Hacker News: pconner

New comment by pconner in "Eat Real Food"

pconner — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:00:08 +0000

There are a handful of studies referenced by this review that look at health impacts of vegetable oils: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11600290/

For fried food, I'd worry way more about the raw caloric density and the overeating that can be induced by hyperpalatable foods[1] than oxidation.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable_food

New comment by pconner in "Eat Real Food"

pconner — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:14:22 +0000

Actual human RCTs do not show any increased systemic inflammation when consuming seed oils like canola vs. animal fats, and saturated fat consumption from animal cooking fats can still drive cardiovascular risk, even if it is not the singular cause.

Fried foods are bad for you regardless. The idea that one could swap out a seed oil for some other fat and keep all of their bad habits otherwise in place and magically become healthy is a fantasy.

New comment by pconner in "Two Ex-Googlers Want to Make Bodegas and Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete"

pconner — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 16:41:40 +0000

It's honestly impressive how tech people continue to exhibit a complete lack of social awareness. This is a product no one asked for (NYers actually enjoy bodegas as they are), and the PR seems to be blatantly pro-gentrification (i.e. getting rid of one of the few viable business opportunities for lower-class immigrants is spun as a good thing).

New comment by pconner in "The Google memo isn’t sexist or anti-diversity, it’s science"

pconner — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 14:28:03 +0000

Interview pass criteria are not based on the gender/race of the candidate. The criteria are the same for all candidates for the same role. The goal of diversity/inclusion programs is to find more diverse candidates to interview in the first place.

Edit: referring to Google specifically

New comment by pconner in "Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth"

pconner — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:18:05 +0000

> "Stop. That's stupid, try again."

If you can't say ~why~ it's "stupid," your comment is not useful. And if you do say why it's stupid, those reasons are much more important than the inflammatory adjective "stupid," so just say those instead.

New comment by pconner in "Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth"

pconner — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:05:05 +0000

In this cases, shouldn't the discussion be purely about the technical merits of the idea, rather than emotions of the people speaking about it? I would count removing unneeded emotions from the conversation as a positive thing.

New comment by pconner in "Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth"

pconner — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 23:09:02 +0000

> As long as the person you are saying it to understands that you respect him/her

what kind of person would say that with full vitriolic sincerity to someone they respect? Why say that when you could say, "I strongly disagree for the following reasons..." or something else similarly diplomatic and actually productive?

New comment by pconner in "Systems Past: software innovations we actually use (2014)"

pconner — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 16:47:04 +0000

> FORTRAN’s conflation of functions (an algebraic concept) and subroutines (a programming construct) persists to this day in nearly every piece of software, and causes no end of problems

I'm not really sure what the author's point is here. I think "subroutine" is a more descriptive name than the more commonly-used "function," but I'm not aware of any problems this has caused.

New comment by pconner in "Harassment at Apple: A personal perspective"

pconner — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 19:58:10 +0000

> I don't mean to discount your experience, but honestly I don't feel like this is the whole story.

Found the most HN comment I'll see all day.

New comment by pconner in "Donald Trump Is Elected President"

pconner — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 21:09:26 +0000

> trigger-warning=just google it. there are people that go in panic when they hear certain stuff (kinda insane really)

There are people who experience panic disorder/ptsd. Being "triggered" into a panic attack can literally require hospitalization. Just because you are fortunate enough to not experience this doesn't mean that all people are.

New comment by pconner in "Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?"

pconner — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 20:04:01 +0000

I was there for a bit in 2014. From what I saw, most offices had two people.

New comment by pconner in "I Hate Being Single and It Doesn’t Make Me Weak"

pconner — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 18:36:56 +0000

Inherently, or just due to societal expectations? I'm guessing it's the latter.

New comment by pconner in "What Killed the Jingle?"

pconner — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 17:52:12 +0000

People who complain about downvotes get downvoted, especially if they make a whole new comment (or more, wow) just to complain.

New comment by pconner in "Introducing Instagram Stories"

pconner — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 17:54:21 +0000

Plenty of "real" photographers use Instagram now (and have for several years).

New comment by pconner in "Amazon software engineer interview"

pconner — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:52:56 +0000

Late reply from me, but:

1. Introduction to Algorithms/CLRS (~The~ algorithms book) https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/introduction-algorithms

Also, Skiena's "Algorithm Design Manual" for something a bit lighter.

2. I chose to use Python when possible for technical interviews, as it allowed me to focus more on the algorithms/solution, rather than boilerplate. I rarely use Python in my actual job, but I still prefer it for interviews.

New comment by pconner in "Amazon software engineer interview"

pconner — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 20:41:20 +0000

Get the book, "Cracking The Coding Interview." It was the most valuable resource for me in preparing for technical interviews near the end of my time in undergrad.

New comment by pconner in "Four common mistakes in audio development"

pconner — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 18:40:59 +0000

> It's possible in Go, unlike many scripting languages, to write in an allocate-up-front style that doesn't generate garbage, in pretty much exactly the same way you'd do it in C

I am very interested in this. Do you have any links with more info?

New comment by pconner in "Reimagining the future of routers"

pconner — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 17:06:55 +0000

Yup. I like microservices as an architecture paradigm, but they are a tool, and can be used well or misused just like any other tool. And sometimes they are not the right tool for a job.

New comment by pconner in "For first time since 1880s, more young Americans live with parents than partner"

pconner — Tue, 24 May 2016 22:31:34 +0000

Do you have any real, hard data to back your statements up, or just your own personal observations?

New comment by pconner in "Trying to interview Larry Page"

pconner — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 23:26:12 +0000

> Suggestion to all potential future reporters out there: pay more attention in your math, science and engineering classes, and less in your liberal (f)arts classes.

No. You do not create technology that serves real humans by refusing to study the humanities.