You're Killing Me, Zappos - <AUTHOR> http://metalabdesign.com/zappos/

<comment><USER4> This redesign is what happens when a designer dabbles in sales without understanding what he is doing. The original zappos site does not have massive and obvious sales pitches, and the redesign brings in two huge and annoying sales pitches.

Just because you know how to style html and use photoshop does not mean you are an expert in selling goods to customers. This designer just added two huge banners that will likely lose the company a large amount of money.

Testimonials are turn-offs. Don't put two huge testimonials at the top of the page, your website looks then like an advert. And people don't love companies that are trying to force a product down their throat.

This redesign actually makes me angry - it's rare that a redesign has this ability to do that. So, designer, if the aim of your redesign was to create customer rage, then feel free to touch your nipples in ecstasy, because you succeeded.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Max,

I'm Andrew, the guy who did it. The key thing that I want to drive home is that their execution stinks. I figure they know how to sell their product - they did $1 billion in sales last year - but the site itself is incredibly sloppy.

-Andrew

<comment><USER5> You're missing the OP's point, which (not to put words in the OP's mouth) is:

1 - A design does not exist in a vacuum. It is there to _do_ something (in this case, sell shoes). It is impossible to separate good design from its contextual purpose - and in this case he is suggesting that you are (apparently) unqualified to fairly judge Zappos' design, not being from a sales background and all. Assuming you don't have sales experience, I would be inclined to agree.

2 - Zappos' purpose is to make money selling shoes. Would your UI push more sales? If so, then there's cause to look at your design. If your UI will decrease sales, then why in the flipping world would anyone consider your design? There is also no such thing as "no difference" - all UI changes, however minor, impact conversion and sales.

Personally I object to the presumptuous and condescending tone that this redesign is done in - you're assuming that Zappos is staffed by a team of idiots who couldn't care less about clean web UI. I don't work for Zappos, but given their success (and their site) I highly doubt this is the case. Making something web-2.0 does not automatically make it better.

I also happen to agree with OP that the testimonials are annoying and interrupt flow - customers are here to look at the store's offerings, not hear testimonials. Put it somewhere less intrusive. If I walk into a restaurant, I'd expect to hear about the menu - not what their ratings is on Yelp. The testimonial is also so often abused by nefarious ne'er-do-goods that its mere presence raises suspicion in users.

Your search box also removes functionality by completely tossing out search parameters - which IMHO demonstrates your lack of consideration for the specifics business requirements of the company (something many UX people do but will never own up to). The "search by" feature I would gather is very important to shoe buyers.

This post is already getting long, but I need to hit another point: you started your entire post with a very confrontational "why is your website a confusing mess"?

And then you fail to make any meaningful changes to the UI. The tab-based navigation is _identical_ save for some padding and sizing changes. The product selection columns are _identical_. The search box is _identical_ save for your decision to _remove_ search features. The general layout is _identical_ , in fact, save for your decision to add in the testimonials - <USER2> does this reduce confusion, exactly?

If you're going to make loud, bold-letter claims about the confusion inherent in a design, at least make the effort to _change_ the design, as opposed to give it a slick font-and-button-texture makeover?

<comment><USER6> Also notice that the redesign removes the featured products from the front page. Zappos carefully selected these with the intention of driving conversion directly from the landing page.

The redesigned front page makes customers navigate to one of the category links or to perform a search before they encounter any actual products.

The attempt to simplify the UI and the focus on the company's culture may be good ideas when you're offering a service, but aren't really appropriate for a retail site.

Compare Zappos other successful online retailers, such as Amazon, Buy.com, etc. and you will see similar busy layouts, and pages designed to draw the eye to product offers instead of "this is why we're special" commentary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Maybe I'm missing something, but let's summarize the changes:

\- De-emphasized search, which is probably the way that at least 50% of the users navigate the site.

\- Added a customer testimonials banner that should and would be immediately overlooked by everyone who visits the site, but pushes the product categories down. You're right that the site should have a clear visual hierarchy, but the product categories in this case should be at the top of that hierarchy, not the bottom.

\- Added a second brand navigation - I'm not sure why.

\- Removed all of the quick links to most popular products, etc. People who scroll down this far on the page have not found what they were looking for in your main product nav, and don't believe they can find it in search. There's no reason to show them a bunch of brands here - rather, zappos' understated text links give them an alternative way to navigate that is clearly lower in the hierarchy. Additionally, i suspect SEO is of major importance to Zappos, so having a link to "wide shoes" on the home page is probably rather important.

\- Expanded the section about culture. This would be nice on a site that sold services like an agency site or mailchimp or some such, but is unnecessary with zappos. Most people come to the site looking for a product, not looking to comparison shop retailers.

All that said, your design is more visually appealing. I just wish it had accompanied a post called "My Interesting Alternate Take On The Zappos Homepage" and not "You're Killing Me, Zappos".

<comment><USER8> Also:

Broke the alphabetical brand index control. (too much non-functional whitespace now).

Just way too much header stuff in the redesign too. Pushing content down the page is crazy.

I did like the way the phone number was given a better call-out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Not sure his design is much better, actually I prefer the original. Look at Amazon, ugly as shit and works amazingly.

<comment><USER10> This exact same argument was being shouted from the rooftops by the people who claimed MySpace would always be better than Facebook, and clean design didn't matter. Everyone thought they could get away with lack of structure and threw their hands up in the air when it came to things like "usability" and "aesthetics." I wrote about this on Go BIG Network before Facebook traffic surpassed MySpace's, and I see the same thing going on here.

I understand most of you out there are programmers, some of you may not share the level of appreciation that i do for things that can look nice and are usable--but this guy's design is vastly better than what they've got now. Kudos for his work.

<comment><USER5> _"I understand most of you out there are programmers, so you share very little appreciation for things that can look nice and clean"_

Hey now, careful with the blanket statements. Some of us hackers actually _do_ care deeply about usability and aesthetics, but "clean" doesn't always mean "better" - despite many UX people's unfounded insistence.

I work for a company that shall remain unnamed, but we do a ridiculous amount of testing for every little UI change. Conversions, sales, and a whole ridiculous slew of variables are tracked in extensive A/B testing for every UI design.

Our app doesn't look like much, but it's also the proven design - and we have the numbers to back it up.

I'm all for usability and aesthetics, but when you're arguing that your clean- looking design, which follows all the usability theories in the book, is better than one with a long track record of successful metrics, you better have some numbers of your own.

In the end Zappos' business is not clean, pretty UI. It's generating sales. If clean, responsive, usable UI leads to that (and it most certainly does - within reason), then they ought to do that. If it doesn't, then it'd be a dogmatic waste of resources that can be very damaging to the company.

<comment><USER10> I would bet money that if Zappos implemented this design and measured customer satisfaction on the web site in addition to perceived brand value, both would improve.

Clean is always going to help. You have businesses who will be successful no matter what, because for some reason or another they nailed another part of their business model (such as distribution). But to defend a bad design is a cop out, I'll bet that with all things equal, the better designed web site (both usability and aesthetics) will always win.

