The "10,000 Hours of Practice" Myth - <AUTHOR> http://greyenlightenment.com/the-10000-hours-of-practice-myth-practice-makes-better-but-not-perfect/ <comment><USER2> 'Fisher was so smart and gifted at chess, he started at a pro level. His mind could work so quickly and efficiently at chess, that once he knew the rules, he could play as well as a pro, much like a computer that plays as well as a pro after the rules are programmed into it. He was probably initially playing at a 1,800-2,000 rating, which is considered a master, and practice got him to 2,500-2,900 very quickly, which is a grandmaster rating.'

This is just nonsense. Fischer started playing when very young and it is highly unlikely he was strong when he started. He studied like crazy before he played games in public.

<comment><USER3> 1800-2000 is also not considered master. The official master title in the US is achieved at a 2200 rating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bit of a straw-man argument. Ericsson's original research didn't claim that 10,000 hours of practice made you an expert. It was that no-one became an expert (in his studied domain of violin playing) without about 10,000 hours of practice.

The 10,000 hours of practice was a _sine-qua-non_ to becoming an expert, but he never claimed it was necessarily sufficient.

<comment><USER5> Such a nonsense article really. I know _nobody_ that claims that 10,000 hours = makes you a top expert. Nonsense, just pure nonsense.

<comment><USER6> Malcom Gladwell pretty much made the claim that talent is a myth and having the passion to practice enough made you a top expert. He backtracked a bit on that, but the claim was out there and repeated in the media.

<comment><USER7> And there's an important point to it that I've heard from several other sources along the lines that expert performance happens when you combine interest and hard work. If you're interested in something, you'll do the type of work necessary to become an expert at it.

Too many people focus on aptitude/talent, thinking it's some kind of innate ability to perform better at a given task, but I take it as a tendency to enjoy a certain type of practice. For example, I really don't like drawing, but I forced myself to take a class, and I still suck. That's not because I'm naturally bad at drawing, but because I don't enjoy the process of getting better.

There's a huge difference between developers who have done programming for 10k hours but didn't enjoy it and someone who enjoys it. The first is unlikely to go any deeper than necessary and will always work in a similar role, whereas the latter will explore a variety of concepts and approaches and become capable of solving a wider array of problems. I don't think there's a great divide between good and bad programmers based on "talent", but quality of practice, which can usually be identified by enjoyment of that practice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Keep in mind that the word "talent" is used in 2 very different meanings and a group fixated on one meaning does not acknowledge the other meaning. (My previous comment about this.[0])

\- definition #1: "talent" doesn't exist or it's achievable by anyone because it's just a learnable skill. Skills can be improved. This is the meaning emphasized by M Gladwell (10000 hours), D Coyle (talent doesn't exist), Carol Dweck "growth mindset", Angela Duckworth "grit", etc.

\- definition #2: "talent" is a ranking. This is the meaning emphasized by most people who are "looking for the most talented". E.g. sports teams for athletes, Hollywood for actors, Google/Microsoft for PhDs in mathematics and machine learning, etc.

If you're unaware of both meanings of "talent", you will always misunderstand what the other side is talking about. As a result, people will forever be bikshedding the word "talent" and stay frustrated that they can't convince the other side to change their mind!

The blog author of this thread also leaves out the meta discussion of "talent" and is using definition #2. The blog author (Jacob Kaplan-Moss) in my previous comment uses definition #1.

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16812957](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16812957)

<comment><USER9> \- definition #3: "talent" is an inherent property of ability and maximum potential. "born with it", "gifted", "a natural" etc. That determines how much effort it takes to learn a skill for #1 and your maximum possible rank / whether you should bother trying in #2.

I don't like this definition, but it is definitely one of them. If it is accurate I think it is in the fact that training / practice from a young age can give an edge that is difficult to overcome later in life. But this would only apply to the top of the top.

In sports even physical attributes can determine peak talent.

<comment><USER10> To go on about sports, hasn't there been some research done about slow twitch and fast twitch muscles and their importance for being a fast sprinter? I think Usain Bolt has a much higher number of fast-twitch muscle cells than normal. That could be called talent.

<comment><USER11> The research I've seen appears to suggest that everyone has both fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers and that by doing certain types of exercises you can increase the strength and size of one type more than the other. I'd guess there is a genetic component to Usain Bolt's success, but I'd be careful to claim that it is more important than training.

<comment><USER6> If you've ever participated in track and field for any length of time, you realize that the genetic component is more important for the type of events you can successfully compete in with enough practice.

Sprinters definitely have a fast twitch advantage that you can't get with any amount of training if you're not born with it. Sure, you can improve your own sprint times up to a point, but you can't really make up the gap. You just choose an event that's better suited for your body type, such as longer distance or throwing, etc. And sprinters can't compete with distance runners either.

Assuming similar amounts of training. If there's a huge difference in training, one might be able to overcome the differences. Particularly if you're more middle distance with decent speed and endurance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I realize it is not what has been touted, but I always took the "10K hours" thing to mean, "it takes 10K hours to reach your potential". That is still a _way_ too convenient round number, but good enough for a rough estimate.

But it has a flip side: "after 10K hours, that's about as good as you're ever going to get". I've easily got 10K hours on the guitar, but I'm no Jimmy Page, nor will I ever be. 10K hours of running? 40 years, carry the one...yeah, probably. Look through my comments, see anything about the Olympics? A few wins at some regional-level races is all I'm ever going to get.

On the other other hand, if you put the time in, you might not become Jimmy Page/Bobby Fischer/Usain Bolt, but I am convinced you'll get competent at whatever you pursue. No musical talent? Bah, sit down for a half hour a day of real practice for a month, tell me how little "talent" you have.

<comment><USER13> 10k hours of practice - including a lot of "directed" practice, where you have some advice on what to work on, and no small amount of thoughtful critique - will generally get you to "hireable in your craft". There's still a lot to learn. I passed that point in my art skills around 2000, and can crank out a much better drawing with a lot less thought than 2000 me could.

10k hours of fiddling around by yourself will get you somewhere, to be sure.

(Quick math: 10k/5 = 2000, divide that by 365 and you have about five and a half years of spending 5h on your craft every day. Which sounds a lot like "majoring in your craft at a four-year college, then learning how it _really_ works on your first job" to me.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Seems like a miss to try and discredit the 10k hours and not mention Anders Ericsson. His work detailing deliberate practice is what spawned these 10k hours notions. [https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/anders-...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/anders- ericsson-how-to-become-an-expert-at-anything-2016-6)

</comment><comment><USER15> Practice makes performance at a given task faster, smoother, more automatic, and more robust. The "practice makes permanent" quote elsewhere in the comments is correct in this respect. Practice does _not_ guarantee that anything useful will be learned–this requires some way to measure progress, some measure of deliberate reflection regarding past failures and their causes (which will allow you to propose new behaviors to practice), and, for intellectual tasks, some deeper analysis of the underlying principles (which will allow you to propose better principles to guide future behavior, even in out-of-distribution cases which you have never practiced for).

The article appears to be attributing the difference to genetics alone, which is neither accurate nor a useful line of inquiry. And the article is attempting to argue against a Gladwellized strawman of Ericcson's work, rather than the actual research, which feels intellectually dishonest. Not a fan of this post.

</comment><comment><USER16> I wish I knew this 10 years ago, when I decided to study math and get a CS degree. Sadly, while I'm good at programming (at least to the extent that nobody ever complained and projects got shipped), I'm really uncapable at math. I don't know what it is exactly, I just can't do it, no matter how much books, video lessons and tutoring I throw at it. I always understand theory but I cannot solve most exercises and problems despite a lot of practice.

Anyway, I wasted my 20s trying to get good enough at math, when I could've pushed on my talents instead. I really thought it was all about hard work and that I wasn't working hard enough, or maybe that I should've approached the problem from some other angle. Big mistake. Wasted opportunities.

The article says that China is doing good and the US is not doing well in this regard. I think they're both wrong. It's really stupid, and offensive and immoral, to put individuals into boxes. We don't know how the talents of individuals can express themselves to serve the needs of other people. That's why there should always be complete freedom of studying and working, instead of universities and States deciding who can do what job and on what terms.

Eventually I know programming will become a closed profession and I won't have access to it because of my inability to do math despite my ability to ship software. I can't even imagine how much we have lost in other closed fields in terms of productivity due to this belief that you just have to put in the work. I hope I'll manage to get out of programming before it's too late. Clock is ticking.

<comment><USER17> I've heard Jordan Peterson saying that, which makes sense but, It makes me sad as well, about 1/10 people are just not able to learn skilled tasks.

I wonder if we evolve kind of similar to ants, which some are just explorers, some hard workers, other just defend the nest.

I think genes are the code that render us inside of the matrix :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Quantity is important, but quality is important as well. If I practice my karate 1,000 hours and another man in Alaska practices 1,000 hours of karate as well BUT he has received higher quality instruction, he might be practicing effectively twice as much (measured in quality, which is hard to quantify..haha)

10,000 hours of practice seems like a reasonable gauge of mastery. Its also how you define mastery. Mastery is defined by the people who came before who set the standard. If athletes' top running speed reached 3MPH and I came along and broke the record at 5MPH, I would seem like a master.

