Hacker News: throw681158

New comment by throw681158 in "You can't tell people anything (2004)"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 08:17:45 +0000

I don't think this is accurate. The hyenas are fundamentally sadistic and difficult to satiate. That's why they're poor - it's what got them banished. They make them hyenas to reinforce it's not brought on by the situation, they're just like that. You run the risk of a racial analogy whenever you use species to articulate personality but i don't think it's intended, even subconsciously.

I think it's actually a very deep analogy to real fascist regimes. Recruit the type of poor who beat people up in bars via rhetoric that implies the rich are responsible for both their situation, and that behaviour. One implication is that the rich are the only ones who are exploitative, and the leader of the revolution in particular is not. "When we win, I will be good to you." Then you end up with a dictator.

At a meta-level the point is that the hyenas are the type of people who are insatiable, which is why they're persuaded by empty promises of power and why everything turns to wasteland once they're in charge.

But even then, conflict is a fact of life. If the hyenas hate you, allowing them to take charge will suck for you, even if it's nice for them. It's not a nice point but IMO it's an important life lesson.

New comment by throw681158 in "Sat solver on top of regex matcher"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:59:33 +0000

Good point.

New comment by throw681158 in "You can't tell people anything (2004)"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:47:06 +0000

Ehh, that reads like shoehorning in a political agenda to me. The hyenas aren't dangerous because they're foreign, they're foreign because they're dangerous. Their actions make them a threat - they're sneaky, mean and evil. That's why the lions don't accept them.

Timone is also foreign.

But like, if you want a parable they already gave you one: they aren't immigrants, they're Nazis.

New comment by throw681158 in "Sat solver on top of regex matcher"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:31:52 +0000

Re: already in a string, one of the primary uses of regex is to search from point in a text editor. So, cursor is in a string and you want to find the next string. Regex won't work on its own, you generally need more semantic information to differentiate opening & closing quotes (unless you can use local context from that particular language to infer it).

But more broadly, any situation where you search from a non-zero index has this problem.

I'm surprised your example works in Python. Is that a property of Python's parser, or all regex matchers?

New comment by throw681158 in "You can't tell people anything (2004)"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:18:28 +0000

This reads like sales speak. My experience is the opposite. Some people take to concepts like a duck to water, some people are dopey and forget things you told them an hour ago, some people (most people) want you to hold their hand every step of the way and will actively try to avoid figuring things out independently.

I want to say it's enthusiasm that matters, but a lazy smart person takes less time to train than an enthusiastic moron, in my experience.

If you're paid to train people it's healthy to take responsibility for that but IMO it's not realistic or true. Training someone with poor aptitude is like swimming through tar. It's palpably different.

New comment by throw681158 in "You can't tell people anything (2004)"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:13:39 +0000

I would amend this to: the better an engineer gets while still staying a salaried engineer.

Calcified engineers are more likely to enjoy the high-level corporate environment. Flexible ones leave to start companies, contract, whatever.

New comment by throw681158 in "You can't tell people anything (2004)"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:09:02 +0000

In my experience pushy parenting works. Kids tend to come out of it kinda awkward but broadly academically successful and morally upstanding. No way in hell I'd do that to my kid, but it's not a strategy doomed to failure.

New comment by throw681158 in "You can't tell people anything (2004)"

throw681158 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 05:43:51 +0000

I think mythology is an important metaphorical tool, but I'm inclined to agree with you. Disney movies are engineered to sell, usually by indulging kids' fantasies. One of the big numbers in The Little Mermaid is literally, "I have so many toys, and now I'm in love." It's kid-crack. Kids like candy.

I like Mulan though, and The Lion King. I think those are some very cool movies with very good life lessons.

New comment by throw681158 in "Sat solver on top of regex matcher"

throw681158 — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 06:44:36 +0000

Won't work if you're already in a string, or if there are escaped quotes in the string. Also won't work if you have two or more double quoted strings that both contain an apostrophe.