Getting things done - <AUTHOR> http://jvns.ca/blog/2016/09/19/getting-things-done/ <comment><USER2> IMO, more than motivation, more than all the tip/tricks/productivity hacks, the one thing that keeps a person going for long periods of time is sheer discipline. When you make something a part of your daily routine, irrespective of the external/internal stimuli, you just keep at it. Not because there's some mega reward at the end of it, not because you're passionate about it, but just because you are "used to it" ! I think this was brilliantly explained by Scott Adams in his Goals vs Systems article. Instead of looking for motivation/passion and stuff, try to build a system / discipline around what you want to learn / want to be. Rest everything follows automatically. Even if it doesn't give immediate results, a system just doesn't stop, it keeps going !

<comment><USER3> I generally agree with your sentiment to an extent but let me also play devil's advocate:

Whittling your entire life down to process makes you almost robotic and strips you of creativity, spontaneity, and just....that je ne sais quoi of life. It's just too boring.

As always, it's a balance and depends on context. Gymtime? Make it a process. Hanging out with friends? Yeah...don't schedule that in your calendar. Just go hang out with them.

<comment><USER4> I fundamentally disagree that process prevents creativity in any way. On the contrary, I think creativity _requires_ process. The idea that creativity is just something that "comes" to you is an extremely harmful myth.

<comment><USER3> I fundamentally disagree that creativity requires process. Creativity requires inspiration and the most common analogy that I think people use to drive this point home is children at play.

<comment><USER5> Creativity requires both.

You have a problem to solve. You first spend time understanding the problem. This process continues until you understand the problem.

You then start to turn potential solutions over in your head. Lots of research and thought required - this includes inspiration. You must feed your brain. You continue this process indefinitely until...

Epiphany. A special kind of inspiration. You come across something unrelated and your mind connects it to the problem. Ideas in the shower are a typical example. The epiphany gives you a rush - out of nowhere you have the solution.

Creativity is a process where inspiration is a key part. They don't have to be exclusive.

<comment><USER6> Creativity is applicable to scenarios in which there is no problem to solve. What about undirected creative play?

<comment><USER7> There is always a problem to solve and there is always process, we simply don't tend to notice it because we take it as a given (i.e., evolution/survival).

<comment><USER6> What objective function is a four-year-old maximizing when pretending to be Batman with friends?

<comment><USER7> I don't think a kid would be intentionally optimizing anything in this situation. So if you mean that creativity is not only a tool to be used conciously, I agree.

I just mean I think it's difficult to argue that anything we humans do can be viewed as anything else but problem solving.

So in the case of the kid there might be millions of direct reasons (e.g., boredom > want to solve that), but I think it would still be possible to map any of them to some form of problem > effect or cause > effect relationship. Nothing happens without a reason (without religious connotation).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've found that, myself included, a lot of the focus on how to "get things done" in the tech community comes down to tips and tricks. Focus using this technique, break things down, follow GTD, use this productivity software, use that todo list, etc.

With a team, working on a project, you have some nice extrinsic motivation. A team relying on you, maybe deadlines to meet, customers to please, a paycheck to work for, etc.

But for side projects, even though I knew all the tricks, I still had a really tough time _actually_ doing anything for a couple of years. I had a couple of projects that I was super motivated for and completed over a couple of weeks, but most of my time outside of that was wholly unproductive.

The thing that was missing for me was the _why_ , the long-term vision. If I was working on something now that has little value to me in that moment or the days following, I found it hard to find motivation to keep going.

What I found boost my initial productivity the most was _actually conjuring up the motivation_. After that, it's a series of small wins in increasing that productivity through software, tips, tricks, support groups, etc. Without the motivation, though, no amount of tools will get things done for you.

<comment><USER9> Disagree about motivation. See Steven Pressfield's "War of Art" and "Do the work."

Motivation is ephemeral. Hard work, habit, consistently applying yourself regardless of your motivation, is key.

<comment><USER8> Definitely agree! But you need to find it in yourself a driving reason to put in the hard work.

Tell a depressed, unmotivated person with no goals to just "work hard" and see how far that gets you. There needs to be some reason to do something rather than nothing.

<comment><USER10> I'm not a doctor, but I think part of the advice for certain types of depression e.g. people who have let their home get so untidy that they are overwhelmed at the thought of ever getting it tidy again, and very similar to advice for breaking writer's block, is just to make a start, and let the small amounts of progress form a reinforcement to continue.

<comment><USER11> This is true, but it's almost never structured as "just do the work". If anything, it's the opposite framing: do a little bit, just this one isolated task, and see the progress you make.

