The Horse Helped Shape Our World at Great Expense to Itself - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-the-horse-helped-shape-our-world--at-great-expense-to-itself/2018/02/09/550b649c-0078-11e8-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html <comment><USER2> As a rider who has done some reading into the history, one of the things modernity does overlook is how horsemanship provided a practical philosophical basis for human morality.

Going back to Xenophon (and Simeon before him), who wrote one of the earliest surviving treatises on horsemanship, the personal qualities it takes to ride and train were also the basis for leadership. Xenophon's work on the Cavalry General is mainly practical and tactical, but expands on some of the principles of horsemanship - a key one being, "nothing forced can be beautiful."

The essence of it is that because they are prey animals, good horsemanship is necessarily an exercise in leadership.

Dom Duarte's 13th century treatise (next on my list) is also about the moral qualities for horsemanship, and the classic "education of the king," by Pluvinel is about educating the king of France as a horseman, with an eye to developing the king as a leader.

IMHO, officer training has always included horsemanship because it develops a kind of physical presence and fearlessness required to get people to follow them willingly.

Glad to see something like this mentioned on HN, as revisiting the cultivation of leadership through physical and moral exercise is something we in tech could certainly benefit from.

<comment><USER3> This is pretty fascinating. I think it might explain why the Spanish word for "gentleman" is "Caballero", or "horseman". It is also the word used for "knight", which makes more literal sense.

<comment><USER4> Not to mention 'chivalry', 'chivalrous', _from Old French word chevalerie, "knighthood, chivalry, nobility, cavalry" (11th century), the -erie abstract of chevaler "knight, horseman", from Medieval Latin caballarius ("horseman, knight"), a derivation from caballus ("horse")._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I doubt the horses had a real say in this, and the deliberate use of active tense to legitimize the "sacrifice" is very annoying.

<comment><USER6> I doubt anyone had a "real-say" in this, all just involuntary nervous reactions. /s

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The cow sacrificed itself for us, the horse sacrificed itself for us, the fish sacrifice themselves for us, we sacrifice ourselves for us. And all this in the name of wheat.

Maybe the agricultural revolution was too powerful...

<comment><USER8> theres a car in space tho

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Horses were so incredibly useful to humans, it changed their entire evolutionary course. If I recall correctly, out of the thousands of species of horses, there is only one truly "wild" one left. Any other horses that are untamed and raised in nature are actually feral.

I love the animals. They're like big dogs that don't understand how truly massive they are.

<comment><USER10> In high school, I had a summer and after-school job cleaning a local horse stable. Up to then I'd had no introduction to horses. This job entailed being in the stalls with the individual horses and shoveling around them. Due to my prompting or self-motivated they'd often move around these fairly tight spaces. I was always amazed at how nimble they were in the sense that they always seemed to know where to put their hoofs to not step on my toes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> A memorial to the almost 1 million horses, donkeys, and mules that died in World War 1 is being built in England:

[https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/789444/War- Horse-M...](https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/789444/War-Horse- Memorial-Ascot-honour-First-World-War-heroes)

</comment><comment><USER12> "At the turn of the 20th century some 130,000 horses were at work on any given day in New York City, and 20 of them died daily."

I wonder how many cars get totalled in NY per day

<comment><USER13> The article at [http://qi.com/infocloud/horses](http://qi.com/infocloud/horses) gives a figure more than twice that and offers this additional bit of info:

"Dead horses were unwieldy, and street cleaners often waited several days for the corpses to putrefy so they could more easily be sawed into pieces."

<comment><USER14> Why weren't they commonly eaten? A lot of fine meat I'd say in a time when meat was relatively more expensive.

<comment><USER15> Same reason we don't eat random dead deer at the side of the road...

<comment><USER16> ...we don't?

Ah, you must live in one of those... whaddyacallem... cities.~

Roadkill is very often eaten by _something_ , though if a human wants to do it, they have to pick it up before the county gets to it. After that, it's literally off the table. The exact method of disposal depends on jurisdiction, but some places have a sanctuary or research facility for carnivorous species nearby.

A random dead deer in NW Indiana, for instance, might get picked up by Wolf Park research facility, stored in their freezer, and fed to the main pack (still frozen).

Dead horses were picked up by knackers and turned into dodgy sausages all the time. This was just one of the unsafe food practices that led to the establishment of the FDA and public health inspectors.

<comment><USER15> Same thing happens here in MN. If it's within a certain distance of the wolf research facility (the exact name escapes me ATM) in Ely, it's taken there as food for their wolves.

However, since I'm human, I assumed the preposition "we" did not apply in this case.

And, FWIW, I live on a farm.

<comment><USER16> Oh, it does. Roadkill definitely gets eaten by people. At least one person, anyway.

If anyone wants to ride in on their high horse, I'd eat that too. Nobody does it who can afford not to.

Or nutters like Gary Busey.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I thought traditionally oxen were considered draught animals and primarily used in medieval agriculture around the world no matter the country.

Horses I presume were used but I'm thinking they were much more expensive and less multi-purpose than oxen?

I mean one can also point out a period where civilization was between a pre- oxen standard and that of post-oxen. I understand the part horses play in war but agriculture tends to affect more in history generally speaking.

<comment><USER18> I'm not well-versed, but the reason you see oxen dominant in antiquity is because the ox yoke is far simpler to make than horse collar.

I'd be curious to hear about distinct advantages to plow horses. They must exist, otherwise no one would plow with horses.

<comment><USER19> Horses are stronger and have much better endurance. From what I have read the reason for oxen being used as draft animals is that the horse collar had not yet been invented. Once it was, agricultural production skyrocketed, and the new wealth made possible the Middle Ages.

<comment><USER2> A technology change in the 1730s made horses viable viable plow animals. It was a lighter metal plow (name escapes me), and ploughmen switched from oxen to horses.

Horses were previously used mainly for military and business transportation via carriage and carts, but this change made them economical for farmers and ploughmen.

Thing is, the temperament and intelligence of horses were different, and the non-military horseman as a profession was born. That was the origin of a lot of the so-called "gypsy," mysticism about "whispering," as there were tricks of the trade that ploughmen used to protect their business.

The history is fascinating, and not unlike the way crypto is today. Where a former exclusively military technology proliferated to a trade class, who organized to "professionalize," it to preserve the integrity and value of its secrets.

They formed something called "the society of the horseman's word," which was a pseudo-masonic group modeled after what Millers had done in their own trade. There is a bunch of hocus pocus around their history, but viewed as a trade association or guild, it makes economic sense.

<comment><USER20> Hm. Horse collars were the major invention to allow horses to pull a plow. They were in use in Europe since 1000AD.

<comment><USER2> According to a history of ploughman culture, it was a lighter metal plow that made them economical vs. oxen in the 1730s.

<comment><USER19> "The horse collar eventually spread to Europe c. 920 AD, and became universal by the 12th century.[21] The Scandinavians were among the first to utilize a horse collar that did not constrain the breathing passages of the horses.[22] Prior to this development, oxen still remained the primary choice of animal for farm labor, as all the previous harnesses and collars could only be worn by them without physical penalty."

\--[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_collar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_collar)

I guess your history of ploughman culture is mistaken.

<comment><USER2> Not disputing horse collar. Point made in a history of horsemanship (an in turn ploughman trades) was that the trade of ploughmen in england moved away from oxen more to horses as the result of a change in plough design.

This excerpt may have been the design change that was referenced.

"There was little attempt to change the design of the plough until the mid 1600's with the Dutch being among the first in improving its shape. This change in shape was soon discovered in Northern England and Scotland with Joseph Foljambe from Rotherham building and patented a plough having what was described as, the perfect implement then in use."

"[http://www.ploughmen.co.uk/about-us/history-of-the- plough"](http://www.ploughmen.co.uk/about-us/history-of-the-plough")

Perhaps there is a more direct way to discredit the implications of my original post?

<comment><USER20> Discredit? Sorry, not intended. Just confused, since horses had been in use for ploughing for centuries. Unaware of any sea change in technique.

And in America of course we credit John Deere for reinventing the moldboard plow in the early 1800's. Sadly we weren't taught of any English innovations in school.

<comment><USER2> I did not intend to come off as salty as my comment reads either, no snark intended.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > _While 600,000 men lost their lives in the Civil War, some 1.5 million > horses and mules also perished._

Horse is an animal. I find it highly disturbing to compare their 'loses' to actual humans.

<comment><USER22> That's just an insensitive comment of yours. As if it being just an "animal" somehow means that it was less of a loss or tragedy. Because its "just" an animal should we not compare numbers to numbers for perspective? Isn't that a rather silly stance to have when talking about deaths in the first place?

Humans are an animals too, the most numerous in fact. We should show some empathy and understanding in regards to all life. Not separate and somehow feel indifferent about anything "non-animal".

<comment><USER22> Correction: *anything "non-human".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> > _One animal [the horse] was so decisive in shaping human history..._

What a Western-centric view.

Entire human civilizations developed for centuries or millennia, without horses -- they really don't conform to the phases of "pre-horse, horse and post-horse" because they were never "horse".

