ck425 (u/ck425) - Readit News

ck425 commented on My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before shepherd.com/best-books/c... · Posted by u/bwb

MattPalmer1086 · 5 months ago

I never find it helpful when people say they aren't that different from each other.

Sure there may be some similarities if you want to take an analytical view of the genres, but there's an awful lot of people who like one but not the other.

ck425 · 5 months ago

The problem is once you look at the definitions it's actually quite hard to exactly define what's Fantasy vs Sci-fi. It's more a venn diagram, than strictly separate genres and everyone has their own definition of which is which. So when someone likes one but not the other, it's hard to discuss books because what one person considers sci-fi, another may consider fantasy pretending to be sci-fi, thus the complaints of the original commenter.

ck425 commented on Forced software updates just make everything worse theguardian.com/lifeandst... · Posted by u/drankl

happymellon · 7 months ago

It is quite annoying that functionality just changes on products I buy. I hate applying updates because rarely are they an improvement. Sometimes it's just reduced functionality

https://www.sammyfans.com/2025/04/16/samsung-explains-why-bl...

Or sometimes it's destructive. Postman update removes all your stuff if you refuse to create account

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37792690

ck425 · 7 months ago

I particularly hate UI changes. There seems to be a constant trend in phone software to "improve" UI while disregarding the value of consistency and familiarity. Sure UI can be improved but if it's not a massive improvement the negatives of relearning the UI and retraining muscles memory far outweigh the positives. Same applies to features too, though often due to the UI changes that come with those features (Android Chrome's bullshit tab groups pushed me to Firefox).

ck425 commented on VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in ft.com/content/356674b0-9... · Posted by u/mmarian

cs02rm0 · 8 months ago

I did.

I'm not anti-NHS, I've no agenda to see it privatised, I just want it to be better. I tried many, many private routes first. I tried NHS England, NHS Digital, the Innovation Service, AHSNs (many sections having since been renamed/reorganised). About 20 different contact points over two or three years, most of which seemed inappropriate but I made sure if anyone told me it was someone else's responsibility I checked with them.

The problems had already been recognised through public inquiries and yet were still ongoing.

I even offered to build the software for free, which, hopefully, for an individual dealing with an organisation with a budget into the hundreds of billions, falls under supportive. But as far as I could see, offering support was getting me nowhere.

I just had people acknowledging the issue and then shrugging their shoulders, pointing fingers at everyone else. So I wrote a book on it, spoke about the issue publicly and within months it was decided to spend tens of millions on sorting it.

ck425 · 8 months ago

As someone who does software for NHS Scotland, I can easily believe the tale of multiple difference directorates/orgs believing it was someone else's remit as the NHS is a super complex organization of organizations. But in your case specifically data protection laws probably made it far worse and that's true of pretty much any tech you build/deploy in the NHS. There are strict information governance rules that have to be followed for any personal information, even just emails, which exist for very good reasons and aren't particularly onerous, but they are strict so in situation like your where it's not clear who would own/be responsible for what you were offering I can could see them getting in the way.

ck425 commented on Why Are ADHD Rates So Much Higher in the U.S.? gizmodo.com/why-are-adhd-... · Posted by u/rntn

xdfgh1112 · 10 months ago

They literally pay for you to use a private clinic to ensure everyone can be assessed quickly. ADHD is legally protected and recognised. Lumping it in with most of Asia is ridiculous.

ck425 · 10 months ago

Where in the NHS is that? Maybe just an English thing. I had to go private on my own dime and thankfully my GP took over prescribing, which is uncommon and becoming increasingly so. They also put me on the NHS waiting list, back when you could still get on it without being severe, and it was only last week I had my appointment almost 4 years after being put on the list.

ck425 commented on The reality of working in tech: We're not hired to write code (2023) idiallo.com/blog/code-for... · Posted by u/foxfired

don-code · a year ago

I have a coworker who _excels_ at writing code - one of those engineers who can metabolize caffeine directly into code.

They write code to implement the all-important features. They write code to work around lack of process. They write code to work around problem people not doing their jobs well. They write code to work around buggy code by other developers. They write code to work around their own code, written weeks or months earlier.

I've been encouraging them to _reduce_ the amount of code they write, and instead consider the context around why they're writing the code. Code is just one way - and not always a particularly good way - that we can solve people and process problems.

ck425 · a year ago

Best Software Engineering advice I ever heard was at a conference talk by a guy called Dan North: "Think of code like surgery".

Basically Surgery is a means to an end (patient gets better) and a useful tool for achieving that but it's also dangerous so only used when necessary. If other treatments can fix the problem you try them first. If surgery is required you only do the minimum required to treat the issue.

Code is similar. More code means more maintenance, more tech debt, slower deliverables in future and higher risk of dependencies no one understands. So when coding ask "Can I fix this without code?" because if yes it's often easier in the long run and "What's the bare minimum/simplest code I need to write to fix the issue?".

ck425 commented on Polyamory doesn't liberate; monogamy doesn't protect carsonogenic.substack.com... · Posted by u/apsec112

big-green-man · a year ago

I think people who like ideas like polyamory have misconstrued notions about what monogamy is, which is a general cultural problem in western societies these days.

I don't own my partner and she doesn't own me. I give myself freely to her and she does the same. It's not about expectation, but commitment. I promise her she's the only one for me, despite my very human desires, and she promises me the same thing. This is healthier than the pervasive "ownership" mental model, because we both very much are aware that we have human and animal desire, and understand that the commitment is freely given. We don't get mad at each other for being attracted to other people, and feel no jealousy, we would feel betrayed if the other broke the commitment, because we were promised something by the other.

