trcollinson

I have a wonderful colleague who has a PhD in mathematics and never tells anyone about it. I sort of love calling him Dr. just to push his buttons because he is the opposite of a person who guides others attention to his work. He often deserves so much more credit.

Oh! The tubes from Cento, which is a particular good brand, are metal. I understand the acidic substance from plastic concern. Though reducing your own is a good idea as well. If you grow the tomatoes they will be significantly better.

They make lovely squeezable tubes. I would suggest giving them a try! They are much better.

Wait... You wrote it with him? Are you Dave Bayer? That's amazing! What was it like working together? And absolutely fantastic paper! I have so many questions lol

One of my absolute favorite mathematicians is Persi Diaconis who is mentioned in this paper and was the original basis for this area of research. Well worth learning about. He was a runaway. Then a magician, trained by Dai Vernon and worked along side people like the late Ricky Jay and Richard Turner. He went on to get PhD from Harvard and got a MacArthur Fellowship. He is a legend.

Ricky Jay talking about his childhood friend Persi: https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-ricky-jay/

Persi on Numberphile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxJubaijQbI

A great lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xit5LDwJVck

You make a great point and one thing I posted a bit further down was when I was a director level I did a really poor job of leading by example when it came to vacation. I would literally force people to use their pto and I didn't and they would feel weird or bad. I should have been more like your VP.

I don't disagree. And I mean this much more generally, I have worked quite a long time for quite a lot of companies. The amount of PTO that is given up, which I was privy to, was staggering.

The interesting thing is I used to try to force people who worked for me to take more time off and they would complain. I think in many ways it was the example I set, which was bad, of always working. It's a regret I honestly have. I'm also happy now that I am just an individual contributor. I don't have to try to change that culture anymore. I only need to change me.

I guess my point on vacation is more around the culture of using it. As a senior level engineer/architect with maybe a small team leading role, when was the last time you took a solid 2 week off without anyone calling you for work? Heck, look at the number of unlimited PTO companies out there where employees never take a day. Just as an example.

The experience my friends have in the EU seems to be pretty good over all with healthcare. The US healthcare system give fantastic results at a phenomenal and often strange price. It's a trade-off I'm sure.

I agree that having savings helps. And I have quite a bit of savings. But I still wouldn't feel comfortable being laid off .

Over all I'm here in the US and I love it. But I'm pointing out that there is give and take to everywhere.

Also everyone keeps talking about working for FAANG but.... The vast majority of US engineers don't work for them.

I am a W2 employee for a consulting firm. They pay me a salary with some benefits and some vacation time and bill be out to clients.

I'd say it's a cultural thing why we don't use it. Working hard and making big money is the dream. I'm not saying my company forces me to not take the vacation time. Heck they try to tell us all to use it more! (PTO is a liability on the books, FYI). But culturally, it's just not a priority (as in our countries culture, not the company itself). I realize it makes no sense. I need to make it more of a priority. My original point is my friends who are ex-pats on the EU seem to have a culture of using that time being more important than working.

Edit: I'm not sure why I'm being down voted. I'm mostly sharing what I see and feel. Your milage definitely may vary and I hope it does!

I'm pretty much at the top end of the salary range where I live. I don't make an extra $150,000. I make a sizable amount. But outside of a few niche places and a few niche companies in those places, people aren't making an extra $150,000 in the US.

I make pretty good money as a consultant. Last year I had 180 hours of saved vacation time (4.5 weeks). I gave up 115.5 hours of that on January 1 because I didn't use it. I expect I will lose a similar amount on next January 1st. I did get 6 federal holidays off. I used a bit of vacation to also take the day after Thanksgiving, the day before Christmas, and New Year's Eve off.

I paid $8400 in insurance premiums for my insurance. I also added $5200 in pretax to my HSA account which I used.

I paid about 30% to taxes.

I'm not complaining. I'd just like to point out that my high salary (which is not > $200,000) comes with some costs.

Do you mean a particular part of Europe? I only ask because there are more factors than salary. I have friends who have moved to work in France, Norway, and Germany. They do make markedly less than I do on my US salary. However, they also get:

* Substantially more actual vacation time

* Substantially cheaper and yet similar health, dental, and vision coverage

* Less risk/stress associated with job security

* A very similar job market

I don't imagine this is the same in every country in the EU, just as technical job markets are different in the US. But working in the US Tech Sector isn't the panacea of work related issues.

Does it bother you so much that he would put in a link that had an affiliate? I doubt he was trying to hide anything nefarious. I am linked to a few affiliates and when I share a link, it has the affiliate tag in it. He uses a great laptop, he shared it, you can look or not. I doubt he was trying to save HN bandwidth or storage.

"alternating with short bouts of motivation"

I think you might have pinned it here. It may be that you are just fine as a developer but that you have burn out or some other mental health issue honestly. I don't mean that as a negative. I was burned out very badly a few years back and I felt exactly like you describe. It led to anxiety, depression, a lack of motivation, pain... nearly a mental breakdown.