It's possible (although ill-conceived and wrong) to argue that there is no history and no culture outside of Western civilization; but then one should make an argument about it, not simply ignoring immense parts of the human adventure.

<comment><USER24> Pretty much all of the horseless civilizations got rolled over by people with horses.

The quote wasn't that "no civilization existed without horses", it was that the horse was "decisive in shaping human history".

When you consider what happened to advanced civilizations like the Aztec and Inca when they interfaced with horseborne civilizations, the point makes sense, and isn't doing so by marginalizing people who didn't have horses.</comment></comment>


Android tops everyone in 2010 market share; 2011 may be different - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/01/android-beats-nokia-apple-rim-in-2010-but-firm-warns-about-2011.ars <comment><USER2> The headline is wrong in two ways:

1\. Android only squeaked ahead globally in the fourth quarter of 2010. I would imagine Nokia still held the lead over the entire year since Android had much lower share at the start of the year.

2\. The source says that _in the US_ things might be different in 2011 due to iPhone carrier exclusivity expiring, but Android is not merely leading sales in the US, they are 3x higher than the next highest which is Blackberry (it's roughly 60/20/20 Android/Rim/iPhone).</comment>


How I Turned Down $300,000 from Microsoft to go Full-Time on GitHub (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/10/18/how-i-turned-down-300k.html? <comment><USER2> My story, along similar lines: Microsoft was recruiting me for two years, starting in 1994, while at my first startup. I kept saying no. I left the startup to work, by myself, on an early ORM for Java, (back in JDK 1.0.2 days).

Microsoft approached me again, offered to buy my technology for a close to $1M, give me lots of equity (back when that stock was growing quickly), and roll out my product, (this was before Microsoft dumped Java). I would then go to work on what they wanted me for originally.

A couple of trips later, I just didn't like Microsoft, and started searching for alternatives. I found a little Boston-based startup who needed my product, and who I liked a lot. (Actually, the guy who put me on the trail of this startup had just gotten his company acquired by Microsoft.)

I got drunk, called the VP putting the offer together, and said thanks but no thanks. He said I'd be sorry.

I wasn't. I didn't make nearly as much as if I had gone to Microsoft, but I built and shipped my product, stayed on that product, worked with Java (which I liked) instead of the MS platform (which I didn't), learned a lot, had lots of fun with it, and saw the equity turn tangible. Couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

<comment><USER3> The thing you were building was worth more than one million dollars to you? It's good that you're pleased with the outcome, but the notion just seems really bizarre to me to give up one million dollars just to keep working on one programming project on my own. Maybe there's something about it I'm just not "getting".

<comment><USER4> have you considered money isn't everything?

<comment><USER3> Yes, but one million dollars just seems like a huge sum to give up for one project to me. I'm not saying they made the wrong choice, it's just one I can't see myself making. $1M is a decade of $100k a year. Money might not be /everything/ but that's a pretty comfortable life while you work on other projects or hold another job with no fear of running into serious financial problems as long as you don't do something ridiculous.

<comment><USER5> It's classic cognitive dissonance - they realize they made the wrong choice, so expend energy and time justifying it and explaining how they made the right choice every chance they get, as though eventually they will convince themselves. And they probably will, in time.

<comment><USER2> Sorry, but no. It was the wrong choice financially, but the right choice for my emotional well-being. I also reasoned about regrets years down the road -- I'd probably regret not having tried my own thing.

And I don't explain this "every chance [I] get". I think about it rarely, and discuss it even less. I've done well enough financially that giving up the Microsoft cash just doesn't matter. I just mention it here because it seemed relevant to the topic at hand.

<comment><USER6> You really don't know if you made "the right choice" for your emotional well- being because you can only see one of any number of possible outcomes.

If you'd have gone with Big Bad Microsoft, a lot of things could have happened. At the instant of deciding - you could have learned how to make decisions based less on emotions and more on logic. You could have helped change the company culture instead of being relatively ineffectual. I wonder - what has your hate-based (I assume) decision really changed for anybody outside of a small Boston startup?

<comment><USER2> Wow, that's a harsh comment.

Being neither Vulcan nor omniscient, just human, I had to make a decision with imperfect information, and my instincts did play a role in that decision. Improving Microsoft corporate culture was not my goal. Improving the world was not my goal. My goal was to work on software that I was driven to write, using technology that I enjoyed using, and to provide a comfortable life for my family. I did all of those things.

I don't "hate" Microsoft, but combining what I knew of myself at the time, with what I observed at the company, I concluded that I would be happier elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This was inspiring in a way many "how I started a company" posts aren't.

I also appreciated the transparency re: the retention package offered to him in the Powerset acquisition. As a younger engineer, I've spent a lot of time focusing on salary numbers (going from $70k to $90k to $100k to $122k in a few years, and across a few companies), but I'm starting to see how that's less informative than bonuses/stock grants, where the real long-term incentives and house-buying/lifestyle-company-starting capital comes from.

Are there forums where folks openly discuss numbers like these? Glassdoor can be confusing sometimes, where it's unclear if folks are putting down their pre-tax salary number or their [salary + sign-on + annual bonus + RSU] number.

<comment><USER8> There are a few numbers on Quora submitted by anonymous people but not a very large set of data points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The interesting part for me was the "I am accustomed to the six-digit lifestyle".

For this and other reasons, I consciously try to keep an asset- light/expenditure-light lifestyle (which is easy to do at college-age). It's not that I like to a hip startup guy that is proud of eating Ramen every day (I fucking hate Ramen), but not having to have to face a tough decision because of my lifestyle.

You can have a fun and a great life-style for little money.

P.S.: Wow, I do sound like an idealistic hippie.

<comment><USER10> I have the six figure income and don't really spend much of it on anything. Like what could I possibly spend that much money on? Go out and get the most expensive thing on the menu every night of the week? Fill closets with designer clothes I'll never actually wear? I have no idea.

So I just throw a huge cash pile into savings paycheck after paycheck, year after year. I feel like I could develop some alternate career that I could enjoy more, like working on cruise ships or music video shoots or something. Makes me wish I had crappy food service or retail jobs when I was younger so I had some alternate experience to draw from.

<comment><USER11> > So I just throw a huge cash pile into savings paycheck after paycheck, year > after year.

I hope you're generalizing here and not actually wasting your money in a savings account. Throw that in some IRA's, CD's, and short-term index funds.

<comment><USER10> Though I have too much of it in a money market account, I was being over- general

tangent: I never saw the point in CDs if I could get a better rate on treasury or muni bonds

<comment><USER12> Find CDs with a low early withdrawal penalty (Ally bank for example) and you've for many intents and purposes eliminated inflation risk, to which the bonds are vulnerable. Inflation may not go up, but it certainly can't go much farther down. See for example [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-37741854/four-cds- tha...](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-37741854/four-cds-that-protect- against-a-bond-bubble/?tag=mwuser).

<comment><USER10> Some kind of Treasuries with 0.5% APY? Why not [https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0083&...](https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0083&FundIntExt=INT#tab=1)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It's interesting that his employment offer was a salary plus a $300K bonus _over three years_ , and just a few years later GitHub is valued at around $1B.

Not only that, they didn't take any funding in the beginning. (It was bootstrapped completely for many years -- its first ever funding was a $100M round valuing GitHub at $750M.)

Previous discussion on HN: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=338286>

</comment><comment><USER14> Let me share a similar story.

A long time ago, I did my undergraduate thesis at UW on a project called Kimera [1], a bytecode verifier for Java back in the days when such things were still pretty novel. I came across a nice fuzzing technique to test our verifier using Sun's and Microsoft's (all other verifiers being the former) as oracles. After we found all our bugs using this method, we began to notice bugs in the other verifiers, and we were able to turn one of these bugs into a full on security breach in the Netscape browser.

So we got Microsoft's attention (not that far from UW), we met a few times, and they offered to buy our test suite/technology for an amount of money where my share would have been a lot for the time. However, the professor in charge decided to spin the tech off into a startup. The startup eventually failed, but I think the decision was reasonable considering this was during the first dotcom boom and everyone else was doing it. I also got some nice consulting income out of it, and the whole Java thing at Microsoft came tumbling down a few years anyways.

At the end of the day, I still wound up working for Microsoft after grad school :)

[1] <http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/egs/kimera/>

</comment><comment><USER15> Inspiring, but a prime example of Survivorship bias

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias>

<comment><USER16> Absolutely. And I say this as someone who's turned down many lucrative opportunities to "follow my heart". If you're going to do it, don't do it for the money. Turning down a mid-six-figure offer to start a billion dollar company is most certainly an outlier, on both sides.

If you're going to turn down money in hand for something speculative in your own life, do it knowing how much time, money, and opportunity you can afford to lose, and do it because it's something you really believe in. Even if you fail, you can land on your feet with an experience you'll never forget.

Just don't do it out of some crazy notion that destiny rewards the reckless, which is where the survivorship bias comes into play.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> An interesting story. One observation:

"[...] At 29 years old, I was the oldest of the three GitHubbers, and had accumulated a proportionally larger amount of debt and monthly expenditure. I was used to my six digit lifestyle. [...]"

Now, how does it happen that a guy earning six figures "accumulates a large debt" over time?

