Recent submissions

Comment · 16 years ago
I think the my first paragraph pointed that out that there are two types of things happening here. One guys aren't aware that they over steps some bounds.

But putting your hand down a females underwear and hitting someone's bum unexpectedly. Normal people don't do that.

Comment · 16 years ago
Comment · 16 years ago
I was in before you edited your post.
Comment · 16 years ago
hmm... I think many rationals problem is that they don't interact enough and then use their positive social interactions to social proof their bad ones.

Consider his first scenario where the person puts up his hand and says that they don't have the budget to do that. The speaker might indeed be mad and likewise some others in the room. Invariably there would be someone there that likes your outspoken or directness[just by the share number of people in the room, probability dictates it].

Now, if our rational guy stands there by himself and refuses to interact with others, the speaker and his allies will brand him as rude. Every move he makes, no matter how trivial would only be seen in this light.

If he had started interacting until he found someone who likes his disposition, he is then social proof by that person. Then he begins to climb a ladder of social proof. He would meet someone else who because that one person liked him they would like him too, and you can see how this spreads exponentially. Now, it would be just the speaker left hating him; well no actually, the speaker will now think his evaluation of the situation was previously wrong and that the guy is alright.[Appropriate reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments]

And if our rationalist is lucky he can turn his new found social proof into Authority by running for some prestigious position such as president. At which point, people will like him cause he is in that given position.

Being nice has it's only problems also. For instance, people would assume you want something from them if you start acting nice the first time you meet them.

Again, social proof can over come this problem of being suspecting of wanting something.

Social proofing can lead to what I call, the lovable Jerk. People who act in a way that undermines others but the general populous loves them so they are forgiven time and time again.

With that said let, me sum up my points. Being social proof will lead to people liking you but as a rational you only have a few people who naturally like you but you need to build from those few.[Appropriate viewing: Derek Sivers - How to start a movement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V74AxCqOTvg ]

Comment · 16 years ago
Which varies from individual to individual. This program seems to favor a more mature Hacker.
Comment · 16 years ago
Could you cite the post for this?
Comment · 16 years ago
From what you have said, your friend would rather it not be patented, but he wouldn't be all that upset if it did. The major problem he is having is that some Professors who didn't contribute anything to the project are now claiming part ownership. I think your first line of approach is to talk to the university directly and tell them you don't appreciate this and you want it change to just you alone. After this and they don't comply you can follow other HNers advice about going to the media and the like.
Comment · 16 years ago
Couple of points:

1) You are saying too much. Saying stuff about looking for the best is obviously your purpose, so no need to say that. Now, you are left defending yourself about being Jerk. For somethings, it is best just to give the facts.

2) Why aren't you hiring developers from your network?

3) You should try to come off as "We are awesome, and we want you to be awesome too.", not "We are awesome and you are not".

Comment · 16 years ago
This doesn't say anything about whether to take this guy's money. They can still get money from banks, friends, other angel's or get this guy to reduce his terms. Right now, this guy wants to know what are his options.
Comment · 16 years ago
[off topic]This raises an interesting question, whether gut and head should agree when conducting business?
Comment · 16 years ago
The current process is: Bosses tells you the programmer and then you instruct the computer precisely. With natural language programming, the boss just tells the computer. There is no you now. Why is this faster? Because you used to take 3 months to get the sofware done, our new system can do it in 3 seconds[the times are arbitary, the general assumption is that it's less than a human].

Of course you are going to still have to specify what you want with both NLP and a human. So this time is constant and it is not relevant when comparing the two system.

What I'm saying is that the NLP would be like a human but faster and less error prone.

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