon.

Read: "We can't tell what has changed, besides the color, so this review is pretty short."

Don't bother!

</comment><comment><USER3> It uses an older style 167 ppi display instead of the 300 ppi display. 167ppi is better than a cheap "HD" Windows laptop or Macbook Air's low-res display. It's $79.99 with ads built into the UI and another $15 to remove the ads.</comment>


Ants Use Their Own Velcro to Catch Supersized Prey - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/velcro-ants/

<comment><USER2> Very cool article about the strength of ants and possible co-evolution with their favorite plant.</comment>


The morning mail is my enemy - <AUTHOR> http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/the-morning-mail-is-my-enemy.html <comment><USER2> Herein lies a problem with communication. Someone takes the time to write you. Social conventions obligate you to respond (though you'd be better off if you didn't respond to most). Even if you choose to "put it off for later," it weighs in the back of your mind.

Now fast forward to modern day, and the cost/time required to send an email is trivial. More emails get sent. Busy people get more inbound. Social conventions obligate you to respond, especially if it's someone you know.

We'd all be better off if the expectations of response were lower. That's why I like Twitter. There is little expectation or obligation to respond.

<comment><USER3> Einstein and Darwin were studied for correspondence patterns and replied to 25%, 32% of letters, respectively: [http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2005/oct/26/what- do...](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2005/oct/26/what-do-einstein- darwin-and-emails-have-in-common)

<comment><USER4> Notably that article doesn't claim this is anything specific to Einstein and Darwin, but rather a general pattern.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Writing thoughtful, complete responses to Hacker News posts takes me a long time, time I could use instead to write my own essays or code. HN is my enemy (or frenemy). So I mostly just lurk.

(Sometimes I fail to resist the urge to respond, as you can see.)

<comment><USER6> I like this attitude. It is better to lurk than to reply with low-quality posts :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think @FAKEGRIMLOCK has the best idea here. As others have suggested, writing long well thought-out responses takes time. A lot of time.

But writing like a dinosaur, with _short_ well thought-out responses. Now that doesn't take that long. And you can see this in how prolific @FAKEGRIMLOCK is.

To put it another way: LONG RESPONSE TAKE TIME. TO THE POINT. QUICK.

<comment><USER8> Or, as I once read somewhere,

"Omit needless words."

<comment><USER9> I see what you did here. The _Little Book_ FTW!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It was 9 years before his next children's book came out, although he did have time to write Strunk and White between the two.

</comment><comment><USER11> In both cases, one should note, he nonetheless provided a personal and honest response, following the demands of politeness and social obligation that occur in small communities.

The trend in our ability to address those outside of our immediate social networks seems to be that it will only get easier as time passes. Either our idea of what constitutes polite social reciprocity will have to change, or new ways of mediating these communications will have to be found (automated prioritizing, etc).

<comment><USER12> Polite social reciprocity has changed. Many contacts are ignored outright (hanging up on telemarketers, not acknowledging job applications, not returning voicemails, etc.). Delayed responses are the norm with emails, texting and voicemails. Greetings and closings are rare unto suspicious in emails. Spam filters black/white-list what gets through. Long replies are rare. ...and little of these are ever considered "rude", as we all understand the staggering volume of messaging faced and managed, if with occasional notable failures.

Today, E.B.White would just set up an auto-reply and get on with his next book.

ETA: Right, he wouldn't as indicated. Though something would give, and some technology would be leveraged, making replies take much less than hand-typed- on-paper.

<comment><AUTHOR> _Today, E.B.White would just set up an auto-reply_

I disagree. In fact, White himself disagrees in the letter. He could have set up an auto-reply by letting his publisher handle his mail, but found that "evasive and unsatisfying".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> One thing that really annoys me is when I get an email asking for advice about pursuing a career in my type of work or something along those lines, I write a reasonably thorough response, and... Nothing. Not even a "Hey, thanks for taking the time to respond." Apparently what I received was just a form letter asking for a job. This sort of event, which I assume is not unique to me, really discourages taking the time to respond to queries.