<comment><USER18> By living beyond ones' means. Most people do it, regardless of their income. The single best piece of advice I've heard is "Live within your means."

<comment><USER17> > Most people do it, regardless of their income.

Really - how does this work? If you consistently live beyond your means, do you just die with a huge debt or do you repay it somewhere along the way?

<comment><USER14> Eventually, it catches up with you, and either austerity ensues or you go bankrupt. Happened to me a couple of times as a kid (via my parents, not my spending of course).

<comment><USER17> What does it mean for an individual to go bankrupt? [genuinely curious]

<comment><USER19> It means you're fucked. Your name is dirt after that. You'll never get credit again.

<comment><USER20> Never being seven years.

<comment><USER19> I guess it depends on where you live.

In my community, nobody of consequence, let alone credit providers, would forget within 7yrs.

Further, there are other consequences eg. you'd be barred from holding public office.

<comment><USER21> Your community sucks in this regard. Bankruptcy is not like that in the US.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great that it worked out for him, but I can't see myself risking bankruptcy and all the other things that could go terribly wrong running a startup when I have a 300k job offer at Microsoft.

<comment><USER22> Yes, but was he really risking bankruptcy? What was the worst case outcome of his decision? If GitHub eventually failed, I highly doubt he would go bankrupt. He would just have to find a new job, which for someone offered $300k from Microsoft would presumably not be difficult. In fact, he could probably walk right over to Microsoft and ask for a job.

A lot of these "life changing" decisions are portrayed as "risking bankruptcy" vs. job security. But for a talented developer, job security is not a fleeting opportunity. He could always choose to find a job later. He only had one chance to go with GitHub. When you think about the decision like that, the choice is obvious.

<comment><USER3> Maybe I'm overestimating how bad it really is when your startup attempt fails.

Here's what I'm imagining:

Working on a startup full-time without a job, before it starts earning money on its own, you're losing money constantly to bills and food. If your startup doesn't start getting profit soon enough, your stored money runs out, and you either have to live with a friend/family, or worst-case, become homeless unless you found a new job before the startup went totally under (you might not get any interviews in this time or get to the interviews and not get the job). Getting a job after running out of money living with friends/family, it'll have to either be remote or somewhere you can ride a bicycle/walk to, unless your friend/family lends you money or drives you around (less likely). I wouldn't feel safe having to use a bicycle as my primary transportation -- if my legs get tired I've gotta walk or find a bus. Showing up to your job interviews sweaty and exhausted probably doesn't leave a good impression. If you're homeless, I guess it might be possible by some stretch to remote from public libraries? More realistically, I guess you'd have to get a job at a supermarket or something along those lines and soon after that be able to sustain living at a low-rent apartment somewhere (if you live somewhere with reasonably-priced housing available, which you probably don't if you're in the startup hub of San Francisco). In the mean time you could shower and keep your clothes in a gym; I've heard lots of homeless people do that. Getting a job now and going through an interview at that point would probably be harder than before due to more stress, less good sleep, and so on. Hopefully you wouldn't lose all your possessions in the meantime.

Maybe I'm just too inclined to think pessimistically. The average outcome of a startup failure probably isn't that bad. If one option is a 9/10 chance something will turn out amazingly but a 1/10 it'll be a long-term disaster, and the other option is a 100% chance things won't be /amazing/ but they'll still be pretty great, I'll almost definitely go with the second one. I guess I'm just not the type for this kind of thing.

<comment><USER23> Presumably you would seek other income opportunities _before_ you're so destitute as to be homeless. And that doesn't always mean quitting your startup, either. Many people or startups take on consulting projects while they're getting off the ground to make ends meet. There are many opportunities out there for people who have a demonstrable history of making real things happen.

Also, in big cities where startups usually are, it's not usually that hard to get by without a car.

<comment><USER3> Right, I'd just be afraid the other income opportunities might not come along, but apparently that fear isn't too rationally founded and programmers are in a pretty decent demand, according to what I've seen.

>There are many opportunities out there for people who have a demonstrable history of making real things happen.

Even if it was a failure?

>Also, in big cities where startups usually are, it's not usually that hard to get by without a car.

I used to get a bit tired just walking around my high school. I've never lived in a city, though. I'd probably adjust well enough eventually.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is an extremely interesting story for me. I just had to make a similar decision.

I had always wanted to work with Stuart McClure (<https://twitter.com/stuartmcclure>), and I was fortunate enough to do so. I joined Cylance (his new company) in September of last year, by February I had to make a choice.

Get in love with Cylance full time, or continue to have a love affair with iKnode. I choose to continue with iKnode, and on February I quit my job. It was an extremely though decision because I loved that company, and the team... it was basically a dream come true.

I, too, quit my job to go after the Holy Grail. And things have been great. It is true that this kind of stories (like the Github one) is extremely inspiring. You want to go ahead and do it as well. But there are so many implications to it. It sounds so interesting when you read about it, but doing it is an extremely different story. You fill yourself with doubt and uncertainty. Specially when you 2 kids to feed, and still keep your sanity.

I can't say that looking back, I feel great about my decision, because I am not out yet. I am still living the consequences of my decision. I know the iKnode team is very happy that I decided to stay. And I know for usre I will definitely write a similar blog post in the following years. I know we will be successful. I know I made the right choice.

<comment><USER25> Going after your own venture while you also need to support your family is frightening and yet inspiring.

I wish the best of luck to you and your team.

<comment><USER24> Thanks :D Keep an eye for Structum.... we'll make it big.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> > I was still working full time at Powerset on July 1, 2008

I'm curious how this works normally. He was employed full time at PowerSet nine months after he started working "full time" on Github. What did Powerset think of his devoting his time and energy to Github? What is the industry norm? What about the IP issues that complicate the matter? Couldn't Powerset have claimed ownership over Github since he was a salaried employee?

<comment><USER27> PowerSet is in California.

California has fairly strong protection for employee's intellectual property in stuff they do on their own time that is not relevant to their employer's business. This protection is, admittedly, more effective if you're employed by a small company with a focused business than if you're employed by a major corporation that does a bit of everything. But github doesn't sound much like a natural language search engine, so I doubt there were any IP issues to worry about.

See [http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi- bin/displaycode?section=lab...](http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi- bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2870-2872) for the relevant statute.

<comment><USER28> I think this single piece of legislation has done more for California's startup scene than anything else.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Tom also gave an amazing talk of the founding of GitHub when he first spoke at Startup School a few years ago: [http://tom.preston- werner.com/2010/10/18/optimize-for-happin...](http://tom.preston- werner.com/2010/10/18/optimize-for-happiness.html)

</comment><comment><USER30> Tom, you have the guts that many of us aspire to having. I'm sure I speak on behalf of the community when saying thanks for deciding to go with GitHub! Making that decision, you have have set a new standard in the world of development. Forever.

</comment><comment><USER31> >"wow, that was an adventure," not "wow, I sure felt safe."

Love the ending! Reminds me of a someone from my childhood. Us being the annoying kids would tell him "smoking kills 10 years of your life"...his optimistic response would be "the last 10 years suck anyway."

</comment><comment><USER32> This post is also included in The passionate programmer, a really great book: <http://pragprog.com/book/cfcar2/the-passionate-programmer>

</comment><comment><USER33> Love this post. Always read it every few months.

</comment><comment><USER34> Good to read from time to time. I bet he's got no regrets!

</comment><comment><USER35> Am I the only one who likes Bitbucket 100x more than GitHub. Still. Cool story, bro.

<comment><USER36> quite possibly ...

Atlassian always had that Adobe feel to it - there was a wobbly mirror between me and the way the code underneath wanted to work.

Its hard to explain but it is best put as - github (untill v recently) does not feel as if decisions are made by somone in charge of others where the others get it, but the someone just does not understand it quite right</comment></comment>


Chihuahua With No Front Legs, Can Walk Again Thanks To 3D Printing - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/08/turboroo-the-chihuahua-with-no-front-legs-can-walk-again-thanks-to-3d-printing/

<comment><AUTHOR> This makes you go awwww.</comment>


Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis - <AUTHOR> http://archgrants.org/competition/ <comment><USER2> Things to know about St. Louis:

The City of St. Louis is a separate entity from St. Louis county. When I last checked the employee map for a 150 engineer software company, there were two employees living in the City of St. Louis, (a receptionist, and a newly divorced man in an apartment) the remainder where in St. Louis County, St. Charles County, and living on the "east side" in Illinois (but far enough to clear East St. Louis).

The City of St. Louis has a 1% payroll tax for people that work in the city, plus another 1% for people that live in the city. That may not be important for a startup, but if you are looking to long term employ a lot of highly paid people you have to ask yourself if you want an extra 2% margin or not.

There has been a fair amount of redevelopment in the city itself in recent years, and probably a large amount to come, so you can find a nice place. Make sure to check for a grocery store nearby. Public transit is next to useless. Prepare to drive.

The radial highways in and out of the city are in pretty good shape these days. Check the actually commute times, but 20 miles in 30 minutes wouldn't be outrageous.

<comment><USER3> St Louis has a city income tax?!

