Dayta is free, forever (and now for web too) - <AUTHOR> http://sahillavingia.com/blog/dayta-is-free-forever.-and-now-for-web-too/

<comment><USER2> Great news. Any plans on open sourcing or providing hooks/API (would love to be able to create automatic loggers to avoid manual data entry).

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, definitely.

<comment><USER3> Web hooks would be nice. Open-sourcing would be GREAT! Especially for those of us who prefer to host their own da(y)ta.

Just downloaded it, and it is something I've been wanting to build for a long time, but just didn't get around to it. I would gladly collaborate, would you decide to open-source it.

Congratulations on a great (and beautiful!) app.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What is this and why do I care?

The blog post is vague and the link just takes me to the "download itunes" page.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can read more about Dayta here: <http://daytaapp.com/> and email me privately if you have any questions — firstname.lastname@example.com.

Sorry if the blog post wasn't clear enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Got your app when you were handing out redeem codes. Good stuff. Maybe open sourcing would be a logical next step? :)

<comment><USER6> +1 for open sourcing. I'd love to help! This functionality is something I've been wanting to create for a long time, and was starting to get serious about it until I saw your app today. (My approach would have been far less user friendly though, using javascript / js data structures to store data, keep the whole app in a folder stored in Dropbox.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've been looking an app like this for android. Any suggestions? I'm not sure I'd want to store all my personal data using the web app.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd love to have Dayta for Android, but I'm no good at Android yet. Anyone want to help?

<comment><USER8> Would Mono [Touch/Droid] be of any help in this scenario?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Not to be confused with the _very similar_ <http://daytum.com/> made by the guy who does the famous "Personal Annual Reports": <http://feltron.com>

</comment><comment><USER10> Does this mean you're not going to fix the newest update, which broke the iPhone app?

<comment><USER11> +1: bought it just before the free update, but haven't Been able to use it, crashes when you breathe on it wrong.

<comment><USER3> I got it yesterday, just after the free-ization announcement, had not heard of it before. I seem to have been able to pinpoint my (frequent) crashes: It crashes whenever I try to open the visualization for a data log that has a goal.

Is that what is happening to you as well?

<comment><USER11> Entries on some items seem to explode as well. Keep meaning to load the crash log and send it off, but haven't had time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> this isn't related to datum at all, is it?

also, the web version doesn't seem to support entering data?</comment>


The Last Days of BMX Superstar Dave Mirra - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/bmx-dave-mirra-last-days.html <comment><USER2> Sorry to use this tragedy for an opportunistic but related comment.

If you have had past struggles with suicidal thoughts, or depression combined with addiction, then you should not own a gun. You might feel fine today, but relapses happen.

Other ways to attempt suicide are less fatal and more complex, giving you more chances to back out.

Harvard on the, powerful link between gun ownership and suicide: [http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/guns-and- suicide/](http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/guns-and-suicide/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm not sure if my thoughts on this subject can ever be articulated correctly, but I'm going to try anyway at the risk of being misunderstood.

Due to my lifelong struggles with addiction, I have often contemplated suicide. Actually, one of my closest ex-girlfriends off-handily remarked 20 years ago that she thought suicide might be the only answer for me, after doing everything in her power to help me over a 3 year period.

You see, she intimately saw the pain that my self-inflicted junkie lifestyle dispensed to others and, on a much deeper level, myself.

Today, I continue to live in the wreckage that I so carelessly created, with a brother whom will not talk to me no matter what I do and old friends whom don't return calls, and I'll be honest...life is pretty bleak when family and friends no longer exist.

Why is it that some, often ancient, cultures not-only-tolerate but almost- glorify suicide _when an individual has lost their self respect or has been publicly shamed_?

Maybe suicide isn't the worst possible option there is.

<comment> the-dude Hi Cubano,

I remember earlier very open minded posts from you. Thank you.

I can relate a bit about the loss of family and friends and feeling desolated. While it is true you might not be able to replace your family, it is possible to make new friends.

It worked for me and I have never been happier, even without the family.

I will put my email in my profile. Keep going.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> >On the brink of a trick, McCoy explains, "there's a sense of calm and shit sort of quiets down and it's time to focus."

I used to do bike trails[1] and also rode every stunt on every double black trail on the North Shore in Vancouver. [2]

I know the feeling being described here, and I'd venture it is the _real_ reason people engage in these sports.

There is a calm when pulling off a really risky stunt, like gapping handrails or riding along a skinny elevated log, and it can be addictive.

>"I'm more comfortable on my bike, jumping, than I am walking down the street," says Ryan Nyquist, 37, who still competes.

After doing trials for years, I would often say to people that I'd feel more comfortable riding my bike off a big dropoff rather than jumping down to land on my feet.

I can personally attest, that that feeling is hard to give up. I had to stop riding trials at around 37 because of damage to my spine, which thankfully remained limited.

Many of my cycling friends report missing it as well.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfYm- rnfFI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfYm-rnfFI) [2] [http://www.pinkbike.com/video/222711/](http://www.pinkbike.com/video/222711/)

(I am not either of the riders depicted the linked videos, just included them for context. Also I never came close to riding at Ryan Leech's level, who is also a very nice guy.)

