Venture capital investment is growing faster outside the US - <AUTHOR> https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/10/america-losing-its-edge-startups/572323/ <comment><USER2> I recently read _Factfulness_ , by Hans Rosling, and it really changed how I read articles like this. Here's where this article goes totally off the rails...

It's only showing American startup activity as a proportion of global startup activity. I might have missed it in a quick read, but _nowhere_ did I see total numbers by nation, or by startup city.

Let's shift perspective slightly. Is American investment in startups decreasing? Not compared to China or whatever, but compared to itself? Or is it staying the same, or growing? Looking at Pitchbook data, the biggest year for US venture capital was 2015 ($82.2B), with 2017 close behind at $81.9B, and 2018 looking to be about on par. So stable, basically.

What this tells us is not that the US startup activity is in any way unhealthy, but rather that the rest of the world is figuring out how to do it, too. And what's wrong with that? How is that a negative? We don't get that from the article, because it's stuck in this misleading mode of lost competitiveness from is comparison model.

This is why everyone should read _Factfulness_. No other book I've ever read has helped tune my bullshit detector so well.

<comment><USER3> Further to that point, the article pretends it's a global phenomenon that's occuring. It's not. Venture capital has barely budged in the developed world. That growth is almost exclusively isolated to two countries: China and India. The growth in the rest of the world is very modest as a share of the global total VC.

Just look at the expansion in China since 2005, as one would expect, it represents the extreme majority of all VC expansion globally. The story should have actually been framing the premise as: China's dramatic economic expansion since the late 1990s, in which it added ~$80 trillion in cumulative economic activity over 20 years, has resulted in a lot of venture capital activity. They went from 1% of global VC activity, to 25%, in roughly 20 years (12x that of France now) - that's the primary story.

Or put another way, since ~2006, the US has bled only three to four points of its global share of all VC to 190 some countries, and roughly 24 or 25 points to just China and India.

That wouldn't make for nearly as attention-getting of a headline though.

<comment><USER2> Are there any other countries that are _seriously_ in the software industry besides the US, China, and India?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I buy the data. I don't buy the conclusion.

America blazed the trail. Do you think the rest of the world is simply going to sit idly on the sidelines after watching the success? No. Entrepreneurs around the world have been watching, and they've been inspired to create movements in their own cities. Governments have been watching, and they're inspired to support their entrepreneurs. The rest of the world woke up and that's a good thing for the world.

Also what's with comparing America with an aggregate of the rest of the world? That alone shows how far and away America is that we need to make bad faith comparisons like that.

Here's an example from the article:

> While it is true that venture-capital investment in the U.S. continues to > rise, having reached more than $90 billion in 2017, such investment is > growing even faster in other parts of the world, expanding by nearly 375 > percent — more than twice the 160-percent increase here.

<comment><USER5> > Do you think the rest of the world is simply going to sit idly on the > sidelines after watching the success?

I think Europe will. When it comes to business, they tend to eat their young.

<comment><USER6> What do you mean by eating the young?

<comment><USER7> usually it refers to policies which (usually unintendedly, sometimes explicitly) take from the productivity of younger people to finance older people. Because it is difficult to predict the future, the fear is that the unintended consequence is that this may take so much from the young that it robs their future. There are very good reasons to at least consider this as a possibility, because policymakers seem to make state revenue projections that are consistently overoptimistic. Also, programmes that were instituted as temporary often wind up becoming permanent and then also get mission creep; some programs that wind up being generational are instituted without taking into account demographic shifts, especially in fertility rates, etc.)

The lost decade in Japan is often cited as such an example, but increasingly we are seeing things like wage stagnation among <30 in the US and Europe that may also be the result of this (of course plenty of mainstream explanations abound as well).

<comment><USER6> Great answer, thanks for taking the time!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This article seems like bunk fear mongering to me. It talks about everything in terms of percentages of investment, percentages of companies and growth rates: cherry picked statistics that seem to be intentionally misrepresenting reality. The global economy is not zero-sum. Other countries growing their startup scenes is a good thing (with a notable exception around those doing it with heavy IP theft) and should be celebrated, not spun into fear of the US losing out. Let the US worry about whether it's healthy and growing, not fret about whether others are.

<comment><USER9> A rising tide lifts all boats.

<comment><USER10> I wonder why the down votes, as the long term trend has been for this to be emphatically true.

<comment><USER11> It's a contemporary euphemism for "trickle down", the long term trend of which has been emphatically untrue.

<comment><USER9> > It's a contemporary euphemism for "trickle down"

Really? Trickle down proponents have co-opted the rising tide aphorism? Ugh.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> LeBron James is not improving his basketball skills nearly as fast as the world's babies are improving their skills.

<comment><USER13> I love this analogy

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm not sure the data supports this conclusion that "America is losing its edge."

VC funding continues to rise as a whole, and the declining share of US VC invested vs. rest of the world is just a trend of a broader portfolio growth from international startups. That would be just lazy statistics - e.g. if I go from 1 US city to 3 US cities + 3 UK cities, I have growth in VC funding as a whole, as well in the US, but the US goes from 100% to 50%.

VC funding is growing faster in other parts of the world? Well when you're denominator is 0, or really low, of course growth "rate" is going to be high by definition. It's not really apples-to-apples. Further, I don't see whether or not the US has hit diminishing returns, yet, from this article, or if US growth is still healthy.

The data on China, though, is intriguing - maybe someone else here more informed than I am could speak to that.

</comment><comment><USER15> As others have pointed out, there are some things in the article worth considering, but whenever people talk about "making the next Silicon Valley", I feel like they never seem to appreciate just how special and rare and fragile a successful ecosystem is. A million little factors all contribute to making something like that happen, the absence of any one of which tends to make the other factors disappear as well.

</comment><comment><USER16> I personally am ok with silicon valleyesque hubs coming up around the world.

But what's really surprising is the speed. The reason? The best markets and the best people are not coming here anymore.

Sometimes when I go to Asian countries, I almost feel like they're from the future. Payments, electric scooters, charging stations, rental bikes, AI, digital ecosystems, car sharing, hotels, biofuels, cloud based systems etc. are all waay more important, waay more mature, waay more people designing, waay more usage, waay more convenient than the US.

The more that smart entrepreneurs decide that US is not the future, the more tides are a turning. The next Sergey Brin will probably be in Asia.

<comment><USER17> Fun fact: China and Japan both use far more cash than the USA. Cloud, especially cloud providers, is way more mature in the USA. Car sharing ditto. Try finding a car charging station at a Chinese supermarket parking lot like you'd find at Whole Foods, etc....

China has made a lot of progress in the last few years, they are definitely making faster progress than the USA. But they also started way behind and are still, to much extent, behind in many areas.

<comment><USER16> > China and Japan both use far more cash than the USA. Cloud, especially cloud > providers, is way more mature in the USA. Car sharing ditto. Try finding a > car charging station at a Chinese supermarket parking lot like you'd find at > Whole Foods, etc.

I agree. But that's the difference between US until the last decade and today. Cloud providers here are mature because Amazon pioneered it in the last decade.

But AI on cloud is all Alibaba. We don't hear about it here in US media but US companies are playing catchup.

Same for charging stations. They don't need a charging station in whole foods because most people don't even drive as much. They order groceries on apps. Even if they do, charging stations are present in gas stations there. Their low cost cheap cars have features that rival Tesla (albeit at a lower quality and lower price)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HoppERe2M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HoppERe2M)

We here in the US just don't get this shown to us in media.

<comment><USER17> > But AI on cloud is all Alibaba.

Huh? I mean, Alibaba is doing alright, but not particularly better than the other cloud providers.

> Same for charging stations. They don't need a charging station in whole > foods because most people don't even drive as much. They order groceries on > apps. Even if they do, charging stations are present in gas stations there. > Their low cost cheap cars have features that rival Tesla (albeit at a lower > quality and lower price)

Teslas are actually fairly common in Beijing now because of the plate lottery.

The Chinese have plenty of parking lots and plenty of driving. The biggest challenge to personal electric cars in China, something I don't think anyone has figured out yet, is that many people don't actually have formal overnight parking spaces for their cars. Sure, it works for taxis, you'll see taxis use those charging stations, but no one else.

Look, I've totally been there. We used to have bottled water delivered to our apartment (heck, even before the apps came out, we'd just call the store downstairs). I don't do that anymore now that I'm back in the USA, I just drink from the tap. And no, I never had a car in China either, but plenty of other people did and the grocery stores weren't empty (especially when compared to a western one)!

> We here in the US just don't get this shown to us in media.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Confession - didn't read the article because the title shows that the author has its head in the wrong place. There shouldn't be comparisons like these because every ecosystem is different. USA has a mature startup ecosystem and is rather awesome. Also why the competition ? Startup ecosystems should crop up everywhere since these are so healthy for the world economy as a whole.

</comment><comment><USER19> I also buy the data, but not the click-bait conclusion.

China aside, the U.S is still by far the strongest place for startups. Venture capital was invented in the U.S, but just because it is not the only country with such industry today doesn't mean it has lost its edge.

</comment><comment><USER20> I have trouble understanding the problem. Should Silicon Valley corner the market for startups? I believe in entrepreneurship and empowering people, this is excellent news. It will expand the number of startups exponentially, Chinese startups will learn things from US, and then teach us here few tricks. European startups will bring their own flare, South American ones will bring their own color to the mix. And amount of VC investment will explode, as it will be beyond just what US, or SV can provide.

I see this as a very good thing. What we should do is, find a way to collaborate with each other and to help each other do better.

</comment><comment><USER21> The article only states that the share of venture capital deployed in the United States is declining and not the total amount. The total amount is increasing. This is to be expected and this is not surprising by any means.

Article states that investment outside the United States is increasing at a faster rate. That makes sense since its a combination of trying to catch up from a lower base and a faster growth rate in gdp.

