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chris11on Launch HN: Taste (YC W21) – Recreate nice restaurant experiences at home

How do meals compare with eating in an actual restaurant? I've been ordering takeout a little more since the pandemic began, and I've had disappointing meals. Bad estimates mean that I might pick up the meal late, and it didn't always microwave well.

The food photographs really well, and I'd like to try it. But I'm assuming that it's priced high enough that I would not want there to be a hit in quality.

chris11on HBO Max is failing the classic Tom and Jerry

That reminds me of trying to stream a tv show off of the channel's website a few years ago. I kept getting an error whenever I tried to stream the actual episode. The worst part was that the ads worked, so to retry I would have to watch a couple of ads just to find out the episode wouldn't play.

chris11on Audi announces end of combustion A4, A6 and A8 models

The 2021 Rav4 prime also looks really. It has an estimated 40+ mile EV range. That should take care of most of your daily trips. But at 50k Toyota has a lot of competition with EVs and other hybrids.

chris11on Audi announces end of combustion A4, A6 and A8 models

I'd still be worried about fast charging impacting battery life. I've heard reports that it can degrade batteries. And personally fast charging isn't too important to me, except for trips. I'd be fine charging at home, it is cheaper. So leaving it plugged in for awhile isn't a huge deal.

chris11on Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced

That's what I was thinking. And with autopilot type systems the car could line it self up to the cable. The major downside is that this might increase vendor lock-in for recharging stations.

chris11on Order on Protecting Americans from Overcriminalization Through Regulatory Reform

I'm not quite sure what specific problem is being solved. Part a sounds ok, but sounds more political than practical.

I don't like requiring proof that a person knowingly broke a regulation to criminally charge them. I can think of a few examples where that would have been good. But I think generally the US doesn't prosecute large scale violations enough. Deep Water Horizon, the Flint water crisis, the housing crisis, and the Volvo emissions scandal are all examples where almost no one went to jail. This seems like it would cripple environmental protection and make corporate legal defense much easier.

It might have some benefit for small businesses. But it doesn't protect against heavy fines. And my current assumption is agencies are already not likely to settle with criminal charges.

chris11on What it's like to be a nonprofit programmer

And at higher levels equity becomes a bigger portion of comp. So you can get 100k+ in equity a year as a senior IC.

chris11on U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers

Yeah, but we could have done more. There was a lot of supply chain issues the government just ignored. I remember in early 2020 when masks were unavailable a couple domestic mas manufacturers were saying they weren't comfortable producing more. They could scale up production, but they didn't want to deal with suddenly firing people when things went back to normal.

chris11on U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers

I don't really remember medical experts were saying in early 2020, but I would have supported banning specific countries if it was based on a framework that adjusted bans as the number of cases changed.

I remember being unimpressed with the timing, starting the ban right after the super bowl was over was a bad idea. And the US should have immediately started working towards testing all travelers.

chris11on What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

You can talk about wanting more ownership. That can include talking about working closely with end users and making long term design decisions.

chris11on What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

It's not the only solution for building products. But you can still maintain dev autonomy. Instead of having senior team-members break apart work into story-sized pieces a system can be broken apart into smaller pieces. Devs can still be working towards a specific business goal, but they can own a larger portion of their work, and they can work with longer deadlines.

Also, I think dealing with those large scale issues is what separates a staff/principal dev from a senior dev.

chris11on What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

It would be like scrum of scrums in LeSS or PIs in SAFe. But instead of focusing on what work would be done, it would focus on how it would be done, and what changes scrum masters would make.

chris11on What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

> The article uses JIRA is a touchstone that seems to equate to no autonomy.

Technically I don't think JIRA by itself means no autonomy, it's just how it's used. But JIRA can expose a ton of metrics to upper management. And I think that management influencing how JIRA is used probably indicates lower autonomy.

For instance, story points and velocity being tracked by management might be problematic. Is the team tracking everything with story points? Otherwise certain types of work could be hidden, and slow down velocity. Is management using those metrics for team or individual performance reviews?

chris11on What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

I definitely agree with you, but I don't think that's sufficient. I think at larger companies it would be helpful to spend a day or two every quarter having a scrum increment meeting. The SI would let scrum lords and scrum masters plan what experiments would occur during the next quarter.

chris11on ACLU Statement Opposing the 'Confronting the Threat of Domestic Terrorism Act' (2019)

Preciseness is important but both DNC and RNC hqs are about a half mile walk from the Capitol building.

chris11on FBI, Homeland Security Int. Didn’t Issue Risk Assessment for ProTrump Protests

What's also disturbing is that the Pentagon severely limited the DC National Guard days before the protests. Allowing things like surveillance and air assets wouldn't have caused any issues if the protests really were peaceful. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-prote...

chris11on Apple has threatened to ban Parler from the App Store

> central Ministry of Information

And there is no ministry of information. The 1st amendment protects us from governmental interference, not a private party discriminating based on content.

