Scott Adams: The "Less" Feature - <AUTHOR> http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_less_feature/

<comment><USER2> There's a delicate balance between "simple" and "too simple."

I've considered buying a cell phone that only acts as a phone. No text messages, just some buttons and a "send" key. But some people only text. So I need a phone that can text. And I use the phone's clock instead of a watch. Oh, one more thing, I also use the alarm clock when I nap away from home. And I use the address list quite a bit, because I've only memorized 4 phone numbers.

Unfortunately for me, it would be stupid to design this phone! It reached a tipping point where it makes more sense to use a real mobile OS. Then they can add apps and settings and make it appeal to more people. These demands are very inelastic. I need an alarm, and others need a tip calculator, and others need to take notes, and some people need a calendar.

The real irony is that I would love to select my phone features à la carte past the point of just adding and deleting apps, but that defeats the original problem - too much choice.

<comment><USER3> Actually, it sounds like a classic Nokia (like the 6310i) might be perfect for you.

Works great as a phone. Works great for text messages. Works great for a clock, alarm, calendar, and address book.

<comment><USER2> That phone has the same features as my current phone (a cheap LG), but a simpler interface. I will try it the next time I need a phone. Thanks for the recommendation!

<comment><USER4> I will second that recommendation. It was a fantastic phone. One phone like that currently is the 6500, it's amazingly fast, cheap and only does a few things, but it does them well.

<comment><USER5> It still is. I have a slightly more advanced, but still elderly, Nokia 6230i and I use it any time I'm doing something that might wreck my phone but where I do need a communication device.

<comment><USER4> Yes! Also a fantastic phone. Really, the 6xxx series were the best phones. I had a 6110, 6210, 6310, 6230, and now a 6500. They were all the best phones I've owned. I tried some of the Symbian smartphones but they were just disappointing, they took forever to do anything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Adams, as usual, doesn't let facts and his own hypocrisy get in the way of a catchy blog post.

His choosing an airline ticket took a long time precisely because he WASN'T satisfied with "less". If he really wanted less information or fewer options and choices, he could have just used Orbitz without checking JetBlue and the United site, Or he could have just picked a single carrier and taken whatever flight they had available. But he wanted more -- he wanted to know about every possible detail and every available carrier. If he wants to know who to blame for the long time it took him to pick his ticket, he need only look in the mirror.

Coincidentally, I used Orbitz for the first time just two days ago after an unpleasant experience with a human travel agent who I felt was trying to push me into options and prices I did not want. By comparison, Orbitz was much more efficient and offered a good balance between complexity and simplicity IMHO.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I'm kinda tired of his whiney posts.

Adams needs to spring some of that Dilbert money and hire a good PA. Hey presto, pay the PA $150k, and life is simplified.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Get a travel agent and never worry about travel again. Fixed overhead to not worry about the problem.

I still think the most-complained-about reduction in benefits when I worked at MSFT was when they changed over from a corporate travel agency to this hideous book-yourself model. The agency used to also give you the options for your personal travel, if you asked nicely.

Of course, it was just a rank and file issue. Once I was high enough in the org to have an administrative assistant, I stopped having to book my own travel again. Then, I understood why none of the people who travel frequently complained when the agency was removed. After all, who cares if it takes your developers three hours on the company clock to book their travel? owait...

<comment><USER9> For me personally, have to disagree with you. A lot of "self-service" stuff can be annoying but for the most part I really like having self-service travel. I see the options and can quickly make the tradeoffs that are important to me. Sure, you can waste hours micro-optimizing everything but you don't have to. But that's more an issue of self-discipline than self-service per se.

(Obviously if you an admin who knows how you like to do things, that can work pretty well too but my general experience dealing with corporate travel departments vs. just going to Expedia usually favors the latter.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is why you should only be an optimizer in few, very important areas, and should be a sufficer in the rest: You get paralyzed by this sort of choice.

Get a cheap enough flight, get a good enough understanding of the one feature on the watch you care for (and write it down if possible) and arrange a movie night with your friends without caring if they'd like a slightly different variation just a little better (I mean, hell, they are always able to arrange it if they would).

<comment><USER11> I completely agree, and I tend to pass that over into web apps that I build. Don't remove complexity, hide it. That's why I don't really buy whole- heartedly into the "less-is-always-more" school of Jason Fried and company (although you can't not respect the little empire they've built).

<comment><USER10> There was a Joel Spolsky talk on this sorta thing on why Apple's way is better than 37 signals, unless you're really small. Anyone have a link?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> he could not only pay someone to make this problem go away, he could probably also earn more money in the time he's not researching this than it would cost to have someone else do it.

in fact i find it difficult to believe he doesn't already have a personal assistant that could handle things like this.

<comment><USER13> Do cartoonists usually have personal assistants?

<comment><USER14> If they're as successful as Adams they might. Plus he's a restaurateur and entrepreneur. And Tim Ferris has written extensively on hiring virtual personal assistants.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The movie example reminded me of this: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKF1u-TOXuE>

<comment><USER16> haha love it. I see myself and my wife in that characters. My questions to HN <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620874>

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> From a high level it's easy to look at a device or a system and say "All these options are making this really hard. This thing should do less." But less is just a direction, and it's only useful to go that way until you can't do something you need to do.

The iPad isn't a success because it just does less than everything else. It succeeds because it does what it's supposed to do incredibly well. Users have certain expectations when they pick up an iPad and the iPad generally lets the user do what they expect and is intuitive in the process.

In the case of travel websites it often seems that no one has taken the time to consider what users will actually do on the site, instead just lazily giving users every possible option. For example, if a booking site has found me a $300 nonstop ticket it's probably not necessary to show me the 3-stop, $1700 option. Yet they all do because nobody has taken the time to filter down the results to the practical options (the user could create a filter, but that's just another option to deal with). I would much rather see just the 5 flight options that I'm likely to buy instead of 30 options with 5 potential winners buried in there somewhere.

If you're building a tool, the user will have to give some input. The key is to give the user what they want with the minimum possible amount of information.