<comment><USER14> I agree, this has happens to me regularly. Someone reaches out on email asking for advice, I take the time to write a significant response, and get none in return. I've also found it discouraging as this kind of response is the most common I get. It's rare for me to see so much as a "thanks for the reply!" and rarer still to see an in kind response. I'm not very motivated to reply when I've been trained that they usually won't return the courtesy.

<comment><USER15> I can comprehend this sentiment, but, on the other hand, I rarely find "thank you" emails add anything to the conversation. It's just sitting there, wasting few seconds of my time to read it, distracts me when searching for information in old conversations with zero information added.

What's worse, "thank you" emails also socially force me to add mere "be nice boilerplate" to mu future emails to that person, instead being short and to the point. It's funny how technical, business, or fact based conversation can become unnecessary long and loose the focus with all that boilerplate.

On the other hand, being nice and polite is good in real life, on the face to face (or voice to voice) conversation, but, IMHO, just waste everyone time in email.

<comment><USER16> It'd be nice if we could send emails with a flag to skip the inbox. It'd still appear as a reply to the thread, but not add to the firehose.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Translated to the start-up terms it reads:

      Support email is my enemy.

Especially in application to a single-founder situations. You can't ignore support emails, you can't even lag answering them, because they are essential to establishing and growing the evangelist core, but they can easily eat ALL of your time.

</comment><comment><USER18> There's a complicated trade-off between cultivating or supporting interest in what you've done and creating new things. For an academic like me, it's the trade-off between updating the CV and promoting your academic papers versus the necessary time needed to just do good new work

</comment><comment><USER19> I'm sure 5 letters a day in 1961 was just as daunting as 50 emails a day is in 2012.

</comment><comment><USER20> That is why I do not reply to (or even check) emails in the morning. It detracts you from important works and decisions. When I check them later in the day, I also try to set a quota of time to process them. When the quota is gone, less important emails must wait. Some may wait a long, long time, but I have not seen negative repercussions yet.

I have read about successful people who do the same.

</comment><comment><USER21> I know this is not really the point of the post but on a practical level I'd recommend Text Expander (if on a Mac) to anyone sending repetitive canned responses. Huge time saver.

</comment><comment><USER22> Peace and love: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAU0l7325w0>

</comment><comment><USER23> He must have been sufficiently flattered to respond to them. I would have put them in the fireplace after the 10th or so.

</comment><comment><USER24> What if you sent a read notice? That would let the sender know that you have seen the email.

</comment><comment><USER25> Damned if you respond. Damned if you don't.</comment>


Free Udemy course by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer - <AUTHOR> http://www.udemy.com/ideas-come-from-everywhere/

<comment><USER2> It's not a class, just a repost from Stanford Ecorner single 1-hour long lecture.

Here is the original: <http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1554>

</comment><comment><USER3> The course is based on a talk that Marrissa gave at Stanford for the Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Speaker Series. I subscribed to the spaker series via iTunes as a podcast. Here is Marrissa's talk: <http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1525></comment>


Draft: Streamlining "inner loop" development for Kubernetes - <AUTHOR> https://thenewstack.io/draft-gives-developers-uplift-containerizing-apps-kubernetes/ <comment><USER2> I wrote a comparison of Draft and another local development tool for Kubernetes that I'm working on, Telepresence: [https://www.datawire.io/draft- telepresence-two-new-tools-loc...](https://www.datawire.io/draft-telepresence- two-new-tools-local-development-kubernetes/)</comment>


Show HN: Where books and people meet - <AUTHOR> http://readprint.com

<comment><USER2> I clicked through quickly, I might review in detail later. First off, nice job. You have implemented a lot. Groups, discussions, quotes, books read and to-read. How long and how many people did it take?? Is there functionality for people to rate the books they read and write reviews? I am sure there is, I just didn't see it.

The adverts are definitely distracting and make the site look cluttered. But I understand, you need to make money to at least support the operation! I have thought about creating something like this that would go with a mobile app so people can stay in touch with what others are reading, or write reviews while on the go. I wanted to do this or wanted someone else to do this because I don't like (and so don't use) the goodreads app.

