tmorton

12 ms·

61.
by tmorton 13y ago
If you're lucky, you'll learn this lesson early in your career: when you think "oh, that's easy, those people must be idiots" it's a sign that you don't understand the problem. People are not idiots. Larg
62.
by tmorton 13y ago
If this system becomes routine, mortgage rates will go up, though I'm not sure about "huge premiums." Is that a bad thing? The investment becomes risker and more expensive, so less money is available, so fewer mortgages are
63.
by tmorton 13y ago
The most important document your site probably isn't keeping - a custom error page. Snark aside, here's a cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:E1oDq8P...
64.
by tmorton 13y ago
Cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pONjMF-...
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by tmorton 13y ago
This article mentions, but undersells, the lead factor. Lead exposure causes cognitive problems in children, especially related to impulse control. The drop in crime correlates very well with lead cleanup. Kevin Drum (a left-leaning US jo
66.
by tmorton 13y ago
Should this be handled by Github? Package systems like RubyGems seem like the natural point to designate an "owner" of a library.
67.
by tmorton 13y ago
When parking is free, drivers are also getting an "insane discount." If drivers can park for free, food trucks should also park for free - but the best solution is that nobody parks for free.
68.
by tmorton 13y ago
This post and the original post set up a massive false dichotomy. Yes, keep your commitments. Yes, pull your weight at work. For many people, that means getting your ass into the office at a normal time. But in order to get there, you sh
69.
by tmorton 13y ago
This is a good point, but the obvious solution is to rent parking spaces at something like a market-clearing price. If a food truck can outbid people who want to park, then the city's economy needs food trucks more than parking spots.
70.
by tmorton 13y ago
It's not about price, it's about control. At any price, I won't buy it until these are met: - No ads, from anyone, ever. - Any data, including video and location information, is under my control, and there is an easy way to review/edit/del
71.
by tmorton 13y ago
If you view eating as a nutrient-delivery process, then yes, you are wrong to despise mashed potatoes. On the other hand, if we view eating as a recreational activity, then you should eat whatever you want. On the gripping hand, tastes ca
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by tmorton 13y ago
That's progress. Normal day-to-day ops used to include sewing clothes, churning butter, and building furniture.
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by tmorton 14y ago
It sounds like your real contribution isn't solving high-leverage problems, it's identifying high-leverage problems. This is a rare skill, no matter how obvious they seem to you.
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by tmorton 14y ago
I don't have any research, just a rule of thumb: refactor when it hurts. In my experience, it's easy to go too far in the other direction, trying to craft perfectly generic code on the first pass. That doesn't work very well. It's importa
75.
by tmorton 14y ago
Seriously? The "useful proposals" are spelled out in the next-to-last section. TLDR version: conference organizers need to stop tolerating this sort of thing. Everyone involved should "admit you screwed up, apologize, and tell me how you’
76.
by tmorton 15y ago
Wow. A post about etiquette that calls someone out by name, with an insulting headline? Face-to-face is the right channel for this sort of pointed criticism. Failing that, email might work. To pass the lesson along to the larger communit
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A fast paced stock exchange trips over itself(dealbook.nytimes.com)
47 points by tmorton 15y ago|30 comments
78.
by tmorton 15y ago
Let me clarify what I think you're saying. It's not about testing class X, it's about testing code that uses class X. As long as X is a class, then we can create a mock version and pass around instances of it. If our "X functionality" is
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Be Ruthless (but not yet)(timothymorton.com)
1 points by tmorton 15y ago|0 comments
80.
by tmorton 15y ago
Of course, the "buy home computer" step was a lot harder back in those days.
81.
by tmorton 15y ago
This is exactly the wrong sort of visualization. It provides no information other than "big number is big, lol." The US debt is a big number. So big that people have a hard time wrapping their head around it. They need a point of compari
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Stuff Science(ribbonfarm.com)
1 points by tmorton 15y ago|0 comments
83.
by tmorton 16y ago
That's a more accurate metaphor, but it's not usually better. There's two reasons to employ the "technical debt" metaphor - to get programmers to think about the issue, and to explain to external stakeholders why you need time for technica
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The Prosaic, DIY Reality of Software Houses(theatlantic.com)
2 points by tmorton 16y ago|0 comments
85.
by tmorton 16y ago
Despite the title, this post is a great thing for meetup. It sounds like they took the classic advice - they launched early with a minimalist feature. Now this post tells them exactly how to improve it. Of course, thousands(?) of potentia
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by tmorton 16y ago
The recruiters in this article are hiring for "top law firms, consulting agencies and investment banks." In those jobs, your number one priority is selling to the wealthy and/or powerful, so this sort of selection makes perfect sense. The
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by tmorton 16y ago
You've got a point, but you're going way overboard. Blind naturalism is a good first approximation for health advice, though it's obviously not an end point. Men can conceive children into their 70s, so evolution does favor long life in so
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by tmorton 16y ago
Nothing, including capping Medicare, will "work" if you mean "provide all possible health care to seniors." Medical science is wonderful, but it's moving faster than the overall economy - the things we can do are advancing faster than our a
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by tmorton 16y ago
What's your advantage against shopify - http://www.shopify.com/ ?
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by tmorton 16y ago
Agriculture (and the associated civilization) has one big advantage over hunting and gathering: It can support more people per acre, even if the lifestyle is worse. As a result, agricultural civilizations can overwhelm hunter-gatherers wit

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