I had been on a bit of anxiety medication for a while. I had a near breakdown (some would say a total breakdown). My doctor literally said "You need to go see a therapist. I mean it. You can either go on your own or I am locking you into the trunk of my car and taking you and you won't be let out until you talk to someone." (So, my doctor threatened to kidnap me, and thank goodness!) So I went and talk to a therapist. And talked. And talked so more. For months, then years. It has changed my life for the better. I am a better developer. I work better. I am a better husband and father. I FEEL better.

I really can't recommend highly enough that you take a look into your mental health. It will help a lot. So what now? Talk to a professional.

The problem I have with it, and I would imagine a good percentage of people who frequent Hacker News, is that I know how to build websites, and Wix, Squarespace, etc. just slow me down more than speed me up. Some of this may be psychological. But I feel like no matter what was built, this would be the case.

For example, my son was required to use one of these builders to make a site for his English class over the weekend. He wanted to connect up a simple link in the homepage to an about me page. Simple, in a static website this would be an <a> with appropriate href and such. But with a site builder you had to know which box to go to. You had to have already made the about me page so that the site builder knew how to link up. Etc etc etc. A task that takes me 3 seconds took 10 minutes.

Additionally, as someone who works for companies for a living, I get calls from potential clients that say "I want my Squarespace to do X, Y, and Z, and Squarespace doesn't let me do it. Can you make it do it?" Well, no. I can build you a site that does that, but I can't make Squarespace do something it doesn't do.

These site builders aren't bad at all. Non-technical people use them successfully all of the time. But I am definitely not your target audience.

We don't. But the reason why isn't because politicians don't like to follow rules, it's because they are following the rules that their constituents provide. Even if you disagree that they are following what is best for their constituents, they are following what their constituents want.

The simplistic view is that politicians will be voted out if they don't have enough followers. Right now in the US anyway, (and maybe other places, I hardly have time to keep up with US politics, let alone politics for other countries), the electorate wants entertainment. So they are receiving it. They want sound bites and bumper stickers. They want short speeches with easy to remember catch phrases. They want social media fights and they want news that entertains.

And thus, politicians are giving them what they want because that's their job.

I am the electorate. I helped build the system that we have now. The only way to change it is to get more and more people to want to be informed in different ways. As long as people want what they are getting right now, it will continue down this path. Will it change? Of course. When will it change? I have no idea.

To be a partner at a VC you have to have money and connections (though with enough money, connections is a pretty easy problem to solve).

To be an intern/employee for a VC you need to have basically graduated from one of the big business schools: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Kellogg, Wharton, Booth... there are others but not many. If you go to one of these schools it's relatively easy to get the connections you need.

If you want to be an intern/employee and you can't get to one of these schools or don't want to, you need to specialize in something that VCs want. That specialty is usually something data driven. Data Analytics is a really big deal for VCs. If you can do that at an above Masters Level they may look at you without a Masters Degree, business degree, or degree in anything at all. Though it will still be a bit of an uphill battle. And honestly, you probably won't get paid as well as if you took those data analytics skills to some other company.

Unfortunately, if you want to do something other than Data Analytics for a VC, you're kind of up a creek. Those big business schools are cranking out people and they have good connections. They will take the job before you get a chance.

You can make a very good business of consulting people off of Stripe. Developers do love it, and for good reason (as the article points out). But it is expensive. If you are running $1,000,000 in credit card transactions per year at $29 each you will pay almost $40,000 in fees. Get up to $10,000,000 in transactions and you are now at $400,000 (this is basic pricing without volume discount, but they are still more expensive than most other interchanges). Suddenly it makes sense to look at other credit card processing technologies. There are a lot of costs to processing credit cards. But, if you have a CFO at your startup, they'll definitely run the numbers.

You know, I'm trying to steer this towards a conversation. I guess I missed the mark. But I am undeterred. I will still try to pull something educational out for myself.

According to the knowledge I have humans born with two X chromosomes have a cervix unless they have a generic abnormality or have a surgical procedure to remove the cervix. Humans born with an X and Y chromosome do not have a cervix. There may be humans born with different chromosome arrangements that do have a cervix, but I can't find a lot of, or any, medical research on such. If there is, I would like to read about it. That's what I'm asking.

Again, according to my knowledge, humans can designate themselves with whatever noun (woman, man) and pronoun (he, she, it, etc) they wish. That means that humans who designate themselves as man can have a cervix because they picked the designation and that designation does not designate a set of reproductive organs.

Education is not obtuse. Language had become complicated. Social norms have become complicated. I'm trying to actually get an understanding from various sources.

I don't love fighting over these sorts of things, especially on Hacker News. So I am not trying to fight at all. But I am genuinely and honestly asking, where do I find research to say that not "only women have cervices"?

After Googling for a few minutes I have found quite a bit of research on how cervical health of a female sexual partner can affect the male partner. I have found how male sexual partner health related to HPV can effect the female cervix. I have found information on how trans-men need to continue to have their cervix tested for medical issues. I haven't found any information on if chromosomal issues can cause cervices to be present in men.

Or is your point that trans-men have cervices and so not "only women have cervices"? If that is the argument you are making, that is fine. Though then I am not sure what you are arguing. But I will just accept your opinion if that is what it is.

