HN user
Software Engineer.
See https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/generall... the podcast talks about how companies can self certify additives as safe for instance.
Talks about one person who lost a gallbladder due to a new additive. People often can’t sue due to terms agree to for food delivery companies but when that food is served to guests or children those people can sue as they are not bound to arbitration from terms of service
see https://sf.streetsblog.org/2026/03/06/motorist-careens-onto-... and see what the police said to the driver…
Hidden Brain
Freakonomics
Throughline
NY Times The Daily
The War on Cars
Gay Men Going Deeper
The Happiness Lab
You Might Be Right
What Could Go Right
Memory Palace
Soft skills engineering
FYI see https://youtu.be/EP74acIVs60
Also research has shown how people who say hi to us improve our mood even if these are people who we recognize but may not even know their name
I was recently in Barcelona Spain in a hotel room with one queen bed. The bathroom was on one side of the entryway and on the other side was the shower with a clear glass door
As other people have said, there's almost no one who will stand the full test of time. Washington/Jefferson owned slaves for instance. There are people who did bad things but also accomplished things. Perhaps we allow things to be named after them but have to say for __ ie being named after James Webb for his work on the lunar landings. Perhaps also when naming buildings/etc after people, have a plaque that mentions some of the controversies around the person. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-might-change... Or we move away from naming things after people.
Targi - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118048/targi Patchwork - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163412/patchwork are two that are just for 2 players.
Really depends on what type of game you're looking for. Generally when I'm trying to figure out what types of games people like, I'll ask if they have played Settlers of Catan and if they want ones longer/more complex than that or if Settlers of Catan was too long/too complex, or if they want more social games.
check out https://www.yucata.de/en and https://boardgamearena.com/ where you can play online. If it's hard to get people to play in person, perhaps see if you could get a group to play online - join a video call and then set up the game on boardgamearena.
Depending on where you are, look to see if there are boardgame meetups. These are a great way to learn games. At most of these, people will split into small groups, play a game, then when some groups are done, people will suggest some next games and people will split up and play those. Even for people who have been playing boardgames for years, I'd say we expect to be teaching a game to some people/learning a new game we've never played because there just so many boardgames out there.
Top games I've enjoyed this year:
Crew Mission Deep Sea
Wingspan
Azul
Lost Ruins of Arnak
Root
Macao
Viticulture
Castles of Burgundy
Some books that I have really liked:
- Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss(waiting on the third book....)
- Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (also waiting on the rest of the series...)
- The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu - the first book was ok but I really liked the second - The Dark Forest
- Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
- House In the Cerulean Sea
- How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Others that I like: The Rosie Project, The Books of Babel, A long way to a small Angry Planet, Wool/Shift/Dust, Lockstep, All the Light We Cannot See, Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, Earth Abides, Project Hail Mary, The Martian
Also, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/
- 99% Invisible
- Invisibilia
- Hidden Brain
- Opening Arguments
I've been playing some games on https://www.yucata.de/en with friends - San Juan, Imhotep, Castles of Burgundy, Russian Railroads, Thurn and Taxis. Beware with Yucata that if you start a game with more than 2 people, you cannot resign and if you start a different game, it makes you take your turn in other games first. We also use Tabletopia https://tabletopia.com/games - Terra Mystica - one person needs to buy Tabletopia.
For more places to play boardgames online see https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/play_online as well as https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1nwZkqIoIkkUakCvj...
Also check out https://www.reddit.com/r/malefashionadvice/ - post some photos in the daily questions thread to get feedback.
The Daily by the New York Times - every weekday about 30 minutes on one topic
Invisibilia
Hidden Brain
Embedded
Serial
Hardcore History
Sean Carroll’s Mindscape - learned of it thru Opening Arguments - seems ok
In a similar vein, a big park/playground recently opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They had some inspiration from playgrounds outside the US.
https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2018/12/06/the-surprisi... - mentions how some parts were designed to make it easy for kids to go to certain places but hard for parents to follow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/arts/design/tulsa-park-ga...
Hanabi - co op solitaire where you can't see your own cards. ~45 minutes, up to 5 players. It is a thinking game - how to give good hints to other players and how to interpret hints from others - did they give me this hint to play this card or do I need more info
Azul - relatively recent game. Tiling game where you take tiles from the center and place them on your own board.
Others that are good and can be played in under an hour: Splendor and if you like Splendor, try Century Spice Road.
