mholmes680

I think he was right about the self-driving. He doesn't have a moat otherwise, as explained in another comment above; specifically ts not hard for a city to develop, deploy and advertise their own cab-hailing app and only a little harder to then design partnerships with other cities to network and share profits.

Uber's play was that they could subsidize that through private investors in order to scale. But now they have to find, hire, and compensate basically the whole tier of upper management, while still burning operating money. I'm not a business major, but that's probably REALLY not good.

I'm surprised I haven't read about it in another comment yet, but this is screaming for a company with good management and a stash of solid reputation/PR/marketing to come get a really good deal. Maybe Facebook because the culture wouldn't clash as much as my next two: apple and Google? Apple has the cash, and needs an entry into automotive while we wait for the apple car. Google/Waymo+Uber immediately settles the lawsuit, puts uber back into moat territory with self-driving, and gives google some people on the ground to compete with Amazon in last-mile?

I think I would agree with you, if I didnt have kids. But two kids under three, and you kind of dont know whats what after a few months.

My wife still uses pencil and pen so maybe someone will upvote me for that. Silly me thinking this was a tech audience.

I use Trello, with Todo, doing, deferred and done columns. If you want to go full scrum, great, but that's too much overhead. Signed wife up as well, so it works for both of us. I also have Alexa in four rooms to push my to do list into Trello via ifttt for those dishwashing moments. IMO, and off topic a bit, Amazon killed their dash button market when they packaged three Dots for $120.

Everyone else said the same thing as each other, so i'll try a different tact: For long term success, you need to figure out what YOU want. Whats your ideal, practical situation where you will be happy. Manager; Take a break, lay low for a few years more; start another company; get out of tech; start a family? Whats the IDEAL scenario for you. From there, you can develop a system instead of a goal.

nice work! at my last company we hooked up word docs with SVN. Its very useful to have a workable format for lawyers to update, and then be able to process everything in the back end.

But it'll be called Freedom Pointe now, so it has to be good: http://www.njbiz.com/article/20170606/NJBIZ01/170609904/para...

FWIW, I had some good experiences at the Princeton Tech meetups a few years ago, if anyone is in that area: https://www.meetup.com/Princeton-Tech/

Is this social motif?

Hurry up! :)

sounds like you're in NJ too... I feel this way, but maybe less in "crisis" mode. My focus now is working smarter, not longer.

(and my kids will have to earn their own college money because thats the only option, I'm not certain college will be the same thing in 15 years anyway. I will train them to be robot repairmen/women as a backup plan)

My thoughts were on this line also... the same reason the crowd was shocked when Lee Sedol made an unexpected move in game 4. [0]

Is there any research done to prove/disprove that groupthink is inherently worse compared to a single genius? (less risky behavior, so less risk/less reward??) Are we training AIs that will be safe, not bold independent thinkers?

0: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/two-moves-alphago-lee-sedol-re...

I'd rather see someone like a Comcast/Liberty get Sprint and T-Mobile rather than this combo everyone talks about (daily [0]). I don't see them competing well otherwise in the long run.

[0]: http://www.investors.com/news/technology/t-mobile-capital-st...

i wonder then if Denis drilled the hole in the thing. How would one determine the age of a drilled hole?

I was once young and part of a union (an electrical union), and while I didn't directly appreciate it then i see it better now. It allowed me a $15/hr 40hr/wk summer job with overtime available instead of $6 working at an ice cream truck or minimum wage retail... My experience aligned with the findings of this report: http://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_bp143/

But back to Walmart... sans unions, only a consumer boycott over morals would change anything, and if it didn't [0] happen yet [1], I feel like its not going to... or hopefully it'll boil over in a few years. Personally, I've shopped there twice in the past 10 years - which i guess means i'm stupid since i'm paying a tax for them regardless, but maybe that's cancelled out since i participate in the stock market getting those dividends? I'm confused easily on those things.

[0] http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/boycottslist.aspx#w

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-Mart:_The_High_Cost_of_Low...

I agree with the parent comment here, the system allows this so I can't fault Walmart on it. What I can fault is them lobbying against/killing labor unions [0]. Labor Unions would fix this problem in a capitalist way.

It is interesting to see the numbers in this article ~$6B in subsidies, and then compare that to dividends/buybacks: oh, look $6B-$7B [1] not even including buybacks. That is a direct redistribution of wealth [edit] from bottom to the top.

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-walmart-union-survei... [1] http://www.vuru.co/analysis/WMT/dividendsBuybacks

Ditto this, on android.

I have Messages, which i think is Google's... and i only downloaded it because the apps from Samsung, Verizon, and Facebook went to war in January (on my phone at least) and somehow I ended up getting texts in either the samsung app or verizon but never both, but group conversations in facebook messenger, but only the verizon app would actually allow picture messages to be viewable if i sent them to my mother.

I also have Allo, because a (<-- not plural) coworker and I were curious about it. I think it solved that they didn't have facebook but did have apple, or maybe not i don't know. I also downloaded Duo and haven't opened it since, and I had hangouts, but i'm so very angry that Google screwed that up yet again. I have zero confidence in Google products fulfilling any of my needs completely ever again, and I really used to be the Google-champion of my friends... sigh.

