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jvickers commented on Working from home allowed him to be a more engaged dad. Now it's over   npr.org/2024/08/09/nx-s1-... · Posted by u/rntn
koliber · a year ago
The argument for coming back to the office is flimsy. It’s framed as fairness but in reality it is not about that. Different jobs have different downsides and different perks. She claims that because sanitation workers can’t work from home neither should anyone else. Why not take away chairs for some more added fairness?
jvickers · a year ago
Or even those who work in sewers spend much of their time covered in sewage, so it's fair that everyone else does too.
jvickers commented on Ask HN: Was any Starfighter postmortem ever published?    · Posted by u/xoranth
dmoy · 2 years ago
Yea it's a problem. You're trying to hire from a pool that includes very competent people, and also people who legitimately can't write any code at all and are just trying to sneak in for 6mo to get $100k before they get fired, or think that "fake it til you make it" is a real thing. But at the same time, unlike other engineering disciples there's no PE licensing exams (or whatever the FAA does, I forget), no equivalent degree requirements (for good reason - one can learn to code without it, and a huge portion of a CS degree is very theoretical), but at the same time is qjite difficult, nothing like a plumber/electrician/etc certification level with accompanying work requirements and an apprenticeship program, and has very high pay and demand.

For very small shops willing to incur legal risk or limit the application pool, you can do take home tests and/or lean on side projects, with an hour of explaining the nitty gritty details and choices. At scale it becomes untenable, because you open yourself up for discrimination lawsuits, and you can't convince a lot of people who already have jobs and families to do lengthier take home stuff.

If I had to bet, I'd bet some day it ends up like plumbing. You work as an apprentice, learn real stuff on the job, and then there's some kind of state certification which itself is a joke, but requires you to have gone through an apprenticeship program already where all the real shit happens.

Companies trying to hire "the best" or whatever are still going to have problems, so as long as there's not much regulation increasing cost of dev and uniformity by an alarming degree, we'll still have insane hiring (and insane pay too, regs will make it unprofitable eventually).

jvickers · 2 years ago
> because you open yourself up for discrimination lawsuits

Is that because when looking to make a possibly subjective judgement on the performance in a test and especially what a side project shows, it then becomes more difficult to prove that the judgement was not instead made because of some protected characteristic of the candidate?

jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
alex_lav · 2 years ago
> Well, it's easier to accuse someone of lying when their opinions are based on facts, which are in the realm of objectivity, making them vulnerable to being proven wrong.

This is word salad.

> Tell me where the facts are in a statement like this, because I see a whole lot of political framing and appeals to emotion, and no facts.

The statement you provided is an account of an experience. Unsure what you think you're proving or disproving, but vaccine data generally isn't represented in "A single person knows of it working or not"-style data.

jvickers · 2 years ago
This is where a scientific approach to measuring opinions and experiences of multiple people would help. Peter Hotez has not demonstrated such an approach and has instead provided a possibly exaggerated and unproven anecdote as an input into discussion on how science is under threat.

He also did not bring up the issue of synthetic polyclonal antibodies, they seem quite relevant to the health of those who lack antibodies, and the transfer of antibodies from those who had developed them through their own COVID exposure or vaccination to those in most need of the antibodies.

I guess he did not even mention or give much thought to other ways that people who need the antibodies could get them, because he's much more interested in promoting vaccines, and treating vaccines as though they are the only option, and those who were on their last breaths could not have had their lives saved through other medical interventions after symptoms developed.

jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
alex_lav · 2 years ago
> Well, it's easier to accuse someone of lying when their opinions are based on facts, which are in the realm of objectivity, making them vulnerable to being proven wrong.

This is word salad.

> Tell me where the facts are in a statement like this, because I see a whole lot of political framing and appeals to emotion, and no facts.

The statement you provided is an account of an experience. Unsure what you think you're proving or disproving, but vaccine data generally isn't represented in "A single person knows of it working or not"-style data.

jvickers · 2 years ago
> This is word salad.

