mcdramamean

If you look at it from a cultural perspective, many African American boys/men in extremely dangerous and poor areas use marijuana as a way to NOT develop mental issues. Considering how little mental help or even how little routine healthcare these men/boys receive, it makes sense to find SOMETHING to cope. Dependence on alcohol has clear bad-examples of the "wino", or street drunk. Same with the use of crack cocaine (the "crack" head/ the "fiend"). So many black men smoke lots of marijuana, but don't drink and don't do any other drugs.

Also, the environments they need to navigate requires understanding tattoos, colors, signs and tons of other subtle social cues in order to not become a target or deemed to be weak. There may be an under-reporting of instances of schizophrenia, but on a whole these brothers aren't showing signs of schizophrenia due to over use of marijuana.

And really, our current laws are just used to arrest someone, who might be an overall good person, besides the social stigma of "weed smoker". I really do beg anyone who is conservative on this issue due to the POSSIBILITY of someone developing schizophrenia, to maybe consider this as magnitudes less harmful than the use of marijuana policy to target black men; specifically black boys; and putting them in jail and ruining their future. You have to understand the environments they are coming from; so just saying "stay off the dope" is very callous and uninformed. Your life experience isn't the template for everyone.

I know this is a touchy topic on HN, but I really do hope we are able to open our circle of trust to people we wouldn't normally think about.

Don't use the meeting as a forum to emote. We all make mistakes, we don't need a 5 minute monologue to explain it. We all hate meetings, we don't need to spend time on the actual meeting complaining about it. Have your information ready to go. Know how to use the mute button and be ready to respond right away. So much time is wasted by "I couldn't find the mute button" or whatever. Don't be passive aggressive. Just answer the question. If you don't know, say you will get back right after the meeting. If you aren't proficient at JIRA, make the ticket AFTER the meeting. This applies to all technology. If you can't do it in under 15 seconds, write it down and do it right later. Stop holding the meeting hostage cause you have to do your process, your way, in your time. "Hold on let me add it to my calender". No, write it down and do it after the meeting. Unless this is an actual deployment or something, don't waste time going through all the technical details; unless everyone on the call is very technical. Make the conversation accessible to all members of the call; or else they shouldn't be on the call. I can go on...

India has a caste system. That's more comparable to African American and White American relations than the British rule of Indian. No one is asking Britain for anything. When your own country has put in you in a caste system; then all of a sudden end the caste system via the law; but don't do anything to fix the damage done; that's a problem.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/indias-unto...

And the real issue is, you can't have a fair society if we have different castes of people. This is not about class; because if it were you would see different results in the wealths of even first generation immigrants to America compared to African Americans. People who have been in America for 200 years or more have as much wealth as people immigrate illegally. You forget, that people who are able to LEGALLY immigrate to America are people who have the money to do it. Even Africans (NOT African Americans) come to American with more money than African Americans. And Africans don't see themselves as "black". Another reason it's not about skin color, many people from India can be much darker than your average African American. We are talking about a specific group of people that has been caste on the bottom. This is about lineage.

People aren't living in the hoods because they statistically fall on the part of a bell curve that makes them dumber than most; which is why they can't succeed. You can't draw a direct line between IQ tests and how much money someone makes; so that point doesn't matter.

Also, I don't think it's about blaming white women or saying they are doing a "bad" job; especially when you see that many of the black boys are coming from single mother households. This starts to get into uncomfortable territory; but let's just say this isn't about putting the blame on "white people" or "women" or any particular group of people. This is about shame on the American Government for not finding the will to make this right. This is an investment into a large portion of untapped potential in America.

In terms of Asians being able to learn from white teachers; anecdotally many of the Asian Americans I grew up with were forced to learn English very well and were very respectable. Furthermore, they had parents that made sure they excelled in school. It wasn't about them being smarter; it was about them having a disciplined environment. I think cultural, specifically Chinese and Japanese cultures, fitting in is more favored. African American culture is based on attention and being unique. Not understanding the culture will make it hard to understand the person.

If you won't listen to me, listen to Christopher Hitchins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MNu2GNx-kQ

Finally, as a side note, I respect where you are from and all; but your country has literally very little rule of law. I'm not saying every single place, but we aren't going to use India as any measuring stick for democracy or restorative justice. Most people I know from India would concur. America has so many flaws, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Having been to many countries, I love them all, but there is a reason the world is being "westernized"; for good or for bad. Cheers mate!

