Hacker News: toby

New comment by toby in "How to send $ETH in 19 lines of Python"

toby — Wed, 05 May 2021 19:20:04 +0000

It's interesting that the Kimberley Process intended to prevent conflict diamonds is a chain of warranties, one of the criticisms thereto was that there was little proof that the previous warranty ever existed.

So even though you're being sarcastic, you might be on to something there :) (I'm not suggesting this is possible, just idle musings)

New comment by toby in "Rust is for Professionals"

toby — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 16:12:24 +0000

There's a Cargo tool called "clippy" which will tell you if it finds unnecessary clones.

New comment by toby in "Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama"

toby — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:54:25 +0000

That's because SAG is a guild, not a union, and it works because every known actor is voluntarily a member, so you can't make a movie without agreeing to their rules.

New comment by toby in "Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama"

toby — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:49:13 +0000

I'm not arguing, if anything I'm agreeing, was just trying to clarify some things.

New comment by toby in "Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama"

toby — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:19:33 +0000

Guilds are a little different from unions in practice. They set minimum standards but there's no group negotiation based on seniority or anything like that. Studios are free to pay some hot rising star 100x as much as the guy who has been a character actor for 30 years as long as he's making the minimum and getting his breaks and meals and stuff.

It's also a challenge to get into a guild, SAG has minimum requirements for having already performed. A union is generally just something you have to join when you take a job at a unionized company.

This is not a value judgment, just wanted to point out the differences.

New comment by toby in "Dogs orient and move in synchrony with family members"

toby — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 17:21:14 +0000

This is pretty cultural and contextual -- in many social groups, at least on the west coast, holding hands and cuddling between friends is common. In some Asian countries you often see two boys walking down the street holding hands. I don't really agree that there's wisdom in teaching people jealousy over perfectly innocent behavior.

New comment by toby in "I Miss My Bar"

toby — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 16:09:54 +0000

> apparently the free market is a good idea only when your business goes well

This statement is so confusing. Forcing millions of businesses which were previously legal to shutter under questionable authority is literally the opposite of a free market.

New comment by toby in "I Miss My Bar"

toby — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 15:51:45 +0000

Open-air dining with six feet of separation is almost certainly safe. There's literally no evidence to the contrary despite multiple court orders to produce any.

New comment by toby in "McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source"

toby — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:39:23 +0000

Totally agree, this is cherry-picking.

I don't have an opinion on how useful McKinsey is, but I'll note that no one is pointing out that they also did a lot of work for Microsoft before their big turnaround.

New comment by toby in "McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source"

toby — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:33:11 +0000

Since you went there...

"Affect" can also be a noun, referring to behavioral characteristics :)

New comment by toby in "Ask HN: I want to start learning Lisp. Where do I begin?"

toby — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 15:47:59 +0000

There are a few people who have translated the solutions to Clojure, this one looks like the most comprehensive: http://www.sicpdistilled.com/

New comment by toby in "Being good at coding competitions correlates negatively with job performance"

toby — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 03:22:28 +0000

I think you'll find a good sample of people who did poorly on their interviews but were still hired due to stellar references, corporate politics or nepotism.

New comment by toby in "Ask HN: Was 20% time a good policy for Google's working culture?"

toby — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 23:29:28 +0000

It was amazing how some people lapped up everything he wrote about Google (case in point: apparently a lot of people don't believe 20% time exists at all any more), I guess because he was so prolific (it was hard for actual Googlers to keep up rebut everything), and he was playing into some confirmation bias.

New comment by toby in "Airbnb’s Stunning IPO"

toby — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 23:47:31 +0000

Fair point -- I should have been more clear, this analysis was based on comparing the post-lockup price to the first trade, and also to the primary offering price (not 180 days to 179 days). You'd sometimes see a drop from the "pop" price, although not always, and it would almost never fall below the primary price.

New comment by toby in "Elon Musk Decries ‘M.B.A.-ization’ of America"

toby — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 19:41:34 +0000

I suppose it depends what you mean by "run", but Sheryl Sandberg went to HBS

New comment by toby in "Airbnb’s Stunning IPO"

toby — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:35:49 +0000

Without any judgment, your sample may be extremely biased...

New comment by toby in "Airbnb’s Stunning IPO"

toby — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:23:03 +0000

Everyone says this about the lock up and it makes sense intuitively, but it doesn't really match the data. I saw a presentation by a major investment bank that showed that in most cases there is not a significant drop following the lock up expiration -- I'm sure there are examples either way, but this was a compelling basket.

New comment by toby in "The Airbnbs"

toby — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 01:42:09 +0000

Thank you. Anyone who looks at the numbers can see that AirBnb is not affecting housing availability in any meaningful way.

There are about 6 times more permanently vacant units in SF than the peak number of AirBnb, and the amount of construction that has been blocked during discretionary review (met the zoning requirements, people complained about parking) since AirBnb's existence far exceeds the AirBnb units too.

(I am in favor of vacancy taxes, a house being used, even by a short-term renter, is better than the blight caused by properties sitting empty)

New comment by toby in "DoorDash from Application to IPO"

toby — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:52:47 +0000

Off the top of my head, Sequoia did back The Melt, there was a time a few years ago when VCs did dabble in restaurants.

New comment by toby in "An Elderly Mathematician Hacked the Lottery for $26M"

toby — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 22:49:49 +0000

I've both made friends and strengthened existing friendships at the blackjack table and craps table. I love gambling for its own sake, but it's still a little sad to me that so much of a casino floor is slot machines which are not social.