</comment><comment><USER19> The article confuses practice with deliberate practice.

</comment><comment><USER20> No one wants to hear that there are no short cuts, especially in today's messed up world where everything is fake and for sale.

But THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS.

</comment><comment><USER21> Always had it in my mind that 10k is mastery of a topic and not as stated in that text that it makes perfect.

</comment><comment><USER22> The ugliest moments in history started with a "genetics matter"stance. Not worth repeating.

<comment><USER23> I get that eugenics is ugly, and shouldn't be accepted, but are you telling me those 4'8" basketball players aren't in the NBA because they just don't want it enough?

<comment><USER24> There are a handful of truly short players who've demonstrated it's possible to play in the league without being tall. Is there a material difference between 4'8" and 5'3" when your opponents are 6'11"+?

At that point, probably not.

Assuming a person is healthy, there's nothing that makes playing in the NBA literally impossible.

<comment><USER6> It's not impossible, it's just highly unlikely. Muggsy Bogues is the extreme outlier. Most NBA players in the history of the game are above average height, despite tons of shorter people having similar access to playing the sport.

<comment><USER24> It's predictive, just not enough to make decisions on. You're not saying we don't let anyone under 6' play basketball, are you?

<comment><USER6> Of course not. I'm saying that being taller than average is an important physical attribute to playing in the NBA. Of course you have to practice/play enough to have the necessary skill level, and there are other factors that matter. If you're under 6', then those other factors need to make up for the height disadvantage.

<comment><USER24> Sure, and I'm saying that those other factors aren't genetic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Don't the Polgár sisters contradict the author?

<comment><USER26> I guess the author would argue that they obviously must have inherited a talent for chess from their parents. Not that I agree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Cannot take this article seriously, I think we understand certain features we have can make certain things easier for us and harder for other people, but simplifying it saying it's an IQ thing and stretching implying it's something that only happens at early ages?

Too much factors to understand why someone is successful or not, and there is a lot to practice and how you approach it to become an expert to it... acting like skill has a cap is not really gonna help you at all anyway

</comment><comment><USER28> Depends what percentage of that 10k is quality practice. But that would mean 10k a useless number to go by.

</comment><comment><USER29> Sometimes you can practice the wrong things, so I prefer:

Practice makes permanent.

</comment><comment><USER30> This blogger is not very credible... have a sample of some of his other posts

[http://greyenlightenment.com/2017/12/](http://greyenlightenment.com/2017/12/)

<comment><USER31> Please don't commit the genetic fallacy here of all places.

<comment><USER32> Dismissing the complaint that the author might be inaccurate or not as trustworthy as otherwise as simply the genetic fallacy is an instance of the fallacy fallacy, isn't it? Consider a poor news source such as the Daily Mail - I'd say it's justified to at least be more skeptical of the claims presented in any given Daily Mail article based on their history.

<comment><USER33> I think it was a joke. I dismiss the author by the choice of URLs. I don't mind lacking the talent to find more elaborate reasons.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: bndr – jsFiddle for Slack commands - <AUTHOR> https://bndr.talkus.io <comment><USER2> love the idea! Curious how this will evolve once people start adding more commands.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a fun open experimentation. we sort commands depending on how many called was the command.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Codix.io – open source repo ratings and discovery - <AUTHOR> http://codix.io?a=b <comment><AUTHOR> Codix.io has three goals:

#1: Establish a peer review and rating system for open source software. (You need a Github account to rate or comment)

Example: Bob just got done using Androidplot in one of his Android projects. He had a pretty good experience with the library and wants to share his feedback with the community, so he adds a positive rating to Androidplot's page on Codix: [http://codix.io/gh/repo/halfhp/androidplot](http://codix.io/gh/repo/halfhp/androidplot)

#2: Improve visibility for new open source projects by allowing devs to link their projects to the bigger name repos as alternative solutions.

Example: Bob writes a new autolayout helper library in Swift for iOS. It's a great tool with some unique features but needs some serious help with visibility, so Bob goes to codix.io and links it to SnapKit: [http://codix.io/gh/repo/SnapKit/SnapKit](http://codix.io/gh/repo/SnapKit/SnapKit). Now whenever someone checks out SnapKit, Cartography or any other repo that's also linked to SnapKit on Codix, they'll see Bob's library as well.

#3: Make suggestions about which repo to use by way of comparison.

Example: Bob want's to start using dependency injection in his Android app but which framework should he use? Here's how codix compares the available options: [http://codix.io/cmp/Android%20Dependency%20Injection%20Libs](http://codix.io/cmp/Android%20Dependency%20Injection%20Libs)</comment>


Postgres' name was its biggest mistake - <AUTHOR> https://firstname.lastname@example.com <comment><USER2> It was originally Postgres. It didn't have a SQL interface back then. Then they added a SQL interface an called it PostgreSQL

And it's called Postgres because it came after (post) Ingres database, so Post-ingres = Postgres

</comment><comment><USER3> If they declared it to be Postgres tomorrow, not many would complain.</comment>


The Medium Is the Message, 50 Years Later - <AUTHOR> http://www.psmag.com/navigation/nature-and-technology/medium-message-50-years-later-91552/ <comment><USER2> Harold Innis and his work such as "Empire of Communication" was the foundation for McLuhan's more punk-rock interpretation of communication theory. Pink Floyd vs The Clash.

Innis I found insightful for his view of how technology changes cultures because the dominant means of communication changes what it means to be human.

</comment><comment><USER3> McLuhan: "As a result, precisely at the point where a new media-induced environment becomes all pervasive and transmogrifies our sensory balance, it also becomes invisible."

So, we're still a century or so away from this with regard to smart phones etc. TV barely reached this point before it went into decline ([http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03televisio...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03television.html?_r=0)). Newspapers did, quite likely, as did radio.

So long as people complain about how devices are changing us, they are not invisible, so anyone engaged in critical commentary (at least in the popular press) is proof that we are nowhere near this boundary.

Wearables may change the timeline for ubiquitous computing, but again: so long as there is hand-wringing about how the technology is changing us, this transformation is not complete.

</comment><comment><USER4> In 1999 I named my consulting company "Electric Speed" ([http://electricspeed.com](http://electricspeed.com)) after reading McLuhan's book...

      At no period in human culture have men understood the
      psychic mechanisms involved in invention and technology.
      Today it is the instant speed of electric information
      that, for the first time, permits easy recognition of the
      patterns and the formal contours of change and
      development. The entire world, past and present, now
      reveals itself to us like a growing plant in an enormously
      accelerated movie. Electric speed is synonymous with light
      and with the understanding of causes.

      — Marshal McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)

</comment><comment><USER5> Disturbingly that article doesn't mention the word 'massage' anywhere. Which is kind of important.

<comment><USER6> According to

[http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/common- questions/](http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/common-questions/)

Now there are four possible readings for the last word of the title, all of them accurate: "Message" and "Mess Age," "Massage" and "Mass Age."

<comment><USER5> Yup. Matches the wikipedia telling of the story. Nonetheless, the history is kind of important given the popularity of this quote. Bit like the (mis-)paraphrasing of 'Life wasn't meant to be easy' popularised in my part of the world (Australia).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are very few books I've read that I can honestly say changed the entire direction of my life.

McLuhan's _Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man_ is one of them.</comment>


Magic Leap wants developers to mix the virtual with reality - <AUTHOR> http://www.networkworld.com/article/2931972/opensource-subnet/magic-leap-wants-developers-to-mix-the-virtual-with-reality.html

<comment><USER2> Magic Leap's virtual reality puts virtual elements into the real world by creating a plasma of photons modified to create a mixed reality when they hit the observers retina, making determining the line between virtual and reality indistinguishable. Magic Leap is preparing to release an SDK based on Unity and Unreal to onboard developers.</comment>


Red Hat: 'Yes, we undercut Oracle with hidden Linux patches' - <AUTHOR> http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2011/03/04/red_hat_twarts_oracle_and_novell_with_change_to_source_code_packaging/ <comment><USER2> Quoting Russ Herold from the article: _Nothing in Red Hat's new approach prevents a person from running a local version-control system, containing the pristine kernel at point A, and the Red Hat variant which we might call point B. Then one runs a 'diff' in that version-control system between A and B, and starts reading the diffs to see what is happening. Over time, both the pristine kernel, and the patched Red Hat versions will vary, and one will get a sense for which 'diff' parts matter, and which are cosmetic cleanups._

This actually sounds labour intensive.

From the Centos mailing list, Johnny Hughes writes: _That is not to say I like the changes, as it will have impacts ... but as long as they only do it to the kernel, it is not a big problem._

[http://www.linux-archive.org/centos/497467-will-centos- becom...](http://www.linux-archive.org/centos/497467-will-centos-become- obsolete-now-because-changes-red-hat-implementing.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I wish I could say that I don't think this is compatible with the GPL, simply because I don't like it, but I can't. This seems like a good move for their bottom line. It'll suck for CentOS users though.