I think the issue is where you draw the line between inputs and outputs. If you are judging being in the advanced class the outcome; then you are right to look at biological and social/cultural differences. But when you look at the wealth prospects of these kids beyond 5th and 6th grade, you see that an African-American with a college education has as much wealth as a "white" high school dropout. There has to be more going on here than just biologies and bell-curves.

You also have to ask, statistically, who is educating the children? Mainly white women. Who does the worst in school? Black boys. The 2 groups with the least amount of things in common. Being able to effectively communicate with someone who doesn't come from your culture seems to be important when it comes to education, right? You click on the article and you are looking at a big picture of a white lady. I didn't have a single male teacher (besides for gym) until my sophomore year (I think AP Trigonometry?). At the very least, we need a 50/50 mix of male and female teachers.

Trust me, though. I don't agree with them getting rid of gifted programs. I don't think you can deal with racism with feel good platitudes and policies. The issue is the wealth gap; that's it. If African-Americans had similar wealth prospects as other groups besides latinos, most of these issues would disappear. African Americans built the country and weren't paid for any of it. We are talking about a group who has been financially shackled for hundreds of years via federal laws; and now we are living in a hyper-capitalistic society. How can you "move out" the hood without money? Heck, can blacks from the hood even get jobs picking fruit on farms like "illegal" workers. Fighting racism against blacks is about a debt that is owed and has never been paid; not about reliving Jim Crow or throwing racists in jail or making white people feel bad about themselves. You can't legislate a man's heart (1st amendment and all).

Gamestop needs to focus on having tons of e-sports tournaments (with a buy in and/or membership fee). Create an esports league and have national/regional/local tournaments. Also they need to be live streaming on twitch from each location. As a rule, from corporate down to the local shop, they should be creating online content about video games. They should leverage their position with Microsoft to see if they can work with Game companies to get secrets/easter eggs in games and then be the streamers that are known for revealing game secrets. Make it about the gamer experience. Once the pandemic lifts, having physical locals can be a great strength if used well. Do e-sport lessons. Have retro nights. Do arcade pop ups. They need to focus on branding/cool factor. Be a safe space for YOUNG kids. There is tons of stuff they can try besides inventing some tech platform.

The best language is the one you can make money with or positively affect the world. Please grow up out of this old debate. You all sound like 3 year olds...

Seems more like a "DO SOMETHING" rant to me...

For me the the issue with upgrading is that when you buy a piece of hardware, specifically DJ gear (Serato), mixers/interfaces, etc; the latest and greatest often doesn't support it. Then you are hoping and wishing for the company to create drivers to support your expensive hardware on the latest Catalina OS upgrade. That's why when you see interviews with many musicians that have home studios, the computers aren't the newest. Once you have a stable situation that works, why change all the time?

Why don't we.... 1. Allow pharmacies to test for COVID (currently illegal in California) 2. Make COVID testing mandatory every 2 weeks via a statewide digital system (like jury duty). California could then partner will pharmacies to allow wider spread testing. We could even create jobs by hiring and training those who are unemployed to administer the actual tests. 3. Make it mandatory that every business/person use the statewide system to scan people to ensure they have been tested recently. That, combined with temperature checks at the door will serve to catch any issues quickly; as well as providing REAL TIME feed back to the state about possible infections and outbreaks

It seems to me that pandemics are the new normal. We aren't going to have a vaccine ready for every virus within 1-2 years; so it seems prudent for us to invest in a good system now with a virus that isn't as deadly.

What does everyone else think? I really would like to create a thread and have some of the best minds (yes that's you) work on a real solution. Let's plan it and build it!

Another link related to racial wealth gap: https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wha...

It seems that it really doesn't matter what method you use; as long as you use it well...

See: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voting-methods/

I still love that movie....

Break up your tasks into mini-pieces. Spend no more than 5 - 10 minutes on each micro-habit then move to the next. DON'T SPEND MORE TIME THAN 10 minutes. Do this for 1-2 months. Don't work toward any type of task completion; just work for 10 minutes. Actual work, moving at an easy pace, but still getting a few lines of usable code out(refactoring counts); doing a few pushups, situps, squats for your fitness. Immediately follow that 5-10 minutes of work with a reward (like playing video games, small candy, surfing the web, whatever YOU REALLY ENJOY. No judgement. It has to be something you look forward to; just timebox the reward to 25 minutes at most). Don't worry about diet; just try to go as long as you can in the morning/afternoon/evening without eating (if you can make it to 3 - 5 pm you can worry less about what you actually eat). After 1 - 2 months; add 5 minutes. Add 5 minutes every 30 days. It should be a year or more before you attempt to spend 45 minutes or more on a habit.

