It's not uncommon for writers to put things into their novels even they don't see. Readers and editors note what's there, and the writers can be surprised that it happened.

Sean Coyne talks about this several times on the Story Grid podcast, and it's on display in several of the episodes in which a writer's draft is examined.

Maybe the real story here is how the process of creating art taps into a part of the mind that it keeps hidden from itself, or at least doesn't expose without persuasion.

That article by mfiano focuses on reasons the author switched from Lisp to Julia. As for the "loners" part, mfiano says this:

> This hints at a very real problem with Common Lisp: it has a tendency to attract people that employ the 'NIH syndrome' and refuse to collaborate. There is a large overlap of software available, and there is a large selection of low-hanging fruit for new developers. This coupled with the fact that the language is small, relatively speaking, hurts the language immensely.

Contrast this with how djha (TFA) puts it:

> I feel like Lisp is custom built for high functioning, high quality, low-head-count teams. I kinda feel like most of my projects into this category.

So TFA is kind of taking liberties with mfiano's post. I might come down to whether or not you view NIH syndrome as a net positive or negative.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33050418

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Depressing to see that this is the kind of crap former US military are putting out.

The situation is so far beyond these trite five rules as to be laughable if it weren't so deadly serious. This was the case even in Feb 2022. Everything the author claims the US should be doing is something Russia is doing.

There are no new insights here, just a strong undercurrent of US exceptionalism. Exactly the kind of garbage Russia is feeding to its people.

Nowhere does the author explain the consequences for Russia of leaving Ukraine. How can withdrawal be a winning move if the author doesn't even know what that move leads to?

I guarantee you won't want to buy that market because it looks dead and set to drop further. But it's really instructive to go back and look at charts for various assets after bubble implosions. There's plenty of time to get in after the Johnny-come-latelies have been margin called into oblivion and even the diamond hands have folded.

The absolute worst time to make a move is during a downturn. Things tend to get extremely volatile on both the upside and downside. Everyone is excited. There's hope! Not a chance! Which way will it turn out? It keeps buyers and the faithful clinging to hope. Buy some time after they've capitulated and completely written off the market. Go back to those charts and notice that the strongest rallies happen in bear markets.

Buy after the last bull has admitted defeat. My canary in that coal mine will be Tom Lee:

https://www.cnbc.com/tom-lee/

When this perma-bull turns bearish, you'll know the waters are safe.

To answer your question, I'm waiting. Waiting for stuff to get as boring as watching paint dry.

What role is Vista playing here? It's not clear why that company is necessary or even involved.

It sounds like Vista is the owner of both entities and plans to sell the combined unit at some point.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33039665

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

> Credit card companies are anti-porn. You’ve probably heard how Pornhub can’t accept credit cards anymore. Or seen the new rules from Mastercard. Whatever crypto-utopia might come in the coming decades, today if you are blocked from banks, credit card processing, and financial services, you’re blocked from the modern economy. The vast majority of Automattic’s revenue comes from people buying our services and auto-renewing on credit cards, including the ads-free browsing upgrade that Tumblr recently launched. If we lost the ability to process credit cards, it wouldn’t just threaten Tumblr, but also the 2,000+ people in 97 countries that work at Automattic across all our products.

There are different ways to be "blocked." You can be blocked because your website can't accept CC payments, or you can be blocked because you are, for example, sanctioned by the US. It's possible to be blocked in the former sense without being blocked in the latter. For example, you own a website that accepts Bitcoin payments and which does not link to your identity.

Like it or hate it, this is a use case. I bring this up because a favorite point of contention seems to be that Bitcoin has no use cases. Here's one.

If that sounds outlandish, consider how very far the Internet has come along the free speech axis, as many commenters on this thread have pointed out. Now consider how far there remains to go and what the future is likely to hold based on past trends.

Granted, one thing Bitcoin hasn't quite managed to do (yet?) is replicate automatic payments without trusted third parties.

The economy is stabilizing. It's being weaned off of ultra-loose money for the first time in years. The stock market is starting to behave more rationally, demanding that a company whose earnings potential is sinking and which offers no dividend be valued accordingly.

> ... Meta had more than 83,500 employees as of June 30, and added 5,700 new hires in the second quarter. ...

FWIW, 28 % annualized hiring growth for a company the size and age of Meta is not normal. It's a sign of mismanagement and especially loss of focus.

It's a "solution" to the extent that you think proof-of-stake has comparable security to proof-of-work. And the jury is very much out on that one.

For example, proof-of-stake is quite vulnerable to regulatory capture. Exchanges stake users'f funds. Exchanges are regulated at the federal level. Therefore, regulator pressure can lead to protocol changes that directly harm users. There are already strong hints that this dynamic will become a big factor.

The same dynamic does not exist in proof-of-work, where exchanges and miners are decoupled.

From the research article:

> ... POW-based cryptocurrencies are on an unsustainable path. If the industry doesn’t shift its production path away from POW, or move towards POS, then this class of digitally scarce goods may need to be regulated, and delay will likely lead to increasing global climate damages.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18686-8

"Regulate" what exactly? Miners? Great, what's a "miner"? Even if you can thread that needle, all the regulation will do is to force miners into different jurisdictions or to downsize their operations. Neither of these outcomes will necessarily reduce the network's hash rate, jeopardize security, or convince Bitcoin users to stop using bitcoin.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33023839

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33008788

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

It also shifts the discussion from "what's causing the fall of the pound and the rise of long term rates" to "what will be the effect of this new round of QE?"

To get a better picture, take a broader view. This move comes as all of the world's currencies are falling against the dollar. Why?

This article might be helpful:

https://www.lynalden.com/global-dollar-short-squeeze/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33007384

Points: 9

# Comments: 0

1. Locate the city in a geographically isolated, but beautiful area close to a major employment hub.

2. Institute strong anti-growth policies.

3. Invite a UC into town.

4. Allow the UC to expand without the matching requirement to build one market-rate housing unit per admitted student.

5. Wait a few decades.

What's great about this is how everyone is trying to get something for nothing. The students are trying to get a "UC" brand without the highly-selective entry requirements of other UCs, and largely bringing in loans to pay for it. The university is growing the student population without building sufficient student housing. Property owners benefit from skyrocketing values without experiencing the pain of finding a place to live, or proportionally exploding property taxes. The city benefits from the money the students bring with them in the form of debt.

I suspect this process would go into reverse rather quickly by taking a single step. Cut the federal loans program by 50%, then 10% per year for every year thereafter.

For extra bang, repeal Proposition 13.

The political consequences should not be underestimated. Parent is actually taking responsibility, something I doubt many in the same position will. There will be scapegoats.

This is not confidence inspiring. It was obvious that the Etherum merge would affect the bottom line in a big way. Why this professed ignorance? Does it have to do with the fact that to admit that it was visible a mile away would have been to admit the deep reliance the company had come to have on the short-term Ethereum mining boom?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32983173

Points: 48

# Comments: 1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32977376

Points: 5

# Comments: 8