<comment><USER5> I used to skate a lot when I was younger too. That feeling never really goes away once it's been trained and recognized. It just kind of fixates on another thing.

Not being able to get into that flow is a dangerous thing because you'll always be searching.

<comment><USER4> > That feeling never really goes away once it's been trained and recognized.

I found it again in surfing. And luckily, the wipeouts are not so hard on the body in surfing, well most of the time. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As an avid BMX rider during the mid 90's to early 2000's, Mirra was one of only a few greats, along with Lavin and Nyquist, I looked up to. This saddens me greatly, but also helps me understand a lot of my own inner turmoil growing out of my own x-games centric life. From aggressive inline skating everyday in Texas, hitting jumps in the woods of Nor-Cal on my BMX, to bombing the streets of San Francisco on a skateboard, I now better understand the feeling of thrill separation as an older, risk-averse, adult; thanks to some of the insights in this article.

</comment><comment><USER7> _Mirra had recently been feeling lonely and lost, his friends tell me, but it never occurred to them, or most of them, to worry for his life._

Someone very close to me committed suicide and this is exactly how I felt. I resolved to never look past this symptom again and try and be more active in how I respond in the future, if I ever see it again.

At the time, I remember feeling helpless and unsure how to help. If I could do it over again, I'd just be there and offer to listen more than I did. I'm not saying this would have made the difference, but it's what I would do in the future.

<comment><USER8> > I'd just be there and offer to listen more than I did.

Sorry to hear abut your experience - that's rough.

Just listening is important.

> At the time, I remember feeling helpless and unsure how to help. If I could > do it over again,

People might be interested in ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) courses.

You don't have to be someone working with people with mental illness or people who have declared suicidal intent.

[https://www.livingworks.net/programs/asist/](https://www.livingworks.net/programs/asist/)

[https://www.mind.org.uk/media/112813/Applied-Suicide- Interve...](https://www.mind.org.uk/media/112813/Applied-Suicide-Intervention- Skills-Training-_ASIST_-Steve-Jones.pdf)

<comment><USER7> Those are interesting resources, thanks. Not in the US, as far as I can tell. If anyone knows of something similar in the Bay Area, I'd consider it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> With these kinds of sports, I have to wonder how much cumulative brain damage (CTE) contributed to his death.

<comment><USER10> "These kinds of sports"?

What physically competitive sport has no threat of falling and hitting your head?

How much "brain damage" is caused by the psychological and physiological effects of a sedentary life-style?

<comment><USER11> Swimming.

<comment><USER12> You've never hit your head on the end of the lane while doing laps? Especially backstroke...

<comment><USER13> I gave myself a nasty concussion during a mistimed flip turn when my goggles had filled with water.

I suspect I'm in the extreme minority though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> That was a really great read into some of Dave's life at the end. Growing up and riding, him and the other vert guys were always the nice guys and role model types of bmx. They were in stark contrast to what we all watched and did riding street. Dave introduced a lot of people into this sport and advanced it in many ways beyond new tricks.

</comment><comment><USER15> i wonder if the alcohol played an issue in his decision to kill himself. I know that people with some mental instability can be rapidly triggered by its effects. I've seen it and felt it.

</comment><comment><USER8> One american dies every 12 minutes to suicide. Suicide rates have increased over the past ten years.

Stigma kills.

Some projects are aimed at tackling suicide in men. The UK has CALM Zone (The Campaign Against Living Miserably) and Australia has Soften the Fuck Up.

[https://thecalmzone.net/](https://thecalmzone.net/)

[http://softenthefckup.spurprojects.org/](http://softenthefckup.spurprojects.org/)

Perhaps people in the US know of good quality initiatives? (Certainly the "Zero suicide" stuff from Detroit has been useful for me when I'm trying to change people's attitudes that death by suicide is somehow inevitable for some populations.)

> Another says it didn't happen exactly that way. But whatever went down, by > the time the friend arrived at the truck, parked just outside, Mirra was > already dead, a suicide, the police established, with no room to hope it was > a mistake. When Mayor Thomas arrived at the scene, the front door of the > truck was open and family members were beginning to arrive. Mirra's friends > and the cops all stood around, "staring at the rain, like, What in the world > has happened?"

> In the tiny, tight-knit clan of 40-something BMXers, many could not believe > that Mirra intended to commit suicide.

Some people wonder why the US's suicide rate is lower than the UK. This paragraph snippet hints at some of the difficulties in counting deaths by suicide.

If I shoot my self is that a death by suicide? Or an accidental death? If I overdose on opiate pain meds was that a deliberate choice, or an accident caused by confusion?

You can't leave it to coroners - there's too much variability (some didn't want to rule a death as suicide because they thought the family would find that too distressing) and because death by suicide has to be proved beyond all reasonable doubt while most other deaths can use the balance of probability.