<comment><USER4> CentOS users are basically free-loading, though, so if this bothers them they'd probably be better switching to a pure-community effort like Debian. If they're using CentOS because their company uses it, their boss can also pony up for some Red Hat licenses if they encounter problems.

<comment><USER5> Once you release your work under an open source license, you've pretty much declared that "free-riding" is ok, to a certain extent.

I mean, if you look at it, Red hat itself gets a lot of free input. Although they also do contribute a lot themselves, I'm sure they receive more open source software than they create.

<comment><USER4> Open source != support. CentOS is using GPLed code, which is perfectly fine, but they have not reason to expect Red Hat to help them support it or otherwise do anything other than release changes.

In this case, the value added by CentOS is relatively small - mostly hosting - and so it's not particularly persuasive when people complain about Red Hat, which currently provides considerably more to the community even without detailed change logs.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


First Round: 10 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Investing - <AUTHOR> http://10years.firstround.com/

<comment><USER2> Duplicate of: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9969637](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9969637)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not exactly. id=9969637 is actually a duplicate of this post, but a glitch in the system didn't catch it, since the links were submitted within a few minutes of each other. Not that it really matters.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Can you recommend a modern, accessible P2P framework/library? - <AUTHOR> I'm interested in building p2p applications.
I've checked into IPFS, GNUnet, Freenet, libp2p, and a few more.
My main tools are Rust and Python.
I haven't found anything (I could be reading things wrong of course) that I can directly build GUI applications on top of, with great documentation, and minimal head banging.
Does anyone have experience building p2p apps? Can you recommend/suggest a route to take?
Definitely don't want to have to implement my own thing.
Thanks <comment><USER2> Not sure what exactly you are looking for, but I find IPFS / libp2p pretty easy to use once you know the basic concepts.

For a simple web based GUI app you can use the js version of IPFS or interact with a locally running go-IPFS node using a pretty simple REST api.

Once you got your feet wet, or if you have a more demanding use case, you can use libp2p directly, from js, go or rust.

Since you mentioned rust: [https://github.com/libp2p/rust- libp2p](https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p)

libp2p could be described as an attempt to implement a common networking stack for the distributed web. IPFS builds on libp2p, as does filecoin.

I work for a company [https://www.actyx.io/en](https://www.actyx.io/en) that does industrial applications based on IPFS / libp2p, so I use IPFS every day. Obviously it is bleeding edge technology with a lot of rough edges. But I find the current state and the rate of improvement quite promising.

<comment><USER3> libp2p looks useful but my problem with it (at a glance) has been, "how do I make this into a program?".

When I look at a list of ~10 different modules, and let's say I want to implement a secure chat program, I have no idea where to start. Is there a good primer on something like this?

<comment><USER4> There is a repo with simple examples to help get started - [https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-examples](https://github.com/libp2p/go- libp2p-examples)

People in IRC channels - #libp2p @ freenode (or #ipfs) - should be able to answer most of your other questions

(I work for PL, on go-ipfs and occasionally libp2p)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> When I was building Aether [1] I had to build mine from scratch in Go. It all depends on your needs.

Generally speaking, P2P is not a concept that you can abstract into a library. you have to make your app very deeply integrate with it, because it will present you challenges, limitations (and opportunities) that you have to respond to. There is no such thing as taking a regular app and porting it to P2P.

[1] [https://getaether.net](https://getaether.net)

<comment><USER6> Wow, the now version of Aether looks nice! I remember trying your project 3/4 years ago? I'll re-try Aether when I get home.

<comment><USER5> Thank you! It's been a long road. ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is definitely plenty of things to play around with an experiment in the Dat ecosystem, however their Rust platform is still early stages.

[http://datproject.org/](http://datproject.org/) [https://github.com/datrs](https://github.com/datrs)

I'm working on a P2P app built atop Dat right now myself, archiving of police radio using software-defined radio and Dat Hypercores. Maybe the codebase can give you some ideas / inspiration, this is developer-preview level for sure:

[https://radiowitness.hashbase.io/](https://radiowitness.hashbase.io/)

</comment><comment><USER8> If you want real-time data-transmission (for chat, audio or video), what about WebRTC? It's primarily intended to be used in browsers, but there's nothing theoretically preventing you from just using a Python library (e.g. [https://github.com/jlaine/aiortc](https://github.com/jlaine/aiortc) ) that implements the protocols if you wanted.

<comment><USER9> Not just chat, audio and video. There's a data channel as well.

Examples: \- [https://github.com/maxmcd/webtty](https://github.com/maxmcd/webtty) \- [https://github.com/rtctunnel/rtctunnel](https://github.com/rtctunnel/rtctunnel)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This guy mad a lot of easy to use libraries [https://github.com/mafintosh](https://github.com/mafintosh) in nodejs, so don't know if they are useful to you

<comment><USER11> Mafintosh created hypercore and hyperdrive, which is part of datproject.org a nice p2p option to consider too. It is used by Beaker browser among others.

<comment><USER12> He also created peerflix, the magic behind Popcorn Time (now Butter)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Peer-to-peer is such a wide term that can mean pretty much anything, e.g. micro loans of money to people in need. It can be viewed just as a way of doing things. So in that sense, all you need is a socket connection to get going.

What are you looking to build more specifically? News sharing? Video chat? File sharing?

If you're looking for file sharing, then a decent solution might be to use BitTorrent via the libtorrent library. [https://www.libtorrent.org/](https://www.libtorrent.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> > What are you looking to build more specifically?

I think this is my problem. I don't have an idea of anything I want to build specifically, I kinda just want to hack around on something.

My approach to learning new things is to usually read a bit, download it/import it and just start trying things. But that doesn't seem like a practical route when trying to build p2p applications?

<comment><USER3> Secure Scuttlebutt, DAT and Cabal are working p2p apps that can help expose you to the way things can work. Personally, I wrote frontends for two of those and it's helped me understand them better. These are all written in Nodejs, though.

There's a nice p2p and kappa database primer here: [https://github.com/kappa- db/workshop](https://github.com/kappa-db/workshop)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> P2P isn't a single thing. But if you know more about what you want to do, you can usually find libraries to do it with.

I recommend Indy's courses for getting the map of the territory: [https://www.coursera.org/instructor/indygupta](https://www.coursera.org/instructor/indygupta)

<comment><USER15> I remember Indranil Gupta. He was my professor for Distributed Systems in college. He was also my academic advisor but that's just a symbolic thing at my college. Kinda like an "ask this professor stuff about the CS curriculum at this school if you feel like it" arrangement.

He had early lectures but made them fun so I ended up not minding it. If the Coursera follows the same curriculum, I remember it being a pretty comprehensive introduction.

<comment><USER14> How cool. I only know of him from these courses, but it was a fantastic intro and overview of distributed systems.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If you're not familiar with the principals of p2p generally and the kind of problems you get into I'd start with building a simple DHT based solution using something like the Chord protocol:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_(peer-to- peer)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_\(peer-to-peer\))

This will teach you all about adhoc networking, routing, the limitations of different architectures and so on. You could also tackle a real use case like distributed key value storage as a learning device.

What you'll need ultimately will strongly depend on what you intend to build with it.

</comment><comment><USER17> I recently learned about Holochain which is a P2P framework for building scalable distributed apps. You may find it useful: [https://holochain.org](https://holochain.org)

</comment><comment><USER18> Left-field option; embed zerotier SDK. They do a better job selling it than I could: [https://www.zerotier.com/blog/zerotier- sdk.shtml](https://www.zerotier.com/blog/zerotier-sdk.shtml)

Probably some head-banging required to get it to link/load/run (I see there's an open ticket for Python). Would likely need to do a little bit of c/c++ to get that working properly. Benefit is, you would then never need to touch the p2p layer again and you could just be doing web development if that's your thing.

</comment><comment><USER19> I built one called Firestr. Check [http://firestr.com](http://firestr.com)

I didn't use a framework and built it from scratch. Maybe there is some code there that can help you understand how this stuff works.

The whole app is an environment to make p2p apps in Lua with a built in editor. Not sure there is anything easier than firestr to build p2p apps. Check out the Lua code for some examples here [https://github.com/mempko/firestr/tree/master/example_apps](https://github.com/mempko/firestr/tree/master/example_apps)

</comment><comment><USER20> Hi there Ethereum has a suit of P2P platform like Swarm ([https://medium.com/coinmonks/setting-up-a-multi-node- private...](https://medium.com/coinmonks/setting-up-a-multi-node-private- ethereum-swarm-network-without-a-blockchain-e3fd55873887)) , an alternative to IPFS & Wisper for messaging they call Web3

As a rust dev I would recommend Rust-Web3

[https://github.com/tomusdrw/rust-web3](https://github.com/tomusdrw/rust-web3)

</comment><comment><USER21> I would suggest [https://www.tribler.org/IPv8/](https://www.tribler.org/IPv8/) has most features you need.

