Hacker News: propter_hoc

New comment by propter_hoc in "Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying"

propter_hoc — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:24:04 +0000

Sorry - didn't mean to be vague but I don't want to out my acquaintance too much. She has a good job in STEM. I think she does fine for herself and I would have thought her capable of paying the loan.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying"

propter_hoc — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:18:24 +0000

Yeah. I don't know the extent of her debt or current income, but she went to an in-state school for a STEM degree, she's not someone who got a useless degree from an overly expensive school. She definitely doesn't seem to regret her decision, whatever the financial or moral considerations.

As I said, I'm a bit perplexed.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying"

propter_hoc — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:04:09 +0000

I'm Canadian, but I know someone from the US who did this. She's living in Paris, moderately successful in academia and as far as I can tell, completely happy to never return to the US. Her family goes to visit her in Europe once in a while.

Perplexing.

New comment by propter_hoc in "SBA cuts off non-US citizens from primary loan program"

propter_hoc — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:39:04 +0000

Starter comment, as a Canadian entrepreneur with US citizenship, I can't fathom the rationale for this. Why would you dissuade permanent residents from starting businesses that employ citizens?

Sure, block access to companies controlled by non-residents, but lots of people come to Silicon Valley legally to start businesses, shutting them out of financing seems beyond bizarre.

SBA cuts off non-US citizens from primary loan program

propter_hoc — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:32:58 +0000

Article URL: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/03/sba-non-us-citizens-primary-loan-program-00762363

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46877608

Points: 8

# Comments: 2

New comment by propter_hoc in "You don't want to hire "the best engineers""

propter_hoc — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 16:18:51 +0000

This is the answer

As a startup you don't have Google's money. You don't have Google's employer brand. You don't have Google's work environment.

in fact as a (hopefully) fast-growing startup the only thing you really have to offer is growth. So make it clear how you are going to help the candidate grow their career and experience faster at your startup than at the established company, and offer the best you can do on comp and work environment.

This doesn't mean fresh grads, but more like someone with a bit of experience who's ready to jump into a team lead or architectural lead role.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Paracetamol disrupts early embryogenesis by cell cycle inhibition"

propter_hoc — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 20:13:04 +0000

Your comment is fair; obviously I wrote a pretty flippant comment, but the message is largely useful for most people.

The fact is that (largely due to the incredible marketing of Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol brand in the US) way too many people think acetaminophen is "safe and effective" when it's actually both pretty unsafe and pretty ineffective. Most people just "pop a Tylenol" by default without realizing it's not much better than placebo.

Sure there are cases where people have unique risks and should avoid NSAIDs. But for the vast majority of the public, if they or their kid are dealing with a headache, fever, menstrual cramp, or other transient pain or fever, they should reach for ibuprofen (with a snack) over acetaminophen. It's not remotely a close call.

I'm frankly pleased that people are becoming more aware of this and I don't mind taking a couple correction comments for presenting the info in a superficial way.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Paracetamol disrupts early embryogenesis by cell cycle inhibition"

propter_hoc — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:45:05 +0000

From wikipedia:

At a standard dose, paracetamol slightly reduces fever,[13][17][18] though it is inferior to ibuprofen in that respect[19]

[13] Warwick C (November 2008). "Paracetamol and fever management". J R Soc Promot Health. 128 (6): 320–323. doi:10.1177/1466424008092794. PMID 19058473. S2CID 25702228.

[17] Chiumello D, Gotti M, Vergani G (April 2017). "Paracetamol in fever in critically ill patients-an update". J Crit Care. 38: 245–252. doi:10.1016/j.jcrc.2016.10.021. PMID 27992852. S2CID 5815020.

[18] de Martino M, Chiarugi A (December 2015). "Recent Advances in Pediatric Use of Oral Paracetamol in Fever and Pain Management". Pain Ther. 4 (2): 149–68. doi:10.1007/s40122-015-0040-z. PMC 4676765. PMID 26518691.