7 Wonders
Fleet - bidding on fishing licenses, fishing for fish.
Magic Maze - up to 8 people - 4 meeples exploring a mall to find the items to steal and then escape the mall. The catch is that each player can move any meeple in only one direction, and you can't talk. It's a race against the clock and there are no turns - everyone can move any meeple at any time.
6nimmt - good filler game that can fit up to 10 player with a round taking about 15 minutes. Can be good while waiting for more people to show up.
No Thanks - 30 minutes up to 5 people.
More complex:
Settlers of Catan Russian Railroads - worker placement where you are building out a railroad and/or advancing on a science track
Power Grid - building powerplants and powering them - 3 hour game
Thurn and Taxis - map of Germany and you are building routes thru cities
Suburbia - taking tiles and building out a city
Yellow & Yangtze - only played once recently but liked it. Placing different leaders on the board and tiles and fighting other leaders.
See https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame for a list of boardgames. See their ranking but also see their complexity rating.
If you're looking to try new games, there may be some boardgame meetup groups(on Meetup.com etc) where people will bring different games and split up and play (and teach) those games.
Another thing about snake plants is that you can cut a few inches of a leaf off and plant it. Within 3-9 months or so it will sprout some new shoots.
- Opening Arguments
- 99% Invisible
- Invisibilia
- This American Life
- StartUp
- Serial
- Hidden Brain
- All the President's Lawyers
- Radio Lab
- Science Friday
An interesting podcast episode that talks a bit about OCD is https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/375927143/the-secre...
Everybody you meet has a secret smile, and a secret pain.
There's another good quote I've heard: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Maclaren) I have heard it with " you know nothing about" at the end.
I was on a cave tour once and there was a crystal clear spring fed stream running thru the cave. The guide said something like the water looks good to drink but then we went around the bend and there was a giant pile of bat guano sloping down into the water.
Nonfiction: Hillbilly Elegy By JD Vance
Fiction: Golden Son by Pierce Brown - liked the whole trilogy; Rosie Project/Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Top books that I read this past year:
- Hillbilly Elegy By JD Vance
- Golden Son by Pierce Brown (second book in a trilogy) liked the whole trilogy
- Rosie Project/Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
- Graceling by Kristin Cashore
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance
Red Rising and sequels by Pierce Brown
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
(I read Three Body Problem + sequels in 2016. The first book I thought was ok. I really liked the second book - The Dark Forest - the Dark Forest theory of the universe I thought was quite interesting)
Podcast episode from More Perfect about the Citizens United cases and one of the arguments about free speech and book banning.
There's a good episode of Opening Arguments (podcast) that talks about the ACLU/Charlottesville/etc. http://openargs.com/oa96-understanding-charlottesville/
Check out Managing Humans by Michael Lopp. Or, as @jennyp mentioned, check out his blog - rands in repose. His book is basically a collection of blog posts.
Another book that was recommended for new managers is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118911954/ -
Your First Leadership Job: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others by Byham and Wellins
Radical Candor by Kim Scott
Not books, but other resources that might be useful:
https://www.tombartel.de/#blog
http://softwareleadweekly.com/ - also comes as a weekly email with links to different articles
At the top of my list would be:
- Opening Arguments
- Invisibilia
- StartUp- 99% Invisible
- RadioLab
- RadioLab Presents: More Perfect
- Freakonomics Radio
Others:
- Hidden Brain
- Vox's The Weeds
- How I Built This
- Myths and Legends
In San Francisco, there is a non profit (Lava Mae) that turned buses into mobile showers.
http://www.businessinsider.com/lava-mae-turning-buses-into-b...
It looks like the laundromat van is in Santa Cruz. But would be cool if they teamed up.
See Dark Forest theory (spoiler warning for Dark Forest by Cixin Liu - second book after Three Body Problem):
http://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/18127/dark-for...
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/lovesick-cyborg/2015/10/31...
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Dark-Forest-Theory-of-the-...
which is basically what you said - every civilization's prime directive is to survive, resources in the universe are limited, and what they call "chains of suspicion"
Resources limited in universe: think about how fast we have used many of the resources on earth. The universe has a finite amount of resources.
He also talks about how fast technology progresses. In just the past 100 years we've made airplane travel common, gone to the moon, launched a probe that is on the edge/outside the solar system, have self driving cars, computers, etc. Who's to say that this is fast or slow? By the time new communcation from an alien race arrives, they/we might have had that technological progress.