</comment><comment><USER22> If you are interested in building p2p applications on top of block chains checkout [http://github.com/geo-gs/sawwit](http://github.com/geo-gs/sawwit)

*Disclaimer: Sawwit is one of my hobby projects

</comment><comment><USER23> Several have been mentioned already, but I'll add one more rust library to the mix: [https://github.com/maidsafe/crust](https://github.com/maidsafe/crust)

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually emailed one of the contributors from crust and unfortunately the impression I got is that it's still very much a work in progress (but good if you want to actively contribute to the project I guess)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Not quite finished, but by glyph [https://github.com/twisted/vertex](https://github.com/twisted/vertex)

</comment><comment><USER25> DAT and IPFS

</comment><comment><USER26> Checkout WebRTC!

</comment><comment><USER27> Check out ZeroMQ

</comment><comment><USER27> 0MQ

</comment><comment><USER28> Orbit-Db for IPFS

Its just Node.js

You won't be bottlenecked by the language if you are using P2P services. If you want threads, spin up another compute instance, and your provider will do that for you.</comment>


My Position On The Disney Layoffs - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/+KeithBarrett/posts/PWA6BXs7dbS <comment><USER3> "I'm sharing news about it because this experience has taught me the H-1b Visa program needs to change to protect others in the future."

It's surprising to me that Disney was able to replace its local workforce by foreigners via H-1b visas, since I always thought that companies making use of this type of visa were required to prove that they would not be able to find an employee with the required qualifications in the US? Firing an employee to replace him with an H-1b holder seems to completely contradict this requirement.

Also, reading the visa requirements it seems that the company would be forced to pay an H-1b employee a salary which is equivalent to that payed to a "normal" employee performing the same function, so there does not seem to be a huge financial benefit in this either.

Can anyone explain this?

<comment><USER4> I believe the author is simply mistaken that H1-Bs are the problem. H1-Bs are limited enough that they can't be responsible for the volume of outsourcing. They also carry salary parity requirements, and while H1-B holders rarely actually make market salary, the savings still aren't enough to prompt a wave of outsourcing. There was a problem at one time with H1-Bs, but the H1-B lottery has become so competitive that it's not a reliable option for companies to base a business model around anymore. The majority of H1-B recipients these days are foreign nationals who attended American universities, often with masters degrees. Those are the kinds of foreign nationals we want participating in the US economy.

The problem today are the L-1 visas, which are relatively unregulated. L-1 visas are for foreign nationals in a management capacity whose companies wish to transfer them to the US. These visas only require that the employer pay the employee's living expenses, and the employee receives the normal salary they would make in their home country (!).

All of this is fine until you start to stretch the definition of "management". Which many consulting companies (Tata, Infosys, Cognizant, etc) have started to do -- they can take a person from India who is paid ~$25,000/yr (a good engineer's salary in India), fly him to the US on an L-1 visa, and charge him out to the client at $100/hr. An equivalent US-based contractor rate for the same position would be $125/hr and have margins around 10-15%. But the offshoring firms can undercut US-based contractors by 25%, eat all the travel/housing expenses, and STILL make well over 100% margins.

L-1s are actually the problem. There's no salary parity requirement, there's no requirement to look for US-based candidates of equivalent positions, just a requirement that the person is "acting in a management capacity" and has worked for the company for at least 1 year. It's hard to prove that someone is not "acting in a management capacity" \-- many of the companies outright lie on the visa applications. What's worse, this type of dishonesty is considered fair game when dealing with corrupt bureaucracies in India or China. But L-1s are fueling the latest wave of offshoring: they allow companies to bring people to the US at offshore prices.

<comment><USER5> > The majority of H1-B recipients these days are foreign nationals who > attended American universities, often with masters degrees. Those are the > kinds of foreign nationals we want participating in the US economy.

most smart companies that use the H1-B visa program only hire those with masters degrees. This does 2 things:

\- They can first bring them on as "interns" under the F1 visa, which can be extended quite a bit. They are paid peanuts while the firms weed out the absolute duds.

\- This avoids the requirements on firms for extra reporting if a certain percentage of their staff are H1-B don't have masters degrees.

This creates a nice little loophole where smaller colleges have massive massive STEM programs with an insane majority being foreign students. The students get their foot in the door to play the game and the colleges get paid.

Take UT Dallas for example: [http://ecs.utdallas.edu/academics/assessment- docs/2014/2014%...](http://ecs.utdallas.edu/academics/assessment- docs/2014/2014%20Fall%20ECS%20Enrollment.pdf)

The CS Masters program is bigger than the CS undergrad program, only 4% of graduating CS undergrads are international, where as 93% of FT CS Masters students are international. That should be odd to anyone.

<comment><USER6> > This creates a nice little loophole where smaller colleges have massive > massive STEM programs with an insane majority being foreign students. The > students get their foot in the door to play the game and the colleges get > paid.

And these foreign students usually take education loans(around $35k on average) back in their countries. So when they fail to get a job after completing MS degree, they go to the same outsourcing firms and work on F1 visa as contractors for substentially lower salaries again with getting their foot in the door mentality. Outsourcing firms know and exploit the strong tendency of these students to avoid having to go back to their countries where salaries would be insufficient to pay back their student loans fast enough.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "I'm sharing news about it because this experience has taught me the H-1B Visa program needs to change to protect others in the future."

Anyone who still supports FWD.us and believes that the US doesn't produce enough professionals to satisfy the needs of our businesses is straight up, while they are reading this, actually holding a crack pipe to their mouth.

<comment><USER8> Protectionism doesn't work. There is wide consensus among economists on comparative advantage [1]. Healthy, non-protectionist immigration policies have been proposed to have similar effects as free trade [2,3].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage) [2] [http://www.economics.uci.edu/files/docs/micro/s07/Peri.pdf](http://www.economics.uci.edu/files/docs/micro/s07/Peri.pdf) [3] [http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100008723963904434771045775512...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443477104577551250082215534)

<comment><USER9> Any immigration policy short of opening the borders completely is "protectionist".

Just waving the word "protectionism" around is a non-statement that doesn't say anything about what may or may not be wrong wit the current policy.

<comment><USER8> > Any immigration policy short of opening the borders completely is > "protectionist".

How so? The idea of comparative advantage is that one country has a market, another, the means to provide for that market and you facilitate this 'trade'. India, China, pretty much most countries have plenty of top notch talent that cannot be satiated by opportunities within their own countries. These are not necessarily geniuses, but most high-performing highly skilled workers qualify. The satisfaction that these highly talented folks seek is often provided only in the US. For a moment, set aside the notion that people want to work in the US for greenbacks. This is only partially true, in my experience. Most friends and colleagues I know want to immigrate because their jobs are higher quality, as is the work culture, etc.

US provides the (job) market for top talent, China, India, Europe, etc. supply the talent.

Protectionism in this situation is just the act of putting ill-conceived roadblocks in this 'trade'. No one is asking for open borders, just a fair system where this 'trade' can be carried on smoothly.

<comment><USER9> Non-protectionist would be free traffic across borders like within the EU. Any immigration policy is a form of protectionism.

BTW, I find your naive notion of the US as the promised land rather unsettling. Personally, I don't know anybody who would want to immigrate to the US, and especially not for the archaic, exploitative work culture.

Yes, this is matter of perspective. But you seem to be lacking any other perspective than US good, everywhere else bad. Which is probably one of the reasons why it's so easy to exploit immigrant knowledge workers in the US.

<comment><USER8> Wow! Gratuitous negativity?

<comment><USER9> Seriously? I politely object to you pissing all over any country that isn't the US with false claims and I'm being gratuitously negative?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I used to rail against the H1-B program until I realized that the body-shop consultancies aren't hurting demand for my services. . . they're increasing it.

It seems like at least 75% of the body-shop projects end up being so poorly executed that people like me inevitably get called in to revamp and clean up the mess.

By all means, corporate America, keep giving out big projects to the lowest bidder, who will throw their international cheap labor at it. Then call me up to pick up the pieces in a year or two at my usual high rate, working from home 100%.

<comment><USER11> Then the project ends up being delivered late, over budget, then the middle- managers that signed off on it get replaced or reprimanded by the execs. Vicious cycle.

If you see the way these body-shop projects are pitched, it's one of the few things that make me lose hope in humanity. They bring in an exec who pitches the project, undercuts the competition by about 50%, then they staff some PMs who have no idea what they're walking into.

<comment><USER12> And if you sit through one of those pitch meetings, take note of who they bring along to demonstrate capability. Other than your account rep, you will never see any of those people during the actual project. You will be sent a bunch of "freshers" who are barely competent. The Center of Excellence (COE) staff are essentially technical pre-sales staff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "... and they routinely sacrificed personal time and freedoms to help make your experience in the parks what it was". Never do this unless its a startup you own. You get paid for X to do Y hours and nothing more. Anything more is volunteer work for a for-profit employer.

<comment><USER14> That's a pretty cynical attitude. It's definitely possible to work for a for- profit company and still care personally about the success of whatever they are doing. You don't have a moral obligation to bend over backwards for a company, but it's ok to be committed for reasons other than a paycheck.

