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rdoubleon The Myth of Willpower and “Eat Less, Move More”

The article is not the obesity apologetic you'd expect from the title. He's arguing that creating a positive feedback loop is a more powerful motivational tool than willpower. It doesn't seem like you read the article.

rdoubleon The Charitable-Industrial Complex

Another thing to consider is that just because an org is a non profit, does not mean the people working there are making social worker salaries. One of my aunts makes over $400K/yr as an administrator at a non profit, and she's still technically on the bottom half of the management totem pole.

rdoubleon Why 'Passive Income' Is A Dangerous Fantasy (2011)

For the past 5 years, renting would've been much better than owning in most areas of the U.S. I don't see that changing any time soon.

In many 2nd tier markets renting has gotten much more expensive over the past 5 years, though. A mortgage payment is less than rent in Minneapolis, for example. The rentals suck and it's hard to find one. Renting a nice place is surprisingly expensive, approaching Seattle costs.

rdoubleon The Humble Programmer (1972)

It's sort of swinging back around with the scale of some of the systems in place today. Relatively small increases in program efficiency can save a lot of money in power consumption, physical server space needed, and other related data center costs.

rdoubleon 50% of South Korean biology teachers do not accept evolution

Unfortunately a heavy handed approach is needed in the American public school system as teachers tend to waste a lot of the students' time with this sort of thing.

rdoubleon Drone Blimps Hovering Over D.C. to Stop Cruise Missiles

There are American troops almost everywhere. Robert Kaplan's books "Imperial Grunts" and "Monsoon" detail their current involvement in Columbia, Philippines, Mongolia, Iraq, Afghanistan and stations all around the Indian Ocean.

rdoubleon South African chef 'too fat' to live in New Zealand

That's pretty much how it works already in 'points' based immigration schemes.

rdoubleon 50% of South Korean biology teachers do not accept evolution

Is this really the direction this website is headed? The NSA conspiracy stuff was bad enough.

rdoubleon Ask HN: I'm a young developer. What should I do next?

It depends on your goals.

If you want to stick with startup stuff it seems like other successful young people go heavy into the programming side (the Stripe guy) or the design side (Mike Matas) or the PR side (the Summly guy). I think the main thing is to go more hardcore into one aspect of the business. I have a friend who got into web consulting very young and he's still doing almost the exact same thing now that he's old. You don't "level up" by default.

Personally, if I were to do it over again I'd choose design as you can meet more women that way.

rdoubleon 50% of South Korean biology teachers do not accept evolution

There's not a 50/50 split. A large number (46%) of South Koreans identify as "not religious." (from the link you provided)

rdoubleon 50% of South Korean biology teachers do not accept evolution

South Korean christians are mostly protestants, not catholics.

edit: it looks like Catholicism has been growing over the past 10 years, but there are still more Protestants.

In any case South Korea is not "split between Catholics and Buddhists," the largest denomination is Presbyterian and 46% identify as not religious at all.

rdoubleon Why 'Passive Income' Is A Dangerous Fantasy (2011)

It depends on your locale and employment situation. Many home owners are "house poor." Their only asset is their house, and they have no savings or other investments. I moved to a locale where I could make 3-4x what I could in my hometown, rented for 10 years and with investments, stock options and savings am way ahead of where I would be if I would have bought a house where I started out. My parents on the other hand are trying to sell their house for almost the same price they paid for it 15 years ago. My cousins with homes are not financially doing well at all.

If I would have had the money and foresight to buy the brownstone in Brooklyn that I was renting, I wouldn't have even had to bother with the working and saving for 10 years part, but you don't need to rub that in on a Saturday morning.

rdoubleon Ask HN: I'm a young developer. What should I do next?

The Little Schemer is not the single best book on programming out there and I did not find it "fun to read."

rdoubleon Show HN: My product lets you catalog your book collection online

Did you use the mobile app?

I used it to catalog about 600 books and was not amazed but it was probably the best free solution I have tried.

