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Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

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Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#331

Post by m463 »

gridlockd wrote: post #213
abetusk wrote: post #137

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" More and more, I'm realizing this applies more broadly than just for code. Abstraction is a form of optimization and shouldn't be done before the space has been properly explored to know what abstractions should be built. Standardization is a form of optimization and shouldn't be proposed until there's a body of evidence to support what's being standardized. Failure to…

All fine and well, just consider that Donald Knuth was talking about shaving off some cycles by carefully selecting machine instruction. Donald Knuth, the same guy that got upset about being forced to use 64-bit pointers in a binary compiled for x86-64 even in programs where he would've been just fine with a 4GB address space. He didn't exactly mean to say "omg wtf computers are so fast just use create-react-app", bu…

You're prematurely optimizing donald knuth out of the algorithm.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#332

Post by rsecora »

The concept of "Unknown Unknowns" changed my approach to life for better.

I was one of those laughing to the famous speech [1] the very first time I heard it. After a few days, I begin to grasp the epistemological truth in it, making me humbler.

Today in every system I work on, I know there will be risks unexpected and possible, and the system shall be resilient and with physical negative feedback in case control loop fails. Same in private life, I do not expect luck and I try to minimize kurtosis in all known scenarios (hoping it somehow covers the unknown unknows).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#333

Post by m463 »

WalterBright wrote: post #330

I am responsible for what happens to me. (I.e. I am not a victim.) Accepting responsibility is very empowering, as it implies I can do something about it. Being a victim is dis-empowering, as it means you are helpless. (People who read my posts will recognize this as a consistent theme. Being a victim is a choice. I choose not to be.)

in a similar vein, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi.

(or in your case, "D the change...")

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#334

Post by remmargorp64 »

movedx wrote: post #176
abetusk wrote: post #137

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" More and more, I'm realizing this applies more broadly than just for code. Abstraction is a form of optimization and shouldn't be done before the space has been properly explored to know what abstractions should be built. Standardization is a form of optimization and shouldn't be proposed until there's a body of evidence to support what's being standardized. Failure to…

> Build infrastructure without understanding the use case? Premature optimization. Hence my issues with micro services and Kubernetes/containerisation (by default.) I've always hated the fact people simply jump onto these technologies and methodologies as if they're automatically the right solution because everyone is talking about them. What they don't understand is that they're optimisations. You build a monolith a…

With many apps, you can completely bypass kubernetes entirely and just use something like elastic beanstalk or heroku for scaling (just by adding nodes).

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#335

Post by csdtx »

lootsauce wrote: post #238

My opinions are not mine and they are holding me back. Give multiple and opposing views equal respect and disdain at the same time. Treating a thought as your own, as an opinion "you hold" greatly holds you back from a great deal of valuable perspective. Of course you surely hold some world-view and gauge things from that position but try to cultivate more of these positions as if you were someone else. Don't get you…

As an addition, your opinions are mostly formed from the information you have and haven't been exposed to. It's easy to come to a conclusion if someone feeds you specific facts you can verify. But there may be other facts that can change the perspective that are not so easy to verify.

We don't have perfect information, so clinging to a perspective is bound to create some sort of conflict when you are exposed to valid information that may change your perspective. Either you discount and ignore that information, or you are forced to abandon your identity and get emotionally hurt(which can be a good thing if it causes growth and maturity).

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#336

Post by remmargorp64 »

movedx wrote: post #176
abetusk wrote: post #137

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" More and more, I'm realizing this applies more broadly than just for code. Abstraction is a form of optimization and shouldn't be done before the space has been properly explored to know what abstractions should be built. Standardization is a form of optimization and shouldn't be proposed until there's a body of evidence to support what's being standardized. Failure to…

> Build infrastructure without understanding the use case? Premature optimization. Hence my issues with micro services and Kubernetes/containerisation (by default.) I've always hated the fact people simply jump onto these technologies and methodologies as if they're automatically the right solution because everyone is talking about them. What they don't understand is that they're optimisations. You build a monolith a…

With many apps, you can completely bypass kubernetes entirely and just use something like elastic beanstalk or heroku for scaling (just by adding more nodes behind a load balancer).

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#337

Post by floatrock »

kyoob wrote: post #17

My favorite thing about "Finite and Infinite Games" by James Carse is you can yadda-yadda the whole book: "There are two types of games. One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. [...] There is only one infinite game."

Not familiar with the book, but a thing I heard recently that I think gets at the same idea and is one of those things that make you say hmmm was something like:

"Your heartbeat is just the latest heartbeat in an uninterrupted line back to the original heartbeat."

Doesn't really matter what spiritual or scientific tradition you use to define "original", and it doesn't mean that there weren't innumerable branches that ended up in a dead-end. But it gives a bit of perspective towards this infinite game.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#338

Post by avmich »

gridlockd wrote: post #232
avmich wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but here is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gutenberg_bible_Old_Testa... - an example of old font. Do you think a lot of people would have problems with reading this?

> Do you think a lot of people would have problems with reading this? I don't know. Readability and aesthetics are at odds. I believe there used to be a strong aesthetic desire for text to be of uniformly block-like shape. It took centuries for spaces to appear between words and even longer for paragraphs to become as short as they are today.

> Readability and aesthetics are at odds.

I'm not sure. If it's a cafe front, I can deal with Comic-like windings. If I'm reading something for a reasonably long time, I start valuing functionality - here it's readability.

Maybe people could train to read easily that font - they didn't have much of alternatives. That would mean readability is rather conditional. I'd like to know.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#339

Post by paulcole »

gridlockd wrote: post #186
endymi0n wrote: post #150

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot o…

Worse yet, most people have bad taste and actually can't tell good and bad design work apart, so you're really spending all that effort to please a minority that you're unfortunate enough to be part of. https://xkcd.com/1015/

Even worse is when you think you’re part of the minority but aren’t.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#340

Post by paulcole »

endymi0n wrote: post #150

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot o…

> All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste

Like saying “How bout them Cowboys” at a club in Dallas.

Everybody wants to think they have good taste and everybody wants to be told they have good taste.

Of all the people who read that quote and nod along thinking, “yes this is me” how many are actually right?

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