<comment><USER15> _> It's definitely possible to work for a for-profit company and still care personally_

It is certainly possible, and usually very much appreciated (sometimes even rewarded) in the short term.

Just don't expect it to make much difference to how you are treated over the longer term. The company won't forget that you are an employee and you shouldn't either. Heck, a company with shareholders is practically _legally obliged_ to screw you over if it is better for the company to do so than not.

<comment><USER16> > _Heck, a company with shareholders is practically legally obliged to..._

You are spreading the myth of a US (and most nations, for that matter) legal obligation (the term of art is "fiduciary duty") of profit maximization to shareholders. Please read the following.

[http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8146/are-u-s- com...](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8146/are-u-s-companies- legally-obligated-to-maximize-profits-for-shareholders)

[http://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder- va...](http://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-value-myth/)

[https://hbr.org/2010/04/the-myth-of-shareholder- capitalism](https://hbr.org/2010/04/the-myth-of-shareholder-capitalism)

If you are an attorney, then in the past somewhere on Harvard Law's site I found an exhaustively-written piece that gives specific case law citations I could cross-reference from Lexis-Nexis. The bar to clear to prove fiduciary malfeasance in corporate governance is very high, and the latitude granted to company management very broad; shareholders can enforce a fiduciary preference through shareholder activism and throw out management, but the US judiciary has steadfastly refused to lightly step into the management-shareholder relationship in this regard.

This blog post delves into the follow-on questions more in the vein of corporate social responsibility once you acknowledge the legal reality.

[http://www.robertstavinsblog.org/2009/05/12/straight-talk- ab...](http://www.robertstavinsblog.org/2009/05/12/straight-talk-about- corporate-social-responsibility/)

<comment><USER15> That is why I said _practically_ rather than _literally_. It depends how scared management are of shareholder action (or, more cynically, how willing they are to use that thought as an excuse for what they wanted to do anyway).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I usually don't comment on immigration policies because I'm a US citizen and have never been an immigrant worker, however I dont believe this affects the long term success or failure of the H1B visa program and nor should it. We do exist in a global economy and you must therefore compete globally. If a company feels that they can get equal talent to mine in another country for cheaper costs then so be it; I didn't do a good enough job selling my talent or showing why Im worth my rate. Its also the company's loss if they chose to lay me off; I know what Im worth and Ill go find what Im worth. Even without the H1B visa program, companies will still do this; whether or not the company can employ the employee on US soil or not. This is in no way threatening to my way of life or makes me fear for my future career prospects. It sucks that Disney did this to their employees, but companies are no longer loyal to their people and haven't been for a long time; you should act accordingly and not show any loyalty to a company that shows you none.

<comment><USER18> > We do exist in a global economy and you must therefore compete globally.

I completely agree, but that's not what the H1-B visa program does. It allows companies to lock in immigrant workers at a lower rate and little to no job mobility. From a companies standpoint it is obviously what they want - <USER2> less, and job lock in!

The fix for the H1-B is true immigration reform. We need to make it easy for people to come to the US and enter the job market just like anyone else.

<comment><USER19> Why do we need to make it easy for people to come take our jobs? Why would we do that?

<comment><USER20> Who's "us"? I don't know you, and I have friends who aren't Americans who have been prevented by immigration policy from taking jobs here that I know they'd have been great at. Why should I care more about you keeping your job--just because we were born in the same politically defined geographic area?

But if you need a self-interested explanation: because you don't want to be competing with people who have artificially-restricted bargaining power and so have to take lower wages. The H1B program as-is, like the old bracero program for farmworkers, is a "compromise" that benefits corporations at the expense of both native-born U.S. citizens and immigrants.

<comment><USER21> Why should you care? Possibly because you realize that undercutting your countrymen, the people you have to live with now regardless of whether they are employed or not, is something that makes your actual community now a worse place.

Call it self interest, but I want to live in a society that is functional and with neighbors that are happy. The alternative is to retreat further and further into an affluent bubble. Then, I admit, you don't have to care.

<comment><USER18> As soon as someone immigrates and becomes a citizen they are also your fellow countrymen.

Where the next huge industry starts, wherever that happens to be, will define the next super power. Having the US be attractive for foreigners to immigrate to and become citizens raises the odds the US will be that place. I don't want access to the Chinese or Indian stock markets, I want the best of their citizens to want to immigrate to the US and start companies here because the US is the _best_ place for company formation (not arguing either way atm, just saying what I want). This type of environment raises all boats.

Instead we teach other countries best, send them home, and yield few of the benefits as they go on to start companies.

<comment><USER21> By that argument, it seems like you would be in favor of being _extremely_ selective about who becomes your next fellow countryman. If he turns out to be a liability, you're just that little bit further away from being the next superpower. He may well not, but what if he does?

Could there be social welfare costs? Rising income inequality? Unemployment of current citizens?

If you want to frame the problem in economic terms, a frank discussion of the risks is mandatory. Right now we usually talk about it like a ca. 2008 banker might have talked about naked credit default swaps. Sure, there might be a risk. But think of how much money we can make!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> What exactly happened here?

Reading between the lines it sounds like Disney are executing an outsourced IT transformation involving offshore IT application delivery (maybe maintenance, IT ops etc.)? Flying in staff from offshore teams to shadow/train with the team being reorganised is standard practice from what I've seen.

It isn't pretty but it's not like Disney are breaking new ground here...

</comment><comment><USER23> Like Americans, such unscrupulous program also ends up hurting genuinely talented and skilled foreign workers.

Many 'consulting firms' end up hiring/slaving thousands of workers(hence using the H1-b quota), whereas others(not exploiting the loophole) end up not getting called on the lottery.

A rational and realistic discussion is necessary, but most end up becoming too biased and extreme("don't let anyone come here").

</comment><comment><USER24> To voice your opinion, email email@example.com.

This was the reply I received:

Dear Guest,

Thank you for contacting us regarding recent media reports about the information technology restructuring at Disney Parks.

We greatly value the contributions of our Cast Members. We take great pride in the fact that we have regularly been ranked as one of the best places to work in the United States, but we are always looking for ways to improve.

Contrary to the misleading impression conveyed by certain media outlets, our recent IT restructuring actually resulted in the expansion of our Disney Parks IT team and the net addition of 70 new IT jobs in the United States. That's in addition to the nearly 30,000 jobs we've added in the U.S. over the last 10 years. And all of our efforts are geared toward enhancing our ability to deliver the best possible experiences for our Guests.

We appreciate your feedback on this issue.

Sincerely,

Matthew Cooper Guest Experience Services Walt Disney World Resort

<comment><USER25> Sadly, none of which says anything about the 70 new jobs and 30,000 jobs total added in the US being non-citizens. New jobs in the US != NOT H1B workers. Skillfully avoiding the topic, but I guess that's why he has that job.

And I say this as a non-citizen working in the US.

<comment><USER26> As reported in the original NYT article, the 70 new Disney IT jobs are actual Disney employees, not the controversial outsourced contractors (though the new Disney employees may or may not include H1-B workers).

The eliminated Disney IT jobs were outsourced to a contracting shop. The contracting shop hired H1-B workers to perform the outsourced work. The net overall effect appears to be that H1B workers replaced Disney IT workers.

If you look at the corporate level: Disney didn't hire any H1-B workers as part of the restructuring, ergo Disney didn't replace existing jobs with H1-B workers. The contracting firm didn't fire anyone, ergo the contracting firm didn't replace existing jobs with H1-B workers. But apparently nobody is accountable for the overall effect.

<comment><USER27> Disney and the contracting firm are both corporations.

Corporations do not exist in free markets. They are a product of nothing but legislative intervention in the free market in the form of the Companies Act (the reformed version of the 1850's) and its descendents around the world. Without this interference in the marketplace, corporations in the modern sense cannot and did not exist.

The only reason this kind of situation can arise is because of the nature of corporate relationships, in which the actions of individuals are hidden behind the collective mask of corporate ownership. Otherwise, it would be, "Jane fired Fred from America and replaced him with Amir from India" and the locus of effect would be undeniable.

It follows from this that the lawmakers who intervened in the free market to create the corporate form of collective organization are--or ought to be--held responsible for the overall effect of corporate behaviour. The likely corrective action, as our Libertarian friends tell us, is further intervention in the free market in the form of regulation on this sort of behaviour.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> What Disney has done is certainly reprehensible but fully legal (given the "contractor" loophole in the H1-B program). However the backlash is focusing on the "them foreigners taking our Jobs" aspect a bit too much.

What should be troubling is the fact that someone in the Executive Suite contracted out important IT functions (such as these jobs were I am assuming).

If the CIO/CTO etc are perfectly wiling to disrupt core functions to shave off some costs - you have to wonder about the strategic abilities of these highly paid morons who cannot think past the next quarter.

That is the real outrage - whether those outsourced jobs are done by H1-Bs (or even possibly L1-Bs who are much more prone to abuse) is the minor part of the story.

