40 ms·

Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

77 points by ID1452319 4y ago

From Severance to "sentient" AI... What have you seen, heard or read recently that meant you had to have a lay down and contemplate existence?

spuz 4y ago
Xordle: xordle.xyz
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
1) Execs complaining that it's hard to find skilled workers nowadays, while doing their best to make the company an unattractive workplace and not bother retaining existing workers who are leaving (including me soon). Guys, it's not rocket science, just ask your employees what's bothering them. If people are leaving by the numbers, then you have some serious issues that need to be fixed, otherwise the churn will never stop. You'll hire new people, they'll see it's a shit show, and leave as soon as their relocation bonus expires. This brings me no joy either. I'd much rather stay on one place for long, rather than go through various interview hazing rituals every couple of years just to escape the madness and get a decent inflation adjustment. 2) Western governments quadrupling the amount of money in circulation in the last two years, EU governments ignoring sane energy independence policies for decades, then blaming all the rampant inflation and soaring energy and real estate prices solely on the war in Ukraine, and telling the working class to tighten their belts and turn down the heating, while the upper class has never seen better days as their assets appreciated to new heights. And the voters who keep voting for the same parties, time and time again, despite the corruption scandals and evidence of gross incompetence across the board, passing policies that work against the people's intersts. "Exhales"
- collyw 4y ago
  A quick chat with HR followed by a "coding challenge" for free. I just had a recruitment consultant tell me that my perspective might be wrong for not wanting to do it. He had 70 people in his pipeline for 25 jobs. So I do half a days worth of work for free and I have approx 2 - 1 chance that I don't get the job.
  - donatj 4y ago
    It’s been ten years and I am still mad at Facebook. Post phone interview on Friday I was given a code challenge to complete over the weekend. When I submitted it on Monday I received a response immediately “The team has reviewed your resume and decided to not move forward. We will not be reviewing your code challenge. Feel free to apply again in one year.” I spent my whole weekend on it, it was shined and buffed and you could have at least glanced at it. Or at the very least lied to me.
    - dmos62 4y ago
      > Or at the very least lied to me. It sucks that they requested work from you that was not necessary, but would you really prefer that they lied about it? I'd say they mismanaged the situation, but at least were honest about it.
      - donatj 4y ago
        Absolutely. If they had told me that the code was total garbage in a snide tone followed by derogatory remarks about my mother, I would be over it by now. I am a very forgiving person. Having me do two days of work and immediately throwing it in the trash without even glancing at it is the far worse insult.
    - hppb 4y ago
      That just sounds like an attempt to save both of you time (elapsed time, from interview to offer, not time spent) in case your phone interview did do well. After the phone interview, somebody needs to write it up, a hiring committee needs to look at it, and then they can decide whether to move forward or not. If they give you the challenge after that it's easily another week. Frankly I am surprised they gave you a full response on Monday after a phone interview Friday, that's actually quite fast given all the steps and people involved.
      - donatj 4y ago
        I went and looked up the emails. I submitted my code challenge at 9:45pm on Sunday central time and received the response at 2:18am Monday. Couple hours, and a strange time to get a response. I suspect the recruiter was not US based. Given that the job was supposed to be west coast based, I have to imagine they’d made their decision on Friday.
- raxxorraxor 4y ago
  > And the voters who keep voting for the same parties, time and time again, despite the corruption scandals and evidence of gross incompetence across the board Hardest nut to swallow if you are interested in politics. To a large degree it is due to a dysfunctional media. I have no better ideas how to create and fund a better press that is still independent though. Politicians need to get on board of the circus because it is their only chance to publicity. That said, I wouldn't want to replace the current misery with people popular on tiktok either. edit: My colloquial English is a bit weak, but I think it would be more apt to say "hardest pill to swallow" as nuts can have an unfortunate double meaning. So better to swallow pills and to crack nuts and better not mix that up too much...
  - Giorgi 4y ago
    media just feeds whatever is in demand. It's people who are stupid.
  - twiceaday 4y ago
    Better press already exists for anyone who wants it. Almost nobody wants it. It lost the popularity contest to more entertaining and pandering versions. You have to give people what they want. If you want change you have to change what they want. That's the hardest pill to swallow.
- giantg2 4y ago
  Might as well mic drop and turn of the commenting on this post, cause this says it.
- gaws 4y ago
  > Guys, it's not rocket science, just ask your employees what's bothering them. That requires confrontation, which many executives (and even low-level managers) don't want to deal with.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    No it doesn't. You can share an anonymous pastebin link and tell everyone to write what bugs them there.
causality0 4y ago
People at work complaining up a storm about the cost of military aid to Ukraine while at the same time advocating a declaration of war against Russia as if that would be cheaper.
- _8j50 4y ago
  Mutually assured destruction would sure be cheaper.
  - neonsunset 4y ago
    Mutually assured destruction is unlikely to happen. It is game theory advantageous to make other party believe you are an irrational agent while being the opposite. If non-nuclear systems require human input to arm and engage them, rest assured nuclear systems would be even more so. That said, if people actually looked at the numbers, the military help provided by US to Ukraine is spare change compared to the cost of economic and political consequences of not providing it.
    - _8j50 4y ago
      MAD is tricky. I would like to think once you get nuked a few times you won't retaliate to avoid MAD. But in reality it happens very fast, if you hit the enemy with enough nukes fast enough you might save a few cities. In the US urban sprawl type mega cities mean several typical warheads places strategically and getting past THAAD will need to succeed to wipe out a city. In both US and Russia, most of the rural population will be just fine after several waves of nuking it will be the aftermath (afterthought during battle) that will kill most. Critical civilian and military infrastructure will still be viable in many places with millions of lives that could be saves if you overehelm the enemy quickly enough.
- postsantum 4y ago
  Most people in developed countries don't know what a real war is. With some exceptions, most "wars" in the last decades were mostly TV shows about NATO/US bombing some unfortunate army to smithereens. The possibility of deadly retaliation resides in the same part of viewer's brain as Terminator movie This, and the positive view of being a hardliner lead to insane statements
binbag 4y ago
The UK government
- was_a_dev 4y ago
  Only recently?
  - maccard 4y ago
    yes. I live in Scotland and am not a conservative voter but through the Cameron/May days I found myself in disbelief but the current PM and government are playing the trump playbook
    - ploppyploppy 4y ago
      Sturgeon is doing the same thing. Towing the Globalist/Neo-Liberal playbook. Allowed to get away with stoking nationalist ideology because she's pro-EU. Which reminds me - how is independence for Scotland a meaningful pursuit if you'll immediately attempt to join the EU?
      - maccard 4y ago
        > Sturgeon is doing the same thing. Towing the Globalist/Neo-Liberal playbook. Allowed to get away with stoking nationalist ideology because she's pro-EU. She is definitely stoking nationalist ideology, but she is absolutely not towing the neo liberal playbook. Scotland is consistently pushing in the opposite direciton of the England in the areas that would come under the neo liberal agenda. She's also not taking the same plays as the UK government by doing things like trying to leave the ECHR to ship 1000 migrants to rwanda, and she's not taken the Trump play of "if I have enough scandals, none of them will stick". > Which reminds me - how is independence for Scotland a meaningful pursuit if you'll immediately attempt to join the EU? The Scottish government have published a document [0] which explains it, but the key point is this (from the linked document) But the point is this: in an independent Scotland, crucial decision-making power will rest with the people who live here – not with Westminster governments that do not command the support of people in Scotland, and which pursue policies, for example, Brexit, that are deeply damaging to Scotland's interests. Westminster has shown repeatedly since indyref that it's interests are _not_ aligned with Holyrood's interests. Using the Brexit vote as an example, there was a supermajority for remaining in Scotland, with every region in scotland voting to remain [1], and yet here we are. In the UK general election in 2019, Scotland overwhelmingly voted for the SNP [2] and the only conservative seats are the lizard support who will vote blue even if it was Sturgeon running for the Conservatives. Meanwhile, England voted for a majority Conservative government, in direct opposition to what Scotland voted for and wants. The argument for Scotland leaving the UK isn't "we want to join the EU", it's "we don't agree with the direction the rest of the union is going in, we're still open to working together but we want to work with you, not for you". [0] https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-wealthier-happier-fairer-not-scotland/ https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-... [1] https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/eu-referendum/results-and-turnout-eu-referendum/eu-referendum-results-region-scotland https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-w... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_general_el...
