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

Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 231 posts

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#41

Post by lnsru »

rsyring wrote: post #13

Age. I turned 40 and realized I probably wasn't on the upswing of life anymore. I've developed a small but weighty sense of "time is running out" that I didn't have before. I want that to be a motivator to do good and meaningful things and not a growing sense of foreboding. That necessitates contemplation of life, faith, priorities, etc.

I reached the same point. I am also helping terminally ill gentleman to have last comfortable days of his life. I literally see how the time is running out.

My wish is to finish my projects allowing my relatives to live ramen-comfortable life without me. Maybe I manage to retire and enjoy the life by myself for a while. I became very materialistic growing up in poverty.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#42

Post by onion2k »

collyw wrote: post #14
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

1) Execs complaining that it's hard to find skilled workers nowadays, while doing their best to make the company an unattractive workplace and not bother retaining existing workers who are leaving (including me soon). Guys, it's not rocket science, just ask your employees what's bothering them. If people are leaving by the numbers, then you have some serious issues that need to be fixed, otherwise the churn will neve…

A quick chat with HR followed by a "coding challenge" for free. I just had a recruitment consultant tell me that my perspective might be wrong for not wanting to do it. He had 70 people in his pipeline for 25 jobs. So I do half a days worth of work for free and I have approx 2 - 1 chance that I don't get the job.

The reward is a pay increase (hopefully) and a delightful 6 months before you realize the new job has the same problems as the old job, then 18 months of stress while you try to change things, and then you get to do it all again. What's not to love about a system like that?

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#43

Post by [deleted] »

dazc wrote: post #18
kimchidude wrote: post #6

There is an infographic floating around at the moment that maps the migration of millionaires in 2022. I have not dug through the data to see if everything in the infographic is accurate, but as I think most people would presume: it shows loads of wealth holders are making their way into the western world from Russia, China, India, Ukraine (you can predict the others net negative countries). However what's got my min…

Is a 'millionaire' a 'wealthy citizen' these days? In the UK this means you can buy a decent home for cash and still have to work for a living?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#44

Post by nonrandomstring »

The good outcomes from Covid.

Trying to look positively, the leap forward in vaccines and mRNA really restored my good feeling about some areas of technology. Many great things like HIV vaccines can, and are emerging. It melts by brain that humans are capable of solving extremely challenging scenarios when we work together, but have to wait until things reach a crisis point before doing so.

This is countered by the very negative descent into technofascism, but I remain hopeful because medical advances cannot be "undone", whereas technological authoritarianism is at least a treatable and reversible condition.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#46

Post by radicalbyte »

dazc wrote: post #18
kimchidude wrote: post #6

There is an infographic floating around at the moment that maps the migration of millionaires in 2022. I have not dug through the data to see if everything in the infographic is accurate, but as I think most people would presume: it shows loads of wealth holders are making their way into the western world from Russia, China, India, Ukraine (you can predict the others net negative countries). However what's got my min…

Is a 'millionaire' a 'wealthy citizen' these days? In the UK this means you can buy a decent home for cash and still have to work for a living?

Honestly at this point it's almost worth excluding housing. You have a generation from about 45-60 who bought their London houses for around the 50-200k mark who have an asset worth 0.8-2.5M and are earning 200-300k a year. You then have those a bit younger with similar incomes but who had to "buy high".

Both are "rich" but I would probably only classify the former group as "wealthy" as they're sitting on huge assets.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#47

Post by mytailorisrich »

collyw wrote: post #14
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

1) Execs complaining that it's hard to find skilled workers nowadays, while doing their best to make the company an unattractive workplace and not bother retaining existing workers who are leaving (including me soon). Guys, it's not rocket science, just ask your employees what's bothering them. If people are leaving by the numbers, then you have some serious issues that need to be fixed, otherwise the churn will neve…

A quick chat with HR followed by a "coding challenge" for free. I just had a recruitment consultant tell me that my perspective might be wrong for not wanting to do it. He had 70 people in his pipeline for 25 jobs. So I do half a days worth of work for free and I have approx 2 - 1 chance that I don't get the job.

Looking for a job means doing 'work' potentially for nothing. You have to apply, sit interviews, sit tests, etc. Investing half a day before a decision is very reasonable.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#48

Post by dmos62 »

donatj wrote: post #37
collyw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick chat with HR followed by a "coding challenge" for free. I just had a recruitment consultant tell me that my perspective might be wrong for not wanting to do it. He had 70 people in his pipeline for 25 jobs. So I do half a days worth of work for free and I have approx 2 - 1 chance that I don't get the job.

It’s been ten years and I am still mad at Facebook. Post phone interview on Friday I was given a code challenge to complete over the weekend. When I submitted it on Monday I received a response immediately “The team has reviewed your resume and decided to not move forward. We will not be reviewing your code challenge. Feel free to apply again in one year.” I spent my whole weekend on it, it was shined and buffed and…

> Or at the very least lied to me.

It sucks that they requested work from you that was not necessary, but would you really prefer that they lied about it?

I'd say they mismanaged the situation, but at least were honest about it.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#49

Post by nonrandomstring »

lnsru wrote: post #41
rsyring wrote: post #13

Age. I turned 40 and realized I probably wasn't on the upswing of life anymore. I've developed a small but weighty sense of "time is running out" that I didn't have before. I want that to be a motivator to do good and meaningful things and not a growing sense of foreboding. That necessitates contemplation of life, faith, priorities, etc.

I reached the same point. I am also helping terminally ill gentleman to have last comfortable days of his life. I literally see how the time is running out. My wish is to finish my projects allowing my relatives to live ramen-comfortable life without me. Maybe I manage to retire and enjoy the life by myself for a while. I became very materialistic growing up in poverty.

> I am also helping terminally ill gentleman

Goodonya. Caring for the dying changes you in so many ways and can be an ultimately positive milestone of maturity. It can really take it out of you too, so make sure to get enough help to be a help.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#50

Post by radicalbyte »

markdown wrote: post #25
rsyring wrote: post #13

Age. I turned 40 and realized I probably wasn't on the upswing of life anymore. I've developed a small but weighty sense of "time is running out" that I didn't have before. I want that to be a motivator to do good and meaningful things and not a growing sense of foreboding. That necessitates contemplation of life, faith, priorities, etc.

This, but with the added realization that I seem to be losing brain power and memory quite rapidly. I used to be able to contribute to intelligent conversations, but these days find myself unable to keep up with peers and elders who're still super sharp. It's terrifying.

If you have young kids.. that's it. Apparently it gets better. It did for me, had a big dip then came up smarter. Now with our third in the "terrible two" phase I'm in a terrible dip. This time next year I'll be back to my horrific smart, egotistical and demanding self :-)
Post reply on HN