jimothywales

So I think hacker news either did some magic (?) to have it show up in two places at once or someone copied your comment word-for-word. Anyway:

> I'm not sure why you picked that one in particular

No particular reason. They use the same general mechanisms so I lazily chose to only include one.

> Wikipedia mostly disagrees with that claim.

I don't know what to believe on Wikipedia articles about drugs because of the high prevalence of biased medical research. All I know is 1) anecdotally I've experienced benzo withdrawal - it's not pretty and 2) statistically speaking, benzo withdrawal is a common enough phenomenon that much care goes into warning patients of the dangers of benzos and the appropriate usage approaches.

Anyway not tryna persecute you, I just saw this text twice in the thread and felt like it appeared dilletante in addressing benzo usage. Didn't want self-medicating types (like many people on hnews) to screw themselves up.

You said this in at least 2 different places in this thread, but I hope you understand that 1) all drugs do not have the same effects on different patients and 2) Clonazepam is in the class of drugs known as benzodiapines, which are considered some of the most dangerous and addicting drugs given to patients. In fact, bad withdrawals from benzodiapines often result in worsened anxiety symptoms and at times hallucinations and even delusions.

Throwing around alprazolam/clonazepam as a solution for anxiety is trite and can be damaging. Take caution with them.

How can we know if a solution is effective if we have not studied it thoroughly enough? There might be use cases for blockchain that have yet to be probed. It's certainly being taken seriously in the finance industry, especially in terms of financial records-keeping and accounting for governance by regulatory bodies.

However one should always be hesitant to believe these claims because there are no regulatory agencies currently protecting investors in the case of ICO fraud.

Purchasers generally use them to get early and cheap access to potential speculative bubbles. Most "investors" fully intend to sell them as soon as it makes sense.

In other words there's no utility at all.

Google IO is a developer's conference with an emphasis on marketing its own products and tools. We have to take the news from it with a grain of salt.

That's not entirely correct. People repeatedly like to take hard yes/no stances on blockchain because they seem to confuse the issue with cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are quite obviously overhyped and self-destructing. But blockchain is actually being implemented in many effective ways around the world - just in areas that you wouldn't generally hear about. Blockchain has its place, just not at the current moment.

I agree. The AdTech sphere is keeping the current hype alive more than anything else. There's some obvious imbalances in AdTech that should lead it to a damning end soon enough.

The point is that the profits may not be as grand as the current level of hype may indicate

Edit: additionally it could be a dead end because the hype tends to narrow the directions we explore with ML. If everyone is obsessing about DL, we could be infuriatingly ignoring other research directions right under our noses.

I'm just about to graduate from a top 10 computer science program myself so I can say that I've been in your shoes.

The first year adds a lot of pressure and challenge because of the transition to higher-level academics. In fact I often failed my own expectations (and literally failed a couple times too) at the beginning of my collegiate academic career.

I can assure you that if you start to take stimulants without a prescription or diagnosis as early as your first year, your situation will not improve. 3rd and 4th year classes are harder than intro classes or 2nd year classes, and stimulants will not change your mindset, approaches to studying, or priorities in a way that will accommodate you for higher difficulty courses.

You need to take a huge step back from academics and look at what is affecting your performance. Summer vacations and even internships are the best times for that because the stakes are not as high so you have time to reflect on who you are and what you want out of life.

In my first year summer, after a brutally tough semester, I worked a full-time + daily overtime job at a backalley convenience store in downtown Seattle to discover "my bottom line". I wanted to see the kind of life I would lead if I didn't get my act together. Looking back, I was exceedingly hard on myself. But that summer I learned a few things: 1) I never want to be so poor that I can't buy daily essentials, 2) I never want to fall prey to addiction, 3) I want to fall in love with my work so I never have to actually "work hard" ever again, 4) I need to develop strategies to get my behavior together so I can follow through on all these ideals.

When I came back to school, although the transition wasn't immediate I completely changed my lifestyles and approach to college. I went from being a sub-2.0 student to mostly consistently receiving grades in the high 3's.

I also developed actionable strategies to be more diligent about my work and treat myself with more care. You have to eat right, sleep right, and know your brain and yourself if you expect to succeed. Truthfully, although I was diagnosed with ADHD in 11th grade, I have done mostly fine without stimulants because of the ways in which I live my life (it can't be denied that some people definitely need them).

Feel free to PM me if you need any help or advice on figuring things out. I always like to provide assistance where I can.

Sure, but how is liberalism or democracy related to your point at all?

How does this have anything to do with "liberal democracy" besides your strange interpretation of the "system"?

Snapchat isn't a Facebook company

I start by accepting the fact that being derivative is really not a bad thing.

If I want to create things but have no inspiration, I often look up project ideas on the internet that line up with my interests. Once I get started working on something, my brain naturally branches off into new, original ideas to pursue. Naturally these ideas are more interesting to me since I brainstormed them myself.

I do this everytime I want to create things but have no idea where to start.

I'm confused on how you think cryptocurrencies are responsible for getting people killed or hurt. Fraud is a definite concern, as is the case with any unregulated market.

Doesn't paper money "cause" people to get killed or hurt just as you say Bitcoin does?

How long did your weekly one-on-one meetings take? Were there other negative aspects to the one-on-ones besides the time sink?

Hearing that you've reduced your fear of daily life since your younger days is exactly what I needed to read right now, and I didn't even realize it. Thanks for the optimism.

Well you should try it next time because that's how I got one of my first clients on my own. A local food truck showed up to my uni quite often and I noticed their website wasn't great, so one day I walked up to them and asked if they were looking for a redesign. They eagerly said yes and I met with the whole family (it was a family business) 3 days later. It was a really unfulfilling contract but it illustrated to me how effective direct sales tactics can actually be.