kimchidude 4y ago
There is an infographic floating around at the moment that maps the migration of millionaires in 2022. I have not dug through the data to see if everything in the infographic is accurate, but as I think most people would presume: it shows loads of wealth holders are making their way into the western world from Russia, China, India, Ukraine (you can predict the others net negative countries). However what's got my mind going is that loads of wealth holders are also leaving the UK. What's this all about? Perhaps post Brexit jitters? I mean, it doesn't really make me contemplate existence, but I guess I just didn't expect my lifetime to include a UK that's incapable of holding on to its wealthy citizens. (Maybe I'm overlooking an obvious explanation?) Edit: a kind person in this thread found the image~ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/migration-of-millionaires-worldwide-2022/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/migration-of-millionaires-w...
- dazc 4y ago
  Is a 'millionaire' a 'wealthy citizen' these days? In the UK this means you can buy a decent home for cash and still have to work for a living?
  - kimchidude 4y ago
    I guess we're getting into semantics here, but I would imagine someone with a net worth above a million USD would be considered to have above average wealth in a majority of countries.
  - throwawaylala1 4y ago
    lol yes
  - mytailorisrich 4y ago
    A million, whether dollars or pounds, in NET wealth is being a wealthy citizen in the UK and I suspect all Western countries. It's probably far better than the top 10%.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - 4y ago
rsyring 4y ago
Age. I turned 40 and realized I probably wasn't on the upswing of life anymore. I've developed a small but weighty sense of "time is running out" that I didn't have before. I want that to be a motivator to do good and meaningful things and not a growing sense of foreboding. That necessitates contemplation of life, faith, priorities, etc.
- markdown 4y ago
  This, but with the added realization that I seem to be losing brain power and memory quite rapidly. I used to be able to contribute to intelligent conversations, but these days find myself unable to keep up with peers and elders who're still super sharp. It's terrifying.
  - corobo 4y ago
    Do try to keep in mind a lot of the world had a bit of a social crash and reboot during the pandemic Of course stay aware of your health, but allow some wiggle room for that when it comes to social concerns
  - radicalbyte 4y ago
    If you have young kids.. that's it. Apparently it gets better. It did for me, had a big dip then came up smarter. Now with our third in the "terrible two" phase I'm in a terrible dip. This time next year I'll be back to my horrific smart, egotistical and demanding self :-)
    - markdown 4y ago
      Interesting. I'd never heard that that could be a cause of cognitive decline. In any case, no, I have teens. I've been wondering if maybe I caught covid without knowing it (asymptomatic) and this is brain fog.
      - darkerside 4y ago
        Something like this turned out to be Lyme for me. Good luck.
lcordier 4y ago
Not sentient yet... but already capable of deception, this trend will only "improve". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvNvj7ku5pY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvNvj7ku5pY Is my job safe from GPT-3? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EF42H2ZC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EF42H2ZC0 Probably, AI is an energy hog just like Crypto ;)
- donclark 4y ago
  WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT SENTIENCE OR CONSCIOUSNESS IS, “alloception” — the perception of another. https://kk.org/thetechnium/alloception-i-saw-someone-in-there/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/alloception-i-saw-someone-in-ther... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUl4_QgaeU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUl4_QgaeU https://twitter.com/weirddalle/status/1537094117729218563 https://twitter.com/weirddalle/status/1537094117729218563 https://www.reddit.com/r/weirddalle/ https://www.reddit.com/r/weirddalle/ edited formatting
  - lcordier 4y ago
    I will concede I am not qualified to judge AI sentience/consciousness, but I'll venture to guess that it probably falls on a spectrum. > "But eventually, I believe, someone will be right, and there will be someone in there. It will be a True Alloception. And many others will also see it. But not everyone." I guess it will be determined by the size and skills of the set of people who see it.
bigiain 4y ago
Boris's 30th anniversary show. Japanese metal/punk at it's very finest.
- potta_coffee 4y ago
  I love Boris and also the Melvins. These bands should be appreciated more.
alexpetralia 4y ago
The Maximum Power Principle! https://youtu.be/Nkv5mpBA8o4 https://youtu.be/Nkv5mpBA8o4 Highly recommend both installments
collyw 4y ago
[flagged]
danamit 4y ago
The HUGE influx of recruiters from developed countries that wanna go thru the whole recruitment process without giving me a a range of salary. The confrontational and accusatory tone when I state my desired range and say that I got paid similar with companies in my own country (when questioned about it) when comparing apples to apples (contracting), the gaslighting and excuses of why I should get paid less than I have got with local and international companies in the past. The reasons for such aggression normally is the frustration since they have a GOOD monetary incentive to seal the deal, but does not excuse the behavior for sure. Even telemarketers are nicer than recruiters at this point. I do attribute this to the rise in remote work. I used to rarely get contracted by a recruiter before C19 and when in the rare occasion when it happened it had a good chance of getting something out of it, now it is companies looking for super cheap labor instead of just trying to find talent.
- valbaca 4y ago
  Fantastically put and exactly the same experience I've had. They're entirely preying on the "talking about money is taboo" that exists in our culture and it only ever benefits them. We have to all collectively (or through the passage of laws like in CO, WA, CA) draw a hard line and the sand and not give any recruiter 15 minutes or even 1.5 minutes before they provide a salary range.
  - BizarroLand 4y ago
    It's really a nicety for them. It saves them time so they can move on to the next target who may be more likely to give up a full time 6 figure salaried position with PTO and healthcare to take a contract job that requires a BS degree and 5 years of experience but only pays 150% of minimum wage, no PTO and no healthcare. I get past the introductions and then say straight up, if this position doesn't consider mid 6 figures +/- $20,000 as its pay range then I probably won't be a good fit for it, and add $20,000 to that if it's not a direct hire. They typically respond with, "We were hoping to pay more like $40,000" every time. I'm sure you were, but you need someone with an AA degree for that. With a BS they can make more, hell with a HS diploma they can make $40,000 a year working at a gas station. That's not even $20/hr. This is IT. You don't get to hire under $25/hr in a major city without either exploiting the newbies or tripping over the desperate.
waterpowder 4y ago
The first images from the James Webb telescope
H8crilA 4y ago
The 7MW radar that was installed on a one-of-a-kind variant of the RC-135: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_RC-135#RC-135E_Lisa_Ann_/_Rivet_Amber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_RC-135#RC-135E_Lisa_Ann... From more negative things, the realities of war. See pictures from Mariupol for example, or listen to the intercepted phone calls from that region ...
- dmos62 4y ago
  > The system could track an object the size of a soccer ball from a distance of 300 miles (480 km), and its mission was to monitor Soviet ballistic missile testing in the reentry phase Sounds pretty cool.
  - H8crilA 4y ago
    If you were to somehow point this radar back at the aircraft itself it would probably melt the airframe :)
    - IYasha 4y ago
      And I wouldn't want to be that soccer ball either :) Radar-related stories from army service time are of the most frightening ones.
      - H8crilA 4y ago
        Nah, at a distance things are quite alright. EM power decreases with the second power of distance. At shorter distances you really have to be careful! Fighter jets have 3 no-go zones: engine inlet, engine outlet, the radome. It was a ridiculous system, though.
xnorswap 4y ago
It didn't melt my brain but it did cause me to scratch my head while debugging something: In .Net, the first repeated byte in Random(0) is 00. I was sure I'd accidentally messed up either my seeding or thread safety until I double checked it by hand.
robga 4y ago
UK -1500 Portugal +1300 Many UK citizens migrated to Portugal upon retirement. They have one of the best regimes re tax etc. for HMWI. Meanwhile, UK has inheritance taxes, high tax on pensions over £1m, etc. Immigration rules play a major role, with certain countries offering HNWI accelerated routes to resettle.
- daviddumenil 4y ago
  Portugal's +1500 makes most sense in the context of Brazil's -2500. I'd love to know if that's a longer term trend for Brazil or if their wealthy are spooked by something.
songbird23 4y ago
Linda703 4y ago
[dead]
mellosouls 4y ago
There have probably been a few Tik-Tok things that have had me scratching my head. Here is something similar: Andrew Tang demonstrating there is still hope for humanity: taking down Stockfish in Ultrabullet Chess (for the uninitiated, each player has to play all their moves in 15 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BabwXdxdLB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BabwXdxdLB0
nonrandomstring 4y ago
The good outcomes from Covid. Trying to look positively, the leap forward in vaccines and mRNA really restored my good feeling about some areas of technology. Many great things like HIV vaccines can, and are emerging. It melts by brain that humans are capable of solving extremely challenging scenarios when we work together, but have to wait until things reach a crisis point before doing so. This is countered by the very negative descent into technofascism, but I remain hopeful because medical advances cannot be "undone", whereas technological authoritarianism is at least a treatable and reversible condition.
- vanderZwan 4y ago
