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mrmincent

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I used to work for a (now defunct) wagering operation. From my understanding even internally the marketing and business guys would’ve preferred the advertisements to be banned. It’s such an effective customer acquisition tool that the only way to compete is to spend insane amounts on marketing, because if you don’t, all of your competitors are and you’ll go bust. A ban would drastically level out the playing field and make things more sustainable.

The only ones that don’t want the ban are the ones selling the advertising slots. No way they’re giving up the gravy train.

Pebble Round 2 7 months ago

Yeah it would’ve been an instant buy for me if it did HR monitoring, even if it meant a thicker base. Now it’ll probably just be a fairly quick buy as my Apple Watch s7 can hardly last a day.

I’ve been 100% remote since the Melbourne pandemic shutdowns, and I’ve absolutely loved it for the most part, and hope to be able to continue to work mostly remote going forward.

It definitely has its downsides though, I’ve missed a lot of the incidental chats and socialising, throwing ideas around etc, and it can be a bit mentally draining. I’ve started renting a hot desk at a wework in the city once a month just to be around people and feel part of something bigger. I actually feel less tired after schlepping into the city and back that day than I do on most other days, which is surprising.

ADHD here, and Claude code has been a game changer for me as well. I don’t get sidetracked going lost in documentation loops, suffer decision paralysis, or forget what I’m currently doing or what I need to do next. It’s almost like I’m body doubling with Claude code.

Probably a similar amount that it would have taken him to hire someone from the start, except he’s already validated the product and market.

To misuse a woodworking metaphor, I think we’re experiencing a shift from hand tools to power tools.

You still need someone who understands the basics to get the good results out of the tools, but they’re not chiseling fine furniture by hand anymore, they’re throwing heaps of wood through the tablesaw instead. More productive, but more likely to lose a finger if you’re not careful.

I hate to say it, but pet cats kill an estimated ~390 million animals annually (in Australia). They should also be on a leash and not allowed to roam freely.

With the caveat that I’m still learning elixir+ash and just building a small private project, I’ve bought the beta book and it really helped get my head around the concepts even though it’s not finished. I’d recommend it, it’s even on sale at pragprog this week.

Ash itself is fantastic so far. I haven’t worked with anything so productive before. Loving it.

I wfh pretty much 100%, and have inattentive adhd. I’ll occasionally go spend a day at a WeWork, either with other workmates, or by myself.

On days that I’m with workmates, I get nothing done. On days I’m by myself, sitting by strangers, I’m really productive. I can just lock in and chug through my work. It never made sense to me until I learned about body-doubling, kind of feels like what I was inadvertently doing on those solo days.

418 I’m a teapot 2 years ago

I hate to be that guy, but just a reminder that if you’re implementing a production system - even if it’s an internal tool - please don’t return 418 as a joke unless you really are a teapot. As an SRE I’ve been on the receiving end of a broken system returning teapots over the weekend, and it’s not as funny then.

If there is something that you would like to do in your own time that you can’t do because of a work requirement, your work should be compensating you back in time or money. Can’t go drinking / see a movie / go travelling for the weekend? They should pay you for the inconvenience. Actively working on a production issue due to catching a call? They should be paying you a multiple of your hourly rate. If they’re not a charity, you shouldn’t be donating your time and energy.

The sports clubs that depend on pokies also cease to exist - they become pokies venues that also have a sporting arm. They begin to drain the community instead of contributing back to them.

They’re able to use pokies profits to subsidise cheaper food and alcohol to bring in customers, and in turn get them to pump a money into the pokies, while starving other venues of those customers who can’t compete on price.

4 days a week is great. I’ve dropped down to 4 days work (4x8hours paid), and look after my son one day a week. My wife has switched to doing compounded hours on 4 days (4x10hrs paid) and looks after our son on another day.

We both get close to an extra 2 months a year with our son, which is phenomenal.

One thing I wouldn’t recommend is having a Wednesday off - it’s what I’ve had to do, and I find it a big interruption to my week & flow, a Monday or Friday would be better.

I like the first half of describing the issues faced during the week - it’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for my team, and the format is easy to digest.

I really don’t understand the point of the second half in publicly disclosing what each individual has done though. I hate the idea that team members would feel like they might have to rush stuff out so they look as productive as someone else, or that they’d feel not as good as others.

When I was struggling with severe anxiety during covid lockdowns and struggling with a bad job, I read about a link between depression and gut health, so started taking kefir daily. Over time things definitely improved, but I was doing so much stuff to try and improve the situation (increased exercise, therapy, meditation etc) I can’t say it was the key to recovery, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

My Dad lives in a small Australian country town, catches something like 50-70 cats in cat traps in his house and back yard each year and offloads them to the local pound. I can’t understand how cat owners are allowed to let their animals run all over town at all hours of the day and night. They cause so much damage to the native animals, wiping out frog and bird populations.