</comment><comment><USER18> There has been a lot of discussion about the "paradox of choice" recently, and I think there's something useful in the concept, as it applies to an individual consumer attempting to find the best solution for his own particular needs.

But the _producer_ designs their product offerings to appeal to the widest possible market. There may not be much variation within a particular customer's preferences, but there is a great deal of variation between the preferences of different customers.

Eliminating choices might make things simpler for some customers, but it will also shrink your market by alienating those customers whose preferences differ from your new standard offering. The less choice you offer, the less mass- market and more niche-focused your product becomes.

Overall, that means that there are two possible outcomes: (a) if there are high barriers to entry, many customers will have to settle for a less-than- ideal product, or (b) if there are low barriers to entry, new competitors will emerge to appeal to the market's gaps, eventually leading to a similar level of complexity in product choice.

The question here isn't whether a high level of product choice is a good thing; not offering choice is only a possibility for monopolists.

The real question is one of usability: how do you offer a large number of options in a clean and intuitive way? The solution lies in UI design, not marketing strategy.

<comment><USER19> >There may not be much variation within a particular customer's preferences, but there is a great deal of variation between the preferences of different customers.

>Eliminating choices might make things simpler for some customers but it will also shrink your market by alienating those customers whose preferences differ from your new standard offering.

That's true, but its not clear cut that its a loss. I mean, lets take everyone's favorite poster child for this: Apple. I personally refuse to use Apple products for precisely the reason you describe - they simply don't accommodate my preferences. However, the fact that Apple products do not accommodate the preferences of people like me has had a negligible impact on their success.

Why is that? Its because the majority of the variation in preferences occurs in a minority of the market. In other words, there's a small population of people like me, who have widely varying preferences and a large population of people whose preferences are similar enough to be served by a device with limited features. From Apple's perspective, people like me aren't worth the expense - its much more profitable to drop the features used by the minority in order to hone and polish the features used by the majority.

Sure, Apple will never have me as a customer. From their perspective, that's an acceptable trade-off, since the effort required in building features to attract me isn't worth the opportunity cost.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Choosing a netbook feels very similar. You'd think that choosing a model (T410 if you're curious) gets you there. Nope. Even with the relatively small number of configurable parameters (CPU, graphic, RAM, HD size and type) they managed to make it a confusing mess. There are codes like NT7EUPB, NT7ETPB2C, NT7EXPB2 and no definitive source that could answer a simple(?) question: "What are the options and how much do they cost?"

</comment><comment><USER21> Toll Brothers researched the impact of choice on their profit margins. What they found was that given more choices, customers were not only less happy but also cost more to please. There were greater logistical requirements to get part A to place B, time spent selling people on home feature C, and then additional needs for people with skill X to install said items.

</comment><comment><USER22> The amount of options is ok if there exists some easy way to handle them (and to hide the options away if you don't care that much about details).

For example, if there would be a service which would take care about all those traveling stuff (best/cheapest flight, way to/from the airport, best time) and print all the information I really need to know, like what Scott has written down for himself, that would be a better solution instead of just restricting all the further options. Not sure though if we will ever see such a service. Most attempts to do so failed because they miss too much information (mostly about the local travel possibilities and information).

<comment><USER23> yes, more sites and more ways to view the information would help solve the overcomplication problem ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The problem is that the (current) notion of a "feature" lends itself to poor design. If it's a "feature", then there needs to be an entry on the drop-down menu, or an icon, or a name for the particular new thing that you can do.

What Apple seems to do right is to avoid thinking in terms of "features" and instead (strictly) in terms of use cases: tools should ideally be sufficiently versatile -- and simple -- that they can be applied to do many things without each of those things having a button. Hammers, e.g., have little in the way of "features", but are still pretty darn capable.

</comment><comment><USER25> The less is more mantra may not be desirable for everyone.

From one point of view (say, a seller's) the solution of "reduced number of options" may be a good way to influence a quick and (potentially satisfying) decision (like Dan Ariely also says here - <http://bigthink.com/ideas/20749.>)

But I as a consumer would definitely want to explore all the options before making a decision. One good fix here is to just understand that one can't have everything and learning to prioritize the needs.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is the exact problem that Joel talks about (<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2010/08/19.html>) [HN discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1618011>].

Like the iPhone mute button example, Scott's watch doesn't necessarily need to be simpler, it needs to be easier to use (i.e., elegant).

</comment><comment><USER27> Here's a solution to the travel problem:

Let the user input their hourly income. And the dates they want to be there, and their actual home and destination addresses. Then search nearby airports and departure dates based on total cost-of-trip. Time spent driving, flying, layovers, departing early, returning late, all ring up at their hourly income with the cost of tickets. Use a maps API for driving times to/from airports. Wouldn't that be better?

</comment><comment><USER28> Totally agree. Less is a feature, and can be exploited too.

Too much choice is a bad thing. See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_choice>

Relating to software, I often see too much choice with regards to pricing and features.

More features do not make a better product, just as much as more pricing schemes/packages/tiers will not lead to more sales.

</comment><comment><USER29> The problem in this case is decision making: over-optimizing flight options even though the gain is outweighed by the time spent doing so. Should we really simplify everything because options might trigger someones OCD to optimize even if those options are really useful to some people? Let there be options but not bloat, and people can use what they need.

</comment><comment><USER30> There's an app for that - HipMunk might solve this problem (A-B flight route planning).

</comment><comment><USER14> The benefit of many options is that the user can do the simplification himself.

</comment><comment><USER31> The problem isn't too much choice. If the service were able to say, "Here is an all-around good choice. You could save a maximum of 13% of the price of the trip by shoving your schedule around, etc."--summarize the choices and evaluate them the way a competent professional human would do it--then Adams could choose quickly and rest easy knowing he got a _fairly_ good deal. This is a hard thing to make a computer do--maybe it's an easy problem and Orbitz are just idiots, but I doubt it. Perhaps they could do a moderately good job with a moderate amount of work.