  > medical advances cannot be "undone" While I share your optimism I do not agree with this particular argument for two reasons: the preventable disaster that is US healthcare shows how structural issues can undo whatever benefits expert knowledge might otherwise have given us (look at insulin price hikes, for example), and the fragility of said expert knowledge.
- pfortuny 4y ago
  Careful with medical advances and the future… See the antibiotics problem.
ctack 4y ago
EMDR trauma therapy at 42 years old. Feels like my life is only just starting.
- fractallyte 4y ago
  This is really interesting... Are you able to describe more without undue distress?
  - ctack 4y ago
    Can do - part of the treatment is more or less about relating to the traumatic event(s) in a healthier way. It stemmed from seeing comments here about a book called 'The Body Keeps the Score' reading the book and subsequently self identifying as suffering from trauma. So I sought out an EMDR qualified psychologist in the city and started seeing them. It's been just over a year now. Benefits so far have included an increase in self esteem and of quality in my relationships with my partner and my child, a promotion at work(due to increase in ability to be present without zoning out due to anxiety) - along with increased social awareness. Am basically now less inclined to withdraw and hide from life. The mind melter is how absent I've been for basically my whole life - and not for lack of trying either. It would be terrifying - all those years - basically a lifetime lost, but I am so glad to have some semblance of a life now. I didn't think it was possible TBH.
    - nequo 4y ago
      The Body Keeps the Score is a phenomenal book! Happy to hear that your life has improved so much
    - mark_l_watson 4y ago
      Wonderful, thanks for sharing that. I had a traumatic experience about 50 years ago that didn’t affect my life much except for an occasional nightmare. I mentioned this to someone who is a psychologist and she mentioned EMDR. We had two sessions, and no more nightmares, and also I can think of that episode now with no anxiety. Wonderful tech.
neonsunset 4y ago
Reality check I got after being accused of having anti-minority opinion while arguing for protection of all categories of people, just without double standards and without giving priority to some over others. This got me instantly banned from a community I had professional interest and participation in, which made me realize the damaging effects of culture wars that are about to get worse for major corporations. Without accountability checks, people can and will use the positions of power to police the companies, communities and whatever they can to further their own agenda regardless if it hurts everyone else involved in the process. It's important we start valuing maturity and ability to exercise nuance in thought process lest it will all go south.
- _8j50 4y ago
  How is this even relevant to tech work? Minority, inclusion,etc... do you work in HR, legal or PR? If not how does writing code or engineering systems include that subject? Honestly curious.
  - neonsunset 4y ago
    > "Honestly curious, wink-wink" A follow-up comment in the response above addresses your question. It's a situation online, not in a workplace. However, it is similar to what I tend to notice at work more and more, with a small number of employees having major negative impact while the majority stays silent and does nothing. Humans are good at dealing with crisis when it's apparent and happens quickly as it triggers our fight or flight response. This crisis I think is slow, which we are notoriously bad at mitigating (case in point: climate change). This means that we could expect seeing major resistance once the situation becomes intolerable even to otherwise agreeable people. My fear is when this happens, irreversible damage to fundamental freedoms will already be done and we'll be back to the cycle of bad times -> struggle -> good times.
    - _8j50 4y ago
      No idea what you are talking about. Did you reply to the right comment?
throwawaylala1 4y ago
The realization that... Okay seriously this blew my mind. The realization that the majority of the rules/regulations/laws/policies that we have in place are directly connected to the suffering of a human being. Our society is reactionary. We enact new rules in response to negative outcomes. Any time we try to pre-empt a bad outcome, people claim conspiracy and/or believe that the problem is being over dramatized. It takes a negative real world event (often several) before we collectively agree that it's a problem and do something about it. So then... all of humanity's progress is built upon the pain of other humans. That really sucks.
- bruce343434 4y ago
  "Safety regulations are written in blood"
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
sethammons 4y ago
Recently read Guns, Germs, and Steel. Up to the 1970s, New Guinea had literal stone-age technology. Similarly, aborigines in Australia lived the the same ways for FORTY THOUSAND YEARS! We are more likely to end the world as we know it in 100 years than to last 40k years in relative stability.
iqkznnft 4y ago
War in Ukraine. I've always been proud of being European, but this event is exposing how shambolic the EU can be in some situations. Fuck, I just saw the headline "Germany says it can send rocket launchers in August"...
- fractallyte 4y ago
  You should have seen the war in ex-Yugoslavia... Many parallels with this current war. Describing the EU (and UN) as "shambolic" is not the word I'd use... :-/
  - iqkznnft 4y ago
    Totally different. Yugoslavia was a deeply divided country held together by a strongman. When he died, if course it was gonna fall apart. No surprises there.
    - fractallyte 4y ago
      Vukovar was the parallel I was thinking of. And Osijek, and other towns. Surrounded by invading Serbian forces (which taken over the assets of the 5th largest army in Europe), shelled mercilessly - the worst destruction since WW2. Then the defeat, and massacres - and mass rapes. And an arms embargo on Croatia! Which effectively prevented any sort of defense. Europe has conveniently forgotten...
devkarga 4y ago
Trying to explore topics in arbitrary depth made me realize that I actually do not know anything. I know that I know nothing. - Socrates At some point, you need to be practical. Being overly philosophical robs your time. In an absolute sense, one can be argued not to "know" anything, except for the existence of one's own thoughts, as 17th-century philosopher John Locke pointed out. Even earlier, Descartes addressed when saying cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). While Descartes was attempting to "prove" logically that the world exists, his legacy in doing so is to have shown that one cannot have such proof, because all of one's perceptions could be false (such as under the evil demon or simulated reality hypotheses). But one at least has proof of one's own thoughts existing, and strong evidence that the world exists, enough to be considered "proof" by practical standards, though always indirect and impossible to objectively confirm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_(truth) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_(truth)
- yesenadam 4y ago
  I said to the lecturer in epistemology class once "I don't know anything." He said "Don't you know your name?" Every time I cross a busy road, I bet my life on my certainty that I know where the cars are, when I must walk to avoid them etc. There are many other things like that in life. Also see Moore's "Here is one hand" argument. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_one_hand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_one_hand
- WHA8m 4y ago
  > Descartes was attempting to "prove" logically that the world exists [...]. Was he? I thought he wanted to prove that god exists. Pretty early in his meditations he gets the physical world out of the way.
incomingpain 4y ago
This 2nd US Civil war issue is melting my brain actively. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/31/the-civil-war-that-is-here-and-the-one-that-may-yet-come https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/31/the-civil-war-t... https://nypost.com/2022/06/14/squad-rep-bowman-warns-of-civil-war-if-gop-takes-midterms/ https://nypost.com/2022/06/14/squad-rep-bowman-warns-of-civi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_American_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_American_Civil_War I don't agree with the cold civil war thing, but seemingly many people believe the civil war has already started. Glad I have no intention of going to the USA. I would agree with that it seems inevitable. So there's your lay down and contemplate. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/06/14/democrats-midterm-nightmare-polls-suggest-party-could-face-historic-loss/?sh=22a7f6c75193 https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/06/14/democra... I believe I read that polling shows republicans are at 80 year highs and an expectation of close to or super majority in house and senate. What's the contemplation on that?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
negative_zero 4y ago
I'm a hardware engineer: The pitchforking on HN about "right to repair" issues. Frankly, those threads degenerate into what I'd expect on reddit. To clarify, I support the problems trying to be solved but a lot of the ideas are just the wrong way to go about it. I've thought of weighing in, but the way some other dissenting commenters get beaten down means I self censor and move on to other threads.
- 0des 4y ago
  thats the trend now. its not enough that we may disagree, you must know you're wrong and you must suffer for it, for you have offended me.
- bluesquared 4y ago
  Another hardware engineer here, and I feel the same way. As much as I know I lack knowledge in areas of software... there's something to be said from the wisdom gained from making an actual physical product and maintaining that product for years rather than making some CRUD app in some framework-of-the-month and hopping on to something completely different every 9 months.
- WHA8m 4y ago
  "HN [...] degenerate[s] into what I'd expect on reddit" is a no no ;) I suppose I'm a supporter of the "right to repair" and curious. Do you have something (more on the general side) that one has to be aware about this topic when discussing?
shetill 4y ago
Leetcode hards masked as mediums
- gaws 4y ago
  Or the need to spend dozens of hours on Leetcode questions for a job. Many of those questions have no relevancy to the work. Need: Front-end developer to build basic components and style them with CSS. Interview: Check if a given array can represent preorder traversal of binary search tree