The us share of world gdp is 23%, if venture capital was proportionally distributed across the world the us would only get 23% of total venture capital spending.

</comment><comment><USER22> What edge? Silicon Valley VCs still invests in American (and global) companies. Just because London VCs also invests in British (and global) companies, doesn't mean one city is competing with the other. I don't get why they are even compared.

Now if you want to list which places are the best to BUILD a startup, that's a different thing all together.

I came across this awesome site the other day[1] and its made me think about potentially opening up shop somewhere other than NYC.

1: [https://nomadlist.com](https://nomadlist.com)

</comment><comment><USER23> I'd be interested in a similar comparison for startup success. Do American startups fare better than others around the world?

</comment><comment> 100-xyz Another clarification: most of these VC in China is in a few, huge deals by Alibaba, Tencent etc. If one looks at the number of startups that are getting funding, China ranks very low.

I have lived in China for 15 years, am located in Beijing and am a founder of a startup.

<comment><USER24> There are an incredible numbers of funded startups in China. You can't make up stuff because you live in the country.

<comment> 100-xyz [http://www.startupsusa.org/global-startup- cities/](http://www.startupsusa.org/global-startup-cities/)

Look at Appendix 7 Top 50 Cities for venture capital deals Top 50 Cities for Pre-Venture Capital (Angel + Seed Stage) Deals

Especially the second one clearly shows it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> _Europe will not win_ race for ambitious people.

I lived in Sweden for almost one year as an expat (I'm a software engineer). Now, I live in the Netherlands for more than two years.

I can say for sure that Europe is nowhere near Silicon Valley in terms of compensation for ambitious software engineers. Sweden went total nuts with taxes, anything above $6500 per month would be taxed at 55-60% tax rate. It's effectively cap to _enforce_ equality of outcome.

60% tax doesn't mean that ultra-high salaries will be taxed at this rate. It means that ultra-high salaries will _not_ exist in job market in the first place.

The best Swedish startup threatens to leave Sweden because of regulatory and tax burden [1].

The Netherlands recognized importance of highly-skilled expats by introducing tax discounts called "30% ruling". I do respect their efforts to attract talent. That's why I moved from Sweden to the Netherlands in 2016.

However, as non-EU citizen you can work only for publicly registered sponsors [2]. Usually, it's boring well-established companies. So I missed some cool opportunities due to this limitation.

As I learned dutch local job market, I found that almost nobody will pay you 10'000 EUR per month.

Aside from tax and regulatory burden in Europe, there are cultural things like Law of Jante [3]. I can't imagine how society with such mentality can attract highly ambitious people.

Also, talking about money in Europe is kinda taboo. And dutch automatically repeat "money is not everything". It wouldb't annoy me if someone committed to work for open source software. Or being great painter. But when recruiter respond me "money is not everything" when I'm asking "too much", it annoys me a lot.

With that in mind, I decided to abandon idea of living in Europe, getting citizenship, learning dutch language etc. It was tough decision for me but it's time to move on. It's not kind of a society where I want to spend rest of my life. Sorry dutch and swedes, I don't fit here.

So I decided to move to Hong Kong. I've just got very lucrative job offer in Hong Kong (in HFT). The size of compensation is _far beyond of what Europe can offer me_. Now, I'm almost on par with US (I couldn't get into US because I don't have any degree). Now, I'm just waiting for my HK visa getting approved.

You might troll me saying that, I'm whining. OK, I have answer to that. Just look at my _net salary_ increases:

Russia -> Sweden (2015) +28%

Sweden -> Sweden (2015) +15%

Sweden -> the Netherlands (2016) +63%

the Netherlands -> Hong Kong (2018) +83% (and possible bonus up to 300% of yearly salaries!)

I will work like crazy fanatic and in next six years I _will_ be well over $1M of liquid net worth.

So Europe lost me. Europe is perfect place for people who just want to work from 9 to 5 and put family as their top priority. It's not suited for risk takers.

Links:

[https://www.thelocal.se/20160412/spotify-founders-sweden- is-...](https://www.thelocal.se/20160412/spotify-founders-sweden-is-heading- in-the-wrong-direction)

[https://ind.nl/en/work/Pages/Highly-skilled- migrant.aspx](https://ind.nl/en/work/Pages/Highly-skilled-migrant.aspx)

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

<comment><USER26> While I find your perspective interesting I disagree with some of your conclusions.

> It's effectively cap to enforce equality of outcome.

It isn't so much to enforce equality of outcome as to enforce equality of income. What you are experiencing is to a large extent being on the wrong side of inequality. Just that isn't income inequality, but rather things like wealth, real estate, inheritance and education. Inequalities which people in Sweden largely aren't aware of, or accustomed to. If you had arrived 10 years earlier you would have, at least to a larger extent, been set for life. Other than that I can certainly see your perspective because it is almost impossible for a "salary man" to catch up in Sweden.

<comment><USER25> "as to _enforce_ equality of income". This is what puts me off of Europe!

I don't mind if group of people _voluntarily_ decide to live in communism and share with each other everything they earn. Like hippies who lived in сommunes.

If high taxes (>33%) are not voluntary then it just means that social democrats _are not confident_ that most successful people in the country will share their ideals.

If European social democracy is so cool, then it should work on _purely voluntary basis_.

Let's re-frame conversation _from arguing to selling_. I mean there are lots of top technical talents in India and China. How are you going to _convince them_ to go to Sweden instead of US? It should be pretty damn good reason to decline $300k offer from Silicon Valley and go to Stockholm instead!

P.S. I think selling/pitching society ideals is much more positive and productive than arguing.

<comment><USER26> > "as to enforce equality of income". This is what puts me off of Europe!

It is one of the few ways to have an equal society. With to large income inequality the welfare state becomes unsustainable. The poor can't pay for services performed by the rich and ultimately you get a society like the US or worse. Everywhere doesn't have to be the same, no one is forced to live in Sweden. Swedes have very good visa conditions and generally do very well abroad.

> How are you going to convince them to go to Sweden instead of US?

Sweden is a small place. To the extent it needs top talent there is plenty available. People who want to make $300k shouldn't and largely won't move to Sweden anyways. This isn't a competition Sweden can win. Sweden is largely successful because it competes, or have competed, on its own terms. Not by trying to be a worse copy of something else.

Swedish society can, or could, attract people that wants things that are in line with what it is good at and not readily available in other places i.e. its unique selling proposition. Things like education, family and quality of life. There is a foundation to provide those things that has been lost in the last 10 years or so. A lot of people move for opportunities, making money is only one opportunity.

I think it is telling that you are also leaving the Netherlands as a significantly lower tax rate couldn't keep you there either. Note that I am not saying the Sweden is attractive at this point, just that I find it unlikely that taxes are the main problem.

Personally I don't like Hong Kong, but it will certainly be different. Don't miss out on going to Shenzhen.

<comment><USER25> I acknowledge that Sweden has number of advantages and benevolent government with no corruption. It's certainly one of the top countries in the world in terms of development.

My guess is that Sweden might be popular choice among people who want to pursue PhD or something like that.

I fell in love with Hong Kong first time I visited it as a tourist in 2013.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Get the Best of Hybrid Graphics on a Desktop - <AUTHOR> http://www.maximumpc.com/node/24581

<comment><USER2> crazy that you would want to run integrated graphics on a desktop PC when you've got a perfectly fine discrete graphics card</comment>


Ask HN: How to extract the consistently upvoted domains on HN? - <AUTHOR> There are several analyses and tools that give the most upvoted/favorited etc submissions on HN; I have yet to see an attempt that ranks the domains' long-term popularity on HN. <comment><USER2> Take a look at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18632719](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18632719) perhaps there is some details about how they made it.</comment>


Ask HN: Where Can I Learn Design Online? - <AUTHOR>

I feel like there are an incredible amount of resources online where I can learn how to code and learn about almost every business practice necessary to run a startup. But where can I go to learn about design? I acknowledge that design requires a certain level of creativity that can't necessarily be 'taught' but are there online resources that can at least help me understand the aspects of a good logo, a good layout, etc...? <comment><USER2> Go to dribbble.com or some other site where designers hang out and study the snapshots people upload. Pay attention to details.

What textures do they use? What about spacing? How do they mix fonts? What colors do they mix? How do they use perspective and lighting? What's unique about the design?

Then try to design stuff yourself. I've found that doing is the best way to learn, and that's true for more than just design. Study great designers, make your own stuff, and you'll see your skill level gradually improve. I don't consider myself an expert designer but I know how to mix and match things to make a reasonably compelling design. This is how I learnt.

If you want to go beyond that point, and I may be talking beyond my qualifications now, I believe you should pick up the pen and paper and start working on your traditional drawing technique -- get the hang of value and form.

</comment><comment><USER3> Just like programming, business, etc.;

First read some of the basics articles on design basics, typography, layout, color, etc.

Start a scrapbook of designs you like or things that inspire you fashion, scenery, signs, logos, screenshots, web layouts, architecture, etc.

Now try to recreate some of the designs that you like, not as easy as looking at em, but you need the practice. As you get better you will form your strengths and inner-opinions and build your own style to make your own stuff.

</comment><comment><USER4> HackDesign (<http://hackdesign.org/>) might be what you're looking for. It offers these weekly lessons, with interactive content, feedback, and the like.