<comment><USER5> _"You can't just say "Amazon is ugly and it works.""_

And I'm not. I'm saying "Amazon is ugly and it works. We have teams of Web-2.0 guys doing redesigns on every facet of the site day-in-day-out, testing with live customers constantly, and this is still currently the best design - <USER3> we are still iterating."

A bit of a mouthful, though.

 _"I'm sure they could measurably prove that customer satisfaction on the web site and perceived brand value would both increase."_

That's just it though. Where I work, we have _proven_ numerically that this is a false assumption. "I'm sure they could prove" is a far cry from "We have proven". This is a problem that is prevalent throughout the UX community I think - a dogmatic worship of several principles without ever sanity-testing your assumptions with large-scale metrics, instead focusing on ephemeral and unreliable things like anecdotal user stories.

"It looks like it works better" and "it works better" are entirely two different beasts. One thing you can say off-hand, the other requires backup.

For what it's worth, I was on your side at one time. I hated "dirty" 90s-looking websites like eBay, Amazon, et al, and I loved the new-age Web-2.0-y stuff.

Then I got this job and got a sneak peek into what the user data actually says. Some things defy common logic - or at the very least, user experience design common logic.

<comment><USER11> (I had to look at your profile to see if you worked where I do. I don't think you do, but it's hard to say.)

It's absolutely amazing what wins in A/B testing sometimes. Like the parent poster, we do split-run testing continuously and consistently. I often have my own pre-conceived notions of what will win or lose big, and am often proven wrong by the people that matter: the ones out on the interwebs buying our products.

Side, but related, note: watching customers interact with your site in a facilitated session is also very informative (bordering on mind-blowing sometimes). In our new building, we built a specific lab for this, but we used to and you could easily do it via closed-circuit TV. We've found that having one facilitator in the room with the customer (past customer or in our market but not familiar with the site) and the rest of the observers out of sight (but disclosed to the participant beforehand) works the best.

(Many) People think that computers are magic devices, following no discernable rules or patterns. We've had users try to drag this "thing" over there for 3+ minutes (an eternity when you are watching them struggle) and when it finally works they are giddy with a sense of accomplishment and report "I don't know why it finally worked; it's magic!" but they aren't pissed off in any way. (Obviously, we work to improve this experience, but my point is: what you, as a competent accomplished computer user, expect, prefer, want or will tolerate doesn't trump what Joe Main Street wants/expects if he's in your target market more than the readers of HN.)

Take a spin around our website and you may very well see 10 design WTFs, 7 of which likely have statistically significant test results backing them, 2 of which are in test right now, and 1 of which we don't know about or aren't yet testing.

<comment><USER12> Not as scientific as A/B testing actual conversions, but here's what some people think of the 2 designs. Still collecting answers, but so far a slight preference for the original Zappos site.

<http://pickfu.com/F7C7WI>

<comment><USER5> Skimming through user comments I see a lot of people pointing out that the original design showed _more shoes_ than the redesign. This is a key point that the redesign author missed completely - Zappos sells shoes, you can't make a shoe-selling website and then spend more time talking about company culture than shoes.

Also interesting are users who point out that the original site has less "ads". People don't see testimonials and "how Zappos rocks" as insightful, they see them as obtrusive advertisements.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There really isn't a substantive difference. The navigation is pretty much the same. The "Our Customers Love Us" is annoying and distracting. If anyplace, it should be at checkout, not when you are navigating.

I think that our co-founder, Steve Dekorte, did an awesome job creating a truly innovative design for our shopping site: <http://stylous.com/>

</comment><comment><USER14> Clearly, having hundreds of _perfectly_ aligned, glossy and drop-shadowed images makes for a much better user experience.

Will this be done in Flash or HTML 7? Giant image maps?

Props for putting a gradient on absolutely everything.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, you're right. We shouldn't push the boundaries of what we can do on the web, we should always stick to the browser defaults.

Any competent front-end designer could easily figure out how to code this.

<comment><USER15> Funny, because nearly all of your designs/apps use the same button/gradient/image/border/Gotham/arrow themes for nearly every single UI element. Not saying this is such a bad thing, but it's certainly not pushing any boundaries.

Honestly, I find their new "Zeta" website to be a tremendous improvement that was probably researched heavily by a design team. Basically you took that design, added a couple gradients and pretty icons, and called it "better".

It looks pretty, but did you ever think that maybe that's not /really/ what matters to them?

"All that said, your design is more visually appealing. I just wish it had accompanied a post called "My Interesting Alternate Take On The Zappos Homepage" and not "You're Killing Me, Zappos"."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I don't meant to self-promote, but I'm the founder and CTO of StyleFeeder and we've recently launched some new browsing functionality... so if you're into shoes, we have the whole Zappos collection and a whole lot more available here. I'd be happy to get any feedback from y'all:

[http://www.stylefeeder.com/explorer#/Shoes/m///2-10///variet...](http://www.stylefeeder.com/explorer#/Shoes/m///2-10///variety,none/)

<comment><USER17> Why's this getting voted down? Nothing wrong with promoting something you worked hard on. It's clear from this person's account that he's a regular contributor here, not just a one-off spam link. And it is relevant to the topic at hand.

<comment><USER18> If you want feedback on your product, don't you think an "Ask HN: Please Review" is more appropriate than derailing this thread? And it's clearly self- promoting, despite the "I don't mean to self-promote..." disclaimer.

<comment><USER17> Self promotion is fine. If you don't believe in what you do, who else will? One shouldn't be annoying or inappropriate about it, but his comment was neither and if you look at his comment history, it's not like he's spamming the site with links.

<comment><USER18> I think self-promotion is fine too. In the appropriate place. And I suggested a more appropriate place. I was merely expressing the reasoning behind downvoting a comment like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> All these re-designs (for the sake of self promotion) are getting a bit much. Lack of good design can communicate as much to the user as good design itself can.

In the instance of 'bargain' sites (Zappos, Craigslist etc.) a deliberate un- design communicates the affordability of the product far more than a slickly designed site would.

</comment><comment><USER20> I remember visiting the site after hearing about the aquisition; quickly panning it and then leaving again, slightly confused. My gut feeling was "hell no".

With that out of the way, I must say I don't like these sort of open letters. They make the sender seem like a giant douchebag, which I'm in no way stating he that is, but it just doesn't seem fair. Why take the bully approach and pull down their pants in broad daylight? Keep it between you and the company in question.

Beyond that, I must admit that metalab is on to something. Maybe Zappos should listen, just a little bit. If they can and keep their dignity after this.

</comment><comment><USER21> People really look at iconography? When I look for something, I never look for the icon, I look for the word.

The shape of the word IS the icon.

I would find "Search" as a word many times faster than I would find an hourglass.

<comment><AUTHOR> So when you glance at your car dashboard do you look for "DEFROST" or "RADIO POWER"? No, you look for cues based on positioning, size, and the icon on the button.

<comment><USER21> I would love to look for "DEFROST", but I'm not given the choice.