_benj 4y ago
Idk if you are referring to Severance, the tv show in Apple TV, but I haven’t seen a show so powerful as that one!
jhylands 4y ago
That all distinctions are arbitrary except with respect to a goal.
night-rider 4y ago
The concept of infinity. I believe the Universe was a collision of two older Universes that slammed together. Two Universes among an infinite number of them.
iroddis 4y ago
Possibly this is me misunderstanding things, but that all things move at a constant velocity (speed of light) through spacetime. So I’m moving at the same speed as light, it’s just that a lot of my velocity is in the time dimension, where as light’s velocity is fully in the dimensions of space (and zero in time).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- valbaca 4y ago
  AFAIK, that's pretty much it, yes.
- tagami 4y ago
  I'll accept my ignorance here, but there has to be some time element to light otherwise it would have infinite speed.
  - h-w 4y ago
    Light has infinite speed. Zero time passes for it to move from one place to another, even if it looks like millions of years to us.
  - Viliam1234 4y ago
    Relativity: from our perspective, light moves at 300 000 km/s; from light's own perspective, it actually moves at infinite speed. Which by the way is a reason why you can never reach the speed of light; because it would mean reaching (from your own perspective) an infinite speed, and you can't do that by burning a finite amount of fuel.
- Borrible 4y ago
  Right. "You can’t go faster than the speed of light, because you can’t go slower than the speed of light. You are always going the speed of light through spacetime. If you use some of your speed to go through space then there is less speed through time." Lewis Carroll Epstein
0des 4y ago
collyw's grey comment
infamouscow 4y ago
Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity[1]. The theory being stupidity is a moral failing rather than an intellectual one. I'm still wrapping my head around the implications of this. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc
- Viliam1234 4y ago
  The word "stupidity" is confusing, as people use it to refer to different things. 1) People can do stupid things, because they are mentally incapacitated, either permanently (e.g. mental retardation) or temporarily (e.g. drunkness, tiredness). There is nothing they can do about it, so it is morally neutral. In case of drunkness, the moral failure could be getting drunk, especially if you know it will result in you doing stupid things. 2) Willful (and often joyful) irrationality. This is the kind that Bonhoeffer points to, I think. I agree that it is a moral failure, but for many people "morality" simply means "what my friends approve of"; so if they get irrational together with their friends and in the same way, they see no moral problem in doing so, and their friends would agree. 3) People can also do stupid things simply because they are misinformed, either by mistake, or by being manipulated. That again is morally neutral. If it was a mistake, and they get feedback that they are wrong, now they have a moral choice: either start thinking and stop doing stupid things, or double down (which now makes it willful irrationality). Yes, from this perspective, many people are immoral. Note that even a group that seems "homogenously stupid" from outside can still contain all three kinds of members; some members are willfully irrational, others only made the mistake of trusting the former.
nequo 4y ago
I am late to this game so I assume everyone else’s brain was melted by this in 2017: Every Intel CPU since 2008 includes an autonomous computer called the Intel Management Engine that runs Minix, completely circumvents your own OS, has full access to memory, has network access, and cannot be turned off by the owner of the hardware (you). We also don’t know what it does because it’s extremely difficult to reverse engineer due to obfuscation and because Minix 3 is published under a BSD license so Intel is not obligated to publish the source code.
- iroddis 4y ago
  Not just Intel. AMD had the Platform Security Processor (PSP) that serves as similar role.
- floxy 4y ago
  Wow. https://itigic.com/minix-the-hidden-operating-system-in-intel-hardware/ https://itigic.com/minix-the-hidden-operating-system-in-inte...
- tengwar2 4y ago
  Yes and no. It could potentially use the network. To do so, it would have to acquire an IP address, which in the case of IPv4 would show as ARP messages. More significantly, any attempt to call out could be detected at the router (IPv4 or IPv6). Now I know that most people don't look through firewall logs looking for comms from unexpected internal addresses - but some people do. And since this has been around since 2008 with no reports of such comms that I have been able to find, we can be pretty confident that it is not happening. So why would they network-enable it? I would suggest that this is for the declared purpose - if you need to upgrade the microcode, the normal OS (Windows etc.) has to communicate with the IME, and IP is a good way to do that.
  - wcarss 4y ago
    > we can be pretty confident that it is not happening. We don't _really_ know this. It could of course wait for a signal (say, in a certain memory region, depending on the host OS) and be activated only by remote control in collaboration with other vectors, for special use against, say, heads of state, or the rare meaningful dissidents against whoever it is who has access.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
Two bouts of COVID and living in a world that's insane and constantly doubling down on the insanity.
IYasha 4y ago
Temperature? :) And math. I was astounded how long it took me to do basic math as I haven't touched any equations or performed any non-trivial calculations for a few years. 8(
ankaAr 4y ago
Microplastic in fresh snow in antartica.
ankaAr 4y ago
Another one: Saving in bitcoins from January 2021 till now was worst than save Argentinian pesos Yes we are a shit but not as shit like that :v
MockObject 4y ago
The vast scale of the organized child sex abuse activity among Catholic clergy. I have a hard time understanding how such organized activity can be performed by people who literally fear divine judgement, so I am alarmed by the number of clergy who are evidently atheist.
- tonfreed 4y ago
  Among the elite in general. How the hell did they throw the book at Gislaine Maxwell without going after any of her clients as well?
  - MockObject 4y ago
    Right, that's outrageous. But young people presumably enter the clergy driven by a deep commitment to faith. Yet something along the way seems to convince them that God isn't real at all. I wonder what that is.
- jnash 4y ago
  Obviously they don't fear divine judgement. In other words, it is evidence that a large percentage of Catholic clergy simply doesn't believe in God. There are websites out there dedicated to religious clergy who doesn't believe in God but has no choice but to continue spreading BS.
  - Viliam1234 4y ago
    > religious clergy who doesn't believe in God but has no choice In what sense they don't have a choice? Catholic church won't kill you if you quit. First, you can leave the religion entirely, then they have no power over you. Second, you can quit your job while staying in the church (as Pope Benedict did), and I think you probably can quit priesthood... but if even you couldn't, quitting the religion is always the Plan B. So I suspect that the main reason for staying is that getting paid for talking BS is just too convenient. Not believing in God, but preaching to people who believe in God and believe that you are the speaker of the God.
mrlonglong 4y ago
The weather in South East UK today. Very nearly 30 degrees Celsius.
mikewarot 4y ago
David Hoffman, interviewed by Lex Fridman [1], where he insists that spacetime isn't the base reality in the universe, but consciousness is. It took me a while to realize the first part was true, but the second part was an assertion that I strongly disagree with. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYdQYZ9Rj4&t=2170s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYdQYZ9Rj4&t=2170s
lamontcg 4y ago
The Washington Post being referred to as "Hard Left" The Fed clearly deciding that it is time to crash the economy into the wall rather than allow workers to get raises... And everyone thinking this is clearly the appropriate policy action and very much past due.
- gaws 4y ago
  > The Fed clearly deciding that it is time to crash the economy into the wall rather than allow workers to get raises Wealthy people in power only care about other wealthy people.
derbOac 4y ago
That we really are living in unprecedented times. If you look any of a number of indices, things really starting changing for humankind as a whole about 150 years ago. A lot of this I knew before, but didn't grasp how many things changed, how dramatically, and how recently. It kind of is like living through the onset of the dawn of agriculture or something, but compressed into 150-200 years. I think people (myself included) aren't aware of how much uncertainty we're facing as a civilization. I don't actually mean that positively or negatively, just blew my mind.
- lcordier 4y ago
  I watched these today, maybe they will resonate with you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxzo79SjpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxzo79SjpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkv5mpBA8o4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkv5mpBA8o4
t0bia_s 4y ago
Fact that my work is completely dependent on proprietary SW (Adobe) and os (Win). Every update brings me questions like... Should I switch my profession to be more independent? Every update brings features that I don't need, have to pay for it, need to update to fix/broke things, send more data, be more online, etc. Those companies shape my workflow, literally dictates me how to create. It may sounds trivial, but in large scale, there is no freedom.
csomar 4y ago
Here is something that's going to melt your mind (and maybe your body too): Global warming is real. Now, I'm not claiming that global warming due to our CO2 emissions is real. (that's up for a debate that I won't get involved in). But our temperatures are raising every year (at lease across the Mediterranean) and consistently. I'm afraid they are getting a bit too high for stability and if the trend doesn't somehow reverse; there will be real tragic consequences.
potta_coffee 4y ago
The prospect of massive food shortages and potential global famine has really activated my almonds.

