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thisisbrians

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lifelong geek and technologist. professional problem-solver.

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news.ycombinator.com 2y ago

Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?

thisisbrians
37pts46
piszek.com 3y ago

The Climate Care Industry (2021)

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1pts0
news.ycombinator.com 4y ago

Ask HN: Good Postgres Book(s)?

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5pts1
app.codeship.com 5y ago

CodeShip Was Down

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1pts1
en.wikipedia.org 5y ago

Keynesian Beauty Contest

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2pts0
www.apple.com 5y ago

Apple Event (Starting at 10 a.m. PDT)

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1pts0
news.ycombinator.com 6y ago

Ask HN: Most developer-friendly VR headset?

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2pts1
news.ycombinator.com 6y ago

Ask HN: How should engineering headcount scale with revenue?

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2pts1
news.ycombinator.com 6y ago

Ask HN: Time Series Database?

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4pts3
news.ycombinator.com 6y ago

Ask HN: Best podcasts for CTOs/technical founders?

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2pts0
patrickcollison.com 6y ago

Fast

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2pts0
www.newscientist.com 6y ago

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are interfering with astronomy again

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10pts6
techcrunch.com 6y ago

Y Combinator Abruptly Shutters YC China

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154pts36
en.wikipedia.org 6y ago

Mountain Pass rare earth mine

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1pts0
www.apple.com 6y ago

“We appreciate the fact that you like to buy the cool stuff we build.”

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2pts0
en.wikipedia.org 6y ago

Laika

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2pts0
twitter.com 11y ago

Mozilla is recruiting via the JavaScript console

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blog.ycombinator.com 11y ago

Advice for Early-Stage Hardware Startups

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90pts34
joshldavis.com 11y ago

Vim Tab Madness. Buffers vs. Tabs

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3pts2
twitter.com 13y ago

NYC MTA: Subways Beginning to Flood

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1pts0

It is and will always be about: 1) properly defining the spec 2) ensuring the implementation satisfies said spec

I'll probably get downvoted for this, but recent (last ~100 years) evidence and phenomena suggest that consciousness might be fundamental to reality, and thus there could be some other information transfer we would currently consider "woo" going on here. This is hard (if not impossible) to prove, of course, but quantum mechanics has totally bewildered many aspects of the materialist ("reductionist") model of the universe. There is a large and increasing number of physicists and other reputed scientists/researchers who are adopting some variation of the consciousness-as-fundamental stance.

Yes, it's easy to cherry-pick an obviously absurd position that could be articulately argued. But the point is that you are definitely wrong about some things and should generally keep an open mind. Even intelligent people are wrong about certain things, and in fact their propensity for rationalization can lead them into some absurd positions. But some of those positions turn out to be right, like the Earth orbiting the Sun, for example.

I can chime in to say: the scientific method, so far, cannot explain consciousness, and that the whole materialistic basis for physics is facing a crisis in the face of quantum mechanics, etc. Most of us have utmost confidence in a method that so far has nothing to say whatsoever about the most important quality of our existence: that we are aware.

switch to a workplace that has higher standards. obviously that can't be done overnight, so in the interim, make sure to CYA (cover your a**) against the transgressions of the incompetent, including being as honest as you need to be in reviews. if assigned a stupid task, maybe try to divert it to one these stupid persons, or do it as quickly and lazily as possible (CYA).

you're probably getting downvoted because there isn't really a temperature 4 million miles away from the Sun (it's mostly just empty space being bombarded by radiation)

2,500º F is merely the temperature the probe is expected to reach at that distance. if it were to stay at that distance indefinitely, it would grow much, much hotter as it absorbed more energy from the sun.

No; the fiduciary duty of the CEO/board is to the shareholders. If there is a chance to salvage continuity of operations and preserve the value of equity, that is what they will do, even if it means operating until cash runs out. It is a matter of basic incentives. As much as we'd love to do the "right thing" and pay weeks/months of severance for no work (I am a founder myself and would love to, in a perfect world), startup employees should know the risks of working at a high-risk venture and plan accordingly. The middle road here is to do a significant layoff with severance, but this isn't possible in every case. Additionally, a company-saving customer contract or funding round can fall apart at any moment. This is, unfortunately, just the nature of the business.

What worked for me:

I started out chasing my curiosity: wanted to make a simple video game, so I Googled my way to one as my first real programming project. I think passion projects are the way to start, because learning programming is frustrating no matter what (but totally doable, and totally worth it).

Some folks prefer guided courses; they're great, but they just don't work for me (I get impatient and bored). There are tons of very good free ones around these days.

Stepping away or switching to different challenges when stuck have saved me countless hours.

Focus on building a foundation of understanding as you go. Copy/paste is totally fine as you learn, but try to read the code, error messages, Stack Overflow posts etc. to garner deeper insights. A lot of it won't make sense at first...that's ok. Things start to click eventually.

I strongly recommend using ChatGPT as a tutor. It's already way better than Google or Stack Overflow, and you can ask specific follow up questions so you can understand the "why" better. I'm currently using ChatGPT to learn Swift (for a new iOS project I've started).

And, reading HN helped me a lot. At first it was mostly Greek, but I read the articles that sounded interesting and can't even describe how much I've learned from reading the comments on this site.

Most importantly, have fun with it :) This is probably the most important point. The field is vast, so pick the route that draws your attention.

Best of luck!

You are getting downvoted because conventional wisdom is wrong. No one needs to eat plants (although many are nutritious). You can be very healthy eating eggs, fish, shellfish, meat, organ meats, and broth. Animals are made of the same things that we are, so they are very nutritious.

It looks like it's down for the "night".

OP: I like the idea. How can we keep up with what you're doing/when it's back online? I have some code to post :)

"10x" is just the wrong paradigm to explain the phenomenon. The person is not working at a throughput ten times higher than another person. It's more of an exponent that compounds over time. The best tech people can save a rapidly growing firm dozens of hires (or more) over time through better architecture, documentation, processes, communication strategy, etc. There's no way to suss this out entirely from an interview, but a smart interviewer can certainly get an idea if they ask the right questions.

Some ideas about what makes it challenging:

- A satellite will have to transmit power through the entire atmosphere from space, which will have substantial losses even in perfect conditions

- A satellite constellation in orbit would need many ground stations to transmit power to from space

- Weather will get in the way of transmission to the ground, just like it does with ordinary solar

- The cost of getting a PV array into orbit is very expensive relative to the amount of power it can generate and transmit