Pressfield's "do the work" annoys me, because it undervalues the importance of energy and a goal. It's a great approach to make reliable progress and fight distraction, but it's badly inadequate to the task of creating activity in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> One chronic problem with productivity on side-projects that I have always had is valuing what you are doing. With a fresh start towards an idea, motivation run high, mind is pumped up to work and you are terribly excited to get the thing out of the door.

Fast forward few more days or weeks, you're unexcited, you think this is hopelessly daft, you think no will care about it, and slowly de-motivation creeps in.

I recently started a small blog to write research based articles on interesting questions with a goal of putting a few posts per month but it seems I am far behind my aim. I was excited about writing my last post[1] but gradually, it faded into self-doubt — the writing style is in-consistent and poor, the points are not strong, research is shallow — most of which come when I see how others write and inevitably start comparing them with mine. I did end up finishing the post but I just don't value what I did.

It seems the timeframe between starting and finishing should be as short as possible. The breaks just kill the spirit.

[1]: [https://newpopsicle.com/should-the-truth-be-sugar- coated/](https://newpopsicle.com/should-the-truth-be-sugar-coated/)

<comment><USER13> That reminds me of an idea by Ira Glass (This American Life): when you start learning something (i. e. writing), what improves most is taste. Actual competence takes longer to develop.

The result is a (possibly ten-year long) period where you can clearly recognize that your work sucks but you don't have the ability (yet) to not suck.

<comment><USER14> One of my favorite quotes / ideas that always hits close to home. He continues this thought with the observation that most people in those situations never get past this point...and give up, while only a few keep pushing despite their perceived mediocrity, which is a key part of this thought in my opinion.

Here's the full quote: "Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take awhile. It's normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through."

<comment><USER15> Thank you for finding that.

It's funny how strongly I _heard_ Glass' voice in my head as I read that. He seems like an interesting guy.

<comment><USER16> Check out the video of him discussing this and you'll actually hear his voice: [https://vimeo.com/24715531](https://vimeo.com/24715531) :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think something missing from the list is "learn to say no".

This is not necessarily a very positive sounding message, but when you are pulled left and right to support or help people, you do not get anything on your personal task list done.

There is a right balance to find because in a way by helping, the whole team is progressing. Try to teach people how to fish rather that giving them a fish.

<comment><USER18> "The fastest code is the code that never runs"

On that note, postpone noncritical shit as long as you can stomach. 9 times out of 10 it will resolve itself and you'll find you didn't really care about the result.

<comment><USER19> To rephrase maccard's comment: postpone it explicitly rather than explicitly.

If you silently chip the task into the tall grass, then they are left with ambiguity and frustration. If you are explicit, then you give them an opportunity to convince you of its value. If you respect them as a colleague, listen to them and argue with them. If you don't respect them, talk to your manager so they stop coming to you.

<comment><USER18> I meant noncritical like cleaning out your closet, donating that pile of clothes you never wear, or doing the dishes.

At work, the correct response is to consult a project manager person and ask: "Which project would you like me to deprioritize, in favor of this new project?". There are people whose entire job it is to balance stakeholder concerns and decide what you should be working on today/this week/this month/this quarter. Use them.

If you're in a position or organization where that's your job, then make your priorities public. When someone asks you to do X, explain that you're already doing Y. If you can't come to an ad-hoc agreement about priorities, talk to a higher up.

If you're the last higher up in the chain, then, shit man, hire more people.

But the basic principle is this: If it's not on the roadmap, why are you working on it? If it's not the next most important thing on the roadmap, why are you working on it?

<comment><USER20> On the other hand, assiduously doing ONLY what the PM has designated to the exclusion of everything else is a recipe for misery and organizational dysfunction.

There has to be some slack for creativity, problem-solving, and some unstructured collaboration. I run into problems all the time in a "cross- functional" role with people who refuse to lift their nose from the grindstone unless specifically commanded by their boss.

<comment><USER18> Of course, "Use your judgement". I try to fulfill small asks quickly, as time permits. For bigger asks, I work with the person to get them slotted into the roadmap.

Same approach for bugs. If something comes up where it's not absolutely clear that it's a critical production bug, I go ask the roadmap guy whether this is more or less critical than what I'm working on.

The idea isn't that he's my boss and I only do ahat he says, but that he has broader insight into the business and criticality of various things. Sometimes something can be terribe and critical and everyone gets up in a huff, but it's still not worth doing instead of the business critical project you're working on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> One thing the post doesn't cover is a defeatist attitude or a poor outlook on life. Basically, depression (regardless of the reason).