77 points by ID1452319 4y ago

From Severance to "sentient" AI... What have you seen, heard or read recently that meant you had to have a lay down and contemplate existence?

spuz 4y ago

Xordle: xordle.xyz

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

1) Execs complaining that it's hard to find skilled workers nowadays, while doing their best to make the company an unattractive workplace and not bother retaining existing workers who are leaving (including me soon). Guys, it's not rocket science, just ask your employees what's bothering them. If people are leaving by the numbers, then you have some serious issues that need to be fixed, otherwise the churn will never stop. You'll hire new people, they'll see it's a shit show, and leave as soon as their relocation bonus expires. This brings me no joy either. I'd much rather stay on one place for long, rather than go through various interview hazing rituals every couple of years just to escape the madness and get a decent inflation adjustment. 2) Western governments quadrupling the amount of money in circulation in the last two years, EU governments ignoring sane energy independence policies for decades, then blaming all the rampant inflation and soaring energy and real estate prices solely on the war in Ukraine, and telling the working class to tighten their belts and turn down the heating, while the upper class has never seen better days as their assets appreciated to new heights. And the voters who keep voting for the same parties, time and time again, despite the corruption scandals and evidence of gross incompetence across the board, passing policies that work against the people's intersts. "Exhales"

collyw 4y ago
A quick chat with HR followed by a "coding challenge" for free. I just had a recruitment consultant tell me that my perspective might be wrong for not wanting to do it. He had 70 people in his pipeline for 25 jobs. So I do half a days worth of work for free and I have approx 2 - 1 chance that I don't get the job.
- donatj 4y ago
  It’s been ten years and I am still mad at Facebook. Post phone interview on Friday I was given a code challenge to complete over the weekend. When I submitted it on Monday I received a response immediately “The team has reviewed your resume and decided to not move forward. We will not be reviewing your code challenge. Feel free to apply again in one year.” I spent my whole weekend on it, it was shined and buffed and you could have at least glanced at it. Or at the very least lied to me.
  - dmos62 4y ago
    > Or at the very least lied to me. It sucks that they requested work from you that was not necessary, but would you really prefer that they lied about it? I'd say they mismanaged the situation, but at least were honest about it.
    - donatj 4y ago
      Absolutely. If they had told me that the code was total garbage in a snide tone followed by derogatory remarks about my mother, I would be over it by now. I am a very forgiving person. Having me do two days of work and immediately throwing it in the trash without even glancing at it is the far worse insult.
  - hppb 4y ago
    That just sounds like an attempt to save both of you time (elapsed time, from interview to offer, not time spent) in case your phone interview did do well. After the phone interview, somebody needs to write it up, a hiring committee needs to look at it, and then they can decide whether to move forward or not. If they give you the challenge after that it's easily another week. Frankly I am surprised they gave you a full response on Monday after a phone interview Friday, that's actually quite fast given all the steps and people involved.
    - donatj 4y ago
      I went and looked up the emails. I submitted my code challenge at 9:45pm on Sunday central time and received the response at 2:18am Monday. Couple hours, and a strange time to get a response. I suspect the recruiter was not US based. Given that the job was supposed to be west coast based, I have to imagine they’d made their decision on Friday.
raxxorraxor 4y ago
> And the voters who keep voting for the same parties, time and time again, despite the corruption scandals and evidence of gross incompetence across the board Hardest nut to swallow if you are interested in politics. To a large degree it is due to a dysfunctional media. I have no better ideas how to create and fund a better press that is still independent though. Politicians need to get on board of the circus because it is their only chance to publicity. That said, I wouldn't want to replace the current misery with people popular on tiktok either. edit: My colloquial English is a bit weak, but I think it would be more apt to say "hardest pill to swallow" as nuts can have an unfortunate double meaning. So better to swallow pills and to crack nuts and better not mix that up too much...
- Giorgi 4y ago
  media just feeds whatever is in demand. It's people who are stupid.
- twiceaday 4y ago
  Better press already exists for anyone who wants it. Almost nobody wants it. It lost the popularity contest to more entertaining and pandering versions. You have to give people what they want. If you want change you have to change what they want. That's the hardest pill to swallow.
giantg2 4y ago
Might as well mic drop and turn of the commenting on this post, cause this says it.
gaws 4y ago
> Guys, it's not rocket science, just ask your employees what's bothering them. That requires confrontation, which many executives (and even low-level managers) don't want to deal with.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  No it doesn't. You can share an anonymous pastebin link and tell everyone to write what bugs them there.

causality0 4y ago

People at work complaining up a storm about the cost of military aid to Ukraine while at the same time advocating a declaration of war against Russia as if that would be cheaper.

_8j50 4y ago
Mutually assured destruction would sure be cheaper.
- neonsunset 4y ago
  Mutually assured destruction is unlikely to happen. It is game theory advantageous to make other party believe you are an irrational agent while being the opposite. If non-nuclear systems require human input to arm and engage them, rest assured nuclear systems would be even more so. That said, if people actually looked at the numbers, the military help provided by US to Ukraine is spare change compared to the cost of economic and political consequences of not providing it.
  - _8j50 4y ago
    MAD is tricky. I would like to think once you get nuked a few times you won't retaliate to avoid MAD. But in reality it happens very fast, if you hit the enemy with enough nukes fast enough you might save a few cities. In the US urban sprawl type mega cities mean several typical warheads places strategically and getting past THAAD will need to succeed to wipe out a city. In both US and Russia, most of the rural population will be just fine after several waves of nuking it will be the aftermath (afterthought during battle) that will kill most. Critical civilian and military infrastructure will still be viable in many places with millions of lives that could be saves if you overehelm the enemy quickly enough.
postsantum 4y ago
Most people in developed countries don't know what a real war is. With some exceptions, most "wars" in the last decades were mostly TV shows about NATO/US bombing some unfortunate army to smithereens. The possibility of deadly retaliation resides in the same part of viewer's brain as Terminator movie This, and the positive view of being a hardliner lead to insane statements

binbag 4y ago

The UK government

was_a_dev 4y ago
Only recently?
- maccard 4y ago
  yes. I live in Scotland and am not a conservative voter but through the Cameron/May days I found myself in disbelief but the current PM and government are playing the trump playbook
  - ploppyploppy 4y ago
    Sturgeon is doing the same thing. Towing the Globalist/Neo-Liberal playbook. Allowed to get away with stoking nationalist ideology because she's pro-EU. Which reminds me - how is independence for Scotland a meaningful pursuit if you'll immediately attempt to join the EU?
    - maccard 4y ago
      > Sturgeon is doing the same thing. Towing the Globalist/Neo-Liberal playbook. Allowed to get away with stoking nationalist ideology because she's pro-EU. She is definitely stoking nationalist ideology, but she is absolutely not towing the neo liberal playbook. Scotland is consistently pushing in the opposite direciton of the England in the areas that would come under the neo liberal agenda. She's also not taking the same plays as the UK government by doing things like trying to leave the ECHR to ship 1000 migrants to rwanda, and she's not taken the Trump play of "if I have enough scandals, none of them will stick". > Which reminds me - how is independence for Scotland a meaningful pursuit if you'll immediately attempt to join the EU? The Scottish government have published a document [0] which explains it, but the key point is this (from the linked document) But the point is this: in an independent Scotland, crucial decision-making power will rest with the people who live here – not with Westminster governments that do not command the support of people in Scotland, and which pursue policies, for example, Brexit, that are deeply damaging to Scotland's interests. Westminster has shown repeatedly since indyref that it's interests are _not_ aligned with Holyrood's interests. Using the Brexit vote as an example, there was a supermajority for remaining in Scotland, with every region in scotland voting to remain [1], and yet here we are. In the UK general election in 2019, Scotland overwhelmingly voted for the SNP [2] and the only conservative seats are the lizard support who will vote blue even if it was Sturgeon running for the Conservatives. Meanwhile, England voted for a majority Conservative government, in direct opposition to what Scotland voted for and wants. The argument for Scotland leaving the UK isn't "we want to join the EU", it's "we don't agree with the direction the rest of the union is going in, we're still open to working together but we want to work with you, not for you". [0] https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-wealthier-happier-fairer-not-scotland/ https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-... [1] https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/eu-referendum/results-and-turnout-eu-referendum/eu-referendum-results-region-scotland https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-w... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_general_el...