In my car I know the location. In a new car, you try it out. In no case does the icon help very much.

Try figuring out the difference between the icon for the front vs. the rear defrost.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The proposed design does not have a single full image of a shoe above the fold.

<comment><AUTHOR> Huh? <http://cld.ly/xc57d0>

<comment><USER23> But there are no descriptions, and the images are only partially above the fold.

As others have pointed out, there's no good reason for the testimonial banner --why does Zappos need to toot its own horn?

<comment><USER24> partially above the fold? What resolution are you using that an image 400 pixels down on the page is partially below the fold?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> There's a level of irony in the fact that the author of this blog post/presentation frequently scorns other designers for even the slightest likeness to what he considers to be his own design stylings, but he just completely and totally ripped off a blog post format that is so similar to a format that Dustin Curtis has produced and honed in the past that there are users here who are noting it and have even remarked that they looked for his navigation when first coming upon the site.

Good designer. A lot to learn about business.

</comment><comment><USER26> First: Good design and functionality are the same thing. The saying goes form over function, not design over function. If one thing functions better than another, it can be described as better design.

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that some of the simpler proposed UI changes (better visual separation, bigger fonts, clearer visual distinction of elements, good-sized clickable iconic images) would improve the Zappos site tremendously.

Second: Most of the posts on this page are good examples of what kills me working as a web guy.

Engineers/Analysts want everything down to the color of each link to be data driven, to the point of irrationality. To me it's obvious when a design has been manhandled by this division of a Web team. Not all points of data are meaningful, and data does not know all ("Yes, it's true that a team at Google couldn't decide between two blues, so they're testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case." <http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html>)

Developers don't grasp every detail of what good design should be and tend to simplify and marginalize the web designer job. (Although seeing a lot of the "talent" out there, I can understand why this happens a lot. Great web designers are rare, hold on to them tightly)

Designers have a hell of a time describing why their abstract ideas have practical implications. At the same time a lot of designers grow strong opinions and giant egos. It practically comes with the job description. If a designer can't fight for their ideas well enough (most of which being abstract), the get to eat other peoples ideas all day long. Typicaly the ideas of people that have no background in design T_T

There's a balance to this. I know it's out there, and I know it can work. All of these positions are valuable, and they all have their areas of expertise. Why the hell do conversations like this turn into food fights between the Jets, the Sharks and the Goths (ok that metaphor doesn't scale)

Lastly, here's my two cents As a first time viewer of their current site I find the layout of the site confusing. The site seems to have a hard time pulling my attention to any one spot that I care about.

Banner blindness is in full effect on the homepage. The dual sidebar design with all text links seems like a bad choice to me. I didn't start caring about anything until I reached the box with highlighted products with pictures of shoes... But they weren't shoes I cared about since the site knows nothing about me.

The current site is a large chorus of voices all talking at the same volume. However web sites should not be a high school choir, there should be points of interest that stick out for me to sink my teeth into.

Granted, if I realy want shoes from them, it wouldn't be hard to read through their links to find what I want. But the design could make this choice easier and quicker (IMO).

So the gradient love may not be the road to go, that would depend on the audience (although I happen to enjoy a lot of it). Yes this UI is totally possible (even in IE6 _gasp_ ) in the hands of a compotent HTML CSS dev, but I imagine there are stricter bandwidth constraints due to the amount of traffic they get.

His IA may not be the right one, but that's why baby Jesus made A>B & multi- variant testing. It's the job of an engineer or analyst to tell the designer where things should go and about how large they should be. He correctly points out a lot of areas that the design is lacking.

This isn't to say Andrew's is the holy grail, but I think it's an interesting stab at quite a few (what I see as) problems.

</comment><comment><USER27> Dear Sir, you suck...... I amz betters. btw, can I has job?

 _sigh_

I swear there are more of these every day and his complaints are pretty pedantic. The site is okay as is.

</comment><comment><USER28> Paging dcurtis...

<comment><USER29> I agree -- was immediately looking for the dcurtis navigation and then realized it wasn't him.

Dustin has redefined the blogazine. He should be flattered.

<comment><USER30> I think others may have done the design per article pre- <http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/>

<comment><USER31> <http://gregorywood.co.uk> too

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Why are all the better off and useful sites are getting such "your design is a mess" reviews - Zappos, Craigslist, Amazon. I am sure Zappos has a team dedicated to designing their site to the last pixel.

And an open letter to the CEO? seems familiar from a recent dcurtis post :D

</comment><comment><USER33> Clever job/contract application/proposal OP, well played.

</comment><comment><USER34> Having never shopped with Zappos before, and having never visited the new "Zeta" site until I saw Andrew's take on it, I think I have somewhat of an advantage in looking at this redesign.

I value functionality much more highly than design. Having said that, both the old site and Andrew's redesign are almost functionally identical in my eyes. They both let me do the same things (the things that I would most want to do when coming to Zappos) in almost exactly the same way.

Sure, Andrew's looks prettier, and as I said it does not negatively affect my usage of the site, but as many of you have already pointed out, if his redesign doesn't bring in more conversions, it would be useless to spend any time or money on it.

</comment><comment><USER35> my general lack of interest in shopping (or being from europe--difficult to judge from the inside...), i have never actually heard of zappos before the amazon acquisition. could some guys from the us briefly explain what's so great about zappos? i looked at the--admittedly kind of old-fashioned--web- site and it was not really clear what they are selling/doing that made it special...

thanks in advance!

<comment><USER28> Their return policy is so lenient and customer service so good that you can order 5 pairs of shoes to try on and return four with no problem. And, they all get there within a couple days max.

I've never ordered from Zappos, but I've heard this story from many unrelated people now.

<comment><USER36> We're all related, you know...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Design asthetic is one thing, selling millions of dollars worth of shoes (every day) and serving tens of millions of pageviews (every day) is another. Don't forget one of the most important criteria for any scalable design on a site of this scale: speed. Speed, CDN requirements and caching, image load time, these are more important than how shiny and flashy a site looks at this level. IMO.

</comment><comment><USER38> Clear case of effective design versus simply aesthetic design--most people prefer to make more money and follow effective design.

Gradients and gloss are not required elements in the web 2.0 era, it's all just fluff at the end of the day--Zappos cares about its bottom line, that's how you start to make a billion dollar company =)

</comment><comment><USER17> If someone wants to show what an awesome designer they are, I have a bunch of sites that I'd love for you to have a look at. Of course, most of them don't receive so much traffic...

