Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

431–440 of 441 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#431

Post by effie »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #411
effie wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who rob banks are not necessarily psychopaths. For a good (fictitious but convincing) example, see Toby Howard in the film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_or_High_Water_(film) Robbing a bank is universally illegal, but it is not regarded as unethical in general.

"but it is not regarded as unethical in general." Yes it is. Maybe you live in an interesting developing nation? Robbing banks, stores, anyone - is considered basically immoral in all of civilization, thankfully. Yes - not all bank robbers are psychopaths - probably not the majority. But prisons are fully of people bending reality to justify their crimes.

Robbing average Joe is universally considered wrong. Robbing bankers, insurance companies or other powerful subjects, I don't think so. It depends on the circumstances - for a good example, see the movie, that is, if you like such a mental challenge.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#432

Post by effie »

foldr wrote: post #399
effie wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who rob banks are not necessarily psychopaths. For a good (fictitious but convincing) example, see Toby Howard in the film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_or_High_Water_(film) Robbing a bank is universally illegal, but it is not regarded as unethical in general.

>Robbing a bank is universally illegal, but it is not regarded as unethical in general Erm, no, it is regarded as unethical by almost everyone except bank robbers.

Have you heard of the Robin Hood legend? It says the man was robbing the rich, and was very popular with the populace. I find it hard to believe that his robbing activity was regarded as 'unethical' by 'almost everyone'. Or a recent example, the sci-hub and libgen projects. They are robbing publisher shareholders of their profits. Do you think those projects are regarded as unethical by 'almost everyone'?

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#433

Post by yesenadam »

dang wrote: post #428
yesenadam wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. How that comment hasn't been flagged yet I have no idea. People who don't agree with you are 'nuts', yet you have a nuanced view of ethics? That's the most condescending, deluded thing I've heard in years. "For them.." blah blah.. you don't know us; in my case at least, your assumptions couldn't be more wrong, but what do you know or care; you've decided who the in- and out- groups are here.

Personal attacks will get you banned here, regardless of how bad another comment is. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't post like this again.

Oh.. I just noticed this. I'm not sure why you are complaining about my comment but not the one I was replying to! At least I think you were talking to me. I'm not sure what in what I said was personal attack. At least, it seems you were implying something I said was a personal attack. I strongly criticized his view, words, assumptions, decisions. I'm kind of amazed to be threatened with banning about that. [reviews guidelines] Ah maybe "please reply to the argument instead of calling names" - I guess you mean "That's the most condescending, deluded thing I've heard in years." That seems to me a fact. From memory, I don't think there was an argument, just a string of false assumptions presented as fact. (Can't read his comment now) Or maybe it's a "shallow dismissal"? Not sure. What particularly about my comment deserved being threatened with banning?

I have noticed that the worse the comment, the harder it is to reply to decently/politely/etc; maybe it was impossible for me to reply to this one, or say what I thought without arguably breaking the guidelines, so OK, point taken, better not to reply in such cases. "Someone is wrong on the internet!" is real. I really did try to stay on-point, not hard enough apparently. I mean, I really do think it was the most condescending, deluded thing I'd read in years, definitely while on here. (I guess you've read much worse!) Again, not sure if that's the part you're objecting to. Apologies if you've read 10,000 replies just like this one. Kind of surprised (and depressed) I'm the problem here though.

ps I only saw your comment by chance, it's pages back in my comment history. Is there a way of getting alerts for replies on here?

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#434

Post by dang »

yesenadam wrote: post #433
dang wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal attacks will get you banned here, regardless of how bad another comment is. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't post like this again.

Oh.. I just noticed this. I'm not sure why you are complaining about my comment but not the one I was replying to! At least I think you were talking to me. I'm not sure what in what I said was personal attack. At least, it seems you were implying something I said was a personal attack. I strongly criticized his view, words, assumptions, decisions. I'm kind of amazed to be threatened with banning about that. [reviews…

I don't think I saw the parent comment; it's about as bad as yours was, though yours might have been a notch worse, since that one was attacking in the third person while you did it in the second.

The main thing to realize is that even if another comment is bad/uncivil, you still need to refrain from replying in kind. Believe me, I understand how hard that is! But our community depends on it.