kimchidude 4y ago

There is an infographic floating around at the moment that maps the migration of millionaires in 2022. I have not dug through the data to see if everything in the infographic is accurate, but as I think most people would presume: it shows loads of wealth holders are making their way into the western world from Russia, China, India, Ukraine (you can predict the others net negative countries). However what's got my mind going is that loads of wealth holders are also leaving the UK. What's this all about? Perhaps post Brexit jitters? I mean, it doesn't really make me contemplate existence, but I guess I just didn't expect my lifetime to include a UK that's incapable of holding on to its wealthy citizens. (Maybe I'm overlooking an obvious explanation?) Edit: a kind person in this thread found the image~ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/migration-of-millionaires-worldwide-2022/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/migration-of-millionaires-w...

dazc 4y ago
Is a 'millionaire' a 'wealthy citizen' these days? In the UK this means you can buy a decent home for cash and still have to work for a living?
- kimchidude 4y ago
  I guess we're getting into semantics here, but I would imagine someone with a net worth above a million USD would be considered to have above average wealth in a majority of countries.
- throwawaylala1 4y ago
  lol yes
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  A million, whether dollars or pounds, in NET wealth is being a wealthy citizen in the UK and I suspect all Western countries. It's probably far better than the top 10%.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- 4y ago

rsyring 4y ago

Age. I turned 40 and realized I probably wasn't on the upswing of life anymore. I've developed a small but weighty sense of "time is running out" that I didn't have before. I want that to be a motivator to do good and meaningful things and not a growing sense of foreboding. That necessitates contemplation of life, faith, priorities, etc.

markdown 4y ago
This, but with the added realization that I seem to be losing brain power and memory quite rapidly. I used to be able to contribute to intelligent conversations, but these days find myself unable to keep up with peers and elders who're still super sharp. It's terrifying.
- corobo 4y ago
  Do try to keep in mind a lot of the world had a bit of a social crash and reboot during the pandemic Of course stay aware of your health, but allow some wiggle room for that when it comes to social concerns
- radicalbyte 4y ago
  If you have young kids.. that's it. Apparently it gets better. It did for me, had a big dip then came up smarter. Now with our third in the "terrible two" phase I'm in a terrible dip. This time next year I'll be back to my horrific smart, egotistical and demanding self :-)
  - markdown 4y ago
    Interesting. I'd never heard that that could be a cause of cognitive decline. In any case, no, I have teens. I've been wondering if maybe I caught covid without knowing it (asymptomatic) and this is brain fog.
    - darkerside 4y ago
      Something like this turned out to be Lyme for me. Good luck.

lcordier 4y ago

Not sentient yet... but already capable of deception, this trend will only "improve". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvNvj7ku5pY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvNvj7ku5pY Is my job safe from GPT-3? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EF42H2ZC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EF42H2ZC0 Probably, AI is an energy hog just like Crypto ;)

donclark 4y ago
WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT SENTIENCE OR CONSCIOUSNESS IS, “alloception” — the perception of another. https://kk.org/thetechnium/alloception-i-saw-someone-in-there/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/alloception-i-saw-someone-in-ther... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUl4_QgaeU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUl4_QgaeU https://twitter.com/weirddalle/status/1537094117729218563 https://twitter.com/weirddalle/status/1537094117729218563 https://www.reddit.com/r/weirddalle/ https://www.reddit.com/r/weirddalle/ edited formatting
- lcordier 4y ago
  I will concede I am not qualified to judge AI sentience/consciousness, but I'll venture to guess that it probably falls on a spectrum. > "But eventually, I believe, someone will be right, and there will be someone in there. It will be a True Alloception. And many others will also see it. But not everyone." I guess it will be determined by the size and skills of the set of people who see it.

bigiain 4y ago

Boris's 30th anniversary show. Japanese metal/punk at it's very finest.

potta_coffee 4y ago
I love Boris and also the Melvins. These bands should be appreciated more.

alexpetralia 4y ago

The Maximum Power Principle! https://youtu.be/Nkv5mpBA8o4 https://youtu.be/Nkv5mpBA8o4 Highly recommend both installments

collyw 4y ago

[flagged]

danamit 4y ago

The HUGE influx of recruiters from developed countries that wanna go thru the whole recruitment process without giving me a a range of salary. The confrontational and accusatory tone when I state my desired range and say that I got paid similar with companies in my own country (when questioned about it) when comparing apples to apples (contracting), the gaslighting and excuses of why I should get paid less than I have got with local and international companies in the past. The reasons for such aggression normally is the frustration since they have a GOOD monetary incentive to seal the deal, but does not excuse the behavior for sure. Even telemarketers are nicer than recruiters at this point. I do attribute this to the rise in remote work. I used to rarely get contracted by a recruiter before C19 and when in the rare occasion when it happened it had a good chance of getting something out of it, now it is companies looking for super cheap labor instead of just trying to find talent.

valbaca 4y ago
Fantastically put and exactly the same experience I've had. They're entirely preying on the "talking about money is taboo" that exists in our culture and it only ever benefits them. We have to all collectively (or through the passage of laws like in CO, WA, CA) draw a hard line and the sand and not give any recruiter 15 minutes or even 1.5 minutes before they provide a salary range.
- BizarroLand 4y ago
  It's really a nicety for them. It saves them time so they can move on to the next target who may be more likely to give up a full time 6 figure salaried position with PTO and healthcare to take a contract job that requires a BS degree and 5 years of experience but only pays 150% of minimum wage, no PTO and no healthcare. I get past the introductions and then say straight up, if this position doesn't consider mid 6 figures +/- $20,000 as its pay range then I probably won't be a good fit for it, and add $20,000 to that if it's not a direct hire. They typically respond with, "We were hoping to pay more like $40,000" every time. I'm sure you were, but you need someone with an AA degree for that. With a BS they can make more, hell with a HS diploma they can make $40,000 a year working at a gas station. That's not even $20/hr. This is IT. You don't get to hire under $25/hr in a major city without either exploiting the newbies or tripping over the desperate.

waterpowder 4y ago

The first images from the James Webb telescope

H8crilA 4y ago

The 7MW radar that was installed on a one-of-a-kind variant of the RC-135: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_RC-135#RC-135E_Lisa_Ann_/_Rivet_Amber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_RC-135#RC-135E_Lisa_Ann... From more negative things, the realities of war. See pictures from Mariupol for example, or listen to the intercepted phone calls from that region ...

dmos62 4y ago
> The system could track an object the size of a soccer ball from a distance of 300 miles (480 km), and its mission was to monitor Soviet ballistic missile testing in the reentry phase Sounds pretty cool.
- H8crilA 4y ago
  If you were to somehow point this radar back at the aircraft itself it would probably melt the airframe :)
  - IYasha 4y ago
    And I wouldn't want to be that soccer ball either :) Radar-related stories from army service time are of the most frightening ones.
    - H8crilA 4y ago
      Nah, at a distance things are quite alright. EM power decreases with the second power of distance. At shorter distances you really have to be careful! Fighter jets have 3 no-go zones: engine inlet, engine outlet, the radome. It was a ridiculous system, though.

xnorswap 4y ago

It didn't melt my brain but it did cause me to scratch my head while debugging something: In .Net, the first repeated byte in Random(0) is 00. I was sure I'd accidentally messed up either my seeding or thread safety until I double checked it by hand.

robga 4y ago

UK -1500 Portugal +1300 Many UK citizens migrated to Portugal upon retirement. They have one of the best regimes re tax etc. for HMWI. Meanwhile, UK has inheritance taxes, high tax on pensions over £1m, etc. Immigration rules play a major role, with certain countries offering HNWI accelerated routes to resettle.

daviddumenil 4y ago
Portugal's +1500 makes most sense in the context of Brazil's -2500. I'd love to know if that's a longer term trend for Brazil or if their wealthy are spooked by something.

songbird23 4y ago

Linda703 4y ago

[dead]

mellosouls 4y ago

There have probably been a few Tik-Tok things that have had me scratching my head. Here is something similar: Andrew Tang demonstrating there is still hope for humanity: taking down Stockfish in Ultrabullet Chess (for the uninitiated, each player has to play all their moves in 15 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BabwXdxdLB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BabwXdxdLB0

nonrandomstring 4y ago

The good outcomes from Covid. Trying to look positively, the leap forward in vaccines and mRNA really restored my good feeling about some areas of technology. Many great things like HIV vaccines can, and are emerging. It melts by brain that humans are capable of solving extremely challenging scenarios when we work together, but have to wait until things reach a crisis point before doing so. This is countered by the very negative descent into technofascism, but I remain hopeful because medical advances cannot be "undone", whereas technological authoritarianism is at least a treatable and reversible condition.

