lkrubner

82 ms·

781.
by lkrubner 5y ago
The so-called Great Stagnation, the lack of big technology breakthroughs since 1970, the stagnation in physics, the stagnation of wages, the slower rate of growth of productivity, the lack of automation, the political paralysis that has lea
782.
by lkrubner 5y ago
The increasing deluge of articles on the theme "Instagram is hurting the mental health of teen girls" has the potential to evolve into the kind of widespread moral panic among parents that destroyed MySpace back in 2006-2008.
783.
by lkrubner 5y ago
For anyone interested, I wrote a fairly detailed case study of some of the difficulties faced when trying to reinvent the technology stack at one of the world's largest car rental companies: "Why are large companies so difficult t
784.
by lkrubner 5y ago
Test suites will tend to fail the more your system has to work with "outside" data. I recently had a client where their own data was entirely dependent on data drawn from 23 different 3rd party APIs, which meant the bulk of their
785.
by lkrubner 5y ago
Regarding an interesting counter-example to blockchain hype, check out Omnichains: https://www.omnichains.com/ They initially argued that they could provide an unrivaled form of transparency because they kept all the data o
786.
by lkrubner 5y ago
My dad used to make this argument: of all the millions of footprints that humans made, after arriving in North America, what is the likelihood that we found the very first of those footprints? The point is, whatever evidence we find, it&#x2
787.
by lkrubner 5y ago
This covers some points that were discussed on Hacker News in response to my essay "Why are large companies so difficult to rescue (regarding internal technology)". If this interests you, then this old conversation might also inte
788.
by lkrubner 5y ago
About this: "The 1990s had a word for being trapped inside a manipulative notion of human contact: AOL. Facebook and its ilk are the rebirth of that limited vision." Okay, but the tone is critical, so let's ask the question,
789.
by lkrubner 5y ago
I will say, the older I get, the more I find I need chemical help when I need to learn a new skill fast. I especially rely on Paxil, which I will take for a month if I need to learn something fast that month. As I get older I want to teach,
790.
by lkrubner 5y ago
As someone who lived through, and ran a startup during, the era of 1999-2006, I would say that at the birth of a new industry there is often a period where being first is a huge advantage. But it's important to realize this is a small
791.
by lkrubner 5y ago
Completely irrelevant when the conversation is about the relationship between the powers of the state and the protections afforded citizens who've been accused or proven guilty of crimes.
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“If California were to offer that choice, it wouldn’t have its housing crisis”(nytimes.com)
2 points by lkrubner 5y ago|2 comments
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by lkrubner 5y ago
I strongly agree with this. I've tried to write about this seriously, and then I tried to write about it with humor. Here is the humor: http://www.smashcompany.com/technology/my-final-post-regardi...
794.
by lkrubner 5y ago
It's surprising that as late as 1964 Tom Hayden was still willing to believe a story as hopeful as this one, and I think some of that optimism was because of his race (he was white), because as early as 1962 he'd already heard Ral
795.
by lkrubner 5y ago
I assume you've heard the advice that small startups should start in a niche and then expand towards the wider markets? Have you thought about initially focusing on Hacker News types, the types who read up on the technical documentatio
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by lkrubner 5y ago
There is clearly some bounce back happening, but is it permanent? If we sense there has been some permanent change, we should try to be precise about exactly what that change is. I'm going to suggest that those who say the culture has
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by lkrubner 5y ago
DNA analysis has brought a revolution in the last 10 years, so it would be difficult to find a book that incorporates all the newest discoveries, because they have come thick and fast. But I assume good books will appear in the next 5 years
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Ask HN: Can you understand the power of love?
5 points by lkrubner 5y ago|10 comments
799.
by lkrubner 5y ago
That is incoherent. What are you talking about? This is completely untrue and doesn't even make sense: " When considering the price of assets, a generalized rise in prices has the same relative effect as inflation in consumer good
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by lkrubner 5y ago
I realize my reaction is, in a sense, completely off-topic, but what I notice most is that they didn’t think Docker solves this problem for them. In fact, I believe this is the first time in 4 years where I’ve seen a company try to solve th
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by lkrubner 5y ago
But in this case they are simply stating the truth, so I don’t think they need to say much. Rising prices for an asset cannot be called inflation, since the owner of the asset benefits from the rising prices. Inflation is specifically the o
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by lkrubner 5y ago
Homo Sapiens left Africa in several waves after 250,000 BC and every single wave went extinct till about 60,000 years ago. The question isn't "Why did Neanderthals go extinct?" but "Why did every species of human repeate
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Ask HN: What are the best automated tools for keeping credentials out of GitHub?
4 points by lkrubner 5y ago|3 comments
804.
by lkrubner 5y ago
My sense is that a lot of companies are using the current work-from-home moment to push through a stealth pay cut. The thing is, many people got very small pay increases in 2020, so if they now make anything above their 2019 level, they fee
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by lkrubner 5y ago
Related, because of double digit inflation during the 1970s, most people don’t realize how bad the crash was from 1966 to 1982. Going from near 1,100 to 800 sounds bad but not record breaking. But factor in the double digit inflation and it
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by lkrubner 5y ago
That explanation wouldn't work for the era at the end of the 1800s when Venezuela adopted a USA type constitution that was meant to imitate the USA as closely as possible.
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Ask HN: What is the best tool/service to keep credentials out of GitHub?
2 points by lkrubner 5y ago|0 comments
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The ethics of being a high level tech consultant (a Fractional CTO)(smashcompany.com)
4 points by lkrubner 5y ago|0 comments
809.
by lkrubner 5y ago
VSCode is very good. I could write something about Lisp being homoiconic, also I don't know the VSCode equivalent of "advise", macros rewriting core functions of the editor, but I'll let someone else make that case, if t
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by lkrubner 5y ago
I'm currently hiring 5 software developers for a startup that I'm consulting with. On some level, I'm aware that it would help team cohesion if we could all use one text editor. But for the most part, it's a decision tha

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