</comment><comment><USER39> I head up UX and Web Strategy at Zappos, here is my open letter response to that post:

<http://tinyurl.com/rcrz3o>

</comment><comment><USER40> what a fucking snob

</comment><comment><USER41> Awesome redesign!</comment>


Computer Science I [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://cse.unl.edu/~cbourke/ComputerScienceOne.pdf <comment><USER2> I only scanned it, and it seems like a solid book; however, I found that PHP is an odd choice for CompSci I book. From the book:

> PHP is a dirty, ugly language held together by duct tape, cracked asbestos- > filled spackle and sadness > ([http://phpsadness.com/](http://phpsadness.com/)). It is the cockroach of > languages: it is invasive and it is a survivor. It is a hydra; rewrite one > PHP app and two more pop up. It is much maligned and a source of ridicule. > It is the source of hundreds of bad practices, thousands of bad programmers, > millions of bugs and an infinite abyss of security holes and > vulnerabilities. It is a language that was born in the wild and raised in > the darkness by two schizophrenic monkeys. But its got character; and in > this world, that's enough.

<comment><USER3> Although I agree that PHP is an odd choice, I do think there's something to be said for teaching computer science with a language that the students (probably) won't end up using professionally. In some sense, this permits a decoupling of the language ergonomics from the underlying principles, thereby emphasizing 'learning' over 'training'.[0]

The very first language I was ever formally taught was Lisp. I haven't used it even one time since then, but it forced me to understand recursion at a cellular level, which has painlessly translated to every language I've used since then.

There's a significant distinction between "I understand how [inheritance|recursion|functional programming|etc] works in <language of choice>." and "I understand how [inheritance|recursion|functional programming|etc] works, period."

By choosing a non-mainstream language, I suspect that it makes it slightly more likely to end up in the second category than the first.

[0] Note that this applies only to formal computer science training, NOT developer bootcamps, where the end goals are totally different.

<comment><USER4> I think the first language people cut their teeth with will be the language they use to reason about new problems. So it helps for it to be close to the language they will eventually end up using, unless you want to waste a lot of time translating the solution you have in your mind to the language you are required to program in

<comment><USER5> There's no way this is true. I cut my teeth on Microsoft QuickBasic, and I promise you that QuickBasic has been far from my mind for many years. At this point, I've written programs in about 50 different languages (not all of them professionally): procedural, object-oriented, applicative, concatenative, relational; different paradigms require different "modes of reasoning" to properly wield.

To extend your translation analogy, it's rather like learning a natural language in that at first you might think in your native tongue and translate on-the-fly, but to become fluent you must really internalize the new language and learn to "switch" your thoughts into it. I feel like the linguistic concepts of "registers" and "code switching" apply well to formal languages as well as natural ones.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have no opinion about the quality of this book, but just by looking at the contents, it has almost nothing to do with computer science. It doesn't deal with computing models, theory, algorithms, automata, or anything you'd expect an introductory book to cover. This is a book about (specific) programming languages.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is there a service that can print out these massive PDFs into a bound copy? I spend enough time on screens for work that I really prefer a book for learning material.

<comment><USER8> Yes, plenty. Kinkos is one, I believe

<comment><USER5> Kinkos is called "FedEx Office" these days (last I checked), but indeed they can do this. So can Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, etc.

<comment><USER9> They can get fussy about proof of permission.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> As someone who's new to CS, I love this resource, and while I've been coding for about a year now I've come across most of these topics, but as someone who wants to go deeper into CS, what topics would you all expect to see in a Computer Science II book?

<comment><USER11> I didn't read the book, just the TOC, but it seems like this book is only about programming, not so much about theory (automata, discrete math, calculus, linear algebra, etc), and not even so much about the engineering side of it (automated testing, algorithms, DevOps, etc).

Anyway, there are various websites which list an "online curriculum" for Computer Science, e.g. [https://mindweb.network/board/computer-science-a-full- bachel...](https://mindweb.network/board/computer-science-a-full-bachelor- curriculum)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> C -> ok, Java -> ok, PHP -> WTF! This odd choice undermines the overall rating of the book.</comment>


Christmas Eve was Facebook's busiest day ever - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/02/christmas-eve-was-facebooks-busiest-day-ever/ <comment><USER2> Lowinterestloan4you.com Lowest interest loans! No credit check needed. Qualify, loan application through loan application form and you can begin borrowing money immediately! Best in low risk loans, variable rate loans, fixed rate loans, mortgages, consolidation, and more!</comment>


UK government Red Tape Challenge - Disruptive Business Models - Data Liberation - <AUTHOR> http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/disruptive-business-models/comment-33357/comment-page-1/#comment-33357

<comment><AUTHOR> The UK Government is coud sourcing opinions about what red tape should be removed to encourage disruptive business models. I say we have a right to access the data we have created in an easy seamless way - in a way that is machine readable. Everyone who holds data on us should be compelled to offer that data back to us via API's

<comment><USER3> I agree. I also have serious concerns about keeping my data private. I don't want anyone to be able to access my data. But, having said that, there are a bunch of government databases that are unconnected and it'd be great if I could give them permission to talk to each other; that'd mean I could do a bunch of stuff (report changes in my circumstances to 6 different benefit providers and the tax people) with just one phone call instead of the 11 calls it takes now.

Maybe what's really needed is a better encryption / permission model?

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree - privacy is a huge concern, the default situation should be strictly private. But it should also be up to us to decide who we grant access to our data.

I dont just mean government held data - but data the supermarket holds or the bank etc.

I want to be able to see my Nectar data alongside my bank data in a google spreadsheet or any other service that I trust.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This initiative is going to drown in poorly reasoned comments. They need some kind of karma system for filtering otherwise it's going nowhere. I read the first 7 or so comments and apart from the first one they seem to be poorly argued whining about regulations which I think most people are very happy to have. E.g. IMHO the no cold calling without my permission regulation is very good.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep - I'm not convinced the site as it is - is the best format. It could end up being spammed I suppose. perhaps the number of comments on each comment would be a kind of karma system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The UK tax system is a mess.

The UK benefits system is a mess.

Sorting both of these out would reduce costs; increase productivity; get people back to work; make life for businesses easier; etc etc.

<comment><USER5> I agree with you, but I also think it would be interesting if they opened up data more like the transcribing of court appearances (a bit like the government), perhaps give data access to post codes (which is by subscription atm). How about more abstract things like data from speed cameras? I guess you could use it to calculate the traffic on every main road that has a speed camera.

<comment><USER6> There was a recent statement on the plans to open up more data sets - <USER2> [http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resource...](http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Further_detail_on_Open_Data_measures_in_the_Autumn_Statement_2011.pdf)</comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft at its peak would have crushed Apple - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/300946/microsoft-at-its-peak-would-have-crushed-apple/ <comment><USER2> (2014)

Article is about inflation-corrected market cap, by the way.</comment>


Show HN: Message someone on WhatsApp without having them on your contacts list - <AUTHOR> https://marvelouswololo.github.io/add-to-whatsapp-but-dont-add-to-my-contacts/ <comment><USER2> I really like this, thanks. However, I wasn't able to get the chat launched on WhatsApp Desktop, which is installed on my system. Upon pressing the button to send the message, I got a popup from Windows saying that there was no app installed to handle this kind of link, and the only option I had was to search for one on the store.

On the second try, it took me to web.whatsapp.com and once I logged in there, it worked great. Nice little app!

