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Ask HN: What annoys you?

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Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#251

Post by davi »

Eliezer wrote: post #106

Death annoys me. People who can afford $300/year for a cheap cryonics membership and life insurance, and who don't sign up, annoy me. A lot of them are probably being held off by the trivial inconvenience of signing a few papers without a paid salesman to hold their hand. It therefore annoys me that cryonics is poorly marketed and that there are no paid salespeople - that no one gets a commission when you sign up for…

I do electron microscopy on nervous tissue. I know what it takes to get good brain preservation at the fine scale, at the level of synaptic connectivity. I know how small problems in fixation and embedding can completely trash the anatomy at this fine scale. I am skeptical that current cryonics methods can preserve the brain at anything better than 'massive stroke' quality.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#252

Post by pradocchia »

I am relieved to read that so few of you are annoyed by other people. The same question on reddit would be a bitch fest about fat people, stupid people, religious people, slow drivers, etc, at the intersection of tribalism, ego and impatience.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#253

Post by seekely »

davidwparker wrote: post #67
daleharvey wrote: post #5

Banking - My bank has a website that the 90's would be proud of, it gives me little to no information about my spending habits, transferring money is a nightmare, and using kublax (similiarly mint) had my account banned for security purposes.

I'd like to add that if you are/were in the U.S. Military at some point, (or even your parents, I'm pretty sure) then you should check out USAA. They have a fantastic website and awesome customer service. note: I have no affiliation with USAA other than I use them and really like them.

You no longer need an association with the military to sign up for USAA's checking/savings accounts. They're just really quiet about it. I made the switch to them a couple months ago. Signed up online and had an account minutes later.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#254

Post by TheSOB88 »

barmstrong wrote: post #222
Eliezer wrote: post #109

Non-teaching of explicit rationality annoys me. The most fundamental, elementary, and basic concepts of rationality are not systematically explained anywhere that I know of. It is impossible to engage the average PhD in a dialogue with agreed-upon rules of reasoning because they do not know why you can't prove things about the real world by arguing about the definitions of a word, or why it's a bad idea to pick a con…

Interesting, this reminds me of a book I thought about writing at one point titled something like "How To Tell What Is True" Which would cover topics like: * Peer review * Double blind experiments * Anecdotal evidence * Statistical Significance But I sort of lost interest and ended up just making it a blog post instead... http://www.startbreakingfree.com/504/how-to-tell-whats-bulls...

Parent's ideas are much more applicable to the general public, which is who needs this training the most.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#255

Post by tocomment »

agentultra wrote: post #144

1. Seeing a traffic jam where every car has exactly one person in it. This is just a tragedy. 2. Job interviews that require quizzes and an "intensive" multi-stage interview process. As a candidate, I've just sent you a bunch of links to open repositories where you can review my code and offered to give you other code examples from my private repositories on request. I give you links to my previous work and letters o…

Wow I agree with you 100%. I hate job interviews like that! I've always wondered if interviews for other professions like accountants or dentists are this harsh.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#256

Post by jules »

SandB0x wrote: post #89

Food. I miss the healthy, affordable, sociable dining halls from university. There are people who cook better than I do, and who should be able to make great food at a reasonable price by buying fresh ingredients in bulk. My options for eating are * Cook it myself [1]. Cheap but takes time and effort to make good food. * Restaurant. Good food but expensive and takes time. I don't always want table service and small p…

Another option: cook for two days and put half of it in your fridge or freezer.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#257

Post by ndimopoulos »

davidwparker wrote: post #67
daleharvey wrote: post #5

Banking - My bank has a website that the 90's would be proud of, it gives me little to no information about my spending habits, transferring money is a nightmare, and using kublax (similiarly mint) had my account banned for security purposes.

I'd like to add that if you are/were in the U.S. Military at some point, (or even your parents, I'm pretty sure) then you should check out USAA. They have a fantastic website and awesome customer service. note: I have no affiliation with USAA other than I use them and really like them.

I agree. You do not have to be a member of the U.S. Military to open an account (or more) with USAA. It took me roughly 15 minutes to open accounts for myself and my family through their website.

What you cannot do (if you are not/were a member of the military) is use their direct deposit feature i.e. scan checks and upload them to their website. You are not also eligible to get insurance from them.

Other than that I agree that they have a fantastic website and awesome customer service. Because they do not have ATMs when you withdraw money from another bank's ATM, they refund up to $1.50 for the ATM fees up to 10 times a month.

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#258

Post by TheSOB88 »

MikeCapone wrote: post #176
brettnak wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be the only one who thinks this around here, but I think the concept of mortality is kind of beautiful. However, ask me about that when I'm facing my own and the answer might be different.

I think it's a really powerful concept, and like religion and superstition, I think it's fine in fiction (books and movies would be boring without that imagery). But in the real-world, it's just plain bad and we need to do something about it. Nobody is in favor of malaria or smallpox, but most people turn a blind eye to the diseases of aging even though they kill a lot more people. The real question is: If dying of o…

You guys seem to think death isn't inevitable? Huh?

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#259

Post by doyouknow »

* Having applied for three internships at major research labs, which obviously lack the courtesy of letting you know that they are not interested. (This pisses me of so much that I hardly find time to do productive work anymore.)

* Living in a comparatively rich country that is so full of asshole civil cervants playing shenanigans that it makes you wonder why the hell you should continue providing for these jerks. I for one cannot believe the insane amount of taxes I have payed in my country just to get lied, cheated and straightout harrassed by people who should actually sit down and listen before telling you off.

* No funding for PhD research and travel expenses for attending conferences. Even though there is a shitload of money set aside exclusively for women in CS, I cannot get this kind of funding because of my gender. My research group is underfinanced and a recent grant proposal has been denied because of minor improvement suggestions. Of course I can re-submit, but I figure that I will be finished before any decision can be made. Man, I've had it with my country, I cannot wait to turn my back and go somewhere else...

Re: Ask HN: What annoys you?

#260

Post by TheSOB88 »

mortenjorck wrote: post #213
mrduncan wrote: post #17

Email - Not a lot has changed in the past 20 years, I think we can do better. Yes, Gmail was pretty innovative but I still think there are plenty of things to improve.

I've had a handful of specs and UI mockups for a completely new kind of desktop email client sitting around for months, but I haven't had the opportunity to take them any further. If only there were a Chicago co-founder meetup...

Would you really be kickstarted by a meetup if you don't have the gumption to do anything about it now?
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