Depression doesn't need to paralyze you. You can be productive when depressed but it is often followed by a pattern of self destructive behavior.

I used to never understand why addicts would self destroy. They would get a job, finally get their lives together and then fuck it up.

Long term goals can feel pointless when you believe that you are insignificant and your life is meaningless. What's the point of improving my life by X factor if I'm gonna be dead anyway? What's the point of building this if it will be replaced by technology Y in Z years? What's the point of discovering this if eventually someone else will? What's the point if the Universe....

That type of thinking about the far future often results in defeatism.

In reality, you wake up the next day, having made no progress, your life is the same as yesterday, it may have gotten worse if you overindulged in your addiction and now you feel like utter shit.

A positive outlook on life and a focus on improving now, on evaluating each activity as a return on investment and building a better version of yourself feels more serene than admitting defeat.

I think comfort leads to stagnation. The best work I've done is when I was in survival mode and completely dissatisfied with my life. Once I reach "normalcy", procrastination and self indulgence kick in unless I see a point behind a long term goal.

<comment><USER22> >Once I reach "normalcy", procrastination and self indulgence kick in unless I see a point behind a long term goal.

Greeeeat point. Productivity is incredible while you're in survival mode. However, is there a time when stagnation is the goal? I often thought, "If I got rich, I'd do nothing. Sit, enjoy life, travel." But would that lead to the depression you speak of?

<comment><USER21> Past a certain level of income, the number of things you can directly buy that will make a significant improvement in your life are extremely rare.

You're back to square 1 and you need to work to improve your life. The technology, products and services simply do not exist.

Unless you are willing to readjust your world view, attitude and ambition to be fine with stagnation (i.e "living life"); you will feel dissatisfied.

<comment><USER23> Yep, yep, yep. Just got "there", thanks to the original motivation. Trying to just "live life". Sucks...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > It turns out that I as a human can do a lot on my own!

Reminds of

> If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly

[http://www.chesterton.org/a-thing-worth- doing/](http://www.chesterton.org/a-thing-worth-doing/)

<comment><USER25> Wish I was told this when I was younger, would of help put the world into perspective sooner than later :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> "Try to get something done every day" has been the hardest and most rewarding part for me. It seems like it is mostly just reconciling long term and short term incentives. I'm incentivized tin the long run to finish and launch my side project but there are a ton of other short term incentives competing for my time today.

I put together [https://codeorelse.com](https://codeorelse.com) to help me with that. If I don't push to GiHub on a day, I have to pay $1 (or more if i want). Seems to be helping.

</comment><comment><USER27> What does help me too is to just start on something and not procrastinate. If you survived the first 2 seconds of starting, you can go on for hours.

<comment><USER28> What helps me is a moderate dose of amphetamines. It takes me from being someone who steps over something on the floor for a week because he's to lazy to put it away to writing code for 56 hours straight.

And the code isn't actually bad. The real problem is that it also makes you into a perfectionist who starts to write his own jpeg library if he finds anything about libjpg that he does't like.

<comment><USER29> I bet if you had said aderall instead of amphetamine that wouldn't have been down-voted.

<comment><USER30> A moderate dose of Adderall wouldn't have you coding for 56 hours straight...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> > Focus (do one thing at a time, maybe two)

I think it is important to focus on an achievable list of tasks each day, otherwise you can easily get overwhelmed. Getting items closed each day makes me feel effective.

My personal "hack" is to focus on no more than 5 tasks per day (apart from all of my regular everyday work tasks), and I am building an MVP to track those: [https://five.today/](https://five.today/)

I honestly get a great feeling from a completed list at the end of each day (but I don't always get there!).

</comment><comment><USER32> This is a pretty good on all points.

Especially the "Focus" part. God knows how many times I missed deadlines because I was too stupid to focus on finishing one-two things at a time, instead of trying to work everything I have to, only to get confused, not sure what was next for one thing, something else for another... Finally sitting down and telling myself: "DUDE, FOCUS" As I realized how much easier it was to do things one at a time was a real life-saver.

</comment><comment><USER19> Also block HN and other sites for chunks of time using /etc/hosts or (if you need non-revocable commitment) [https://freedom.to/](https://freedom.to/) .

</comment><comment><USER33> Best philosophy I've found is: take most urgent problem, solve minimally, check, repeat forever.

<comment><USER34> But - when does the important, but non-urgent, get done?

<comment><USER33> If it is never the next most urgent problem, then never.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Loved the section "Try to get something done every day". Productivity hacks do nothing to me. Reading Hacker News while working is nothing off my actual work as long as I get things done. And I do get things done, lots of work. Not saying that productivity hacks won't work for someone, but people need to understand that best metric of getting stuff done is getting stuff done, regardless what you did in-between of start point and finish line.

