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Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

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Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#91

Post by ryanmarsh »

stakhanov wrote: post #31
AWebOfBrown wrote: post #21

A quote about salary, that I bookmarked as I could see myself making the same mistake: "Salaries never stay secrets forever. Hiding them only delays the inevitable. Last year we were having a discussion at lunch. Coworker was building a new house, and when it came to the numbers it was let loose that it was going to cost about $700K. This didn't seem like much, except to a young guy that joined the previous year and…

Salary-porn seems to be a category that generally gets a lot of attention on HN. Personally, I feel a bit ambivalent about it. Obviously it's useful to be able to compare & benchmark, because one should go into any decision-making process being well armed with information. But on the other hand: The information exchanged is never enough to truly contextualize the numbers appropriately, and it's a potential source of…

Calling it "salary-porn" gives away the rest of your comment. I could have written it myself based upon the many conversations I've had with people here, and elsewhere, about salary.

For some reason many people are hostile to the idea that, at a minimum, you can make more money doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same company. Perhaps this shields them from the horror of the money they are most certainly leaving on the table, or the uncertainty of pursuing that money. The nice thing about being the lowest paid serf is the lord knows he's getting you for a song, or at least that's how the thinking goes.

I'll just leave you with this: I make a minimum of $3k per day. I am not special. I have an IQ of 118 which is probably low for HN. The difference is I've never accepted that what they're paying me is the most the company (or market) can bear. My first programming job out of the Army (with no education) was 50k/yr. My current rate is the result of 15 years of continually challenging the offered rate and searching for higher rates.

Today, I work part time and have tons of time for myself and my family. I'm so expensive that my clients honor my work and value my time. I know you'd prefer this lifestyle to the daily grind of 40+hrs, a middling salary, and little respect so why not test my model and see if it doesn't bear fruit for you.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#92

Post by acheron »

"Javascript Delenda Est", by zeveb, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447851 :

> Can we please try to stop talking about this specific language ecosystem as an awful deplorable hell hole or whatever?

Back in the second century BC, Cato the Elder ended his speeches with the phrase 'Carthago delenda est,' which is to say, 'Carthage must be destroyed.' It didn't matter what the ostensible topic of the speech was: above all, Carthage must be destroyed.

My opinion towards JavaScript is much like Cato's towards Carthage: it must be rooted out, eliminated and destroyed entirely. I don't know if I'd go quite so far as to say that the fundamental challenge of mass computing is the final destruction of JavaScript — but I want to say it, even though it's false.

JavaScript is a pox, a disaster, a shame. It is the most embarrassingly bad thing to become popular in computing since Windows 3.1. Its one virtue (that it's on every client device) is outshone by its plethora of flaws in much the same way that a matchstick is outshone by the sun, the stars and the primordial energy of the Big Bang added together.

JavaScript is the XML, the Yugo, the Therac-25 of programming languages. The sheer amount of human effort which has been expended working around its fundamental flaws instead of advancing the development of mankind is astounding. The fact that people would take this paragon of wasted opportunity and use it on the server side, where there are so many better alternatives (to a first approximation, every other programming language ever used), is utterly appalling.

JavaScript delenda est.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#93

Post by YjSe2GMQ »

ummonk wrote: post #27
YjSe2GMQ wrote: post #2

"The Single Greatest Predictor of Future Stock Market Returns": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14948078 And here's the live (well, lagging a few months, but this is a very slow signal anyhow) version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14950203

If I remember correctly, that was suggested half-jokingly by the author to demonstrate that any metric where the numerator is proportional to the stock market will tend to predict future returns (because of mean-reversion). Edit - here you go: http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2013/12/valuation-and-...

Yup, I should have included the link you posted for a complete picture.

The value of the stock allocation metric is in that it seems to be the strongest mean that the stock reverts to, in the sense that it has strongest predictive power. It is not that surprising because it uses to the raw supply/demand dynamics.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#94

Post by ohaideredevs »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #91
stakhanov wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary-porn seems to be a category that generally gets a lot of attention on HN. Personally, I feel a bit ambivalent about it. Obviously it's useful to be able to compare & benchmark, because one should go into any decision-making process being well armed with information. But on the other hand: The information exchanged is never enough to truly contextualize the numbers appropriately, and it's a potential source of…

Calling it "salary-porn" gives away the rest of your comment. I could have written it myself based upon the many conversations I've had with people here, and elsewhere, about salary. For some reason many people are hostile to the idea that, at a minimum, you can make more money doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same company. Perhaps this shields them from the horror of the money they are most certainly lea…

You can't say you make 3k a day without explaining your career path a bit so us lowly serfs can emulate.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#95

Post by ohaideredevs »

johnchristopher wrote: post #52
AWebOfBrown wrote: post #21

A quote about salary, that I bookmarked as I could see myself making the same mistake: "Salaries never stay secrets forever. Hiding them only delays the inevitable. Last year we were having a discussion at lunch. Coworker was building a new house, and when it came to the numbers it was let loose that it was going to cost about $700K. This didn't seem like much, except to a young guy that joined the previous year and…

Just an anecdote: I sometime drop to friends and acquaintances that salary is one of the last taboo in our modern western society but it's a really strong one. Either it ends there with a joke comment or it sparks a conversation about an individual's worth in society and among friends.

It just goes to show that people DO associate their worth with their salary. I talk about my salary with my friends because we realize that it's all kind of a crapshoot and/or a matter of choosing whether or not to sell your soul.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#98

Post by balabaster »

ohaideredevs wrote: post #94
ryanmarsh wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling it "salary-porn" gives away the rest of your comment. I could have written it myself based upon the many conversations I've had with people here, and elsewhere, about salary. For some reason many people are hostile to the idea that, at a minimum, you can make more money doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same company. Perhaps this shields them from the horror of the money they are most certainly lea…

You can't say you make 3k a day without explaining your career path a bit so us lowly serfs can emulate.

Nor can you say it without quantifying the structure of your earnings... Where are you based, city/country? What kind of clients do you entertain? Also what industry/niche does your consulting empire cover?

I assume you're an incorporated consultant and the rate of $3K per day is gross revenue and not net income(?)

Certainly this is achievable, but people need to understand exact comparables so they're not comparing apples to oranges.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#99

Post by closeparen »

hadrien01 wrote: post #42

This comment from nightcracker about GDPR privacy consent: You enter a coffee shop. Before you can do anything, the owner takes a photo of you, and grabs your hand to take your finger print. He quickly writes down the date, time and what clothes you are wearing. He gives you a smile as he starts his speech. "Before we continue, we at Coffee City want you to know we deeply value your privacy. We need your permission t…

Pretty sure my coffee shop has a security camera, and most customers pay by card.

Re: Ask HN: What Hacker News comments have you bookmarked?

#100

Post by bagacrap »

om3n wrote: post #88

Regarding dealing with difficult problems: "Like almost all problems in life you have only 4 options: #1 Change you (accept what you are unable to change) #2 Change the other (convince them to follow your vision) #3 Fly (divorce, quit) #4 Stay and suffer (include drinking, doing drugs, whining) It is amazing how many people chose number 4." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16126082

I'd file "doing drugs" under #1, at least if you choose the right ones.
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