sometimeshuman

There was a quote from Richard Branson that often comes to mind when I think of Elon: "Make a fool of yourself". The context of the quote is that if you don't have the money (or are unwilling to pay) for marketing then you can get free publicity by associating yourself personally with your company's brand and then doing PR stunts that keep you in the media.

I'm not sure if that is what Elon has done intentionally but I agree with your sentiment; I wouldn't consider buying a Tesla because the/his brand has become toxic.

Strange coincidence. I just finished watching a video on "how to walk" just before visiting HN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iLJ0frWE9E

I have been suffering from chronic achilles tendonitis due to decades of walking/running with outward foot pronation. The techniques discussed in the other videos of this youtube channel have helped.

My guess is most HN'ers have their own ideas and don't need to steal yours. HN aside, if your idea is good, then someone has already thought of it. There are 8 billion of us you know.

I'd recommend two things. 1) Get some love from your initial user reviews and build your 5-star moat so to speak. 2) Take naming it seriously and get a trademark if patent protection is not an option.

Some will "take" your idea (or maybe it will be simultaneous discovery). It happens to all innovators. If you are an execution machine, and want it more than your competitors, and have a good brand, you'll be #1. But if the market is big enough then coming in top 10 will still work out great for you unless your ego is fragile.

From the Bay Area convention page:

Vaccination Requirements from our COVID‑19 Policy final injection no later than two weeks before attending and wear a mask (including under a fursuit)

Too weird for me, gotta pass.

Tap water with a little lemon is cheaper than any beverage in the grocery store. I wonder what waistlines would look like if people stopped drinking their calories.

My entire life, I have been sickly, getting sick to 3 to 4 times a year. But somehow that all ended when the pandemic started. I was certain I'd be one of the first to get Covid, but something significantly changed to the point I never get sick anymore.

Is it possible that an immune system can be overused and all I needed to do is give it a break for ~6 months which happened during lockdown. Now given that break, perhaps I have a super immune system after over-training it for so many decades. Maybe ?

More likely it has to do with these habits I developed:

1) Breathing almost exclusively through my nose and holding my breath when passing people especially if they cough or sneeze.

2) Drinking water with 1+ gram of vitamin C powder and 5000IU+ of Vitamin D _everyday_without_fail.

3) Not drinking in bars past 10PM and sleeping ~7.5hrs every day.

4) Eliminating the gym. As an aside I have one kettle bell, a pull-up bar, and several bands. To my surprise, I am built like Daniel Craig with more definition from just ~3 ~seven minute mid-intensity workouts through out the day.

5) Hyper conscious to not touch my eyes or face.

Does anyone else have a turn-around story like mine ? Or are most of the people who didn't get Covid the type who never get sick? For the record I am vaccinated. As a counter-anecdote to my second question, my dad, also vaccinated, hasn't been sick over a decade until he got a mild case of Covid a few months ago.

Or buy one 30lb kettle bell. No running shoes, low cost, no finding space in your home, no buyer's remorse.

A swing with good form works your entire body. 100 reps once or twice a day literally takes 2-4 minutes. Do it after hitting start on the microwave.

"The OneWheel only does about half the balancing work" -- It's more like 99% of the work and I defy anyone to stay balanced and keep riding free wheel if the power suddenly cuts out. The OneWheel's balancing algorithm is so good it gives the the illusion of competence after less than an hour.

It's the single point of failure with no preventative maintenance plan that makes it more dangerous. When the power suddenly cut-out on my "one wheel" (it was a different brand) I was instantly airborne.

I can inspect my skateboard periodically to ensure the wheels don't fall off. If my dirtbike engine suddenly cut-out I still have momentum and brakes. But with a onewheel the wheel slips behind you and you are smashing the pavement when the electronics fail. For the record, I love my recently purchased Onewheel Pint and installed fangs in case the power cuts out unexpectedly.

you meant comma, not coma.