<comment><AUTHOR> That looks promising. That's kind of what I was thinking of. Thanks!</comment></comment>


The Sad State of U.S. Broadband - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/may2008/tc20080522_340989.htm

<comment><USER2> Why so much whining about american broadband recently? I have "only" 6MBit connection, but I almost never see these speeds: only a handful of top-dogs like google/yahoo are capable of responding quickly. Flickr, PicasaWeb, GMail, ESPN and BaseCamp are my bottlenecks - it's them who are slow, not my connection. Even GoogleMaps got more sluggish recently, even without StreetView turned on. Faster broadband won't help those laggy services.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been waiting a month (!) to get Comcast cable broadband installed in an urban area. (Fios isn't available) The problem is the state and local cable franchise monopolies, which limit competition and choice. States that have opened up competition, like Texas, are seeing prices drop. It's also the local regulatory hurdles on rolling out new fiber...its hugely expensive to get the permits.</comment>


New Ruby Libraries - <AUTHOR> http://www.rubyinside.com/9-new-ruby-libraries-to-check-out-2902.html

<comment><USER2> I'm quite curious to see how people start using the ruby-gmail library. Looks interesting!</comment>


What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/05/cause_and_effect?fsrc=rss

<comment><USER2> The question "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" is Brockman's edge.org annual question. See <http://www.edge.org/annual-question/> where it is addressed by many different authors. See:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2135504> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2106857> <http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2540390> <http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2107720>

and so forth.

</comment><comment><USER3> That nothing in Science is 100% certain and it's a good idea to not get religious about it.

</comment><comment><USER4> Definitely falsifiability. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability>

Falsifiability is essentially irrelevant to 90% of people.</comment>


kCura's National Day of Civic Hacking churned out some sweet hacks  - <AUTHOR> http://www.builtinchicago.org/blog/making-difference-and-plan-national-day-civic-hacking <comment><AUTHOR> They are also a big sponsor of [http://www.embarcchicago.org/](http://www.embarcchicago.org/).</comment>


New hacked site notifications in search results - <AUTHOR> http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-hacked-site-notifications-in-search.html <comment><USER2> Uh.

Google really, really ought to be clear what the terms are for being included in the "Hacked Sites" index. They presumably mean to evoke Gawker with this description. But by their own definition, a site with a serious XSS flaw could end up in the same index†.

Meanwhile, you can be assured that despite the routine discovery of similar flaws across their own properties, the majors are never, ever going to see that Google scarlet letter on their own links.

† _And why wouldn't it? It's a flaw with approximately the same impact on end- users, and on search integrity. I know it doesn't seem that way, but that's a quibble about the sophistication of exploits, not the vulnerabilities themselves._</comment>


EverCrypt, a cryptographic library that is provably secure against known attacks - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-evercrypt-library-creates-hacker-proof-cryptography-20190402/ <comment><USER2> Several comments note that the headline is perhaps a little misleading; I agree, and I don't think any of us (I'm one of the cited people in the article) would've made such a strong claim.

Ignoring for a moment the fact that this is an alpha release (and that as such, a handful of minor proofs, e.g. mundane facts related to endianness conversions, have yet to be completed), there are several limitations of our work.

\- Our tools themselves are not verified, so there could be a bug in F _, z3, the kremlin F_ -to-C compiler; or a bug about the C compiler itself (unless one uses a constant-time fork of CompCert). We consider most of these to be theoretically unpleasant, but still an acceptable tradeoff.

\- Specifications are extremely hard to get right: one might introduce a typo when reading an RFC, or, say, state an endianness conversion wrong. So, even before implementing an optimized version of anything, we audit and test the spec first. This is usually a good sanity check, but certainly not bulletproof (note that this is a general problem of software verification, not specific to us).

\- As noted near the end of the article, our models do not account for Spectre and Meltdown; and there might be new classes of attacks that we can't guard against, for the simple reason that they haven't been found yet.

As to whether this is an attempt to get free security audits, I guess we weren't intentionally thinking of it! But we certainly would love it if people could test the code and give us feedback on what to improve to make this an even more compelling choice for whoever needs a good cryptographic library. I've written a bit about this here: [https://jonathan.protzenko.fr/2019/04/02/evercrypt- alpha1.ht...](https://jonathan.protzenko.fr/2019/04/02/evercrypt-alpha1.html)

<comment><USER3> Thank you, this looks like a great advancement.

> there might be new classes of attacks that we can't guard against, for the > simple reason that they haven't been found yet.

I've also puzzled about this phrase in the article. Why "class of attack haven't been found" necessarily leads to "we can't guard against this class of attack"?

I guess we need more definitions here to clarify what we're talking about... but you're doing that already, so maybe this statement can be made more precise elsewhere?

<comment><USER4> >Why "class of attack haven't been found" necessarily leads to "we can't guard against this class of attack"?

One thing I can think of is the practice of using multiple random number generators to generate a number that is random as long as any 1 generator is random. This guards against attacks on a specific generator even if those attacks are unknown. The _class of attack_ is known, however, and protected against.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Moving past the silly headline, there is actually a pretty substantial achievement here. Using formal verification tools, the team proved the following properties for the library:

* Memory safety (no buffer overruns etc)

* Type safety (all compiler-visible interfaces/abstractions used as per spec)

* Functional correctness (all the crypto implementations are faithful to their algorithms)

* Side-channel resistance (all crypto is constant time)

This has been confirmed by fallible tools and is checked against human-made models which are also fallible, but this code is still likely to be about as close to bug-free as currently possible.

I think Barghavan's work in this area are the future of cryptographic coding in the medium term and likely all security-sensitive code long term.

<comment><USER6> So, stupid question...

>Functional correctness (all the crypto implementations are faithful to their algorithms)

You have to translate the human-written spec into the computer code that is used to validate the implemenation's code, right? And this point just means that _this_ aspect is proven, yes?

So, doesn't that mean it's not proving an absence of errors in translating the human-readable version of spec into the validator code, right?

<comment><USER7> Usually there is a little bit more to it: the human-written spec (the mathematical description of the algorithm) is itself written in a format that can be validated. After the spec has been validated (i.e. finding a mathematical proof that the "platonic" version of the algorithm is "correct"), only then you do the second round of validation that confirms that the algorithm implementation is indeed equivalent to the platonic version of the algorithm.

It is validators all the way down. And at the very bottom there is a base piece of theorem-proving software that is only a few hundred lines of code that has been validated only by humans and self tests.

<comment><USER8> "And at the very bottom there is a base piece of theorem-proving software that is only a few hundred lines of code that has been validated only by humans and self tests."

Is it possible for that part of the system, to proof it's own correctness?

It's obvious that the danger with such a proof is that the code may think it's correct while it's incorrect in thinking it's correct.

But if I have learned one thing, then that Mathematicians can sometimes be really sly foxes.

<comment><USER9> It could prove its own correctness, but there is still the possibility that it has a bug that causes its proof of correctness to be meaningless :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> via: [https://github.com/project-everest/hacl-star/blob/fstar- mast...](https://github.com/project-everest/hacl-star/blob/fstar- master/README.EverCrypt.md)

>EverCrypt is a work in progress -- if you're seriously contemplating using this code is a real system, get in touch with us first!

<comment><USER11> I have only proved it correct, not tried it

<comment><USER12> For the lucky ten thousand: [https://www-cs- faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/faq.html](https://www-cs- faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/faq.html) (scroll to "What's the exact citation of your oft-cited comment about bugs?")

Meta citation: [https://xkcd.com/1053/](https://xkcd.com/1053/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Well, as long as Intel does not devise a chip which chooses what to keep and what not to keep in the cache depending on the number of jumps executed and the name of the calling function... (just as way of example).

Also "optimized advanced heuristic multithreading" (for instance)...

Anyway: an astounding feat, to be honest.

<comment><USER14> I was thinking the only true way to prevent side channel information disclosure is to ensure x microseconds are spent encrypting/decrypting each byte in a message and using an external timer source as a reference clock to enforce the constant time interval.

<comment><USER13> Yes but you have to be sure also that nothing at all remains in the cache...

<comment><USER15> And EM characteristics are fixed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Reminds me of Steve Ballmer touting Windows XP as the "Most secure operating system ever" \- on the day it was released. Claims that a code is unbreakable or hacker proof are big red flags.

<comment><USER17> Very, very true! By proclaiming "Can't Be Hacked" is an invite to the world.

<comment><USER18> Correct. Also claiming that it's mildly secure is also inviting hackers. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

<comment><USER19> There must be something in between right? Like... "secure"? Claiming "hacker- proof" isn't just an invitation, it's a challenge. Nothing triggers people like telling them something is %-proof.

The mathematical proof might be 100% solid and hacker proof. The implementation will probably never be.

<comment><USER20> > The mathematical proof might be 100% solid and hacker proof. The > implementation will probably never be.

I agree, I see a few ways that it could go wrong:

\- Code is proven correct against the specification, but specification is wrong/buggy

\- source code is correct/secure, but compiler is overzealous and botch the securities guarantees.

<comment><USER21> \- someone just outright botches the implementation. Heartbleed wound up in OpenSSL for years before anyone noticed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Protzenko noted there will always be attacks that no one has thought of before. EverCrypt can't be proven secure against those, if only for the simple reason that no one knows what they will be.

I'm glad those behind this know their limits.

</comment><comment><USER23> The code that their F*->C compiler (KreMLin) emits is…interesting…

[https://github.com/project-everest/hacl- star/blob/evercrypt-...](https://github.com/project-everest/hacl- star/blob/evercrypt-v0.1%2B/dist/compact/Hacl_AES.c)

<comment><USER24> It is written in a very unambiguous way. Pretty much exactly what you might expect.

<comment><USER23> The body of `Crypto_Symmetric_AES_multiply` is unambiguous to you?

<comment><USER25> It's certainly unambiguous! It's just not idiomatic at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Part of effective trolling is to actually get some credible folks to try and beat what you've created. I think the creators know saying things doesn't make it true. What makes it true is when you stick your neck out a little, troll a little, get people to take a few swings, and everyone sees they just keep on missing the mark. Or perhaps they land a punch, EverCrypt get a bloody nose, and we see whether and how they dust themselves off and try again.