Adding your site to my Clippt inbox, to review properly later.

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, there is an option to review and rate books.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why would people use this over Goodreads?

<comment><AUTHOR> Main difference is that Goodreads is just for ratings and reviews, ReadPrint allows you to read books online.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where is Vidalia for OSX? - <AUTHOR>

Searching found me [0], but I can only find the TOR Browser Bundle on the tor project website.<p>I'm looking for the Vidalia onion program like on Windows.<p>[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jmj4bILqiY <comment><USER2> My understanding: Tor, the current version of TBB (3.5) no longer has Vidalia included(TBB is complete package for non-tech; actually has V but in seamless integration), but V can be downloaded separately, just as the other components can be found at Torproject separately; look for self-build or earlier vers. than 3.5.</comment>


React and TypeScript – The Basics - <AUTHOR> https://spin.atomicobject.com/2017/10/31/react-typescript-basics/ <comment><USER2> I'm a fan of React + TypeScript :)

I have boilerplate repo[0] that demonstrates using server-side rendering (SSR) with React.

[0]: [https://github.com/styfle/react-server-example- tsx](https://github.com/styfle/react-server-example-tsx)</comment>


Show HN: Oorja, OSS video/voice chat app with realtime collaborative features - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/akshayKMR/oorja <comment><AUTHOR> I'd recommend you use Chrome on desktop for trying out the app. Cheers!</comment>


Linux Founder Linus Torvalds 'Still Wants the Desktop' - <AUTHOR> http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/linux-founder-linus-torvalds-still-wants-the-desktop.html

<comment><USER2> I have mixed feelings about Linus Torvalds, I disagree with many things he says and agree strongly with other things.

Linus once said: " ...Microsoft makes terrible operating systems".

Seriously?.. Forget marketing for a second, if you compare the best Linux Desktop with Windows 8.1, in almost all technical aspects Microsoft Windows 8.1 is vastly superior, it boots faster, applications run smoothly and pretty much everything you plug in works immediately.

Don't get me wrong, I am a Linux Administrator and all our servers run either Debian or CentOS, I would not use anything else unless I am absolutely forced to by a client.

but as far as desktop usage is concerned and after using Ubuntu for 2 years (which is a really good OS), Windows is just better (and I can play games while drinking a glass of wine instead of spending 30 minutes tweaking "Wine"), much more refined and in tune with every day use.

<comment><USER3> Note that Windows gets a huge benefit from being the effectively monopolistic system that dictates the terms for software and hardware (thanks to huge investments, granted. DirectX or the CLR didn't pop out of Zeus's forehead fully-formed).

So HW "just works" with Windows because that's what (and most of the time all) it's been tested against. For example, remember that the Linux ACPI coders have resigned themselves to "Windows is the Standard" whenever they have to deal with buggy hardware that doesn't follow the specs.

As for software, well, it's actually an amazing technical feat that Wine even exists. Amusingly, people don't have that complaint on OSX.

Linux has its share of flaws, but those you cite are unfair.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The problem with Linux on the desktop is that it doesn't have any significant, practical advantage to offset the significant, practical disadvantages.

BENEFITS:

\-- Costs $0: But that is also the marginal cost of Windows and OS X. When you pay what you must pay for the hardware you want, you can almost always have Windows or OS X at no additional cost. So, if Linux is also available at no additional cost, so what? The benefit to the end user only shows up when building custom hardware, repurposing old hardware, or using a VM--things I care about but the average consumer doesn't.

The zero cost benefit of Linux is of more value to hardware manufacturers than to consumers.

\-- Freely modifiable: But you can freely modify Windows or OS X systems, too, with preference settings, or utility apps, or writing your own code in any number of languages, including code that uses system APIs to make big changes.

The fact that Linux lets you change even those things that are not exposed via APIs is once again of more practical value to hardware manufacturers, or certain other businesses or organizations, than to consumers.