<comment><USER4> 1% earnings tax if you either live in the city or work in the city. (If you both live and work in the city, it's still 1%)

Frankly, I don't mind paying it. The city is entering a tricky time where it's got some momentum going with a lot of young people, a up-and-coming arts scene, more and more local businesses. If it puts the money to good use, there's hope for revitalizing the city core.

<comment><USER5> It's not the rate that is unattractive. It's having to deal with yet _another_ income tax bureaucracy.

<comment><USER2> Fear not. Your payroll company takes care of it. There are no forms for employees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I wonder whether groups like this hadn't ought to stop doing grant/investment programs like this. You can't just buy a startup community, at least not for any amount we've seen spent to date. It has to grow organically.

What seems likely to happen here is that adverse selection will allocate these grants to companies with poorer prospects than the total pool of startups, thus creating a track record of failure for the area.

Maybe a better approach would be to offer the grants to _any_ startup nationwide, with the proviso that they employ N people in STL.

<comment><USER6> > _You can't just buy a startup community_

I don't know that I've seen it attempted before.

More generally, I think this is a very interesting development. As developers move into the cloud, staying in places like silicon valley requires a burn that might not be necessary.

Verrry interesting.

<comment><USER7> There have been a lot of places that have tried it recently. There have been startup "accelerators" and seed funding thingers in non-hub cities popping up like wildfire. I know of programs that have run in Toronto, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Edinburgh, Santiago and there are many others that I've forgotten. Some of those had public funding.

I think the key bit in tptacek's comment is, "not for any amount we've seen spent to date". You probably could buy a startup scene. But not for a laughable $500k. Both pg and Brad Feld have written on such. The gist, from memory, is that it'd take a whole lot more money and a couple decades.

<comment><USER8> What program like this exists in DC?

<comment><USER7> LaunchBox Digital started there, then moved to Durham, then moved back to traditional angel investing. In fact, most of the programs that I listed above at this point are defunct, which was kind of what I was getting at.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A slight aside, but I'm seeing a lot of comments about how the cash isn't really enough to tempt people. They're probably correct.

You know what I'd love to see? States being able to set their own special immigration policies. I live in New York and am very happy here, but it's very difficult to create my own startup because I'm on a restrictive work visa.

However, if St. Louis had the ability to request a special exclusion for foreign nationals to create a startup in their city, you'd better believe I would be looking at it very closely. From talking to other people in similar situations, I doubt I'd be alone.

(Of course, if St. Louis had the power to do this then I suspect NYC would as well- and Bloomberg is a very vocal supporter of immigration reform. But still...)

</comment><comment><USER10> St. Louis has the wrong understanding of the problem. Money isn't the solution to building a tech community. Funding isn't usually the issue in getting a startup off the ground.

The development of the tech community is how you entice entrepreneurs and technologists to your area. Entrepreneurs and developers flock to where there is a community of like minded individuals. Build the community and the people will come. Once the people come, the capital will come.

Look at what NYC is doing. They are building a tech community that rivals Silicon Valley out of the ashes of former investment banking software engineers. The city government is actively supporting groups like New York Tech Meetup and General Assembly. They are nurturing the tech community and encouraging them to grow roots in the city.

St. Louis needs to work on this rather than just throw money at the problem.

<comment><USER11> I was trying to work out where people stood on SOPA to get some idea of how much they understand internet startups. But I don't understand enough about Americna politics to get very far - all I have is that the Senator for Missouri, Claire McCaskill, was a SOPA co-sponsor.

How do congress-people fit into this? There seem to be lots more of them...

<comment><USER12> There's two "houses", the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate contains two Senators per state, the House of Representatives contains over 400 representatives, each of whom individually represents a "district" that can range in size from part of a large city to an entire state--the goal is to have at least one district per state, but for each district to have roughly equal population.

So Missouri actually has two senators, McCaskill and Roy Blunt. "Congressmen" are usually members of the House of Representatives, and a state might have anywhere between 1 and about 50 or so.

For legislation to pass, it has to be passed by both houses and signed by the President, who's elected separately. If the President vetoes it, both houses can pass it over his head with a 2/3 majority. Constitutional amendments require a 2/3 majority and then some. And it's not like a parliamentary system where the whole party always votes the same way. The House in particular has often attracted idiosyncratic candidates who can only get elected in their particular district, and almost never vote with their party--guys like Ron Paul, James Traficant, and Zell Miller. Though of the three, only Ron Paul is still in office, and he's retiring soon.

The House and the Senate have different rules and regulations and traditions, and each can do things the other can't, but that's basically how it works.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I hate writing this comment because I actually have a lot of warm feelings about St. Louis. I grew up there and went to college + medical school there (until I was about 25). Then I left.

I always say that St. Louis is a nice place to be from. It's a nice place to raise a family. But I'm never going to move back. Or under extreme protest if my wife decides she wants to move back to be by family. There's just nothing _interesting_ about St. Louis. White flight ruined the city in the sixties and highway 70 divides the majority black population (north) from the majority white population (south). So it's basically a segregated suburbia wrapped around a lifeless inner core. No one lives in the city. They drive there to work, drink and watch sports. Period.

I certainly wouldn't want to start a tech company there.

<comment><USER14> > They drive there to ... drink

Well, that's a little terrifying.

<comment><USER15> Downtown has Laclede's landing, Busch Stadium, the James Edwards Dome, Scott Trade Center etc. There's other places that I'm forgetting, but that's a draw to down town for nights and weekends if you are into sports, drinking, and live music. I lived downtown while I was there and everyone I knew and worked with lived outside of the city and would drive in for work/events. I was only there for a couple of years over a decade ago so some of it has probably changed but I doubt it. It is probably one of the last places I would consider for a company and it's one of the few places I have no real desire to go back to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Bizarrely, I got back from St. Louis last on Saturday after going for PhD interviews. Regarding St. Louis as a whole, I think this article has some interesting points;

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2011/12/06/st- louis-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2011/12/06/st-louis-doesnt- suck/)

As for St. Louis as a tech start up location, I know there's a growing biotech scene bubbling up. St. Louis actually has the highest concentration of plant scientists in the world, and both Monsanto and WashU really pioneering some pretty incredible crop research.

Similarly, WashU is doing some truly extraordinary biomedical research, such as the newly opened Genomic and Pathology Services, where physicians from around the US can send cancer tissue samples to have genomic data read for prognostic and diagnostic purposes (<http://www.gps.wustl.edu/>).

To help catalyze the biotech spirit, the university offers a biotech Entrepreneurship pathway integrated with its biomedical/biological sciences PhD program which runs joint with the business school.([http://dbbs.wustl.edu/curstudents/SpecialEmphasisPathways/Pa...](http://dbbs.wustl.edu/curstudents/SpecialEmphasisPathways/Pages/KauffmanPathway.aspx)).

All that said and done, I can't imagine _moving_ a tech start-up to STL. It seems like a company might organically grow out of existing work...

<comment><AUTHOR> I think they'll provide some grants to companies in town, but it is primarily (as I understand) meant to attract from outside.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> EDIT: Post removed. I truly apologize for offending you. I don't like the idea of making people unhappy, so I've removed my post.

<comment><USER18> I opened this page a while back, just read this post, then refreshed to look for new discussion. Now it's gone.

A) I've never been, but a good friend came from there. He was back and forth on the quality of St. Louis, but he's a damn smart guy. That said, he's not there anymore.

2) Consider that your post was chided in the comments, but it wasn't being downvoted. That's how you know if you're facing disapproval versus loud conversation.

Lastly) The problem of finding no compatriots is not a unique one. I face the same problem where I live, rural Georgia. But it's not a matter of no one here being worth knowing, it's just a matter of getting to know the right people in the appropriate context. That's harder to do sometimes. And it's not a problem easily solved for everyone. Your post did come off as angry, but I'm not going to judge the validity of that anger. Just know that, well, like I said. It's not unique. Many people feel that way, many of whom are right and wrong about their situation. Realize that if you assume the outcome (that no one there is worth knowing) then you may be looking at the wrong problem (how to meet them) and just become jaded that you never see the solution.

<comment><USER17> _Realize that if you assume the outcome (that no one there is worth knowing) then you may be looking at the wrong problem (how to meet them) and just become jaded that you never see the solution._

Agreed -- that was primarily why I redacted myself. I was being an idiot.

It would be pretty amusing to walk around the local campuses aimlessly repeating "Hi I'm Shawn, I'm looking for someone who thinks Quantum Mechanics is cool!" ... maybe it would even work. Who knows.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "Your business model, including 3- or 5-year financial projections that include sales, profits, cash flows, and returns on investment."

How can anyone reasonably predict where their N-month old company is going to be in 3-5 years?

<comment><USER20> Well, if you've ever had to write a business plan, you'll agree the projections for a startup end up being complete BS, but they make investors feel safe looking at a 20+ page document with lots of charts and numbers.

That said, business plans can be useful and help the founders solidify their business model, predict costs, etc. If anything, it helps you get a vague idea of what to expect a few years down the road instead of just the next 60 days.

<comment><USER21> _business plans can be useful and help the founders solidify their business model, predict costs, etc._

I would guess the vast majority of tech entrepreneurs would disagree with the implication that business plans are generally useful.