I translate "hacker proof" into two things: this is something we all need; and we're ready, give us your best shot!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm guessing that ultimately it will be shown to be "hacker-resistant" and not "hacker-proof". Big difference.

</comment><comment><USER27> "I love cryptography, it tells me what part of the system not to bother attacking" -- Dr Andrew Gross.

</comment><comment><USER28> For those who understand formal verification: how hard is to specify the requirement "no buffer overruns" ? and is that specification generalizable ?

<comment><USER29> The Rust compiler does this. No out-of-bounds accesses and therefore no buffer overflows. So yes it has been generalized.

<comment><USER30> The Rust compiler does some limited "static analysis"* to determine if an array access is guaranteed to always be within bounds. But it doesn't do this universally. In other words, it's easy to write a program in safe Rust code that will attempt out of bounds accesses.

The saving grace is that in those cases the compiler just inserts a bounds check which panics at run-time.

That's a bit different from a formally verified OOB safe program which wouldn't require any compiler-injected bounds checking. All accesses are provably safe either because they are naturally so, or because the code explicitly performed a bounds check.

* IIRC what Rust's compiler actually does is just inject bounds checks on all array accesses and then depends on the underlying optimizations to remove them when possible. That's certainly a form of static analysis, but perhaps some wouldn't consider it as such.

<comment><USER29> Very true. Wouldn't it be possible to solve it to that standard using dependent types? I think I read that those are on a distant wishful thinking roadmap for Rust in some RFC. I really hope they get added some day, I find myself wanting them all the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Nice article! As a web developer though, I did a quick "View Page Source" on my browser and I saw a complete mess... I'm sorry Quanta Magazine, this is not good for your business.

They really need to rethink their website. Very low Pagespeed Insights score, very slow website and HTML/CSS is just a mess.

I understand that Cloudflare or their Minimize/Cache system is doing a lot of this mess, but this will definitely effect your Google results. For example:

Inside the Source code, search for the phrase "Programmers are human, but mathematics is immortal". Do you see that it appears two times? JS is doing some crazy things and this affects their actual HTML script.

The blog seems to be build with React. I don't understand why they need to reinvent the wheel and build Blogs from scratch. Just use WordPress.

Please developers. You can do better.

<comment><USER31> I suppose all those negative points are from people that don't understand web development or semantic web... It's really sad.</comment></comment>


Tree.io – Open Source Business Management Software - <AUTHOR> http://tree.io/ <comment><USER2> Every time I come across these projects I think an easy to use web fronted for Docker would be amazingly useful.

Anyone could install it once and from then you just switch Docker containers in and out to try different projects, etc... and don't have to do the bulk of the server preparation that 99% of people don't know how to do properly or just can't bother with.

It will bring this amazing wealth of self-hosted projects to the every day user.

If it becomes popular projects will start providing Docker containers.

A registry can also be made so that you can search and install them without hassle right from the UI.

Or the command line, "docker-get install tree.io"

Take my idea and run with it! Run!

<comment><USER3> Docker already includes a registry :)

"docker pull borplk/tres.io"?

You can search at [http://index.docker.io](http://index.docker.io)

<comment><USER3> And web UIs for docker:

[https://github.com/crosbymichael/dockerui](https://github.com/crosbymichael/dockerui)

[https://github.com/ehazlett/shipyard](https://github.com/ehazlett/shipyard)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the model might be a little bit misguided (having everything in one place is not necessarily a good thing, specialization and all) -- but open source and awesome? I'm down with that

<comment><USER5> Agreed, although there are more capable ERP systems out there of varying degrees of openness, I've found many of them suffer from one serious core flaw (for my needs):

Failure to integrate effectively with Quickbooks or QBO (the latter being more likely for most ERP-like systems these days). I understand that some businesses need fewer advanced financial features, but every promise of "integrated one-stop back-end" has left me with having to have multiple processes for the same task.

I wish more of these projects would integrate with common, effective, players in specialized areas rather than trying to "be everything to everyone" \- a good ERP system these days would really be glue between the powerhouses moreso than replacements.

Alas, this project looks to be struggling - no blog posts since 2011, and minimal activity over 2013 in github.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't say the other software are more capable, but rather more featureful. The problem with OpenBravo and SugarCRM is that it's really really difficult to use. Every procedure depends on another procedure and you need a Book to get going. As a company that is a massive backshot when you have to teach existing employees.

I argue that simplicity in the UI and clear workflows going through the entire application are essential for success, well and marketing. And tree.io had no good marketing, I hope it gets some fresh wind thanks to HN on Github.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is really awesome. The only thing that keeps me from using it right away is that it doesn't seem to have much activity. Anyone have the DL on the creators of the project and if they're maybe monetizing by doing support etc?

Would love to use this, just worried about getting stuck up the creek without a paddle. Many forum questions appear to have been lingering there for months without a response.

</comment><comment><USER7> It looks to be a feature-rich tool. Does anyone know why development has stopped 9 months ago? At least, I conclude so from the github commit history.

<comment><USER8> Always use the graph to see what is happening across all branches and tags. [https://github.com/treeio/treeio/network](https://github.com/treeio/treeio/network)

<comment><USER9> 0 commits on master and 0 bugs fixed in 9 months, a handful of commits by a user who branched off of master a couple months ago (and no PRs)... I think it's safe to say that that the 'public' version has been dormant for 9 months.

<comment><USER8> It is safe to say that a pull request could happen at any time, which it did. This project has now been dormant for 22 minutes. [https://github.com/treeio/treeio/commit/32319c82ca45ff653ca2...](https://github.com/treeio/treeio/commit/32319c82ca45ff653ca23b111dbc783cdef0ad05)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm stunned that nobody has made one of these that's CLI based and scriptable...

<comment><USER11> Org mode?

[http://orgmode.org/](http://orgmode.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Did this used to be called Giteso? Did it just get renamed to Tree.io or it a completely different product?

I'm only asking because the bottom of [http://tree.io/en/jobs](http://tree.io/en/jobs) mentions it. :)

<comment><USER13> [http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110228035141/http://tree.io...](http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110228035141/http://tree.io/)

> © 2011 Giteso Ltd. All rights reserved. > Registered in England. Company No. > 07416236

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Name seemed familiar, and in deed their blog has posts from 2011 when they were a SaaS. Anyone know what happened, did it simply fail and they open sourced it or is there something else in play here?

Cool project either way though :)

<comment><USER15> My guess is enterprises were scared of going the SaaS route; partly as this model is still relatively new, but mainly because companies like to keep their data in house (or at least need the option to easily get hold of a regular backup / with some way to quickly restore it should the vendor go under).

<comment><USER16> Infrastructure costs. We had too many users on the free tier (5 users for free) and our server costs went through the roof. We didn't know how to find investment and my business partner needed cash so took a contract job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Any idea how they plan to make money? (it's MIT licensed) support? / hosting? or is it not for profit?

<comment><USER18> I think consulting.

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, exactly. Their current business-model is support and consulting afaik.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can anyone get the install process to actually work? I got to 'python manage.py installdb' and it failed because that command doesn't exist in manage.py. I tried a bunch of the other commands from manage.py help as well and still nothing.

<comment><USER20> I had to install MySQL-python, but now I'm stuck on a foreign key conflict when importing the initial data.json file.

        IntegrityError: (1452, 'Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`treeiodb`.`core_user`, CONSTRAINT `user_id_refs_id_4bf8d20` FOREIGN KEY (`user_id`) REFERENCES `auth_user` (`id`))')

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://github.com/treeio/treeio/issues/39](https://github.com/treeio/treeio/issues/39)

<comment><USER16> I've updated the README to include this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here's a video introducing it:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKhxzwO43k&list=UUBWJQIUhDQz...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKhxzwO43k&list=UUBWJQIUhDQzrPn0Yi-6pgDw)

</comment><comment><USER21> That's a.) incredible that it's open source (thanks!) but b.) truly a terrible UI.

<comment><USER22> Like all open source applications. I use OSS exclusively for development. I think the only OSS GUI app I use is Sequel Pro (which is actually quite good).

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Am I reading it wrong or do the website and repo licenses not match?

<comment><USER24> The site says "free open source" and the repo has a BSD-ish license in it. Where did you find the conflicting info?

<comment><USER23> [http://tree.io/en/download](http://tree.io/en/download) says Creative Commons but in the repo .README it says MIT.

<comment><USER25> CC may only apply to the artwork/creatives, where MIT may refer to the code.. this is only speculation.

<comment><USER16> The code is MIT licensed, the website has not been updated.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This reminds me of TeamBox (version 3 is also opensource).

</comment><comment><USER27> I'm not sure "ambitious" is even the right word to describe such a project. A demo would be nice. I'm guessing the project has 0 real users (download <> user).

<comment><AUTHOR> I measured that +53 Stars have appeared on Github right after posting the link. It received 38 points until now, that means more people have interest in the software than people are upvoing on HN. That's really good to know, I feel sympathy with people who opensource their efforts to help the people of the world. (328 Stars pre HN)

<comment><USER16> Thanks X4, I put over a year of hard work and a lot of my own money into Tree.io. I'm happy that it's used around the world by companies and universities even though I don't get any money from it.

<comment><AUTHOR> How about adding a viable business model that brings you some constant money in? I mean you are a really good startup, why don't you ask for VC funding or Enterprise Sponsors?

Maybe a solid and good marketed Kickstarter Campaign that will realize something that people would love to have (I don't know what that is though).

Or adding an integrated Marketplace like [http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/](http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/) that seamlessly integrates into everyones Tree.io so that devs can sell their addons to end-users directly within their own install + you get 11% for every sold license. End-users can point, click and pay.

<comment><USER16> Thanks X4 I like the marketplace idea a lot.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Mysterious repeating signals arriving from deep space - <AUTHOR> http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/03/06/mysterious-repeating-signals-deep-space/81409114/ <comment><USER2> > _Whatever produces the FRB can 't be destroyed by the burst, because > otherwise, what would produce the next pulse?_

How about something behind or in front of the first pulse?