COSTS:

\-- You have to set it up yourself, and it never seems to work right. The problem is not Linux itself, but the fact that Windows and Mac are pre- installed, pre-configured, and tested by teams of experts, but doing that job for Linux is up to YOU. Few consumers want to deal with debugging system service (audio, network, battery, etc.) problems. Even the little bit they still have to do with Windows or Mac outrages most consumers. The last thing they want is for this problem to be WORSE.

Where Linux has been successful, it has been on the server (no audio, GUI, no battery, etc.), or on client hardware platforms (like TiVo), where the Linux configuration was done by the platform maker, not the consumer. Once again, manufacturers are the direct beneficiaries.

\-- You can't run a lot of the software you want to use. This problem has dogged Mac users for decades. It's far worse on Linux.

\-- You have to do your own tech support. Your techie neighbors, friends, and relatives can usually help with Windows problems and, in some geographic locations, even Mac problems. But online is all you have for Linux, and some of those people are not as "sociable" as your friends and family. To be a desktop user (or even a Mac user in some places), you have to be a techie yourself or have a close, personal relationship with one. That rules out most people.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-

I still want desktop Linux to succeed, too, but I'm not sure what could make that happen. I'm afraid it would take a big, powerful company that DIDN'T already have its own non-Linux OS to push, that would build the hardware and pre-install Linux and somehow resolve the lack of Excel, Photoshop, ....

Google is the only remote possibility that comes to mind with maybe a desktop- Linuxy Android or something, but I'm not holding my breath.

<comment><USER5> >But that is also the marginal cost of Windows and OS X. When you pay what you must pay for the hardware you want, you can almost always have Windows or OS X at no additional cost.

Eh? You do realize that when you buy a new computer with Windows, the price of the OEM Windows license lands on YOU as it is baked in to the asking price, it's not as if the OEM is carrying that cost for you.

Likewise the cost of Apple developing OSX is baked in to the price of a Mac.

<comment><USER4> That's why the marginal cost of Windows or OS X is zero. If the cost of the OS is "baked in", rather than offered as an optional add-on, that policy makes the price with or without the OS the same to you, which by definition makes the MARGINAL cost of the OS zero.

<comment><USER5> Not if you can buy the computer without the 'bundled' OS, or better yet, build your own from components.

<comment><USER4> And that's why, in my original post, I wrote, "The benefit to the end user only shows up when building custom hardware, repurposing old hardware, or using a VM--things I care about but the average consumer doesn't."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So the crowd "erupted into boisterous applause" when he states that, yet probably had a huge group of developers from Gnome present who actively work to destroy the desktop through forcing us into a single-task, phone-like mentality via the joys of Gnome 3. The twisted part of this seeming cognitive dissonance is that the Gnome developers certainly don't see how their personal view of what a computer should look like and how users should interact with it is killing the desktop. In their world I suppose "desktop" simply means "not a phone" or "does not run off a li-on battery."

(I've heard that more recent Gnome 3s added back much of the desktop functionality by default (desktop icons, minimize buttons in the title bar, etc.), but after trying the abomination that was Gnome 3.0 in Fedora 15, I fled to XFCE's loving embrace and never looked back. Maybe the Gnome devs changed their minds, maybe they're just kowtowing to the users' demands.)

<comment><USER7> I've been using Gnome long term. I find it incredibly useful and productive. It scales very well and is completely touch capable but, make no mistake, it is a __desktop __environment.

If you like to theme try to find a Gnome 3.10 distro, otherwise Gnome 3.12 is my favorite desktop environment _ever_. It is a work of art.

<comment><USER8> How can Gnome "scale"? You are only going to use it one one desktop. You ain't going to scale it to 1000 cluster nodes.

<comment><USER7> I meant scale in terms of device size.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Linux (Android) has made good progress on mobile SOCs. Desktop motherboards continue to shrink as more functions move onto the "CPU". The reduction in PC hardware diversity is bad for desktop hardware innovation, but it cuts the cost of Linux testing and reduces the historical advantage of Windows.

New AMD x86 CPUs include an ARM coprocessor and blur the memory boundary between CPU and GPU. Nvidia's K1 processor is transcoding ARM instructions to the hardware ISA, but is theoretically capable of transcoding x86.