<comment><USER29> Disney is not an IT company, and IT is not their core competency. Why shouldn't they outsource it like any other business function?

<comment><USER28> >>Disney is not an IT company, and IT is not their core competency

Given the crucial role IT plays in nearly all Disney enterprises (TV, Movies, theme parks, etc) they better make IT one of their core competencies.

<comment><USER29> The entity in question is the theme parks operator, not all IT departments across all Disney entities.

Time will tell if Six Flags, Universal or SeaWorld would lock in significant advantages by having access to higher quality IT, while Disneyland/Disneyworld ticket sales would decline due to inferior IT.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Context maybe? [http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/in-turnabout- disney-...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/in-turnabout-disney- cancels-tech-worker-layoffs.html?referrer&_r=0)

</comment><comment><USER31> This is a great line:

 _" If you view your staff as a liability, it's more likely a leadership problem."_

If a company's employees are not an asset, then leadership hasn't done it's job of either weeding out the bad people or spending enough money to attract and grow good people.

<comment><USER32> The leadership was able to increase their compensation 42% over the course of a year last year so, if that's what their focus is for this year, then maybe they are by cutting these folks, reducing costs, etc for whatever metrics get them more cash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Yet another xenophobic article. What if disney hired an American contractor that replaced their old infrastructure with new age docker/cloud/YC-funded stack and were able to save costs by cutting 250 positions replacing them with 50 pure blooded americans (oh wait and another 10 pround "undocumented" immigrants). The reality is that this person is on the wrong side of efficiency argument. And he is just blaming his incompetence on others. I expect better from HN than to give voice to this xenophobic trash.

<comment><USER34> No. I have no problem with outsourcing, or foreign labor. I've lead such efforts myself. I'm not a xenophobe. I've not in favor of scrapping H-1B Visas. It's easy for you to dismiss it by tossing labels. I'm not even angry or anti-Disney; I'm smart enough to see it for what it is. I've been in IT and a developer for a long time. I've seen it all. I didn't know how badly the H-1B system was being used to create labor forces for the maintenance of services instead of what it's for - bringing in hard to obtain talent, until I encountered it. Jobs are being lost to this, highly talented jobs, by the thousands, and it's not suppose to. It's suppose to augment your staff. Almost overnight 3/4ths of our office building were speaking a different language. Even if you don't see any of it that way; do you really think you'd approve if you had a good review, a raise, and then were told you're being replaced and you have to train your replacement or they're going to keep the severance you're entitled to by corporate policies? I don't think anyone sees that as professional or acceptable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Can someone provide some context to this post? What happened at Disney?

<comment><USER36> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389)

The story was flagged/shadowbanned to the 2nd page within an hour of it's submission despite it being on topic and having 200+ upvotes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Having worked in an industry that supported Disney as a client once in my career, I find that whole firm contemptible, and this behavior doesn't surprise me at all.

</comment><comment><USER38> There are so many variables at play. Author is looking at it from a narrow window. I'd not blame him as this affects him personally. That said, what are some other variables?

(1) ___Polyfill_ __Disney is a global company and their management have to balance hundred different priorities that includes reducing HR cost. Don 't be shocked if all of these H1B/L1 replacements are replaced by some highly automated systems in the next 5-10years.

(2) ___Economics_ __Ask yourself why are you using Uber over local taxi, Airbnb over Hilton, Target over Wholefoods? Be it corporation or individual, in all these cases, you are getting pretty much the same service at a reduced price. It 's not a deal breaker when you are looking at replaceable cogs.

(3) ___Enforcement_ __There are some gray areas. H1Bs should be used where local resources are difficult to find or not at par with job requirements. Companies based in Bay Area, NYC, Boston, Austin, Houston and Denver face this problem day in and day out. I don 't know how this spans out across the geography.

(4) ___Skills_ __If you are really good and someone who has been diligent about keeping his skills and knowledge up to date. You should have no problem finding your next gig. If you have a tendency to take the union mentality. That 's probably not going to work.

(5) ___Attitude_ __I tried and failed to get a friend 's resume across our recruiter. He is a former federal software engineer whose best skills read ~ COBOL and SQL. He is living in Bay Area, but refuses to try shops like Hack Reactor. Never stops blaming foreign workers. Somehow under the illusion that he has a birthright to that job. Taking your environment for granted is not wise.

</comment><comment> stephen-mw I think the H1B program is great when it works, and I've seen it function because I've worked with some amazing and talented workers from countries such as India, Spain, France, etc. I really felt like we nabbed the best people from those countries. For these engineers, the US should be stapling green cards to the backs of their pay checks.

The problem here is that this group of workers is clearly being hired only because they provide a steep discount to local talent. This has nothing to do with skill, and in fact usually the engineers who take these positions are low-skilled. Think about it, who else would take a steep pay cut, work unreasonable hours, and take on a supervisor who threatens deportation on them?

For every H1B we hire in this category we make it harder to bring and keep a skilled worker. They don't fit the mould of disposable and cheap labor, so they don't get sponsorship. They refuse to take a pay cut just because they're a foreigner, and rightly so.

</comment><comment><USER39> Most has echoed my thoughts on this, but I wanted to jump in to offer this article from Cheat Sheet. I think it sums up quite well the view of modern corporations towards their employees. The main point being: If a corporation can increase their profits by screwing you, then they are more likely than not to do just that.

"Your Employer Is Not Your Friend, and Young People Know It" By Nikelle Snader, www.cheatsheet.comView OriginalMay 31st, 2015

[http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/your-employer-isnt- your-f...](http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/your-employer-isnt-your-friend- and-millennials-know-it.html/?a=viewall)

</comment><comment><USER40> Am I the only one that has any problem with the idea that citizens of a particular country feel more entitled to well paying jobs than comparably capable foreigners?

I can understand the feeling, I just can't justify it by reason.

It feels like these workers have more of a problem with the general low standards of worker's rights and labor protections than with H1B visa quotas...

<comment><USER41> Because the citizens and those that came before them have the history of the building up the country that has fostered a good standard of living, rights, environmental standards, etc.

It is unsurprising they feel they are more entitled to the benefits than those outside the country who did not. It is a complex situation but that is the general gist.

<comment><USER40> So they have the right to a good life because they always had a good life?

I can understand that such thinking is convenient, but especially those who are afraid of outsourcing haven't done that much "building" at all. And how come that in virtually any other regard competition and free enterprise is enshrined, even to the detriment of poor people and low income workers, but not when origin is concerned?

For me this entitlement does not follow immediately from some kind of ancestral rights.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I've said this before and I will say it again, programming is an entry level job. A programming (Application development) career is definitely not something you want to grow old in (unless you're a rockstar which most of us aren't). Get an MBA while you can or start your own at a younger age.

</comment><comment><USER43> jobvite.com did the same thing. They fired all their white developers and replaced them with Indians through a third party company. The irony.

</comment><comment><USER44> >the financial sector is not known for being innovative in technology

And the hospitality industry is?

</comment><comment><USER45> I wonder why he's disabled sharing of the post.

<comment><USER34> I usually do that when I share something sensitive or extremely personal, at least for the first day I share it. It forces the conversation with me.

<comment><USER45> Oh I see. That's an interesting point. I only ask because when I copied the link into a new post I realized it was the only time I'd ever done that in years of using G+. In any case, as someone who's never really worked in a very large organization this post confirmed some of my previous suppositions about why I'd probably never be happy in one :/

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Better screengrab it before it disappears.

<comment><USER34> It won't disappear. I hate broken links.</comment></comment>


Call Your Headhunter - <AUTHOR> http://bartoszmilewski.com/2012/02/06/call-your-headhunter/

<comment><USER2> I recently attended the University of Minnesota's Code Freeze conference ([http://www.umsec.umn.edu/events/Code- Freeze-2012-Continuous-...](http://www.umsec.umn.edu/events/Code- Freeze-2012-Continuous-Delivery)).

While the conference is usually dedicated to "progressive" software engineering topics (this year was Dev Ops; it's about 6 months behind the hype) the area is not a tech hot spot. There are some startups and dev shops doing cool stuff, but most of the attendees at a conference like this work at big boring Enterprise companies (banks or Fortune 500s).

Inevitably, the question comes up (usually several times): "My completely broken company won't let me use innovative technology X/methodology Y". There's some equivocation from the speakers about how you have to change from the bottom, keep pushing, blah blah blah.

I, on the other hand, get very annoyed. You want to work at a company that is more innovative? It's far easier to _quit your job_ and _go work at a better one_ that change the ossified organization you work for right now. I don't understand why people put up with it, with the job market like it is right now.

<https://twitter.com/#!/lof/status/157614221872463872>

<comment><USER3> The startups I've seen in the area are not really much more interesting than the Fortune 500 jobs. Working at US Health might be lame but is it worth the pay cut to work at a website for high school volleyball games, just to use Ruby on Rails? (or whatever)

<comment><USER2> I don't think that's true. I'm fairly sure Rails developers can make more money than commoditized Java programmers. I'm a consultant so maybe it's not apples-to-apples, but my rate is higher than "software engineer (Java)" at one of those Fortune 500s.