vanderZwan 4y ago
> medical advances cannot be "undone" While I share your optimism I do not agree with this particular argument for two reasons: the preventable disaster that is US healthcare shows how structural issues can undo whatever benefits expert knowledge might otherwise have given us (look at insulin price hikes, for example), and the fragility of said expert knowledge.
pfortuny 4y ago
Careful with medical advances and the future… See the antibiotics problem.

ctack 4y ago

EMDR trauma therapy at 42 years old. Feels like my life is only just starting.

fractallyte 4y ago
This is really interesting... Are you able to describe more without undue distress?
- ctack 4y ago
  Can do - part of the treatment is more or less about relating to the traumatic event(s) in a healthier way. It stemmed from seeing comments here about a book called 'The Body Keeps the Score' reading the book and subsequently self identifying as suffering from trauma. So I sought out an EMDR qualified psychologist in the city and started seeing them. It's been just over a year now. Benefits so far have included an increase in self esteem and of quality in my relationships with my partner and my child, a promotion at work(due to increase in ability to be present without zoning out due to anxiety) - along with increased social awareness. Am basically now less inclined to withdraw and hide from life. The mind melter is how absent I've been for basically my whole life - and not for lack of trying either. It would be terrifying - all those years - basically a lifetime lost, but I am so glad to have some semblance of a life now. I didn't think it was possible TBH.
  - nequo 4y ago
    The Body Keeps the Score is a phenomenal book! Happy to hear that your life has improved so much
  - mark_l_watson 4y ago
    Wonderful, thanks for sharing that. I had a traumatic experience about 50 years ago that didn’t affect my life much except for an occasional nightmare. I mentioned this to someone who is a psychologist and she mentioned EMDR. We had two sessions, and no more nightmares, and also I can think of that episode now with no anxiety. Wonderful tech.

neonsunset 4y ago

Reality check I got after being accused of having anti-minority opinion while arguing for protection of all categories of people, just without double standards and without giving priority to some over others. This got me instantly banned from a community I had professional interest and participation in, which made me realize the damaging effects of culture wars that are about to get worse for major corporations. Without accountability checks, people can and will use the positions of power to police the companies, communities and whatever they can to further their own agenda regardless if it hurts everyone else involved in the process. It's important we start valuing maturity and ability to exercise nuance in thought process lest it will all go south.

_8j50 4y ago
How is this even relevant to tech work? Minority, inclusion,etc... do you work in HR, legal or PR? If not how does writing code or engineering systems include that subject? Honestly curious.
- neonsunset 4y ago
  > "Honestly curious, wink-wink" A follow-up comment in the response above addresses your question. It's a situation online, not in a workplace. However, it is similar to what I tend to notice at work more and more, with a small number of employees having major negative impact while the majority stays silent and does nothing. Humans are good at dealing with crisis when it's apparent and happens quickly as it triggers our fight or flight response. This crisis I think is slow, which we are notoriously bad at mitigating (case in point: climate change). This means that we could expect seeing major resistance once the situation becomes intolerable even to otherwise agreeable people. My fear is when this happens, irreversible damage to fundamental freedoms will already be done and we'll be back to the cycle of bad times -> struggle -> good times.
  - _8j50 4y ago
    No idea what you are talking about. Did you reply to the right comment?

throwawaylala1 4y ago

The realization that... Okay seriously this blew my mind. The realization that the majority of the rules/regulations/laws/policies that we have in place are directly connected to the suffering of a human being. Our society is reactionary. We enact new rules in response to negative outcomes. Any time we try to pre-empt a bad outcome, people claim conspiracy and/or believe that the problem is being over dramatized. It takes a negative real world event (often several) before we collectively agree that it's a problem and do something about it. So then... all of humanity's progress is built upon the pain of other humans. That really sucks.

bruce343434 4y ago
"Safety regulations are written in blood"

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sethammons 4y ago

Recently read Guns, Germs, and Steel. Up to the 1970s, New Guinea had literal stone-age technology. Similarly, aborigines in Australia lived the the same ways for FORTY THOUSAND YEARS! We are more likely to end the world as we know it in 100 years than to last 40k years in relative stability.

iqkznnft 4y ago

War in Ukraine. I've always been proud of being European, but this event is exposing how shambolic the EU can be in some situations. Fuck, I just saw the headline "Germany says it can send rocket launchers in August"...

fractallyte 4y ago
You should have seen the war in ex-Yugoslavia... Many parallels with this current war. Describing the EU (and UN) as "shambolic" is not the word I'd use... :-/
- iqkznnft 4y ago
  Totally different. Yugoslavia was a deeply divided country held together by a strongman. When he died, if course it was gonna fall apart. No surprises there.
  - fractallyte 4y ago
    Vukovar was the parallel I was thinking of. And Osijek, and other towns. Surrounded by invading Serbian forces (which taken over the assets of the 5th largest army in Europe), shelled mercilessly - the worst destruction since WW2. Then the defeat, and massacres - and mass rapes. And an arms embargo on Croatia! Which effectively prevented any sort of defense. Europe has conveniently forgotten...

devkarga 4y ago

Trying to explore topics in arbitrary depth made me realize that I actually do not know anything. I know that I know nothing. - Socrates At some point, you need to be practical. Being overly philosophical robs your time. In an absolute sense, one can be argued not to "know" anything, except for the existence of one's own thoughts, as 17th-century philosopher John Locke pointed out. Even earlier, Descartes addressed when saying cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). While Descartes was attempting to "prove" logically that the world exists, his legacy in doing so is to have shown that one cannot have such proof, because all of one's perceptions could be false (such as under the evil demon or simulated reality hypotheses). But one at least has proof of one's own thoughts existing, and strong evidence that the world exists, enough to be considered "proof" by practical standards, though always indirect and impossible to objectively confirm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_(truth) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_(truth)

yesenadam 4y ago
I said to the lecturer in epistemology class once "I don't know anything." He said "Don't you know your name?" Every time I cross a busy road, I bet my life on my certainty that I know where the cars are, when I must walk to avoid them etc. There are many other things like that in life. Also see Moore's "Here is one hand" argument. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_one_hand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_one_hand
WHA8m 4y ago
> Descartes was attempting to "prove" logically that the world exists [...]. Was he? I thought he wanted to prove that god exists. Pretty early in his meditations he gets the physical world out of the way.

incomingpain 4y ago

This 2nd US Civil war issue is melting my brain actively. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/31/the-civil-war-that-is-here-and-the-one-that-may-yet-come https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/31/the-civil-war-t... https://nypost.com/2022/06/14/squad-rep-bowman-warns-of-civil-war-if-gop-takes-midterms/ https://nypost.com/2022/06/14/squad-rep-bowman-warns-of-civi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_American_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_American_Civil_War I don't agree with the cold civil war thing, but seemingly many people believe the civil war has already started. Glad I have no intention of going to the USA. I would agree with that it seems inevitable. So there's your lay down and contemplate. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/06/14/democrats-midterm-nightmare-polls-suggest-party-could-face-historic-loss/?sh=22a7f6c75193 https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/06/14/democra... I believe I read that polling shows republicans are at 80 year highs and an expectation of close to or super majority in house and senate. What's the contemplation on that?

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negative_zero 4y ago

I'm a hardware engineer: The pitchforking on HN about "right to repair" issues. Frankly, those threads degenerate into what I'd expect on reddit. To clarify, I support the problems trying to be solved but a lot of the ideas are just the wrong way to go about it. I've thought of weighing in, but the way some other dissenting commenters get beaten down means I self censor and move on to other threads.

0des 4y ago
thats the trend now. its not enough that we may disagree, you must know you're wrong and you must suffer for it, for you have offended me.
bluesquared 4y ago
Another hardware engineer here, and I feel the same way. As much as I know I lack knowledge in areas of software... there's something to be said from the wisdom gained from making an actual physical product and maintaining that product for years rather than making some CRUD app in some framework-of-the-month and hopping on to something completely different every 9 months.
WHA8m 4y ago
"HN [...] degenerate[s] into what I'd expect on reddit" is a no no ;) I suppose I'm a supporter of the "right to repair" and curious. Do you have something (more on the general side) that one has to be aware about this topic when discussing?

shetill 4y ago

Leetcode hards masked as mediums

gaws 4y ago
Or the need to spend dozens of hours on Leetcode questions for a job. Many of those questions have no relevancy to the work. Need: Front-end developer to build basic components and style them with CSS. Interview: Check if a given array can represent preorder traversal of binary search tree

_benj 4y ago

Idk if you are referring to Severance, the tv show in Apple TV, but I haven’t seen a show so powerful as that one!

jhylands 4y ago

That all distinctions are arbitrary except with respect to a goal.

night-rider 4y ago

The concept of infinity. I believe the Universe was a collision of two older Universes that slammed together. Two Universes among an infinite number of them.

iroddis 4y ago

Possibly this is me misunderstanding things, but that all things move at a constant velocity (speed of light) through spacetime. So I’m moving at the same speed as light, it’s just that a lot of my velocity is in the time dimension, where as light’s velocity is fully in the dimensions of space (and zero in time).