[19] Pierce CA, Voss B (March 2010). "Efficacy and safety of ibuprofen and acetaminophen in children and adults: a meta-analysis and qualitative review". Ann Pharmacother. 44 (3): 489–506. doi:10.1345/aph.1M332. PMID 20150507. S2CID 44669940.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Paracetamol disrupts early embryogenesis by cell cycle inhibition"

propter_hoc — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:42:46 +0000

That's fair, but naproxen is OTC or prescription-only in many jurisdictions.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Paracetamol disrupts early embryogenesis by cell cycle inhibition"

propter_hoc — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:39:00 +0000

Basically, the pharma industry's most successful marketing campaign ever. Here's an article from 1982:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/10/02/h...

https://archive.md/rssPI

New comment by propter_hoc in "Paracetamol disrupts early embryogenesis by cell cycle inhibition"

propter_hoc — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:38:12 +0000

Yes, you need to take it with food, but it won't cause liver failure.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash"

propter_hoc — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 14:14:01 +0000

I understand your point. Thanks for your thoughtful engagement.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash"

propter_hoc — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 13:53:39 +0000

Sure - I understand these roofing, HVAC and landscaping expenses are associated to the common amenities? So if you spin out the clubhouse into a country club that members can opt to join, you can allocate the clubhouse an appropriate amount of cash. When you negotiate with the county to take over management of the grounds including the pond, you can negotiate to give them some of the reserve money for the future pond fixes.

I understand it wouldn't be easy to change all these management responsibilities, but in principle everything the HOA does can be devolved to either voluntary associations, or to public authorities (as happens in most of the rest of the world). Unlike a condo association, it's not a completely unimaginable shift what this lawmaker is proposing.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash"

propter_hoc — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 13:27:10 +0000

I upvoted you despite entirely disagreeing with your premise. Yes - negotiate with the county to take over management of the playgrounds and lawn mowing. Yes - make the clubhouse and parking lots open, fee-based and voluntary, and controlled by a private corporation rather than an imposed, taxed service. Yes - return the excess money to the current homeowners, or use some of it to effectuate these conversions.

Honestly, the amount of money you have in reserve, plus the list of amenities you list, makes it sound like the HOA has been sitting on a spigot of endless cash for a very long time and finding nice-to-have things to justify the continued fees.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Why are there so many rationalist cults?"

propter_hoc — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 11:27:09 +0000

The major problem I see in this group is that they have constructed a self-identity of being intelligent. This means that by being part of a Rationalist group, a person can claim to have insight into things that "the rest of the world doesn't understand."

Which, because (1) self-identifying as intelligent/insightful does not mean you are actually so; (2) you are following the "brain reprogramming" processes of some kind of comvincing leader; is a straight shot to NXIVM style apocalyptic cultism.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Congress moves to reject bulk of White House's proposed NASA cuts"

propter_hoc — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 04:16:31 +0000

> Fewer robots, more humans

Exactly the opposite of what they should be funding..

New comment by propter_hoc in "Ask HN: What are some cool or underrated tech companies based in Canada?"

propter_hoc — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 23:36:56 +0000

https://sabotagestudio.com/ near Quebec City, they made the amazing 2D JRPG Sea of Stars https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Stars

Very excellent takeoff of Chrono Trigger or Lufia 2 type SNES games. Truly exceptional.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games"

propter_hoc — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 13:16:19 +0000

Speaking personally as a JRPG fanatic, I've taken a look at the series a bunch of times on Steam, and there are so many obstacles to getting into it:

- where do I start? There's a dozen titles and no clear entry point

- supposedly the series' genre changed over time? So if you like it in one game it might be a different game in a sequel

- it looks weirdly unserious? Like much of the advertising focuses on doing bizarre side activities rather than any actual plot-driven message

- all this on top of having a very non-traditional environment for an RPG which already is a bit of a hurdle in messaging what the game will be like

It's just very unclear from the outside how to get started with this series, and what I'll get if I do pick one to try.

New comment by propter_hoc in "Tesla shows no sign of improvement in May sales data"

propter_hoc — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 17:06:28 +0000

I'm not sure you should generalize from your Toyota's reliability to Tesla. https://insideevs.com/news/731559/tesla-least-reliable-used-...

New comment by propter_hoc in "San Francisco crypto founder faked his own death"

propter_hoc — Sat, 10 May 2025 23:31:22 +0000

Cryptocurrency is so exhausting. How do people handle working in a market so full of scams?