Point is, the _problem_ is that the computer finds a bunch of choices and doesn't know which one is an all-around good default choice, what differences are important (and thus should be presented to the user) and which ones are irrelevant (and should be summarized or ignored). This can manifest itself as a _symptom_ in various ways. The computer could just spit out all possible choices, which is apparently what it does right now; then the user sees "too many choices". The computer could pick 15 choices (the first 15 cheapest, or alphabetically first, or the ones with indexes equal to integers from a random number generator) and only display them; then users would probably see "a few really bad choices, and I _know_ there are others, but the damn computer pretends they don't exist!" Would users be happier with that? I think leaving the choices there is the most graceful way to fail.

For the other things--the watch, the movie theaters--the problem is that they're trying to cater to people with different desires, with the same product.

The watch--they could make a watch that tracked running distance and displayed the time and did nothing else, and a separate watch that let you record laps (and displayed the average time!) but had no GPS, plus a third watch with all features and a fourth watch that _only_ displayed the time. This would require some diverse manufacturing equipment (dunno how much of a pain that would be; perhaps not much), 4x the shelf space at stores that sell watches (this would definitely be a pain), 4x as many entries in watch catalogs, and so on. Maybe this would be worth it, if enough people would be willing to "pay 50% more" for it. But, of course, this means a bunch more choices as well, just at a different time.

They could also just make one kind of watch and throw all their other customers out the window. This is like the "solution" of throwing out all but 15 arbitrary choices on Orbitz. I doubt if Adams would be pleased if they chose to make only the "it records laps, but no GPS and no tracking running distance" model. Maybe they could run a service: "You tell us what features you want on your watch, and we'll send you a watch that has only those features (and a correspondingly easy interface to them)." Dunno, has anyone tried that? Anyway, the problem is how to provide good products (where simplicity of use is a good feature) that are useful to many people who want different features on the product, when the product's nature (having only a few buttons) makes it hard to provide simplicity along with all the other features.

"Too many choices" is the symptom. The problem is something else, and providing too many choices is what someone thought was the best way to punt on that problem. If you ask for fewer choices, either you're asking for some nontrivial work--to solve the underlying problem in a way no one's thought of before--or you're asking for a different way to punt, likely a worse way.

</comment><comment><USER32> oh teh irony of an article about "less" a being wall of text / tldr.</comment>


The Other Children of Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/the-other-children-of-silicon-valley/433869/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Dont judge everyone by SV standards. Lots of kids in America, black, rural citizens, etc. Don't get anything before kindergarten. What people are doing is comparing the poorest to the the expectations of tigermoms. Don't. Fist thing is to teach patents they are the crux of their child's success. School can't teach success if a parent does not offer support in return. Yes, some will succeed despite that.

Yes we should improve educational opportunities for our own children, but much of it rests on parents and their view on education. "why do we need to learn calc?"

Also, to be clear, some affluent parents question the need for tigermom type education so early and will " red shirt" their children/pupils.

Unfortunately, this article is more interested in exposing income disparity, which is good, but its dressing it under scholatoc achievement.

<comment><USER3> > What people are doing is comparing the poorest to the the expectations of > tigermoms. Don't. [First] thing is to teach [parents] they are the crux of > their child's success. [...] > Unfortunately, this article is more > interested in exposing income disparity, which is good, but its dressing it > under [scholastic] achievement

This is an incredibly patronizing statement, followed by an equally delusional one. Let's unpack them.

The first one hinges on the assumption that poor parents don't understand that "they are the crux of their child's success". With the notable exception of the rare completely unfit parent, every parent already knows this. Parents have known this since the beginning of time.

This is then followed with a dismissal of the how wealth inequality effects education and thus lifetime gains. "If only the poors went to college!"

It's a very common sentiment, but that doesn't mean that it's right. It stems from the mistaken belief that everyone gets what they deserve because society is a pure meritocracy. It's the same sentiment where a multibillion dollar company built on the backs of minimum wage labor tells their employees that if they don't buy gum, they're money problems will be over.[1] Whereas in the real world, "being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs"[2].

The reason why poor parents aren't sending their kid to preschool, is because they don't have an extra $15,000 laying around in their bank account. The reason why poor kids underperform in school can all be tracked back to wealth. The distraction of hunger[3], lead paint in homes, and even under resourced schools because... the schools are funded by local property taxes , thus ensuring that the poor remain disadvantaged to the rich. (And if you seriously believe it's all just effort, put your kid the poorest public school in your area.)

[1] [http://www.nasdaq.com/article/mcdonalds-sample-budget- sheet-...](http://www.nasdaq.com/article/mcdonalds-sample-budget-sheet-is- laughable-but-its-implications-are-not-cm261920) [2] [http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being- poor/](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/) [3] [http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/inde...](http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/index.ssf/2011/09/a_growling_stomach_tends_to_di.html)

<comment><USER4> "notable exception of the rare completely unfit parent"

If you think unfit parents are rare you should talk to a social worker, police officer, or nurse, they will be able to bury you with heartbreaking stories of what life is like for a very large number of people who are predominantly poor.

<comment><USER3> My point was more that even unfit parents tend to recognize the role of parents. They're just not good at it. (eg "I'm a good parent! I take care of my kids just fine!")

<comment><USER4> I'm more inclined to believe unfit parents are unfit because they care more about themselves then their children. Their worried about their own problems and not introspectively critiquing their own parenting...

Edit: totally misread your comment, yup I agree. I think I just took the extreme of what you originally said (that unfit parents are rare), my bad.

<comment><USER3> NP. I realized my language was imprecise when I wrote it. ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Has early childhood education ever been shown to be effective? From what I've read, students with pre kindergarten were indistinguishable academically from students without it by about 3rd grade. I think we could help ourselves out a lot by focusing more on high school success and less on pre-K/elementary school success.

<comment><USER2> The article admits as much but hedges this by saying it may help to counter bad parenting by poor parents --which is dubious, since they offer no evidence. It's more of a feelgood/guilt piece.

What we should do is have programs to make better parents. If they have children, make them take nurture programs, etc. I know, they don't have time... But they have time to want to raise children. When pregnancy and parenting is by and large by choice, given they are talking about "families" we should come to expect more from parents in rearing their children, poor or wealthy.

