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I Met Paul Graham Once

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Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#841

Post by aprilthird2021 »

tome wrote: post #349
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Islam is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a religion of peace. It is. The word Islam and Salaam are etymologically tied to the word "peace". If your definition of peace is "never wages war", well there's no country or political regime in the world like that. Even India, which was liberated by the famous nonviolent philosopher Gandhi, did not last many years without needing to wage war and take territory. Isl…

> Islam is the only remaining religion with a political element and an existing desire for statehood What do you mean by this? There are several countries that declare themselves to be Islamic.

Yes, that is pretty much what I mean. But the idea of a unified Muslim state is also still pretty alive in the world. In a way it's not in other religions (Judaism is an interesting edge case, imo)

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#842

Post by valval »

gedpeck wrote: post #294
yread wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dehumanization of the other side is one of the most used tools of war propaganda of all sides. Just look at people in the west joking about orcs

But if someone acts inhuman then it’s justified. Russia’s war crimes are well documented and they started the war. When you are the baddies then expect to be called so.

[flagged]

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#843

Post by valval »

kelnos wrote: post #395
gedpeck wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if someone acts inhuman then it’s justified. Russia’s war crimes are well documented and they started the war. When you are the baddies then expect to be called so.

But that's still too simplistic. It's certainly not fair to say that every single Russian (or non-Russian!) soldier who is or has been in Ukraine is a "baddie". Some are trapped by their circumstances to fight in a war they don't believe in and don't agree with. It's easy to say, "well then they should refuse to fight", but you are not that person, and you don't know their struggles or what they feel they are capable…

The actual situation is way more complex still than you claim. You take this weird stance where the Russian heads of state are evil, Ukrainian/US/NATO heads of state are not, Russian soldiers might or might not be, and Ukrainian soldiers are not.

In reality, the invasion phase of the war is justified from the Russian point of view, so their heads of state and soldiers are in the right. Same goes for western heads of state and soldiers. Me and you both live in the west and therefore have our own perspective on the war. People in BRICS states have their own perspective (that I’m quite familiar with due to having actually spent the effort on reading, unlike 99% of western commentators on this war).

Besides, don’t feel bad for Russian soldiers for being victims of the circumstances. Ukraine has been snatching people off the streets against their will for the past months and dropping them on the frontlines. This is happening in the majority Russian speaking cities and towns, not majority Ukrainian ones.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#844

Post by valval »

YZF wrote: post #437
nradov wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but in practice what sort of common ground do you think we can find here? Because it sure seems like the only possible solution is to give Ukraine enough advanced weapons to exterminate all the orcs. If you have a feasible alternative then I'm sure we'd all love to hear it. The real world is an ugly place and sometimes there is no win-win solution.

Are we solving the Russian-Ukraine war in this thread? ;) - Realistically no amount of weapons the west supplies Ukraine is going to enable them to push the Russians out of Ukraine. - Putin doesn't seem to care about the number of Russians lost in this war. - Direct involvement by western armies could lead to a nuclear escalation. NATO could easily push Russia out of Ukraine in a conventional war. Too big of a gamble…

There is no evidence to suggest that NATO could push Russia out of Ukraine in conventional warfare. The Russians and their allies are WAY better prepared for that war, and it would immediately turn into the third world war, not remain “NATO vs Russia”.

Takes like yours are equally dangerous as the brainless “Ukraine is actually winning the war” ones, even though you appear slightly more neutral and informed.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#845

Post by rhubarbtree »

jedberg wrote: post #340

> He thought it was a decent enough idea, but the name, Appcanary, he wasn’t crazy about the name. He was very good at naming companies. FWIW, he hated the name Reddit, and the mascot even more. He said if they have to keep the mascot, it should be on the bottom right where no one can see it. PG is a smart guy, but you gotta trust your gut sometimes even when taking to experts.

I think PG was correct here about Oracle, as it leaves the door open to being a much bigger product rather than being too niche, which ironically sounds like the reason the company failed. You can imagine lots of situations in deployment where having a monitoring “source of judgement” about running systems could be developed. Not just security, but say performance, efficiency, cost.

It’s not explained in the essay why the author was so certain PG was wrong.