The UK uses this definition:

[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/405411/Statistical_update_on_suicide_acc.pdf)

> Statistics on causes of death produced by the Office for National Statistics > (ONS) are based on the information provided at death registration. These > statistics are provided to the Department of Health on an annual basis. Open > verdicts are generally coded by the ONS as deaths from injury or poisoning > of undetermined intent. When national statistics are presented, suicides and > deaths of undetermined intent are combined. This reflects research studies > which show that the majority of open verdicts are most likely suicides, > although they do not meet the high legal standard of evidence required for a > coroner to record a suicide verdict. Therefore official suicide rates are > measured by a definition that is broader than the definition of suicide used > by coroners.

> In the remainder of this update we use the term suicide to refer to deaths > from both intentional self-harm and injury or poisoning of undetermined > intent.

The US uses a different definition:

[http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/definitions.ht...](http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/definitions.html)

> Suicide

>Death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with an intent to die as a result of the behavior.

If the US used the UK definition suicide would be the leading cause of death for men aged between about 11 to about 49. Suicide is still common in people over 50, but other causes of death (heart disease, cancer) start taking over.

Even with their tighter definition suicide is a leading cause of death in the US - ranked second for ages 10 to 34. (But see all that unintentional injury ahead of it) [http://www.cdc.gov/injury/images/lc- charts/leading_causes_of...](http://www.cdc.gov/injury/images/lc- charts/leading_causes_of_death_age_group_2014_1050w760h.gif)

</comment><comment><USER16> How incredibly sad.</comment>


Book Review: The Precipice - <AUTHOR> https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/04/01/book-review-the-precipice/ <comment><USER2> I enjoyed this review and its discussion of existential risks facing humanity. I've always found the statement "a single death is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic" to be absurd. It is often misused in a somewhat prescriptive manner, as if we should resign to our immutably corrupt psychology and care more about the death of a single person with an identifiable story rather than the unrelatable "cacophony" of thousands or millions of people. It is closely related to our obsession with stories, and again, our prescriptive admonition to make a story out of everything. The problem is that stories lead you away from first principle thinking and towards thinking by analogy with binary, unnuanced logic.

It is time for first principles thinking to spread through the general public. In some ways, The Enlightenment never reached the public. The more exclusive first principles thinking is, the more power and wealth goes to the privileged few who exercise it in relatively high proportions. Ironically, they can use their elite status to manipulate their findings, knowing that they'll be trusted anyway. This doesn't have to be intentional. Renowned epidemiologists shut down an early whistle blower on the potential magnitude of Coronavirus back in January, in the name of "reason," when they were in fact just paternalistically posturing. The "hyperventilating, panicking" whistleblower was right. They wouldn't have been dismissed if journalists and the public provided a platform for experts on both sides of an issue, and had the analytical, evidence-based mindset to assess the merits of their arguments.

Side note: Can you change the title to "Book Review: "The Precipice" in Existential Risks" or something a bit more descriptive? I think that would give this excellent write-up more exposure.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you expect or hate to see in a job offer decription? - <AUTHOR> Here is my list: Pros
  - which kind of technologies are used
  - involvement in open source community
  - description of a typical day of work<p>Cons
  - a low level description of the role
  - annual salary missing <comment><USER2> Pro: \- What tech you actually work with. Don't list equivalents. If the people knew the area they would already know if they have equivalent skills. \- Salary range and years of experience. \- What kind of actual real world user problems are you solving?

Cons: \- Anything about culture (it's always bullshit), team player, or being emotionally mature \- Useless fluff about "loving to work in a fast company", or how you were #1 2012's disposable ezine of the week's company to work for. \- Not saying what the job is, but just saying what tech you will be using, as if that is enough. \- You can't tell the description is any different between Intern/Junior/Senior/Architect level roles other than "years of experience"

<comment><USER3> Culture is always bullshit until you get rejected with a line such as "unfortunately we don't see a good culture fit here"

<comment><USER4> Note that it is still bullshit at that point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Pros: What the actual job is, the industry sector and the pay

Cons: Guru, Ninja, Rock Star and Passion. I am 55 with a shit pension and your 'Uber for salads' is not something I am passionate about. Never will be.

Complete put off: Other than the cons is reading the ad and not knowing what the job or company is about. If you can't spell it out your are either incompetent or deceitful.

<comment><USER3> Passion reads to me like "unpaid overtime"

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Pro: link to company career page with overview of hiring/onboarding process.

Exaggerated, but not by much is:

Con: Blanket requirements of conflicting language paradigms. Like, expert in (enter no less than 6 JS frameworks and build tools), also python, ruby, C#, and some Erlang is a plus. Oh, you also know AWS, and every RDMS and noSQL technology, MS SQL Server experience a plus.

<comment><USER7> Not exaggerated at all. I've seen job ads including those and something irrelevant like photoshop on top, i.e you might be needed to fill in for our designers from time to time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Rock star. My boss writes job descriptions like this and it annoys the shit out of me.

<comment><USER9> or ninja.. haha

<comment><USER10> Or "Unicorn"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Pro:

software stack

policy about open source software

Salary Range (allowed to be wide)

Con:

If you are trying to hide the company name, I dislike this but understand you are likely a recruiter working on commission.

In order to attract people who are passionate, you need to include the work domain. If you don't post the work domain, then you are wasting my time.