The key to a decent job is not working at a place where IT is a cost center. I will be the first to complain that there aren't many startups in the Twin Cities, but there are quite a few software companies and development shops. You can find cool jobs doing Java (or whatever you want to do) that pay roughly the same (or more) than the big companies that don't value software development.

Anyway, my point is: if your job sucks, try a new one! You'll probably get a raise for switching, and if you assess the new company well in the interview, I doubt it will be _worse_ than your old job.

<comment><USER3> When I looked around last summer, typical contract rates were between $50 and $65 and salaries seemed to hover between $65-$80K even for experienced people. This was for anything, Fortune 500, the Nerdery, random 10 guy consulting shop, TST Media, etc.

<comment><USER2> It's definitely possible to do better than that. Hit me up sometime if you want to discuss it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> tl;dr: organizations using '90s languages that forbid you to use features from the '90s are bad and you should leave them. Note: I understand that C and C++ are still great languages/tools for certain tasks/toolboxes, but a blog post about management not letting you using the STL is perhaps relevant only to the Mil-Aero crowd. [Or am I wrong?]

<comment><USER5> My last job was as a compiler guy at a large Electronic Design Automation company. The product I worked on was written mostly in C++, but we weren't allowed to use the STL. The reason was that the early versions of the product were written before the STL was stable across all platforms used at the company* (which included things like IBM AIX, HP-PA, etc.). So the original developers (back in the late '90s) wrote a number of container class templates that were used instead. Of course, once those were in place, you had to keep using them, as mixing STL and non-STL containers would have been a maintenance nightmare.

I would suspect there's a lot of old C++ software that falls into this category. Especially if cross-platform compatibility was/is important.

(*Actually, it was often insinuated that the STL is _still_ not 100% compatible between Linux and these more exotic platforms. I have no idea if this is true.)

<comment><AUTHOR> hmm, iirc, there used to be something called stlport by boris-fomitchev (sp ?) a looong time ago. which would allow you to use at least the basic subset of stl (containers/algorithms/iterators) across a wide range of compilers. not sure how relevant it is today...

<comment><USER6> It still exists, and it's still relevant /if/ you're in the situation Dave above describes - and you have sufficient clout to get stlport included in your code. In almost every other situation where you can actually use the stl, it's probably a better idea to use the libs that come with the compiler.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Where are these companies desperate for C++ programmers? I've been really enjoying getting back into C++ for some DSP work I've been doing. So much so that I'd like to find a gig where C++ makes up a substantial part of the coding duties. But the job trends I've seen seem to be towards higher level languages.

<comment><USER3> Google, Apple, Avid, Ableton, almost any HFT trading firm, investment banks. Anyone not doing web software, or with web properties so large they have to write their own web servers. This place in MN was offering $120K to C++ programmers last summer: <http://www.makemusic.com/> . Good salary and cool project for that area.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Title is stupidly funny! If you're a programmer do you really need to call your headhunter?

<comment><USER9> Maybe if you're just out of school? I know its hard to get in without experience, but once you have it gez...the market is crazy.</comment></comment>


Martin Shkreli sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/03/09/martin-shkreli-to-be-sentenced-friday-faces-more-than-decade-in-prison/ <comment><USER2> Shkreli's youtube streams on finance were always pretty interesting and if you omit is trollish behavior, he generally was very respectable and seemed to enjoy teaching people about medicine, mathematics and finance. The videos are available online and I think reflect a different personality than the one he presented in public.

<comment><USER3> I watched one of his finance videos and it was oddly entertaining and very interesting. He was clearly very smart. Sort of sad he wasted his talents.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I vaguely recall that his investors actually made money - he lied to them, but actually made them money....

<comment><USER5> His legal team said that, but of course that doesn't mean he didn't commit fraud. As I understand it, he took money from his pharmaceutical company to cover up trading losses in his fund. The fact that investors all made money doesn't change a)that this is almost certainly criminal in and of itself if you don't 100% own both the fund and the company b)pharma investors would have made more money had he not taken some of their cash and given it to investors in his fund.

Edit: And of course reporting requirements. If you're investing with other people's money, you don't get to make a huge loss just disappear and not tell people about it. There are a bunch of laws about that sort of thing.

<comment><USER4> not saying that he didn't defraud his investors - just pointing out that I was under the impression that his fraud did not economically harm his investors (which is rarely the case in these prosecutions) and puts his sentence in a different light to a certain extent...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Active Discussion => [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16554019](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16554019)</comment>


How to use MongoDB as a pure in-memory DB - <AUTHOR> http://edgystuff.tumblr.com/post/49304254688/how-to-use-mongodb-as-a-pure-in-memory-db-redis-style

<comment> old-gregg I don't like to sound negative, but it's hard to ignore the obvious. This technique is absolutely pointless because MongoDB and tmpfs actually _are doing the same thing_ , i.e. nothing. The kernel does all the work. Both of them are mmapped regions, only MongoDB maps to its own files, while tmpfs maps to the system swap.

Basically you're wasting RAM and introducing yet another moving part. What happens then is: on each "write" MongoDB touches a page in RAM which maps to a block in tmpfs file which maps back to the same RAM page which maps to a block in a swap.

Why? If you have enough RAM to hold your working set, just use MongoDB directly with async writes and you won't be blocked by disk I/O. You _will_ get blocked by the global DB lock, but that's another story.

EDIT: edited the sequence of mappings.

<comment><USER2> From the article:

> The reason is that Linux is smart and it does not duplicate the pages > between tmpfs and its cache

From you:

> MongoDB touches a page in RAM which maps to a block in tmpfs

These two statements sound contradictory to me.

<comment> old-gregg Not really: I said "maps", which means that it's the same page, there is no duplication. But the mere presence of tmpfs as yet another moving part adds overhead and memory consumption.

The OP did mention the security angle, i.e. the database is never written to a disk, so perhaps there's some convenience there.

<comment><USER3> The security angle is a bit of a canard, though. Most compromises involve compromising running applications, not OS-level filesystem exploits.

This would improve security and reduce the potential attack surface if this were used for ephemeral mongodb instances, but only in that it would prevent poor programming practices from lasting beyond a working session.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure why this technique is MongoDB specific, since you can pretty much follow all the same steps with _any_ database that only writes to disk, and create an 'in memory' version.

In should be noted that if you really want a database that exists in RAM without messing with the filesystem mounts, SQLite supports this out of the box: <http://www.sqlite.org/inmemorydb.html>

</comment><comment><USER5> I use this technique for my test DB. This is particularly nice since I end up clearing data between tests, so not having to go to a platter per write ends up noticeably speeding up my test suite.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't really see the value in this. Note that a tmpfs can still be swapped, so unless you disable swap it's certainly not a "pure in-memory DB". You're not really changing the performance uncharacteristics here, just the way the backing store is managed. It really shouldn't be any faster or slower to run in tmpfs vs. a real filesystem for a typical case. There are edge cases like what kind of VM pressure can eject a clean page, but really nothing that would change the architecture. This is really just a different way of tuning the installation.

<comment><USER7> I think this idea is kind of pointless on an architectural level anyway. If you are going to use an in-memory database you might as well use one that is tuned to that kind of use case. MongoDB organizes its data assuming everything will be flushed to disk at some point and doesn't make any of the optimizations available to an main memory database.

Not to mention the hoops you have to go through to administer this setup. Mongodb is already essentially tuned for working sets that fit in memory. If your disk is a bottleneck after turning after data durability(journaling,fsync etc) you are doing something wrong.

Redis at the very least would be far better for this use case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The claim about PCI compliance is false. The requirements for DSS refer to "data at rest", which this absolutely is. You might squeak past your internal auditor or a really busy/lazy/cheap external auditor, but it's not going to prevent you from having to accept all liability due to a data breach. It's not as if PCI DSS is trying to prevent someone from stealing your physical media.

Please never use this as an excuse to store credit card numbers or track two data in the clear.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm not the biggest mongodb fan, but if you're stuck with it for whatever reason (too invested to change code anytime soon, say), then for mostly read- only collections this doesn't seem like a bad idea, actually.

Why? Mongodb does offer secondary indices among other useful features.

That being said, I'm keeping an eye on HyperDex (<http://hyperdex.org>).

</comment><comment><USER9> I've considered doing similar experiments, but even with this hack, MongoDB is still orders of magnitude slower than Redis.

I actually don't understand why it's so slow - running it on a server with 256GB of RAM, writes are still disk-bound. Why aren't the disk writes running in a subtask? Yes, I'm running with write confirm off.

Anyway, if you need the speed of Redis, use Redis.

<comment><USER10> Have you posted this as an issue report to 10gen somewhere? Would be interesting in a link so I can see how they explain, resolve or otherwise follow up on it..

<comment><USER9> 10gen and my team are on a first-name basis at this point. Their most common response is "we've never seen that before" whenever I report any problems.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So, this solution has been around for forever - heck, even Oracle had a solution where you could use tmpfs space as extra buffer cache.