Details: OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 (current) Browser: MS Edge 41.16299.785.0 WhatsApp Desktop Version 0.3.1242

</comment><comment><USER3> oh boy, this is really useful! I wonder why whatsapp folks haven't made this native, something like add a number to the app itself instead of relying solely on your phone contacts</comment>


Development of Ternary Computers at Moscow State University - <AUTHOR> http://computer-museum.ru/english/setun.htm

<comment><USER2> Good article, if a little brief. With the advancements made in optical computing, I feel that there's a good chance ternary computing making a comeback at least in the research front.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ternary already creeps in around the edges. For example in order to accomodate stable sorting, Java's Comparator<T> interface uses ternary logic. Same with Ruby's spaceship operator, <=>.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Apparently ternary is superior to binary. Actually 'e' is the best base by some logic, and 3 is closer to e than 2.

And of course the other advantage is, instead of bits you have tits.</comment>


How Credit Card Numbers Are Generated  - <AUTHOR> http://codytaylor.org/2009/11/this-is-how-credit-card-numbers-are-generated.html <comment><USER2> I really enjoyed his Javascript credit card generator page. It says, "This is just an example for educational purposes. Don't use these numbers for anything ever," and is surrounded by A LOT of Google AdSense boxes. It's practically contemporary art.

</comment><comment><USER3> This article misses quite a few important details.

Most importantly, the first 6 digits of a Visa numer constitute a "BIN" (Bank Identification Number). I have heard that MasterCard uses variable number of digits for BIN, but I don't have proof. Some places will have lists of BINs (there's really not that many) and reject "card numbers" that don't have a correct BIN.

Secondarily, MasterCard numbers start with "51", "52", "53", "54" or "55". AmEx starts with "34" or "37", and Discover Cards start with "6011" or "650".

Generating a good "fake" CC number is a bit more complex than the first digit, and getting the Luhn checksum correct.

One of the other commentors is correct in having a huge number of checks around the format of a "credit card number". In practice, all kinds of rubbish ends up in the card number field, and every once in a while, it will pass the Luhn checksum and cause problems down stream.

<comment><USER4> What's the point of generating a good fake? It's not like you're going to guess a number that actually authorizes.

<comment><USER5> There was a time in the past when some services online wouldn't immediately authorize the card - it would only check if the value was a "valid" number.

So, you could, hypothetically, get 1-3 hours of shell internet access based on a generated number.

<comment><USER4> Wouldn't a "bad" fake (i.e. anything with a valid checksum) work just as well?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've written at least 3 versions of this algorithm in various flavors of RPG for the iSeries (AS/400).

The most complete one weighs in at 251 lines (175 w/o comments) but it also does a lot of checking to make sure that the CC number matches the CC type.

I'm much happier using Python these days. ;-)

<comment><USER7> I did too at a previous job where we had a network scanner that could identify (in theory) credit card numbers on the fly as they were accessed or stored into database and file shares.

The app I wrote was a few dozen lines of perl and was used as a QA tool. You could tell it to generate X number of credit card numbers, and also specify flags for generating a mix of numbers (all common US and Int'l formats) as well as a mix of valid/invalid numbers (based on checksum data).

It was a fun spend of a couple hours, and it was amazing to determine how simple it was to generate valid numbers, but then they're also useless without CVV, billing zip and street address for the most part.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I remember the days when cvv/cvc was not asked for by websites. These 'credit card number generators' were in huge demand and sold for a lot of cash. Of course you could always dig around and get them for free.

The latest of these programs was written in vb4, which I could decompile to look at the source (the algorithm wasn't easily available then).

<comment><USER4> CVV/CVC doesn't have much to do with it (I can process cards with nothing more than the number). The issue was that sites were not authorizing cards in real time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is even better: <http://16systems.com/numbers/index.php> it does not generate, but it does validate credit cards.

</comment><comment><USER10> I thought the Nigerians were doing this like 15 years ago.

</comment><comment><USER11> So where do I enter my credit card?

</comment><comment><USER12> This is news?</comment>


On Riemann (network monitoring app and dashboard) - <AUTHOR> https://hackworth.be/2014/01/18/on-riemann/

<comment><USER2> I am also pondering this problem literally right now, and working on it today. It's an issue with several of the new 'push' aka 'webhook' systems: user/key management is slim to none. Riemann server and dash setup is also cumbersome. Isn't the point of a monitoring server that I have to do less manual configuration and management?

Riemann is also a rather heavy server load just to push webhook events to a database. Requires some effort to scale. Godot (Node app that aims to be Riemann API-compatible) seems to be a better option for smaller scale operations.

Right now the solution for many CI and webhook servers is to push events to Hipchat. That does not seem to be the most reliable or efficient way to triage issues.

How are other small to midsize businesses (i.e. those without dedicated devops) managing this architecture?

<comment><USER3> It's not clear from your comment exactly what you're looking to do, but difficulty of configuration was more or less why we built Cabot ([https://github.com/arachnys/cabot](https://github.com/arachnys/cabot)) internally for monitoring our infrastructure. However very possibly you're trying to do something more complicated.

<comment><USER2> Thanks! I skimmed the docs, but I'm not sure I see the strong differentiating qualities. Cabot seems to be a polling (not push) solution? Meaning that each service has to be manually set from within Cabot. I also see several settings are hand-set in the foreman environment.

With Riemann/Godot, I can simply POST JSON (with any metrics) to the Riemann webhook from any number and type of services and servers. Riemann/Godot also make it easy to push data back out, to further analyze or aggregate.

In a way, I'm looking for something less complicated -- a 1GB VPS should be overkill for a small instance. But I'd also like it to accept JSON POST from anything with a matching API key. And store it in a database not run on localhost. With this configuration it should be able to scale as the services scale.

Cabot does make some good points about distributed infrastructure and external testing. Best wishes with the project!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Watching a talk right know, very intresting and entertaining I have to say. See:

[http://vimeo.com/67181466](http://vimeo.com/67181466)

Edit: What is intresting to me is that he says this is single box but he wished it was distributed but its to hard. Seams to me that Strom would have been perfect for this, the auther even knows Clojure so that works out well.

Granted I dont know much about storm but it sound like a perfect match.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've been looking at a couple different 'push' style monitoring solutions, including Sensu. Does anyone have any experience between Reimann and Sensu, or any of the other similar alternatives out there which they'd be willing to share with the community?

<comment><USER6> I have no experience with Sensu, but I can tell you why we went with Reimann: we are processing non-server events.

We have instrumented our iOS app very heavily, and we publish those updates (encrypted via libsodium) to our backend over UDP, which then pushes them into Reimann.

We really like it so far, although I agree that setup could be easier. It's just so incredibly flexible. That said, the machine it runs on is 4x the cost of our main server, thanks mostly to the Java tax, but also the extremely high number of events we push through it.

tl;dr Reimann is very flexible when you want to move beyond monitoring servers to many different kinds of events.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, docs are reasonably good and the developer is very passionate about the project. I have high confidence in its future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For anyone using collectd, it's easy to get your system metrics into Riemann.

