mlac (u/mlac) - Readit News

mlac commented on US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago bbc.com/news/articles/c4g... · Posted by u/niuzeta

cloverich · 10 months ago

What if they offer 2x the salary to come back? Some are suggesting that is the strategy. I know of one example where this was done but in a private company with lower stakes, so i know the concept at least exists.

mlac · 10 months ago

It's not about money for government jobs. It's about the mission and, for many, the previously perceived stability + pension. The good ones, the capable civil servants who made the commitment to the government, do not need to work there but do out of a sense of duty, the interesting work, and commitment to the country.

Offering 2x is like going to Thanksgiving dinner lovingly prepared by a relative and asking at the end how much they want paid. You know, to just square up. It couldn't have been more than $20 a head. The social contract has already been altered, and there will be a non-zero number of government employees looking to the private sector. The capable ones will likely leave on their own in the coming years.

2x is also likely less than the private sector is willing to pay. Try like 4x. It is this way for cyber jobs where we will see massive brain drain. The only way cyber compensation starts to get even is through contracting work, but even then it's less than private sector. Which shows the level of stupid this policy was.

People in these roles are not fungible. That is a big logical error. People who can pass a background check with a PhD in Nuclear engineering aren't being pumped out every few months. They can't go to a web developer boot camp. There is a multi-year lead time and scholarships designed to attract them to the public sector. Same for capable cybersecurity talent (my field).

This is also a warning shot to all those in the government that their jobs, no matter what they are covering, are not safe from the stupidity. And if the BS factor gets too high they will leave.

mlac commented on Amazon on the hook for revolting use of concealed clothes hook spy cam theregister.com/2023/12/0... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

dr_faustus · 2 years ago

I don’t know about the US, but at least in Germany, Amazon has lost control of its inventory many years ago. Fake products, fake reviews, empty boxes, etc. have been very common. There are also many products having no or faked safety certificates. So it’s not surprising that you can buy stuff like spy cams intended for illicit use on there.

mlac · 2 years ago

I used to sell things (books, video games…) occasionally on Amazon and I would use fulfillment by Amazon. Very good seller rating and only one complaint ever out of 30-40 sales (person failed to read the item description).

Within the past two years, any listing I put up immediately gets flagged and removed by other sellers. It’s a hostile environment for new or infrequent sellers, and existing sellers are using reporting as a barrier to entry.

mlac commented on I worked in Amazon HR and was disgusted at what I was seeing with PIP plans businessinsider.com/amazo... · Posted by u/cebert

saiadarsh99 · 2 years ago

> If not filled by then the req got taken away.

I've known teams that badly need junior devs, but the req can't be approved due to a lack of the business unit's budget. Hikes, promos — all depend on the budget. Flawed.

mlac · 2 years ago

I’m not sure I follow - if there is no budget to hire a junior dev, or hiring a junior dev would further lose the company money, why would a company do that?

A company can’t give promotions and hire new people if it isn’t a profitable thing to do.

mlac commented on Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought nationalgeographic.com/ma... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

anon291 · 3 years ago

I'm a Catholic and fairly traditionally minded and am surprised by what you're saying since at my church, couples in this age range are on their fourth or fifth kid by the time they're 30.

Even amongst the newest married couples, most are expecting within the first year.

I understand we have different beliefs and such but since we're all in the same environment, how do we explain the simultaneous existence of the seemingly normal-to-hyper fertile?

Surely there is more than just 'its environmental'

mlac · 3 years ago

Anecdata also Catholic. NFP and hormone therapy worked but it was a journey. Tried for 2+ years before realizing we had an issue and did NFP to conceive. Lots of other Catholic couples struggling with it go that route as it is a church-approved method.

Tried for 6 years (age 25-31). Finally considered adoption and then got pregnant and lost the first baby in a miscarriage. Had a healthy second baby at 32. Now have a third healthy baby at 34.

I think a lot of factors combine, but will state that we moved an average of once per year until age 30, so subconsciously we probably didn’t feel settled. It’s a very complex topic with too many variables to effectively model. And even when pregnancy occurs miscarriage rates are high.

I’ll note that young couples with kids are much more obvious in church (they make noise) and more likely to be at masses with other families. Young couples without kids often go to the later masses (in cities sometimes 9 PM).

mlac commented on Mercedes locks faster acceleration behind a $1,200 annual paywall theverge.com/2022/11/23/2... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

celtain · 3 years ago

I always understood speed to be the main problem, not acceleration. If you're going to lock something behind regulation, shouldn't it be speed?

mlac · 3 years ago

This is an interesting question. If you’re accelerating and take your foot off the gas pedal, the car continues to accelerate until braking is applied. So if you accelerate very quickly to the speed limit, there would be a likely situation where you pass the desired speed unless you get on the brakes, which requires reaction time.

But yeah - I don’t necessarily agree with regulating it away for safety - people need to have personal responsibility. But regulations could make car companies optimize for other variables though (like distance and economy) which could be good.

mlac commented on Mercedes locks faster acceleration behind a $1,200 annual paywall theverge.com/2022/11/23/2... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

michaelbuckbee · 3 years ago

"You're about to crash into a semi truck. Pay $25 one time 'advanced braking' fee to avoid crash?"

mlac · 3 years ago

“Sorry your payment has been declined. Airbags and seatbelts have been reverted to the default economy mode and 911 auto-call has been disabled.

