Hacker News: throwaway84742

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Trump Defends ZTE Concession After Sparking Bipartisan Rebuke"

throwaway84742 — Tue, 15 May 2018 18:29:53 +0000

And yet he still has 4 billion dollars and is a president of the US. Must be pretty good at negotiating.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Trump Defends ZTE Concession After Sparking Bipartisan Rebuke"

throwaway84742 — Tue, 15 May 2018 18:26:05 +0000

Trade negotiations are underway. This is a part of that, as was the initial ban. Trump does this again and again: he creates leverage in the form of negative consequences should he walk away from the table. Then he gives some of it back much to the relief of the other side, in exchange for something else he needs. He negotiated thousands of deals, some of which were very complicated. It could well be that he’s the strongest negotiator we ever had in that position.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Facebook Adds A.I. Labs in Seattle and Pittsburgh, Pressuring Local Universities"

throwaway84742 — Tue, 15 May 2018 14:31:36 +0000

We pay this much to strong PhDs with a good publication record. So do Google and FB. Must be able to code really well, though.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Facebook Adds A.I. Labs in Seattle and Pittsburgh, Pressuring Local Universities"

throwaway84742 — Tue, 15 May 2018 13:18:14 +0000

Competent big data folks still pull down $300-400k fairly easily. I’m talking about people who _really_ understand the field and have a track record, not “graduates with a degree”.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Facebook Adds A.I. Labs in Seattle and Pittsburgh, Pressuring Local Universities"

throwaway84742 — Tue, 15 May 2018 11:21:01 +0000

Au contraire, my friend, it’s only in the beginning of an upward hockey stick.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Facebook Adds A.I. Labs in Seattle and Pittsburgh, Pressuring Local Universities"

throwaway84742 — Tue, 15 May 2018 10:41:26 +0000

Not for top AI talent. That starts at $400k/yr

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Getting some air, Atlas? [video]"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 21:28:53 +0000

It could use spikes and/or go on all fours in “fast” mode. It’s whatever you design. My main point though is not mechanics, but the significantly lower reaction time. Given enough compute, the world that seems “real time” to us could appear to be slow as molasses to a robot. I think the natural thing to do would be to make it move at the speed that provides a good balance between accomplishing objectives and energy consumption. I think that this speed is much faster than what we’re used to with humans. For eg military robots that balance could be further tweaked in favor of quickly accomplishing objectives.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Getting some air, Atlas? [video]"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 20:11:31 +0000

As Elon Musk quipped, in a few years this thing will move so fast you’ll need a strobe to see it. It’s not subject to the human reaction time or mechanical constraints.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 18:10:30 +0000

Are you sure? This means the whole grant vests in 2.5 years. Their vesting period used to be much longer than that.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Boston Dynamics will start selling its dog-like SpotMini robot in 2019"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 17:06:25 +0000

A slightly larger version of Sand Flea seems like a better fit. Disposable, can be deployed relatively cheaply in large quantities, with good camo nearly invisible on the ground, can scale obstacles by jumping. Could be made to carry a fragmentation payload and/or spy gear.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 16:31:27 +0000

All of this is _very_ recent.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 13:10:18 +0000

Not playing the money game is dangerous as well. Like it or not, money is a potent signaling mechanism. The more you’re able to charge, the better you’re treated, the easier it is to get access to “cool” jobs and projects, and the easier it is to throw in the towel on the shitty ones. I’m not even talking about things like compound interest and the peace of mind that comes with financial independence in your mid to late 30s, even just tactical considerations make it worthwhile to extract as much money as possible from the employers. After all, they do try to extract as much productivity from you as possible, so it’s only fair to reciprocate. There’s no shame in it, and pursuing meaningful work at the same time is far from mutually exclusive.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 13:03:08 +0000

Didn’t know. Then, Microsoft, take notice. :-)

New comment by throwaway84742 in "The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the Books"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 12:58:58 +0000

They are also not meant to do R&D. For one thing they don’t pay market rate, so their access to top talent is non-existent. For another, there’s no accountability and no “fear of death”, since the government essentially can’t run out of money. Why try to use resources wisely if you can just tax people, or if that doesn’t work, print more money, and thereby tax their children and grandchildren. No, I’d much rather this risk was compartmentalized.

Another issue is, you’re de facto giving the rest of the world a free ride on US taxpayer largesse. Even better free ride than what they’re getting now: paying a dime on the dollar for newest genetic drugs without spending any money on their development. I’d go along with that in the poor countries like India, but I see no reason whatsoever why I should be paying 5-6x as much as some dude in Western Europe, all while he tries to lecture me about their “free” healthcare. I’d much rather I paid less and they paid the same as me.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the Books"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 11:53:20 +0000

This sounds like an excellent way to burn a trillion dollars with no tangible result. Government == money black hole, with very few exceptions.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 10:56:13 +0000

I heard FB starts vesting monthly right away these days, which imo is absolutely the way it should be. Google, take notice.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the Books"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 08:27:31 +0000

And Charlie Gard would have disagreed with Stephen had the court not decided that he should die.

There is another high profile ALS sufferer in the US: Jason Becker, a super virtuoso guitarist popular in the 80s, tragically afflicted at the very peak of his ability. Still alive, still writing music, but can’t move anything but his eyes or breathe. No one sentenced him to death or anything.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Becker

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 08:17:06 +0000

Nothing wrong with chasing money and status, especially in the initial stages of one’s career. If that’s what _really_ makes him/her tick, great. Money especially tends to have multiplicative effect over time, most jobs you take will necessarily pay more than the previous job. But notice the “really”. There’s 45 years of work in a lifetime, and one needs to find a deeper motivation than money and status.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 06:38:18 +0000

Not in my case. I’ve asked them numerous times to remove my email, it subsides for a while and then comes back at the same rate.

New comment by throwaway84742 in "Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?"

throwaway84742 — Mon, 14 May 2018 06:02:01 +0000

I heard FB is good as well, though I still don’t get why they need so many people to do what they do. Heck, even MS is probably better than Amazon. I delete all Amazon recruiter emails (of which I receive about 2 per week) as soon as they arrive.