</comment><comment><USER36> It might seem obvious but "Try to get something done every day" is a very good advice. You can apply this to anything. Just take one step every day and you will eventually reach your goal. The hard part is always to start. If you "start" every day it will soon become effortless. Pick up your guitar, write some lines of code, go to the gym, etc.

<comment><USER37> I dont know if its just me, I have the opposite problem. For me its very hard to finish things properly. I have the motivation to start and get 80 percent there but then there is no more pull to polish things further.

<comment><USER38> Is it because you have done all the interesting stuff or because you got distracted with something else (or had to stop working on it) and you don't feel like working on it again?

<comment><USER37> Yeah, I feel most of the interesting stuff is in the beginning to somewhere around half-way, and then I'm never as motivated to see it to completion because the "research" part is done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I think it says something about the Hacker News community that these posts always float to the top. Hardly a day passes where I don't see a "no more procrastination" post.

What does this mean? Is it that we're all procrastinators? I don't think so, many here are highly accomplished. Is it our fear or procrastination? Is it perfectionism?

Strange.

<comment><USER39> It's a poorly understood subject on a topic that almost all people consider important.

Given that it is a poorly understood subject, it is then a highly moralized one, and moralized topics are popular.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> > "Try to get something done every day".

This bit is key. Even a millimeter forward beats standing still. It's about discipline.

What works for me is simply:

1\. Wake up early 2\. Focus one one thing 3\. Give yourself a deadline 4\. Measure your productivity

\</comment><comment> shameless but useful plug begins here </comment><comment>

I've turned this approach into a web app - [https://lanes.io](https://lanes.io). It's a todo list and timer with 'insights' into when you're most productive. It won't help you with point 1 (try coffee), but it's good for achieving all the the other steps.

The feedback loop from measuring your progress is surprisingly effective. Trying to beat how productive you were yesterday becomes a game you play.

</comment><comment><USER39> This doesn't really work if you want to do more than one thing. Many of us find the highly specialized life incredibly dull.

I guess that's the tragedy of the human existence.

</comment><comment><USER41> Note that there is a new implementation of Hendersons's picture language. Color images is just one of the new features.

Save this file. Open it. Either add your own code at the bottom or use require to use it from another file.

[https://github.com/sicp-lang/sicp/blob/master/sicp- pict2/sic...](https://github.com/sicp-lang/sicp/blob/master/sicp- pict2/sicp.rkt)

</comment><comment><USER42> There is way more advice in David Allen's well-known book _Getting Things Done_ , and there are many things to help with this like the _Action Day Planner_ notebook.

Allen's method is better than many others. Still I have to admit that personally this self-motivation stuff has never appealed much to me. I'm using the _just do it - or procrastinate_ method.

<comment><USER43> My experience of david allen's GTD is that it's a little bit like dieting. Every now and then I go on a diet because I'm depressed about my weight. Every now and then I start using GTD because I'm feeling overwhelmed by the work that needs to be done. Both make me feel better for a little while but I lack the willpower to stick at them.

<comment><USER44> > I go on a diet because I'm depressed [...] > I start using GTD because I'm > feeling overwhelmed [...] > I lack the willpower to stick at them

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's not willpower you lack. You stop feeling depressed, or you stop feeling overwhelmed (at least a little bit). _That 's_ why you stop.

One of the things I learned when I was studying Japanese is that I couldn't sustain my negative motivation to study. I could only study every day if I truly wanted to study every day.

It is said that if you keep one eye on the goal, you only have one eye for the path. For long term goals, it's important to concentrate on making your daily activities the goal, because the long term goal will not actually come in time to satisfy you.

Another way I tend to look at it is that people think "I want to be slim" or "I want to get things done". It's not actually what they want. Rather they are thinking, "I want to _have become_ slim" or "I want to _have got_ things done". The key to success is to change your point of view so that the act of becoming slim (dieting, exercising, etc) or the act of getting things done (working) is what you desire. Instead of thinking, "Those are crappy things that I must endure", you must think "Why do I dislike those things and what can I do to change my point of view?"

Hope that helps!

<comment><USER45> > You stop feeling depressed, or you stop feeling overwhelmed (at least a > little bit). That's why you stop.

Could be. Another problem would be doubt: Is there any value in what I do? With some goals like loosing weight it is obvious. But how about: should I write that book?

The method is very efficient no matter what you do. That is, you approach your goal with 100 miles/hour and not walking speed. If at some point it becomes clear that you followed the wrong goal you wasted a good amount of energy. I think knowing this can paralyze you.

