Can you not just create those channels? I did at my 10 person company and at my 100k company, no body seems to mind
Yes but they get very lonely all by yourself.
Readit Newsnasalgoat commented on If you're remote, ramble stephango.com/ramblings... · Posted by u/lawgimenez
I agree. Group channels on relevant topics is very helpful. Especially on technical details relevant to getting work done.
Yet here goes my rant. Nothing can replace a good in-person interaction. Perhaps I'm the old guy in the room. When teams are trying to build something there is nothing like water-cooler talk and banter about the work that helps relate shared challenges. Granted this is going to very specific to organizational needs.
I don't work in software development so perhaps my needs are different than most on Hackernews. I've managed teams in person and remotely. I've found that managing in person is a much more productive way to work.
The channels I'm talking about weren't about work, they were about hobbies - biking, cars, cats. I found that interaction quite fun and actually much better than in-person chats because I could choose to interact at my pace and comfort level.
I worked at a large fully remote company and it had dedicated topic channels you could join. I thought that was an excellent solution since people could discuss their interests with other employees without it seeming like a corporately mandated chat break.
I now work for a much smaller company and I miss the chat channels.
nasalgoat commented on Ask HN: Why are dating apps so bad? Why hasn't anyone made a good one? · Posted by u/1270018080
Thus, the apps are designed to keep you paying that monthly subscription.
I've heard this assertion before, but I don't understand it. Relationships are hard; most relationships fail. There's no need to do any special work to set people up for failure.
If dating app providers had some algorithm that could match people to make lifelong partners, surely somebody would have publicized it by now. Maybe it would be self-defeating as a commercial app, but somebody would do it anyway.
The apps do need ways to keep you coming back, but I don't think they can achieve that by locating and then hiding your perfect match. The best way to keep people coming back is to set them up with the best possible dates, and wait for those to fail entirely of their own accord.
Or at least, that's what I'd expect. If you have more insight as an insider I'd love to hear more.
For our app we front-loaded the list of accounts with the most "popular" users (number of likes, messages) within their criteria when people signed up. So the sort order was always "hottest" first then everything else.
This was to get people to sign up so they could chat.
People would get the most "success" with those closest to their own level but that did not result in subscriptions at the same rate as putting the hottest up front.
Just one of the many ways the apps don't work the way you expect.
nasalgoat commented on Ask HN: Why are dating apps so bad? Why hasn't anyone made a good one? · Posted by u/1270018080
I was a founding member of a dating app startup and worked there for 10 years until it filed for bankruptcy. I have some insight.
The number one reason dating apps suck is money, or the ability to make money is antithetical to the purpose of getting people together. A dating app is successful when people don't use it anymore, so that user churn is a serious impediment to earning a profit. Thus, the apps are designed to keep you paying that monthly subscription.
In that same vein, apps have to work way harder than websites to turn a profit because of app store fees. Our app would have been profitable if we didn't have to give Apple 30% of our fees, so we had to do way sketchier shit to increase profits to compensate.
Second problem is the wildly unbalanced male/female ratios in users. We had one of the better ratios in the market but it was still 70/30 male to female. Straight men and women simply do not have the same motivations around dating and trying to balance those is a hard problem. There are many videos out there about this problem, no need for me to go into detail.
Third is reach. We spent a lot of time trying to find ways to advertise or optimize for store placement and the restrictions placed on us were almost puritanical. For instance, Facebook wouldn't let us advertise because our relationship settings had "married" in the list, so we were forced to remove that option in order to place ads on Facebook. There were other compromises we had to introduce in order to qualify for other stores or advertisers.
Lastly, the Match Group is the 800lb gorilla of the industry and they buy all the good ones (OKCupid, Plenty of Fish) and grind them into maximum profitability like a hedge fund, thus removing any distinctiveness they had in favour of the Match methods.
What it comes down to is the ecosystem is gamed to make good datings apps impossible.
nasalgoat commented on Tell HN: Please stop sending AI-generated job applications (whoishiring threads) · Posted by u/jeswin
It shouldn't take an hour to write a decent cover letter, and there are many ways you can learn about the company you're applying to. Starting with the job posting, but LinkedIn and their "about us" page would be a couple more low effort ways. When someone is able to do these things and write a decent introductory letter it's a strong sign that they will also be able to deal well with challenges that come up in the course of work. Plus, as is its purpose, it gives you a chance to describe why you're a good choice for this specific role, and to address any apparent deficiencies in your skills or experience.
That isn't to say that the lack of a cover letter is disqualifying (though a bad one might be), but a good one can definitely set you apart.
Sorry, when you're applying to a dozen jobs a day, it's hard to put that personal spin into it.
I know you think you're a special snowflake that's different from every other company out there, but looking for a job is a grind. A tough one. Why make people dance and sing even more?
nasalgoat commented on What Ghosting Says About Society (and Why It Hurts So Much) truthdig.com/articles/wha... · Posted by u/thunderbong
What I see missing here is alignment.
Even cold algorithms and coms protocols have a teardown phase.
Otherwise loose ends like half-filled buffers and outstanding packets can't be resolved. And the sudden cessation of a link is indistinguishable from a peer dying, or a medium failure.
You'd think that a technologically informed culture might actually tend toward more formal protocols of initiation and disengagement.
The problem for people seeking alignment, but who are emotionally immature and cannot negotiate, is that they err towards conflict avoidance.
Technology has reduced us all to abject fear of being "unacceptable" or "awkward". So we'd rather be brutally cruel than even seen as wrong.
People are TCP but Society is UDP.
nasalgoat commented on Tell HN: It's 2023 and you still can't import .ics files into iOS Calendar app · Posted by u/airstrike
"Albums" on the Photo app and the iPhone aren't the same either. That one actively irritates me - why are they different? They're both Apple!
nasalgoat commented on Pinball is booming in America economist.com/united-stat... · Posted by u/pseudolus
It's definitely never been a cheap hobby. A common folly that I heard from multiple people involved in the scene was that they would buy an old and broken game with the idea that they would repair it themselves, only to find that the cost for parts would greatly outweigh any resale value the machine would have. Fortunately some push through regardless simply because they enjoy the game itself.
That was never really true - I used to make plenty of cash refurbishing machines, playing for a bit, and selling them off. It can get pricey if you're trying to source unique parts for low-volume games but the vast majority of wear parts are generic and not that expensive. Mostly games are just dirty.
nasalgoat commented on Pinball is booming in America economist.com/united-stat... · Posted by u/pseudolus
I considered buying a pinball machine in my 20's. An older, wiser guy I knew told me,
"Do you like working on small gadgets and tinkering with lots of rubber bands and motors and solenoids?"
"Not really, but I love playing pinball."
"Don't buy a pinball machine."
If you buy them brand new, you will never put enough plays on them to get them to the point they'll break. They are well made.
But that said you do need a certain level of handiness unless you plan to call the distributor to come out and fix it if it does break, because even new games will break occasionally.