Yeah that's a great opinion and all but generally C is used because it HAS to be used these days. No one is going to use this code for building a web application or will be tossing it into legacy code.
In theory, using spherical cows, sure. But in practice there are all sorts of things screwing up the "probability" when jumping. Slope of the ground, windspeed, ground cover, etc.
Then it's still dependent on some known inputs: final position depends on initial position, wind speed/direction, ground conditions and gradient, etc etc. There is randomness, but you could make a probability distribution.
Ok? But it won't just converge to 0,0 because everything isn't equal and opposite, there will be some sort of bias that will move the bean away from it's origin.
This is one of those things that make me feel old (45 here). Articles like these would be the kind I’d either read or write in my 20s. There’s a sense of self importance that you have at that age and everything feels important and new to you. Now I just can’t be bothered to read things like this since I know better.
It helps to at least know the age of the author. There are many articles out there that make me shake my head, but if I knew the author was still relatively young, I’d at least understand the context something was written.
Yup exactly. Haven't really found self-awareness yet. Still thinking your GPA means something, you and your parents will live forever and life is going to be great.
I'm coming off super cynical now, but this just feels like the product of the Twitter/everyone is a blogger mindset and I don't like where it's leading us.
These "conversations" used to happen in bars and the 60 year old regular would laugh this greenhorn out. Now, people just tell their stupid thoughts into the void and pat themselves on the back for expressing their feelings like their therapist told them to.
I think it's better to put aside the 'who' and focus on the 'what'. Knowledge, wisdom/insight can be found in any person, regardless of who they are, their credentials, their geography/location, or their ethnic background etc.
Yeah, the vast majority of content out there is not worth your time, but if you're here then you probably regularly browse Hacker News, and chances are the author does as well, so the author probably wanted to get his blog out there to people who at least shared that one thing in common.
Now putting aside the 'who', in this particular instance, judging the article entirely on its content: it's bullshit. It reads like someone bought into bullshit one year then was proven wrong, but only partially repented the next year. The fact the author arrived at such ludicrous conclusions about sleep in the first place leads me to conclude they're an idiot.
Alexey Guzey first came across my radar when his blog post on the institutions of Life Science[0] was posted here on HN. I was a neuroscience postdoc at the time. I found it partly true, with some experiences different from my own.
Then or soon after I saw he was working on New Science [1], an attempt at an alternative funding system for science outside of academia (my perspective, not his words). Having left academia myself, I found that intriguing and have always kept an eye on that space.
As for Guzey himself, who I've spoken with briefly on 1 occasion, I think he tries really hard to genuinely understand lots of things analytically and empirically, which is admirable. But anyone who does this will inevitably have blind spots that experts (or those with more life experience) spot immediately.
My hot take after meeting him was that he's very curious. He seemed like he's not afraid to be wrong, perhaps to a fault, and would rather just say what he thinks and have you tell him where he's wrong, than tiptoe with uncertainty.
Kinda sounds like you could benefit from some meditation. :) I jest. Kinda.
I didn't find the content of the article to be deeply insightful, but I did find the writing style to be comical and the purpose of the writing to be, at least partially, noble.
I don't think I'm better off from having read it, but I certainly found it entertaining enough to read as to not experience the concerns I feel you're expressing.
idk. The post is making it to the top of HN. It seems like people who are >25 who have learned these insights are dismissive that the knowledge should be implicit and people who are younger are finding it more useful?
Everyone has to go through the "I know nothing." "I know everything!" "I know nothing." transitions of life. It's helpful seeing overly aggressive and confident persons struggle with it because it humanizes the process.
Personally I feel like these dismissive responses come across similar to "Who watches this shit?" on Twitch/YouTube when viewing someone who is young, loud, energetic, and naïve. Just because you're not the target demographic doesn't make it inherently bad content.
seriously, the about page on this dude's site is more interested in telling me he's a big fan of Slate Star Codex and Gwern than sketching any details of who he is, where he's come from, and why I should care about his opinions.
And half of what it does say about him is that he seems to have written and said a lot about why you don't need to sleep. Hell of a thing to build a reputation on.
Most people that live in a HCOL city cannot just move to a LCOL city and get paid the same - you think they've never considered that?
The point of using the national average is that we can compare it to other careers. If we compare game devs to other software development positions they get paid significantly less on average. The BLS puts software engineers at an average of $109k for 2021 (couldn't find 2022 stats, not sure if they exist yet?)[1]. That means game devs make 20+% less on average compared to their non-game counterparts.
Right, right. So it’s just supply and demand. So here in Australia where the number of surgeon positions are constrained by a centralised body, supply outstrips demand quite a bit. Let me google the old market at work!
Surgeons and game devs are not comparable. There's no free market in medicine in most countries as the doctors have formed their own cartel/union which decides who gets to be let in and under which conditions and without membership to that tribe you cannot practice.
