Hacker News: danieltillett

New comment by danieltillett in "Ask HN: What to do when someone else starts your dream business?"

danieltillett — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 05:04:40 +0000

Do you have a professional background in biotech or at least the life sciences?

New comment by danieltillett in "An experimental program in Austria that creates work for the unemployed"

danieltillett — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 22:43:25 +0000

Or pay people less to do the pleasant jobs.

New comment by danieltillett in "Ask HN: How do I thrive as part of an unambitious team?"

danieltillett — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 03:40:29 +0000

How did you end up on this team?

New comment by danieltillett in "Most people don’t finish online job applications"

danieltillett — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 10:59:28 +0000

As an employer I always read the cover letters. You had better have a slight clue of what job you are applying for or your application ends up in the garbage.

New comment by danieltillett in "Welcome to Your Airbnb, the Cleaning Fees Are $143 and You’ll Still Have"

danieltillett — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 22:39:40 +0000

A meta question on the WSJ headline - do American really use the plural for linen to refer to sheets, etc?

New comment by danieltillett in "The crypto crisis has created an advertising vacuum"

danieltillett — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 19:59:25 +0000

The E in AAVE is English not Language.

New comment by danieltillett in "New CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function"

danieltillett — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 07:33:12 +0000

This is a seperate (important) issue.

New comment by danieltillett in "New CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function"

danieltillett — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 23:44:28 +0000

The reason why is it is easier to train a biologist to become a programmer than it is to train a programmer to become a biologist. Sure the quality of biologist-turned-programmer code will often not be great, but it will usually answer the question asked.

New comment by danieltillett in "American Medical Association: Remove Sex from Public Birth Certificates"

danieltillett — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 07:15:26 +0000

How about which jail cell you are placed in if arrested?

New comment by danieltillett in "Advice for young scientists and curious people in general"

danieltillett — Wed, 19 May 2021 10:18:48 +0000

This is why you should not ever dedicate yourself to a single project no matter how much you believe in it. You should at a minimum have one back up project that will generate publishable results no matter what happens.

New comment by danieltillett in "Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit"

danieltillett — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 09:47:24 +0000

Sometimes the company has no choice as the alternative is everyone loses their job.

I don’t think employees should think of the company as their family, but don’t get into the mindset that all employers treat their employees as disposable cogs.

New comment by danieltillett in "Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit"

danieltillett — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 09:43:01 +0000

Yes, but it is not quite so clean. Employers are humans and in my experience they care far more about the people they know (employees) than abstract people (shareholders).

New comment by danieltillett in "Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit"

danieltillett — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 03:50:31 +0000

Many employers agonise over laying off employees, I would go so far as to say the vast majority do. Many employers try to keep on employees in situations where they really should be laid off, putting their own jobs at risk.

Don’t get into the the mindset that employers are all psychopaths - not only is it not true, but it will damage your career thinking this way.

New comment by danieltillett in "Everyone is still terrible at creating software at scale"

danieltillett — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 06:25:43 +0000

When someone’s future salary is tied to acquiring $new/$shiny skill then you are going to get this sort of rational behaviour from the engineers. Smart people respond to incentives.

New comment by danieltillett in "Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia"

danieltillett — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 10:48:17 +0000

I think you should get out and see what farmers are doing to the wild mice.

New comment by danieltillett in "Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia"

danieltillett — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 01:54:50 +0000

Something I have always found insane is all the regulations and paperwork hurdles around killing mice in labs. Want to kill 10 mice humanely in a lab then you need to fill out a 60 page report, send it off to an ethics committee for their opinion, and then wait 3 months. Want to kill a few hundred million mice in the wild with a poison that will result is a slow and painful death - go for it.

New comment by danieltillett in "Boston public schools suspend advanced learning classes"

danieltillett — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 20:32:25 +0000

It is not. One side is winning the long war and it is not the USA.

New comment by danieltillett in "Software effort estimation is mostly fake research"

danieltillett — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:38:17 +0000

I used to be a non-technical manager “managing” a team of developers. I later (through circumstances) became a developer. Looking back at the games my team played with me I can see why many managers are cynical about the estimates they are given and attempt to negotiate.

New comment by danieltillett in "Toxic positivity does more harm than good"

danieltillett — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 22:23:00 +0000

As a manager what every report wants is to be genuinely listened to by their manager. If you make the effort to really listen to what your report has to say you don’t need to worry about praise or other feedback.

The downside is real listening is incredibly time consuming - I struggle to get under 60 min per person per day (not all at once of course) without compromising its effectiveness.

New comment by danieltillett in "Identical twins are not so identical, study suggests"

danieltillett — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 04:02:22 +0000

Yes they are likely to be mirror twins [0].

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin#Semi-identical_twins