Hacker News: joeax

Combining spicy foods with mint boosts anti-inflammatory effects 100x or more

joeax — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:24:56 +0000

Article URL: https://scitechdaily.com/this-spice-combo-could-slash-inflammation-hundreds-of-times-more-effectively/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47723243

Points: 70

# Comments: 42

Developers hate their job, but like to code outside work

joeax — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 23:32:47 +0000

Article URL: https://newsletter.techworld-with-milan.com/p/developer-hate-their-job-but-like

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41197499

Points: 4

# Comments: 3

New comment by joeax in "Defeated CEOs are now conceding hybrid working is here to stay"

joeax — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 02:17:52 +0000

What is happening is people who are being forced into RTO are demanding a higher salary. Basic supply and demand dynamics are coming into play. Those CEOs are now learning this perhaps the (not surprising) hard way.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240322-us-salaries-hi...

New comment by joeax in "Defeated CEOs are now conceding hybrid working is here to stay"

joeax — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 02:05:52 +0000

Thank you for saying the quiet part out loud. I read articles stating that "the majority want hybrid", but what people truly want is freedom to work wherever it suits them best. I've been remote for 15 years, and I've seen people that want the connection an office provides, and others (like me) prefer to never set foot in an office again. Just look around at the other comments and you read differing preferences. And that's cool. Just leave me and others alone and let us work how we prefer.

As far as your quarterly meetings comment is concerned, even that is a variation of hybrid. I worked at a company once that had the quarterly meetups. It worked, but sometimes it was a disruption to a normal routine, especially for some co-workers who flew cross-country. Another company (100% remote company) had the annual weekly retreat which I liked better. You got your face time/watercooler collaboration bullshit/whatever out of the way, then 358 days of peace til the next one.

New comment by joeax in "Tim Berners-Lee: Web3 is not the web"

joeax — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 01:54:29 +0000

Sounds more like the early days of web 1.0

New comment by joeax in "Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?"

joeax — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 16:14:16 +0000

I've been working in software consulting for over 10 years. I've worked for 5 different agencies, some small, and some household names. Every single one of these companies has hired out to independent consultants (or smaller agencies) willing to take on part time, hourly work. You have to remember most firms that are billing are constantly juggling the chicken and egg of having too much billable work in the pipeline or not enough.

My advice - figure out your core niche (i.e. GCP, Go, Rust) and reach out to 2-3 firms and propose your services and availability. Look in your LinkedIn network for any 1st or 2nd connections working at consulting firms.

New comment by joeax in "Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?"

joeax — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 19:00:26 +0000

I got a $10,000 raise and a $1,000 bonus for passing the GCP exam. All this for 3 weeks of studying in my spare time and 2 hours at a test center.

New comment by joeax in "Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?"

joeax — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 18:53:50 +0000

That's funny, because I've always felt the opposite when evaluating candidates. If a candidate comes in saying certs are "trash" and "pointless" it usually looks less favorable. It signals an unwilling to learn and/or strive for continuous improvement. Certs are not the end all/be all but they help round our your knowledge and open your eyes to things you never knew.

As far as side-projects and open source contributions, this is a two way street. When I look at side projects, I look for how well you are utilizing best practices in your code. If it's a sloppy, poorly documented mess it doesn't look favorably for you. If you use your side projects as a marketing tool they should be well-polished.

New comment by joeax in "Outdated Answers: accepted answer is now unpinned on Stack Overflow"

joeax — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 15:28:10 +0000

One of my peeves has always been the accepted answer is one of those "That's not possible" type answers, only to become possible later on with a newer release.

New comment by joeax in "Slack is the right tool for the wrong way to work"

joeax — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 22:43:36 +0000

I once worked at a (open) office where sales people were constantly berating engineers, asking for a feature or pestering for a status update on a feature/bug in progress. It got so bad they installed a wall around that area.

New comment by joeax in "“I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”"

joeax — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 19:38:54 +0000

It can be if they give you something to start with.

One company gave out sample code and asked me to optimize it so it ran under 5 seconds. The exercise was in parallelizing or caching/reusing what you could per the requirements.

it was great because:

- problem statement clearly defined

- skeleton code provided

- about 2 hours to complete

- solved an actual, real-world problem

New comment by joeax in "“I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”"

joeax — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 04:19:46 +0000

I have several certifications from Microsoft and Google and, for the most part, mean jack to an interviewer. I am still forced to leetcode and answer mind-numbing questions.