From our perspective they come from the same spot in the sky, but in 3D space they can be separated by light years, and years in time.</comment>


Show HN: DoS Attack for PHP Web APIs - <AUTHOR> http://lukasmartinelli.ch/web/2014/11/17/php-dos-attack-revisited.html

<comment><USER2> Well. This is annoying.</comment>


The Berlin Startup Scene According to Mattermark Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.schumacher.me/blog/the-berlin-start-up-scene-according-to-mattermark-data

<comment><USER2> I'd be more curious to see a salary range analysis. It would quickly turn up that of hundreds of Germany startups perhaps a ten or so pay some reasonable money while the rest stick with the 40-50K range and set for cheap workforce only.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the author forgot to mention 6wunderkinder, the creators of wunderlist.

<comment><USER4> Well, we don't like them very much in here.

/s

But yeah, they are the poster child of a Berlin startup.

<comment><USER5> Unprofitable still, right? Pretty much sums up the Berlin scene... Them and Soundcloud, making about as big of a profit as my beer and club habit.

Written from a bedroom by Jannowitzbrücke. Tschüssi~

<comment><USER4> You live in the Chinese embassy?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Remember, the author of the article is the owner of the company that owns AdBlockPlus, and has personally been in contact/worked for/with United Internet, which also owns BinLayer.</comment>


Best resources for learning Java, JDeveloper and SQL - <AUTHOR>

I have just wangled a job as a trainee developer. It is a total career change for me in my mid-30s. I have some basic understanding of programming however the role requires zero previous experience and they are happy to train me, however i also want to be responsible for my own development. I start the role in about a month so what can I do or where should I start to prepare myself.<p>thanks <comment><USER2> I would advise starting off with a good Java book and writing code in a text editor for a week or two before migrating to JDeveloper. It might seem masochistic, but the steep curve pays off later. As for the book, "Java: The Complete Reference (9th Edition)" by Herbert Schildt was recently launched and covers the latest version of Java (Java 8). "Thinking in Java (4th Edition)" by Bruce Eckel is also good, but requires a fair amount of programming experience in other languages.

As for SQL, a short book called "SQL in 10 minutes" by Ben Forta is quite good. Despite it's cheesy sounding name, it is a great resource to get up and running quickly. Not in 10 minutes though. Also (forgive the shameless plug) you can refer to my short ebook "A Primer on SQL", free to read and download.

[https://leanpub.com/aprimeronsql/](https://leanpub.com/aprimeronsql/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Id suggest "Thinking in Java", "Effective Java" and to get OCJP training material and start doing that.

Can you implement the 10 guesses game? You know, computer picks a number between 1-100 and asks you to guess, then it tells you if its higher or lower. Do this in a simple Java class, static main, play from console.

Then do that same program but this time as a web page and using JSP, for this step itll require a lot. You have to make a Java project in Maven and deploy it in tomcat. THere should be a button to "enter" the guess.

Now when youve done the above exercises, redo it and this time secure it, and use ajax, no page refresh.

Now for the last exercise ask for the users name before gamae begins, and save every game the user plays to a database of your choice, I suggest PostgreSQL, and let any user see what other users played, like a replay of the game.

Make it as ugly and as wrong as you can think, dont care, just do this.

Now when you have done the above and have a webapp made with Java, JSP and simple JDBC, where user can play in its browser, see historical games and so on, add a counter "This many users are playing right now".

Next month, make a computer play the game you made. First code it to play against the console version, then against the web one, you can make an API or WebService to play it.

Now when youre done, come back in a month or two and ask again.

</comment><comment><USER4> Since this is a bout Java and SQL in particular, I can only recommend our jOOQ blog, as we're heavily blogging about the two topics:

[http://blog.jooq.org](http://blog.jooq.org)

Other good resources can be found in this top 100 list of Java blogs (not really containing 100 items, though):

[http://www.programcreek.com/2012/11/top-100-java- developers-...](http://www.programcreek.com/2012/11/top-100-java-developers- blogs/)

Oracle's Java tutorials are pretty cool, too:

[http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/index.html](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/index.html)

And this excellent SQL blog:

[http://use-the-index-luke.com/](http://use-the-index-luke.com/)</comment>


All TI Signing Keys Factored - <AUTHOR> http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/145/145273.html

<comment><USER2> The keys have been removed from the linked sites because of a DMCA notice. They can be found on wikileaks, though.

<comment><USER3> link: [http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Suppressed_Texas_Instruments_crypt...](http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Suppressed_Texas_Instruments_cryptographic_signing_keys%2C_28_Aug_2009)

New theory: the DMCA is a viral marketing campaign by WikiLeaks. I think I prefer this theory to reality...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hopefully in the future we can simply allow users to tweak hardware they own. It's clear that technical measures to prevent this will just be defeated, so why force the users to pay for the development of anti-hacking features? (Nothing is free, after all. Making the TI-whatever unhackable would just make it cost more. WTF.)

</comment><comment><USER5> This doesn't include the TI-Nspire or TI-Nspire CAS. Not all too surprising, but the title is a bit misleading.

</comment><comment><USER6> Brute force for the win?</comment>


Show HN: Venvpack – archive a python virtualenv into a file and restore it later - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Markbnj/venvpack <comment><AUTHOR> Author here. This script arose out of earlier work I did on venv2docker, a script that builds a docker image from a virtualenv. Any feedback good or bad is appreciated!</comment>


Docker Compose syntax: Volume or Bind mount? - <AUTHOR> https://maximorlov.com/docker-compose-syntax-volume-or-bind-mount/ <comment><AUTHOR> Compose allows you to configure volumes using a short syntax format: `[SOURCE:]TARGET[:MODE]`

In practice, this leads to different string variations. Every time I read a docker-compose.yml file, I had to refer to the docs or run a quick test to figure out if a volume or a bind mount is used. I wrote a short guide so I wouldn't have to look this stuff up anymore and be able to memorise it by heart.

The gist of it is:

1\. No source -> anonymous volume

2\. Non-path source -> named volume (defined in a top-level `volumes` key)

3\. Relative or absolute path source -> bind mount

Hope this helps some of you out there that trip over this syntax like me.

Stay home and be safe!</comment>


Why Sales Reps Get Paid More Than Other Employees - <AUTHOR> http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/why-sales-reps-get-paid-more-than-other-employees/?ref=smallbusiness&_r=0

<comment><USER2> Risk. Most compensation for sales commision based or sales with quota. Sales people are better negotiators(core skills). Also, most people aren't willing to put up with that much rejecton.</comment>


Sleep Cycle aware Alarm Clock App using iPhone Accelerometer - <AUTHOR> http://easywakeup.net

<comment><AUTHOR> what do you think about that?</comment>


Supreme Court Makes It Easier to Win Big Damages for Severe Patent Violations - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-makes-it-easier-to-win-big-damages-for-severe-patent-violations-1465830509 <comment><USER2> Sane IP Panda is a sad panda... :-(</comment>


Beautiful Mac, Linux and Windows client for Facebook Messenger - <AUTHOR> http://messengerfordesktop.com/

<comment><USER2> This isn't working for me, after logging in it looks like this:

[http://i.imgur.com/7NRCTsp.png](http://i.imgur.com/7NRCTsp.png)

</comment><comment><USER3> While I appreciate the work you've put into this, why should I use this over messenger.com?

edit to add: by which I mean "what's your main selling point?"

<comment><USER4> That's what I'm trying to figure out too. For that matter, why couldn't I just take the messenger.com site and wrap it in a Chrome app myself (which is what this looks like anyway)? That way at least, I can be reasonably sure I'm not leaking my FB credentials to a third party. I know the average user won't know how to do that, but then the average user would just launch messenger.com in their browser anyway.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, who is this for?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> FWIW I much rather use Messages app to connect to everything.

then all my messages are in 1 native app. iMessage, Gtalk, FB, Text messages, etc…

</comment><comment><USER6> You call your own creation 'beautiful'? Isn't beauty in the eye of the beholder?

</comment><comment><USER7> Tough crowd in here. I for one think this looks great and will definitely be checking it out.

</comment><comment><USER8> The app isn't signed for OSX. You have to adjust security settings to install. :/

</comment><comment><USER9> Can you make an RPM for Fedora?

</comment><comment><USER10> Well done!</comment>


Farewell to fsync(): 10× faster database tests with Docker - <AUTHOR> https://pythonspeed.com/articles/faster-db-tests/ <comment><USER2> Great post! Was this feature introduced in later versions of PostgreSQL or it has been there for a while now?

<comment><AUTHOR> Looking at the docs it's been there at least since PostgreSQL 8.1.</comment></comment>


Government monitors people running red light by AI and publish their name online - <AUTHOR> https://www.stc.gov.cn/facei/ <comment><USER2> How is the person identified? Facial recognition? Long-distance RFID reading? Mobile phone location tracking?

</comment><comment><USER3> Are there any consequences for people caught?

<comment><USER4> It will probably count against their "Citizen Score" soon:

[https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social- cr...](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score- privacy-invasion)</comment></comment>


Sounds from Scientific, Meteorological and Commercial Satellites 1962-1966 - <AUTHOR> http://www.dd1us.de/spacesounds%204b.html <comment><USER2> You can hear them today! [http://www.rtl-sdr.com/receiving-dead-satellites- rtl-sdr/](http://www.rtl-sdr.com/receiving-dead-satellites-rtl-sdr/)

tldr: satellites are retired by using up their fuel reserves in order to get them to burn out in atmosphere or "park" in a higher orbit. Some satellites have timers built in in case their receivers fail and do this automatically.