<comment><USER12> > If you are trying to hide the company name, I dislike this but understand > you are likely a recruiter working on commission.

Why is it bad?

<comment><USER13> Because you don't know what company you're applying for?

<comment><USER14> Yeah. I once had a recruiter tell me to show up at a company that made sewing machines. Mechanical sewing machines. I don't think there was a single computer on the premises. The recruiter and I had a good laugh, then I fired him.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Con: a Bachelor, Masters or PhD in {a specific field}.

Consider rephrasing to "PhD with publication record, or MSc with 3 years of work experience, or BSc with 7 years of work experience, 3 of which at {a specific advanced level}".

I understand if the job requires a certain minimum education background, but how can you possibly consider holders of all three of the above degrees, without stating the specifications for each degree? Can I still apply if I'm just about to get a BSc, or would you require some amount of work experience? Am I competing directly with PhDs? Confuses the hell out of me. I once applied for a SWE I position that had that kind of degree requirement during my senior year. Passed two phone screens, even handled questions about computer vision and deep learning well during the on site round (answered beginner and intermediate level questions well, was honest to admit my limits when asked about advanced topics). Two days after the interview I went back to check the job posting, and it was somehow changed to say Principle Computer Vision Scientist then I was like "oh there goes my chance". Needless to say I wasn't selected. It makes sense for them to select candidates with advanced degrees if they are really looking for a Prin. Scientist. But please, spell out the requirements so that candidates make informed decisions about whether to apply. It saves both parties valuable time.

</comment><comment><USER16> What really turns me off is acronyms about internal systems nobody outside of the company offering the job knows about.

Additionally job descriptions full of filler text trying to make the job seem more important than it is. The usual blabber about team players and competitive compensation, etc.

</comment><comment><USER17> "Remote" positions where you can work from home every other Friday. If a position is under a butts-in-seats management style, the word "remote" should not be found anywhere in the description. Some remote positions have geographical limitations, which can be understandable from a tax perspective, but I also don't like to see "remote" positions open only to people in a specific timezone.

<comment><USER18> >"I also don't like to see "remote" positions open only to people in a specific timezone"

Isn't this also to do with working hours? If you want synchronous communication with remote employees you'd probably want them to work similar hours to local employees (unless you were a multinational company).

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If a position's salary varies from what is typically expected in the industry for an area (roughly different than the average salary found on Glassdoor, just as an example), then the salary or a warning should be listed in the description. Nothing pisses me off more than going through the motions only to get a lowball offer by a company hoping to rip me off. It is super demoralizing, even when I have other offers that are good.

</comment><comment><USER19> A "fast paced" and "dynamic" environment is a huge red flag for me.

</comment><comment><USER10> Having a requirement for knowing utility libraries. i.e. jQuery, underscore.js, MooTools, etc.

I understand requiring frameworks (i.e. Anguar, React), but jQuery? Come on.

<comment><USER18> What's wrong with listing jQuery? If it heavily used somewhere it's natural to want someone who's used it before.

It's something you can learn on the job, but requirements are there because employers ideally want someone who can hit the ground running.

<comment><USER20> > but requirements are there because employers ideally want someone who can > hit the ground running

This is the biggest con for me. Being able to hit the ground running depends much more on the employer than the future employee. Without knowing details about the state of the project (clean or spaghetti code) you can't possibly say if you can hit the ground running or not.

They may as well say "we only hire liars".

<comment><USER18> >"They may as well say "we only hire liars"."

That bares no resemblance to reality.

Here's some free advice, if you don't know jQuery, and you keep seeing it in job adverts, just learn to use it. Blaming recruiters for looking for it will get you nowhere.

<comment><USER20> I was referring to the "hit the ground running" phrase, not jquery. Just because I know jquery and they use jquery does not mean someone can hit the ground running, there could be a lot of spaghetti code to untangle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Pro: Concise and to the point, no waffle or any of that new age "growth hacking, rockstar" nonsense - don't try and dress a job up as something it's not. Tell me roughly what salary range you're offering in, and tell me what I'll be working with. I want to know about your product/s, and how the job I'm looking at relates to it.

Cons: Babbling on and on about your 'culture' or how much coffee you all consume. Being vague, and not actually describing the job. Not listing other requirements like excessive travel, on call, the fact that your office is 200km away from civilisation etc.

Not relevant to me now, but in general - don't call something a 'Junior' position and then ask for 5+ years of experience, and then don't follow that up by saying "Oh but it's the most Junior role in our company". That's bullshit, and you know it, you're just looking for an excuse to pay someone less.

</comment><comment><USER22> Pros:

$ listed up front

Actual details on health insurance.

Cons:

Anything about dogs, beer, snacks, ping pong, or company outings on weekends or after hours.

The word "startup".

</comment><comment><USER23> Pro: a description of not only what work you expect me to do, but also who I'll be doing it with. Team size, experience level of other team members, my role in the team.

Con: Anything about fun company events and free drinks. I'm looking for work, not booking a cruise.

