pnathan

88 ms·

901.
by pnathan 9y ago
The key phrase here I would suggest picking out is the one where the contractors get to help influence/write the contracts that they bid on. It's not confined to this sector of the world industry. Would /love/ to see tha
902.
by pnathan 9y ago
The risk of exposing this sort of information to general availability is that its easily weaponized as a propaganda tool for the political cause of the day, riling up the uninformed and unskilled (I am both essentially uninformed and unskil
903.
by pnathan 9y ago
Not surprised. Visited the Midwest a few years ago, and obesity was ridiculously off the charts compared to the Intermountain West or WA/CA. The are significant social factors playing out on a wide and complex scale. My advice, if you&
904.
by pnathan 10y ago
Okay, I'm glad you're aware of the broader context. I didn't have ready-to-hand a good online explainer of the context, hence the rather specific link I dropped. I retain the criticism that within the essay, you should have
905.
by pnathan 10y ago
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/insight/cutler_monkey/c... a little understanding of art history would indicate that the appropriate thing to do is understand the context for monkeys at the time of painting.
906.
by pnathan 10y ago
The South keeps coming off as racist/homophobic these days, constantly. So does a fair bit of the Midwest. I have this weird allergy to that.
907.
by pnathan 10y ago
> When I moved to the Bay Area, I justified the increased cost of living as the sunshine tax as well as the cost of reducing the risk of unemployment in a down economy. Even in the event of another crash specific to the tech industry, I
908.
by pnathan 10y ago
I would love to see a cheap tunnelling technology in the US. Musk certainly has experience dropping the costs of technology, and I would guess that a well designed private subway system might be profitable after a time in some US cities. Wo
909.
by pnathan 10y ago
> : is this new solution more efficient than the current alternative of driving on the highway? No. Because - the exurbs and beyond simply don't have the density numbers to make this kind of investment pencil out without something l
910.
by pnathan 10y ago
If Elon can develop an massively more efficient boring system that the rest of the USA can use; fine, he can have his personal car-way network under his house while I ride around on the highly gridded subway network in Seattle or Austin or
911.
by pnathan 10y ago
> The second any rational actor has the economic advantage necessary to not ride in a box packed with people of questionable hygiene they'll chose option #2 no matter the negative externalities. :: raises hand :: I can easily afford
912.
by pnathan 10y ago
paralysis via NIMBY is the key problem in the US. many urbanists would be happy to grid every city with subways. we talk about it, wistfully. but we don't have the political leverage today, and the little we have is with the Democrats,
913.
by pnathan 10y ago
broadly, a generic hole is doable, it's been done many places. just like software is doable. :) sometimes you can't do it. but generally... you can. :)
914.
by pnathan 10y ago
This is very, very wasteful compared to actual mass transit. A subway network is much more effective at delivering people. If he's looking for mega-good, Musk would do significantly better to drop a full subway network. edit: tunnellin
915.
by pnathan 10y ago
So is Hacker News? I mean, let's not delude ourselves here. Most corporate things are intended to feed into the bottom line in some fashion. That's business . It's not dishonest of the company to be working to improve their
916.
by pnathan 10y ago
This is one of the most fun and innocent memes out there. It's a great evolution of language.
917.
by pnathan 10y ago
imo, HN (and programming in general) has shifted from the highly skeptical-of-authority descended-from-hippie culture to one where authority/power is celebrated and lionized. It might be said that the old business programmer culture ha
918.
by pnathan 10y ago
> I'm not sure it's so much pro-cop as it is anti-asshole. The guy in the video was acting like a total turd, and that's not cool. Demanding the cops be impartial is in opposition to giving them latitude to be jerks to jer
919.
by pnathan 10y ago
Interesting how the prevailing mood on HN is very much pro-cop. Kind of surprising for a hacker forum. You don't really see what a system is made of until you stress it: filming police is one way to stress the LEO system. It's an
920.
by pnathan 10y ago
I'd read that book. Maybe put it into a blog form first, then edit to book taste? Homelessness in Seattle(in particular) is a very fraught topic, with many cherry picked examples for discussion when it comes up. It's certain that
921.
by pnathan 10y ago
Notably, meth labs, bike crime rings, fires. I think I recall something about a prostitution ring? It's a significant public health and safety issue here . A lot of crime and grief is localized around the RV encampments here . Broa
922.
by pnathan 10y ago
RVs are a major slow-burn issue in Seattle, as clusters of them are becoming essentially one step up from homeless camps. Something to perhaps look into and consider thoughtfully if this sort of thing attracts you.
923.
by pnathan 10y ago
strong agreement. as a lifelong omnivore, "veggie" editions of things are kinda icky. But things that are inherently veggie are pretty good. Thai and Indian cuisine, as represented in the West Coast of the US, are good examples o
924.
by pnathan 10y ago
Quite so. And the words "toxic" and "toxin" are used for every single snake oil solution/problem out there in relation to health. It's become a great example of a failure over time in scientific communication a
925.
by pnathan 10y ago
FIXME and TODO are my preferred greppable comment prefixes. One denotes a problem, one denotes a lacuna. And I'd agree: XXX deserves to be dropped due to lack of semantics.
926.
by pnathan 10y ago
Yes, "toxic" and "toxins" are incredibly vague. I loathe the use of those words, as they are both scary and nearly meaningless.
927.
by pnathan 10y ago
There's something wonderful to be gained by detaching from identities and considering only the work. Hard to do, but can be very empowering.
928.
by pnathan 10y ago
I'm not persuaded that teams should be this independent. It always leads to a poor experience for the user. Further, duplicating code and allowing this kind of hairball growth builds a spaghetti code system, but without adequate oversi
929.
by pnathan 10y ago
I like what I do. I like going to work. I like my company. I like coming home to my baby and tickling his feet. It's life . Being a lazy bum not accomplishing what you want to do shortchanges you and your life as well as the peo
930.
by pnathan 10y ago
Given that the exploitation is going to primarily be exploiting full-time people... I think on balance, I'm OK with this. It's also the case that the proposed rules will limit any underhanded vote packing by certain companies.

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