Hacker News Reader

Benjamin Franklin.

thomasmarriotton Tell HN: Turned 44 today and I'm lost

No More Worlds to Conquer: Sixteen People Who Defined Their Time – And What They Did Next by Chris Wright

thomasmarriotton History's deadliest air raid happened in Tokyo during World War II (2020)

'...Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should We continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization...'

— Hirohito, August 14,1945

thomasmarriotton The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

-Einstein

thomasmarriotton We Sold Pando

Jake Lodwick = Cofounder of Vimeo (acquired by IAC), first dev of CollegeHumor (acquired by IAC), and a serial investor.

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jakob-lodwick

thomasmarriotton We Sold Pando

"An acquisition is always a failure" — Pando, 2013

"An acquisition, or an aqui-hire, is always a failure. Either the founders failed to achieve their goal, or – far likelier – they failed to dream big enough. The proper ambition for a tech entrepreneur should be to join the ranks of the great tech companies, or, at least, to create a profitable, independent company beloved by employees, customers, and shareholders."

https://pando.com/2013/04/02/an-acquisition-is-always-a-fail...

thomasmarriotton Alex Honnold's next summit: the rest of his life

Great book:

"No More Worlds to Conquer: Sixteen People Who Defined Their Time – And What They Did Next"

by Chris Wright

thomasmarriotton A Quarter of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crises

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsba...

thomasmarriotton Bill Gates on making “one of the greatest mistakes of all time”

Ironic: "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose." —Gates, 1995

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#The_Road_Ahead_(199...

thomasmarriotton Blue Moon

"At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities."

thomasmarriotton Blue Moon

Exactly — THE WAY OUT IS UP:

https://marriottexpeditions.org/finalmarket

thomasmarriotton The Baghdad Battery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Song

thomasmarriotton How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

"I am persuaded no constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self government."

Full context of "empire": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Liberty

thomasmarriotton Jerry Merryman, an Inventor of the Calculator Dies

Gig'em.

thomasmarriotton Microsoft Workers Demand It Drop $450M U.S. Army Contract

Accepting the truth is far less painful than rediscovering it.

thomasmarriotton $250 Trillion in Debt: The World’s Post-Lehman Legacy

"The system is insolvent. No one knows what to do next — except repeat the insanity till the next bubble blows. That'll be the one. The big one."

— Gekko, Wall Street 2, 2010

#thewayoutisup

thomasmarriotton Alan Bean, 4th Person to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 86

Live long and prosper, Captain.

thomasmarriotton Productivity Growth in the US Continues to Decline

The way out is up.

thomasmarriotton My new favorite book of all time

"Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory." —Franklin Pierce Adams

thomasmarriotton The 1 Percent Rule: Why a Few People Get Most of the Rewards

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gospel_of_Wealth

thomasmarriotton Twitter’s CEO Says It’s Having an ‘Arab Spring’ Moment in the U.S

No.

thomasmarriotton Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

Fuck yea.

thomasmarriotton Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistment bonuses

Abhorrent.

thomasmarriotton A Brief History of Who Ruined Burning Man

'Next year you'll say last year was so much better.'

thomasmarriotton Against Minimalism

'It's really simple. We come up with a product. We try to tell everybody about it. Customer tell us by how they vote with their wallets whether we're on track or not. If enough of them say 'yes,' we get to come to work tomorrow.' — SJ

thomasmarriotton Why cities keep growing, corporations and people die, and life gets faster

Scale is underrated.

thomasmarriotton Is ‘grit’ overrated in explaining student success?

No.

thomasmarriotton What Makes Texas Texas

https://vimeo.com/86440068

thomasmarriotton What Makes Texas Texas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVpx6JN1A4U

thomasmarriotton A new history asks: Has all the progress of the past 100 years come undone?

No.