wynand

18 ms·

121.
by wynand 18y ago
Thank you all for your excellent answers. I just bought Principles of Neural Science (it's pretty damn expensive in South Africa), but I'll look at almost everything else mentioned here. HN is awesome.
122.
by wynand 18y ago
Thanks robg & toddml, I was particularly interested in Principles of Neural Science and it's good to see both of you endorsing it. I've already started teaching myself some first year biology (from a borrowed textbook), so I'm going for
123.
by wynand 18y ago
I need a textbook - I'm looking for something that would be given to first year Neuroscience students. I would prefer something low-level, but it would be nice if the book ties high-level concepts to the low-level concepts. I've wanted to d
124.
Ask HN: What is a good introduction to neuroscience?
22 points by wynand 18y ago|26 comments
125.
by wynand 18y ago
80's rocker with big long hair and cowboy boots.
126.
by wynand 18y ago
I also found it insightful and was quite surprised that so many of those who commented thought that the points were negative. "However hard you try, you can’t avoid being yourself." Perhaps he should have reformulated it as something like "
127.
by wynand 18y ago
That's a fantastic essay. Somehow I always thought that no-one else had this problem. Seriously. I hope I can finally give up my youthful arrogance. I always believed that when people spoke about getting experience they meant learning more
128.
Ask HN: I am delivering mediocre work and feel awful about it. Should I commit seppuku?
41 points by wynand 18y ago|49 comments
129.
by wynand 18y ago
It is an essay after all. I think Umair means to provoke thought more than anything else. If he is at least a bit right, then businesses will naturally converge to these ideas, without requiring deep rational inquiry (the rationalism will b
130.
by wynand 18y ago
I must agree, however much I have a knee-jerk reaction. And I think my knee-jerkiness has to do with what gives rise to populism you describe: the belief that something which is negatively experienced was designed to be negatively experienc
131.
by wynand 18y ago
Not every idea that is popular is populist. Evidence of popularity is not evidence of dubiousness. Populism plays to people's prejudices, but when people are the objects of some experience which they perceive negatively, it's something diff
132.
by wynand 18y ago
I fully agree with what's written here. It's still quite disappointing to see him referring to managers as "bosses" and non-managers as "subordinates". The next logical step is to state that managers are not there to exert power, but to mak
133.
by wynand 18y ago
To me, this was an amazing post. I'm not sure I suffer from ADHD, but I get amazingly bored with a desk job. It's good to know that it's okay "not to work" and not have to feel ashamed about not fitting in all the time. A great post for any
134.
by wynand 18y ago
They weren't doing too badly but it is worth noting that their revenue grew by 89.8% in 2007 ( http://www.i4u.com/article17075.html ). This is in part due to the unexpected roaring success of the Wii. Such a feat will be difficult to pull o
135.
by wynand 18y ago
Perfect timing given the current financial crisis which was triggered in part by an over reliance on (inaccurate) statistical models.
136.
by wynand 18y ago
"You could say that he was like me" would be narcissistic. Membership of a category does not imply the greatness of other members of that category. Germans might be proud of Goethe, but only a misguided German would take that to imply his o
137.
by wynand 18y ago
I grant that we read what we want to believe, but this is true of everything, whether true or false. I can't convince you that the article is not thin other than pointing out that most writing is about communicating a handful of (and often
138.
by wynand 18y ago
My Haskell experience is too limited for me to have experienced performance changes resulting from small code changes. OCaml has a fairly predictable performance model and a language which combines aspects from OCaml and Haskell (this is th
139.
by wynand 18y ago
"Automated testing does not have this problem." Good point. I mentioned in another comment here that some languages (like Haskell with its strong, static type system) mitigate this problem. And for languages without static type systems of t
140.
by wynand 18y ago
1. Programming 2. Leaning new (human) languages 3. Hiking 4. Philosophy and politics 5. Extended conversations with good friends about 1, 2 or 4 6. Gardening (a bit)
141.
by wynand 18y ago
The author mentions that changing tested code decreases its value. The steepness of this curve varies greatly depending on the language. The strong guarantees of a language like Haskell mitigates the risk and so ensures a less dramatic drop
142.
by wynand 18y ago
I am not sure I like his line of reasoning. I have a manic depressive friend who starts overly intense reform missions from time to time (to correct all the perceived flaws in his life). The tone of this article reminds me of this friend. Y
143.
by wynand 18y ago
One should be wary of anyone making predictions (those in ties are just especially annoying because they take themselves so seriously). Mr. Simmons says he doesn't believe we will discover any other energy sources that will deliver sufficie
144.
by wynand 18y ago
Forcing someone to do a job he hates is no-one's birthright either. We see "quit" everywhere we look because too many people are afraid to rock the boat, but wish they had the courage to do so. Quitting means nothing in itself. It is a vice
145.
by wynand 18y ago
Why? If kamme heeds the advice without thinking, it would be bad. But not because working in a coffee shop is bad. A mini breakdown caused by soul-grating work convinced me to stop wasting my life. Not everyone needs the same amount of mone
146.
by wynand 18y ago
Indeed. What bothers me especially is that these comments are made by managers with combinations of elite business degrees and experience which will enable them never to be limited in the kind of work they do. And yet, they are practically
147.
by wynand 18y ago
I agree. When I started studying in 1998, the bubble was still growing and many of my co-students were only in CS for the money they thought they were going to make (and were they disappointed when we graduated!). Some of the commentators i
148.
by wynand 18y ago
I also think that Dare is suffering from a bit of confirmation bias. Without mentioning the net exchange of people between Microsoft and Google, there is no way to gauge which company is "best" to work for. Dare only provides anecdotal evid