Because SW devs never wanted to unionize in any way as they say they'll get held back by unions and they'll make more compensation without them.
And no, most chartered engineers do not really print money, some making even less than SW devs.
In my insignificant EU country, nearly every profession has it's own labor union, and guess what, the IT union is one of the weakest, seeing some of the worst possible contract terms and work conditions for a skilled profession, while the metal workers union being one of the strongest, having some of the best perks, rights, working conditions and mandatory wage increases in the country.
How does that follow? It is constrained therefore supply is artifically lowered. No matter the demand, no one can supply more doctors than the body permits, therefore the price for each is quite high.
Not demand for the services, that’s high. Supply of talented humans for the role is much much greater than the positions available. So based on the aforementioned logic; lots of competition for limited spots should reduce the wages paid right?
The medical licensing body is making the market in surgeons. Their interest is in keeping wages high and supply low. In fact, “making the market” is not even the right analogy - the licensing body is the sole supplier of surgeons.
Nobody is making the market in game devs, so market wages prevail. Gaming happens to be the world’s most popular form of entertainment so it’s not surprising that more people want to be game devs than say write ERP software.
There are also way fewer game dev jobs than there are general dev jobs. This isn’t rocket science.
Yes, that is why residents are paid pennies. But once you are fully qualified surgeon, your are in the artificially limited pool of people who can operate on patients. Which leads to high salaries for surgeons.
And deal with one of the most tourist-packed cities in the world with some awful commutes.
Buses just aren’t worth riding when tourism is high (you’ll be waiting forever with dozens in line ahead of you and then stuck in traffic) and the train routes aren’t nearly as convenient as a lot of other Japanese cities.
"Shit" is an overstatement. If a nice car and insurance is 15k, rent is 1500 bucks a month (so 18k a year), and groceries are 10k a year (and that's double the average), that's a total of 43k a year. Add in health insurance for what, 5k a year (if you're making 90k, insurance shouldn't be more than 400 bucks a month)? 90k yearly is ~67k a year after federal taxes. After all of the necessary expenses, you're left with 17k left over. Student loan payments probably cut into that, but that's still a significant sum of money. This is especially true if you can cut that rent down, or don't drive a super nice car, or have a smaller insurance payment through your workplace, etc.
That $17k surplus assumes that this person will be doing nothing remotely fun with their lives. Add even a modest amount of travel, movies, reataurants, bars, etc., and that money disappears quickly.
That's only 17k net a year left over before savings, travel, or restaurants.
Going out to eat almost anywhere decent is a hundred bucks these days.
$1500 a month is not a reasonable assumption for monthly housing overhead even in a low CoL location. Also mortgage interest rates are much higher now.
If 1,400 a month for non-necessities isn't considered good, I struggle to see what a reasonable definition of "good" is.
1,500 is perfectly reasonable for a low cost of living area. I currently pay 1,800 a month (and that includes electric, which also powers my heat) in a state that most consider to be one of the highest costs of living in the US. For that amount of money, I could be renting a standalone house in much of the country.
I also think that your assertion of going out to eat costing 100 bucks is inaccurate. Many decent restaurants have entrées in the 18-25 dollar range. Add in a beer and an appetizer, plus a 30% tip, and you still only hit 65 dollars (assuming the app/entree cost 40 bucks combined and the beer costs 10, which is a high estimate).
All of this also assumes that you drive a nice car, a luxury that most wouldn't consider a necessity. The 15k number assumes 1250 combined for car payments and insurance, a number which many would consider much too high.
Is it the most glamorous life? No. But calling it "shit pay" is a massive overreach. If you can afford a solid car, your own place, all the necessities, and still have 1400 bucks to play with, I would consider that a pretty solid life. Certainly above "shit."
$100 for one person eating out?? I feel like even at a nice sit down place in San Francisco when I visited late last year I was paying much less than that.
In low cost of living / mid cost of living (LCOL/MCOL) areas you can definitely eat out for two at a decent place for less than that. Pricing out for two at my favorite local Italian place in San Antonio, here's the bill:
$15 - spaghetti with homemade meat sauce
$16 - penne arrabiatta
$20 - wine
Pad 28% for tax and tip and you come out to ~$65.
On San Antonio Zillow, I'm finding almost 200 results for 2 bedrooms at $1200 or less per month.
I don't think San Antonio is even the lowest LCOL location you could find, by far. Even in Texas, not looking outside the state, El Paso's way cheaper, maybe Corpus Christi.
I think people often overestimate how much it costs to live quite well in a LCOL area.
I mean, that makes sense does it not? If you're confirming something people already had a hunch about, why would they challenge it? And if it does go against their belief, they are going to want to make sure the data is correct before they change the course of the ship.