<comment><USER6> The problem with such programs is that they are also discriminatory in some ways. Set aside the differences in culture, just the amount of time and logistics that some lower-income people spend just to live their lives. Add to that the requirement to go to some kind of classes (or suffer some kind of unspecified consequences if I read "make them" as having some kind of teeth) and you can get to an unsolvable situation for some.

I volunteer occasionally at my young kids' public school and I'm saddened to see the differences in time that parents [/guardians] spend with their kids. It's readily apparent in the kids' behavior, even in pre-K and first grade.

<comment><USER2> For citizens it should be the duty az a parent, for immigrants it could be a condition of admission into country.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Education really seems like more and more of an arms race. Makes me kind of apprehensive to have children if I end up getting sucked into this kind of system.

<comment><USER8> seeing this madness is part of the reason i don't have kids, and probably will never.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'll just be blunt. Unfortunate that this tech boom has done almost nothing for the black, hispanic and other communities.

...aside from mostly being pushed out of historic community neighborhoods.

<comment><USER10> Historically they were white

<comment><USER11> Up to which point in history?</comment></comment></comment>


What's Revolutionary about Flutter - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/whats-revolutionary-about-flutter-946915b09514 <comment><USER2> >The Column layout widget arranges its children (a list of widgets) vertically.

Wouldn't "row" be a better name for this?

<comment><USER3> Rows are horizontal things.

<comment><USER2> Not in the context of computing. Columns are stacked left to right and rows are stacked top to bottom.

[https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/column.html](https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/column.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this not the same vein as what the java vm does? write code once, run anywhere. Just specific to mobile devices.</comment>


Microsoft, IBM join Pope Francis to push for 6 AI principles - <AUTHOR> https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ibm-pope-francis-push-for-ai-principles-2020-2 <comment><USER2> Do you think the Pope read Asimov's three laws?</comment>


Show HN: Snipit.io - Save and organize your code snippets in the cloud. - <AUTHOR> https://snipit.io <comment><AUTHOR> Create snippets in the web app, or use the browser extension to snip code blocks directly from the pages you visit. Add custom tags and mark your snippets as favorites, so you can easily find what you need. Group similar snippets in lists and collections and keep everything organised. Register for the closed beta and get early PRO access!</comment>


Twitter's COO Noto Resigns to Become Chief Executive at SoFi - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-23/twitter-ceo-anthony-noto-resigns <comment><USER2> It seems like C-level executives in the tech. industry are just passed around like tired, worn cards. It's like bad re-gifting. They need to promote more internally to C-level.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. Time will tell, but I have a feeling that this is because they have some kind of "good ol boys club" and they're not comfortable with new people in their inner circle. I wonder why. I also wonder what's going to happen with the Alwaleed stake, and if they're connected to this.

I'm guessing that within 12 months Jack will not be a part of Twitter nor any other tech company.

<comment><USER4> That could easily be rational behavior on their part if the primary thing they're worried about is investor confidence.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder if this will be the impetus that makes Jack become a full time CEO of twitter.

Anthony was one of those COO's who was fully capable of being the CEO, and had the experience to prove it. Just like Bill Gates had John Shirley, and Steve Jobs had Tim Cook, Jack had Noto.

Without such an experience and capable person to run the day to day, I've got to imagine that Jack's job at twitter just got alot harder.

<comment><USER6> The company Jack Dorsey is CEO that is doing well isn't Twitter. If he is thinking logically, that would be where he will focus all his resources.

Twitter needs and deserves a full-time CEO or to get sold to a larger company that can do something with it.

<comment><USER7> I still feel Bloomberg LP would be the ideal buyer of Twitter.

<comment><USER8> Bloomberg could not afford Twitter - their market caps are $22Bn and $17Bn, respectively.

<comment><USER9> Bloomberg is worth $50+ billion. They could afford Twitter.

Michael Bloomberg is worth an estimated $52 billion per Forbes. He owns 88% of Bloomberg the company, and nearly all of his wealth is wrapped up in the company. It's an extremely profitable business with $9+ billion in revenue.

It was worth ~$22 billion during the great recession, when Michael Bloomberg repurchased 20% of the company (rather brilliant timing, buying it from Merrill Lynch). That was a decade ago.

[https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael- bloomberg/](https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/)

<comment><USER10> I'd guess he has more profitable and more useful things to spend his money on than Twitter.

<comment><USER9> Defending that archaic terminal monopoly for one.

In all seriousness, as savvy as Bloomberg has been throughout his career, I'd expect him to wait until valuations plunge again, before making any big moves. I also wouldn't expect them to bother with Twitter.

He's a signer to the giving pledge. At nearly 76, he's no doubt facing a serious decision about what to do with his company. I'd expect either a public listing, or a sale to a large financial firm (JP Morgan etc).

<comment><USER11> Surely regulators wouldn't let Bloomberg be bought by a large financial firm whose competitors all rely on the data?

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't even worry about regulators in that case. What financial institution is going to rely on a product that your competitor has control over?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is good news for Twitter. No more distractions on live video which seem to primarily driven just because of Noto's prior NFL CFO credentials.

</comment><comment><USER13> COO

<comment><AUTHOR> fixed. copied from the bbg article, didn't even notice.</comment></comment>


Why game industry talent is going indie (2011) - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/experience-going-indie/

<comment><USER2> There's another important aspect to this story: ten years ago, being an indie dev was not economically feasible. Before digital distribution, Best Buy had shelf space for like 100 titles, and they made the (rational) decision to spend this limited resource on high-margin, low-risk titles in order to maximize revenue. In other words, there was no opportunity for a long tail of gaming. Physical retailers couldn't keep around a back catalogue of 10,000 games for $10 a piece--the margin wasn't worth the inventory costs.

Digital distribution turned that on its head, and a long tail became possible. How _quickly_ it became populated is a testament to the built-up frustration of devs having to work for The Man.

