pliao39
Joined 8 years ago
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15
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8
Member since
Feb 26
Recent submissions
Comment · 6 years ago
Comment · 6 years ago
Cool spotlights! I wish I could understand French - “Le Courrier du hacker” reminds me that there's an entire world of badass French engineers that I can't really understand.
The types of people behind Algolia and Front.
Great newsletter!
Comment · 7 years ago
Ah, yes, this is good nuance, but I would like to argue that there are intangibles that can be replicated across Gap's future spinouts. There will be aspects of the culture, certain processes, relationships, and perhaps even software, that will be instantly DUPLICATED the moment the company splits!
And remember, the value of a chain is not simply its code. In fact, you can argue that the code is NOT important AT ALL to the value of a chain, for the very reason that it is entirely open. The chain's valuation comes from the network - and arguably the most important of those (at least in the short term) - the users who transact on the chain, and the miners whose hash power push the chain forward, will splinter.
When a chain splits, the miners must make a decision on what percentage of their finite hash power should be allocated to each fork.
I'm actually of the belief that this analogy is VERY good.
Comment · 7 years ago
Hoping on the analogy train (knowing full well that all our analogies will be somewhat imperfect because this tech is unprecedented). I don't think it's like a stock split or a dividend.
I think a hard fork is most like a company breaking itself apart (like eBay/PayPal into, well, eBay and PayPal). In the case of eBay/PayPal, each holder of the eBay stock also got PayPal stock 1:1, just like in a hard fork.
I did some quick research into this and found that the issuance of PayPal stock was NOT a taxable event: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1633917/000119312515...
The relevant quote: "The separation will provide current eBay stockholders with equity ownership in both eBay and PayPal. We expect that the distribution of PayPal common stock will be tax-free, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, to eBay stockholders."
The reason this is similar to a hard fork is that, in theory, the two chains will splinter their hash power, their usage, and at the time, no REAL value is being transferred/created because of the fork (in theory).
There is, of course, the abstract concept that I'm calling "anti-synergy": when two groups are suffering being together and there is more global value in the world when they're apart.
Comment · 7 years ago
I'm impressed that Stripe has been able to maintain it's culture over the years, as it grows in headcount and size. I recall reading this blog from 2012 (although I read it in 2014): https://blog.alexmaccaw.com/stripes-culture
And the consistency between then and now is fairly impressive. Ambition and Optimism seem like codified values that have emerged over time. But the one thread that is consistent is their thoughtfulness on hiring.
It should be no surprise to anyone here though, given that their interviewing doesn't consist of the standard 4-5 leetcode questions, but rather much more thoughtful rounds like a bug squash, architecture, and lots of hands on coding - algorithm rounds exist, but kept to a minimum.
Not to say that this is good and should be the new standard - just that it is extremely thoughtful and was going against the grain. Wish more companies would think about their hiring practices from first principles and didn't just copy Google
Comment · 7 years ago
At a certain point - people are weighing the cost of the good (cable bundle, HBO Now, etc) vs the moral guilt + expected value of litigation (costs of piracy). When the cost is not absurd, (seems like most people are willing to pay $10-$15 a month), the decision is pretty clear (i.e. buy Netflix).
The middle man taking a cut is the problem. It jacks up the price to a point where it's too high - and piracy becomes extremely attractive (especially when it is more convenient to pirate a good than to buy it).
To me, the article is really describing why middle men in this supply chain harm both the creator and the consumer. That's why applying pricing pressure in the form of piracy actually benefits both the creator and consumer (and could potentially even help the middle man find the profit maximizing price, although that depends on the "Just Enough" piracy level).
But isn't this kind of true much of the time? Removing a superfluous middle man will reduce costs and make everyone better off. But unfortunately, the middle man often provides value - they aggregate lots of content and own the customer experience.
Businesses and technologies that attack the middle man are very interesting. Shopify for e-commerce is potentially another example.
Comment · 7 years ago
"A lot of the best programmers and the most productive programmers I know are writing everything in Clojure and swearing by it, and then just producing ridiculously sophisticated things in a very short time." - Adrian Cockcroft
http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2019/08/22/WhyClojure.h...
I want to learn some Clojure!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heh4OeB9A-c