What defines a "desktop"? Large monitor & keyboard? Or large local storage? ChromeOS has the first two and simplifies centralized management, but is dependent on public cloud. As mobile & PC hardware architectures converge, we need to decide if desktops are systems-of-record or local caches.

<comment><USER10> I believe he is referring to x86. ARM has the advantage in mobile because of power efficiency, but it does not have the compatibility with the commodity consumer hardware necessary for the desktop/laptop experience. I would like to see evidence of ARM being able to match the performance of x86 in difficult desktop computing tasks, and then I might consider that being an option.

All popular tasks done using Windows applications need to be accessible to users. Some ways I see this happening:

1) An alternative application for everything is provided (many companies are working on this, including Google...)

2) Provide seamless interfaces to Windows applications on the same platform, utilizing hardware virtualization

3) Provide seamless, high performance abstraction at application/process layer that can run Windows apps (JVM, WINE)

Options 1 and 3 would liberate the operating system from x86, but major improvements to the hardware and/or the software stack are needed to drive options 2 and 3. I am not confident ARM will be efficient/fast/compatible enough to knock x86 out of the box for typical desktop computing tasks even if option 1 is achieved. Though there is certainly potential for improvement/development of ARM in all of the aspects where I'm suspicious it is lacking compared to x86, I think that would take longer than it would to achieve option 1. There is also the possibility of creating a new architecture that is either compatible with or has features equivalent to x86, or performs so well that it can accomplish option 3 seamlessly, but that will also take a long time to pan out.

<comment><USER9> An intermediate version of #2 would be to give Windows ownership (IOMMU) of the GPU, mouse/touch and USB. This would cover the most problematic devices. The rest of the hardware could be virtualized by Linux, which would make a huge amount of Linux software available as local web services. Or create a market for a Windows X server to run Linux desktop apps.

Have you considered Qubes for option 2?

<comment><USER10> I'm certainly interested in trying it out! I've really only gotten hands on with virtualizing Linux within itself. Being more advanced than the average user I've never had much of a desire for running Windows apps within Linux (just switch partitions), and I definitely try to roll with option 1 for personal purposes. I love trying out all the different kinds of OSes. I'll take a look at Qubes though; even though I'm not dependent on Windows, investigating ways to help others break their dependence is highly beneficial for everybody including myself.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Twitch Plays Conway's Game of Life – Battle Royale Edition (Unity ECS) - <AUTHOR> https://www.twitch.tv/bzh314 <comment><AUTHOR> Twitch Plays Conway's Game of Life [1] is a multiplayer implementation of Conway's Game of Life [2]

In Twitch Plays Conway's Game of Life, you play by typing commands in the Twitch chat, like in Twitch Plays Pokémon [3]

The basic !ON command turns on cells. The !RLE command lets you enter Run Length Encoded [4] strings to make more complex patterns. You can browse patterns on the Conway Life wiki [5]

A database of 446 patterns (Sir Robin, Gosper Glider Gun, ..) is available with the !PATTERN command, and allows you to make patterns directly from their names (Example: !GLIDER 0,0 # Makes a Glider at the origin)

A slideshow of all 446 patterns (still lifes, oscillators, guns and spaceships) is available here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4XgALyX6w8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4XgALyX6w8)

There are Youtube [6] and Twitch [7] videos to learn cool patterns and how to use the commands.

TPCGOL has two modes: Sandbox and Battle Royale.

In Sandbox, you create what you want, without any real competition, although it's fun to own the board (a player got 99% ownership for a single generation).

In Battle Royale mode, the rules are similar to Fortnite: join a game with !PLAY, !THANK the bus driver, and try to be the last one to have cells alive as the storm shrinks.

