jsomers

24 ms·

211.
by jsomers 18y ago
If you attach dates on a page like this, you risk looking flaky whenever there's a big gap between posts. Leaving his entries dateless might mitigate the pressure to update regularly. That's just a guess, though.
212.
by jsomers 18y ago
> This is typical innovation... mixing two things together to make a third thing. I'd argue that every innovation involves mixing two (or more) things to produce a third. So calling it "typical" is a gross understatement. If you do
213.
List of eponymous laws — very cool Wikipedia page(en.wikipedia.org)
13 points by jsomers 18y ago|4 comments
214.
by jsomers 18y ago
Good essay. I liken the difference between Python and Java to internships at small and large companies, respectively. In the small company, you can do meaningful work in any department—you can be the cook, accountant, and network engineer i
215.
by jsomers 18y ago
This is very nicely written. Just a warning, though, that it's not quite light reading. Pop quiz: what's a morphism of functors?
216.
by jsomers 18y ago
yeah, although you'd have a lot more work to do. Not only are there multiple posts a day but some of Elizer's have dependency trees reaching months back!
217.
Ask YC: Cool Things to do with Wikipedia Database?
3 points by jsomers 18y ago|0 comments
218.
by jsomers 18y ago
This is how one spoils a playful idea, and how imaginations fade.
219.
by jsomers 18y ago
I feel a special kind of levity whenever I read something Hofstadter's written, or when I listen to Feynman speak. Is there anyone else who does that?
220.
The Simple Pleasure of Taking Notes
28 points by jsomers 18y ago|12 comments
221.
by jsomers 18y ago
I understand why my mom used to tell me to "look it up"---it's a good habit to cultivate. But if someone's available and they won't mind, just asking is usually 10-100 times faster than looking it up. If I didn't know much about what I was
222.
Contrarianism, communities, and the color of the bikeshed(jsomers.net)
1 points by jsomers 18y ago|0 comments
223.
by jsomers 18y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_combinator
224.
by jsomers 18y ago
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Quick read, very elegantly written. Nearly everyone that I know who has read it puts it at the top of their list.
225.
by jsomers 18y ago
this is the color of the bikeshed
226.
by jsomers 18y ago
Seems like a formula for (a) half-assery on the part of developers working on someone else's baby, and (b) incessant nagging from the "idea guys" who can neither communicate their feature requests nor understand their implications. In short
227.
The Ro-ad Phenomenon: an alternative to regular drug use for finding a "new perspective"(jsomers.net)
1 points by jsomers 18y ago|0 comments
228.
by jsomers 18y ago
Knuth is the Warren Buffett of computers: phenomenally successful because he's a master of fundamentals, with an uncommon share of common sense. Also, a great writer (of books and software).
229.
by jsomers 18y ago
Unless I'm mistaken, that page doesn't go back more than a day, which would mean it has less than a 1% of the data. Could be there's a "more" button I'm not seeing, though.
230.
by jsomers 18y ago
I enjoy pg's writing. in toto , these comments effectively comprise one giant essay, except that they're more focused. So why not? In the same way, I don't regret reading Feynman's, Lewis Carroll's, or James Joyce's letters. Thoughtful peo
231.
All of pg's hacker-news comments [using the archived post data](jsomers.net)
9 points by jsomers 18y ago|11 comments
232.
by jsomers 18y ago
What about Bram Cohen, for BitTorrent?
233.
Ask YC: Are you building a cathedral?
2 points by jsomers 18y ago|0 comments
234.
by jsomers 18y ago
you could always hack news.arc: > http://www.arclanguage.org/install
235.
Douglas Hofstadter's Innumeracy Exercises(jsomers.net)
2 points by jsomers 18y ago|0 comments
236.
Overactive Structure Sets(jsomers.net)
2 points by jsomers 19y ago|0 comments
237.
by jsomers 19y ago
This was the only part of the essay that irked me. Bad writing in general has a low information density; the problem is not exclusive to fiction. It doesn't help that information is embedded structurally in a novel, which makes it harder to
238.
by jsomers 19y ago
"Simple bacterial reproduction does just fine." Sure, until one bacterium in your neighborhood starts working out---then you better hit the gym, too. Onwards and upwards.
239.
by jsomers 19y ago
"Team B used a very simple algorithm, but they added in additional data beyond the Netflix set: information about movie genres from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)." I had no idea imdb had so much genre data. E.g., a "keywords" page for
240.
Wall Street Stole My Smart Friends(jsomers.net)
31 points by jsomers 19y ago|22 comments

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