Are the challenges at Twitter technical ones ? It seems they are all related to strategy and direction of the business which isn't the expertise Hotz is famous for.

Or perhaps Hotz sincerely wants to be a lowly intern and this is his idea of a vacation. I can relate.

My mistake, I had blindly dismissed rice since it is commonly known to be a nutrient poor food. But several sources confirm the parent post and your comment are correct*. It's also too often repeated that a vegetable based diets will be lacking essential amino acids which seems like a gross falsehood now if you can get there with two wildly available plants that make up a common low-cost meal. I am baffled by the disconnect.

*I don't cite the source since I am unsure if there are caveats or if the claim is controversial.

A quick Google search reveals that beans are not a complete, since they lack several essential amino acids.

Edit: correction, it appears that soybeans are the exception. But when one thinks of having a serving of "beans and rice", soybeans are unlikely to be the bean served.

"Tell the right stories about yourself."

I wake up feeling stiff and every morning repeat the "story" that I'm starting to feel old. However, I often ask my 83 year old dad if he experiences the same and he always says no.

Then last week my dad said, "you know I might, but I don't think about it". So this past week I just wake up and start moving and try not be aware of the minor pain from stiffness. It goes away quickly and I avoid telling myself "I am feeling old".

Why focus on something that doesn't serve you if you can tune it out.

" if you're in a contract job for 4 years, there's something wrong"

Depends on your goals. I've been contracting at the same company for 10years. It gave me the flexibility to run and operate a successful side business and take unpaid vacation time whenever I want.

Just to address one of your many points: "contractors don't get raises"

I heard similar at my company. But every year I write a letter requesting a raise and send it to at least two people in the company. "One of the owners..." then send the letter to more than one owner or an owner and your direct manager. That owner probably wouldn't re-iterate how cheap they are if a direct-hire is cc'ed.

In the letter, I politely explain my recent contributions, the fact I have competing interests and other opportunities but would like to keep working there. I don't make it sound like I have one foot out the door but it's implied I am standing near the door and it's up to them to keep me.

I have never failed to get a raise in over 10 years. When I shared this with a co-worker (contractor), I learned she hasn't received a raise in 4 years. Same goes for the other contractors (5+ years?). The money is there, so just ask for it. If they don't have the money for a modest raise then it's sinking ship.

The best thing about being a Gen X'er is that the non-descript label keeps us out of the culture war crosshairs. "Boomer" has become a slur at this point and the name "Zoomer" is so cringe you are primed as an older person to not like this group. Did we really let the media name an entire generation after a corporate trademark ?

It seems harder to be divisive when you name Generations X, Y, Z but somehow Y and Z became Millenial and Zoomer. I propose the next generation is named A1 and we just cycle through the letters and then increment the numbers every 25 years.

"You may feel like we've lost our way. You're tired. You have no energy."

Ok that's true as of creation of my new HN account about a year ago. But when I ran it for my old account the top result had this sentence: "You have a lot of energy." Which was true back then.

Does this algo weight comment based on its age ? It seems like it should otherwise what would it conclude given personalities change somewhat based on on-going challenges.

Is this service only for individuals or can you set up an account for my corporation too ? The process of setting up a treasury account for my business at Treasury Direct is stalled for some reason.

Edit: I noticed a related comment:

Rebelgecko: how do you handle accounts that require medallion verification

adammoelis: We can't support those unfortunately right now.

That was the problem on my end. I went through the hassle of getting a medallion verification for my business 2 months ago, mailed in the paperwork, and never heard back from the treasury department.

Unfortunately I leaned on history to make investment decisions during this period of rising inflation. Gold, stocks, and real estate were historically good hedges against inflation and cash holdings should be minimized. But that conventional wisdom has been a bad strategy this time.

As a reminder one ~sure bet is iBonds (the i is for inflation). Last I checked the yield is little shy of 10% and your money only needs to be locked up for 1 year. Too bad there's a $10k annual deposit limit.

