HN user
I think you overestimate the currently available storage technologies. Batteries are very limited in capacity and super expensive in large scale. Hydrogen or synthetic methane might work, but those are gases, if you were opposed to them.
I'm just a regular web dev outside the gaming industry, but crunch is a concept that's occasionally present in any project work; I'm sure many HN readers are familiar with it from their own work too.
When you have a deadline to meet, sometimes you need to go into crunch mode to get things done. Of course the crunch mode should last no more than a week or maybe two, otherwise you risk burning out. After crunch mode there should be a slow period where you take some time off or work on something not urgent at all.
I'm interested in learning more about this! As a Finn I love Poland and have been there multiple times (most recently just two weeks ago). I don't know the language, but details like honorifics reveal interesting tidbits of the culture and society. I guess I should prompt an LLM about it.
Why not?
Isn't Japanese rice pretty different to Costco rice? Genuine question.
At least some of the anti-nuclear movement back then was directed against old and unsafe nuclear plants, and for good reason. These activists achieved their goal, as modern plants are very safe.
AFAICT, modern day anti-nuclear movement is a bit different to that.
What's wrong with maximizing profit anyway?
Yeah fair point.
However, curious of what you base your claim "France and the USSR had far more success" on?
Finland tried teaching maths to children using Group Theory in the 70s [1], but the results weren't that good; it proved to be too abstract for young kids.
Ultimately, I believe basic algebra and geometry are the most important takeaways from math classes for most people.
[1] https://www.hs.fi/tiede/art-2000004823594.html (sorry, it's in Finnish and behind a paywall)
Change could go to negative though, so even though 0% is included in the chart, the true possible bottom value of the chart is -100%.
It's about the separation of powers. Law-making, adjudication, and execution should be separate branches so that no one branch gets too much power, as that will lead to dictatorship. When Trump and Musk are ignoring judges' orders and going ahead with their sledgehammering, it sets a dangerous precedent for what the POTUS can get away with.
Ofc there's more to this story than just DOGE too.
It depends on what you want to build. If you want to build impressive B2C software, this sounds like a recipe for disaster. I've worked with many backend engineers masquerading as full stack engineers who couldn't carbon copy a simple mockup design into a working UI if their life depended on it. Yet they never seem to notice how bad their implementation is, sometimes not even if you point it out to them even if the end users would notice; I think these engs are so enamored with their work they're in some kind of denial about the shortcomings. And that's just the visual parts. There's also skill required to take accessibility and conformance with web standards into account (HTML/CSS/JS stack is devious in that it lets you do things in ways that are "wrong"), which you can't easily fix later on by tweaking a bit here and there. So without this understanding, you end up with a crappy UI that's overengineered for what it is. Of course that all won't be an issue if you're building software you can sell even if the UI makes its users depressed.
Not saying your typical frontend engineer is flawless either. It's probably true that they're, on average, not as skilled sw architects as backend engineers, simply because a lot of their work focuses on details instead of architecting, and, again, the HTML/CSS/JS stack is incredibly flexible, in good and bad.
His style is very much brain rot-like though. It's way more "entertainment" (though it isn't very entertaining to me) than informational content.
Fair point about the importance of storytelling, but I wouldn't say "engineering rarely matters" in the tech industry. Compelling vision can mask those problems for a long while, but at some point the wheels will fall off if engineers can't deliver.
Well, did those startups succeed? If not, I think it means the author was spot on in saying startups can't _afford_ that.
As a remote worker, 1:1s have been a great way for me to get to know my managers and make friends with them (well, friends who have the power to fire you, but anyhow). I've loved picking their brain on various topics, not limited to things related to work.
Then again, if you dislike your manager, the meetings can be pretty jarring. Sometimes you just don't have that chemistry with them. And some managers try too hard to make 1:1s "useful" according to their taste, which really makes them just another reporting session you want to avoid.