Don't write any of this down. Don't try to "quantify your self". Do your best to remember where you are at. If you forget, drop it down 5 - 10 minutes/ 1-3 reps/ etc. below what you think you can do currently (almost like take a few steps backward). We don't want to make a big deal about any of this. We want to be in the habit of examining how you are feeling and adjusting the process based on that; while staying in alignment with our long term goals. Real long terms goals are very hard to pin down to specifics and milestones. You are better of moving consistently toward that goal; while managing your emotional state on a day to day basis. The goal is never more important than how you are feeling right now in this moment.

Have no definitive fitness goals for 1 - 2 years (as this is about how long it takes to get the body to respond permanently to any fitness goals). Don't even think about it; just work out in short spans throughout the day. Progressively add 1 - 2 reps to each exercise every 30 days. After a year, attempt to just go to the gym for 10 minutes once a week. NO MORE THAN 10 MINUTES (even if you really want to stay). After 1 months, add another day to the gym (only 10 minutes each session). After another month, add another day (3 days total at 10 minutes only each day). From 4 months onward, add 5 minutes for every session every 30 days.

For code project, do very small projects you can complete within 30 days easily. Having a habit of completing smaller projects will pay dividends in the long run. Make the projects modular so you can easily reuse things in the future. Only build things YOU are interested. Don't worry about what language, framework, topic is popular or lucrative. Only focus on what you care about in the most selfish way possible.

To sum it all up, don't think about it anymore; just do it. And only do it for 5-10 minutes at the beginning. Follow with a reward. Progressively add more time and effort over the course of months. For the first 3 months, don't stress and move easily. Don't strive for any goal; DON'T MOVE QUICKLY. Just do it with ease. Do it as if you could forget about it in 15 minutes it was so easy. Make sure the process is getting done; and not worry about tangible results. Just make sure you are really getting stuff done in the time you are working; but moving easily, without haste or stress.

No one can be sure of anything in these situations. Are you saying this scenario is impossible?

So insightful! It took me a while to get a "feel" for what you are saying; but you put it into words perfectly. This is especially difficult in situations like baristas or service workers of places I frequent.

One day I might be gregarious and have a conversation with the person, but most of the time I just want to get my coffee and be on my way. I've already planned my next couple steps; and stopping to chat wasn't one of them.

Then, every time I go to this place, it's a weird interaction with the service worker because I didn't pick the conversation up where we last left it, or I didn't show a keen interest in them that day. It leads to them avoiding eye-contact or "going on break" when your next in line.

So I try extra hard now to just keep to my own and not talk to anyone for the most part. Not out of being anti-social, but just knowing that I most likely won't benefit from the interaction in the long run.

I'll just leave this here: https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wha...

The wealth disparity between African Americans and the rest of America is growing. Mentorship is fine, but what most African Americans need is access to resources and stable community (which was destroyed through many years of Social Engineering).

This is similar to the argument for promoting people who enjoy violence and murder into the military (people who haven't committed crimes, but get an adrenaline rush around these topics). Don't you want people who are good at it and enjoy it? Won't they get it done most effectively? If you have to do a job that involves "bad" things, do you get more moral points if you don't like it?

And yet....MOST Americans are against reparations for Slavery....

Start with Bootstrap. Build as many sites as you can just using Bootstrap and then study what the classes are actually doing. Then replicate the classes and make changes to them. Bootstrap has enough that if you go through each thing it has, you will have a decent appreciation for the look and how the CSS/HTML/JS fits together to make a site. Then start using jQuery heavily. Find jQuery modules and use them. Play with the options. Then start playing with the code. Those 2 things will be good enough to then move on to something more complicated; which ultimately is just abstracting these basics and attempt to make them easier. But you have to already know what is happening if you don't want to get confused as to why you are using the tool and what your other options are besides this tool.

Someone needs to invent a soundproof phone case. When it's closed; no light or sound is let it.