Sometimes I think that HN threads are a big experiment in all of us learning how not to get triggered. If you give better than you "get" (by reading someone's comment), you'll be on the right track.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#435

Post by yesenadam »

dang wrote: post #434
yesenadam wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh.. I just noticed this. I'm not sure why you are complaining about my comment but not the one I was replying to! At least I think you were talking to me. I'm not sure what in what I said was personal attack. At least, it seems you were implying something I said was a personal attack. I strongly criticized his view, words, assumptions, decisions. I'm kind of amazed to be threatened with banning about that. [reviews…

I don't think I saw the parent comment; it's about as bad as yours was, though yours might have been a notch worse, since that one was attacking in the third person while you did it in the second. The main thing to realize is that even if another comment is bad/uncivil, you still need to refrain from replying in kind. Believe me, I understand how hard that is! But our community depends on it. Sometimes I think that H…

Ok thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#436

Post by yesenadam »

quadcore wrote: post #429
yesenadam wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you are right. It's ethically wrong but not morally wrong. Huh? I don't see a significant difference between 'ethically wrong' and 'morally wrong', no idea why you would say that.

'Cheating at an exam' is transgressing a rule that doesn't "exist" in nature, it only exists in our social (if that's the right word) system. So if I cheat at an exam, I'm breaking a rule that's in the system that we made up (together), and therefore I can judge that, in some circumstances, I can break the rule without feeling morally wrong, without feeling guilt, because I, in some sense, made the rule myself. I'm b…

Hi again. I don't see how that draws any limit/distinction - it was 2 examples of rules that can be broken, not sure how that helps explain the difference, or why you said that. I wouldn't say bedtime is a moral rule/principle, or that breaking it is unethical. Maybe could make it clearer for me which one was supposed to illustrate what, if one was meant to be ethical, one moral, or something, I don't know. I really have never heard the words used with much or any difference. (I'm no expert, but have read dozens of ethics books, studied ethics/moral philosophy at uni etc)

I'm just guessing here, but maybe you have a religious value system, with absolute moral commandments or something? All I have (as an atheist) are ethical/moral principles exactly like 'cheating is wrong'.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#437

Post by ehnto »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #315
ehnto wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you making YouTube videos of your mountain biking adventures or just videos for fun? I would be keen to see them as I am getting into it now myself.

We had been planning on doing a couples MTB channel as my wife was looking for something outside of work to make up for a lack of interesting projects at work. In the end she landed up getting a job at Aston Martin and now I just use the gimbal for fun with our friends when riding. I recommend BKXC and Seth’s Bike Hacks as good channels that avoid all the Gnar downhill stuff

Those are a couple of my favourite channels! Mountain biking for the everyman. Singletrack Sampler and BCPov are a couple of my recommendations. BCPov does some pretty awesome bike treking videos too, with camping and all the other stuff involved with multiday rides.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#438

Post by hycaria »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #408
hycaria wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just an hypothesis, but I think saying CF when you actually have an atypical form of it is a bit dishonest. I have no doubt that diet and lifestyle do wonders for many conditions including yours, but the CF everyone thinks about is the one discovered in infancy and the full set of symptoms, not the one with late onset (at an age which many CF patients do not even reach) and milder symptoms. If you were willing t…

It's a case of damned if I do, damned if I don't. People with CF don't like me saying "mild" CF. They have a cow about that. I spent years on CF forums and got schooled on that detail quite thoroughly. There are more than 1600 alleles that can lead to a diagnosis of CF and the exact presentation of the condition varies from one person to the next in part because of that. My condition is not late onset. I have had it…

I knew it because I looked up your bio for the first time You don't hide it, but I don't remember reading it in your posts here, not as much as the complaints about other people's behavior at least.

>My condition is not late onset.

And the only person I knew with CF had been diagnosed as a toddler and had a 20 y. life expectancy because of genetic bad luck. That you could live 30 years without heavy treatment sure says that your condition was not as bad as that person, and maybe there's a state of affliction that cannot be conservatively managed.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#439

Post by sonnyblarney »

effie wrote: post #431
sonnyblarney wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but it is not regarded as unethical in general." Yes it is. Maybe you live in an interesting developing nation? Robbing banks, stores, anyone - is considered basically immoral in all of civilization, thankfully. Yes - not all bank robbers are psychopaths - probably not the majority. But prisons are fully of people bending reality to justify their crimes.

Robbing average Joe is universally considered wrong. Robbing bankers, insurance companies or other powerful subjects, I don't think so. It depends on the circumstances - for a good example, see the movie, that is, if you like such a mental challenge.

Robbing banks, bankers, insurance companies and other 'powerful people or companies' is wrong, basically universally.

There is no ned to see any film about this.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#440

Post by ebcode »

kchoudhu wrote: post #202
quickthrower2 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A geek trying to save face is the best worker. Well done.

A geek trying to get more bandwidth is the best worker.

But a geek trying to save face and get more bandwidth at the same time is the very best worker.
Post reply on HN