Random_BSD_Geek (u/Random_BSD_Geek)

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Bento: Jupyter Notebooks at Meta engineering.fb.com/2024/0... · Posted by u/Maro

web3aj · a year ago

The internal tools at Meta are incredible tbh. There’s an ecosystem of well-designed internal tools that talk to each other. That was my favorite part of working there.

Random_BSD_Geek · a year ago

Polar opposite of my experience. To achieve the technical equivalent of changing a lightbulb, spend the entire day wrangling a dozen tools which are broken in different ways, maintained by teams that no longer exist or have completely rolled over, only to arrive at the finish line and discover we don't use those lightbulbs anymore. Move things and break fast.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation? · Posted by u/xsoul

foota · 2 years ago

I don't think you want your boss to replace you when you go on vacation.

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

The point is that some arbitrary number of weeks of vacation isn't the business-destroying choice this founder makes it out to be. Use your PTO. You earned it.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation? · Posted by u/xsoul

samsolomon · 2 years ago

There's a lot of "it depends" here. As both a former founder and early startup employee these are the things that come to mind—

How far out did you discuss this with your employer? Were they aware of it when you joined? There's a pretty big difference if this is 6 months or two weeks away. Setting expectations go a long way here on both sides.

What is the size of the business? People are more critical the smaller the business is. The stakes are very different for a business with 10 vs 100 vs 1,000 employees.

Is the business cashflow positive—or near it? You said startup, so that makes me think they aren't cash flow positive. Three consecutive weeks is a lot to ask for a small business that isn't making money.

Essentially, the more stable the business is the less of an issue I'd expect it to be—given expectations were set in advance.

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

This is unbelievable nonsense.

Your employees accrue PTO. If you can't handle them using their PTO, maybe you shouldn't have employees.

If three consecutive weeks is a lot to ask, what would you do when that same employee gets hit by a bus and is dead for even longer?

Oh right, you'd just replace them and the business would move on.

OP, this is the real answer to your question. The business doesn't care about you or your well being.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation? · Posted by u/xsoul

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

What convention?

Your manager is a bad manager.

Sincerely, A Former Manager

Random_BSD_Geek commented on It's Time to Tax Billionaires vice.com/en/article/qjvxk... · Posted by u/rntn

strangesmells02 · 2 years ago

The United States makes an astounding amount of money in taxes already.

Why isn't the emphasis on using the current tax dollars more efficiently?

Every government institution that I have been a part of has massive amounts of waste and not on a small scale either..but on a large scale. universities, scientific research labs, government grants, defense industry, bailing out banks who gamble with client money, etc.

They lost billions in Iraq. No one knows where it went.

We're giving billions to Ukraine with zero strategic interest to the United States.

Bills pass constantly in Congress with funding riders that have absolutely nothing to do with the bill itself.

We don't need more taxes in America.

We need some accountability for where our current money taken in taxes is being allocated.

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

> We're giving billions to Ukraine with zero strategic interest to the United States.

This is a bewilderingly head-in-the-sand assertion.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents manu.zone/books/close-to-... · Posted by u/manuhortet

manuhortet · 2 years ago

I recently read Ellen Ullman's memoir about her life as a software developer in the dot-com bubble era: "Close to the machine: Technophilia and its discontents".

The book was written before I was born, but I can still closely relate to most of the cultural points made. She does a great job defining the anxieties and frictions you experience working in the duality of the very formal computer systems and the subjective, messy working contexts, filled with deadlines, bureaucracy, "rockstars"...

Her takes on the internet are also super relevant today. A favorite extract of mine: "When I watch the users try the Internet, it slowly becomes clear to me that the Net represents the ultimate dumbing-down of the computer. The users seem to believe that they are connected to some vast treasure trove — all the knowledge of our times, an endless digitized compendium, some electronic library of Alexandria — if only they could figure out how to use it. But they just sit and click, and look disconcertedly at the junk that comes back at them".

What other similar books would you recommend?

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

> What other similar books would you recommend?

"Close to the Machine" by Ellen Ullman and "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland occupy roughly the same space in my memory.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on US Secret Service: “blockchain is an opportunity to track money” coinpaper.com/1505/us-sec... · Posted by u/paulpauper

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

My pet theory is that Bitcoin was created by a Five Eyes intelligence service.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Lonely individuals process the world in idiosyncratic ways journals.sagepub.com/doi/... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

ltbarcly3 · 2 years ago

People are strange When you're a stranger Faces look ugly When you're alone Women seem wicked When you're unwanted Streets are uneven When you're down

Random_BSD_Geek · 2 years ago

Sad this was downvoted; it was the first response I related to.

When you're strange, faces come out of the rain.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine? · Posted by u/drukenemo

Random_BSD_Geek · 3 years ago

I forgot the question.

Random_BSD_Geek commented on Living on a Torus vinequai.com/livingonator... · Posted by u/kkwteh

Random_BSD_Geek · 3 years ago

> Living on a Torus

I can't help but hear this in Bon Jovi's voice.