Essentially, when something goes wrong satellites stay in stable orbits as space junk, their batteries decay and become conductive so the sun starts powering directly when conditions are met, at this point we can catch telemetry from these space-age relics. Beyond cool.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, after listening to these I have a lot more respect for the cheesy "beeps and boops" sound effects used in so many 1960s and 1970s movies to connote satellite stuff. Turns out they really did sound like that!</comment>


Waiting for a 1TB SSD below $1 per GB?  - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/waiting-for-a-1tb-ssd-below-1-per-gb-crucial-says-wait-no-more/ <comment><USER2> It both shock and disgusts me how few laptops sold have SSDs in them. Even today only the very top end and very bottom end ships with SSDs (Netbooks, and Macbook Pros respectively).

Everything in the middle is purely HDD even with SSDs offered widely for the same amount of money if you're willing to lose storage (e.g. 256 GB SSD == 1 TB HDDs).

Come on Asus, Dell, and similar. Start offering SSDs across your entire range. I should get the choice of either a smaller/faster SSD or larger/slower HDD. It isn't a premium feature and hasn't been for a long time.

<comment><USER3> Until less educated consumers value SSDs over an e-peen number like raw hard disk capacity, this is not going to change. If you don't know the virtues of SSDs, you'd choose the laptop with more space for your personal photos, videos and music.

<comment><USER4> Since people like storing stuff, capacity is often more important than boot speed.

I prefer capacity.

<comment><USER2> SSDs offer a massively improved computing experience. Boot speed is only a tiny part of that.

It is very hard to quantify exactly why SSDs are so good. You just have to use one for a while and only then try going back to a HDD based system, you'll notice immediately and it will drive you up the wall.

It is just 5ms here, 5ms there, you tab between this and that, and there is lag, you click this and there is lag, etc. With SSDs it is fluid and smooth.

It is like comparing an iPhone to an Android 2.xx device. You could just feel that it wasn't as fluid and smooth and it bugged you.

PS - Yes, Android 4.0 is as fluid and smooth as iPhones. It was just the first example I could think of.

<comment><USER4> >You just have to use one for a while and only then try going back to a HDD based system, you'll notice immediately and it will drive you up the wall.

I use one every day, work provided laptop has a SSD. It's not that big of a difference. The capacity/price on the other hand is a big difference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Anand Lal Shimpi has done his usual superb job tearing this one down:

[http://www.anandtech.com/print/6884/crucial- micron-m500-revi...](http://www.anandtech.com/print/6884/crucial- micron-m500-review-960gb-480gb-240gb-120gb)

</comment><comment><USER6> As SSD technology improves and prices lower, it's great that consumers can easily upgrade their laptops with a 960GB SSD or perhaps a 480GB mSATA SSD.

Meanwhile, MBP Retina owners have to sit on the sidelines because Apple decided they didn't want to use a standard connector.

 _"Keep in mind that although the interface is electrically SATA, it is not physically SATA or mSATA or any other standardized interface - this is entirely Apple's own creation."_

<http://www.anandtech.com/show/6005/apples-new-ssd-its-fast>

</comment><comment><USER7> How does the longevity of SSDs compare to HDs these days?

<comment><USER8> No, but I have full faith in SSDs for laptops and desktops now. I've never found the need for them a server.

Does anyone know of any large scale operations using them in servers?

<comment><USER9> DigitalOcean[1] is a ssd-only VM provider, by their numbers they should have a few TB in SSD storage. Not _that_ large, but would be interesting to hear about their experiences.

[1] <https://www.digitalocean.com/>

<comment><USER8> Yes. It would be interesting to read about their experiences as I presume most large SSD deployments would be for databases only.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm sure some people are just crap hoarders. I've got a 128gb ssd and my data backup size for the last 30 years is about 12Gb including music and photos leaving the disk about 60Gb used.

1Tb? Never shall I fill one.

<comment><USER11> It's reasonably easy to fill a 16GB card with < 1 yr's worth of mountaineering still photos from a modern digital camera. Documents are small, but images and video, especially at high quality, consume a lot of space.

Are all the photos great? No. Will I know which ones will prove useful in the future? Only approximately. Storage is cheap!

<comment><USER10> I tend to delete all the shit photos up front. I perhaps end up with 10-15 a trip that get kept (60-90 Mb off my D3100 in jpeg fine).

Storage is cheap but ending up with so much noise you can't see the interesting bits is expensive on time, and that is finite.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I made a page listing that tracks the SSD available from Newegg sorted by price per TB.

<http://edwardbetts.com/price_per_tb/ssd/>

Ignore the hybrid SSDs and the refurbished drives at the top of the list. The best prices are on 256GB disks. For a 256GB SanDisk drive that is in stock the price is $169.99 or $0.664 per GB.

There is a 960GB Crucial drive for $649.99 or $0.677 per GB.

</comment><comment><USER13> Does anyone know when Intel is going to come up with a 20nm, ~1TB successor to the 520? I've gotta buy more capacity soon, but i'd feel silly filling up all my bays with older 480GB drives a week before they come out.

<comment><USER14> IDF is tomorrow; they should give an SSD roadmap update. My impression is that Intel is getting out of the consumer SSD market.

</comment></comment><comment> mark-r Is it my imagination, or have prices stalled at $1/GB for a while now? Where's Moore's Law when you need it?</comment>


Rough.js v4.0 – hand-drawn, sketchy graphics - <AUTHOR> https://roughjs.com/posts/release-4.0/ <comment><USER2> If you like this, be sure to check out Wired Elements - a set of 20+ fully working, wire-frame style web components built with Rough.js (by the author of Rough.js): [https://wiredjs.com/](https://wiredjs.com/)

They're great for rapid wire-frame prototyping.

<comment><USER3> I've seen this attempted before to operate success, but this is the best execution I have seen of this idea!

It's dynamically rough so it's different each time, but it's not over done

<comment><AUTHOR> wired-elements could be adapted to v4.0 of roughjs, which supports random number seeding. Causing the shape to remain the same, once generated.

<comment><USER4> You could do the same with 3.1 with generators, I believe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm using this in a scientific drawing tool that I put together - it was remarkably easy to integrate, and the sketch aesthetic is great for presentations or when you wish to convey uncertainty.

I'm still hanging out for a browser implementation of Fiziko ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21651240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21651240)) though, which would be a whole other cool aesthetic.

<comment><USER6> There is some code [0] for generation of coastal lines in cartographic maps (text in french, code in JavaScript). It's kind of similar.

The blog post [1] about fiziko describes how it calculates parallel bezier curves using line intersection and curves of varying thinkness. The code about the coastal lines also uses a similar technique and describes how to get the result step by step.

[0] [https://observablehq.com/@linard-y/chemin-decale-offset- path...](https://observablehq.com/@linard-y/chemin-decale-offset-paths) [1] [https://habr.com/en/post/454376/](https://habr.com/en/post/454376/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Somewhat related: paper.css[1], a stylesheet for getting that rough look in your html components.

[1] [https://www.getpapercss.com/](https://www.getpapercss.com/)

</comment><comment><USER8> If you have another library that builds SVG charts or diagrams, Rough.js is really fun and usually very simple to include.

When combined with a handwritten font like humour sans[0] You can instantly turn a chart into something that looks more like an XKCD drawing.

No idea why, but I find the hand-drawn look is universally more engaging for charts and diagrams, causing people to actually pay attention and ask questions. It looks like some of the example links[1] need updating. But the WiredJS[2] site is a good demo of the look I am describing.

[0] [https://github.com/shreyankg/xkcd- desktop/blob/master/Humor-...](https://github.com/shreyankg/xkcd- desktop/blob/master/Humor-Sans.ttf)

[1] [https://github.com/pshihn/rough/wiki/Examples](https://github.com/pshihn/rough/wiki/Examples)

[2] [https://wiredjs.com/](https://wiredjs.com/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Excalidraw is built on top of this!

[https://excalidraw.com/](https://excalidraw.com/)

</comment><comment> johnx123-up Another library recently featured in HN [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21648968](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21648968) [https://github.com/jwilber/roughViz](https://github.com/jwilber/roughViz)

<comment><AUTHOR> RoughViz is awesome, and it also used RoughJS for rendering.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've just been toying with an idea of a canvas-based game and wanted to use hand-drawn graphics style – and with this library, it looks like I can save money on the art and have animations for free, too! Thanks so much for posting this.

</comment><comment><USER11> A thread from 2018: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16571827](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16571827)

</comment><comment><USER12> It would be nice if I didn't have to have html elements for this, but instead it would be a js or css that you applied and all the normal elements would be automatically rendered in sketchy style.</comment>


Ask HN: Tools for rational decision making? - <AUTHOR> Someone stole my phone 2 weeks ago.
I could have walked across the street and purchased any of the 50+ models the store had on display, in under an hour. But I had specific requirements (USB-C, NFC) and didn't want to spend over $200.
I spent over 10 hours searching for a replacement online. I found a good candidate, and a store in my city appeared to have it in stock. So I spent 15 minutes trying to memorize how to get there, walked for over an hour to get there (didn't want to pay $2 for a ride), waited 30 minutes until an employee became available, asked if they had the phone in stock, and learned they they didn't. I then walked back home, got lost, and eventually arrived 2 hours later. I then started my search over, slightly tweaking my criteria.
After 2 weeks without a phone, over 20 hours of research, and visiting 5 different stores, I finally bought a replacement. It's second hand, not exactly state of the art, and I just just found out the vibration motor is broken. But it's too late to return it, as I already left the country. I probably would still be searching for a phone if I didn't have a flight yesterday as a hard deadline.
I'm now looking to buy a case for it. I must have spent 4 hours on this already. Today, I'll visit a few different stores to see if they have it. I found a few online, but shipping makes it expensive and inconvenient.
I do this all the time. Every decision, big or small, is treated as if it's a matter of life or death. I can't seem to make a decision without a non-arbitrary external deadline. I'm doing 99% exploration and 1% exploitation. I value my time at 0.
How do you make rational decisions?  What if they're complex? When do you stop? Do you use any tools? <comment><USER2> I'd recommend to read up on "maximizing" vs "satisficing":

[https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5MW3DWbvcrztvKnMS/in- praise-...](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5MW3DWbvcrztvKnMS/in-praise-of- maximizing-with-some-caveats)

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science- choice/20150...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science- choice/201506/satisficing-vs-maximizing)

Personally, in your example with the phone, I think that maximizing is a good strategy. My phone is a critical part of my work envronment, so I'm prepared to invest time and money when chosing and buying one -- that is, I'm a maximizer when it comes to buying phones.

