Hacker News: idw

They Said It Would Cost $54M. We Said "No Thanks."

idw — Thu, 14 May 2026 11:05:05 +0000

Article URL: https://nateglubish.substack.com/p/they-said-it-would-cost-54-million

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48133728

Points: 64

# Comments: 66

New comment by idw in "The Bureaucratic Escalator and how it operates"

idw — Sun, 03 May 2026 09:55:11 +0000

TL;DR: Bureaucracy in public institutions is not principally a management pathology. It is the cumulative result of a largely logical process. It is generated by policy and rendered permanent by asymmetric incentives. Nobody decides to create it; nobody is readily positioned to undo it.

The Bureaucratic Escalator and how it operates

idw — Sun, 03 May 2026 09:55:11 +0000

Article URL: https://profserious.substack.com/p/the-bureaucratic-escalator

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995302

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by idw in "Ask HN: What breaks first when your team grows from 10 to 50 people?"

idw — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 12:53:18 +0000

Done this. Good question but I don't think it's the most helpful way of thinking about it.

Every new recruit brings their own assumptions about how organizations / employment / etc. work and many of those assumptions won't be visible until after a while. This is especially true for managers.

I found Charles Handy's thinking about four types of organisational culture very helpful and I wish I'd found it earlier in the process.

AI summary: Charles Handy identified four types of organizational cultures: Power Culture, where decision-making is centralized among a few; Role Culture, which is based on defined roles and responsibilities; Task Culture, focused on teamwork to achieve specific goals; and Person Culture, where individual interests take precedence over the organization.

Basically, 15>50 is very likely to involve a shift from one of these to another one and making that open and explicit could help you a lot (including understanding how the role of senior managers needs to change).

The book is Understanding Organisations from 1976 but still valuable.

Good luck!

New comment by idw in "Ask HN: What Linux Would Be a Good Transition from Windows 11"

idw — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 01:53:36 +0000

+1 on Mint, specifically with the Cinnamon desktop environment for people leaving Windows

New comment by idw in "Everything – Locate files and folders by name instantly"

idw — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 21:19:30 +0000

Saw this mentioned in a comment recently, I just downloaded, installed and used it to find a file while Windows Search was still saying 'Working on it...'. So I thought others might like to know.

Previously on HN a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41337268 and probably other times

Thank you, whoever you were!

Everything – Locate files and folders by name instantly

idw — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 21:19:30 +0000

Article URL: https://www.voidtools.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46938615

Points: 148

# Comments: 58

New comment by idw in "Huntington's disease treated for first time"

idw — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 21:59:07 +0000

The Science Media Centre (UK) has a round up of expert reactions https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-announ...

Classic Psion fan releases proof-of-concept language server for OPL

idw — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 04:35:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/vintage_computing_boffin_resurrects_opl/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45048406

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by idw in "Chairs, Chairs, Chairs"

idw — Wed, 28 May 2025 09:38:15 +0000

The robing room chair of state

New comment by idw in "Ask HN: Anyone struggling to get value out of coding LLMs?"

idw — Mon, 26 May 2025 10:21:23 +0000

Simon Willison has helpful recent advice on this: Here’s how I use LLMs to help me write code (11th March 2025) https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/11/us.ing-llms-for-code/

Everything Google Announced at I/O 2025

idw — Wed, 21 May 2025 14:12:44 +0000

Article URL: https://mashable.com/article/google-io-2025-everything-you-need-to-know

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44051662

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by idw in "The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder"

idw — Thu, 15 May 2025 11:12:06 +0000

Sometimes the BBC does make mistakes but this seems to fit their style guide:

"Treat collective nouns - companies, governments and other bodies - as singular. There are some exceptions: ... Sports teams - although they are singular in their role as business concerns (eg: Arsenal has declared an increase in profits) Rock/pop groups"

So treating a crew, like a team, as plural makes sense.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/grammar-spelling-punctu...

Both approaches are regularly used, so it is now more of a style choice, hence being in the style guide.

The Economist style guide says Brits are more likely to use plural and Americans singular but writers need to make a judgement in context: https://www.economist.com/johnson/2010/09/20/style-guide-ent...

New comment by idw in "I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn't Love Me Back"

idw — Sat, 10 May 2025 15:38:56 +0000

It might help to know that blindness takes many forms. Having no sight at all is what many people assume but is not what many blind people experience. So some blind people can use accessibility tools together with the sight they do have which may for example only be in a small part of the area most people can see, or may be blurry, or otherwise impaired.

New comment by idw in "Ask HN: Should I Take a Risk?"

idw — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 06:02:20 +0000

If you're going to start something, you need to be running to it not running from something else.

Running your own thing can be great but will be hard. The culture may well not be what you hoped for, and you may well find it hard to stay motivated. The team may well feel disrespectful and demotivating. You may not even like the founder’s attitude towards you before too long.

Personal opinion, worth what you paid for it.

New comment by idw in "What would you during a two-year non-compete?"

idw — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:43:59 +0000

Ask a lawyer whether it is actually enforceable

New comment by idw in "What accounting software do Y Combinator and Hacker News suggest?"

idw — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 10:21:22 +0000

One of my biggest lessons from running a growing organization was: always have one level better financial advice than you think you need.

So, get an accountant from the beginning and let them decide and set it up right.

FWIW, I preferred zero to QuickBooks after using both.

New comment by idw in "Supernovae Evidence for Foundational Change to Cosmological Models"

idw — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:59:56 +0000

"Cosmological models are built on a simple, century-old idea – but new observations demand a radical rethink" (2023) < by David Wiltshire, one of the authors of this paper, aimed at non-physicists

https://theconversation.com/cosmological-models-are-built-on...

New comment by idw in "Ask HN: Do you feel burnout from being less hands on as you become more senior?"

idw — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 22:18:38 +0000

Remember that senior roles are about building teams around you to get the job done. I'm wondering if your current experience reflects what the job has to be, or whether you could shape your team so that your job gives you energy, and other people do jobs that give them energy, and together you get the job done.

New comment by idw in "Ask HN: What would you do with a 130 ton locomotive?"

idw — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:54:22 +0000

Crash into a nuclear waste container, of course https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/operation-smash-hit/