[https://collectd.org/wiki/index.php/Plugin:Write_Riemann](https://collectd.org/wiki/index.php/Plugin:Write_Riemann)

</comment><comment><USER8> Neustar's Monitoring and Intelligent alerting provides a push interface to process events. The events are processed by a small javascript program which has a restricted set of APIs.

Disclaimer: I wrote it.

[https://home.wpm.neustar.biz](https://home.wpm.neustar.biz)

</comment><comment><USER9> What's with the low contrast? #7f8c8d is insufficiently dark to easily read on a white background.

<comment><USER10> Which part of the post used that color? The body text is #424242.

[http://leaverou.github.io/contrast-ratio/#%23424242-on- white](http://leaverou.github.io/contrast-ratio/#%23424242-on-white)

<comment><USER11> Author here. I changed the body color css after seeing the comment above. :)</comment></comment></comment>


Senators ask US intel to determine whether TikTok poses national security risks - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/24/tiktok-raises-national-security-concerns-congress-schumer-cotton-ask-federal-review/ <comment><USER2> This is morosely funny, because the responsible community viewpoint has been tilting at windmills for over a decade about the pitfalls of centralizing webcrapps. Which has been ignored due to a blindspot from just being subservient to US business interests, as so much of US culture is.

But now that China has appeared on the scene with a modicum of influence, everyone flips their shit! For some reason people couldn't just reason abstractly about the implications of _centralized control_ , but instead assumed the controllers will be benevolent up until they became "too foreign".

I don't look forward to the likely results though. I think it's going to be more top-down control from DC to SV (it's the only thing they understand, after all), as opposed to any sort of movement to get back to making _secure software_ rather than _untrustable services_.

</comment><comment><USER3> i for one completely trust the US intelligence agencies to make the right decision here. i'm glad that our elected Senate is leveraging the unelected, but best and brightest (or so i am frequently told) members of this country to make these decisions.

this is late-Byzantine empire/Venice type stuff.

</comment><comment><USER4> An app used by young people to post silly videos definitely poses a severe national security risk[1][2].

[1][https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/340216](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/340216)

[2][https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/24/tiktok-most- popul...](https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/24/tiktok-most-popular-app- explained)

<comment><USER5> The argument isn't crazy when you consider the ability to control and manipulate messaging. It's not different than investigating RT or other foreign funded media.

<comment><USER6> This angle is correct - since moderators and admin are located in China it is not hard to censor material, create dissent and appeal to a Chinese propaganda model.

From the article that I suspect many did not read: "lawmakers questioned TikTok's data-collection practices and whether the app adheres to censorship rules directed by the Chinese government that could limit what U.S. users see"

Metadata, GPS location, Camera/Photos and Videos can also leak information about people, specfically children/teens of high ranking officials.

"And the lawmakers said that TikTok could be a "potential target of foreign influence campaigns like those carried out during the 2016 election on U.S.-based social media platforms.""

Is this fear different than what China says about USA tech like Google/Apple/Microsoft? Nope - same. They treat it differently and force companies to comply with their laws and rules.</comment></comment></comment>


Linux on the Web - <AUTHOR> https://linuxontheweb.appspot.com <comment><AUTHOR> It makes heavy use of the HTML5 Filesytem for local storage, as well as Native Client for vim, python, and plugin codecs to enable highly configurable realtime a/v streaming via WebRTC peer connections. Windowed HTML5/JS applications can be developed live within the site itself. There is a feature to stream terminal sessions to each other, in order to show how to efficiently use vim to develop applications, for example.</comment>


Ask HN: Quarter-life crisis - <AUTHOR> 	I'm 25 years old and have a master's degree in political science. During my first year of grad school, I was introduced to R, Python, and C, and began to learn programming. Since completing grad school, I've started a small business which provides data analysis and visualization consulting services to small businesses and political campaigns.I continue to program with R and Python, and hope to expand my knowledge to other languages in the near future. Ultimately, I use programming as a tool to examine large data sets. My goal is to be a data scientist, data engineer, or computational scientist. I'm just not happy with the skill set that I currently have and can't imagine teaching myself the knowledge that I need. Thus, I'm sort of having a quarter life crisis in the sense that I'm really not sure what I'm doing with my life, and don't know how to proceed.
Given my background, I'm wonder whether it would be beneficial to return to university for a second bachelors degree. That second degree would likely be computer engineering. Oviously, I'd love not to be a non-trad student or have loads of debt, but I don't really seem to have any other options at the moment.
Has anyone had a similar experiance? What would you reccoment?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks. <comment><USER3> A lot of questions - don't need to answer. Maybe they can jog your thinking...

What draws you to data visualization? Is it the sorcerer's apprentice type visceral appeal of creating meaning out of seemingly entropic data? Or is it you like the data visualization aspect more than the political campaign/marketing of your business.

Reading between the lines, it seems you are comfortable (and doing fairly well) bringing data visualization to small political campaigns - do you want to expand that ambition? (e.g. in charge of real-time analytics for a large political campaign). Or do you feel like you want to tell people at cocktail parties that you are a data scientist? What would your dream job as a data scientist be? Do you want to be in a position where your job is access to huge data sets (Google, Facebook, Twitter) - for the ego and boasting of it? What do you think of OKCupid's data analysis/data visualization blog on dating - <USER2> you want to explore hypotheses and test them on large data sets? Is Edward Tufte's book(s) a coffee table book or do you flip through it when you are bored? You don't have his books? Did you want to enter the Netflix Prize contest but felt you didn't have the skills to compete?

I've met some biostatisticians. It's hard to figure out what the heck they are talking about - but they really do enjoy their job (providing quantifiable evidence of drug efficacy).

I've also met some actuaries. They get paid a lot. It's a very secure career. It's all numbers.

Some of the best visualizations are not that complex.

<http://twistori.com> <http://twittervision.com>

There is a $$ rather expensive test called the Kolbe test that you may consider investing in taking - it goes way beyond Myers Briggs to pinpoint your personal strengths and how you feel about them.

<http://www.kolbe.com>

</comment><comment><USER4> Just curious, why did you do your master's in political science? Did you want to be an analyst or something and later change your mind?

Also, when you say computational scientist, do you want to go into something specific? Computational political science? Computational biology? Theoretical computer science?

Programming is usually something that bright people can pick up on their own, with the help of online tutorials and books. It seems like you've already started. If you want to go into something that requires domain-specific knowledge, you might consider doing a second master's - depending on the subject, your school may not require a specific undergraduate degree to get in, and in my experience you learn a lot more working with an advisor one on one vs. learning in large class settings. Also, two years instead of four.

<comment><AUTHOR> 1\. My plan was to complete my master's in political science and then head to law school. I wasn't necessarilly interested in being a trial lawyer, but I wanted to work as a legal researcher or legal anlyst. I just lost interest as I made my way through grad school in political science.

2\. I probably should not have writter 'computational scientist.' I'm basically interested in statistical computing and visualization of large data sets.