<comment><USER3> Exactly - but also, digital distribution (iOS, Steam) is just one of two keys that has initiated the golden days of indie game development. The other is crowdfunding (Kickstarter).

Today, talented game developers have the means to fund & deliver their projects to the masses. The golden era is upon us.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This would be a good time to have the promised follow-up with the developers mentioned in the article. There's some decent discussion about the risks of going indie, but it'll have more teeth when we find out that the devs actually lost their homes when the risk didn't pan out (if that's the actual outcome).

</comment><comment><USER5> This is about a year old. I hadn't seen it.

You can guess from the headline (because big developers/publishers destroy your soul and your projects).

The mini profiles of games and people are sweet.

<comment><AUTHOR> > This is about a year old.

Ah you're right. I haven't seen it either so I didn't even look. Title updated, thanks.</comment></comment>


How to Tell if You're Rich - <AUTHOR> http://biz.yahoo.com/usnews/081014/14_how_to_tell_if_youre_rich.html?.&.pf=banking-budgeting

<comment><USER2> That is um, very low brow journalism, to be honest.</comment>


Files from the newest WikiLeaks dump on 9/11 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/gadsden0/wikileaks-9-11-files <comment><USER2> [https://github.com/gadsden0/wikileaks-9-11-files/issues/1#is...](https://github.com/gadsden0/wikileaks-9-11-files/issues/1#issuecomment-643871264)</comment>


Toward Understanding E-Prime (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nobeliefs.com/eprime.htm <comment><USER2> If this had been written by anyone else, I would not have read it in full, let alone considered its theses. The idea(s) seemed abhorrently trivial at first but in the end, as with many things of this nature, I am -- badum-psh! -- not so militant against this word or the people that use it. And furthermore, after giving it some thought, I would turn it back around and say that the word "is" bears no fault here but instead lies with this worldview which asserts that the word "is" represents an absolute, static, and singular essence of being, instead of a temporary avatar created by circumstance. This may sound like a weird transition, but the stoics were talking about this (at length) thousands of years ago, and it really cuts at the core of the argument presented here: Who is -- badum-psh! -- the master of your mind? Because the person making this argument I think has clearly ceded control of their mind to an external force whenever a person uses the word "is". It may not be such a popular opinion these days, but I think the world could certainly do with less externalization and more introspective critical thought. I'm on board with the assertions of some form of mind control in advertising slogans. However that is kind of the point, right?

</comment><comment><USER3> I once spent a whole week using e-prime. I wrote everything, text, emails, social media postings in e-prime. I allowed myself to speak "normally" for that week, but the following week I tried to only speak using e-prime.

I found trying to only speak in e-prime ridiculously hard as familiar phrases that I would normally use unconsciously, I had to discount consciously. I used a notepad to tell people that I had trouble talking right now because of an experiment which helped!

Writing in e-prime had more benefits. I think non violent communication (NVC) has similar benefits. It appeared like the emails had greater objectivity than before and less "blame". I think I spent more time editing stuff (including this comment) though!

</comment><comment><USER4> '"Is", "is", "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.'

\- Robert Anton Wilson

<comment><USER5> Am, is, are, was, were.

I am posting on HN. My post is nested under another one. There were a few others prior to mine.

<comment><USER6> it's all 1s and 0s. there is no post

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I find e-prime very useful now and then. It helps highlight the people, feelings or phenomena and their interactions and effects. It helps avoid assumptions. It helps disentangle causes and effects, sites of action or loci of emotion. Other commenters have noted that it helps avoid assigning power to external forces (e.g. "it is raining"). I agree. The existence of such forces gets harder to assert the more you avoid the "is" of attribution.

You can also have fun with it. It benefits from terseness. You can also use it to finely qualify your ideas, in time, in location, and with ownership.

</comment><comment><USER8> _" E-PRIME, abolishing all forms of the verb "to be," has its roots in the field of general semantics, as presented by Alfred Korzybski in his 1933 book, Science and Sanity..."_

The following article explores some interesting connections between Korzybski and various science fiction authors, including L. Ron Hubbard, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K Dick.

[1] - [https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-eccentric-polish-count-who- influ...](https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-eccentric-polish-count-who-influenced- classic-sfs-g-1631001935)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Previous HN discussion of the Wikipedia entry for E-Prime: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10688201](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10688201)

<comment><USER9> And from 2009: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=419895](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=419895)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Is it Sapir-Whorf or the belief systems that limit the thoughts ? Belief systems seem to be akin to a game and language seems to be the physics engine.

</comment><comment><USER11> I find that writing documentation in E-Prime helps. E-Prime helps me distinguish name from value from type. Confusion of those three aspects often arises with lazy use of "to be". Reducing that name/value/type confusion of in-code commentary makes a big difference.

</comment><comment><USER12> What about mathematics?

A finite field appears to be commutative. Or A finite field is commutative. ?

</comment><comment><USER13> Good! Now, let's ditch indefinite and definite articles. Yet more unneeded fluff.</comment>


Introducing the NYPL Grow Up Work Fashion Library - <AUTHOR> https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/08/06/dress-up-nypl-lending-fashion-library <comment><USER2> This is great. I think that often libraries are overlooked in the age of Amazon Prime, but they provide invaluable services for people who aren't in the top 10% of income / whoever is the opposite of someone frequenting HN.

Quick anecdote - when I moved to NYC last year, I wasn't very happy about the tax rate, but city taxes become a lot more palatable simply by getting a library card. I constantly download books to my phone and place items on reserve that are delivered to a library one block away from where I work. Couldn't be more convenient. Given the size of the NYPL system, I have yet to find something that I want that isn't in the catalog.

<comment><USER3> Combined with using NYPL to book free museum tickets through Culture Pass, the library card really is a fantastic thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Perfect opportunity to create the next Frank Abagnale of our Time to dazzle our minds and fool us into thinking he is fit for a burgeoning career. Because after all, nobody looks past a necktie.

Well done NYPL!

</comment><comment><USER5> I love and support libraries, but what people really need are skills of the type where interviewers are not concerned about whether or not the applicant is wearing a necktie. Or maybe I'm just out of touch with East Coast culture but a necktie requirement seems unfortunate.