Are you seriously asking why? If you've paid any attention to the news in the past few weeks, you couldn't have missed the daily efforts by Trump and his cabinet to isolate the USA from its allies. In the past, European countries have trusted that the common values shared by the Western countries will ensure mutual cooperation now and in the future. Now this thinking has proven naive, as Trump has threatened Europe with, e.g., shutting down technological services if it's in his interest to do so. It doesn't seem to matter whether Europe pays for these services or not. Therefore, it's paramount for Europe to not vendor-lock themselves in American companies, as they can't be trusted anymore. It's sad and shocking, but Europe has been backed into the corner with this one.
It's not only about the money either. The even bigger blow is the whole 180 the US government has made, now actively aiding Russia instead of Europe. If it was just about the money, it would be a bit easier to understand (though still a big blow to the mutual understanding of what is worth defending in the world). If it was about the money, the US would happily _sell_ equipment to Ukraine and let the EU foot the bill. That doesn't seem to be the case though.
Imagine if Russia decided it wanted Alaska, and there'd be a stalemate meat grinder conflict in that area, and your European allies, who've been your closest supporters, were like "just give Putin what he wants bro. Who even cares about a little bit of Alaska? We're tired of supporting you and just want you to make peace, and will coordinate with Russia to knock some sense in you. All this talk of you wanting to 'defeat Russia' is just silly, gl with that"
It's really hard to look away when the collective West is crumbling right in front of our eyes. USAs new regime pulling its support of Europe and making friends with Russia is the biggest existential crisis Europe has faced in my lifetime.
Who knows what the next American civil war would look like.
But would Russia's friendship be more useful than Europe's? I can see the logic behind strengthening ties with Russia to keep them from aligning with China, but Russia has proven itself an unreliable partner in the past, so you have to assume that as soon as Russia sees more benefit in fraternizing with China than the US, they'll turn their coats. The EU has been a pretty loyal vassal, even when disgruntled. But I think we've gone over the tipping point now. The US has shown it can't be trusted upon.
That's the thing. Trump's actions make no sense unless you view them through the lens that he's driving the agenda of Putin.
Then again, even if a global nuclear war broke out, some of his loyalists would still be convinced that Trump is playing some sort of 3D chess and that it's all going according to his masterful plan.
Because it's been a really good deal for the US. 1. European countries have (for the most part) not had an incentive to build military might, which means they won't be adversaries to the US. 2. This dependency on the US has given the US a lot of soft power in terms of diplomatic pull. In the past, the US could just ask Europe to jump, and Europeans would ask how high. 3. In addition to Europe, it's also kept Russia in check, because it has prevented them from expanding to the west.
I think it's very short-sighted of Trump to severe ties to Europe. There's a truth to the claim that the US spends disproportionately more money on military than its Nato allies, but as the author said, maybe that's by design. Overall you'd imagine that it's beneficial for the US to keep Europe a dependant. Now that the US is breaking those bonds, Europe has no other option but to become independent, which will be the end of it following the US wherever its leaders want to take Europe.
EU is not a homogeneous single entity. Every state is driving their own agenda, and every state is divided into multiple parties often pulling in different directions. It slows down decision-making, in both good and bad. Oftentimes it's hard to sell a Pan-European long-term benefit, if it's cost is that some member states have to lose something in the short term.
You could make the argument that similar problems exist in the US too, but I'd argue it's worse in the EU.
Sort of a side note, but the exit assumptions in this article are naive. If your YC backed company makes an early exit, I'd imagine it's pretty much guaranteed the preferred equity holders are going to get most, if not everything, of the acquisition price.
Also, founders may get some liquidity at funding rounds, but I don't think founding engineers typically get to benefit from these.
Many people do care about it though, just see the market size of hair implants and Rogaine.
Many people balden in their 20s or 30s.
I'm not sure I share your optimism. If kids don't trust institutions, who do they trust? The answer is friends and celebrities (=influencers). Maybe they don't trust Big Tech companies per se, but you still need them to facilitate the content of whichever parties they find trustworthy. Decaying trust in institutions is just more ground for a total fantasyland where everybody can justify whatever they believe in. If the NYTs and gov't agencies of the world aren't deemed more reputable than the Andrew Tates of the world, we're on a path to a worse society.