Hacker News: j_baker

New comment by j_baker in "Regretting the Golden Handcuffs: Beware the Costs of Burnout"

j_baker — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 20:33:54 +0000

It's not as much about how many hours you work so much as how much of your life revolves around your job. Ask yourself this: if things aren't going well in your job, what happens? If your life revolves around one thing and that thing goes badly, it affects your whole life. Having more things outside of work helps a great deal.

New comment by j_baker in "My Brother's Keeper"

j_baker — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 19:55:04 +0000

AA still has its place. A lot of people like its philosophy. Plus, some people just don't respond to anything else other than its "tough love" philosophy.

New comment by j_baker in "Gotty – Share your terminal as a web application"

j_baker — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 20:52:38 +0000

Is it just me, or does this seem horrendously insecure? How does this prevent arbitrary third parties from accessing your terminal?

New comment by j_baker in "Privacy Badger – Block spying ads and invisible trackers"

j_baker — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 18:34:05 +0000

The "show only ads from people who aren't assholes" is basically what AdblockPlus does.

New comment by j_baker in "Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony"

j_baker — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 14:55:20 +0000

> Well yeah... it's completely delusional to think a 3 month developer should earn the median income for programmers.

$75k is not the median income for programmers. $75k is the median income for anyone in SF. Which is exactly my point. To expect engineers to live in SF, you have to be willing to pay exorbitant salaries just to break even. If you want to pay a good salary, you pretty much have to pay 6 figures. Don't like it? Move to Cleveland or Detroit. I'm pretty sure $75k would be considered a great salary there. Just don't complain that developers cost too much and then require them to live somewhere with such a high cost of living.

New comment by j_baker in "Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony"

j_baker — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 05:53:12 +0000

So what you're saying is that it's "crappy programmer entitlement" to:

* Expect to earn the median income

* Expect to have a decent lifestyle.

* Expect to be able to have a family

Sounds like crappy employer entitlement to me.

New comment by j_baker in "Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony"

j_baker — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 04:50:57 +0000

Yeah, but you know what? The cost of living has also skyrocketed dramatically in Silicon Valley. I mean, you make it sound like engineers here are on a gravy train where we spend 3 months learning a language and can suddenly move to San Francisco where we just let the money roll in. The truth is it costs a lot to live in the Bay Area these days, and that means that if companies want people to move here they need to pony up and pay a good salary.

That $130k starting salary you mention is enough for a person to afford a studio in the Tenderloin these days?

New comment by j_baker in "Bay Area Living in Shipping Containers"

j_baker — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:01:18 +0000

Honestly, I think these people are dicks: http://kalw.org/post/how-tiny-shipping-container-community-c...

Not only is this an issue of residential codes. The other problem is that they're doing manufacturing in a residential neighborhood that's not zoned for manufacturing. And it's disturbing the neighbors in the area with noise and even sewage spillover.

New comment by j_baker in "A Well Known but Forgotten Trick: Object Pooling"

j_baker — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:53:55 +0000

Well, there are still cases where object pooling might make sense. Some games on mobile devices still use object pooling. I suppose I could also see the need to use object pooling for a very busy server or a very large hadoop job.

New comment by j_baker in "Dear Unicorn, Exit Please"

j_baker — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:53:18 +0000

At most private companies, stock options aren't worth the paper they're written on. Unless of course the company sells, in which case they're worth slightly more than the paper they're written on. And besides that, to exercise them you usually have to pay a pretty hefty sum. I generally don't consider equity as a part of my compensation package when I work for a private company.

New comment by j_baker in "Dear Unicorn, Exit Please"

j_baker — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:48:13 +0000

Because there's no one they can sell their shares to. With a public company, you can sell your shares on the stock market.

New comment by j_baker in "Ocean acidification may cause dramatic changes to phytoplankton"

j_baker — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 17:15:41 +0000

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem like Ocean Acidification would be less prone to "Climate Commitment" than regular climate change. Meaning, if we just stopped emitting greenhouse gases, OA would stop increasing. The rest of Climate change would still keep continuing for a few decades.

Silicon Valley should drop peer grouping to determine CEO pay

j_baker — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 05:30:14 +0000

Article URL: http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Silicon-Valley-should-drop-peer-grouping-to-6391933.php?google_editors_picks=true

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9920695

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by j_baker in "Ask HN: Stupid Question – How to undo accidental upvote/downvote?"

j_baker — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:51:54 +0000

You don't. It is not considered necessary for you to correct downvotes.

Study: Smart Phones Accurately Detect Depression

j_baker — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:51:17 +0000

Article URL: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/07/16/study-smart-phones-accurately-detect-depression/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9897939

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

The Airbnb Impact

j_baker — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 17:46:56 +0000

Article URL: http://www.sfchronicle.com/airbnb-impact-san-francisco-2015/?google_editors_picks=true#1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9879697

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by j_baker in "The boring front-end developer"

j_baker — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 17:20:56 +0000

Blah. Yet another "new-fangled technologies have no place" post. Granted, there's a grain of truth to the core thought. As I've become more experienced, I've seen more frameworks and libraries that re-invent the wheel and solve problems that have already been solved long ago, albeit in a trendier manner.

But at the end of the day, software engineers are technologists. Our job is to create and consume technology. Being afraid of new technology is counter-productive.

New comment by j_baker in "Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief"

j_baker — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 22:19:25 +0000

You're not trying to say the two are comparable are you?

New comment by j_baker in "Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief"

j_baker — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 22:15:59 +0000

For better or worse, this is life for top executives. Example: the president of the US's popularity is correlated with the economy in spite of the fact that they have very little control over it. It's not uncommon for one executive to do something totally reasonable under hard circumstances only to get ousted anyway while the next person gets the credit for their actions.

"It happened on her watch."

New comment by j_baker in "The Tech Industry Is in Denial, but the Bubble Is About to Burst"

j_baker — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 20:58:23 +0000

They quote Shiller as saying that we're in a bubble, but then they conveniently leave out another quote:

> But I'm not sure that the current situation is a classic bubble because I'm not certain that most people have extravagant expectations.

Not to mention that Shiller scarcely mentions the tech industry. When he's asked what asset class is the most overvalued, he points to bonds.