Try reading it again, maybe twice or more, and figuring out what is meant.

jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
dc396 · 2 years ago
Someone (including the President of the US) asserting that any vaccine is 100% effective and will prevent someone from "getting infected at all" simply means that individual does not understand how vaccines and infectious diseases caused by viruses work.
jvickers · 2 years ago
Indeed. My point is that this sets a standard for what is considered 'effective' and if it falls short of that standard, those who say it's 'ineffective' by that unrealistic standard, that is still correct.

Something can be ineffective compared to something else. Such as a COVID vaccine being ineffective compared to some expectations or representations of it.

jvickers commented on Ask HN: I hear the complaints about React, but what would be your perfect API?    · Posted by u/jvickers
nhayfield · 2 years ago
No, not another javascript framework. Do not do this!
jvickers · 2 years ago
It's been in the works for years. Very good in some ways, a bit rough round the edges though, but it's time I make a substantial demo, docs and marketing website for it. SSR was built into it from the start.
jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
tboyd47 · 2 years ago
You cannot achieve research and educational goals by attacking others.
jvickers · 2 years ago
The article was both about attacks on scientists and attacks on science itself.

My view disagrees with that of Peter Hotez, as I think that science should be vigorously attacked, especially by trying to disprove all kinds of scientific things, while also trying to prove things that contradict science. I expect that after such attacks, science would be strengthened rather than destroyed though.

jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
dc396 · 2 years ago
While I understand this position (i.e., https://xkcd.com/386/), it (along with an unholy union of the Internet, confirmation bias, pay-per-click, and echo chambers) appears to have contributed to an explosion in reality disconnection that is becoming actually threatening, e.g., there has been a surge in "vaccine hesitancy" for rabies vaccines in pets.

At some point, assertions like "[COVID] vaccines are ineffective" need to be challenged (which? over what time frame? where's the data?) or they become "everybody knows ...".

jvickers · 2 years ago
'ineffective' and 'effective' do not have very strict definitions. Something could be ineffective compared to how effective it was presented as being, such as the recent COVID vaccine. Here is one example of Joe Biden spreading vaccine misinformation: https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-2021-video-saying-vaccina...

"[COVID] vaccines are ineffective" is a fair assertion if the standard of something being 'effective' is preventing getting infected at all.

A better way to challenge the validity of that assertion is to make more effective COVID vaccines. In my view, bypassing the stage of creation of spike proteins and more directly getting the cells able to produce the relevant antibodies when needed would be a better vaccine, possibly more effective. It would also likely be safer (as the spike protein itself is dangerous, and the immune response to it can also be dangerous, by the sounds of it when the vaccine has not stayed localised in the arm but moved to the heart), so a vaccine that has solved that issue would do better when looked at in terms of a risk / reward ratio.

"[COVID] vaccines are effective [enough to be worth the risk of side-effects]" is something that would be better addressed through improving the vaccines themselves, possibly through improved public messaging, but I don't think as yet the data is there that supports that in an unequivocal way, and improved vaccines with greatly improved efficacy and safety which are then accurately described would be the best way to get the message accross.

jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
dekhn · 2 years ago
It's unclear whether it makes sense to engage with folks who question the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, especially if they are not trained in the medical research/sciences. merely for the practical reason that historically, these discussions/arguments aren't productive, quickly devolve into people calling each other ignorant idiots, and most of the "facts" people cite are really just strongly-held beliefs which are not totally inconsistent with the observed evidence.
jvickers · 2 years ago
In my view it definitely is worth engaging. In order for people to get vaccinated they need to give informed consent. In order for people to give informed consent they need to understand the risks and rewards of getting a vaccine. Arguably what I just said is my strongly held belief and inconsistent with observed evidence, but I'd still like to talk about it without calling anyone an idiot.

When it comes to training, if someone wanted to argue against my position by questioning the credentials of my scientific education perhaps they could be persuasive.

If someone was more interested in taking part in medical research/sciences and also discussions of policy relating to them I could have quite constructive conversations I expect.

jvickers commented on Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for political gain   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/rolph
jvickers · 2 years ago
There are two political gains we should coordinate our attacks to achieve:

Better vaccines (safer, more powerful)

A more informed public regarding vaccines

u/jvickers

KarmaCake day73July 5, 2014View Original