<comment><USER5> > _"I'm basically interested in statistical computing and visualization of > large data sets."_

IMO, there are two paths by which you can pursue that: experience and academia. The best experience route is to continue to grow and expand your business. The best academic route is a Phd, not another bachelor's. In an important sense, they're similar because either will probably take at least 5 years. And of course there is nothing to keep you from doing both.

Good luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _"... My goal is to be a data scientist, data engineer, or computational scientist. I'm just not happy with the skill set that I currently have and can't imagine teaching myself the knowledge that I need. ..."_

complete MIT OpenCourse, _"6.001 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs"_ , come back and tell us how you went ~ [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and- comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer- science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs- spring-2005/index.htm)

<comment><USER7> I would actually suggest another set of MIT courses that I think are more relevant:

Linear Algebra [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear- algebra-...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra- spring-2010/)

Probability and Statistics [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering- and-comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer- science/6-041-probabilistic-systems-analysis-and-applied-probability- spring-2006/)

and finally

Machine Learning <http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.867/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> More so than any other subject, programming is probably the easiest to learn using the Internet. There's a wealth of knowledge out there about many different languages, including tutorials to easily explain it.

That's how I taught myself most of my programming related knowledge.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER9> If you use programming as a means to an end, dont't forget that you can hire/outsource/partner with those who have the skills you need. I mean, if you want to build a business rather than be an employee, you don't necessarily need the skills yourself.

</comment><comment><USER10> Career dilemma != Quarter-life crisis</comment>


Hellbanned from Hacker News (2012) - <AUTHOR> https://jcs.org/notaweblog/2012/06/13/hellbanned_from_hacker_news <comment><USER2> I've noticed that reading "new" with showdead enabled make a lot of pretty interesting stuff available that's not on the front page. A bit of moderation might be useful, but in HN's case, it's so heavy that it seems to remove value.</comment>


Ask HN: Rate my value proposition - <AUTHOR>

Looking for feedback on the following:
UserMetrix helps companies build software that pleases more users, with less development effort; this is achieved by combining application analytics, with classical error logging and novel usability logging.
Would love to hear your thoughts on if you think this would be useful and feedback on the general concept. <comment><USER2> <product> accomplishes <generic goal> with the bonus of <unsubstantiated claim>. It uses <meaningless term #1>, <meaningless term #2> and <meaningless term #3>.

I'm not trying to be mean. It's just that blurbs like this tell the reader very little about the product. If you want to give a very short description, say very specifically what it does, not how it does it or how you think it might be used.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very fair point - I found it difficult to condense the proposition while still providing all the details. Perhaps I could lengthen the proposition, i.e. have I tried to make it too short?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think that's pretty vague.

I took a look at your sample report (<http://usermetrix.com/projects/2>) and your home page, and it looks like you have a combination of Java AOP logging and exception logging to a database, and then you make a report based on that? Is there anything "actionable" in the report?

So the people buying this service will be Java end-user app developers and their managers, no one else will really need it?

How about: "UserMetrix lets Java and Android developers measure feature adoption and exception message trends across applications to pinpoint usability and functional problems before your users notice"

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Jeff,

Thanks for taking the time to work that up - your value proposition is a huge improvement.

Currently Java end-user app developers and their managers is very much the target audience.

The biggest thing that is actionable in the report is the most likely reproduction steps - see <http://usermetrix.com/log_messages/8805/error> for an example.

Provides developers with a huge head start on narrowing down and pinpointing the root cause of a problem rather than just the symptom, NPE or whatever.

<comment><USER3> Great! Glad I could help!

You should probably tie software versions (of the app being instrumented) into your tracking and reporting as well, so if errors are still being thrown, that's because the user's on 2.0 and the bug is fixed in 2.0.1

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have to agree with the others that it's very vague. However the usability logging to make better software got me interested because I am starting a software in a similar field. Can I reach you via OpenSHAPA?

<comment><AUTHOR> You can reach me via contact _at_ usermetrix _dot_ com

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Your stated "value proposition" is too vague. The only thing implying the use of "metrics" to achieve the goal is the company name, "UserMetrix," but that leaves one to wonder, "What metrics?"

</comment><comment><USER6> too vague but also too weak: "that pleases more users" (weak formulation, vague statement). Be bolder than that! Be specific, and focus more on benefits than features. Also, your target group is not well-defined enough ("companies"). Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER7> Don't want to be harsh or anything, but I still don't know what you do.

<comment><AUTHOR> Honest feedback is exactly what I am looking for, I have struggled to convey the concept with just words alone.

Here is a sample report that my application generates: <http://usermetrix.com/projects/2> Hopefully this makes it a little clearer, and perhaps might give you a few thoughts on how I might do a better job conveying the concept?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> awful... this is a value proposition to who? Investors, Users, the world at large? I don't know how you make whos life easier and why should I pay for it..

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the frank feedback, here is some more content I have been working on for an 'about' section:

UserMetrix combines application analytics with error and usability logging, allowing you to instrument your software to seamlessly capture user feedback.

Data is collated in a central location, providing you with:

Analytics A high level summary of your application's popularity and stability.

Decision Support Problem prevalence allows you to focus on the issues affecting users the most.

Improved Error Reporting Details of application errors that include how to reproduce problems with ease, simplifying debugging.

Supported platforms: Java, Android

Does this convey the target audience a little better?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: I feel like helping somebody out, what can I help you with? - <AUTHOR> Let me help you. Just ask. Anything, as long as it's reasonable and I can actually make it happen, yo. No strings attached, just a random act of kindness, I guess.<p>Edit: Some already started sending me emails (email is in my profile). That's ok if you think it's better vs the comments section. <comment><USER2> I could use some encouragement and life advice. I apologize if this ends up being long and whiny.

I feel like I'm stuck on the outside of the part of society where all the meaningful intellectual work happens.

Since I was a child I have always aspired to learn from the scientists and engineers and humanitarians so that I could be like them one day. I've read Hamming, Feynman, Norvig, Herbert Alexander Simon, and felt that those were the people who have gotten it right, that that's what life should be about. Explore the world, do hard, honest work of figuring things out and building something new that helps people realize their potential and live better. Find the math behind the mundane and harness it to improve the human condition.

But I've been struggling with depression for years and I'm ashamed of how I spent my time in university. I feel that I haven't found a mentor or path of my own. I've constantly felt overwhelmed and let down by myself and by the system. I feel that I don't have the skills or the resolve to just plow ahead and _do_ things. I feel that whenever I try to do research, or write, or even think out loud it ends up with a mockery of the real thing.

Right now I've graduated from a five-year course in computational linguistics, did half a year of antidepressants, half a year of advanced math seminars and moved to Israel for a change of scenery. I would really like to find a collective here where I could learn and solve real problems. Join a startup or do a PhD.

I still have a crippling case of impostor syndrome and occasional panic attacks. If any of you here have suggestions — however specific or general, — I would really appreciate it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the honesty, let me give you some practical advice and maybe a birdseye view of your situation (or at least how I think about it)

\- From your wording, I think you're looking too far ahead in the future, emphasising the long journey ahead of you.