The idea that monogamy is the default in relationships outside of marriage is a very new thing in US culture. There was a time, not so long ago, when the point at which monogamy began was marriage, or for some, engagement. Needing to define being single in over convoluted terms like "polyamory" is a bit ridiculous.

I've always been very casual about these things with partners. Some can't handle it, they're jealous by nature or something. Usually, being clear "we aren't committed until we talk about that and commit" is a pretty easy to digest thing for people, even if they default to the opposite usually.

On a less personal note, it's no coincidence I think that the most successful cultures in the world were and are monogamous by social expectation. Polyamorous social structures are not conducive to responsibility with regard to rearing children, and are more often than not to leave women in a difficult position. As such, women expect commitment from men where there are few options to prevent pregnancy. That's not to say anything about the spread of disease. Jealousy is still a problem, and leads to conflict. Polygamous social structures, the second most successful of the reproduction/sex oriented social structures, lead to swathes of unmarried men, and you get rejections from the tribe, hostile takeovers, warlike cultures designed to dispose of the men who will not hope to reproduce. Monogamy is the stable arrangement and it shows. Other more exotic complex social arrangements tend to be very niche, small tribal groups relegated to basically Africa, and don't scale well.

I think if young people want to have fun, do it, be clear, if someone doesn't like it that's their decision to not participate. But slapping labels on it like it's some revolution in sexual dynamics is silly. Be prepared to outgrow your exploration, read the allegory of Chesterton's fence to understand why.

ck425 · a year ago

Similar to comments above there's a difference between poly and open. I've not tried either but I've multiple good friends who are in "monogamish" relationships and it seems to work pretty well. For them the non-monogomy is just fun they have with others, but ultimately their partnership comes first. Otherwise it's very similar to the monogamy you describe but with agreed exceptions to sexual exclusivity.

It's not for everyone and it takes a lot communication (and low levels of jealousy) but it seems to work well at providing the structure and stability of marriage without forcing the full sexual exclusivity that some find constricting.

ck425 commented on A Physicist Reveals Why You Should Run in the Rain sciencealert.com/a-physic... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

AStonesThrow · a year ago

First of all, sort of bizarre for people to get caught without any rain gear. Don't you folks read the forecasts? But it's true: I see 90% of the pedestrians outside without any rain gear when it starts raining. I suppose they may be foreigners, students, homeless, or just don't really care about a little moisture. Personally I like to pack my coat whenever there's a slight chance. I had a few unpleasant episodes where I was dressed, business casual, stood at a bus stop and got soaked, with no shelter.

Anyway, I prefer to frolic and dance in the rain. It's so rare around here, and seldom so cold that I'd want to escape it. I love it when rain comes to the desert. It's a majestic thing. Although, our monsoons often come with a heaping dose of dust storms, which are best avoided. That's why I'm keeping a goodly supply of dust masks by the door!

ck425 · a year ago

> It's so rare around here

That explains it. If it's rare where you are it's probably fairly forecastable. Try living somewhere with regular rain, like the UK, and you'll quickly learn that it's hard to predict and forecasts don't count for much.

ck425 commented on Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 30 years to prove nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/andsoitis

photonthug · a year ago

Dying sooner is certainly not why they started.. rather the bleakness of outlook is a (fairly rational) reason why they don’t quit.

If obesity is supposed to be the other main candidate for why life expectancy is down, you can do a similar analysis there. Is life really good enough to prolong or attempt to improve for people that are in at-risk categories? That’s the question people are looking at when they choose to move towards or away from self-care. For someone who makes minimum wage and already has to choose between paying for a date or paying for rent, it makes less sense for them to care much about losing weight, because it makes a bad life longer but won’t help their love life.

This is how practically all population-level analysis of health is just economics in disguise, even without directly looking at costs of medicine/services

ck425 · a year ago

I think your hypothesis is correct but your reasoning is wrong. Few people are morbid enough to think "Oh my life sucks so why bother looking after myself". But if you're constantly stressed because you're struggling in life, small indulgences like smoking, alcohol and fast food/sugar are a lot harder to resist as they provide a much needed outlet/release.

ck425 commented on Long-Covid R&D is collapsing: investors won't fund, scientifically challenging cen.acs.org/pharmaceutica... · Posted by u/ck2

LorenPechtel · a year ago

So you stick to the party line despite vast evidence to the contrary?

My SIL has never been the same (her words) since she got it--note that she does *not* live in the US where it's a political issue.

The fundamental problem is that "Long Covid" is one of these "diagnoses" that are just a description of a widely varying set of symptoms and do not identify the actual problem. For a similar example consider AIDS. There we could at least identify the vector but until we discovered HIV we weren't very effective at dealing with it. This time around we know the underlying pathogen but not the mechanism of action.

SARS had many of the same lasting effects and was never thought to be hypochondria.

ck425 · a year ago

Wow, is long covid legit a "political issue" in the US??

ck425 commented on Supreme Court blocks controversial Purdue Pharma opioid settlement washingtonpost.com/politi... · Posted by u/datadrivenangel

Aerroon · 2 years ago

I'm not here to argue, but all top 5 links for me are about smoking. I've not heard of people being addicted to nicotine patches for example, especially non-smokers.

ck425 · 2 years ago

I looked into this previously, though it was a while ago so I no longer have the sources to hand. Nicotine is still addictive on it's own but when given to non-smokers in a non-tobacco form it's notably less addictive than smoking. Still addictive but far closer to coffee than cigarettes.

Some of this can be explained by different consumptions methods. For example in lozenges, gum and patches nicotine enters the bloodstream much slower than smoking or vaping so even if you consume the same overall amount the peak is lower slowing adaption. But that couldn't explain it entirely.