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valbaca 4y ago
AFAIK, that's pretty much it, yes.
tagami 4y ago
I'll accept my ignorance here, but there has to be some time element to light otherwise it would have infinite speed.
- h-w 4y ago
  Light has infinite speed. Zero time passes for it to move from one place to another, even if it looks like millions of years to us.
- Viliam1234 4y ago
  Relativity: from our perspective, light moves at 300 000 km/s; from light's own perspective, it actually moves at infinite speed. Which by the way is a reason why you can never reach the speed of light; because it would mean reaching (from your own perspective) an infinite speed, and you can't do that by burning a finite amount of fuel.
Borrible 4y ago
Right. "You can’t go faster than the speed of light, because you can’t go slower than the speed of light. You are always going the speed of light through spacetime. If you use some of your speed to go through space then there is less speed through time." Lewis Carroll Epstein

0des 4y ago

collyw's grey comment

infamouscow 4y ago

Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity[1]. The theory being stupidity is a moral failing rather than an intellectual one. I'm still wrapping my head around the implications of this. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc

Viliam1234 4y ago
The word "stupidity" is confusing, as people use it to refer to different things. 1) People can do stupid things, because they are mentally incapacitated, either permanently (e.g. mental retardation) or temporarily (e.g. drunkness, tiredness). There is nothing they can do about it, so it is morally neutral. In case of drunkness, the moral failure could be getting drunk, especially if you know it will result in you doing stupid things. 2) Willful (and often joyful) irrationality. This is the kind that Bonhoeffer points to, I think. I agree that it is a moral failure, but for many people "morality" simply means "what my friends approve of"; so if they get irrational together with their friends and in the same way, they see no moral problem in doing so, and their friends would agree. 3) People can also do stupid things simply because they are misinformed, either by mistake, or by being manipulated. That again is morally neutral. If it was a mistake, and they get feedback that they are wrong, now they have a moral choice: either start thinking and stop doing stupid things, or double down (which now makes it willful irrationality). Yes, from this perspective, many people are immoral. Note that even a group that seems "homogenously stupid" from outside can still contain all three kinds of members; some members are willfully irrational, others only made the mistake of trusting the former.

nequo 4y ago

I am late to this game so I assume everyone else’s brain was melted by this in 2017: Every Intel CPU since 2008 includes an autonomous computer called the Intel Management Engine that runs Minix, completely circumvents your own OS, has full access to memory, has network access, and cannot be turned off by the owner of the hardware (you). We also don’t know what it does because it’s extremely difficult to reverse engineer due to obfuscation and because Minix 3 is published under a BSD license so Intel is not obligated to publish the source code.

iroddis 4y ago
Not just Intel. AMD had the Platform Security Processor (PSP) that serves as similar role.
floxy 4y ago
Wow. https://itigic.com/minix-the-hidden-operating-system-in-intel-hardware/ https://itigic.com/minix-the-hidden-operating-system-in-inte...
tengwar2 4y ago
Yes and no. It could potentially use the network. To do so, it would have to acquire an IP address, which in the case of IPv4 would show as ARP messages. More significantly, any attempt to call out could be detected at the router (IPv4 or IPv6). Now I know that most people don't look through firewall logs looking for comms from unexpected internal addresses - but some people do. And since this has been around since 2008 with no reports of such comms that I have been able to find, we can be pretty confident that it is not happening. So why would they network-enable it? I would suggest that this is for the declared purpose - if you need to upgrade the microcode, the normal OS (Windows etc.) has to communicate with the IME, and IP is a good way to do that.
- wcarss 4y ago
  > we can be pretty confident that it is not happening. We don't _really_ know this. It could of course wait for a signal (say, in a certain memory region, depending on the host OS) and be activated only by remote control in collaboration with other vectors, for special use against, say, heads of state, or the rare meaningful dissidents against whoever it is who has access.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

Two bouts of COVID and living in a world that's insane and constantly doubling down on the insanity.

IYasha 4y ago

Temperature? :) And math. I was astounded how long it took me to do basic math as I haven't touched any equations or performed any non-trivial calculations for a few years. 8(

ankaAr 4y ago

Microplastic in fresh snow in antartica.

ankaAr 4y ago

Another one: Saving in bitcoins from January 2021 till now was worst than save Argentinian pesos Yes we are a shit but not as shit like that :v

MockObject 4y ago

The vast scale of the organized child sex abuse activity among Catholic clergy. I have a hard time understanding how such organized activity can be performed by people who literally fear divine judgement, so I am alarmed by the number of clergy who are evidently atheist.

tonfreed 4y ago
Among the elite in general. How the hell did they throw the book at Gislaine Maxwell without going after any of her clients as well?
- MockObject 4y ago
  Right, that's outrageous. But young people presumably enter the clergy driven by a deep commitment to faith. Yet something along the way seems to convince them that God isn't real at all. I wonder what that is.
jnash 4y ago
Obviously they don't fear divine judgement. In other words, it is evidence that a large percentage of Catholic clergy simply doesn't believe in God. There are websites out there dedicated to religious clergy who doesn't believe in God but has no choice but to continue spreading BS.
- Viliam1234 4y ago
  > religious clergy who doesn't believe in God but has no choice In what sense they don't have a choice? Catholic church won't kill you if you quit. First, you can leave the religion entirely, then they have no power over you. Second, you can quit your job while staying in the church (as Pope Benedict did), and I think you probably can quit priesthood... but if even you couldn't, quitting the religion is always the Plan B. So I suspect that the main reason for staying is that getting paid for talking BS is just too convenient. Not believing in God, but preaching to people who believe in God and believe that you are the speaker of the God.

mrlonglong 4y ago

The weather in South East UK today. Very nearly 30 degrees Celsius.

mikewarot 4y ago

David Hoffman, interviewed by Lex Fridman [1], where he insists that spacetime isn't the base reality in the universe, but consciousness is. It took me a while to realize the first part was true, but the second part was an assertion that I strongly disagree with. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYdQYZ9Rj4&t=2170s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYdQYZ9Rj4&t=2170s

lamontcg 4y ago

The Washington Post being referred to as "Hard Left" The Fed clearly deciding that it is time to crash the economy into the wall rather than allow workers to get raises... And everyone thinking this is clearly the appropriate policy action and very much past due.

gaws 4y ago
> The Fed clearly deciding that it is time to crash the economy into the wall rather than allow workers to get raises Wealthy people in power only care about other wealthy people.

derbOac 4y ago

That we really are living in unprecedented times. If you look any of a number of indices, things really starting changing for humankind as a whole about 150 years ago. A lot of this I knew before, but didn't grasp how many things changed, how dramatically, and how recently. It kind of is like living through the onset of the dawn of agriculture or something, but compressed into 150-200 years. I think people (myself included) aren't aware of how much uncertainty we're facing as a civilization. I don't actually mean that positively or negatively, just blew my mind.

lcordier 4y ago
I watched these today, maybe they will resonate with you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxzo79SjpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxzo79SjpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkv5mpBA8o4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkv5mpBA8o4

t0bia_s 4y ago

Fact that my work is completely dependent on proprietary SW (Adobe) and os (Win). Every update brings me questions like... Should I switch my profession to be more independent? Every update brings features that I don't need, have to pay for it, need to update to fix/broke things, send more data, be more online, etc. Those companies shape my workflow, literally dictates me how to create. It may sounds trivial, but in large scale, there is no freedom.

csomar 4y ago

Here is something that's going to melt your mind (and maybe your body too): Global warming is real. Now, I'm not claiming that global warming due to our CO2 emissions is real. (that's up for a debate that I won't get involved in). But our temperatures are raising every year (at lease across the Mediterranean) and consistently. I'm afraid they are getting a bit too high for stability and if the trend doesn't somehow reverse; there will be real tragic consequences.

potta_coffee 4y ago

The prospect of massive food shortages and potential global famine has really activated my almonds.