Hacker News: dmnd

New comment by dmnd in "A kids' novel inspired me to simulate a gene drive on 86M genealogy profiles"

dmnd — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 04:14:50 +0000

The author's interest in middle-grade books is fascinating. I'd love to read a post of recommendations with accompanying rationale, if only to get ideas for books my daughter might like!

New comment by dmnd in "Ask HN: Best board games of 2022?"

dmnd — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 22:20:36 +0000

The Crew (2019). Approachable but interesting co-op trick taking with communication restrictions and 50 missions for replayability. If you liked Hanabi, you might end up spending more time on this.

New comment by dmnd in "Trying Out Generics in Go"

dmnd — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 06:24:45 +0000

Amusing that this post goes from

> My first response when the plan to add generics was announced was “meh”. In my 5+ years working in Go, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I felt like I really needed generics. Most of the code I write in my day job is very specific to the domain and doesn’t fit the use case that generics aim to fill.

> I love that I was able to delete 95% of my code because of generics.

New comment by dmnd in "Square is now called Block"

dmnd — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 07:26:14 +0000

/default.aspx on every url

Bolt shifts to a 4-day work week

dmnd — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 06:48:54 +0000

Article URL: https://www.fastcompany.com/90678612/this-tech-unicorn-just-shifted-to-a-4-day-work-week

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28625934

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Bolt moves to a 4 day week

dmnd — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 04:24:25 +0000

Article URL: https://twitter.com/ryantakesoff/status/1440843960776228865

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28625202

Points: 7

# Comments: 1

New comment by dmnd in "Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Teaching kids to read with the help of live actors"

dmnd — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 18:58:48 +0000

Given your interest in hiring art and theatre professionals to support education I think you'll love The Diamond Age. It's so relevant to what you're doing I'd assumed you must have already read it!

New comment by dmnd in "Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Teaching kids to read with the help of live actors"

dmnd — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 18:56:12 +0000

I'm definitely coming at this from my own parent perspective and my some of feedback is probably more a reaction to the realities of classroom instruction than about Litnerd specifically.

I'm going to push on your deflection to legal obstacles to sharing footage though. Get parent permission and make a better example video! :)

New comment by dmnd in "Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Teaching kids to read with the help of live actors"

dmnd — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 18:12:41 +0000

I'm a parent that just taught my 4yo preschooler to read. So I'm not really your target user, but I watched the walkthrough and read the website, and here are my reactions. Hopefully something here is useful for you:

- I'm honestly baffled by spending so much time on one book (program?) in a classroom context. I imagine some kids won't be interested in the particular story, but it will go on for an entire month. I could see this damaging interest.

- The pace seems incredibly slow. To learn to read, you need to read a lot. But this is one book per month?

- The more stories a child is exposed to, the more chances there are to encounter something especially captivating for that child, and to spark an interest.

- It's hard to believe how much participation there will be without seeing an example class and interactions between the students & actor. The videos on the site make it seem like a completely passive experience.

- Craft activities seem like a distraction from reading unless the activities are grounded in literacy (e.g. letter/word games or creations). Even then I'm kind of skeptical.

- I predict you'll end up changing the name "litnerd". Being a nerd is cool on HN, but elsewhere?

All that said, I'm a fan of your mission and understand that learning to read in a classroom is going to look a lot different than learning 1:1. But I wonder if you could leave the group instruction to teachers and go direct to kids with a more Duolingo ABC-like experience, but include live instructors/actors. It'd be sort of like reading with a remote parent. Instructors could act out the story as you're doing with litnerd, but also unstick kids with reading help and mini-lessons. Basically, build a literacy-specific Young Lady's Illustrated Primer from A Diamond Age with gig economy ractors.

New comment by dmnd in "Calculus for Seven Year Olds [pdf]"

dmnd — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:30:26 +0000

Check out the iOS game "Slice Fractions"

New comment by dmnd in "Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?"

dmnd — Thu, 20 May 2021 16:53:17 +0000

Tern GSD cargo ebike. This thing is the bike version of a minivan. Biking the kids to preschool every day is so much more healthy and fun than taking the car. We also visit a much bigger variety of parks on the weekend now.

New comment by dmnd in "Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?"

dmnd — Thu, 20 May 2021 16:49:46 +0000

I've played a lot Beat Saber, and ended up getting wrist weights. Very recently I've been spending time in Thrill of the Fight. I would never have expected myself to like it, but it's a fun workout.