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Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#121

Post by YorkshireSeason »

theGnuMe wrote: post #101
AxEy wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm afraid I was not familiar, although I'm looking at a few related papers on the arxiv now. What brought that approach to mind?

Survey Propagation is one of the best algorithms for solving very hard SAT instances. Here's a good review paper that captures it. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~sabhar/publications/surveyPropUAI...

Survey propagation works primarily with random SAT instances, but isn't competitive with SAT instances that arise in industrial verification, where CDCL shines. Some gossip: survey propagation was proposed by Mezard, Parisi, and Zecchina [1], and G. Parisi won the physics Nobel price in 2021 [2].

[1] M. Mezard, G. Parisi, R. Zecchina, Analytic and Algorithmic Solution of Random Satisfiability Problems. https://aiichironakano.github.io/cs653/Mezard-RSAT-Science02...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Parisi

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#122

Post by badpun »

space_fountain wrote: post #11
tester756 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is very extreme take but imagine if companies are capped at 20-50 employees. Will it work? I think it will. What do you guys think? I don't think. I cannot imagine companies doing GPU, CPUs, Windows, etc. with just 20-50ppl.

Well you'd have to imagine a lot more collaboration between companies, so say company A just markets CPUs in the US nothing else, while company B works on just shipping logistics (to stores which handle the actual delivery to end customers). I think the real problem is that so many boundaries between disciplines make novel collaboration strategies between the parts much harder. It's difficult for say a marketing pers…

So, Intel would be split into ~2400 50-person companies. Coordination of those, through contracts, threats and lawsuits would be nightmare. A basic economic theory ("theory of the firm") says that large companies are created, because they decrease the friction that exists when many small companies (or even just individuals) cooperate to achieve a large and complex thing.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#123

Post by thorin »

blahblah1234567 wrote: post #89
yawnxyz wrote: post #64

Got laid off in 2017 and never got a real job again. (I have a UX background) 1. I immediately went to Spain to do the Camino de Santiago. Was learning building web apps (Meteor) and launchd a full landing page / swing dance registration site while on the Camino. 2. Learned React and a few other tools after that, tried to be a consultant for a year. Then tried to launch a bunch of projects ("startups" if you wanted t…

What a coincidence! I've been thinking about taking a sabbatical and walking the the Camino de Santiago. During that time I will likely study for some IT certs to demonstrate new skills in cloud servers & security. How did you feel about balancing studying skills with socializing & enjoying the journey of the Camino?

Depends what you're hoping to get out of it. If you want to socialise on route or look at is as some kind of spiritual pilgrimage I'd focus 100% on the walk while you're doing it. Seems like a good opportunity to forget about computing / work for a while!

People asking why the Camino, I haven't done it but I have done a number of treks / meditation retreats etc. It sounds fantastic but I think there are many physical journeys like this that could represent a lot of "inner travel".

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#124

Post by tukantje »

theGnuMe wrote: post #91
tukantje wrote: post #58

Constantly battling with issues of self worth and suicidal thoughts since I've got laid off so that's about it. Being a migrant, who is laid off, who is/was a sole bread winner does the trick I guess.

I feel for you. I've battled self worth feelings through out my career as a lot of my identity was tied up in my work and the fear of failure. I've since found a new perspective that's helped me transform my identity and self-esteem through therapy and journaling about my experience/thoughts. I still have negative thoughts, but I see them as independent things to observe and not part of my core self. This is your sto…

Thank you. You are right - it is just a relatively darker time, so to speak. Going to therapy for a while now - to solve for a ton of trauma, as I don't want to pass it on to my potential future kids so to speak, so it helps.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#125

Post by tukantje »

drewrv wrote: post #107
tukantje wrote: post #58

Constantly battling with issues of self worth and suicidal thoughts since I've got laid off so that's about it. Being a migrant, who is laid off, who is/was a sole bread winner does the trick I guess.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to people and organizations who can help with these thoughts.