<comment><USER20> Haha is that a stab at the "worry about the business model later" attitude in tech, or am I interpreting it wrong?

<comment><USER21> No, I'm being serious. Thinking about your business model is useful, and planning is useful, but the formal practice of writing an official "business plan" (with revenue projections, etc.) is from a bygone era. More than anything, business plans give people (in this case, Arch Grants) a false sense of security.

<comment><USER20> Oh yes I completely agree. New industries move too fast to predict their profitability. I think the resume will go the way of the business model in our lifetime, if not 10 years.

<comment><USER21> You nailed it. Doing the traditional resume-and-interview grind is OK if you're just getting started, but as soon as possible you should be building and using your personal network. If after gaining some experience you need a resume to get a job, you're probably doing it wrong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The overwhelming tone I'm getting from the comments defending STL here are along the lines of "come on, St. Louis isn't _that_ bad, and at least it's cheap". Which is quite different from the sales pitch you get for Silicon Valley, which is "everything you could possibly need is right here". The choice between "not _that_ bad" and "actively helpful" is obvious.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi guys, I posted this just to see if there'd be a reaction--and wow, there has been. I do some community organizing in the startup scene (see StartLouis.com) in addition to some work with startup legal, funding and incubating. I'll get the Executive Director Sarah Spear to more directly comment to the HN community about this. Also, I'm pretty well informed now on what's going on with this initiative and related ones. Hit me up for questions.

Finally, please know that St. Louis, like any other place, contains diverse people with diverse goals. I have my own combination of concerns and confidence regarding Arch Grants. But bottom-line, it's a good thing and not a bad one. I'd love to chat about the concerns too. There's plenty of legit ones out there :)

</comment><comment><USER22> It is a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg type problem.

Best case, 10 startups pop up all at once as a result of these grants, and more follow. I think this is actually a reasonably good try at jump-starting a startup culture.

The nice thing about a web startup is that, aside from "culture" and government regulations, there aren't really any reasons you couldn't run your startup out of a cabin in remote Alaska with a satellite internet connection.

Of course, it does go deeper than just an initial seed. There also needs to be a government with policies that won't restrict the growth of startups.

For all the complaining in Maine about college graduates leaving the state, I would love to see them try something like this.

</comment><comment><USER23> A lot of good information in this thread; the only bit I would add is that this is a grant and not standard equity-trade funding like you would find the valley.

So $50k in cash as opposed to $50k of investment for 33% of your company can be two very different things.

FWIW, half my family is from STL and there is definitely a difference in culture between the west coast and mid-west.

</comment><comment><USER24> They've basically structured it as a business plan competition, not a startup competition. Not sure what kind of businesses they were looking to attract with this, but it doesn't seem very well suited to what we tend to think of as a "startup."

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed... It is based on the format of a BPC. The guys writing the checks are old school, old money ;)

I've talked to them about next year incorporating Lean Methodology. Executive Director is open to it, but for now, they're off and running with plenty to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> If you're interested in moving to Saint Louis (or already there), and if you need a house, and if you are one or two, I have quite a place for sale in its best neighborhood. Comes with a great workspace.

Contact via profile here.

</comment><comment><USER26> Honestly...

I've lived in St. Louis my whole life (other than collage) and recently went to Startup Weekend St. Louis as well as php and code till dawn meetups. I know only a few people, angel investors from Startup Weekend, community organizers and others who are really trying very hard to get something started here. But it's a very VERY tiny tech community. However, there are angel investors, mentors, startup weekends, and The Founders Institute just came to town so you'll probably get lots of attention. I call these passionate people "Queen Bees" because they are very generous and dedicated to turning St. Louis into a tech center.

However, the problem I see over and over again in St. louis is are the lack of "Worker bees". These are the people that actually build companies and startups and do the work. There are very very few of them. And that is where the flaw of the St. Louis startup scene becomes very apparent. The Queen Bees here like the Arch Angels, Jay Delong, Brian Blanchard, Israel Vickers, & dozens of other community organizers are the warmest people you'll meet. They are amazing. They really want to lead this kingdom towards glory but for this whole "Tech Scene" to work there have to be worker bees and that's exactly what St. Louis is missing. It's like trying to build a Craigslist for Antarctica, or trying to build a Farmers Market in Death Valley Arizona.

So in the event that your startup does grow, good luck finding talent. The mentality here is different. I went to PHP meetups a few times a while ago and the developers there literally didn't give a single "fuck" about any startup ideas, from anyone. They'd gather up every month, talk about stupid shit that "happened this one time..." then at the end ask each other what they should do the next meetup because chit chatting is boring. The idea that they could work on a startup that could change the world is completely over their head. They are oblivious to their own possible greatness.

$50,000 grant for startups is a great deal for people who already live in St. Louis but a terrible deal for people who have a chance to move to the Bay Area. Getting a startup off the ground is hard enough, why make it harder by moving to a place where you have less oportunity and less people to make it happen?

In the end you need to do what's best for YOUR startup and YOUR idea, not what's best for St. Louis. A startup is like a child you are raising, and if you want the best for your child, you pack your bags and move to an area with better schools, less crime, and better collages. Depending on the situation, the best place for your child and most startups is Silicon Valley. People who try to convince themselves otherwise are the type of people who either don't have the balls to move (like me), or are emotionally attached to their city (New Yorkers, Seattleans), or don't have the funds to move. There's lots of stories of people outside the valley making it but I bet you if they moved to the bay area they would have made it farther and faster than in their home town. Silicon valley is not a "place" but a certain type of "people". They are very intelligent, not always educated, bat shit crazy and hell bent on building something great. And Silicon Valley is FULL of them. They will fuel your startup's success faster and better than anyone else can.

So if you're young and able to move, go to the Bay Area, if you're stuck in New York or St. Louis or Seattle because of family or emotional reasons. By all means take advantage of these deals and try to give back to the community so you can help others who are stuck in their home town too. BTW, check out the St. louis "code till dawn" meetup group for really chilled authentic developers.

I myself desperately want to move to San Jose. I need to do it, but I'm an overly emotional Atheist and also cannot have kids. Basically, I will never raise a family of my own so the one I have now is the last biological family I'll ever have and I don't want to let them go. If my parents were to pass away while I was gone out west, I'd never forgive myself. To me there's no afterlife so you have to love those around you as much as you can while they are alive because there's no second chances after that. Emotionally, I think I'm stuck in St. Louis for a while... ;_;

<comment><USER27> Goal-factoring alert! If videoconferencing technology becomes sufficiently advanced or your parents sign up for cryonics, does that mean you can move to the Bay Area? Have you considered asking your parents if they would rather live in the Bay Area?

<comment><USER26> lol. My dream is to move them out there. This year my little brother graduates so I'm going to try it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> To me, this is like paying students to attend class.

<comment><USER29> This is the last comment I noticed on this post so I'm going to address it. Full disclosure: I'm the aforementioned Exec Director of Arch Grants so I'm a tad bit biased. In an effort to enhance St. Louis' entrepreneurial ecosystem, Arch Grants is awarding $50k + immense support services (free legal and accounting services, reduced commercial and residential rent, business mentoring, access to university support, etc.) to startups. Like Israel pointed out, there are challenges with the model that we're addressing but perhaps more importantly, we're asking ourselves, "can we attract tomorrow's entrepreneurs to St. Louis by providing unencumbered grant funding?" Your comment hints at the fact that entrepreneurs will be doing what they do best, whether we fund them or not, similar to how students have to attend class anyway. As we see it, why not throw our support behind those entrepreneurs and fund their efforts in hopes that the funding leads to successful companies?

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'm not sure that STL is a very desirable or interesting location for immigrants, particularly non-white immigrants, who are a backbone of Silicon Valley.

<comment><USER29> Hmm, I moved here in October from the Northeast. I was (pleasantly) surprised by the diversity in STL and that doesn't just mean great ethnic restaurants, though large immigrant and refugee communities have resulted in some great eateries. This is a city focused on embracing diversity. There are countless individuals solely focused on multicultural initiatives within the government and within civic organizations. Arch Grants is one of those groups that seeks to embrace a multicultural pool of applicants and award recipients because we want the startups we fund to reflect the diversity of St. Louis that is thriving especially within the startup community.</comment></comment>


Why Zynga Is Leaving Money On The Table - <AUTHOR> http://betab.ly/pTPoCB

<comment><USER2> Don't know what to make of the fact that they use the phrase "get you rich" liberally in their API docs. Check out how the financing works"

"In gambling, the house must have enough money on hand to cover all the bets currently in play. This amount limits the number of current users and the amount they're risking. Betable can provide the house's backing or you, the game creator can be the house. If Betable provides the backing of the house, Betable does a 70% / 30% revenue share in favor of Betable because it is taking all of the risk instead of the normal 50% / 50% split."

From <http://beta.betable.com/documents/betable_api_spec_v10.pdf>

<comment><USER3> Real-money gambling historically generates over 100X more ARPU than typical social gaming revenue streams, so even with that rev split, game developers stand to make much more money than they currently do. Also, unlike other platforms that game developers are sharing their revenues with (iOS, AdMob, etc.), Betable is processing all of the transactions and resolutions related to real-money gambling play. In other words, Betable is much more hands on with helping the developer make money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting read - looks like Betable could carve out a big piece of the game. Would like to see some citations for those numbers though.