</comment><comment><USER6> Bow ties? Are they back?

<comment><USER4> Oh yeah!</comment></comment>


Myspace moving to node.js - <AUTHOR>

The biggest .NET website, myspace.com, is rumored to be moving everything over to node.js and using google developed API's. <comment><USER2> Really :) Lets see what they can do for a come back :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Who cares?</comment>


Valve begins port of MAME4ALL to Steam - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamlink-sdk/commit/300169da84f9092120e813afc97b0a129f2a828e <comment><USER2> This is specifically a port of MAME4ALL-pi[1] which I'm guessing is because it's been specifically optimized for somewhat under powered ARM devices.

[1] [https://github.com/RetroPie/mame4all- pi](https://github.com/RetroPie/mame4all-pi)</comment>


MetroHash: Faster, Better Hash Functions - <AUTHOR> http://www.jandrewrogers.com/2015/05/27/metrohash/ <comment><USER2> How do these compare to xxHash, which is 5x faster than CityHash? [http://cyan4973.github.io/xxHash/](http://cyan4973.github.io/xxHash/)

<comment><USER3> The answer to your question is in the article. Why didn't you just search on page for "CityHash"?

<comment><USER4> He asked about xxHash, not CityHash

<comment><USER3> I know. Performance to xxHash can be inferred by the comparison to CityHash that is in the article.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Any paper describing the actual idea or givnig any analysis ?

</comment><comment><USER6> How does it compare to SipHash, which is designed against hash-flooding DOS attacks?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGYj8fhhUVA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGYj8fhhUVA) [https://www.131002.net/siphash/](https://www.131002.net/siphash/)

<comment><USER7> SipHash is the worst of all slow hashes. Please forget about it.

<comment><USER6> Why is it the worst? Also I don't have my question answered, which in other words is: Is it flood DOS resistant?

<comment><USER7> Hash functions cannot be made flush DOS resistant. Who told you that? Your local python or perl guru? Well, they are wrong. Read the note at [https://github.com/rurban/smhasher#security](https://github.com/rurban/smhasher#security)

"Such an attack avoidance cannot not be the problem of the hash function, but the hash table collision resolution scheme. You can attack every single hash function, even the best, if you detect the seed, e.g. from the sort-order, so you need to protect your collision handling scheme from the worst-case O(n), i.e. separate chaining with linked lists. Linked lists chaining is also very cache-unfriendly."

You can flood even crypto hashes if used in a bad hash table based on linked lists, like perl, ruby, php or python and you can detect the seed. Read also [https://github.com/rurban/perl-hash-stats#number-of- collisio...](https://github.com/rurban/perl-hash-stats#number-of-collisions- with-crc32) on some hints how to attack them. Only uhashes (pairs of random hashfuncs) would be resistant, but I count this as hash table scheme, not a hash function per se.

Why the worst? It's the slowest by far and has no other benefit. Look at the table overview. Those hash functions need to be fast.

<comment><USER6> I just watched the video linked above. I'd love to see their response to this, as well as looking at a comparison between hash tables with SipHash vs. hash tables with a faster hash and better collision handling scheme, both being attacked.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Beta Launch - <AUTHOR> http://www.birdie.ai <comment><AUTHOR> I'm Patricia, co-founder and CMO of Birdie.

We're about to launch our Beta - a community for users to recommend & review products with the help of AI-generated content. You can view our promotional video at [http://bit.ly/birdie-video](http://bit.ly/birdie-video)

We are looking for beta testers to give us feedback and interact with our Product team to help us develop something that's really useful for online shoppers.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!</comment>


Swift 5.2 - <AUTHOR> https://swift.org/blog/swift-5-2-released/ <comment><USER2> Looks like a solid update on first glance. I nearly tore my hair out last month building a SwiftUI app. The error messages were _terrible_ —I had never seen such poor error messages. I'm so glad they're addressing that.

<comment><USER3> Swift is one of my favorite languages. Until I hit a fucking error. Then I just want to be done with it.

<comment><USER4> The errors are so bad that it trains me to never write more than a few lines at a time without compiling/running it.

The runtime errors can be comically bad, bucking you into a screen of assembly for the simplest of mistakes.

<comment><USER5> Perhaps you have debug symbols disabled?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Has anyone had good luck getting Swift running on Linux? Many versions ago, I had it working under Ubuntu, and it seemed really nice. I particularly liked having a REPL for this style of language.

However since then, I've had very limited success under Ubuntu, CentOS, and Arch. Different failures on each. Every few releases or so I give it a go, but something always fails and I go back to working on some other pet project.

<comment><USER5> Are the prebuilt toolchains ([https://swift.org/download/](https://swift.org/download/)) giving you trouble?

<comment><USER6> I'm currently using Arch, so I don't think the prebuilt Ubuntu ones are going to work.

<comment><USER7> Maybe just use the Docker builds?

<comment><USER6> I know I'm out of fashion :-), but I don't really use containers for anything. I think Swift looks really nice, but when I check out other languages (such as Go, Rust, or any of the gazillion others), I don't have to jump through any hoops other than using the system package manager or something like "./configure; make install". I wish Swift was in this camp.

<comment><USER8> > I don't have to jump through any hoops other than using the system package > manager

Wouldn't that be something the package manager should include?

If you're using Arch, I'm pretty sure AUR have you covered... [0]

[0] [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/swift/](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/swift/)

<comment><USER6> The last time I tried, it didn't go well. When the AUR package for swift or swift-bin goes to 5.2, I'll probably try again.

> If you're using Arch, I'm pretty sure AUR have you covered...

Have you gotten it working with Arch?

There are user comments on the page you linked indicating other people have had problems too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A great update to a safe and ergonomic language. The best is still yet to come with Swift on Windows and Android, SPM Resources, and of course Async/Await.

<comment><USER10> Is Swift on Windows on the roadmap?