TPCGOL is built with Unity3D's latest upcoming features: Entity Component System (ECS), Burst Compiler and C# Job System

Help for all the commands (except the mystery command yet to be discovered ;-) is at [https://bzh314.com/twitch_plays_conway_game_of_life/](https://bzh314.com/twitch_plays_conway_game_of_life/)

Want to make my Life? Go ahead:

\- Play at twitch.tv/bzh314 and have fun

\- Subscribe to Youtube [6], Follow on Twitch [1] and/or Twitter [8]

\- Spend time with your family instead of playing TPCGOL

\---

[1] [https://www.twitch.tv/bzh314](https://www.twitch.tv/bzh314)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life)

[3] [https://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon](https://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon)

[4] [http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Run_Length_Encoded](http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Run_Length_Encoded)

[5] [http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page](http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page)

[6] [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgsdHWWQBMHP1plylPrrgpA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgsdHWWQBMHP1plylPrrgpA)

[7] [https://www.twitch.tv/bzh314/videos?filter=highlights&sort=t...](https://www.twitch.tv/bzh314/videos?filter=highlights&sort=time)

[8] [https://twitter.com/bzh314](https://twitter.com/bzh314)</comment>


Harvard-Stanford admissions hoax becomes international scandal - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/harvard-stanford-admissions-hoax-becomes-international-scandal/2015/06/18/4abac970-156a-11e5-89f3-61410da94eb1_story.html?postshare=7531434930583502 <comment><USER2> This scandal blew up because one of her classmates posted a lengthy rant about her lies on a /r/askreddit thread. The post was widely shared on Korean media and was eventually picked up in the states, as you can see from the original link.

For closure, it appears school officials met with her and her parents and decided on expelling her.

The classmate deleted the post shortly afterward, but you can read a copy of it below.

[Archived Post] - [https://archive.is/pYQeg](https://archive.is/pYQeg)

[Original Post] - [http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/395g6c/what_is_th...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/395g6c/what_is_the_current_drama_going_on_with_your/cs0nm9t)

[Korean coverage, including forged admission letters] - [http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/12/2015...](http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/12/2015061201525.html)

<comment><USER3> I found the original post entirely depressing and sad. I could never imagine putting my own children through the level of stress that would cause them to do this. I am glad to read the fathers reaction in that last link

"In a press release later on Friday morning, Sara's father, an executive at global online gaming company Nexon, apologized for causing a stir with the fabrication. "I'm responsible for all the mistakes and sorry not to have taken better care of this poor kid," he said. He promised to look after her better since she apparently suffered from extreme stress due to academic pressures. He allegedly had no idea that the story was false."

<comment><USER4> It's often the kids who put themselves through this pressure. I can't speak for all families, but I went to a Whitney HS, a southern california version of TJ, and the _peer pressure_ is quite a lot stronger than what most parents say or do.

This isn't helped by an admissions process that seems to penalize Asian Americans due to their ethnicity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > "We celebrate the accomplishment of students who get into all eight Ivies," > said Brandon Kosatka, TJ's director of student services. "That's the bar, > and our kids are shooting for that. They don't like to be the second-best. > If that's the bar, then, yes, that creates anxiety for them."

Jesus. That's borderline child abuse. These people understand their children can only go to one of those eight schools at a time, right?

<comment><USER6> As far as I'm concerned, it's not borderline. All five members of my immediate family attended various so-called tier 1 schools. Never once was I made to feel that an Ivy League admission was a required or expected achievement.

As for my time at such a school, I will say this. There are certainly more opportunities, but the average university is so brimming with amazing opportunities that the limiting factor is motivation, not quality of the institution. I suppose the old maxim, "You get out what you put in," applies here.

<comment><USER7> You're correct on the last part, but let's be honest for a second - for the HN crowd, I don't think the average school has the opportunities "we" want.

<comment><USER8> And what are the opportunities "we" want that aren't available at your average university?

<comment><USER7> Hackathons, easy access to industry. cutting edge and relevant research opportunities, motivated peer group with similar interests, etc.

<comment><USER6> My point was primarily that there isn't a huge gulf between an applicant's #1 school and #5 school. What I can find at Harvard/Yale/Princeton can mostly be found at UCLA or even major state schools.