<comment><USER5> If you follow through the hyperlinks, they are the sources of the nearby data. We can formally cite at the bottom if that is where people are looking for the information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't think Zynga is really leaving money on the table - they don't have the licenses for the gambling they're talking about in this post, so the money isn't really ON the table.

Interesting article, but I am sure Zynga would need their own gambling license to make these games instead of using something like Betably.

Just my two cents.

<comment><USER5> We cannot disclose at this time, but let's just say that that won't be a problem :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I would say tricky, but if they could get away with this, it's a big win. A legal way to get money out of the games would be significantly more attractive for gamers than what they do now in black markets. We know it happens...

</comment><comment><USER8> Has everyone already forgotten the recent implosion of poker? I'm sure smaller companies can get away with this by flying under the radar, but should the biggest player in the game go down this road it'd be a short lived trip.

</comment><comment><USER9> Short version: gambling could make more money than Zynga's virtual good sales model.

<comment><USER5> Yes and no. We also believe that there is a huge opportunity to merge gambling and gaming in an engaging way.</comment></comment>


Dear Google: Don't be AT&T - <AUTHOR> http://act.freepress.net/sign/internet_google_tos

<comment><USER2> From the FAQ/Policy page [1]:

"Q: Can I run a server from my home? A: Our Terms of Service prohibit running a server. However, use of applications such as multi-player gaming, video- conferencing, home security and others which may include server capabilities but are being used for legal and non-commercial purposes are acceptable and encouraged."

[1] [https://fiber.google.com/help/](https://fiber.google.com/help/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've got a small request: could someone point me to the section in AT&T's TOS or AUP that would disallow hosting a server? I've looked for a while and can't find it (if it's in there and not a hidden policy, anyway).

TOS: [http://www.att.com/shop/internet/att-internet-terms-of- servi...](http://www.att.com/shop/internet/att-internet-terms-of- service.html#fbid=0pjGFADJD6u)

AUP: [http://www.corp.att.com/aup/](http://www.corp.att.com/aup/)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm guessing it's just to avoid something like this ... [http://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/05/fios-c...](http://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/05/fios-customer-discovers-the-limits-of-unlimited-data-77-tb- in-month/)

</comment><comment><USER5> There's more in the TOS and in the privacy policy section that people would consider offensive consenting with. Well, those that are informed, know that google works straight for the DoD, since its inception.

</comment><comment><USER6> Many apps have a server component. eg VOIP clients. Why are mail and http singled out? Free ports 25 and 80!

</comment><comment><USER7> Not enough people care about stuff like this for someone with enough money to set a big ISP to care.</comment>


We Need to Think Beyond the Aaron in 'Aaron's Law' - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/02/we-need-to-think-beyond-the-aaron-in-aarons-law/

<comment><USER2> Although it feels like the Aaron Swatz aftermath has received disproportionately large coverage these past weeks, this article makes a fantastic point.</comment>


Adobe Aquires PhoneGap - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/03/adobe-acquires-developer-of-html5-mobile-app-framework-phonegap-nitobi/

<comment><USER2> This title seems misleading (and doesn't match the one currently on techcrunch). Adobe acquired Nitobi, the makers of PhoneGap. PhoneGap itself seems to have been "donated" to the Apache foundation.

EDIT: fixed stupid brain fart.

<comment><USER3> I think you meant to say Adobe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Adobe is acquiring Nitobi. PhoneGap (the project) is being submitted for acceptance as an Apache Software Foundation project: Here's the Google Groups discussion:

[http://groups.google.com/group/phonegap- dev/browse_thread/th...](http://groups.google.com/group/phonegap- dev/browse_thread/thread/bc5cbc182707898e)

</comment><comment><USER5> PhoneGap has rightfully become the de facto standard for cross-platform mobile development.

If anybody knows a PhoneGap-like platform for MacOS development, please let me know.

<comment><USER6> Appcelerator Titanium can produce desktop apps for Mac OS (among many other platforms): [http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-desktop- applic...](http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-desktop-application- development/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> With the death of Flash, for front-end web development, likely right around the corner this is a great strategic move by Adobe to stay relevant.

Maybe they'll create an XCode like tool for HTML5 using PhoneGap as the glue. With the acquisition of TypeKit it really looks like that's the direction they are heading in. Would be an interesting and useful product.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is cool. Thanks to the Day Software acquisition a while back, Adobe has quite a bit of things done on the open via Apache Software Foundation. JackRabbit, Tika, and now PhoneGap.

It also signals they're taking the web standards more seriously (PhoneGap mostly tracks the W3C Device API specs)

<comment><USER9> they definitely are and I'm excited to be a part of it:)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks like a great talent acquisition. PhoneGap is a temporary (albeit, dragging on for years) solution. How long before the browsers adopt a common interface for mobile capabilities that will render phonegap obsolete...

<comment><USER9> well I'd look at the community building around PhoneGap Plugins for your answer there. I do agree that many of the standard APIs (which we lead/follow W3C on) will be in most mobile browsers in the coming years.</comment></comment>


Social Security Numbers Are Not Random - <AUTHOR> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/social_security.html

<comment><USER2> See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=690636> where there is some discussion.</comment>


Rescale (YC W12) raises $32M to bring high performance computing to cloud - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/rescale-reels-in-32-million-series-b-to-bring-hpc-to-cloud/ <comment><USER2> Congrats Joris and the whole Rescale crew!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you Omar - we appreciate your support!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Is this tending on HN, on account of being a YC company? There's nothing in the article, but PR.

<comment><USER4> Fundraising announcements (by YC companies or not) is its own sub-genre on Hacker News. Generally they don't have so much information, but the news is of interest to some readers for a variety of reasons.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Machine Dreaming – Homepage for Data Scientists - <AUTHOR> https://www.machinedreaming.com <comment><AUTHOR> Machine Dreaming is the new home page for Data Scientists, a single platform for sharing links, discussion and questions on data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

We built Machine Dreaming because we wanted a single place to catch up on all the latest news and discussions. We wanted that place to be clean, easy to read and use, and to support all the features the community needs.

Join us on Machine Dreaming if you want: \- A place to catch up on the latest news, events and developments in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence \- Somewhere to learn more about these topics, and get involved in the scene \- To be part of a friendly community where you can discuss these topics and ask questions \- To receive optional weekly emails with a summary of the best posts

We're working Data Scientists and have hand coded the site ourselves so we can change anything in response to user's needs and feature requests!

We'd love to hear of any feedback you have, and are happy to answer questions about the tech we've used too!

Mike and Will</comment>


Show HN: How to build a web library from useful web contents - <AUTHOR> https://usekangaroo.com <comment><USER2> English usage note: I think it sounds better saying "web content" instead of "web contents". Just please don't ask me the technical reason!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you</comment></comment>


Software Startups Get JetBrains Tools at 50% Off - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2014/02/19/attention-startups-get-jetbrains-tools-at-50-off/

<comment><USER3> I can't recommend RubyMine enough. It's single-handedly the best developer tool I've ever had the joy of using.

It handles RVM and RVM gemsets natively with ZERO configuration, integrates with Git history and pending changes, can connect to databases and view records IN THE IDE, you can open a terminal right there in the IDE for when you need to get down and dirty.

And the shortcuts - dear lord the Shortcuts are a TIME SAVER. Cmd+Shift+O > Type in filename > Bam. You're there. Cmd+click object, you are taken to it's implementation or declaration automatically.

Highly recommend RubyMine!

<comment><USER4> Not sure if RubyMine has this (yet), but hitting Shift twice opens "Search Everywhere" in my PyCharm, which is even faster than Ctrl+(Shift+(Alt+))N.

<comment><USER5> Thank you SO MUCH for this. I had no idea. Whatever I do, I can't make my brain remember the various navigation keyboard shortcuts and guessing a file always felt better than moving to the mouse, opening the menu and thinking about the appropriate item to use.

This is amazing. Very easy to reach shortcut and very broad search (while still being fast).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> JetBrains is super startup friendly. While we have been working on our IntelliJ plugin to edit with others in real time JetBrains has given us discounts, engineering help (via their forums), and we have even started talking to their business development team about getting our plugin more attention. They're also very responsive on Twitter. JetBrains is a great company, with good people. It's weird to me that as a long time vim user to be so happy with their editors. I still use vim for a lot of editing, but the features in IntelliJ and PyCharm and WebStorm and all the others are amazing. I don't use vim anymore to write Java. I use IntelliJ, because you hardly type. You just tell IntelliJ what you want and it writes your code for you, one piece at a time. Even with Python I'm finding myself using PyCharm more often. It's very good, especially for debugging.

</comment><comment><USER7> Be sure you're aware of the upgrade policy before buying a license. I used to be a PyCharm customer until I learned how the policy works. Last year the product was broken for me for about 6 months, and at the time the bug was fixed, my renewal would have been retroactive and cover a period of several months when I couldn't use the product. That wasn't acceptable, nor was paying the non-renewal price, since I'd have been otherwise willing to renew, so I stopped using the product.