<comment><USER11> Ted Kremenek listed in his "On the road to Swift 6" post on the forums "Expand the number of platforms where Swift is available and supported" as the first item. ([https://forums.swift.org/t/on-the-road-to- swift-6/32862](https://forums.swift.org/t/on-the-road-to-swift-6/32862))

Saleem Abdulrasool, who has been working on Swift on Windows, was also recently added to the core team.

So I don't know if it's actually on the roadmap, if one exists, but official support doesn't seem impossible.

<comment><USER11> Not impossible indeed. Swift 5.3 will officially support Windows: [https://swift.org/blog/5-3-release- process/](https://swift.org/blog/5-3-release-process/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> All I want is official Swift support for an http server, and a web frontend framework using SwiftUI.

<comment><USER13> AFAIK SwiftUI is derived from or inspired by The Elm Architecture.

In any case for me, Elm has been extremely enjoyable, as a web frontend framework and language combo.

<comment><USER12> I am a huge Elm fan, and I have used it in many contexts. It is fair to say that in the last 10 years React has most influenced the way we write our UI and Elm has most influenced the way we manage our state on the frontend.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So _import Glibc_ is still a thing?

<comment><USER15> Can you expand on this?

<comment><USER14> Swift still doesn't have a mature standard library implementation that works across all platforms.

So you have to do OS specific imports directly, for basic stuff like calling a random number generator or handling IO.

It is even done so on the introduction pages, [https://swift.org/getting- started/](https://swift.org/getting-started/)

Foundation outside Apple platforms is pretty much WIP.

<comment><USER16> Interesting, although, at least they have a cross-platform random now (Int.random, Float.random, ...).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I see some huge changes there, including the error messages!

</comment><comment><USER18> looking forward to the improved build times!</comment>


Placebo effect caught in the act in spinal nerves  - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17993-placebo-effect-caught-in-the-act-in-spinal-nerves.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

<comment><USER2> I recently read an article (or maybe it was 60 min) that highlighted the distressing (to drug makers) increase in placebo effectiveness over the last couple decades. Big pharma's best drugs are now having trouble beating out placebos. Anyone have the source?

<comment><USER3> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=783912> was a Wired article on that topic on HN two months ago; perhaps that's what you are remembering?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I recently watched an episode of house (medical TV show) in which house used the (probably) well known mirror box method to relieve pain in the phantom limb of an amputee. That just reinforces the possibility that pain may be more of a psychosomatic symptom than we think.

This is from Wikipedia article for phantom limb <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb>

"One particularly novel treatment for phantom limb pain is the mirror box developed by Vilayanur Ramachandran and colleagues (Ramachandran, Rogers- Ramachandran & Cobb 1995). Through the use of artificial visual feedback it becomes possible for the patient to "move" the phantom limb, and to unclench it from potentially painful positions. Repeated training in some subjects has led to long-term improvement, and in one exceptional case, even to the complete elimination of the phantom limb between the hand and the shoulder (so that the phantom hand was dangling from the shoulder)."

<comment><USER4> Ramachandran gave an excellent TED talk, including detailed analysis of the mirror box. [http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind...](http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Pharmaceutical companies have big financial incentives to keep this kind of information out of the public consciousness.

<comment><USER6> Not really. Placebos are cheap to make, and require the user to believe -- i.e. benefit from marketing.

In our society, I could see the following: the $10 sexily-marketed placebo pill / treatment must be better than the $2 knock-off, so people buy the $10 pill. Okay, they likely won't be buying $50k / year treatments, but all of a sudden the meds only cost cents to produce.

Pharma => Apple

<comment><USER7> Or, you know, they could exploit the actual pain-killing mechanism discussed in TFA...</comment></comment></comment>


Do Geeks Make Good Jurors in Tech Cases? Not Always - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146778/do_geeks_make_good_jurors_in_tech_cases_not_always.html <comment><USER2> You mean it has nothing to do with the fact that geeks are the most passionate, opinionated, and animated people when it comes to technology?

If you don't know what I mean: PC vs Mac, Linux vs BSD, Linux Distro X vs Linux Distro Y, RPM vs DEB, OpenOffice.Org vs Office, nVidia vs ATI, etc etc etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a no-brainer for anyone already involved in jury selection. Simply replace the term 'geeks' with pretty much any other expertise and the article outcome is the same.

I'd rather see discussion on how geeks interpret evidence and data differently than non-geeks, or as pierrafar said are geeks more passionate, opinionated etc.</comment>


Bro-gramming - teaching my brother to code - <AUTHOR> http://blog.randylubin.com/post/40495100863/bro-gramming-teaching-my-brother-to-code

<comment><USER2> Hey Randy,

If your brother wants to get a good foundation in problem solving and some JS fundamentals, he should check out <http://codehs.com>

I'm making it to be a really fun, accessible entry point to learning how to code. We have a bunch of different modules that stress different concepts.

If he's already started learning, he might find some stuff a bit basic, but it quickly gets much more challenging.

Let me know if he gets a chance to check it out and what he thinks.

Zach

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice! I like the game-centric approach; it's what I loved about 106a.

I'll definitely pass it along to my brother.

<comment><USER2> Awesome! My cofounder and I were actually TAs for that class for the last 3 years before making CodeHS, so a lot of what we've done is inspired by the 106 classes.</comment></comment></comment>


Setting up ownerships shares of a start-up - <AUTHOR>

Starting a website and looking at ownership options.  3 people involved including 1 developer.  The dev. will be working for free but wants an ownership stake.  I have been told that this is the common set up for ownership-  30% to the idea guy.  45% to whomever is putting up the money and 25 to the dev?  Is that standard?  The idea dosent really require much upfront money so we don't really have a "money guy."  Ay ideas?  Any general guidelines?  Thanks! <comment><USER2> I would flip the 'idea guy' & 'dev guy' percentages at least. An idea without development/execution is worth ~nothing, wheras the development of a good idea is valuable. Find the sucessful company that is closest to what you have in mind & see how they did it. Good luck!

<comment><USER3> Agree, but it depends on what you mean by "idea guy." Is this guy going to make sure that the lights stay on? Is he going to market the company, make the sales calls?