Thank you - I am already in touch with a therapist so no need to worry. Just being open about the struggle, is all.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#126

Post by AxEy »

YorkshireSeason wrote: post #120
AxEy wrote: post #78

Not laid off but on an extended sabbatical. I'm working on a Rust library for SAT solving and other things informed by John Harrison's text on Automated Theorem Proving. https://github.com/aetilley/harrison-rust This is largely for me to to learn Rust, but I think it may have the potential to turn into something cool. Next on the todo list is optimizations to DPLL as the existing implementation is currently in its mo…

Unfortunately, Harrison's book, despite its many other merits, doesn't really treat CDCL (= conflict-driven clause learning), which is really what makes SAT solvers fly.

I'll be happy to circle back to more modern methods once the core parts of the field are addressed. The point of the library is not really to deliver a competitive solver (yet).

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#127

Post by andai »

generalizations wrote: post #24
_gabe_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve would like to disagree with this sentiment ;) Sure valve isn't making GPUs or CPUs, but they did make the steam deck, in addition to the largest online game store, and several high quality AAA games, and the valve index. They apparently have around 250 people according to a quick Google search, but that still goes against the mindset that you need 10s of thousands of employees to make a successful large scale t…

A 250 person organization assembling semi-off-the-shelf components and gluing mostly-preexisting software together is a very different proposition than 20-50 people building a modern CPU from scratch. That's an order of magnitude more complexity than the steam deck, and an order of magnitude fewer people.

How many people designed the CPUs we use? I read a few days ago that due to deadline pressure, a single man did most of the work on (I believe it was) the 8080. But that's obviously a "trivial" design compared to the monsters we have today.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#128

Post by space_fountain »

badpun wrote: post #122
space_fountain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you'd have to imagine a lot more collaboration between companies, so say company A just markets CPUs in the US nothing else, while company B works on just shipping logistics (to stores which handle the actual delivery to end customers). I think the real problem is that so many boundaries between disciplines make novel collaboration strategies between the parts much harder. It's difficult for say a marketing pers…

So, Intel would be split into ~2400 50-person companies. Coordination of those, through contracts, threats and lawsuits would be nightmare. A basic economic theory ("theory of the firm") says that large companies are created, because they decrease the friction that exists when many small companies (or even just individuals) cooperate to achieve a large and complex thing.

I think I agree it would be worse, though not without advantages. It’s really hard in the normal economy to work out how much a subunit of a company is contributing to the overall success and it can be hard to contain the urge to exaggerate. I think this is why big companies grow inefficiencies and at least with many small companies the individual parts could compete and occasionally fail.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#129

Post by quechimba »

xkcd1963 wrote: post #115
quechimba wrote: post #84

I've been working on a web framework in Ruby. It's inspired by all the JS frameworks, but uses Haml instead of JSX and all code is executed on the server, and patches are streamed to the browser. I'm about to run out of money so I'm planning to move to the Amazon rainforest where money will last longer...

Uh, where? Manaos?

Santa María de Ojeal, a small village about 1.5 hours down the river from Iquitos :) I got friends and family there.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

#130

Post by strikelaserclaw »

bradlys wrote: post #112
throwawayeng999 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New York, and Manhattan specifically, is uniquely difficult as a place to find a woman to settle down with! I'm sure you can do it, but don't be shocked if you find a lot of women are picky or career-focused and uninterested in serious relationships, or just averse to commitment!

Honestly: The biggest issue I find is finding any women who are single to begin with. I do find women here and they do show up (especially compared to SF) but it’s still shit odds cause they’re always in relationships! It doesn’t help that I’m the Dalit of the professional world. (Working in tech) Here, finance reigns king. Doctors and law are fine. Tech though? (Even if rich) May as well be a janitor. Status obsesse…

so you were married but now you are too ugly to get dates? Why did your previous wife marry you?
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