On the other hand, when the cost of error is small and the timespan of possible negative consequences is short (e.g. mintes or hours), I'd satisfice. Examples: buying a bottle of water or a quick snack.

As for deciding when to stop, there is the Secretary Problem ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem)), but using this strategy can be painful for maximizers.

<comment><USER3> I've been to lesswrong a few times and I just never really got it.

But that article was amazing, thanks for the link.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This sounds very familiar.

For example, the simple task of buying a computer from parts could easily take me anywhere between one to six weeks. And this is after the months it took me to move from the desire to upgrade to a commitment. Similarly, for upgrading my laptop, I have on more than one occasion waited for newer models to be announced or become available, only to finally pick a different one.

There are some things which helped me deal with this tendency to over-analyze such decisions:

1\. Accept that this is who you are. Even though it feel as time lost, or spent unproductively, you are still benefiting from it. For me, though it still annoys me, doing the research is also a hobby.

2\. You are requesting a tool for rational decision making in the title. But I doubt that is what you need or want, or even if such a tool would actually be helpful. For example, what you could do is write down all requirements, give them a weight and scoring and fill in some type of a matrix. If you are similar to me, you'd likely spend even more time analyzing, tweaking your weights, assigning your scores, etc.

3\. Realize that the perfect decision does not exist. And no amount of analyzing will prevent that. Often though, making a 'bad' decision will either have a minimal impact on your life, or, can be easily corrected (return policy / low price compared to disposable income). Learn the difference between those types of decisions.

4\. Delegate some decision making. For example, when I am looking for a new car, I'll call one of my friends whose opinion I trust implicitly.

I hope this helps

</comment><comment><USER5> One common advice to help in decision making is the 10-10-10 rule. How much will this decision matter in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years.

When I have the right perspective, many decisions that I used to agonize over become easy.

</comment><comment><USER6> Consider getting screened for ADHD by a professional.

While it's impossible to build a case from one anecdote, some aspects of your story are all warning bells – the hyperfocus on "unproductive" parts of the decisionmaking process, getting lost, decision fatigue, analysis paralysis, and lack of action unless there's external accountability.

Understanding these underlying problems are very helpful to be able to stick with the other tools provided in this thread.

</comment><comment><USER7> Decision matrices can be very useful to take rational decisions:

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

However indecisiveness is usually due to anxiety and other emotions. If it becomes burdensome to the point of impacting one's life it needs professional help from psychology.

</comment><comment><USER8> Here are three excellent tools for decision making:

1\. [http://programs.clearerthinking.org/decisionmaker.html](http://programs.clearerthinking.org/decisionmaker.html)

2\. [http://getfirstmate.blog/startdeciding](http://getfirstmate.blog/startdeciding)

3\. [https://80000hours.org/career-decision/](https://80000hours.org/career- decision/)

</comment><comment><USER9> I think you're approaching this from the wrong angle.

The problem isn't that you've got some sort of decision-making paralysis; indeed, I'd argue that based on the criteria you're determining, you're being very rational.

Instead, the problem lies in the detailed --and maybe often unrealistic-- criteria that you're assigning to each and every life decision, small or large.

Take the phone example you gave. You wanted USB-C, NFC, _and_ under $200. A quick Google confirms that achieving 2/3 would have been easy, but placing those constraints on your decision, and then having the sheer bloody- mindedness to stick to those constraints, even after the first disappointment... that's at the root of your issue.

Take the second example - the case. You have found cases which matched your requirements already, but then you placed the further constraint of not buying online because "shipping makes it expensive and inconvenient". (Passing over whether this is really true) again, it's your insistence on unrealistic criteria which complicates things.

(It reminds me an old adage from my car-modifying days: 'cheap, fast, and reliable; you can have any two'. In your two examples, you're demanding cheap, fast, _and_ reliable.)

There is no easy solution to this. Something has to give. So instead, just be honest with yourself. If you want to continue to make life choices that are based on very stringent criteria, and also want to get those perfect items at a low price and even locally... well, you've got to accept that in most cases, the trade-off is that it's going to be difficult and time-consuming. That's where you are now.

 _Alternatively_... try to see the your decision constructs for what they are, and in cases where a quicker resolution is ideal (I'd suggest that, for your own sake, this is actually most of the time, unless you're really gratified by the research process) try to flex somewhere along the line - either flex your stringent criteria, or accept that you're going to have to pay more, or use mail-order, or whatever. In particular, you appear to be very cost conscious - phone under $200, not wanting to pay for shipping, or a $2 ride. Is this really vital for your survival, or is this just learned frugality? If it's truly vital, then flex your other criteria. Otherwise, you'll find that spending a little extra money in the right places usually makes things go a lot lot smoother :).

(I've personally never found that the mental model of assigning a value to my time and using this as a lever to alter the way I spend my time works --as to me, my free time is, well, free-- but YMMV.)

</comment><comment><USER10> Many times I've thought about writing a specialized tool for that but I think the complexity easily becomes ridiculous.

That said, Excel/LibreOffice works really well for me when lots of numbers are involved. Otherwise project management software, split decision into multiple tasks and do research as needed. (Writing in Wiki)

As others pointed out, don't overthink. On the other hand, who cares, if you think it's worth it.

<comment><USER11> I always tend to overthink. At the end, I almost always leave it upto math/science. Spreadsheets are a great way to visualize maths associated with things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> How much money would you want to be paid to work for one hour? Doing something like phone research? For six hours? Surely more than 0. Work out your hourly rate. Then factor it in to your decision. Sounds like you spent hundreds trying to save $100 or something, a lot more than you could possibly have saved.

Treat yourself like you would treat someone you really love.[0] Don't do stuff you wouldn't ask someone else to, or pay them to do. Imagine if your spouse made you/asked you to do all that work over finding a phone for them. That would seem crazy. Like they had no respect for you whatsoever.

Or maybe you have nothing better to do with your time. I guess not. In which case, carry on.

[0] from Louise Hay's _How to Love Yourself_. I had to learn to do that. (I used to say the most horrible, abusive, self-defeating things to myself all the time. Now, never.) We can treat everyone in our lives nicely and considerately, while being so mean to ourselves, never having been taught that _you_ are someone in your life too, who deserves respect, to be treated well, and loved.

</comment><comment><USER13> What your actions are missing is a closed feedback loop. You have a few reject signals("must have x/y/z feature") but you will benefit from thinking like a game designer and developing more of them to qualify your decisions and generate new feedback[0].

This process means "knowing yourself" more than it does "develop one technique" \- you have preferences and biases. You can't know for sure if you got the best phone. But you can know if your process for "buy new tech gadget" is improving by looking at your usage rates, cost/longevity, etc. and these are things that are governed by how you run your life, overall.

You are not rational in will, but in practice; if you design your personal systems well and follow through on what they indicate, you increasingly make good decisions despite your worst inclinations saying otherwise.

[0] [http://ludamix.com/dive/performance/](http://ludamix.com/dive/performance/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Well, I don't think it has to do with making rational decisions at all.

Imagine, You had $10 Million Cash in Bank, A House with no mortgage and a passive income of $200K per year.

Would you still have a hard time making this decision?

You probably wont. You will call Uber Black, go into Apple Store, pick up iPhone XS with Apple Care. Take Uber Black Home again because you cant be bother to drive your whatever car parked in Garage.

Likely you wanted the best for the $200, and you couldn't get what you want. One of the problem with low budget is their limited options. Which means you spend more time thinking about those trade off.

So has nothing to do with rational decision, you are just too worry to make the wrong decision because you have _limited resources_. So to solve your problem, is to forget about these research, buy it. And spend time thinking about how to make more income so you don't have to worry about stuff like these ever again.

<comment><USER15> Well, now I have something to point to if anybody asks if there's a tech bubble, I suppose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I made this Google Sheet for rational decision making. Hope you like it: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b9Kjw9pW5cDwGJaJl561...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b9Kjw9pW5cDwGJaJl5614NMPIxB_sjflderZzC7rB1w/edit#gid=1447928622)

</comment><comment><USER17> I think you might be describing analysis paralysis ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis)).

While I can't advise you how to deal with it I find that acknowledging the tendency makes it easier to override, particularly for relatively trivial and inconsequential decisions like your example.

Years ago I used to aim for 100% "information coverage" to base a decision on. These days I'm slowly starting to realize that the diminishing returns past a certain percentage of "information coverage" are rarely worth the time, though this depends on the gravity of the decision. In the case of the make/brand of my phone case I'd visit a site like thewirecutter.com and order their top pick.

</comment><comment><USER18> I evaluate such decisions using three measures:

1\. What is my time worth? Estimate how much time do you want to spent at most to buy a phone.

2\. How much enjoyment do I get from this activity? Estimate how long before you get bored with the "chase" of finding phone.

3\. Is it a need or want? Need gets handled quickly, want gets deferred as long as possible.

You spent 20 hours on research, assuming your time worth $20/hr, you could have spent $400 more and get a $600 phone right away.

Assuming you will enjoy the "chase" of finding new phone process for a few hours, let's say at most 3 hours, you could buy $540 phone after spending 3 hours.