<comment><USER44> I think that "Is there any value in what I do" a good question, but perhaps you can think about it differently. For example, "Should I write a book?" If you start to write a book and don't finish, have you wasted your time? If your answer to this question is "yes", then maybe writing a book is not a good idea for you. Again, it's getting into that category of wanting to have written a book, not wanting to write a book.

Instead you can decide to write. It might be a book. It might not be a book. In fact, if you have never written a book before, probably it's much better not to aim at writing a book. For example, even if you want to run a marathon some day, you don't get up out of bed, never having run before and say, "Today I am going to run a marathon". Instead you get up and run. You do that every day for a year or so and _then_ you start thinking, "Maybe I'll run a marathon".

I think people get confused because they see people just write a book, or run a marathon or whatever. If you are Stephen King, you can wake up one day and think "I'm going to write a book" because you already have all the skills you need to organise and maintain yourself over the period of time you need. You also know that writing is something you feel comfortable doing day in and day out. And although I can do many things that Stephen King can't do, _I_ can not just decide to write a book. It takes experience to get to that point.

Another trick that I use for this kind of thing is to think about what I currently do that feels like a waste of time. For example, sitting around and watching mindless TV. It's easier to think, "I'm not going to watch TV today". But the question is, what _are_ you going to do? Suddenly the world opens up. You can do anything. Maybe it is running. Maybe it is writing a book. Maybe it is programming. You aren't wasting your time, but you also don't need some paralysing overarching goal either.

<comment><USER45> All very true but what I meant to say (but didn't actually articulate) is that when you apply GTD it becomes clear that you need priorities.

Let's say you are well versed in a new technology that is quickly gaining popularity. Now you are unsure whether you want to write a book about this technology. Maybe it becomes THE standard book on this topic! Otoh, you could apply at a company where you can work on a project that uses said technology.

There are obviously pros and cons to both ideas. One Scenario: You start writing the book because it seems to be the more fulfilling job. Some months in a stronger, competing technology arrives. Now you think: Was starting the book a good idea? If I had taken the job at least I'd have earned a paycheck and had something to put on my CV. In hindsight you may realize that you crave a more secure lifestyle etc.

The time has passed so there already would be a gap on your CV if you don't finish the book. So maybe finishing the book is not a bad idea. At least you can demonstrate that you've done _something_ successfully during the last couple of months. Let's assume finishing the book would take two more months. Could you easily complete it when everything is already outlined with GTD? Further more, could you easily abandon it when everything is already outlined with GTD?

<comment><USER44> I see. I have to admit that I'm especially bad at these kinds of decisions :-) I don't use GTD, so abandoning my plan is easy for me. I also don't try to optimise, generally speaking.

The one thing I can say from my experience with software projects is that plans must change in order to have success. It is rare that you will nail the correct course of action up front. In fact it is rare that the thing the customer needs looks anything like what they think they want at the start. This seems to be true for me in my life as well.

A friend once told me that you should tell the universe what you want and then wait for it to be delivered. The trick is that the universe never gives you what you asked for, but rather what you need. Your job is to recognise it when it comes. Easier said than done!

But anyway, thank your for the ideas. I will have to think about this!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Its a good middle of an essay.

The first half of the article is a rephrasing of the organizational strategy of focusing hard on things closer to you (in time, priority, physically, financial, whatever) and intentionally fuzzier on things far away but remember to at least glance at everything once in a while. Its that strategy dis- integrated into seemingly unrelated parts without referencing the whole, although I was able to identify the whole. I'm too lazy to look up the dude who originally wrote that, probably wrote it more eloquently than I did; none of this paragraph is my idea.

The second half of the article isn't integrated or I can't recognize what was dis-integrated to make it. The problem of doing whatever's necessary paragraph isn't a purity problem or personal problem or usually everything turns out OK, but is often a code smell problem, which can be counteracted at least partially by the be organized enough paragraph, just comment the code as smelly and list it as needing rewriting in the TODO and hope it runs until it can be perfected. Likewise having deadlines and I can do a lot are dis- integrated. There probably is a theme to the second part that was dis- integrated that I can't identify.

I guess both complaints boil down to it needs a wrapper. An intro like "heres how to break down and concretely apply two wide ranging theoretical and vague organizational strategies (names here) that help me (insert the rest of the intro explaining why its important to do so here)" And a summary/conclusion of the highlights and if you liked this here are some google terms/references etc. Its "why" and "how" are well written and correct, its just missing its "what".

Its the meaty middle of a good essay, although an intro and conclusion (and references) would have been nice additions.