\- What I'd suggest you doing, is, kind of like this little post, start extremely TINY.

1\. Pick a field you're interested in. Don't overthink it, you don't have to spend the rest of your life with this one decision. Just pick 1 thing in the next 8 seconds. It's just a tiny little experiment.

2\. Find a non-profit organisation within that category that you can support with voluntary work. Again... don't overdo it. Just helping them spread the word, or simply sending them an email of appreciation for the work they're doing is a great start.

3\. From the action you take in step 2, use the positive feeling you've gained to do an other tiny act of goodness. Potentially write about each tiny action you take, and keep a blog about those positive feeling/findings/etc.

I'm curious to follow your journey.

Small steps ahead, and before you know it, you can look back at a long trail of awesomeness, appreciating how you got there. Instead of looking to the future, not knowing how to get there.

<comment><USER2> Thank you!

I've just send a note of appreciation to the Centre for Effective Altruism. Let's hope that's a first step. I'll try keeping track of them @ [https://mastodon.xyz/web/accounts/75086](https://mastodon.xyz/web/accounts/75086)

Use the positive feeling to propel myself forward, you say? I'll go help my housemates with the chores and do a writeup on formal correctness proofs.

Sure beats feeling bad about not applying for jobs here more aggressively.

I'll keep in mind your suggestion of starting tiny, starting over instead of staying stuck, and not overemphasizing the big picture. I'm grateful you took the time to answer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can I ask you to work excellently in your job & donate some % of your income to a charity for some amount of time (not just a one time thing) ? ;)

Any charity with good reviews in [http://www.givewell.org/](http://www.givewell.org/) and [https://www.charitynavigator.org/](https://www.charitynavigator.org/) are OK.

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually already do that. Not specifically through those websites though. I wish more would do the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> One of the things I am interested in is quantitative finance. I don't have a math background, however. I'm fascinated by it all and want to be able to read scholarly articles on the subject and understand what they're saying, as they are heavy in math. Do you think 36 is too old to take a few online advanced mathematics classes and indulge in my interests?

<comment><AUTHOR> Taking a little side road here, but the question of being 'too old' for something is a limiting belief you should squash, right now! Here's a super inspiring infographic that answers the question 'Am I too Old to Start', in the context of entrepreneurship. Browse through those names and ages. You'll find motivation to pursuit your own things, despite your age.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You can help us make a search engine to visualise all of world's knowledge with mind maps.

The search engine is open source : [https://github.com/learn-anything/search- engine](https://github.com/learn-anything/search-engine)

We use Javascript, React, Redux and Webpack to build it together with D3.js for visualisation.

We wrote about why we are building it here :

[https://medium.com/@NikitaVoloboev/the-invisible- mountains-b...](https://medium.com/@NikitaVoloboev/the-invisible-mountains- bd50a31bc64e)

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm an ex-engineer, now pediatrian who would really like to be a founder in healthcare technology after residency (2 more years left). Can you show me how to get started? I'm in Seattle. My limitations are that I hope to stay sane, avoid sacrificing all of my time away from a family of 4 children, and be able to start in the light of a significant amount of educational debt (>100k). I know it's quite a specific request, but you said ask anything!

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know a lot about your specific market, but here's what you could do:

\- Start writing. A blog, newsletter, what ever. Start today

\- The goal is to build an audience around your writing. Focus on what you know best, and write for a specific type of customer

\- Don't focus on getting thousands of readers, having 20, 50, 70 people is enough to learn about the problems people have in your industry \- identify the problem, build a solution for your group of readers (could be a course, SaaS, etc.) product may not be free. Put a solid price tag on it.

\- If people pay, and your product seems to solve a real pinpoint, focus more effort on promoting it and attracting more of the same kinds of customers. Go at it slowly.

\- Don't take investments, loans or other things that will only put more weight on your shoulders.

\- Start spending just 2-3 hours a week, today and just stick with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you have any social media presence (or know someone who does) some signal boost on my against-the-grain front end library would be much appreciated:

[https://github.com/LeadDyno/intercooler- js](https://github.com/LeadDyno/intercooler-js)

I have some articles up explaining some of the theory behind it on the blog:

[http://intercoolerjs.org/blog.html](http://intercoolerjs.org/blog.html)

</comment><comment><USER8> Do you know, or know where to research, a tool that would allow private tagging of Facebook users? Say you were developing a product and wanted handy way to flag people as likely (or unlikely) future customers to based on your personal impression, rather than FB's approach of selecting characteristics and having your ad served to a list of users.

</comment><comment><USER9> I have an opportunity to connect a leading IoT vendor with public agencies to impact homelessness... I need an InfoGraphic that depicts who/what/how/why/when/where IoT can positively impact the lifecycle of homeless mothers. Thx for your generous offer!

</comment><comment><USER9> I have an opportunity to connect a leading IoT vendor with public agencies to impact homelessness... I need an InfoGraphic that depicts who/what/how/why/when/where IoT can positively impact the lifecycle of homeless mothers. Thx for your generous offer

</comment><comment><USER10> I want to build a fantasy draft soccer app with node and react. I guess I would need socket.io for the draft, but I've never done any real-time app before. Can you help me out in explaining in the overall architecture of the system? Especially the real-time aspect of it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why don't you build a tiny real-time app first. Maybe this will help: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPkN6ETqes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPkN6ETqes)

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the cool video, I'll definitely start small first.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Help me find some reading material for this evening — post the best thing you've read recently

<comment> joatmon-snoo Reread the Count of Monte Cristo [1] last week, as well as nonjon's "Where in the World is Harry Potter" series [2][3][4] (HP fanfiction, comedy and AU, mature content). Highly recommend both.

[1] [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184)

[2] Where in the World is Harry Potter? [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2354771/1/Where-in-the-World- is...](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2354771/1/Where-in-the-World-is-Harry- Potter)

[3] The Untitled Cheekquel Project [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2477165/1/The-Untitled- Cheekque...](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2477165/1/The-Untitled-Cheekquel- Project)

[4] You Did What! [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2630300/1/You-Did- What](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2630300/1/You-Did-What)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Maybe listing things you're competent at might help for people to know what to ask for.

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't want to limit what people would ask for and even if I'm not able to do it myself, maybe I could point people in the right direction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm trying to adopt another special needs child from bulgaria and save them from orphanage hell. This time we can't do it without raising money, we have a fundraising site and I can pm if interested.

<comment><AUTHOR> send me an email

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Please donate any amount to the OpenBSD foundation: [https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html](https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> done

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> [https://www.hotosm.org/get-involved/disaster- mapping](https://www.hotosm.org/get-involved/disaster-mapping)

</comment><comment><USER16> Help a schoolteacher through [http://donorschoose.org](http://donorschoose.org) .

</comment><comment><USER17> Make someone smile today!

<comment><AUTHOR> My daughter has been smiling all day. I guess that's mission accomplished :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Are you a bot

</comment><comment><USER18> Are you a bot?</comment>