jvans

9 ms·

61.
by jvans 3y ago
I'm always a little skeptical of general purpose search solutions. The hard part about search is ranking and relevance. BM25 and ANN similarity are great algorithms for sourcing documents, but without a ranking step the user is left to
62.
by jvans 3y ago
It doesn't matter what your queue semantics are. If it's not part of the transaction, delivery and push cannot be guaranteed to be atomic.
63.
by jvans 3y ago
dralley is saying your queue push and database write aren't transactional. You have to be ok suffering some small % of message loss or messages sent without a database commit
64.
by jvans 3y ago
Definitely. The good version of small PRs are small but useful changes that incrementally produce value on their own The bad version is people adding random unused classes and methods that don't make sense until the final PR comes in a
65.
by jvans 3y ago
> but when you need to go back and re-open 4, 5 merged PRs in different tabs to get the full context again, the time to review increases tenfold with tiny PRs You can't really say much about the first 4 PRs because if you don't
66.
by jvans 3y ago
Machine learning systems are hard because your system can be badly under performing but still doing objectively great. I've seen systems that produce amazing improvements in core business metrics and then years later some subtle bug in
67.
by jvans 3y ago
Advances in knowledge and technology will always come from people who understand the nitty gritty details very well and recognize patterns between abstract ideas. I don't think current generation AIs are very good at this. A nearest ne
68.
by jvans 3y ago
What are you trying to build? I would personally avoid JS if i was in startup/scrappy mode and stick to server side rendering. It can take you very far and reduces a lot of complexity. Most apps don't need to be single page applic
69.
Ask HN: On the Boeing flight, was it a good idea to move away from hole?
2 points by jvans 3y ago|3 comments
70.
by jvans 3y ago
I would say this is the fate of all products where the decision makers are focused on short term metric gains instead of long term quality. Data driven decision making encourages myopic product vision in a lot of scenarios. Good data organi
71.
by jvans 3y ago
There has to be some accountability, otherwise capitalism just turns into a game of socializing externalities and personalizing profits. Calhoun makes the decision, reaps the profits regardless of outcome. If things go wrong boeing pays (ma
72.
by jvans 3y ago
Calhoun should conditionally agree to the following for FAA approval: If this event occurs within 10 years of launch he: * forfeits 10x the compensation he received from boeing including capital gains to the families * spends 3-5 years in p
73.
by jvans 3y ago
Exercises like this really make you a better programmer. Someone should collect these types of examples in a git repo somewhere.
74.
by jvans 3y ago
From an engineering perspective don't you have to assume the worst case scenario when you use materials that might be inhaled? Is there any reasonable argument for using formaldehyde here or is it just because of cost? It really seems
75.
by jvans 3y ago
In many cases yes. A simple example where this is not true is if your populations have different variances. T tests are no longer valid but heterogenous variances can be modeled with a Bayesian approach
76.
by jvans 3y ago
The controversy is decades old and largely resolved. Both methods work well on large enough data sets, Bayesian methods are far superior on small datasets
77.
by jvans 3y ago
This. Bayesian assumptions are explicit and you'll be forced to defend your priors. Frequentist assumptions like homoscedasticity are implicit and rarely challenged. I wouldn't be surprised if many people using frequentist methods
78.
by jvans 3y ago
Statistical rethinking by McElreath is an exceptional resource for Bayesian modeling. It's very accessible and gives you some good examples to work through. Some very basic Bayesian models can go a long way towards making informed deci
79.
by jvans 3y ago
Nassim Taleb would agree with this. I forget which of his books he talks about this in but he gave the general recommendation to only read books more than 20 years old, because by then it's stood as a valuable book for so long that it&
80.
by jvans 3y ago
both posts are very much appreciated, thank you
81.
by jvans 3y ago
This is very helpful thank you. I tried looking at a few job pages on those links but can't seem find any open SWE positions. Couple of follow up questions: 1. What am I looking for in a job description that would indicate i'd be
82.
by jvans 3y ago
Does anyone have any recommendations for a former math major turned SWE to get into CFD simulations? I find this material fascinating but it's been a while since I've done any vector calculus or PDEs so my math is very rusty.
83.
by jvans 3y ago
the treadmill of perpetual tech migrations only to find out about the downsides after months of work
84.
by jvans 3y ago
Less is more work posts are so trendy now. The comments invariably point out unexplored confounding variables and the posts lack sufficient substance to be interesting. At the end of the day you can reason that hours != productivity, which
85.
by jvans 3y ago
> There's valuable learning (and empathy too) in having to see your own decisions and creations through their whole lifecycle. This is so true. It's extremely enlightening to watch a design go from design docs to implementation
86.
by jvans 3y ago
I've spent so much time chasing down performance problems and bugs where the problem was due to an outdated dependency. Simply spending a few hours a month upgrading dependencies is a big win to avoid those situations
87.
by jvans 3y ago
Wire fraud and prison sentences would be a good start. Besides the absolute dollar amount, the amount of damage done in the form of second order affects is enormous.
88.
by jvans 3y ago
I've been advocating for this approach for a long time. At some level of size it is so brutally difficult to maintain an environment that mirrors production that the effort isn't worth it. With enough tooling in place you can miti
89.
by jvans 3y ago
> This may eliminate or simplify some engineering processes but IME massive migrations like this simply replace them with a different set of processes Yes > because they’re different Now I have to learn an entire new set of tools&#x2F
90.
by jvans 3y ago
The problem is not with estimates themselves, but on giving point estimates. A better way of saying something will take 2 weeks, is that there's a 80% chance this takes less than weeks, 15% chance it takes 2-4 weeks and 5% chance 4+. B

More ›