</comment><comment><USER47> Here's the big one for me. Define short deadlines! This is super important, it will force you to do the other ones automatically (Removing less important tasks, focusing, etc)

</comment><comment><USER48> I can't help but think it was easier to do things before the internet.

<comment><USER49> I did a lot of programming before the internet was widely available. It was easier to keep working but much harder to get things done.

When you have to use dusty manuals to research anything and everything you spend a _lot_ of time looking things up and/or a lot of time trying random possibilities until one works.

(You end up with a lot of "black-box" APIs and functions that you know work, but you can't remember why or what other things it can do are)

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Am I the only one expecting a explanation or setup guide for David Allens GTD?</comment>


Web based config utility & sync for Synergy (Kickstarter Project) - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nolte/howdy-mac-lasso-all-your-macs-w-one-mouse-and-keyb

<comment><AUTHOR> Not my project but I think this would be an awesome utility as I hate configuring Synergy. Was very surprised to see no backers on KS.</comment>


Amazon SimpleDB - Now With Select - <AUTHOR> http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2008/12/simpledb---now-with-select.html <comment><USER2> Basically, this is a matter of syntax and not a change in the behavior of the datastore or its queries. This is probably a good thing as most people are used to SQL-like instructions, but it isn't going to allow you to do things you couldn't before.

</comment><comment><USER3> Finally...</comment>


Hey, Lynx - women are astronauts, too - <AUTHOR> http://spacekate.com/2013/hey-lynx-apollo-women-are-astronauts-too/

<comment><AUTHOR> Following the Superbowl ad, this got some extra coverage by Forbes and Discovery.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/mahaatal/2013/02/04/axes- super-b...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/mahaatal/2013/02/04/axes-super-bowl- ad-fail-when-sexism-doesnt-sell/)

[http://news.discovery.com/space/private-spaceflight/super- bo...](http://news.discovery.com/space/private-spaceflight/super-bowl-ads- sexy-astronauts-and-space-babies-130204.htm)</comment>


Thinkin' Tags - Rapid HTML/CSS Prototyping - <AUTHOR> http://www.thinkintags.com/

<comment><USER2> I like thinkin' tags, but what about the price tag?

PS: fix the "truely" typo

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not my app, I just thought it looked pretty cool. I don't see a price tag anywhere either.

<comment><USER3> There's no pricing modell right now as this is an alpha release to get to know if the users like this concept and to have more users testing it.

There will be a premium modell in the future but in the first step, we want to reach beta status having all features on board.

<comment><USER2> I understand that, but not having any idea if this will be a freemium or a full paid app, and at what price range, will severely limit the potential interest. I, for example, am not going to rely on something that could become too expensive for my use of it ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can't figure out how it works.

<comment><USER3> Take a look at the introduction video on the project website. This will help to understand how it works</comment></comment>


How I landed an internship at a Y Combinator Startup - <AUTHOR> http://smitpatel.posterous.com/how-i-landed-an-internship-at-a-y-combinator

<comment><USER2> I'm actually wondering why getting an internship is so hard, I thought most startups would love having other helping hands on board for free and being able to help them learn at the same time?

I haven't had any interns yet but would like to take one or two onboard soon (once we get a real physical office in a month or two). For those who have taken on interns did you find it was a good or bad experience? Would you recommend it for a relatively new startup? (1 year old, launched and ramen profitable but with no employees)

I love teaching and helping others so thought it would be fun and a great win- win way to both help a student and get their help in return, but am interested in hearing others thoughts on it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Tim,

So I wasn't looking for a completely free internship because I've seen a lot of startups who want to get "free labor" than actually provide anything in return.

That being said, there are a lot of startups like yours who might actually provide value to the interns.

Also I didn't want to commit to something I wasn't going to like doing since mediocrity is the worst enemy of startups.Due to this a lot of startups are skeptical of hiring interns.

It really depends on the person. Its my second day at Flightfox and I love what I am doing and know the business inside out. I am as passionate about it as the founders.

My view is that the really great interns come to you rather than you going out to search for them :)</comment></comment>


NASA Is Trying to Grow Potatoes on Mars - T-A http://www.wsj.com/articles/nasa-really-is-trying-to-grow-potatoes-on-mars-1460560325 <comment><AUTHOR> One of the meaningful bits of engineering one can do on Earth for furthering Martian agriculture, is the recycling of water. It's going to cost energy and worker-time to extract water out of the soil. Even machinery that condenses water out of the Martian air will require energy and maintenance. (Possibly passive structures that condense water?)