However, the performance was not great, as it had to go through the VFS layer, everything was in blocks and emulated a filesystem.

</comment><comment><USER12> Or consider using this?

<https://github.com/Softmotions/ejdb></comment>


The creation of the modern laptop - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/05/from-laptops-that-needed-leg-braces-to-laplets-engineering-mastery/ <comment><USER2> I just wish glossy screens were something in the past and that all new laptops had matte screens or at least an option for it.

You could argue that glossy screen gives better color representation but I can not personally stand the reflection I get on glossy screens.

When I sit on a matte screen, do I think about that my colors are slightly worse? No.

When I sit on a glossy screen, do I think about that my colors are slightly better? No, but I do think about the reflections all the time because sometimes I can not even see what is on my screen because of all the reflections.

I have a Thinkpad with a matte IPS screen, it appears that this will be my last laptop given the trend at the moment.

<comment><USER3> Agreed on the screens, and I'll add to that the trend of cut-down keyboards with missing/non-standard key arrangements and absolutely flat keys.

Low key-travel to actuation is fine (and actually makes for faster typing), but there needs to be a soft "damping" stop past that to cushion and rebound the fingers, otherwise it feels excessively rough and abrupt to type on.

Then again, seeing how many people just can't seem to type without looking at the keys, or barely use the keyboard at all, it's not surprising that evolution has removed the features of keyboards that don't give any advantage for them.

<comment><USER4> I'd like to add touchpads with a pair of discrete buttons.

I'm the first to admit that my hand-eye coordination on touchpads sucks, but my finger has a tendency to move when clicking on those Apple style, pivoting touchpads. More often than not, it moves the pointer away from what I'm trying to click onto something I don't want to click.

<comment><USER5> Of course it's a preference thing, but I love the ability to click wherever my fingers may be - I also have never had my fingers accidentally move when clicking. I also really like having all the space to use for gestures without the discreet buttons.

I'm really happy the rest of the world is finally catching up with Apple's trackpads. No more unresponsive synaptic driver nonsense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _Unfortunately, the industrial equipment to bore tiny holes in MacBooks on a production line in China didn 't yet exist. Ive's team of experts eventually found a US company that made machines—at $250,000 a piece—that could be adapted to do the job. Apple got the equipment provider to sign an exclusivity deal, then proceeded to buy "hundreds of them." Within a few years, millions of Apple laptops and peripherals had a growing green light._

$25 million just so the green light can shine "through" the aluminum.

</comment><comment><USER7> No mention of the Kaypro: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaypro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaypro)

Random stories: I think I have an old T3100 (later version of the Toshiba in the picture, but which looks about the same). Someone gifted it to me circa 1999 - it came with some obsolete DOS TCP/IP stack which operated over a serial cable PPP link and I submitted to the _nmap_ database just for kicks... virtually any invocation of _nmap_ (even TCP half-open scans) would crash the thing. I'm sure I had an older, huge, really heavy box-type portable as well. It wasn't an Osborne, and as far as I can tell from online pictures and foggy memory it wasn't a Kaypro. I didn't see it featured in this article, either. Not sure if it's still around, but the thing worked on 5 1/4 or 8 inch disks and had a horrible monochrome display. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_T3100](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_T3100)

<comment><USER8> Well to be fair, and in terms of notability for the purposes of the article, the Osborne 1 was the original "commercially successful portable microcomputer" [0] you could run CP/M on with disks and a proper monitor. The Kaypro etc just copied and improved upon the idea, as did Compaq, IBM etc.

[0]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Its interesting that if you want an actual lap mounted laptop (not a transportable) you want one of these from 1983:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100)

I had one of these about 30 yrs ago, it was pretty awesome.

<comment><USER10> I would _love_ a modern version of these - a cheap, long lasting, "fast enough", super portable and durable machine to run a lightweight linux distro on. The closest thing like it I can think of is the Samsung Series 3, but I've heard it's a bit fragile.</comment></comment>


The Unvarnished Truth About E-Bikes (Risks and Dangers) - <AUTHOR> http://ebiketroop.com/the-unvarnished-truth-about-e-bikes/ <comment><USER2> The thing that stops me riding an e-bike is that my road bike is faster, and keeps me fitter. Part of this is that the maximum power output of an e-bike is legally limited, but I don't know how these limitations vary by country.

(Also, with my pedant hat on, the phrase "high rate of speed" used in the article to mean "high speed" really annoys me -- a high "rate of speed" would be a high acceleration!)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Have you seen a catastrophic failure of an e-bike e.g. lithium battery fire? Would love to hear about it in the comments. -Dan</comment>


IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C - <AUTHOR> http://ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ <comment><AUTHOR> I would love to hear if there are any efforts in the computer industry to help deal with this great challenge. Seems we, as professionals, are going to be essential here.</comment>


Google's "Yeti" is reportedly a gaming hardware, streaming service beast - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/report-google-considering-a-game-streaming-service-console-hardware/ <comment><USER2> This reminds of Shadow ([https://shadow.tech/](https://shadow.tech/)), a service that was launched in France (cocorico) last year and is really excellent. The network induced latency is not an issue. It's a little bit strange when you move your mouse for example but when playing you don't feel the latency.

<comment><USER3> That small-form-factor Xeon box of theirs[1] would make a very nice little PC...

1: [https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/blade-shadow-cloud- streaming-p...](https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/blade-shadow-cloud-streaming-pc- games-console-29-01-2018/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does nobody seriously remember onlive who did this like 7 years ago. There are also companies doing this today like liquid sky.

</comment><comment><USER5> If it launches I am curious to see how performance is, I have strong doubts that there is a large enough population in North America with enough bandwidth and low enough latency to have a good experience.

<comment><USER6> The most recent chromecasts are more like mini computers. It wouldn't surprise me if this product came released with a beefed up version of chromecast.

If you can cache data locally, you can drastically reduce the bandwidth requirements. Of course it's still a huge challenge due to latency, but there are many tricks google can use to solve that issue. There may also be clever ways to offload some processing to local/nearby android devices.

This type of gaming service, IMO would require a fundamental rearchitecting of how games are developed. I would be more curious to see if Google can run _any_ game on this service, or if they'll build out their own gaming platform with an SDK that optimizes for the architectural differences between cloud and local gaming.

<comment><USER7> I can play my home PS4 games from anywhere, with pretty good quality. It feels pretty much local.

Disclaimer: I don't play much, but my kid sometimes do on the go. Perfectly happy with it.

So why would Google need to be any worse?

There's less latency on the network than in many TVs because of their crazy image high latency processing pipelines.

<comment><USER6> What sort of games are you playing? Latency sensitive genres like FPS, or more RTS / turn-based games?

Also, I find it hard to believe that the refresh latency of a TV is greater than Internet network latency. Do you have a source for that? And even if it's true, wouldn't that only exacerbate the problem if you're playing a cloud game streamed to your TV?

<comment><USER7> > What sort of games are you playing? Latency sensitive genres like FPS, or > more RTS / turn-based games?

Not me really, but my kid likes to play latency sensitive stuff. Platformers and some FPS style.

> Also, I find it hard to believe that the refresh latency of a TV is greater > than Internet network latency.

2017 TV models have input latency between 12 and 69 ms in "game mode" according to [0].

The situation seems to have improved considerably, some older models I've tested were up to 100-140 ms.

When I tried to ping google.com, I generally got about 16 ms avg.

      $ ping google.com
      PING google.com (188.8.131.52): 56 data bytes
      64 bytes from 18.104.22.168: icmp_seq=0 ttl=54 time=16.403 ms
      64 bytes from 220.127.116.11: icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=15.492 ms
      64 bytes from 22.214.171.124: icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=16.880 ms
      64 bytes from 220.127.116.11: icmp_seq=3 ttl=54 time=16.249 ms

> And even if it's true, wouldn't that only exacerbate the problem if you're > playing a cloud game streamed to your TV?

Well, in this particular case I was using a laptop instead when playing remotely. So it kind of offsets it.

[0] [https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/input- lag](https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/input-lag)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is only interesting if you can pass around the "gamepad" to someone else who is also watching the stream.

Otherwise what's the point? Just buy a console or PC.</comment>


Hayek's Road to Serfdom: Despotism Then and Now - <AUTHOR> http://mises.org/daily/4524

<comment><USER2> It's worth hitting the link just for the three Paul Samuelson quotes at the beginning. And this from a man awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics.

</comment><comment><USER3> Rothbard's review of Samuelson's Economics: <http://mises.org/daily/4524></comment>


Robot able to sample blood better than human - <AUTHOR> https://www.theclickreader.com/robot-can-sample-blood-from-patients/ <comment><USER2> I program quite a lot of robots and would think I can make them stop if they should do so. But damn would I design at least five different methods for a mechanical stop before I let a robot poke me. So that to answer the question in the article.

Some peoples veins are pretty hard to hit, so infrared and ultrasound are probably good helpers. Maybe some people would prefer to get poked instead of poking themselves, so it could maybe modified to get automatic diabetes treatment or use it for other indications.</comment>