This pressuring your kids with these expectations is crazy, because for even the best students, the Ivy admissions process is a crapshoot. And perhaps alleviating some of the pressure could even lead to increased performance due to lower stress levels.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> US university admission is so weird, I think. Where I'm from, the only thing that counts is your grades. No subjective letter, having to know important people for letter of recommendation, no need to force yourself to play an instrument, do charity work, play a sport etc. without actually wanting to do it.

What are the pro's of doing it this way?

<comment><USER10> I studied at Harvard some years ago and I wholeheartedly support the holistic admissions process. Good grades are a great predictor of your ability to get good grades, not much more than that.

As a nerdy Asian, if 50% of my classmates were nerdy Asians, my experience would have been much less fulfilling. Much of the education at college comes from the friends you meet along the way so a diverse, multifaceted class is an invaluable part of the experience. I have a friend who was an armed guerrilla against Iran and another friend who was forced into exile in Egypt after a coup in Sudan. These are the perspectives that expand a young 18-year-old's worldview. Both of them had a SAT score much lower than mine, but I would argue they deserved their spots at Harvard more than I did.

<comment><USER4> Why do you presume Asians are any more nerdy than others? It's one thing to be in favor of diversity of experience (it's great that you met such interesting people) and quite another thing to assume that Asian ethnicities are less likely to contribute such experiences to the university.

That second thing is called racism. (not saying you are racist, but your argument certainly justifies racism)

<comment><USER10> I wouldn't say I'm presuming Asians are nerdier. Since I'm a nerdy Asian, I can only speak to the type of people I know. What I meant is: "if I were in school with only people who were like myself."

<comment><USER4> So then, perhaps you'd want to replace

"As a nerdy Asian, if 50% of my classmates were nerdy Asians,"

with

"As a nerd, if 50% of my classmates were nerds,"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Hah. I went to TJ and, at a gathering with a few other high school classmates, I bemoaned how unhealthy I thought the atmosphere was there. I'm not saying it was disastrous when we went there, but it was a divorced-from-reality, barely- visible-high-pressure environment. Going to a prestigious, competitive state school was seen by several of my classmates as "failing" because it wasn't as good as going to an Ivy or another high profile institution.

An environment made up entirely of kids who are accustomed to being the smartest student in the class is going to produce some very unpleasant results under high pressure. I wonder how the counseling team approaches the problem.

<comment><USER12> When were you there? I attended from 1998-2002, and it was a pretty collegial place back then. Very little competitive pressure from the teachers or administration, no class ranking, etc. Lots of self-imposed consternation about getting into top colleges, but that usually didn't bubble up into the social interactions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The article quotes a student complaining about the pressure for extracurricular activities, but I think this is a good case in favor of sports:

Do you know a runner? They have experienced failure and lost races.

This is an important lesson that a lot of kids seem to be missing, especially at these elite high schools. Furthermore, each Ivy will only accept so many students each year from TJ or Andover Academy, so a lot of high school students would be better off if they worked hard at a public school, especially one in an underrepresented area.

<comment><USER14> In the uk there are reports of kids from public schools going to a good state 6th form for the last two years of school to help game the admissions process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Underage high School girl lies <==> international scandal.

Seriously people.

At best this is, stupid media gets fooled by a troubled girl at a time many teens are at a tough time in their lives. Classmates not as stupid.

<comment><USER16> Technically this is stupid media gets temporarily fooled by a troubled girl respected parents. The girl wasn't doing this on her own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> "Another senior, who designed the electronics system for a 6-foot, 120-pound robot capable of lifting crates"

Would be very interested to see some video of this in action. Couldn't seem to find it any where.

<comment><USER18> That would be this years FRC challenge. I'm sure there are videos of th competitions online.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Getting into all 8 Ivies -- what a shallow way to measure intelligence.

