Jack of all trades here. I lurk for tech news, snarky comments about corporate drama, niche blog links, interesting tools. I wish there was a HN for most of my passions.
Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
111–120 of 223 posts
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in the same boat. I found Reddit to be one of the most hateful communities online. Checkout the Herman Cain award sub if you want proof. In my 20s I wasted a ton of time arguing about politics and even my own life on that site. While 9/10 times I'd find someone fun, the 1/10 was spent absorbing pure vitriol. Ultimately no one cares about what I think or how I choose to live my life. No normal person will spend al…
Mainstream Reddit, sure. However, the more esoteric your topic, the better Reddit gets. For example, most of the specific game subs are hyper-focused on their topic with paper who genuinely want to know and talk about the scene.
I'd agree with the general statement but some game subs are the _most_ toxic (I'm looking at you, /r/TheLastOfUs2).
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#113Hmm...I can't remember how I got here. Currently in Federal government. Grew up building my own computers, lan parties, etc. Lots of friends ended up in the tech world/start up scene. Lots of overlap between federal gov and technology.
HN also reminds me a little of the old digg, and a bunch of other early 2000's online communities.
I probably got here through a PG essay or mention on a tech podcast.
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#114Artist here. I see art as a way of thinking that is often missing in tech. At the same time, the role of art is not just to create aesthetic experience but to explore and participate in what the world is becoming. Can't do that without tech.
HN is just such a friendly place, with interesting and interested people, and a mostly honest and level-headed discourse. It's fun to be here.
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conversation I was having with my dad (a dairy and grain farmer in the midwest) earlier this week ‘I wonder what the market for an open source tractor is?’ Not sure about autonomous, but just something you own, that you have full schematics and design specs for, and can repair yourself — seems like a huge market given the state of things right now.
Were you thinking about this? https://opensourceecology.dozuki.com/c/LifeTrac
Hadn’t seen that. Thanks for passing it along.
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#116Anesthesiologist. Although I have also worked as a software engineer.
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#117Voice actor here. I've been reading HN since '13. Mostly to stay hip to what's going on in tech as I find it interesting. More recently I've been fascinated by the AI developments in voice / TTS, voice modeling and deep fake video tech.
I'm a software engineer but I work with a lot of projects that require recorded voice narration etc. I've already been able to replace some small/low budget projects with synthesised speech but it definitely does lack the depth and nuance that a real actor brings to it. Is there anything you have seen specifically that you were inpressed by? The one that really stood out to me is the 'deep fake' voice synthesis (though it relies on hours of captured performance first)
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#118I’m an engineer at NASA working with nuclear space power systems. I ignore most of the more trite software / internet / money making bullshit. Some of that stuff is legit but most of it feels like “advances in advertising technology” or media delivery. I’m old enough to remember the earlier days of the internet and it’s sort difficult to admire the people that worked hard and made a lot of money turning it into what it is today.
Luckily, there are a lot of smart people here who are interested in many other things and that’s what I’m here to get exposure to.
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
def have to agree on this one, reddit is selective about what toxicity they allow and which ones they do not. it’s become the platform of hypocrisy. way too toxic than what it use to be, aaron swartz (co-founder of reddit who died in a us federal prison) would be crying in his grave
Aaron Swartz did not die in prison. He committed suicide. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
If he didn't die, are you saying he's still alive?
Re: Ask HN: Non-tech professionals on HN?
#120I'm an accountant, currently head of finance for an ecommerce business.
About 10 years ago learnt Python as a bit of fun. I have now developed a niche of IT/Accounting. New accounting systems need IT assistance, so being conversant in IT stuff helps the implementations go smoothly and I can write some of the integrations.