<comment><AUTHOR> gdulli, Can't comment on what has happened up until this point, but if you are interested in having me dig into this to see what can be done email me at robert[dot]demmer[at]jetbrains[dot]com. Doesn't sound like our standard procedure.

<comment><USER7> It seems like it's the normal policy based on this page, or did I misinterpret it? [http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/buy/buy.jsp#renew](http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/buy/buy.jsp#renew)

"Regardless of the actual upgrade subscription renewal date, your new upgrade subscription term will always start on the date following your previous upgrade subscription expiration date."

<comment><USER8> Sounds to me like they are making the point that you won't be "double subscribed" if you renew early -- no overlapping terms. In other words, a good thing. Did you actually talk to anyone who told you you'd be out-of-luck, or just interpreted it from that page?

<comment><USER9> On the other hand, I believe the product will not deactivate. So, if Version 2 is released on the last day of your subscription and you upgrade and let your subscription lapse, and version 3 is released 8 months later and you renew then, you sort of got a pass on the "down time" whereas active subscriptions would not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What many people didn't realize is that JetBrians' IDEs are not only IDEs but also amazing text editors. Its capability of navigating across multiple locations in your project is unparalleled. For example, you can navigate to where you last changed anything with a key stroke (and then the place you changed before that). It can also navigate to where your cursor last located (in a complete different file/location) with a key stroke. You can easily switch between all opened files or switching between all edited files. When you do a search all, you can use keystroke to switch between all hits at different locations. Not to mention that in IDE, you can go to declaration, find usages etc.

All these are really important productivity booster. Because we all spend a significant amount of time navigating our code base. VIM is really a great editor with its programmable command line interface, but it's not as nearly easy to navigate code in VIM than in JetBrians IDE.

JetBrians' integration with Git is also amazing, combined with its own local history system. In JetBrian IDEs, when I open file, any local change (according to git) will be marked at the left, a simply click can revert that particular local change. With the local history and auto save, I never need to worry about saving the files.

</comment><comment><USER11> Echoing other sentiments here: IntelliJ IDEA really is great, a real productivity boost to use. More here: [http://henrikwarne.com/2012/06/17/programmer-productivity- em...](http://henrikwarne.com/2012/06/17/programmer-productivity-emacs-versus- intellij-idea/)

</comment><comment><USER12> I tried WebStorm for a while but didn't get on with it. Too many confusingly implemented IDE features hampered by sprawling settings menus. One too many times I hit upon a frustrating editor feature that seemed like it should be simple to tweak, but wasn't able to get it right. IMO a case of trying to cover too many frontend dev task use cases with not enough attention to UI/UX etc. This was a few versions ago though so maybe it got better and of course YMMV. I think I prefer a simpler and more transparently configurable IDE these days with any fancy stuff happening explicitly in a declarative build/watch script.

</comment><comment><USER13> Actually you can apply to get their software free for use on open source projects.

I got hooked on IDEA by using it for a Open Source project and now gladly pay for it to use on commercial software.

</comment><comment><USER14> Haha, they must be loving this thread over at Jetbrains. PyCharm user here since it came out. Tried just about everything else but after i started using PyCharm i haven't looked back.

My only gripe is perhaps performance. If you want to run a reasonably large Django project in debug mode you better bring some serious hardware. My 2011 Macbook Air with 4GB was nowhere near fast enough to do that, have since upgraded to a 16GB pro and now it's fine.

<comment><USER15> PyCharm is impressive! However, I've found it a bit challenging to get some of my common use cases to work. For instance, I often type out a single python script. It seems I can't do this without a project :(

Love the debugger too!

<comment><USER16> It's true that PyCharm doesn't let you work with files out of project. AFAIK this should change later this year in all IntelliJ IDEA-based products including PyCharm.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Can't recommend their software enough, totally worth the money for everything unless you're doing .NET. I mean...it's Visual Studio after all.

<comment><USER18> It's been a few years since I've done it, but when I was doing .NET development Jetbrains Resharper was an absolutely essential tool.

<comment><USER19> And indeed it still is. Great product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'll add that they also have an individual license program. IntelliJ idea is $199 instead of $499. Rubymine and PhpStorm are $99 instead of $199. It's a great deal.

I've been using their tools since 2001, and they've only gotten better.

</comment><comment><USER21> Purchased IntelliJ IDEA 12 for Java/JEE dev (personal license) last fall - <USER2> I will never return to Eclipse again (Used Eclipse for 6 years since Europa). I love this IDE and would recommend it to any Java developer.

</comment><comment><USER22> This is a great initiative! I've been a long time IntelliJ IDEA user, among some other JetBrains products such as AppCode, Resharper, etc. They know how to build tools and it is money well-spent.

</comment><comment><USER23> MPS is one good DSL platforms from jetbrain's. Has had quite a steep curve to learn for me, nevertheless wonderful platform to build a workbench on!

</comment><comment><USER24> Webstorm/PHPStorm are the best tools that I've used. Their line of products are the only IDEs with working navigator panels for Backbone.js.

</comment><comment><USER25> The best dev tools in life are free (as in freedom).

<comment><USER26> No, the best ones are the ones with which you're most productive with.

I'm running Vim / IntelliJ Idea all day long for last few years and wouldn't ever get rid of one or the other. You can use a plugin to have some Vim-like capabilities in idea, but then - when it comes to working with text files (not project files) / ssh / work on remote servers, Vim is my tool to go.

If Notepad or Visual Studio works the same way for you, then you should be happy that you found a tool that works - price has nothing to do with the quality of the tool and quality of the tool has nothing to do with how productive you are when you're using it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> 50% off is still more expensive than their price for individual licenses.

<comment><USER6> You can't expense individual licenses. It's part of the terms.</comment></comment>


Live Programming Language Popularity: GitHub vs. Stack Overflow - <AUTHOR> http://langpop.corger.nl/

<comment><USER2> I expected Processing to be higher. Well, I guess people who use Processing aren't likely to even know what source control is, let alone Stack Overflow.</comment>


Ask HN: Which books/blogs on PR would you recommend? - <AUTHOR>

I am currently trying to teach myself about the basics of "public relations". Could you recommend any good books to start with? What about good blogs on PR?<p>Thanks a lot in advance for your help! <comment><USER2> Eons ago i was listening to a Jason Calacanis podcast and he gave an amazing insight: You should always do your own PR. At first I thought this was unfair as Jason is a genius at self promotion which is a gift few geeks have, but then he spelled out his technique which I actually wrote down:

1\. Make friends in the press BEFORE you pitch

2\. Is your story better than anything on techmeme?

3\. ...then look for writers in your space

4\. Leave a smart comment on a story (i.e. linkbait)

5\. Do a blog to linkbait (take your comment and blow it up to a post) this is because journalists obsess over the comments

6\. ...do the same with twitter

7\. Learn from cluetrain manefesto, it's about a conversation

8\. Journalists hate PR people

9\. Obsess about your market, know EVERYTHING about your space with anything less is more (don't do a long press release), use a casual tone and just write 5 words (i.e. a ping mail)

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks a lot, very insightful. Had actually never heard about Jason Calacanis. Will check out his podcast and his blog, looks quite interesting :-) !

Would you remember any other blog/book/recommendation you read at the time ... ?

<comment><USER2> Here are my quick thoughts:

\- Do a search on each big blog for "why I hate PR people" and learn from those mistakes (there is an infamous one on TechCrunch from Arrington)

\- If you want to learn the basics just get a book like "PR for Dummies" to learn the 101

\- In my own experience with PR you need to care about results: If that's the case unless you are willing to invest the time and have the skills there is actual value to hiring a PR pro. If you look at Apple back in the day Regis McKenna really helped to put them on the map (<http://www.regis.com>). When you hire a good PR person what they bring to the table is a good rolodex, not the ability to pump out press releases and the like. The rolodex and the doors that open are what you're paying for IMHO.

<comment><AUTHOR> great advise! Thanks a lot!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why soft skills are becoming more valuable - <AUTHOR> https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/revisiting-the-jobs-artificial-intelligence-will-create/ <comment><USER2> So called "soft" skills will always have value, even on a grand scale, because life is not a technical problem.

You can devise technical solutions to saving the environment—the technical solutions themselves won't secure the permissions you need for their deployment, nor convince the parties involved. You can devise a technical solution to ending world hunger-the technical solution alone won't sufficiently navigate or alter prevailing power structures to ensure it is implemented, nor get you funding. etc. etc.

Technology is fantastic but it's effectively the last step in solving an open problem. Philosophical debates aside, humans have "wills", predilections, beliefs, and a whole host of desires driving their decisions to shape the world in particular ways. Technology gives us the way forward, but it doesn't help us decide what we should _value_ (e.g. safety over efficiency) that remains a human problem.