On a side note, of all the choices I prefer a take-home, as long as it is timeboxed to no more than 1-2 hours.

New comment by joeax in "Super-spreading wedding demonstrates Covid-19 risk posed by holiday gatherings"

joeax — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 17:16:46 +0000

If the care facility is housing at-risk patients, they should have strict protocols in place for visitors. Shaming a wedding here seems irresponsible by the media considering these people could have picked up Covid anywhere like Walmart.

New comment by joeax in "I don’t have time for coding challenges"

joeax — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 21:48:57 +0000

I've been on both sides of the table and I'll tell you a coding challenge is a much better solution than the whiteboard/leetcode/code-on-the-fly during the interview. Just keep it short i.e. 2-4 hours max.

As far as alternatives to a coding challenge, the OP did suggest walking through a prior project on GitHub. I think that's a great idea (in addition to a coding challenge though); an open source project on GitHub is a bonus for a candidate, and will in many cases steer the interviewer to ask questions about your project in lieu of abstract concepts.

New comment by joeax in "Politically-correct witch-hunt is killing free speech"

joeax — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 01:12:22 +0000

I hate to remind everyone but PC culture is here to stay. We can all complain about but the fact is no one has a solution, except for staying off social media (which I generally have been doing, and I've never been happier).

Need proof? Go watch the movie PCU, made in 1994.

New comment by joeax in "Wells Fargo temporarily suspending applications for home-equity lines of credit"

joeax — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:10:15 +0000

Two years ago someone I know was laid off. After a three-month climb to find a new job, they vowed to put together an emergency fund. After a sudden drop in rates, they took out a small cash-out refinance. Luckily they still have a job, but the fact that they now have that cushion puts their mind at ease.

Lesson learned: take advantage of cheap credit while you can.

New comment by joeax in "Colornames.org – A collaborative effort to name all 16.7M colors"

joeax — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 16:54:43 +0000

Just go to any paint store and you'll find yourself halfway there. When we were searching for gray tones we were stunned at the creative names we saw for the thousands of grays available i.e. "mindful gray" "blissful stone" etc.

That's got a be a dream job for some uber-creative artist.

New comment by joeax in "Working from home – things no one talks about"

joeax — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 05:37:02 +0000

I figured it was only a matter of time before all the WFH "advice" articles would start. This guys's been doing it for 2 weeks and he's already an expert dispensing advice. I've been WFH for 8 years, so reading this is a bunch of LOL.

Regarding headphones, this is not an issue once you move into a dedicated office space in your house. One thing I use to hate is taking headphones on/off every time there's a call. Regarding set hours, that's totally a preference. I work late at night sometimes because I feel like it. WFH means flexibility and not commuting means sometimes I get a jolt of inspiration to work off hours. I don't mind because the trade-off is I get to take time off during the day to attend school events for my kids.

Remote work is a lifestyle change for sure. More loneliness, more discipline, less water-cooler gossip. It requires the right mindset and personality that some of you don't have, and I'm sure you're itching to get back to the office.

New comment by joeax in "A programming language based on the one-liners of Arnold Schwarzenegger"

joeax — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 19:54:02 +0000

Some possible language extensions:

NewObject = IT'S NOT A TUMOR

DeallocateObject = YOU'VE JUST BEEN ERASED

WriteToFile = COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE

New comment by joeax in "Stress That Doesn't Pay: The Commuting Paradox (2004) [pdf]"

joeax — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 18:30:33 +0000

I've been working remote for 8 years and so my commute is 0 mins. But in my experience companies that allow remote work have caught on to this commute time==money dynamic and have adjusted their offered compensation accordingly. More than once have I had or heard the conversation that "well, you have the perk of no commute + living in a lower cost area, so based on that the compensation target for you is X - Y", where Y is $10-20k less.

The question I wrestle with: is it fair?

1. For living in a lower cost area, no. If I live in SF I benefit/pay a premium for living in a nicer area. That should have nothing to do with compensation (unless they are located in SF and need me close by).

2. For not having a commute, maybe. I think it is fair for a company to pay a premium to have someone onsite. But that premium should be the same whether I walk 5 mins to work or drive 50 miles.