<comment><USER24> This. Who my manager is and who I'm potentially going to be working with on a daily basis is far more important to me than which version of Angular they use or that they have a ping pong table. But, I've never seen that in a job ad. I usually have to ask for names and even then it's a 50/50 shot whether they'll tell me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I have applied to a bunch of positions and I can pretty much tell what posts are cookie cutter posts: a developer position opens up and the listed languages to be proficient are all the popular ones with vaugaries at best on the exact nature of the role.

</comment><comment><USER26> Pros: Whatever tools, back-end lang/framework I like

Cons: Whatever tools, front-end lang/framework I hate. (Yes, React and friends)

Not a joke, this is my real struggle. I love backend, and I love working with ui designers, elegant elements, so love frontend.

</comment><comment><USER27> "Senior Software Engineer"... "2 years experience."

</comment><comment><USER28> "The applicant shall..." God, I hate that HR crap.

</comment><comment><USER29> [PRO] \- Detailed Job Description, including: Company Info + Role Responsibilities + Salary + Benefits

[CON] \- Entry level salary requiring 3+ years of experience

</comment><comment><USER30> Pro: Linux, scientific computing, not-for-profit organization, high-tech (if it really is), contributing to open-source

Cons: OSX, Windows, advertisement industry, bank, legacy systems, COBOL, calling the company "high-tech" when they mostly do what everybody else does, e.g. writing CRUD systems or do elementary data plumbing.

</comment><comment><USER31> Sometimes in Dutch vacancies for freelance roles, I see the following remark with regards to hourly rate:

      "scherp aanbieden" (=> "offer sharply"?)

I see this reasonably often in mailings of recruitment agencies. I hate this and I wouldn't be very tempted to apply.

<comment><USER32> What does it mean?

<comment><USER33> "Don't ask for too much money"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I hate almost everything relating to culture. I have bills to pay and I don't particularly care that you have some flavor of Street Fighter II. Tell me what stack you use, the pay, and if you'll pay for my gym membership.

</comment><comment><USER7> Cons: jack of all trades positions. The ad generally lists technologies/skills the company uses, might use in the distant future or the CTO has heard about in the last conference he attended.

</comment><comment><USER35> Pros:

\- Stack

\- Salary range

\- Remote possibility

Cons:

\- Any kind of synonym for rockstar, ninja, hero

\- We are hiring (but actually not hiring, just wasting others time)

</comment><comment><USER36> Cons: Below market salary AND tiny stock options. If you're offering a Sr. Engineer a $50k-$70k salary, then offering 0.1%-0.25% of the equity is unacceptable.

</comment><comment><USER37> I despise seeing "salary - DOE" like nothing else.

Also hate it when ads describe the company ad nauseum and not much about what the actual work or tools are.

</comment><comment><USER38> When they try to hide that they want you to work for free with something like "get in at the ground level of a rising star company"

</comment><comment><USER39> Spelling mistakes.

</comment><comment><USER40> Everybody are taking about job ads. A job offer is something else entirely (and a legal document!)

</comment><comment><USER41> Cons: Unrealistic and nonsense requirements e.g.

fullstack development or test eng.: MSc required

</comment><comment><USER42> Con: "Preference will be given to EE Candidates"

<comment><USER7> What's EE?

<comment><USER42> "Employment Equity" \- [http://www.labourguide.co.za/employment- equity](http://www.labourguide.co.za/employment-equity)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Pro: Salary, salary, salary

</comment><comment><USER11> consensus: the word 'startup' is a swear word</comment>


Nokia's future is looking positive today - <AUTHOR> http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2011/04/nokias-future-is-looking-positive-today.html

<comment><USER2> Aye!</comment>


Apple keeps track of everyone you try to chat with on iMessage - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/28/13090930/imessage-records-contact-info-lookup-logs <comment><USER2> Why keep a log for 30 day? That seems excessively long.</comment>


The Importance of Simplicity - <AUTHOR> http://abcdefu.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/simple/

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm the author of the blogpost and I feel I didn't write enough about how I differentiate simple and complex. Here's a good but very software-specific example that might illustrate that. Imagine you told a programmer (or team of) to create a Digg clone. How many of them would build the entire system with all the features (submissions, comments, friends, profiles, media types, categories, etc.)? I'll wager that most people will attempt to do so. As a result, they'll probably fail. That entire Digg "system" is what I would call complex. On the other hand, when given such an assignment, you should try to write something simpler which would at once also be useful. In this case, write something like Hacker News (but take out comment threading, karma and a few other things)! Once you're done building that, you can slowly add profiles, categories or whatever would benefit the community the most. That's the meaning of "start simple, use a lot and evolve"

Another thing, it's important to remember that what was complex yesterday is simple today as we move to a higher-level of abstraction.

<comment><USER2> In the academic/applied research setting, I find sensor networks are the canonical example of this phenomenon. People jump off into "secure energy- efficient self-organizing" sensor network architectures, that they lose the ability to even articulate the problem they are ultimately trying to solve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very good article, and very true for start-ups.

I am always skeptical when I hear someone describe their start-up and it sounds really complicated (especially if they haven't launched yet).

I suppose it is possible to deliver complex systems that work for users, but it's extremely hard. And it's already very hard to deliver even simple systems that work for users, so if you like to change your 1% odds into 0.01% odds, either you have money/time to burn, or you're making a bad gamble.