I disagree.. And so does the book "Talent is Overrated". Did you know that Mozart's father was a world expert in... teaching music? Did you know Tiger Woods father would bounce a golf ball in front of Tiger when he was in a crib? Steph Curry's father was in the NBA; and there are videos of him hitting half court shots at 13 years old. The reason things like being technically good at music appear impossible; is because we either lack the proper language to describe physical mechanics (what is actually happening when Steph shoots a 3; What is actually happening when Jimi Hendrix hits a guitar string) or someone hasn't taken the time to make that knowledge widely accessible.

Having played guitar for more than 20 years (and recently having time to be able to play 4 hours a day) I've only just now broken past speed barriers and learning how to truly play the instrument. I've read and download HUNDREDS of books, seen many teachers, jammed with many people, watched so many videos; and maybe 1 or 2 books have hinted at what it really takes to play the guitar. I could easily explain it now that I know to anyone and have them at super speed within a year. I've heard the same story from others in regards to DJing, piano, producing and anything else. Unless the person has some obvious physical abnormality that allows them to do some skill; most people in normal physical shape can do what we would deem AMAZING things with the right teacher. Sure.. Maybe they won't develop PERFECT PITCH; but most of the greats didn't have that either.

Why do we need to "run away" from loneliness? Maybe we all need to spend more time alone AND off the phone to discover what really "makes us tick"? Find yourself, find a mission, find a purpose. Go do something. There is SOOOO much to be done... I mean it.. Like RIGHT NOW. If you don't have a mission.. Bruh... Go get one. Loneliness is simply childish. Children sit around and wish someone would talk to them. Adults go join other adults to make something happen; or they learn to be with themselves. If you can't find happiness within; it's not going to come from you visiting your parents, or seeing your grandchildren, or insert whatever Hallmark phrase you like. Sure being surrounded by people you love when you die will feel nice. But you can truly "rest in peace" if you know you tried your hardest to make a difference (and you actually do!.. Because you actually can...)

If you look at the richest people in the world, particularly those that are American... they are all introverts. As much as we used to fetishize celebrity, we now love wealth more. And the wealthiest of us have been made that way due to sitting for hours alone behind a computer. You have to imagine, there have always been these kinds of people; the general culture just didn't give them the space in the narrative of the past ( I remember my great-grandfather would hike 20 miles in the snow both ways to completely alone to read or something... These are rare stories of the past).

This is less a binary question than a, can we provide outlets for both ways of thinking, kind of question. Of all the a-la-carte subscriptions many extroverts pay for (Netflix....), I bet they would be willing to pay for a "I don't want to be lonely" service (whatever that looks like).

Why don't you solve this problem? The problem of learning about other industries. I'm sure other people have the same issue. Maybe create a vlog and document your journey?

Throw in India and you now have a problem. I love sports analogies, because they represent pure human emotion and psyche. I'm not a stat padder. I don't care if I average a triple-double like Westbrook if I can't get past the first round. I want a championship.

If you have lung cancer, it's great that you can quantify how much LESS you smoke. "Since I've developed lung cancer, my smoking has decreased 90%". Cool story bro... Why don't you just quit.

For sure, we need to do EVERYTHING we can to keep us in the game and our planet alive; but I'm not interested in splitting hairs about what, for instance, China is or isn't doing. Be real. They have a WHOLE middle class that is growing and wants to live like Americans. Judging them now would be very wrong; because in 20 years their population of "polluters" is going to increase. Regardless of what green technology China invests in; the have a BILLION people living in smog and VERY POLLUTED areas that have NO INFRASTRUCTURE. They haven't begun to start paying that cost (you know that thing that took the USA 50 years to build and is even starting to break in our country). I think they only guarantee we have is if we are all on the same page; even if that only nets us a 1% change toward climate change in the short-term. We need a dramatic change in our outlook toward life and how we proceed to live. This has nothing to do with climate change directly; but is prolly the biggest driver of it.

I bring it back to the Avengers. We are in tech. We all talk a good game about changing the world with tech, AI, machine learning, etc. The end result is just another dog dating app, because people "can't find problems to solve". Are you kidding me? Save the world kid! We need heroes. We need individuals to take full responsibility and come up with moonshot solutions.

If the people who visit Hacker News can't at least use their imagination to try to thing of some global moonshot; no one will. I want you to realize that. I hope that my solution will help (still working on it); but it could just be a toy and a pipe dream. But you know what... At least I fucking tried. At least I can take these Super hero myths and do something constructive with them.