<comment><USER14> Its how they market them selves to parents

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> These sorts of attitudes are so alien to me. At my high school it was impressive to get into UNC (we were in state)

</comment><comment><USER20> Upper class families in some Asian countries are fanatical about getting into the worlds best colleges. Anyone who has attended such a college would immediately recognize this story as a hoax. But there are some extreme things such families do that are not that far off from this.</comment>


The (Unfortunate) Truth About Unicode In Python  - <AUTHOR> http://www.cmlenz.net/archives/2008/07/the-truth-about-unicode-in-python

<comment><USER2> Yeah, Unicode is really painful. One one hand, most languages have half-assed support (Python, Ruby, PHP), which makes it hard to "pick up" good unicode habits. On the other hand, programmers using the langauges that do have real support (Perl, Java) don't use it correctly. The result is that any correctly- displayed international characters in the data those programs process is merely a coincidence. That's scary.

The problem is that reading UTF-8 from a web browser, then storing it in an 8-bit clean database (everything), and then displaying that binary data back to the web browser usually works OK. So people don't realize their app is completely broken until it starts behaving in a weird way, then they blame whoever is nearby.

Anyway, I wish all the major languages would make misusing unicode a fatal error. That way things could never appear to work. (In Perl, you can do that with "use encoding::warnings 'fatal'", but nobody ever uses that... they just cross their fingers and hope for the best.)

The really depressing part is that for every time I answer someone's unicode question on a mailing list, there are 10 other people who immediately ask the same question a week or two later. I'm not sure I understand why. It doesn't happen with other classes of questions. I guess people don't realize that other people could possibly have had the same problem, and don't Google it? Dunno.

</rant>

<comment><USER3> I haven't learned Unicode properly - but I will need to. What do you recommend? Is there a good book you know of, or some other way to go?

<comment><USER4> <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html>

By the way, python 3000 will force every coder to at least make a conscious decision about the character encoding and will have no none-unicode strings anymore.'

[update]Speaking of the devil: [http://sayspy.blogspot.com/2008/07/trying-to- make-sense-of-u...](http://sayspy.blogspot.com/2008/07/trying-to-make-sense- of-unicode-terms.html)</comment></comment></comment>


Blockchain technology using only the 1000 most common English words - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@dzack23/money-without-middle-men-efd9dec3af1e <comment><AUTHOR> Essay I wrote inspired by the upgoer-5 challenge. Feedback welcome.</comment>


Strategies for Combating Online Hate - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02447-1 <comment><USER2> > Banning whole groups of users, regardless of the size of the groups, can > result in outrage in the hate community and allegations against social-media > platforms that rights to free speech are being suppressed. To avoid that, > policy 2 instead recommends banning a small number of users selected at > random from online hate clusters.

So give the appearance of unrestrained speech, when in fact it is tightly policed. I suppose the authors feel it is okay to actively mislead users, if the purpose is just.</comment>


Evercookie used by NSA to track TOR users across browsers - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evercookie

<comment><USER2> That edit was made a year ago. It's not news. [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evercookie&diff=5...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evercookie&diff=577190307&oldid=568209885)</comment>


Vertical farms sprout into reality - <AUTHOR> http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/vertical-farms-sprout-into-reality

<comment><USER2> Vertical farms seems more a myth than anything else.

I cannot see at all, putting solar panels in the country side, transferring that power into a city, then growing food being more energy efficient than growing food in the country/floating farms and then shipping it to the city in a truck.

As a park they are nice but I can't see a worse way to waste energy creating for food.</comment>


5 Tips for E-mailing Busy People - <AUTHOR> http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/05/19/5-tips-for-e-mailing-busy-people/ <comment><USER2> This is a great example of concrete advice Tim Ferriss is good for, and I really enjoy reading. As opposed to some of his shadier/"douchier" practices found here:

[http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2007/05/timothy_ferriss_outv...](http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2007/05/timothy_ferriss_outvaynering_vayner.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I emailed probably the most successful Hollywood agent. It took me 3 weeks to write the letter, and he accepted my script for reading. I reckon that 3 weeks of my time was worth an hour of his.

Sadly, 2 years later and the script is still unread. But the chances of now convincing him to accept a better script is a lot higher than nothing.

An amusing aside is this: I used a guide on how to write a good online personals/dating letter, to write the letter to the agent.

</comment><comment><USER4> I thought that was outstanding. Thanks for the link.</comment>