FFP999

How do you normally do your work commute? Bike, walk, public transit? Just curious.

An ergonomic split keyboard. Suddenly I can type without rotating my shoulders inward. Which in turn means more room in my chest for my lungs to expand. The difference was not subtle. Learning to touch-type on this thing took a while but was totally worth it.

> I think it would be much more interesting to watch study or work habits while under the influence of these smart drugs, measured in pages reviewed/written or emails sent or slides created or phone calls made, etc. True measures of productivity...

I think you've confused "productivity" with "bulk". Do you evaluate engineers by how many lines of source code they write in a day?

I spent a good deal of my 20s in an informal study on the cognitive effects of long-term self-prescribed amphetamine use. (Translation: I used to hang out with a whole lot of tweakers.) This article squares with my experience: amphetamines make your brain faster, not better.

It's wealthy, but not anywhere near the wealthiest area in the country, or even in Manhattan.

Probably more like, if you can afford the rent on a place like this, you're in a position where you don't even notice the heating bill.

"Early 80s" would refer to the year. "Lower 80s" in Manhattan means they live somewhere in the area bounded to the south by 80th Street and to the north by 85th Street--which includes part of the Upper East Side.

> Is low 80s upper east side a good neighborhood?

It's what most people would consider so, yes. It's an upper-middle-class area, clean and safe, if more than a little stuffy and uptight.

If you've ever heard a pig scream you know they're complaining. Doesn't leave much room for doubt.

Still, Gravity's Rainbow has at least a semblance of a plot here and there, and distinct characters with motivations that have some kind of logic to them. Finnegan's Wake, far as I can tell, does not.

I also wonder if the fact that I found Gravity's Rainbow much easier going has to do with the fact that the culture I grew up in is much more like the one Pynchon grew up in (northeastern USA, mid-to-late-20th century) as opposed to Joyce's origin in early-20th-century Ireland. It's not _that_ much of a difference in terms of years, but I don't think I need to tell you that the 20th century was, as a rule, a very busy and chaotic time.

It's an interesting point about trollery being part of the art--I guess you could classify it as one of the performing arts like dance or theater. Maybe its closest relative is stand-up comedy.

Sure would be a shame if everyone at Gurner Group decided not to show up for work on the same day. Maybe then Tim Gurner would realize who actually keeps the wheels turning.

But more likely it would be a classic "no...it's the children who are wrong" moment.

> horses "didn't complain" when cars were invented

It's not that often a member of the executive class forgets themselves and says the quiet part this loudly: to them, we are livestock.

It's also practically impossible to lose money running a casino if you know arithmetic. Trump managed to do that.

They're not the same. Gravity's Rainbow is downright lucid compared to Finnegan's Wake. Given Joyce was known to be something of a troll, as we would say today, I would not put it past him to have written Finnegan's Wake as a prank.

The advice to put inline styles in your HTML.

I literally--literally, not figuratively--facepalmed when I read this.

Who was talking about Jurassic Park?

Trendy field is trendy. In other news, water wet.

People have been whining about "political correctness" for decades. Comedy's still alive.

> Legislating another person's emotions is entirely intrusive, invasive, and overbearing, and frankly, psychotic.

...well, that explains its popularity in the corporate world then. rimshot

I definitely would not hate that, though I can't really see such a law being passed, at least given the status quo.

I don't fault him for this: I assume that's just what he learned at home. The ultimate lesson I take from this thread is that people's preferences in this matter are all over the place, and if you want to be a leader (as opposed to, say, a manager), you have to be able to be flexible in your approach. It's a matter of picking the right tool for the job.

Since this tech lead and I are both (relatively) mature adults, eventually I simply told him he needed to be more direct with me if he wanted me to understand him, he said that he was not entirely comfortable with that but he would try, and we got by well enough after that.

Glad to see this article. It reminds me of a tech lead I once had: very skilled engineer, great guy (we still hang out now, long after I left that job), but we communicated differently. I come from a background where people think they're being subtle if they don't grab the front of your shirt when they're talking. His background must have been very different: we had a problem on a number of occasions where he would ask me to do something, he would leave the conversation with the idea that I had agreed to do the thing, and I was completely unaware that he had even asked.

> Like all decent startup ideas the obviously crucial thing is to start with a real user

But if it's funding you want, slap the buzzword du jour in front of what you're trying to do, and you've vastly improved your prospects. In the frequent case when "the stock is the product", that's what you want.

Of course, this is basically a question of semantics: you're talking about actual companies that sell products, I'm talking about your typical tech-flavored grift.

Pretty much moot because "fair" is not a thing the studio is going to take into consideration.

Depends on who you are and what you did with your time.

"The best solution" for who? The studio? They're not going to do that, because if they do, they lose the option to change their minds later and release the movie in the usual way.

I kind of think it's to our benefit to have a handful of guys like this around--they remind the rest of us that money isn't everything.

(To be clear, speaking from experience, poverty isn't so fun either.)

I think it was summed up well by an ad (yeah yeah I know) I saw for some university's continuing ed program:

"The sciences teach you how to clone extinct dinosaurs. The liberal arts tell you why that might be a bad idea." [adjacent to graphic of T. rex pursing scientists]

I will hold a spot open on my calendar for this.