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pratik661

342 karma · joined April 16, 2013

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pratik661··on What even is food authenticity? Why we guard carbonara, and flatten chicken rice
Also, motorized blades and grinders were revolutionary for the categories of recipes they unlocked
pratik661··on Build your own database
This is analogous to an elevator that’s unidirectional
pratik661··on Ancient Patagonian hunter-gatherers took care of their injured and disabled
A lot of field studies on chimpanzees also indicate similar behavior (ie taking care of former leaders after they aged out of their prime)
pratik661··on Ancient DNA Shows Stone Age Europeans Voyaged by Sea to Africa
I think we are undercounting how much silt gets deposited by major river systems over millenia. The ruins of Lothal, which was a Harappan port city contemporary with Ur are pretty far inland as well. Who knows? Maybe Giza was closer to the coast and was part of a major Nilotic coastal metropolis
pratik661··on Ancient DNA Shows Stone Age Europeans Voyaged by Sea to Africa
The Persian Gulf would be a goldmine for this.
pratik661··on FOSS infrastructure is under attack by AI companies
My thoughts exactly.

In physical environments where people are bombarded with low-information “noise”, gatekeeping (ie credentialism) emerges as a natural mechanism.

pratik661··on FOSS infrastructure is under attack by AI companies
Could this lead to a situation where user agents also need to have their identities verified with a certificate authority the way websites do?
pratik661··on Show HN: I built an app to get daily wisdom from Mr. Worldwide
All this needs is a song that starts immediately playing when this loads in your browser and you have a full nostalgia trip
pratik661··on How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? (2023)
Bell Labs like orgs can only exist within companies that are protected by a rock solid moat (ie ATT monopoly)
pratik661··on India’s sex workers turn to WhatsApp, Instagram to find clients safely
As opposed to sex workers in other countries?

This article has a “every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes”

or “In Japanese culture, killing someone is frowned upon” vibe to it.

pratik661··on The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
So was Europe. However, most European countries have not grown much since then. 2008 is an important year in divergence between the two
pratik661··on Apple becomes first tech giant to explicitly ban caste discrimination
Paying people to alter historical genealogy records to hide caste origin was a fairly common practice in India, especially by new kings.
pratik661··on Where Expats Should (Not) Move in 2022
As a farang, you SHOULD pay 10x local prices.
pratik661··on Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II
We tend to underestimate how complex even pre Bronze Age kingdoms were. To rule them, our ancestors came up with an intricate way to let different combinations of symbols represent abstract thoughts.
pratik661··on Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II
Rights to privately acquire land, create corporations, and sell across markets were extant across different civilizations throughout history.

The Chola merchant guilds had formalized corporate structures that dissipated the risk of long voyages 2000 years ago. Seeing that the Romans traded with the Cholas, the Romans probably had corporate structures too.

Humans have been living in complex societies since the Bronze Age. It’s difficult to run a complex society without some sort of bureaucratic organization.

pratik661··on Ask HN: Why do I struggle to follow corporate meetings?
Just got Arthashastra. It’s amazing. Han Feizi is next on my list.
pratik661··on Crabs evolved at least five times from separate groups of crustaceans (2021)
Ive always wondered this: has a species have an evolutionary history where they originated in land but adapted to living in water and then adapted to living on land again?
pratik661··on Ancient civilisation under eastern Turkey estimated to be 11k-13k years old
I know that’s it’s established that some of the oldest civilizations started in Anatolia/Mesopotamia. Could it be because the dry climate there preserves old structures better than damp Germany or tropical Southeast Asia?
pratik661··on Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
Solved problem, but not a scalable problem. Unless we can fork dang reliably N times.
pratik661··on What Le Corbusier got wrong and right in his design of Chandigarh
Imagine the beauty of Boston city hall, but spread across the whole city..
pratik661··on Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Sudoku solver (2018)
The former Indian Prime Minister Narasina Rao used to code as well. https://princeezraj.medium.com/the-indian-prime-minister-who...
pratik661··on India Semiconductor Mission
India doesn’t produce a lot of consumer goods. However, there is a good chance that the lab equipment and chemicals used were manufactured there. For some reason, most drain caps in the US happen to come from scrap iron mills in India..
pratik661··on India Semiconductor Mission
Indian English is different. For example a ‘promoter’ is someone who has fiduciary responsibilities towards shareholders in a company (CEO, founder, board member,etc) and not someone who is trying to get patrons to visit a nightclub

https://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l276-PromoterPromo....

pratik661··on India Semiconductor Mission
A good proxy for a party’s influence is how much declared assets they have. By that definition, there are regional parties like BSP that are better funded than INC. it’s safe to say that INC is a national party only nominally.
pratik661··on Ask HN: I need to quickly move to South Korea, How?
I’d check out some UK/US based remote first companies as they would be less of a culture shock. A lot of companies have a dev presence in SEA and India and would love to have more on call coverage for those regions
pratik661··on Covid-19 may have killed nearly 3M in India, far more than official counts show
This is an empirically accurate assessment. The priorities of the Anglophone elite (which dominate the IAS and other parts of the admin) are divorced from the priorities of the rest of the country. This manifests in issues akin to what they call “structural racism “ in the US.

Ie: budgeting priorities; India over budgets IITs and other elite institutions over other colleges and primary education. This results in a system with excellent top universities, but a steep drop in educational quality in tier 2 institutions (and very low educational outcomes in public primary and secondary schools).

The government also focuses on agricultural price stability over farm income (ie banning agricultural exports during high prices).

One can argue that the popularity of Modi and the other regional satraps (with language based sub nationalism) is a result of this institutional bias. Imagine how you would vote if you couldn’t participate in the economy of your hometown because all the street signs/store names were in a language you couldn’t read.

pratik661··on Tinder just permabanned me or the problem with big tech
That’s really interesting to know. Happy to see another desi doing really well.
pratik661··on Tinder just permabanned me or the problem with big tech
That’s interesting. I wonder how much that applies to South Asians though. I think most of the dating advice in these threads is tailored towards white people who have different experiences from other POC.
pratik661··on Tinder just permabanned me or the problem with big tech
> if you're in north America, take heart that its not your fault! The American dating market is absolute garbage.

What do you mean?

pratik661··on Beauty Is the Greatest Privilege (2020)
Possibly a controversial opinion: No one looks unattractive when lean (reasonably lean, not body builder sub 5% body fat)
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