You can remove the disabled-btn class and you'll be able to click it. The basic price is $999 and the premium price is 403'ed. A bit pricey for hobby research purposes and it isn't even clear if they are accepting orders. Why is this industry such a mess at the consumer level?

Can someone recommend where one can order a full genetic sequence currently in the US and get the raw data ? It seemed highly-regulated when I last checked and required it be order through your doctor. The article touches on this a bit how the price gets into the thousands due to markups and counseling.

Also how many full sequences would I have to get before the data is statistically sound. Since there is likely a base pair or two that will be different between the cells (maybe) and the sequencer hardware and process will likely have errors too. My gut tells me 10 to 20 but perhaps that seems like overkill since many base-pairs might be junk/repeats/irrelevant anyway and the raw data will have some confidence indication as well IIRC.

Would you want a dating App telling your potential match all of your negative genetic predispositions ? How about your employer ? Or your parents, would they have raised you differently if they had unnecessary paranoia about a predisposition that you would never manifest.

Human nature values first impressions and you can expose your flaws after you have established your reputation a bit. This data has the potential to short-circuit that and could lead to yet another technology that is maladapted to human nature.

And the recent heatwave? The last argument with my brother was so over the top it did permanent damage to our relationship. Upon reflection I do wonder how much heat had to do with it.

A hallmark of immaturity is a person who makes assumptions about how easy someone else's life must be just because they are well off financially, have a bubbly persona, or live in a state of peace and gratitude. To be human is to suffer and at the very least to watch people you love suffer and sometimes die. I wish people would remember this, but more often they attempt to quantify the pain and create portraiture of a person they know nothing about, compare it to their own and then assume they can be bitter, resentful, or dismissive towards them.

I am planning on travel to Mexico soon. A few days ago my sister in-law sent photos and videos of my nephew in bed with his 7 year old girl friend in the family WhatsApp channel. He is only in his underwear and she is topless and crawling around in her underwear and giving him hugs. She repeatedly does this with my nephew's bath-time as well. Out of context it looks creepy and perhaps would be flagged by an AI classifying for exploitation.

So if the AI has me marked as a person of interest and they seize my phone at the border, it won't be a good day for me. Am I just being paranoid and lacking perspective because I have never been a parent who spends a lot of time with naked children ? Is this so common that I shouldn't be concerned ?

Accepting your child may grow to hate you should be a pre-requisite for any aspiring parent. What we are doing is not "sane"[0]. Perhaps I am biased since I live in Southern California which is the Mecca for children of dysfunctional families.

[0] Opening paragraph of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy

Narcissism, maybe ? But given we have a surplus of adoptable children on this planet and not enough parents, I would argue most people have a natural child out of subconscious narcissism.

"This is leaning heavily on the assumption that your personality is primarily a product of your genetics"

Not really. If you allow that it is even 1% due to genetics, that better parenting compounds over generations. And there is a lot of evidence that it is much more than 1%. I too experienced numerous traumatic events by the time I was 12 and was then prone towards neuroticism for decades after. I still submit I'd be a much better parent to a clone than someone who has half my dna.

As I understand it, this procedure would result in a near perfect clone baring a few random mutations in the stem cell which they could probably screen for.

To digress. I want a clone, more than anything. It's only thing I'd pay more than $100k+ for aside from housing.

I submit that society would benefit if every other generation was a clone. If I were raised by my parent-clone I would have matured faster and been more skilled at playing baby-roulette with a natural child.

Whenever I meet a 20-30 year old that has the temperament and calmness of a 40-50 year old I suspect one of two things:

1) their young-ish parents won at baby-roulette and their child had a personality similar to theirs and were able to guide them through adolescence in a more optimal way.

2) their parents were older and maturer and could navigate the personality conflicts in a way that didn't lead to long-term family dysfunction.

but even #2 is rare since not all older parents can handle all personality types, hence my suggestion for a third option: family lines based on alternate generation cloning.