Your engine will be shut off if you fail to update your payment information.“

mlac commented on Ask HN: Advice that changed your life? · Posted by u/NayamAmarshe

spidersouris · 3 years ago

> You must balance enjoying your time now with investing in yourself and your future.

That is, to me, one of the most difficult things to apply in life, and I feel like the rest of your post doesn't exactly provide an answer on how to achieve this. There are so many things that I want to do in life but that I cannot afford to do now, and which I always postpone to later. And it feels like I'll let a great deal of things unachieved because I'm already too busy on things that are consuming my time right now.

The same applies to budget. I try to save as much money as possible for the future, and thus I restrain myself from doing things that I may consider too expensive for what they are worth, or choose not to do/purchase things which I do not consider essential as much as possible. I think I managed to do quite well up to this point (I'm 22 and have 20K in savings, starting from barely zero), but I'm still questioning on the utility of doing all of this. Even if I lost all my sources of revenue tomorrow, I wouldn't survive for a very long time with my savings. And if I wanted to launch some business in the near future, I doubt such an amount of money would take me very far.

mlac · 3 years ago

You’re young. You could die early, but it’s statistically unlikely. There’s a balance.

With 20k (and if you’re really lucky no debt) and a job that most people on this site have, you are lucky and will be able to do some things others can’t.

I’ll give you one. I spent about $2,000 in 2014 to take my wife to Paris and London (part of the trip was covered by my work, so it was a little less expensive). At the time we had debt, we were young (mid 20’s) and could afford it but the more prudent thing to do would have been to throw that money at debt or invest it. The S&P 500 was roughly 1900 at that time. Today it’s 3900. So invested I would now have $4k in the bank. As someone in my mid-30s, no amount of money can bring me back to my 20s with my wife in her mid 20s, without the responsibility of kids, for a week in Paris and London.

And playing that further out - if that money even 20x’d by the time I’m 80, at that point I’d still give it up to have had the experience with my young wife.

Not sure if that makes sense - but recognizing these tradeoffs while you can and making the decision to take the action is a tricky thing to get right. You can always make more money but you can’t make more time, and you won’t get your youth back again. So have fun. But everything in moderation and recognize that you need to take care of your future self as well (e.g. don’t take two years off around Paris and London and lose your job, etc…)

mlac commented on Taking Lichess to the next level lichess.org/blog/Y1wpBhEA... · Posted by u/akbarnama

mlac · 3 years ago

While I think a US non-profit makes a lot of sense, I would exercise caution with the non-profit board.

The board’s job is to provide oversight and to appoint a director [1]. In this case it would clearly be Thibault, but what happens in a few years when Thibault is ready to go? Does he have say in his replacement? Does the French organization take precedent over the US nonprofit when it comes to leadership and governance?

I say this because Lichess is extremely valuable (even as a non-profit) and that will attract the wrong kind of people. Thibault should take every precaution to make sure he retains control of the org, with good people around him. I’m not sure if there is a non-profit equivalent of retaining voting rights, but I’d want to be sure he retains control until it’s well established as a non-profit and a succession plan is in place.

The wrong board could evaluate his performance (which right now he says he works at his leisure and loves what he does) and say “we need more fundraising and appearances in the US at tournaments” and he could balk / want to focus on the product. They could then look to appoint a US director of the nonprofit and things could get awkward and extremely costly.

It’s incredible what has been built and maintained with a small team. I think they will see extreme diminishing returns after they hit a certain level of governance. Whether that’s going international with a nonprofit status in the US or at another point is beyond my level of expertise.

If someone more knowledgeable that I am can correct what I’ve written above and point out that my concerns are overblown, I’d be happy. I’d also ask that person to volunteer and help Lichess establish a presence in the US.

[1] https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/board-ro...

mlac commented on My initial attempt at trying to order pizza from within Vim github.com/arithran/vim-p... · Posted by u/philonoist

mlac · 3 years ago

Fun story for ordering food: https://www.mit.edu/afs.new/sipb/user/marthag/postscript/bur...

mlac commented on How to stop being “terminally online” nights.bearblog.dev/how-t... · Posted by u/memorable

nonrandomstring · 3 years ago

Health and online activity are inextricably linked at this point.

Mental health. Cardiovascular health. Health of interpersonal relationships. Work life balance.

I sincerely think we are at an equivalent situation as the tobacco industry in the 1970s. The decisions we make now will affect the lives of generations to come.

Cal Newport's site has a Ledger of Harms [1] at the Center for Humane Technology, and I wrote what I hope is an accessible and lightly challenging overview of the problem of technology overuse in Digital Vegan [2].

[1] https://ledger.humanetech.com/?ref=witsio

[2] https://digitalvegan.net

mlac · 3 years ago

I got part way through Digital Vegan, but admittedly haven’t finished it yet.

It’s been a few weeks since I had to put it down for another book, but here is my main takeaway (so far) - it’s all true, but in my opinion it comes across with very strong views and some extreme options as something to hand non-technical friends. It’s also relatively expensive to obtain in the US.

But thank you for your contribution to the discussion on this topic. I think you’re probably closer to where we should end up, but I don’t see a path to get there.