idiocratic

The economics of software are very different from physical goods. Margins on software (products) are orders of magnitude higher. Any cost shaving done at coding time is economically irrelevant in the long run, detrimental to quality/reputation and could almost be seen as a risk. Furthermore, assuming the bottleneck in this process has so far been coding is pure BS.

What has always worked for me is the exact opposite: no goal from the start, just try as many things that interest you as possible until you have one or two areas that work for you. Repeat when you’re burned out.

It is nice, but nobody except celebrities and super rich people can afford any of these apartments. It’s easy to create nice things for extremely rich people, the real challenge in Milan is to provide aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable buildings and neighbourhoods for the 99%.

True but that site is satire https://0ver.org/about.html

Or maybe thanks to this strong moderation, not despite it.

I disagree. They were such a great door into escapism and friendship for me, a standard guy from a small town in Italy with no metal friends at all until the internet came about. Forums in particular provided the opportunity of meeting people with very different backgrounds sharing similar music tastes, and it was also fun to argue about silly things like what is true and not true metal and getting banned by mods. I built amazing memories of road trips together, motorcycles, seeing bands and meeting each other somewhere basically every weekend. Not to say that what you experienced is not true, but it’s not the case for every forum out there for sure. Also, what made metalheads special was their status as a total outcasts of society, of course we were very much an insular culture. I miss the group spirit, the “family” side of all of this amazing subculture.

I don't understand audacity of people who are trying to dictate to real estate owners what they can and can't do with their property

I don't understand this argument. If you live in the middle of a desert or if you own an entire building in the suburbs, sure, do what you want, that's what it's allowed in those places. But if you own a flat in the middle of a very densely populated city, with rules, where even buying a home is regulated and taxed because society wants that, then this argument doesn't hold. You literally can't do what you want with your property. In Europe at least we have regional building regulations, town taxes to pay for garbage we produce, natural disasters dictating how things are built, and we even have specific rules for each building where your flat is located in. For example in my flat I can't have BBQs on the balcony where other people might do their laundry, or I can't smoke in the elevator, etc, etc... basic rules and compromises for basic societal well-being. It's very far from being able to do whatever we want.

Great quote. It applies to pretty much any profession that isn't pure art. Knowing how it works in medical and research fields, it would be a great analogy for that too.

So many parallels with the Italian software industry. Plagued by low pay, clerical work and system integrators monopolising the entire industry for decades. I also see cloud computing and Silicon Valley glamour as the turning point for the industry.

While in some places Communism has definitely been responsible for atrocities, in many countries (especially Western Europe, Asia and South America) Communist parties have been on the frontline of liberation movements, indigenous rights, human rights, workers’ conditions, etc. That’s why for many Communism != atrocities.

Marginally, from a historic perspective.

Great article. It’s inspiring to see what applications some simple algorithms can have. Kudos for building the tool and sharing your approach.

This to me seems less of a problem where I come from, Italy. It's true that most Italians indulge in sugar when drinking coffee (which it's a terrible practice, we should instead push for better specialty-grade coffee that doesn't need sugar). At the same time what Americans call "condiments" it's basically just olive oil, some salt and pepper for 95% of our dishes. A traditional mediterranean diet, made primarily of grains, legumes and vegetables with some occasional meat and fish is what me and most of my friends' families would have for dinner. Of course, there's the ice cream, the cakes, the BBQ with friends, etc. But I'm just thinking about the normal daily diet here. And the standard seems pretty healthy, with most sugars coming from seasonal fruit.

The promise of crypto is still valid. It’s the centralized idea of crypto platforms like Coinbase that is evaporating, and that’s a good thing.

I don't understand how you don't count meetings and context switching as part of work hours. You're helping others, making decisions, etc. It's not that what's not coding is not work.

Others already replied in useful ways that reflect my thoughts here.

I know some people can and will make it, but it’s definitely not for everyone or even the majority of them, especially here in southern Europe. Think mums with kids doing 9 to 6, men in their 50s doing shitty jobs in shitty companies, young professionals living with their parents because they can’t afford to pay rent. Yes, they could go abroad and reinvent themselves, making a substantial improvement to their quality of life, etc. But in the meantime I like that our governments take steps to regulate overworking and crazy demands for those who don’t give a shit about their work beyond getting their salary and moving on with their life. I empathise and understand their context, even if I’m in a quite different situation. That’s empathy, not pitying others because they are less privileged than me. Maybe they are even happier than I am, who am I to judge?

Not everyone can have a better job. Sorry but your comment reveals how little empathy we, software engineers, can have at times.

The problem with doing this in Python is that there is no typing or interfaces to help you. Basing it purely on naming of arguments breaks the assumption that argument names are local to the function/method. I find this extremely confusing to reason about, let alone the possible unwanted side effects if some developer isn’t aware that a name is magical. It’s also very non Pythonic for good reasons.

The way I see it is that DDD works well with very consolidated process modelling. Think finance, insurance, but also e-commerce, billing systems, etc. If your business is for example into "data" processing or in the discovery phase at a startup, then I can see how DDD can feel like ultra over-engineering. But it has its place, for sure.

I'm sure there are lots of... brands... that don't have any visible branding on their clothes.

2 that come to my mind right now are Uniqlo and Muji. But I'm sure there's plenty more to buy from in every country.

Even if cloning was an option, extinction is just a side effect of habitat erosion. Without habitat, there's no place where those species, even when cloned, could thrive.

Maybe HN (and the web) has become less US-centric and more global? In Europe the issue is marginal to say the least, in Asia I believe they don't even consider it news-worthy, and so on. The opposite of "defining" for most of the planet.

I'm a very anti-racist and anti-fascist person. I'm in favour of removing slavers and white supremacists statues. But these silly debates in the tech world makes me cringe a little and I wish our community was different. Isn't it of little importance how a branch is named? Let's focus on politics, on inclusion, on essential debates that our societies need to improve and let's not waste our energies changing stupid little things that have no meaning other than to a minority of rich white males from Silicon Valley, as a method to self-redemption. Like giving some money to charities and be done with it, instead of rolling up our sleeves and do some direct work. Very White, American, Protestant thing to do. And very easy. And it's also free marketing, the cynic in me thinks.

Very true, it's incredible the amount of burning that goes on in front of most houses at sunset. But I guess our cities in Europe were similar in the past, especially in the countryside.

Been to Kathmandu several times and I wouldn't say Nepal is industrialised in general, but not even remotely at the level of China. What makes the air really bad in Kathmandu is the amount of old trucks and buses on the very dusty streets of the city. It's a different kind of air pollution to what you might experience in an industrialised nation. When I'm there I always wear a mask, otherwise a cough will develop almost for sure in a few hours. If you go a little bit outside of the city the air is very clean and the views are amazing.

Even more importantly, I assume regions affected by bad air quality like North Italy are also the worst with regard to cronic respiratory issues in the general population, which makes the situation a lot worse.

You're right. My mistake.

Lockdown in Italy is a concept that is difficult to enforce. And it's probably very different to what it means in China or even just South Korea or any other more organised and centrally governed country in Europe like France. But in essence: Schools are closed until next month. People can still move around freely for work reasons, and in general people still work in offices. Bars and restaurants close after 18pm. Shops are closed only on weekends. People over 65 have free deliveries from most supermarkets, but very few use them. Big groups of people are not allowed outside public places. The social structure in Italy is still very much based on families, so people will remain with their close relatives and go out for a walk around home.

Italy is there at the top with Japan in terms of median population age. This might play a role in the statistics.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion Psychosis. Anyone believes what they want in the end. This was just my opinion.