If PG hated “Reddit” and the mascot, I would say he was correct again. Reddit could have been a much bigger idea, but the branding excludes a lot of demographics and types of content. It helps to make Reddit what it is, but also what it is not. That can be helpful, but in the startup game you want to be biased towards generality: “Google”, “Apple” not “websearchengine” or “foundit” or “homecomputerco” or “appyphone.”

It’s a bit like being a good coder: you develop a sense of test for elegance, simplicity, leaving the door open to expansion… and it sounds like PG has (unsurprisingly) refined taste in naming.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#846

Post by dllthomas »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #841
tome wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Islam is the only remaining religion with a political element and an existing desire for statehood What do you mean by this? There are several countries that declare themselves to be Islamic.

Yes, that is pretty much what I mean. But the idea of a unified Muslim state is also still pretty alive in the world. In a way it's not in other religions (Judaism is an interesting edge case, imo)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_theology

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#847

Post by tordrt »

djur wrote: post #449
yread wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why is there so much energy wasted on these non issues: > a. Very young kids being treated in invasive or hard-to-revert ways on flimsy evidence. Leave it to the doctors/counsellors/psychologists and parents. They know best. If my kids wanted to change their gender I would sure appreciate if the state wasn't making it any more difficult. > b. People with male musculature competing in women's sports league…

> So a man won a boxing match with women This should be stated hypothetically, because it hasn't happened (at least, not in any official, regulated match).

Has happened multiple times. Lastly in the Olympics. The evidence strongly suggests Imane Khelif is of male sex. Maybe most notable (though not boxing), 800m finals for women in 2016, gold, silver and bronze went to athletes of male sex.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#848

Post by tordrt »

tomlockwood wrote: post #652
iaseiadit wrote: post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who “vilifies immigrants”? President Trump is married to an immigrant, as is Vice President Vance. And many of Trumps advisors are immigrants. And he has repeatedly said he wants America to attract the best people from around the world. You mean he vilified illegal immigrants specifically. That’s fair, he did. But he’s not obligated to speak kindly about people who flout our laws. > Is the republican party full of br…

He's not obligated to do anything, man, but I can point at what he does and call it fascism. I know you may struggle with this because the American education system is awful, but if you pay a tiny fraction of attention to what American senators are like, you'll come to know that in a fistfight or a battle of the wits there is a non-zero number of senators that Biden could beat. This is not a Red vs Blue issue, as sim…

PISA suggests the US has a very good education system, and probably better than where your are from. https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1732087511327908128?s=4...

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#849

Post by Shocka1 »

tomlockwood wrote: post #652
iaseiadit wrote: post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who “vilifies immigrants”? President Trump is married to an immigrant, as is Vice President Vance. And many of Trumps advisors are immigrants. And he has repeatedly said he wants America to attract the best people from around the world. You mean he vilified illegal immigrants specifically. That’s fair, he did. But he’s not obligated to speak kindly about people who flout our laws. > Is the republican party full of br…

He's not obligated to do anything, man, but I can point at what he does and call it fascism. I know you may struggle with this because the American education system is awful, but if you pay a tiny fraction of attention to what American senators are like, you'll come to know that in a fistfight or a battle of the wits there is a non-zero number of senators that Biden could beat. This is not a Red vs Blue issue, as sim…

The parent comment you responded to was respectful and thoughtful, progressing the conversation in accordance to HN guidelines.

> I know you may struggle with this because the American education system is awful

This part undermines your whole comment by coming across as an insult rather than contributing meaningfully to the conversation. This is interpreted that the parent commenter lacks intelligence due to their awful American education, which is not productive at all.

While I understand that topics like this one can be emotionally charged, I encourage you to communicate in a more respectful manner in the future. It will help your perspective be heard more clearly.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#850

Post by Angostura »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #247
Angostura wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone was born biological any male and is transitioning and still has periods, it seems useful, so why not?

how many people like this did meta have who had this issue and also had no access to a tampon, so that having it in mens' bathroom specifically was really important? what if I am a forgetful guy and I have socks with holes in them and I forget to buy new socks. Should meta bathrooms stock those socks? at some point this just becomes a bit absurd, no?

Do Meta bathrooms currently stock socks? No, so its a silly analogy.

As to the question of 'how many people did this serve?' I imagine a very small number. The shocking cost to Meta was a box of tampons that probably needed to be replaced every 10 years. They've gone out of their way to remove this cost at the expense of making that small number of employees feel comfortable.

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