nyan_sandwich

Joined 14 years ago

Karma
200
Submissions
69
Member since
Aug 25
Mechanical engineer, programmer, and aspiring entrepreneur based in Vancouver, BC.

I'm currently interested in making technical knowledge and thinking more accessible and convenient, and fixing Science in general.

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Recent submissions

Comment · 11 years ago
America. Far right is monarchism/fascism.
Comment · 12 years ago
Last year I stayed at a nearby airbnb and took the bus and hitched rides.
Comment · 12 years ago
The flaw in this is that our mobility and density is unprecedented, so things that were not feasible for a startup plague in the past may now be feasible.
Comment · 12 years ago
The reason given was leeching. Neutral is not good enough for that sometimes; you need slightly basic. Some things will corrode at pH 7, but not higher.

Good call though; distilled water is neutral.

Comment · 12 years ago
I don't get it. The author rails through the whole essay that there are no A players and B players, but the conclusion concedes that some people are stronger and smarter, and some people are going to fit into your company better, which from the perspective of the employer, is fully equivalent to the A/B thing. The only difference is in what you think they might accomplish elsewhere, and vague notions of their value as a human being.

More interesting is the point that a given person may thrive in one environment and falter in another. This is totally true, and very important to keep in mind when evaluating what to do with people who are faltering, but it's not a dichotomy between that and the "fully general robust innate talent" theory. Both are true. Some people are simply stronger and smarter, but on top of that, environment plays a large role. Act accordingly.

Comment · 12 years ago
That shouldn't happen if you do the motion transform uniformly on all axes. It should just be equivalent to changing the speed of time, rather than actually changing the trajectories.
Comment · 12 years ago
Excellent.

It looks like it uses linear interpolation between the different glyphs, which makes it look a bit jerky. The author might want to try a sinusoidal interpolation so that velocity reaches zero at the key frames and the whole thing thus spends more time dwelling on the legible parts of the animation and looks smoother.

Comment · 12 years ago
Comment · 12 years ago
I would also add that YC investment boosts nuclear stuff as a legitimate thing. Could lead to copycat investment (which we dearly need in the nuclear field).
Comment · 12 years ago
Quit my productive engineering job to chase women, work on personal projects and political agitation. Getting paid to go Galt? Yes please.

I may not be representative, But that's honestly what I'd do.

Comment · 12 years ago
Comment · 12 years ago
You know, it's probable that someone will invent an automatically diversified wallet that tracks the market cap of cryptocurrencies overall. Rise and fall of new cryptocurrencies would be of interest only to speculators.
Comment · 12 years ago
>so just force yourself.

>just

ADHD doesn't work like that. "just" supposes willpower, ADHDers have low willpower. The whole problem is how to "just" do something, so reiterating that is a non-solution.

Comment · 12 years ago
I have real bad ADHD, and everything you say rings true.

There are (only) two things that seem to help me: (social) commitment that would be unthinkable to back out of, and random fluctuations in neurochemistry.

I have a job, and find that I have very little trouble maintaining a good work ethic at work. Especially when the boss tells me to do something differently. The social and commitment aspects really motivate me. Beeminder (https://www.beeminder.com/) is really awesome as well, until your brain figures out that you can cheat. For doing work outside of work, I have a few friends that I just meet up with and mutually enforce work-time, which is really helpful and always productive.

On top of that, I notice major shifts in ability to do work that seem to have nothing to do with anything. Some days I'm randomly on top of the world and able to do huge amounts of highly productive and creative work, other days I can't even focus on what's in front of me (sometimes literally). I can only explain this in terms of random neurochemistry quirks. Unfortunately I can't control it. One thing that seems to help is standing in a dominant victory pose and counting to 300 as fast as possible, which raises testosterone and lowers cortisol. It seems to help a lot if you can remember to do it.

(Solving neurochemistry would be extremely lucrative; there are thousands of people who are separated from large wealth only by this factor.)

So I'd say you are fine on holding a job, but the jury is still out on becoming great.

Comment · 12 years ago
>avoid perpetuating that state

Why? Surely a state that allows some people a comfortable base on which to build wealth that benefits everyone is a good thing rather than a bad thing.

Don't forget that everything as an opportunity cost. Would you rather eg James Watt fretted about privilege, or used his to build the steam engine?

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