<comment><USER2> Echo that sentiment. When I hear an overly complex solution or idea, I think that person either doesn't know what they are talking about or that the solution is for a hyper-niche situation. Usually, asking a few "Heilmeier- type" questions will lead to classifying the person in the former group.

And I admit to being a member of the former group myself, too often, I'm afraid.

<comment><USER3> What are "Hellmeier-type questions"?

<comment><USER2> George Heilmeier was a former DARPA director, for whom the Heilmeier Cathechism is used by DARPA PMs to judge projects. These simple questions are excellent for understanding other projects, and I use them to keep my own projects on track. I also use them as the basic outline for presentations.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Heilmeier#Heilmeier.27s_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Heilmeier#Heilmeier.27s_Catechism)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system._ this isn't always true.

Basically you can do two kinds of products: evolutionary and revolutionary. Evolutionary products can start as something simple and evolve into something more complex. They are the ones we usually talk about because they are easy to do, and make up the bulk of all digital products.

Revolutionary products are the ones that can't evolve from something simpler but have to be complex from the start to serve a meaningful purpose. The Apollo space program is a good example: It probably wouldn't have worked very well if they "launched early and launched often" and fixed problems as they went. It would also require too many suicidal astronauts ;-) It had to be perfect the first time. It's basically the same issue as irreducible complexity in evolution: All the intermediate steps have to be useful, or you won't ever get to the finished product. Incidentally this is also why you don't see moving parts such as wheels in biological organisms: The steps leading up to it are no good. Aeroplane manufacturing is the same thing: Either it works or it doesn't.

The areticles advice pertains only to evolutionary products and startups.

<comment><USER5> _The Apollo space program is a good example: It probably wouldn't have worked very well if they "launched early and launched often"_

Actually, they did iterate and take small steps. They started with unmanned suborbital launches, went to manned suborbital launch, then manned orbital launch. And that was just the Mercury program. Next, they went to launching 2-man capsules, spacewalks, and on-orbit rendevous in the Gemini program.

 _It would also require too many suicidal astronauts ;-)_

You have an implicit assumption that rapid iteration means poor quality control. It doesn't have to. I've met people with _formal methods_ tools who say they are capable of rapid iteration. (And yes, these are marketed to the aerospace industry.) Also, if you manage a project from the start with automated testing, low defect rate is very doable.

 _Aeroplane manufacturing is the same thing: Either it works or it doesn't._

Uh, no. There are _lots_ of examples of planes that _kinda_ worked. This is why test pilots have to be so good. You have to be very good to get a kinda- working plane back on the ground in one piece, or sometimes even to just manage to eject from it.

Your point may be good, but it suffers from drawing from examples which you don't have very good knowledge about.

<comment><USER4> Sorry about the examples :-)

And reading yours and the other comments in the thread, I'm not so sure I'm right. Oh well, you learn every day...</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best Bank for Startups? - <AUTHOR> We've been using Silicon Valley Bank for the last 4 years and while their services generally "work", they aren't the best. We've been working with SVB to setup a line-of-credit just to have in case we need it, and we recently talked with them about their Innovators card. Unfortunately their sales people cannot show you any kind of demo so that you can see how it works or what the UI looks like even. This is a tough ask as the only way to see it is to sign up for an account and start issuing cards. We also talked with Brex about their solution and even looked into Expensify's card.
Brex was able to show us a demo and as part of the trial we attached our SVB account which causes a $0.01 deposit and withdrawal. After doing this we received an email from our SVB sales rep acknowledging the transaction: "It looks like I see a penny test from Brex on June 3rd so it may be that you just set something up." I'm not sure what's buried in the SVB ToS, but SVB sales reps looking into our transactions didn't sit quite right with me. Then we told them that we decided to go with Brex because we liked the solution and not being able to get a demo from SVB made it basically a non-starter. A couple days later we get a call from a Managing Director and he tells us that the line-of-credit will need to be venture debt and backed by equity or warrants, which we're not interested in since this is only a rainy-day LoC and we've got plenty of money in our SVB account. Fast forward to today and they tell us that they won't give us the LoC anymore unless we also agree to use their Innovator card.
Basically I'm looking for other banks that are great to work with and understand how startups work and the needs they have. I've looked at Mercury, and we have an account there, but I was hesitant to move too much away from SVB because it "just worked", but obviously now I'm reconsidering. Hopefully HackerNews has some good advice and recommendations. <comment><USER2> (I am the CEO of Mercury.com.)

Lots of people switch over from SVB to us. Happy to answer any questions you have.

We go out of our way to be transparent in pricing, have great customers service and "just work". We dont currently do LoCs though.

Also feel free to email me (my username AT mercury.com)

<comment><USER3> +1 for Mercury. Super simple signup, and great UI. Love that there's a mobile app! Real nice to have virtual cards.

Only nitpick is when my co-founders linked their bank accounts to Mercury to transfer money, Mercury displayed their personal account balances (after unlinking their accounts, their personal balances no longer showed up). I had to wire transfer since Plaid didn't work for my bank.