Exactly this, thanks!

Oh wow, thanks for this!

Side note: Anyone know why "calendars" don't qualify as part of these packages? I just have a series of data and want to render it on a calendar-graph instead of some typical data rendering... too abstract?

maybe they just see self-driving as D.O.A right now. Or simply, lower priority?

Maybe they're just better at keeping it a secret (given the parent comment by the throwaway id). If Amazon can figure out a way to get self-driving car aligned with a) Alexa, b) logistics, c) prime membership, and/or d) driving shopping to their marketplace - then they are obviously working on it.

Or maybe, typical Amazon, they're already working on Amazon Engine, in parallel with Amazon Wheels, in parallel with Amazon Windshield, and Amazon Steering Wheel, and we'll have something that can be used as a car in a few years.

Just clicked the link directly from HN, redirect ends up "This domain is blocked due to a security threat."

no real info on that page that i can share though. My company is very aggressive with security and maybe out of date blacklist?

just fyi - got flagged as malware in my company network.

Awesome. Now, one more thing: Echo Car. I dunno why, i just want Alexa in my car. She's already in 4 rooms in my house (no wait, 5 including Fire Stick? 7 including the Kindles?), and in my pocket.

Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they're throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in.

I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice controlled speaker. Give them a remote! Now, give them a voice-controlled camera! Now, give them a voice-controlled screen! Soon, give them <insert novel sensor> and let them go hands free! Rinse-repeat.

I think your assumption on Buffett is wrong. Buffett finds companies that have a significant competitive advantage (moat) and prefers stable, blue chip, traditional brand names, preferably with dividends, that are most likely to just keep growing. And then from that group, he finds the best pricing in industries he understands to be good businesses. Buffett wouldn't touch a company like AMD, punished or not. When Buffett does it right, he's specifically mitigated the risk of a stock getting punished well ahead of earnings.

I'm interested to learn what you've found on oversold stocks though - have anything written up?

agree 100%. A company doesn't have sufficient controls (or auditing!?) around its financials and doesn't catch rogue payments up to 10s of millions over a TWO YEAR period, and thats only maybe a material event? Could be isloated event, could be the scammer told some friends how to pull it off with other suppliers, etc...

Sounded like the SEC is getting caught with their pants down on this too, though. Maybe not sure how to deal with these situations?

Clearly Conflict of Interest opening up both parties to potential litigation. a) Have a policy in place before hiring someone; b) remind the employees to follow the policy.

My previous company sold this type of training to corporations, who need to have concrete rules set up for the benefit of both parties (ok, mainly the corporation's benefit). I realize startups don't have time to focus on HR policies and legal protections, but get something basic in writing so both parties are on the same page prior to this issue coming up. Without it, the employee has the right to do whatever the heck they want and then sue for wrongful termination.

I've been percolating on this for a day or so now... because your responses on threads are generally abrasive, but i feel like most people actually feel this way and you just convey it abrasively. I think you should reframe anything from "wasting" to "learning from". You can have a lot to take away from even a bad situation, like:

a. Learning how to detect BS in interviews. Interviews are two-way streets.

b. Sit down and figure out what you really do want and how you ended up in this situation so it doesn't happen again.

c. 6 months over a career is nothing, and again, it wasn't wasted, its just the way you're looking at it.

d. Have you networked at all in these six months? If so, not wasted. If not, well that can only be on you not the company, right?

e. If you think non-profits are shitty, maybe a) they're not for you; b) you don't understand non-profits; and/or c) what were you doing there in the first place.

f. "screwing" a company is the same thing as looking out for your own needs (or in this case, the contractor's). There's good and bad contractors, of course.

Your observations may not necessarily be wrong, but to say it was a waste of time is short-sighted.

(edit: formatting)

With all due respect, you are responsible for how much you get paid. If it behooves you to stay current with trends, capitalize on them, identify bogus ones, then go for it. If you know of a better way, the ball is in your court.

I think a side-effect of devops is that more developers have to be good at more things, and less excellent at one. But, if I'm a hiring manager, there's places for both of those profiles in my team.

>>DevOps is good for people who like to always be learning; it can be difficult for people who like to ever more deeply specialize.

I agree with this, but I wonder if its because people right now are just still trying to figure out the tech. We're in the beginning of the adoption curve, so to speak and specialties will come eventually.

As an additional point, I see DevOps expanding to DevSecOps, DevTestOps, and when the marketing folks catch up I'm sure we'll soon see DevSecTestOps. These are all just fancy words for being a more complete Developer - and enabling Developers to deliver faster.

Anecdotally... From where I'm sitting right now (devops IT, huge non-tech company), it hasn't actually solved the problem of dumping crap over the wall, because ultimately people balk when going to prod with changes. (Compliance/SOX, fear of change, gui based existing deployments, bad APIs, etc....)

I wonder what the effects on other animals will be. Maybe this is the thing thats killing the honeybees.

Ok probably not, but if humans can be out of whack from this, I wonder what other creatures will start to lose sleep - or will nocturnal animals sleep in all night?