It is a need and not a want, so I will default to buying as quickly as possible once the enjoyment of "chase" has waned.

In the end, I would have upped my budget to $540 of money and 3 hours of time to find a new phone.

</comment><comment><USER19> I used to run a list to talk about neurological stuff with folks living with neurological stuff. We would post research articles and talk about how this impacted actual life to live with it.

You sound like you probably have low affect. People who are more emotional can make snap decisions. They can "god with their gut." People with low affect can't do that. They lack the file that says "I have a good (or bad) feeling about this."

It can help to decide to spend X amount of time on it or to set a deadline. "I need a new phone within X period of time. I will get the best phone I can reasonably find by X date." and then make your peace with the fact that most purchases won't be "perfect" decisions.

</comment><comment><USER20> For starters, your time value cannot be 0. At minimum, your time value is equal to your living expenses.

</comment><comment><USER21> You might want to investigate the book Superforecasting and the related goodjudgmentproject.com

</comment><comment><USER22> Use a mental model. 10/10/10 seems a good fit.

Every time that you're diluting yourself into a decision ask yourself it that thing would matter in 10 minutes 10 hours 10 days 10 months etc.

You can also use this same mental model to evaluate the importance of something in relation to other vectors. Will this impact your tomorrow, next month, next year.

Are your finances going to be impacted by this today, next month, next year.

Also think about how things will compound. Will this decision have a compounding effect or not. Decisions with compounding effects matter, decisions without compounding effects usually not.

</comment><comment><USER23> One way to avoid agonizing over a phone is to either buy exactly what you previously had, a Google phone or walk into the Apple Store and get an iPhone. The other way to look at it is with a $200 budget get the best iphone you can and then at a later date or when you get insurance money for the theft or something trade it in because it retains it's value.

</comment><comment><USER24> You don't make rational decisions. You make emotional decisions.

The tool is choosing to not sweat the small stuff sometimes.

</comment><comment><USER25> Read this might help

Algorithms to Live By Brian Christian

</comment><comment><USER26> Step 1. Don't over-think - somebody gave me this advice a few months ago in a very offhand and almost sneering way, but I couldn't thank them enough for having "don't overthink" finally seared into my head

(especially since a lot of these phones are returnable, the decision need not be wholly life-course altering!) - you can almost always guarantee that flipping back and forth between opposing decisions is pretty much the worst course of action (when dealing with potential actions that don't consequentially affect your life in the short term - if you are deciding between crossing the street while the bus is coming towards you or waiting, that would be a counterexample to this, for instance)

Step 2. Optimize for minimizing regret. Afterwards, getting stuff done.

Most day to day decisions are inconsequential, and if not, you can improve on your initial choice - doing so eventually you get an accurate picture of the landscape of potential outcomes. Basically, for a lot of things you don't have to consider all the outcomes at the start, you pick up information as you go along. This can considerably reduce one's decision anxiety. In more technical terms, look up ergodicity; check out this guy's twitter: [https://twitter.com/ole_b_peters](https://twitter.com/ole_b_peters)

Step 3. Solve your anxiety.

You seem like an anxious person. I was anxious like this too. It was totally exhausting, just totally exhausting. I've found that spending a little extra money is well worth reducing the headache of unwanted and exhausting contemplation. Your time is worth so much more than zero, and so much more than whatever your wage is.

You know what tends to work well enough, most of the time? Getting the long- term consistently-popular device, the one that works great for both techies and non-techies alike. Instead of looking down upon people who didn't know how to even begin doing their research, I know look up to them for being able to make a good choice with almost no effort.

A good example of this is that I myself also recently had to pick out a phone for myself. I spent a while researching different Android phones that had specs that would be at least as good as the top iPhone. But then the day before I made the decision, after years of being a committed Android guy, I just said fuck it. I'm getting an iPhone. And it vastly exceeded my expectations, and it made me realize my preconceived notions about what I actually want were pretty wrong. For a case, I just typed in the model of the iPhone + ' case' on Amazon, sorted by most popular, and got the Amazon choice one. Whatever, it worked great just fine with almost zero consideration.

Brain time is valuable! We're knowledge workers! Let's make it easy on our heads.

</comment><comment><USER27> I'm not saying I'm right or better but I feel like I have the opposite problem. I don't do much research. I do the bare minimum to confirm whatever bias I started with and then just start executing. Usually works out well enough.

<comment><USER28> I just got a new phone with a new plan. It is a 2 generation upgrade (s6 to a8). It was the default phone. And it's "great"! I have had enough phones to know that this will be "ok" and much better than what I had. Would I treat a car like this? Or a house? No. But a phone? Yes.

I think there's the process of deciding which decisions need more scrutiny is far more important than the specific process you would use to micro manage a phone purchase vs a house purchase, for example.</comment></comment>


The 'Veritas' About Harvard - <AUTHOR> http://chronicle.com/article/Think-Tank-The-Veritas/48590/

<comment><USER2> Vanity fair had a (IMO) much better article on Harvard's endowment drop at [http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/harvard2...](http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/harvard200908)

Also, from the Vanity Fair article note: _Officially, the university charges $48,868 a year for undergraduate tuition, room, and board that's an increase of 50 percent over the last 10 years but only a small number of students actually pays that much. Back in 2004, under growing pressure from Washington, and in response to outsiders who accused the school of (a) elitism and (b) hoarding its immense wealth, Larry Summers shook up the world of higher education by announcing that students whose parents earned $40,000 a year or less would be able to attend Harvard gratis. Two years later, that cutoff was increased to $60,000, a figure well above the median U.S. household income.

Still, Harvard pressed ahead in its efforts to ease the growing burden of tuition. In December 2007, declaring that excellence and opportunity must go hand in hand, the university's new president, Drew Faust, made another stunning announcement: henceforth, students whose parents earn as much as $180,000 a year would pay no more than 10 percent of their family's annual income in tuition fees._

</comment><comment><USER3> Some interesting points, but this one:

"In 1990 the university welcomed slightly more than 1,600 students to its freshman class. In 2008, $32-billion later, it enrolled slightly more than 1,600 freshmen.

That is remarkable stinginess. Harvard undergraduate degrees are immensely valuable, conferring a lifetime of social capital and prestige."

Isn't the reason Harvard undergraduate degrees are immensely valuable precisely the limited supply of them?

<comment><USER4> Maybe, but shouldn't they be valuable because it's graduates have proven themselves to be well educated and well balanced people? Should education be valuable because there is so little of it?

<comment><USER5> The question is how well does quality education scale?

What I found most valuable during my university days was easy access to great professors. Many of my peers learned more outside the classroom in this way than during lectures.

With more students it becomes difficult to foster this type of one to one relationship. Those less motivated to get to know professors become more likely to fall by the wayside.

<comment><USER4> True but I think the article's point was that you could maintain the same professor-student ratio and increase class sizes if you have the billlions that Harvard had. Instead they spent the money to make them seem more prestigious.

<comment><USER6> You could maintain the same professor-student ratio, but you wouldn't be able to retain the same professors. If Harvard expanded, it would be less able to maintain the 'superstar professor'-professor ratio because other colleges would be able to court the professors away with offers of greater access to better facilities and bigger corner offices with better grad student support.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is the same guy who thinks online education will replace traditional colleges:

[http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?do...](http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=1015721)

Here's his ideal fantasy university -- funded by Bill Gates, with unlimited online enrollment:

[http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?do...](http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=963317)

Given that, more online education is likely his real message here: "Harvard can just expand online! Admit everyone who wants to go! It'll be great!"

I've done online education, correspondence courses, and live satellite courses. They don't compare in any way to college courses, let alone the college experience.

</comment><comment><USER8> Love this: In early September, endowment officials announced that they had lost $10-billon, a 27-percent drop... Vanity Fair sent a reporter to Cambridge this year to assess the damage. She was told that the university had lowered thermostats by four degrees and would no longer be serving free coffee [because their endowment was "only" ~30 billion].

Btw, endowment or no endowment, Harvard is not in business to give away free degrees. Indeed 10 to 15 percent of students in any given class at Harvard are legacies, who pay a LOT for a Harvard undergrad degree, which, by the way, isn't worth as much as people think.. <http://slate.com/id/2112215/>

<comment><USER9> That article hinges entirely on defining success as reaching a c-level position at a fortune 100.

The diminishing presence of ivy leaguers could just as well indicate a shift in priorities by the kids or the fact that the _really_ big money was in private hedge-funds for the better part of the last decade.

<comment><USER10> Did you read the article? That's precisely what it posits in the last couple of paragraphs.

<comment><USER9> You're absolutely right, I made a mistake. You were the one equating worth with a c-level position (which is unsubstantiated by the article) not the author.

My apologies for the confusion.

<comment><USER10> You've made another mistake: I wasn't the one who made the comment you responded to.

<comment><USER9> So your role in all this is to defend his erroneous point?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Funny how the author completely ignored a similar college in a similar situation. Yale is building two new residential colleges to add to its current twelve. Construction is underway already. Saying that elite universities purposely limit the number of students admitted is baseless. It's not as easy to expand as one might think. Furthermore, many of these universities do graduate level research that can be world changing. That's also another part of an university's mission, which the author also ignored. This is quite ironic given all the Nobels being handed out right now.

</comment><comment><USER12> My brother in law just finished Harvard. He got excellent financial aid, as did most in his class. Why should not accepting more people equal stinginess? They have, yah know, standards...

<comment><USER13> Then they should simply lower the tuition cost and avoid the aid hassle.

They could still just select the top 1600 students a year (or whatever the figure is)...but that would dramatically change the makeup of those 1600.

<comment><USER12> I highly doubt anyone in that group of 1600 accepted doesn't go to Harvard out of need. Anyone have stats on this?</comment></comment></comment>