<comment><USER2> Displaying personal balance - Thats come up before, will try to get a fix prioritized for that.

<comment><USER4> > Displaying personal balance - Thats come up before, will try to get a fix > prioritized for that.

Leaking information about a personal account when it has only been used authorized for the purposes of transfer seems to be a P0 bug to me, from a disinterested third-party point of view. If I authorize a transfer of $10k to my startup and for some reason my co-founder is able to see that my personal account balance at Bank of America is $400k, that sounds like...a massive leak of information that I didn't authorize.

Or do I have a mistaken view of what the problem is?

<comment><USER2> 99% of the time Plaid functionality is used to transfer money from your previous business bank account to Mercury. In that scenario it's useful to have balance information.

Most people transfer money from personal account via another means (checks, wire etc). Though agreed that it's bad when a personal account is used and the balance is leaked to cofounders.

<comment><USER4> Ah I see, I had the typical use case wrong. Thanks for your response!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> JP Morgan Chase. They aren't sexy. They don't have a great API. They don't have a good UI. They're slow as shit to process your paperwork. Our rep calls us every time even though I have asked him to email instead. They suck in almost every single way you can imagine. But, they also tend to function like a real bank, and outside the last few months, have treated us pretty well.

<comment><USER6> I've had this same experience with Chase on my business accounts. They're boring but attentive on the customer service side.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Mercury - [https://mercurybank.com](https://mercurybank.com) \- They also have the best API available for a bank.

</comment><comment><USER8> I assume you know this, but just to mention it:

For issuing cards, you can use Stripe nowadays. If you're doing this as part of your business (e.g. like Expensify is doing), its available to all US based businesses: [https://stripe.com/issuing](https://stripe.com/issuing)

The more convenient Stripe Corporate Card (which sounds like that may be your use case?) is still invite only: [https://stripe.com/docs/corporate- card](https://stripe.com/docs/corporate-card)

(I myself am queued up for an invite on the Corporate Card, and using Chase Credit Cards in the meantime, which are okay, but not great)

<comment><AUTHOR> We are also in the invite queue for the Stripe Corporate Card, but decided to make a switch as we didn't know how long the wait would be. Brex is working on features for expense reporting and authorization is what were were told. While I don't think it's on par with Expensify, maybe one day in the future it will be which will mean one less service for us to manage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> +1 for Mercury. We (FeaturePeek) started on SVB and it was a terrible experience. Mercury has been great

</comment><comment><USER10> Azlo [https://www.azlo.com/](https://www.azlo.com/)

<comment><USER11> Azlo has been sensational. CS picks up on just a couple rings. THe deposits go in super fast. No overdraft charges. It's excellent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Related question: what bank would you go with for a super simple euro zone llc?

The requirements are simple:

\- a proper EU based IBAN

\- SEPA bank transfer

\- SEPA direct debit

\- proper customer support

\- proper web experience

\- debit card

\- (preferably) limited credit card support

\- honest and transparent pricing

There's obviously the company's home country banks, but I'm specifically wondering about banks offering EU wide services. Either I'm not looking well enough or there isn't really a decent bank offering these services EU wide:

\- Many more traditional banks don't seem to be interested in working with companies in different EU countries.

\- N26 doesn't seem to do llc's.

\- Revolut doesn't have a proper web client.

<comment><USER13> > Revolut doesn't have a proper web client

I believe Revolut Business is primarily web based, unlike Revolut Personal:

[https://www.revolut.com/business/business- account](https://www.revolut.com/business/business-account)

There is also Paysera, which offers instant SEPA transfers for EU companies:

[https://www.paysera.com/v2/en/paysera- account](https://www.paysera.com/v2/en/paysera-account)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> First Republic has phenomenally great service and absolutely terrible tech, UI, etc. It all boils down to what your needs are from your bank. FRB are not great when it comes to lines, venture debt, etc but for day-to-day banking it's nice to have a real person on the other side.

</comment><comment><USER15> First Republic Bank

</comment><comment><USER16> You might want to check out [https://www.grasshopper.bank/](https://www.grasshopper.bank/), which is a fairly new startup-focused bank based in NYC

</comment><comment><USER17> Take a look at banknovo.com

</comment><comment><USER18> Monzo if you are UK based. Maybe US too.

[https://monzo.com/i/business/](https://monzo.com/i/business/)

<comment><USER19> AFAIK Monzo are pulling back on their US business, so probably only UK for now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I have had SVB see transactions from Transferwise in my account and then call me up and offer a better rate on their foreign transfer services. Interesting!

