11–20 of 98 posts
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48739003
Someone (@rramadass) made me a good set of recommendations from the titles.
* Edit: I see now that linked comment too is from @clmul, the OP here. Thanks clmul!
Quick question. What do soviets make great researchers? I noticed this pattern in ml, math & physics research. Is it that they have better quality books?
There also was no centralized test system (like SAT) up until early 2000-s. People had to go and sit on entrance exams in each university where they wanted to apply. But winners of olympiads got automatic admission into good universities.
In addition, social sciences were a minefield in the USSR, especially subjects like political science or history. And hard sciences were safe.
Quick question. What do soviets make great researchers? I noticed this pattern in ml, math & physics research. Is it that they have better quality books?
Loosely related https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/06/why-so-many-top-hackers-...
Americans: contact the vendor and report the issue. Then wait for the vendor to fix it, applying pressure as needed. Because of the delay, the product ends up being 6 months late, but then it works reliably.
Russians: curse the vendor, then use undocumented APIs and live code patching to work around the bug. The vendor is never told about the issues. The product is released on time, but it breaks in 1 year when the vendor makes an incompatible change that breaks the workarounds.
This mindset is very much a result of centuries of having to work around the government that is seen more as an occupying force rather than the will of the people. And it's very helpful when you're doing security research.
Incidentally, Jewish people also excel in security due to a similar cultural mindset.
I have very fond memory of these books. We are from lower middle class family in India. My dad was fond of books. Western books were costly, but Soviet and Chinese books were of high quality and cheap. So we used to get loads of them from book fair.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Loosely related https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/06/why-so-many-top-hackers-...
Description of different developer mindsets when they encounter a problem with a tool from a vendor. Americans: contact the vendor and report the issue. Then wait for the vendor to fix it, applying pressure as needed. Because of the delay, the product ends up being 6 months late, but then it works reliably. Russians: curse the vendor, then use undocumented APIs and live code patching to work around the bug. The vendo…
How do you people come up with such stories?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think part of it is that unlike in the US, access to education wasn't paywalled. Higher education in the US, with the exception of scholarships here and there, requires you to come from a wealthy background to afford the best schools. In other words, it's more about perpetuating class privilege than it is about developing the best and brightest of a generation. If you're a genius with poor parents, you have to real…
It's also about poor children getting worse primary education . According to Google "roughly 21% of U.S. adults are functionally illiterate". If you never learned to read, good luck getting higher education. I'm not defending communist societies like Soviet Union or China but I think "social democratic" countries like those in Scandinavia have shown generally good education outcomes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Description of different developer mindsets when they encounter a problem with a tool from a vendor. Americans: contact the vendor and report the issue. Then wait for the vendor to fix it, applying pressure as needed. Because of the delay, the product ends up being 6 months late, but then it works reliably. Russians: curse the vendor, then use undocumented APIs and live code patching to work around the bug. The vendo…
>This mindset is very much a result of centuries of having to work around the government that is seen more as an occupying force rather than the will of the people. How do you people come up with such stories?
I loved these old books. I think I had the Seven Clam Sisters or something like it. My parents managed to rescue and bring to the US two childhood stories I really enjoyed: The Long Haired Maiden, and Shihan and the Snail[0]. These old folk tales are really entertaining. Often there’s no real moral or anything. It’s just a story. And to this day I really like these stories that are just “this happened and that person…