This is not hyperbole!

Trump and Elon have started the first round of firing federal workers. A friend's organization just laid off 1500 people because 80% of their funding comes from the federal government.

Yes, HN is a special place. But your silence allows countless other special places to be destroyed. By the end of Trump's term HN might not even survive anyway.

The destruction of the federal government is a more critical issue than the origins of Proto-Indo-European people because it directly affects millions of lives in tangible ways. Yes historical curiosities are valuable, but they do not carry the same immediate, material consequences as a government being hollowed out from within.

Your comment of "discussion here is marginally* more substantive" footnoted that it's not particularly good also seems a bit condescending. Its dismissive to those attempting to engage with these stories in good faith even if a vocal minority are behaving in bad faith. When a dozen stories are popping up and disappearing in a few hours it feels a lot harder to participate in a thoughtful and substantial ways.

I can understand HN is in a rough spot. But on the other hand, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

However, I think placing this long list of stories all under the same MOT demonstrates that conversation is "happening", but at the same time it isn't really happening.

One of the key strategies used by Trump and Putin is to flood the zone (“Flood the zone with shit”: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/i...)

As an example, the parent story of this comment is no longer on the front page and instead of anything related to Musk at the fed there is now another distraction about him trying to buy OpenAI.

I haven't read all of the above articles, but from just a cursory glance it looks like many different important events are happening. If they happened one at a time over the course of a year no one would consider it MOT, but because its all happening in the same week it gets mashed together. Individual stories quickly fall off the front page.

On one hand it comes across like a conspiracy video, but on the other hand she plays direct video clips of major tech figures talking about dismantling the government and dividing the world into small nation states. Trump and Musk have also both stated they want to eliminate large amounts of the federal government.

I would love to get some perspective from those who have personally interacted with those people over the last 10 years.

This video probably falls under what you consider "activating", but it seems like we need to have conversations around this type of issue rather than letting rational voices get drowned out by the sea of angry shouting.

I'm in my late forties and have been (mostly) gainfully employed for my adult life as a software developer. Over the last few years I've suffered some burnout and was part of a mass layoff at my last job. I started seeing a therapist and things have not been going great. I might be projecting a bit, but on multiple sessions my therapist has made it seem like it's my fault for getting laid off.

I'm not quite ready to retire, but I easily have enough cash and savings to last for over a year without too much financial stress. Today during our session the therapist started being really assertive that I should make a schedule and apply for jobs on indeed or monster even though I've said repeatedly that I'm not ready to start looking. I want to be ready to start a new job and succeed rather than flame out after a couple months because I'm still depressed.

I feel like part of the problem is that my therapist isn't used to working with financially healthy and stable people so he thinks I'm on the verge of losing everything if I don't get a job soon.

Has anyone had similar issues in trying to talk with therapists or have a recommendation for someone who is used to working with software professionals?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37784560

Points: 4

# Comments: 7

I've found a few tools useful to my own workflow over the years. One of those is a proprietary app with a licensing cost of $150 per seat.

I've now started working with a company of about 800 employees with a company provided laptop. I want to get a license to install my tool on this laptop, but I'm running into resistance. Some developers at the company say there are freeware and open source alternatives, but those options are poorly implemented and missing features after using the proprietary tool.

My immediate manager has only been in management for a few months and didn't have any luck navigating the procurement hierarchy.

Any advice on pushing this to the next level?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34642448

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

That's a somewhat cynical view, but I'm sure there are plenty of other MBAs looking for people with proven experience cutting cloud costs.

The "researcher" mainly promote conspiracy theories about the lost city of Atlantis.

For better or worse there are tons of both reasonable and unreasonable factors as to why a large company would replace a part time developer's side project with something that costs 9 figures.

You don't know those reasons, the person you replied to doesn't know those reasons, and in fact the OP probably doesn't even know those reasons (they "used to turn up to that customer annually for maintenance").

Ergo, what you really want is government to enforce your version of free speech through "existing" contract law.

Be honest that you really want to use the force of government laws to mandate that Twitter spreads your version of free speech across the platform paid for and developed by Twitter.

Conservatives and libertarians LOVE to bleat about property rights, but they can't handle it when private parties won't provide free advertising for right-wing conspiracies.

Anyone who really grokked REST would never say it's nonsense to use with a JSON API.

Sounds like you never really knew what's going on here. The MPD is incompetent and wiping the slate clean is not an extreme position to many people here.

Everyone who watched the video knows George Floyd was murdered, but the MPD and its union still want to fight their termination and all charges.

MPD response to protesters has been incompetent, callous, and malicious. The majority of MPD are suburban Trump supporters and like all Trump supporters they can't stand progressive places like Minneapolis. The last straw for me was when the MPD police arrested a reporter in broad daylight on live TV.

Yes, that's my point. When I bought and sold my house I was in the same room as the other private party. We made chit-chat and it was neat, but there was no reason we had to be there other than paperwork convenience. As paperwork continues to move online I don't see why that is necessary.

I don't see a lot of reasons why we can't eventually have pre-approved 30-yr mortgage credit cards accepted by companies like OpenDoor focused on selling houses.

https://capiche.com/q/whats-your-vision-of-e-commerce-in-203...

The main reason people don't use credit cards to buy houses now is due to the credit limit. Someone rich enough to have a $300,000 credit limit probably doesn't want to buy just a $300K house. However... it's easy to imagine the building or construction industry creating a credit card type product for home builders or renovators backed by a credit line sufficient to buy distressed properties.

> Will we see people buy houses online? I mean, clearly yes, we will see that. Will it become dominant to do it without meeting one's counterparty and/or broker? That feels unlikely.

Has Patrick ever even bought a house? Some people might think it's nice to meet the buyer/seller, but the only reason you really get together in the same room is to sign a bunch of paperwork at the same time. As patio might say, "there already exists a non-zero amount of lawyers executing real estate deals without the physical presence of the actual buyer and or seller". I see no reason for the trend to dissipate.