For this reason, we may want to research habitats that can almost completely retain moisture in the form of water vapor and extract it out of the air. Such requirements are quite uncommon for structures on Earth, doubly so if you also add in the requirements of enclosing useful agricultural acreage and pressurization. Submarines are probably good at doing this, but the price per square meter of floor would be prohibitive. We'd want to be able to build such structures on Mars from in-situ resources.

Building such structures on Earth and growing crops like potatoes within them would constitute worthwhile research in preparation of colonizing Mars.

(One side effect of such research might be the ability to settle and develop land in places like West Texas, much of which gets very little rain and has land that sells at single-digit dollar prices.)

<comment><USER2> If you haven't yet, listen to one of the recent episodes of Star Talk Radio (Season 7, Episodes 4). They have Any Weir, author of "The Martian", and Dr. Jim Green, Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. Dr. Green describes how they now think extracting water from the Martian soil may be as simple as heating up soil. Supposedly, the Martian soil contains roughly 35 liters of water for every cubic meter of soil.

<comment><USER3> From "The Martian":

> Fortunately, I have water. But not as much as I want. To be viable, soil > needs 40 liters of water per cubic meter. My overall plan calls for 9.2 > cubic meters of soil. So I'll eventually need 368 liters of water to feed > it.

> The Hab has an excellent Water Reclaimer. Best technology available on > Earth. So NASA figured "why send a lot of water up there? Just send enough > for an emergency." Humans need 3 liters of water per day to be comfortable. > They gave us 50 liters each. There are 300 liters total in the Hab.

So if the soil already has 35 liters per cubic meter, he would have actually needed just 46 liters of additional water and wouldn't have needed to muck about with hydrazine.

<comment><USER4> Its my understanding that the moisture content of martian soil was not know when the book was written.

There is more moisture and water ice found rather recently than we had previously estimated.

<comment><USER3> Oh, I know that, and I love the book and movie, I just thought that it was ironic that it was a talk with Andy Weir.

As science progresses, he could in fact publish new editions of "The Martian" with the relevant stuff corrected, a la Ridley Scott's numerous editions of Blade Runner, or, God forbid, Lucas' editions of Star Wars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> An interesting piece of trivia, while potatoes are in cuisine across the world now, they are native to the Americas (which is briefly mentioned in the article). It's ability to feed many (being caloricly dense), as well as being fairly rugged allowed it to create Europe's population boom and urbanization when it was introduced there. Let's hope the same can be done to Mars!

<comment><USER6> However in many places people were unsure if they were fit for human consumption! For instance the Paris Faculty of Medicine only declared them edible in 1772 mainly by the efforts of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.

He did publicity stunts such as potato dinners featuring honorable gusts like Lavoisier and Benjamin Franklin, or (my favorite) surrounding his potato garden with lots of guards... only to instruct them to accept any bribe and be extra sloppy guarding the garden, allowing interested villagers to "steal" the potatoes.

<comment><USER7> Frederick the Great's "potato marketing" is a pretty great story. He was convinced the potato would help grow and nourish the population so he tried to enact it as "people food" via law. The people did not take to it. He then devised the genius plan of having potato fields guarded by soldiers who were secretly told to take naps and/or sleep at night and let people steal the potatoes. People being people some citizens figured it must be valuable and great stuff if it's guarded and the "hot new food of kings" spread pretty quickly.

There's usually potatoes on his grave to this day :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > As humans prepare to blast off to Mars, there is still the question of what > they'll eat once they colonize the red planet. Scientists who have traveled > here to the Peruvian desert say they have the answer. Potatoes.

Followed by the Great Martian Potato Famine, and then signs in the windows of Earth businesses stating "No Martians."

<comment><USER9> Martians Need Not Apply

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It would be ironic if something were to happen to us and potatoes became the life form that colonized space.

<comment><USER11> What's the irony here?

<comment><USER10> We tend to think of the human species landing on the moon as an isolated species achievement.

The human view of our future is usually of us colonizing space independently, not of us wanting to spread earthly life forms across the universe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> >Mars One, a Dutch nonprofit foundation, plans to send individuals to the planet in about 10 years on a one-way trip to establish a permanent colony.

Come on. A journalist from a serious publication is still talking about Mars One as anything other than a large scam? Ridiculous.

<comment><USER13> Why do you think that Mars One is a scam? Is it not feasible to get humans to Mars in ~10 years?

<comment><USER14> It has been _technically_ feasible to get humans to Mars for decades already. It has only recently become _economically_ feasible. And we likely have a few more years to go before it becomes _politically_ feasible.