A number of people will probably tell you to be your own boss, try herbal remedies, change your sleeping habit, etc. And those are all really good answers. But let me suggest one other thing.

First off, if you think you are feeling burnout, you are. There is no checklist that makes burnout "real". It's how you feel about you. So, get with a counselor. Talk therapy is really valuable and absolutely excellent for helping with burnout. You may not need medication (though, you might) but a qualified mental health professional can help a lot.

I fought against this route for years. I wish I hadn't. When I started visiting my therapist, Rich, he really helped me a ton. I still have good days and bad days but now I recognize the issues and I can help to combat them.

Seeking professional help is a good thing!

The current annual cost for Harvard is US$50,420. So the other poster who said many are more than double is, well, off by a bit. So the "best" University (by their own marketing) is about 60% higher. The University of Utah where I live is about US$10,000 a year. The UC school system in California is at about US$14,000 a year. A good online school system like Western Governors University is about US$6000.

The problem is quite like the post above you said. It's loans. Students, with very little information or guidance are handed tens of thousands of US dollars a year to "pay for school". They can do any program, pay for any housing, pay for any food (my son in his first semester racked up a $7000 food bill, because cafe's took student food cards). Schools take advantage of the monstrous amount of debt students can get into.

There is no reason why a student needs to be tied down if they make smart decisions. The problem is the same today as when I was 18. 18 year old college students aren't always making smart decisions.

Learn to Knit or Crochet. There are a bunch of fun benefits! First, it's not hard. Second, you really can make nice things that last a long time and are useful. I personally have been on a sweater kick. Look or Aran and Gansey sweaters, they are very fun. Third, it gives you something to do other than endlessly scrolling on your phone.

With my hands and wrists (from being at a keyboard for years), I find knitting to be more comfortable. Also, if you do it correctly, the motion is different from typing and therefore actually helps with repetitive strain in the wrists.

So, I am also not a lawyer, and also not giving you legal advice. I do have some legal background and some HIPAA background.

This tool would fall under HIPAA compliance. In that, it doesn't matter if you know who has access to the data. The only thing that matters is that the holder of the data knows who has access to the data and whether those with access have proper training, metrics, and monitoring for the data. There are a lot of If's in this area.

If the data is anonymized, then there are a number of requirements that disappear.

If the data is not anonymized, then it must be kept for a certain period of time.

If the data is saved, it must be encrypted on ingress, egress, and at rest according to the HIPAA plan of the provider.

If... if... if...

There are a lot of considerations here. However, you don't actually get to know any of those things. The only part you get to know is whether they say "We are HIPAA Compliant". And if they say that and you disagree, you can make a complaint with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Don't expect to get very many answers.

So this isn't so much a "Startup CTO". This is DHH, CTO of Basecamp and created of Ruby on Rails. Not that that entirely matters. But that's why he has a large group of twitter followers and why he's well know.

You may not love this answer, have you thought of sending him a DM? Let him know what you were doing and why. Have a discussion with him. Tell him what his Tweets are doing to you. See what he says? He, and many of his employees, are pretty open and well known. You might even get a call with him and be able to have a real discussion about your concerns with hey.com and with his Tweets. I have spoken to him many times, he's a pretty reasonable guy (if a bit of an eccentric gent).

Basecamp is a very popular product, and they make a lot of money on it. I am not sure what the particular issue is. What point are you attempting to make?

Also, having worked with a lot of startups, they are living the actual dream. They have a product that makes them lots of money. They get to explore business areas and avenues what interest them. What exactly would be the point of IPOing? Have you ever IPOed a company? Do you realize why companies IPO? Or are you just spreading hatred towards startups that don't take capital investments and just make tons of cash?

I think DHH is just pointing out what "HEY" runs on (https://hey.com/)

But AWS is really pleasant to use in most cases. Especially for anything more than a trivial application.

You are right, my apologies. You were responding to another person who was having a discussion about Section 230. I thought you were adding on to their thoughts about Section 230. If your point is entirely that users can backlash against a platform, then your point is correct.

That's actually not the point of Section 230. The point is that if you remove Section 230 and then you accuse someone of trolling, flaming, or swearing, that could be considered libelous.

If you would like to learn more, and see exactly what happened when Section 230 was not in effect, check out this case:

Stratton Oakmont, Inc. and Daniel Porush, v. Prodigy Services Company, "John Doe", and "Mary Doe".

Stratton Oakmont (yep, the one that was made by Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street), won that case against Prodigy and, yes, John Doe and Mary Doe. You, the user, are John Doe or Mary Doe. Section 230 protects you.

Unfortunately, I don't think you understand the extent to which you, as an individual user, would be under obligation if Section 230 wasn't in force. Section 230 protects you, the "user" as much as it protects the platform or "provider of interactive computer services". It is very likely that without the protections of Section 230 you, the "user", would have to decide whether my comments on your Reddit post, Youtube video, Facebook post, or even this post, do not bring you under undo liability, and thus would have to police those comments. If you are prepared to do so, then go ahead and remove Section 230 protections. I have a legal background and I am certainly not prepared to decide if all content related to my content is lawful content.