pnathan

68 ms·

721.
by pnathan 9y ago
> despite being completely off the wall embedded systems software in one phrase. :-D
722.
by pnathan 9y ago
> A much bigger motivating factor for the existence of large standing armies is the general desire of illiberal regimes, be they on the right or on the left, to keep the young male population (ie the backbone of a potential revolution) o
723.
by pnathan 9y ago
I've used a number of the services over the years, and I agree. There are a visibly different category of work; a kind of blend of piecework employee and contractor - and should be properly classified as such.
724.
by pnathan 9y ago
> When you are talking to 'the business' I find it helpful to remember you are their 'tool'. How you do what you do, or what you use to do it may be an unhelpful abstraction. Oh, I am aware. I don't resent it - I
725.
by pnathan 9y ago
> But even someone who makes pasta for a living and has the time doesn't likely have the skills to make pasta-making tools, which after all are made of steel and not wheat. Software is different because the tools we use are made of
726.
by pnathan 9y ago
Results are contingent on tools. Further, results are so profoundly contingent on tools and the process of the tools, that without deeply understanding tools, often the result is simply misunderstood or mishandled. This is particularly stri
727.
by pnathan 9y ago
What he calls "Digital Maoism" is an excellent critique and worth the read. The loss of voice is a substantial problem; the single voice being arbitrated by a for-profit cadre is worse. I've followed his online works off an
728.
by pnathan 9y ago
Selling results, not tools - that reminds me a lot of what patio11 has said over the years. And, clearly, it's been effective. Slack is an extremely popular and common tool today. :) But, it's been hard for me as a nerd to care a
729.
by pnathan 9y ago
I'll shortcut it and say: the culture of the coastal cities is better, despite their diverse separate cultures. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-nations-of-the-united-... is a useful lens to consider in this matte
730.
by pnathan 9y ago
Yeah, but then you're living in the Rust Belt.
731.
by pnathan 9y ago
how about taxing the increase in property values commensurate with income tax - year over year. that would properly align incentives. now it's just sitting on land and watching the dollars flow in - the definition of unearned wealth
732.
by pnathan 9y ago
Yes, YIMBYs do have the answer. it's in not doing targeted upzones so small that only the wealthy can afford to move in. it's in doing enormous upzones so large that it makes no sense to sell to only the wealthy.
733.
by pnathan 9y ago
I hesitate to say that's all they did. There's a context & concept of structuring concurrency that they are building.
734.
by pnathan 9y ago
Article persuasive prima facie and arguments plausible. I've had to reinvent a structured method of managing threads a number of times, unfortunately. Author is a PhD student, which bodes well for not reinventing wheels dumbly. There
735.
by pnathan 9y ago
It is clear that China, in particular, has embraced a future-oriented way of thinking in managing its society. While I quite fundamentally disagree with some of what the leadership does in terms of human rights & democracy, it is certai
736.
by pnathan 9y ago
Yes, the money is crazy. It disappears surprisingly fast. I am married with a baby; wife doesn't work currently. We own a house. That all accounts for the largest single block of expenses. So: housing, food, medical, diapers. Then util
737.
by pnathan 9y ago
I don't advocate for dumbing the phone. Take away the dopamine hits, or limit them to "play" time. I use facebook, reddit, twitter, mastodon, in Chrome - not as apps. Both from a security standpoint and the notification stan
738.
by pnathan 9y ago
I suspect OP is in a space both professionally and physically where the job market is poor and a ton of cruddy candidates show up. I relate though, although I'm in Seattle area, which is a great place - I interview really badly. I stro
739.
by pnathan 9y ago
colors are a fascinating subspecialty of the coatings industry. YInMin blue is stupid expensive. A typical oil paint sells for between 13 and $60. One company trialed YInMn, and asked for $200 per tube to use up their samples, as I recall.
740.
by pnathan 9y ago
That is identity in material good selection - or the material good non-selection. I am suggesting that a, how do you say, Stoic? Zen? Tao? attitude about material goods is something to be desired. They are there, they are useful, they have
741.
by pnathan 9y ago
Yes, definitely. I would consider a subreddit to be something like a daily magazine, and the curated lists to be something like a collection of them. Libraries.... are not precisely tiny. Depends on the library. And a shocking amount of
742.
by pnathan 9y ago
That's a great angle, actually. I'm not sure that I am sad about the status games being elided, but you're unquestionably right that taste is a product of social context and that - social context - is something incredibly i
743.
by pnathan 9y ago
no. libraries are curated, organized, and structured to allow browsing. random does nothing of the above. meaning is a polyspectral space, and libraries are a lower-dimensional reduction of that to allow perusal through multiple bands of me
744.
by pnathan 9y ago
> No one is original anymore, not even you. Article opens with the quote, but that's the essence of a vast amount of art through the ages: only the thinnest bit of art is truly original, and looking to get rid of the non-original bi
745.
by pnathan 9y ago
and so? it's a power inequity and the mid-1800s into the early 1900s were marked by the workers who were treated like this struggling to take power back to force via the law better treatment. We mostly call those people "sociali
746.
by pnathan 9y ago
Yes, marxism-leninism definitely sought to build a new world on the rubble of capitalism, with the Soviet Union the starting point prior to the socialist paradise. Please, I'm not that naive. However, modifications to core ideologies
747.
by pnathan 9y ago
I always will wonder if, suppose we hadn't bothered with a "cold war" and the mutual antipathy & fear, the Soviet system would be ticking along well. So, I always find the bits of Soviet thought fascinating. In large part
748.
by pnathan 9y ago
brutalism as an architectural concept does not connote violence. le brutalisme comes from the word "raw" in french; "raw concrete", that is.
749.
by pnathan 9y ago
this isn't brutalist, this is pretentious. the materials don't show through. the websites are ridiculously pretentious. roughness & exposed structures are likely to be problems in function. visible thought processes - logorrhe
750.
by pnathan 9y ago
Nifty. I've been able to use Duolingo to bootstrap my way into being able to sort of read French. It's also decent at drills in German, a language I took in college. I really like Duolingo for drills and for getting a sort of 101

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