The sticking point has never been the tech. It has always been the people. And in my opinion, Mars One does not have the right people to produce a successful mission.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "... If they grow successfully, the potatoes will then be planted in a simulator that factors in the atmospheric conditions on Mars. ..."

Will it also simulate the cosmic rays Mars has to endure and can these rays be duplicated?

<comment><USER16> May I bathe in these rays and become and X-Man or Fantastic Fifth?

<comment><USER17> The rays are ionizing and will smash apart the DNA molecules in living cells.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I hope they're planning on taking TPS or true potato seeds with them. You could fit a million true potato seeds in a small pouch and you'd be set for a long time :)

<comment><USER15> I suspect Monsanto will "have to Science the shit" into these potatoes and create new GMO strains to fight the cold, the radiation and low water availability.

I would rather have another James Webb telescope or send a few hundred probes to Alpha Centauri with the money it will cost to go to Mars.

<comment><USER19> Icelanders manage to grow decent crops in greenhouses.

There is no reason to suggest that Martians should operate any differently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> To recreate the surface air pressure of Mars, this experiment should be taking place at an altitude roughly five times the height of Everest or a similarly evacuated chamber. Mars is _harsh_. (Edit: i.e. yes, all agriculture will likely need to take place under the sort of structures you see on the cover of sci-fi novels from 60s and 70s).

<comment><USER17> Indeed. They mention the composition of the atmosphere, but the low pressure is conveniently forgotten about. The Mars atmosphere is like a vacuum: 0.00628 atm. Earth atmosphere normal pressure is 1 atm. Essentially, being on the surface of Mars is being in space. And what about the radiation? Mars has no magnetic field like Earth has. So the Solar Wind has free play on the surface.

<comment><USER21> Which makes living on the Moon suddenly not look so bad!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'll kick off the study to produce vodka on Mars and we'll be sorted for colonisation of Mars

<comment><USER23> That's also a good way to get russians onboard

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I wonder if this would be a good application for one of these tomato-potato grafted plants.

[http://www.territorialseed.com/product/grafted-tomtato- ketch...](http://www.territorialseed.com/product/grafted-tomtato-ketchup-n- fries)

</comment><comment><USER25> Just finished reading _Red Mars_ and am now reading _Green Mars_, so this is relevant to my interests.

</comment><comment><USER26> Didn't Mark Wahlberg already do this?

</comment><comment><USER27> Sounds like someone at NASA read The Martian...

<comment><USER24> Probably someone in the marketing dept.

<comment><USER28> I would expect NASA to be more concerned with "public relations" than "marketing".

I know, "potato, potAHto"...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Leave Mars alone;

</comment><comment><USER30> They should have done corn for the high-fructose corn syrup ... because apparently we need it in everything.</comment>


Advice for a First Time Solo Founder Please - <AUTHOR> Hi Hacker News Community,
My name is Julian and I'm the founder (non-technical) of Saveryday. Saveryday is a new marketplace that is gamifying retail. The way it works is that Saverydayers (aka users) spin a discount wheel and whatever discount the wheel lands on that's the discount the Saverydayer gets. However, if the Saverydayer is not satisfied with their discount they can pay a $1 to buy another spin but will lose their previous discount. They can buy as many spins as they would like but have to pay $1 for each spin. That is pretty much how Saveryday works. So this is my first startup ever and I'm really excited about it. However, I do know that there will be many challenges presented along this journey. I know that there are many intelligent people and successful founders in this community so I was wondering if anyone would be willing to offer any advice in general or how they overcame the challenges presented on their journey. I would really appreciate it. Also, In case anyone was wondering I am from Miami, FL. I always love meeting new people so if you're interested in chatting you can email me at email@example.com. I look forward to reading all of your advice.
Thank You, Julian <comment><USER2> Why is this not an illegal lottery?

The definition of a lottery is pretty simple: a scheme involving consideration (such as an entry fee), chance (like a random selection), and a prize.

[http://deadspin.com/complaint-ironman-ran-an-illegal- lottery...](http://deadspin.com/complaint-ironman-ran-an-illegal-lottery-and- made-mill-1705345614)

<comment><AUTHOR> I honestly don't know. It never crossed my mind. That's something I'm going to have to ask about. I don't know if this helps but the extra $1 is added to final price and we take commission of the final price. But thanks for bringing that up. Good to know early on before getting into legal problems. Don't want to be in trouble like Fan Duel and Draft Kings.</comment></comment>


The oldest hamburger looks exactly the same - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313276/Man-keeps-McDonalds-burger-14-years-looks-exactly-the-day-flipped-Utah.html

<comment><USER2> That's just disgusting.</comment>