Deplatforming is happening because of cultural pressure and values, people still have the ability to create organizations with different values. The history of 1st amendment lawsuits is filled with examples of speech that was really offensive at the time, lawsuits were won because the government tried to restrict it.

Diversity in beliefs is valuable, but private parties should be able to have standards. I find an argument that companies should be forced allow speech that violates their standards because it is political dangerous.

chris11on Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

The MSM can't be compared to QAnon and OANN related media. One has professional standards, the other starts conspiracy theories.

chris11on Facebook senior software engineer interview

Another issue is that hiring is expensive and FANG companies have a ton of applicants. Raising the bar on algorithmic interview performance is a straightforward way to filter applicants that is relevant to job performance. After the initial screen it's still hard to make the case to hire a smart engineer if one or two of the interviewers have concerns about their interview performance.

chris11on Facebook senior software engineer interview

> but the kind of people who excel in each type of role will have very different personalities and skillsets. Grading them on the same curve in interviews seems like a pretty bad idea.

I haven't interviewed for senior level positions with FANG. But aren't interviews usually different based on the job? I assume that interviews for job families like front end/backend/sre should all test different skills. And if you are interviewing with a specific team the manager can judge your background and interviews for fit with their team. The interview bar for algorithms is probably too high at some places, but those skills are relevant for all engineers.

chris11on Historic sale of a Gala Games Fantasy MMORPG in-game NFT item for US$800K

https://www.polyient.games/

> Polyient Games is an investment firm focused on the non-fungible token (NFT) and blockchain gaming industries.

800k makes more sense if it is also an investment and includes equity.

chris11on Working at Apple (2011)

One benefit of that is that you can't take work home, although I think Covid is forcing them to make some changes.

chris11on GoDaddy employees told they were getting a holiday bonus in a phishing test

Entering personal info might also be understandable. My employer gives a Christmas gift. This year they asked us to update a form with our temporary address if we were in a different location.

chris11on Interview advice that got me offers

> If you're willing to take lower salaries, lower your minimal salary requirements to receive more of them.

To me that feels more complicated in Silicon Valley with equity. Once a minimum salary is met, I'll care about total compensation, not just the base salary. I'd be nervous that mentioning a low salary could lower an offer, and I don't a have reasonable number for salary I would accept if the company doesn't give much equity.

chris11on An Engineer’s Guide to Stock Options (2013)

I heard a rumor that Stripe recently changed their initial RSU grant. Now the value is fixed, you get $x worth of stock every year. So new hires lose out on a lot of the upside from stock growth.

chris11on Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

I'm not quite sure. I didn't enjoy the wild fires this year, that becoming normal would push me out of the bay area. The only other major complaint I have is the high cost of living. Sure, there are a lot of policy issues there. But that's purely financial, and financially staying in the bay area makes the most sense for me.

chris11on Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

> The talent there tops out at SSE

That was my experience at an F500 in the midwest. I wasn't a senior engineer but I was doing the same type of work as the seniors on my team. And I felt like my role could have more ownership. They did have team leads, a few architects, and agile related roles. But there wasn't much else for devs who didn't want to be managers.

My current company in the bay area is a lot better. I feel like I have more ownership, and the IC roles are more granular. I think technically senior can be terminal, and staff/principal roles here require influencing other teams. But my company has thought about promoting ICs, and I clearly see how staff/principals have a more challenging job.

chris11on Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

Yeah, that's my concern. It would be different if I was wanting to buy a house. I actually like my apartment in the bay area, but when the office did shut down I looked at what it would cost. I wouldn't save much money because I wanted to stay in California.

My employer is becoming more WFH friendly. But they are explicitly saying post-covid fulltime remote will require an adjustment for base salary and future equity grants. I don't think that would be a good financial decision for me. Even if my compensation didn't get cut I would probably end up needing to take a pay cut or move if I wanted to change jobs.

chris11on About Google's approach to research publication – Jeff Dean

I agree with that. But it would be strange for HR to be handling peer review for scientific papers.

chris11on Randall Munroe is learning new things from Google

Ironically the top tweet in the More Tweets section for me was "Being good at things is not the point of doing them." https://twitter.com/jodotcom/status/1333728719643570176