<comment><USER15> You should switch to First Republic Forex account. We saved ~4% by switching from Transferwise to FRB on our international transfers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> +1 for Mercury!</comment>


Ask HN: What Internet based checking account do you recommend? - <AUTHOR> I'm shopping for a new checking account. My only requirements are:
* Website with good UX and handy features like CSV exports * I'd like to avoid ATM fees * Accepts direct deposits - I imagine all banks do this * Support outbound ACH transfers * A US based call center - or at least a well trained offshore call center * Paper checks
Not a factor * I do not have to worry about maintaining a minimum balance * I'd rather better service than a good interest rate on my deposits
Red Flags? While shopping around, are there any red flag anti-features that I should try to avoid?
Are there any specific banks that I should avoid?
Final note: I've done a bit of reading on sites like Nerd Wallet and Bankrate. But their reviews don't really provide the knowledge that I am looking for.
I'm looking for testimonials from actual customers. I am not looking for blog content written for the purpose of generating affiliate link revenue. <comment><USER2> I use Ally and i'm pretty happy. Don't know if it checks off the CSV exports but I believe it has all the others.

The big thing that I like are alerts for charges over a certain amount. A few years back, I was using TD Bank and I happened to check my online account one day and noticed an $1800 withdrawal that I didn't make (I got lucky, because I don't check the account that often). I called them up and they said it was a mistake, but wouldn't explain how or why it happened. Well... no thanks... given that you pay me close to 0% interest anyway, I'll give someone else the privilege of holding my money. Since then, I maintain a minimal deposit at TD because I like having a bank with physical locations and moved the rest to Ally. Ally is nice, because anytime I have a transaction over $100 (which is an amount you can customize), I get a text message, so any funny transactions are noticeable right away (not that there have been any). This feature is a must-have for me now.

<comment><USER3> I second ally. I have an account since 2016. They used to refund all the atm fees charged, not sure they still do it.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I apologize for the strange formatting. I'm new to HN posts, I thought I added enough new-lines.

I'll try again, since I can't edit the original post.

=====

I'm shopping for a new checking account.

 _My only requirements are_

* Website with good UX and handy features like CSV exports

* I'd like to avoid ATM fees

* Accepts direct deposits - I imagine all banks do this

* Support outbound ACH transfers

* A US based call center - or at least a well trained offshore call center

* Paper checks

 _Not a factor_

* I do not have to worry about maintaining a minimum balance

* I'd rather better service than a good interest rate on my deposits

 _Red Flags?_

While shopping around, are there any red flag anti-features that I should try to avoid?

Are there any specific banks that I should avoid?

 _Final note_

I've done a bit of reading on sites like Nerd Wallet and Bankrate. But their reviews don't really provide the knowledge that I am looking for.

I'm looking for testimonials from actual customers. I am not looking for blog content written for the purpose of generating affiliate link revenue.

</comment><comment><USER4> Schwab 1000%, care about the bank, their customer service and fees. Technical features should not be deciding factors in where you keep your $$$.

I believe schwab might still let you request physical security tokens.

<comment><USER5> +1 Schwab

-I've had great customer service experience compared to competitors

-also refunds ATM fees at end of month.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> >Are there any specific banks that I should avoid?

I like to avoid all of the bailout banks. These guys invested customer money irresponsibly and had to be rescued by the federal government: [https://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/bankbail...](https://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/bankbailout/)

I ended up using schwab.com and have been happy with them so far. (Until recently I was with etrade, but they were bought out by Morgan Stanley.)

</comment><comment><USER7> Well, I'm European, so not sure if it helps, but might help someone else. TransferWise is what I'd highly recommend. They do have US presence. I'm just not sure which features are available to US customers. They got excellent customer service via mail, chat, social media and phone. Not outsourced to India

</comment><comment><USER8> USAA if you can get it. I'd check out BBVA they're onto some real cool stuff in the future of fin. For fintechs, I'd check out Revolut.</comment>


New public relations: Beating back bad press with Google AdWords - <AUTHOR> http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/new-public-relations-beating-back-bad-press-with-google-adwords/

<comment><USER2> I've just started doing a few small campaigns for my company, and just using the keyword tool to look at search traffic and average CPC for keywords can give you a little insight on how you can market your product/services (though I also realize those numbers technically only indicate what people who use Google like to search for... correlation is not causation :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Adwords is a very powerful tool. I've been running PPC campaigns for years (I'm also Adwords certified by Google) and I'm always learning about new ways to do things with them. From market research and priming forum pumps to spinning bad press, they're a force to be reckoned with in the hands of an experienced user.

</comment><comment><USER4> If this practice becomes mainstream, we are-- all of us-- fucked.</comment>


Compiler Benchmarks Of GCC, LLVM-GCC, DragonEgg, Clang - <AUTHOR> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=llvm_gcc_dragonegg28&num=1

<comment><USER2> Where is their list of flags applied when building the test programs?</comment>


Ask HN: What did Product/Market fit feel, and not feel like for you? - <AUTHOR> I just listened to the Segment founder's discussion on how they knew they'd found product/market fit.  Basically, it was an explosion of demand.  However, I'd argue that many companies have product/market fit without having customers beating down their doors.  ie a $30k mrr bootstrapped business growing at 100% YoY.<p>I like the idea of a data set to train your instinct on this, so was curious to hear from others: What did it feel like (or not feel like) for you? <comment><AUTHOR> Btw, here is a link to the Product/Market fit lecture from startup school: [https://jotengine.com/transcriptions/WIUL8HBabqxffIDOkUA9Dg](https://jotengine.com/transcriptions/WIUL8HBabqxffIDOkUA9Dg)</comment>