That's what we used to get in tribe, you know? You would be told stories of your great, great, grandmother; who saved the whole tribe. And that DNA runs in you; so you must live up to your ancestors. But instead of us internalizing these things, I guess we just wait for the last Star Wars movie....

Agreed. And you are right. I made these numbers up; and I ca n imagine a scenario that would allow MOST of the planet to go green and we can stop the damage. But in my scenario, what if that 20% are countries like China and Russia; that produce and consume alot of energy. Just a thought experiment. My point is, we have to have the whole world be on the same page to solve the real issues that would cause us to continue to ruin our environment; even when we KNOW we are doing it (aka govt, military, corps know the truth and still continue on). This is a psychological problem. Do you agree?

We need to do something; and that's heal our psychology. We can't just save the planet because all the thing that are killing it are things that we make "to feel good". Most of our economy is based on consuming things we don't need. Most of the pollutions comes for the energy sector and all the containers that get shipped across the ocean. Ocean Cruises are pretty bad also.

We need to focus on how to get the entire planet to execute on the same actions. That is our only hope. If 80% of the planet goes green, but 20% is still emitting pollutions, we are still in the same boat (just not sinking as fast). Getting individuals to do what is necessary will simply take pricing things correctly and making laws; most humans don't want any trouble and will easily be able to live a more sustainable life just through peer pressure.

FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS. This will serve us in all problems, not just global warming.

To put it another way, if you have a cold, you don't solely focus on making the cough go away. Just drinking cough syrup isn't going to fix it. Global warming is the "cough" to our "cold". If we just "fix" global warming, we still have soooooo many other psychological issues as a species that it's not going to "save the planet". We can't even agree if humans should live or die. There is so much nihilism that there are lots of people who are content on doing whatever; until they die. Lo, they prolly want death and are just to scared to do it themselves.

This is a legit problem; that many humans (either through religion or personal belief) don't WANT humans to live; or don't think we deserve to live. How are you going to solve that by solving global warming? We can't even agree that, regardless of our impact on the climate, we should be as clean to our environment as we can. Half the population only cares about GDP.

Go back to first principles and let's SOLVE THIS. We all watch the Avengers, but don't come out wanting to BE THE HERO. We can solve this. We can't save all the animals; but we can solve this.

So stop bitching, let's come up with solutions. Until the last second on the game clock ticks, you are in the game. Make a friggin' play. (YES YOU!)

Looking at the problem broadly, the issue is that we, as an entire species, are unable to commit to a single goal and execute. One of the externalities of this fact is we behave in such a way that makes our environment less inhabitable. This is one of the ways we need to reinterpret the problem. Global warming is a HUGE THREAT, but we can't solve it directly. Us being able to solve it directly means we can get the whole planet to agree.

We can't agree because of psychology (sorry for the rhyme). This immediately leads us to shadow work (Jungian depth psychology). As a human race, I think we all can agree, we have a VERY DARK shadow.

So I think our only hope to save the planet is to "save ourselves". Just think about it logically. Within 2 years, just in the USA, we have rolled back 8 years or more worth of efforts to stop global warming. The reasons are ultimately because of business, which is linked to consumers; who are consuming (mostly) because of.... psychology (be it from the consumer end/ or the producer end that jacks up prices). Unless the entire planet can agree on the course of action, we are going to have a bunch of great things get cancelled out by not so great things.

My hope in this comment is to get the conversation moved in that direction. How can we get the entire human race to commit to a goal that will take 10, 100, 1000 years to execute? And as daunting as that seems, it has to be WAY EASIER than figuring out the weather... and it should speak VOLUMES to all of us that we are more willing to figure out quantum physics, machine learning, AI, complex weather dynamics; but very few of us are willing to tackle this human condition that keeps the world going the way that it does. It's not enough to solve for scientific solutions; we have to develop solutions that appease our mental lives in ways that don't cause harm to ourselves or our planet.

I believe much of this come down to us developing a common mythos that makes us all feel (sorry for a lack of better words/terminology) like Marvel Superheroes; like Avengers. My case in point, look at how many people came out to see this comic book movie. If we felt the same way about our individual lives, we wouldn't feel the need to escape into movies or the numerous other outlets of consumerism that ultimately lead to global warming. This comes right up against our concepts and uses of religion, politics and anything else that we still consider sacred.