If he just came up with the idea, I would give him a few percentage points and say "thanks." If he is going to be the mastermind behind the execution and the driving force of the company, then I think he is tremendously more valuable, and his equity stake should reflect that.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input. The idea guy had the idea and has done some basic research, he has no tech background. I am putting together the tech infrastructure, got the dev, did the research etc. Though because the idea guy is a friend.

I agree that the dev needs to feel that he is going to get something out of it and rightfully so.

Thanks for taking the time to give me some help on this!

</comment><comment><USER4> It is a good idea to set some milestones to be achieved before actually issuing the stock. Not everybody has the long term view and once the stock is issued you can't take it back without a fight.</comment>


Ask YC: Agile Project Management with Scrum - Software? - <AUTHOR>

I've been getting into Agile Project Management using Scrum for a while now. Currently, I've been using XPlanner (http://xplanner.org/), however, it is a pain and has plenty of bugs.<p>I was wondering if anyone out there knew of a better software, preferably free, for scrum management? <comment><USER2> I have had some success with:

ScrumWorks (there is a free and pro version) VersionOne (paid only) Jira (paid only, needs plugins)

Banana Scrum is free and looks good. It was talked about on HackerNews awhile back.

After experimenting with lots of this software, my team has reverted to the whiteboard for Iteration Goals, and sticky notes for the iteration's tasks. We've found that you can't beat the tactile qualities of post-it notes.

Items in a software package can be easy to ignore if you don't manage it closely. But if you look at the whiteboard and see more sticky notes in the "pending" column than there should be, you instantly know something is wrong and can dive in.

<comment><USER3> I'd like to second these thoughts.

In short, don't use a tool if you can get everybody in a co-located space -- use the walls. Hard to ignore big flashing lights that say the build is broken or large burn-down charts that show the iteration is off the rails.

But if you can't get all co-located, or if you're forced to have a team that's too large, or if your Product Owner is actually a committee of seven, etc -- there are good reasons for using some kind of tool on occasion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> As it turns out, I'm writing a free web Scrum PM tool.

Email me at my profile if you'd like to be in the closed beta. I had been planning on using it with just my large clients but if it is something you need I'm willing to help you out. (I'm also an Agile Coach and help teams adapt to agile and perform faster, in case I can be of any help there)</comment>


Ask HN: What books have you given as a present in 2017? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> The biography of Leonardo da Vinci, a beautiful and interesting book, [https://www.amazon.com/Leonardo-Vinci-Walter- Isaacson/dp/150...](https://www.amazon.com/Leonardo-Vinci-Walter- Isaacson/dp/1501139150) \- one to my collegue, one to my former colleague.

A stunningly beautiful edition of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? & A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. Dick [http://www.foliosociety.com/book/PKD/scanner- androids](http://www.foliosociety.com/book/PKD/scanner-androids) \- to a friend of mine, a big PKD fun.

I love giving great books as a gift :)

</comment><comment><USER3> The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful- Poetry-Donald-Trump/dp/17...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Poetry- Donald-Trump/dp/1786892278)

Artemis Fowl [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Artemis-Fowl-Eoin- Colfer/dp/0141339...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Artemis-Fowl-Eoin- Colfer/dp/0141339098/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513894800&sr=1-1&keywords=artemis+fowl)

Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a F __k[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thug-Kitchen- Eat-Like-Give/dp/07515...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thug-Kitchen-Eat-Like- Give/dp/0751555517/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)

The Idea in You: How to Find It, Build It, and Change Your Life [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Idea-You-Find-Build- Change/dp/02419...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Idea-You-Find-Build- Change/dp/024197139X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513895019&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Idea+in+You%3A+How+to+Find+It%2C+Build+It%2C+and+Change+Your+Life)

</comment><comment><USER4> A Dash of Dragon - middle grade fantasy featuring strong female protagonists. Also just came on super sale on Amazon.

[https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Dragon-Heidi- Lang/dp/1481477935/...](https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Dragon-Heidi- Lang/dp/1481477935/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513838147&sr=8-1&keywords=a+dash+of+dragon)

</comment><comment><USER5> The Illustrated versions of Harry Potter is such a beautiful book. It went on sale recently to $24. [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harry-potter-and-the- sorcer...](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers- stone-j-k-rowling/1121061860#/)

</comment><comment><USER6> [https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Persepolis-Marjane- Satrapi/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Persepolis-Marjane- Satrapi/dp/0375714839/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=T0P3BGJA8TBJG2M150X9)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have given the hard copy of Maker Education Revolution by Peter Dalmaris to my EdTech friends ([https://selz.com/item/59a5d9f8cca91807c878d875](https://selz.com/item/59a5d9f8cca91807c878d875)).

</comment><comment><USER7> I bought my wife pretty much every book written by Brandon Sanderson. (Mistborn, Stormlight Archives, etc).

I've also donated a couple of copies of Dune, Zelazny's Amber books, and The Martian over the course of the year to various local friends.

</comment><comment><USER8> Hyperbole and a half by Allie Brosch

I am waiting for the republishing of Aurora Morales' Medicine Stories so I can buy 10 and give them away. Incredibly potent, clear, and beautiful writing on healing ourselves from oppression of all kinds. True medicine.

</comment><comment><USER9> Magic Realized and Other Poems on the Human Spirit, by Louis Alan Swartz [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072Q5V2MN](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072Q5V2MN)

</comment><comment><USER10> Traction, I always find it a good book to gift to friends that are trying to start businesses.

<comment><AUTHOR> By which author? There are quite a few books of this name!

<comment><USER11> This is the one that's usually recommended here. It's a great book! [https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive- Cu...](https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive- Customer/dp/1591848369)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Flowers For Algernon - For my girlfriend.

Trafficked to Hell - For my Mother.

</comment><comment><USER13> The art of glamour by Virginia Postrell.

</comment><comment> Adam-Kadmon To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)

</comment><comment><USER14> 642 Big thing to write about

</comment><comment><USER15> Sapiens, Ghost in the Wires</comment>