In fact, the so called "soft" skills are often what's required to solve the hard parts of a given issue—contemplating its potential impacts on varying social groups, being able to consider other perspectives, reflecting on one's own motivations for pursuing a particular problem and particular solution, collaborating with others--these are all fundamental activities that have applications outside the realm of technology. Unfortunately these skills are also quite rare.</comment>


What S.M.A.R.T Stats Can Tell You About a Business - <AUTHOR> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/smart-stats-exposed-a-drive-stats-remix/ <comment><USER2> Interesting take on the freely available SMART data that backblaze freely shares. What caught my attention is the overall low read/write speeds of the drives, less than 1 MB/sec which is quite low even for mechanical disks. Perhaps the HDDs aren't being utilized as much as they could be, which in turn affects their lifetime.

<comment><USER3> In the context of their business -- ingesting data that will never been read -- and architecture[1], low average transfer per disk is to be expected. Prior to the v5 Pods[2] they were on 1GbE networking as well.

[1] [https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage- architect...](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage- architecture/)

[2] [https://www.backblaze.com/blog/cloud-storage- hardware/](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/cloud-storage-hardware/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's about storage drive SMART functionality, yes</comment>


CSS modularization – Smart approach to CSS - <AUTHOR> http://blog.alexdevero.com/css-modularization-smart-approach-to-css/

<comment><USER2> Good. One more thing that should be catered here while making conventions is that there should be a convention that should differentiate a block that is being used/overwritten from some other css file like bootstrap. So the css classes that are written by a dev should contain a small string that is common among every block name defined by a developer.</comment>


Soft Errors Are Hard Problems (2009) - <AUTHOR> http://codingrelic.geekhold.com/2009/09/soft-errors-are-hard-problems.html <comment><USER2> _Alpha particle strike - two protons plus two electrons, emitted when a heavy radioactive element decays into a lighter element._

Alpha particle is the same as a Helium nucleus, so it has 2 more neutrons and 2 fewer electrons than the article claims.

 _Cosmic ray strike - a high energy neutron (or other particle) emitted by the Sun._

On the contrary, cosmic rays are very high energy particles mainly originating outside the Solar system.

 _These particles are gradually absorbed by the Earth 's atmosphere, so they are more of a problem in orbit and at high altitude._

What does it mean for a particle to be "gradually absorbed"?

<comment><USER3> > What does it mean for a particle to be "gradually absorbed"?

I assume it means that the number of particles decreases smoothly as altitude decreases, as opposed to largely being absorbed at distinct altitudes (as one might expect the radiation belts to do, perhaps).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are many techniques that can be used to eliminate soft errors. These techniques used to be quite common in the '60s and '70s when hardware was much less reliable overall.[1] There were companies like Tandem Computers [2] whose rai·son d'être was fault tolerance.

But then two things happened. First, chips themselves became much more reliable. Second, semiconductor vendors began adding fault tolerance to standard ICs. E.g. Intel adds ECC to their internal caches.

So, IIRC from reading Dark Pools[3], cheap Linux boxes became so reliable that upstart stock exchanges were just running on random white box server hardware located in people's offices. No need to buy million dollar computers any more. No need to buy the highly fault tolerant Itanium.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tolerant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tolerant) [2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandem_Computers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandem_Computers) [3] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Patterson_%28author%29#Da...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Patterson_%28author%29#Dark_Pools)

</comment><comment><USER5> I used to run a home Linux desktop and a home Linux server. Neither had ECC RAM. I spent something like two years trying to spot a soft error.

My detector was simple. I had a process that allocated a fixed size buffer, filled it with a pattern, and then went into a loop. The loop would check to see if the pattern was undisturbed and then sleep 60 seconds.

I had this process running on both machines pretty much continuously. Neither ever detected an error in the pattern. I was a bit disappointed.

I've been using a 2008 Mac Pro at work since 2008, and a 2009 Mac Pro at home since 2009. Both have ECC RAM. I've never seen an indication that the ECC has actually had to correct anything [1].

[1] I'm not fully sure how I would see if the ECC has corrected a transient error. I've read that it would show up in the DIMM status in system profiler, but I don't check that often, so I could easily miss a transient error.

<comment><USER4> > Neither ever detected an error

You didn't have a very big sample size. Here's what Google had to say about the topic based on their systems[1]:

       Our first observation is that memory errors
       are not rare events. About a third of all
       machines in the fleet experience at least
       one memory error per year

[1] [http://research.google.com/pubs/pub35162.html](http://research.google.com/pubs/pub35162.html)

<comment><USER6> I don't have a fleet of systems like Google but on the several few thousand servers I look over, I see the number of ECC errors is lower than that. It is however a strong power law distribution, many servers (>70%) see no errors at all, and a few have so many that they are unusable, some are in between and have undetected performance or other impact.</comment></comment></comment>


Why are the fans in my Mac running at full blast? - <AUTHOR> https://eclecticlight.co/2018/07/18/why-are-my-macs-fans-running-at-full-blast/ <comment><AUTHOR> I've noticed that the fans in my MacBook Pro kick in when I'm using Homebrew to compile a large software project, such as gcc, from source code. Can someone explain why this type of workload causes the CPU to overheat? Two theories of mine: (1) multiple threads are working all four cores very hard, and (2) the CPU isn't waiting around as much for main memory to respond.</comment>


Show HN: A React-based writing app to counteract writer's block and distraction - <AUTHOR> http://write.surge.sh <comment><AUTHOR> Hey guys,

This is essentially a free, web-based clone of flowstate.com.

I've personally been using this to journal for the past two months and have had a lot more success with it than my previous attempts mainly because of the fixed duration and the pressure to keep typing.

Source code is at [https://github.com/krrishd/write](https://github.com/krrishd/write), would appreciate feedback :)</comment>


The FBI v. Apple isn't at all the way you think it is - <AUTHOR> http://www.cringely.com/2016/02/19/the-fbi-v-apple-isnt-at-all-the-way-you-think-it-is/ <comment><USER2> TL;DR: The government is intentionally trying to lose this case.

Right.</comment>


Brain peaks at 39 years of age and declines thereafter - <AUTHOR> http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/physical-decline-caused-by-slow-64365.aspx <comment><USER2> I just turned 27. I've been told we learned more about the brain in the 90s than all previous history combined. My hope is the given the amount of research going into myelin breakdown because of diseases like MS, by the time I'm 39, that date can be pushed back a bit. Escape velocity with respect to anti-aging is a delightful idea.

<comment><USER3> The article says they found a striking correlation - I wonder how one gets to be one of the outlying data points (on the good side)?

What's the betting it can be affected with dietary changes?

<comment><USER4> I would bet on Omega-3 fatty acids. no proof, but enough correlation to raise my eyebrow.

<comment><USER2> I would bet on advancement in drugs used to treat MS. They would be applied more broadly in short order.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This study is more rigorous than this title implies. It isn't about age vs. mental acuity; it's a test of myelin density vs. mental acuity. Myelin tends to disappear as we get older, after about age 39, so that is how these researchers got the connection to aging.

<comment><USER6> Actually, it's myelin density vs the neural processing _speed_. It doesn't say anything about whether your mental acuity declines after 39, just that it does things slower. (Which is good, I can deal with thinking slower as long as I don't get dumber. Hopefully my increased experience and accumulated wisdom will outweigh the slower cognitive processes... ;-)

<comment> a-priori I haven't read the article yet, so I may be off base here, but...

While I don't doubt their results, you make a good point that it's important to not over-generalize the results by mistaking neuronal processing speed for mental acuity. Motor control, maybe, and this may help explain why the elderly are frail and unsteady. However, to make any claims about reduced cognitive abilities, you need to show that neuroplasticity cannot compensate for the impaired processing speed.

However, even if it can be compensated for, it would still a case of "use it or lose it".

<comment><USER7> There is a direct link between processing speed and intellect. The faster you think the more things you can think about at the same time which is probably why reading faster increases comprehension. One of the ideas is that when you bring up a memory you keep it "alive" for a consistent fraction of a second, but if you can bring more things into focus you have more time to work out relationships before your first memory / idea times out.

PS: Think about what it's like once you "load up" a complex problem. You can't think about other things while coding, which is why people hate to be interrupted while coding.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Good thing sheer brain power is only a small part of achieving remarkable things.

<comment><USER9> You over 39?

<comment><USER8> I'm 23.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Young folk, don't be discouraged by this article. You don't have to wait until you're 39 to do great things.

</comment><comment><USER11> Hmmm... when I was young I was told the peak is 25 not 39, go figure.

</comment><comment><USER12> Does it mean we should not elect politicians who are over 39?

<comment><USER4> electing old people is another unavoidable problem with democracy. only the best connected can ever get serious backing, and it takes years to gain that kind of backing.

then there is the problem that the old are out of touch with the needs and desires of "normal people". People become strange once their sex drive deserts them. And it is the sex drive that forms society (desire for maximization of offspring survival encourages cooperation. Animals with extended gestation periods tend to be the most social. Of course it could be that being social _allows_ for longer gestation. chicken and egg.)

<comment><USER13> There is such a thing as youthful folly, though. I have changed my mind on a lot of things, and I am only 35 yet. I think some experience is good for a politician.

<comment><USER14> Can you be sure your current views are better than those you held a decade ago?

<comment><USER13> In most cases, yes, because I see the broader picture and have information that I did not have as a young person. But of course experience tells me that I am mostly wrong at the moment, too.

I guess at my death bed I will convert to religion... (no, I hope not).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>