The issue for the hobbyist developer is that the libraries to do the barcode scan on the iPhone cost money. Rolling your own is a pretty big undertaking for a niche app like this. Thus all the apps are about the same level of suck.

rdoubleon Show HN: My product lets you catalog your book collection online

you probably realise that your main competitor is the spreadsheet

I've written a version of this app for my own purposes three times. Then goodreads came along. I think they are the main competitor to this sort of software right now.

rdoubleon Passive Income Hacker vs Startup Guy

That's not what the article is about, though. It's almost like you didn't even read it.

rdoubleon Hacker Barnaby Jack has died

My friend died last year at age 38. If the cause of death is not released it's usually drug or alcohol related.

rdoubleon Legal Weed is Hurting San Francisco's Hippies

I lived for years right by the Haight entrance to GGP. I wouldn't call the participants in the drug scene there hippies. There were a lot more crusties and gutter punk types, along with stereotypical thug dudes and tweakers. A lot of people were really aggro and there was some sort of fight nearly every day. A friend of mine would buy her pot over there and her dealer was a clean cut looking late 20s guy from the avenues, who used a cane because he had been shot in the leg. Gun violence didn't seem very hippie to me, either.

One of the odder things to me about the area (everything was odd to some degree, including my presence there) was that there was so much drug activity right next to the police station.

rdoubleon Passive Income Hacker vs Startup Guy

Your summary does not describe the story of Siri in the linked article accurately at all.

rdoubleon U.S. Tells Russia It Won’t Torture or Kill Snowden

That link doesn't give all the information about why passports can be revoked. They can also be revoked by court order, if there's an arrest warrant or extradition request.

A federal, state or local law enforcement agency may request the denial or revocation of a passport on several regulatory grounds set forth in 22 C.F.R. §§ 51.60, 51.61, and 51.62. The principal law enforcement reasons for passport denial or revocation are an unsealed federal, state, or local felony arrest warrant, a federal or state criminal court order or a condition of parole or probation forbidding departure from the United States (or the jurisdiction of the court), or a request for extradition to or from the United States. Any such request needs to include a copy of the arrest warrant or criminal court order. Please also be advised that all passport applicants are run through various law enforcement and other databases.

rdoubleon U.S. Tells Russia It Won’t Torture or Kill Snowden

Unless you're in transit between countries, it doesn't affect you as much as you might think. I lived in Japan for a year and pretty much only used my passport when I entered and left the country. Same goes with my sisters who moved overseas. They take out their US passport about once every 4 years, when they come back to the USA to visit.

rdoubleon U.S. Tells Russia It Won’t Torture or Kill Snowden

Not really. Most Americans don't have a passport and it doesn't affect them at all.

rdoubleon U.S. Tells Russia It Won’t Torture or Kill Snowden

Not having a valid passport does not affect citizenship status.

rdoubleon Passive Income Hacker vs Startup Guy

They actually make their money off of the ebooks, seminars, boot camps and other how-to materials about how to have passive income.

rdoubleon Passive Income Hacker vs Startup Guy

This was like reading an excerpt of the HN version of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" but with the opposite conclusion.

rdoubleon Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

Let's say I'm an entry-level freelancer who bills out at $100/hr. ...

1. Work for an hour, generating $100, and spend 20% of that getting someone else to do my laundry.

I know you're just an entry level freelancer, but $25 is actually 25% of $100.

rdoubleon Bot wars - The arms race of restaurant reservations in SF

In the olden days, you didn't need to be "officially" disabled, you could just have your brother sit in a wheelchair.

rdoubleon Watsi (YC W13) raises $1.2M first-of-its-kind 'philanthropic seed round'

I can't speak to everywhere, but in Kenya (the funding in the OP was for a Kenyan) many of the charity medical facilities are run by religious organizations, who recruit religious medical professionals from abroad to volunteer their time and services. If an OB/GYN happens to be volunteering the person could very well receive a C section. They also have stockpiles of various drugs which they've received from donations, so they could get an epidural if they happened to have the right stuff in the stock room.

rdoubleon Watsi (YC W13) raises $1.2M first-of-its-kind 'philanthropic seed round'

Most of the groups who take on poverty in Kenya are religious organizations. I guess they are the private sector but I often wonder if that's what people have in mind when they make comments like yours.

rdoubleon How Much to Charge as a Freelancer

It's common but sort of an indicator of a project that is going to suck. There are outsourcing firms in the USA who are staffed entirely by remote workers and pay $50-$65 an hour.