Hacker News: mjklin

New comment by mjklin in "Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)"

mjklin — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:18:13 +0000

“Look at the happy moron, he doesn’t give a damn. I wish I was a moron - my God, perhaps I am!”

New comment by mjklin in "Doing nothing at work"

mjklin — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 19:50:23 +0000

It’s about what people notice. In town governments I’ve heard of cutting popular programs that will provoke an outcry only to get credit for reinstating them, while possibly smuggling through other actions that are necessary but unpopular.

New comment by mjklin in "Even light drinking raises risk of cancer, heart disease, and early death"

mjklin — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 22:29:19 +0000

https://theonion.com/world-death-rate-holding-steady-at-100-...

New comment by mjklin in "We are constantly broadcasting emotional data"

mjklin — Sat, 30 May 2026 23:30:47 +0000

He used that line as an album title too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Like_the_Sun_(album)

New comment by mjklin in "Let Me Convince You to Be Prolific"

mjklin — Fri, 08 May 2026 20:33:20 +0000

“Everyone has a mass of bad work in him which he will have to work off and get rid of before he can do better– and indeed, the more lasting a man's ultimate good work is, the more sure he is to pass through a time, and perhaps a very long one, in which there seems very little hope for him at all. We must all sow our spiritual wild oats.”

Samuel Butler, English (1835-1902)

New comment by mjklin in "New Orleans's Car-Crash Conspiracy"

mjklin — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:51:50 +0000

“One of the best descriptions of this political culture came from A.J. Liebling, who called Louisiana "the westernmost of the Arab states" and observed that its politics "is of an intensity and complexity that are matched, in my experience, only in the Republic of Lebanon. Louisiana is part of the Hellenistic—Mediterranean littoral—sensual, seductive, speculative, devious."

- The Book of America, Hagstrom and Peirce

New comment by mjklin in "The Importance of Being Idle"

mjklin — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:54:09 +0000

Reading Lin as a teenager made me want to visit China, where I met my wife. Thanks Lin!

New comment by mjklin in "March, 19-21: God is a comedian"

mjklin — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:56:04 +0000

Don’t forget Al Franken’s Supply Side Jesus! https://youtu.be/X8xU-gKK17A?si=bjUAQafNZmz0R7Zs

New comment by mjklin in "How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents"

mjklin — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:35:54 +0000

“Every family has a scripture that is difficult to read” - Chinese proverb

New comment by mjklin in "The Self-Help Trap: What 20 Years of "Optimizing" Has Taught Me"

mjklin — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:39:46 +0000

In his Essays, Michel de Montaigne had a neighbor whose doctor told him not to eat a certain dish. When Montaigne asked him why he ate it anyway, he said he needed something to curse at.

New comment by mjklin in "The Self-Help Trap: What 20 Years of "Optimizing" Has Taught Me"

mjklin — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:55:50 +0000

If Books Could Kill did a podcast on “The Four-Hour Workweek” and pointed out he explains the scam he’s running on his own readers. I guess he figures the smart (?) ones can recreate it and the rest just follow the herd.

New comment by mjklin in "We had sex in a Chinese hotel, then found we had been broadcast to thousands"

mjklin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:43:30 +0000

It’s a joke inspired by Mr Bean: https://youtu.be/EiZoSuNej5U?si=wpOzf7C-X2NvhRDd. It would take care of any cameras but I doubt the owners would be too pleased!

New comment by mjklin in "We had sex in a Chinese hotel, then found we had been broadcast to thousands"

mjklin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 20:26:28 +0000

Explode a paint bomb in the center of the room that applies an even coat to everything. It’s the only way to be sure.

New comment by mjklin in "Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings"

mjklin — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 01:55:38 +0000

The ones I’m talking about were only subtly different, like 22 oz vs 24 oz. To me it was obvious what they were doing, shoppers couldn’t compare same-size units and they could have more freedom with prices.

New comment by mjklin in "Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings"

mjklin — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 01:52:54 +0000

The sizes were requested by the companies, the tour guide pointed this out in answer to questions.

New comment by mjklin in "Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings"

mjklin — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 13:37:50 +0000

My local hummus factory puts the product destined for Costco into a different sized tub than the one destined for Walmart. Companies want to make it hard for the consumer to compare.

New comment by mjklin in "Hollywood's vision of ancient Rome is all wrong, according to Mary Beard"

mjklin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:28:06 +0000

Indeed. I wish I had been able to see this when I was taking high school Latin in the 90s, at least the school-friendly version (if it exists)

New comment by mjklin in "A Treatise on the All-Healing Qualities of Earth Bathing (1790)"

mjklin — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 14:40:58 +0000

As Ross and Carrie of ONRAC used to say, “cure-alls cure nothing.”

New comment by mjklin in "The Perplexing Appeal of the Telepathy Tapes"

mjklin — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 19:40:40 +0000

“A tendency to superstition is of the very essence of humanity and, when we think we have completely extinguished it, we shall find it retreating into the strangest nooks and corners, that it may issue out thence on the first occasion it can do with safety.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

New comment by mjklin in "Family of MSFT employee who died warn tech companies not to overwork workers"

mjklin — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 16:57:10 +0000

“Lord Coke gravely informs us that corporations cannot be excommunicated, because they have no souls, and they appear to be as destitute of every feeling as if they had also no bowels.... There is in truth but one point through which they are vulnerable, and that is the keyhole of the cash box.” - Hugo Grotius, Dutch (1583—1645)