AskHN Digest

1. Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

Top comment by toomanyrichies

One example of quality design which I gleaned from reading Don Norman's "The Design Of Everyday Things" is the metal plate I've frequently seen on doors which are meant to be pushed.

The only affordance of such a plate is its push-ability, and the fact that someone actively installed a metal plate (instead of just relying on the door's natural flatness), as well as its location at the point of maximum leverage (all the way to the right of the door, in the door's vertical center), is a clear signifier for such push-ability.

Not only that, but it does its job without offering any other confusing affordances (such as a vertical handle which is also technically pushable, but which many would interpret as being meant to be pulled).

Whenever I need a relatable, succinct example of affordances and signifiers for my engineering comrades, I turn to this one. Anyone interested in design is doing themselves a dis-service by not reading Don Norman's classic.

2. Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday?

Top comment by leobg

HEURISTIC #1 When in doubt, chose the adventure. (Credit: Nietzsche)

HEURISTIC #2 What’s the right thing to do here, versus the comfortable one?

HEURISTIC #3 To make a thing inevitable, do as much as you can right now. For instance, to make it inevitable to take a letter to my office the next day, I put it inside my shoes. (Credit: BF Skinner)

HEURISTIC #4 If it’s popular and most people agree with it, walk on. Interesting and unfashionable is where the real fun is - and, likely, the values of tomorrow. (Credit: Peter Thiel, and, again, Nietzsche)

3. Ask HN: Software Engineer hitting 40: what's next?

Top comment by leet_thow

I'm 42 and have stopped paying attention to titles and all the traditional organizational paradigms that are losing relevance.

I feel like the ability to work from home in my sweats on simple problems as a senior engineer and receive a 75th percentile income relative to my neighbors in one of the best neighborhoods in my new home state is the most societal progress I will ever experience in my lifetime. I'm a lifelong bachelor by choice. Why bother striving for anything career wise when I am on track to retire comfortably to focus on my mostly free hobbies no later than the age of 50? For a house with a 3rd bedroom I don't need?

No, best to appreciate what I have and leave the striving for the next generation of engineers.

4. Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

Top comment by mlac

After skimming half the thread and only seeing one view (DO IT! It’s GREAT!), I’m going to throw this out there:

- You will have heavy selection bias here (people who did not succeed might be working at a crappier job and unable to comment at this moment)

- You will also have confirmation bias among those who willingly quit (“of course it was the right move”)

- You are asking a very unique set of people with very valuable skills in high demand (you may fall into this category, but worth keeping in mind)

- The last 10 years has been a historic bull market and hard to fail in if you fall into the last category. We don’t know what the future brings (Not knowing what the future holds has been true every year of the last 10 years, especially January 2020. But I bring it up to say past results from others in this thread do not guarantee future performance for you).

All in all, if you are financially stable or have a supportive safety net, it seems like a potentially good risk to take. It also looks like you should have a strong plan to do something (hobby, hike, or work in another capacity). If you don’t, you may just stagnate and waste some of your prime years for growth and development.

But absolutely - if you have support and a plan, you keep the downsides in mind (it will be painful at times, and not roses and butterflies the whole way through), then sure - give it a shot. If you are growing and developing skills in a field you don’t care about, you should definitely change it up.

Reframing it - nearly everyone who goes to grad school full time quits their job (or takes a leave). Quitting to do your own thing, as long as you show employers why you did it in a year or two, shouldn’t be a detriment for getting rehired. That said, hiring managers may question if you’d quit again in a year (depending on your past employment tenure)…

5. Ask HN: What browser extensions are a must-have in 2021?

Top comment by gorhill

> Kind of annoying having to whitelist every website I visit on NoScript these days but worth it imho

In case you didn't already know, uBO does integrate a script blocker, with the advantage over NoScript that it supports per-site rules. I wrote a Twitter thread about this as an introduction a while ago: <https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/1379819815657996290>.

Also, a negative interference when using another script blocker extension along uBO is that these can prevent uBO from redirecting blocked resources to local neutered ones[1], beside making managing rules more complicated since the ruleset of two extensions have to be investigated when trying to unbreak a site.

* * *

[1] Redirecting to neutered local resources is useful to prevent site breakage and also to defuse anti-content blocker mechanisms.

6. Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

Top comment by rewgs

Throughout my 20s (in my 30s now) I worked as a film composer in Hollywood, land of personal assistants.

One thing I took to heart was that the best personal assistants weren't looking to use the opportunity get elsewhere. What you want is someone who wants to stay in that role, because as a lot of other comments here point out, it takes a lot of time for the person to learn enough about you to become truly useful rather than a time suck or a liability. I.e. you want someone who just wants "a job" and doesn't necessarily want to move on from it. If they want to use this job as a rung on the ladder on the way to where they really want to be, they'll be gone before they're super useful.

Meaning: you must pay them quite well, and not work them too terribly hard. Remember that this is someone who works to live. Give them firm boundaries and time off. Make them feel valued; you get out what you put in in this regard.

This should of course go without saying, and for any employee, not just a personal assistant. But it seems to apply extra here.

7. Ask HN: How did you learn math notation?

Top comment by ColinWright

I think a real problem in this area is the belief that there is "one true notation" and that everything is unambiguous and clearly defined.

Yes, conventions have emerged, people tend to use the same sort of notation in a given context, but in the main, the notation should be regarded as an aide memoire, something to guide you.

You say that you're struggling because of "the math notations and zero explanation of it in the context." Can you give us some examples? Maybe getting a start on it with a careful discussion of a few examples will unblock the difficulty you're having.

8. Ask HN: How do you start a new career with minimal qualifications?

Top comment by donkeyd

I commented before, but that was before checking your profile, web site and social media. Now I guess, I have a more personal recommendation.

Apparently, you've worked for the same company for over a decade doing data entry, you just passed your Lean green belt and you like tech.

It could be useful to look at business process automation, low code tools or robotic process automation. I've seen the combination of these things used for automating data entry processes in many industries, including yours.

There are many low code and RPA tools available (Mendix, UIPath, etc, just Google it) that offer free online training and certifications. These certs are not extremely hard to get if you have some interest in tech. For many companies in this field, hiring someone experienced with data entry, that can also do automation of those tasks is like finding the holy grail. Especially when you also have a lean cert.

It might be useful to look on Google for products like the one I mentioned and then look in your area for vacancies that require knowledge of them. Maybe there's an interesting opportunity in it for you!

9. Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

Top comment by svennek

I think basically because there is nothing interesting left to discus.

One camp (where I am in) basically believes it is an environmental disaster, unsuitable for its stated purpose and most likely as scam by the "whales" manipulating the price, and with a potential 51%-disaster.

The other camp believes that it is the future of money, untraceable wealth storage and inflation/"confiscation proof" and that all the environmental impact is just a temporary problem, that is solved when proof-of-stake is ready (which IMHO will never happen).

The tech itself is quite simple in concept with a few novel key insights in the old days (which by now are generally accepted).

So all in all, it is back to good old politics and do you believe in "it" nor not.

I think that I see in my network of people that the more technically apt they are, the less they believe in it - but I am not sure whether I just project my own skepticism ...

EDIT: typo proof-of-state -> proof-of-stake

10. Ask HN: Great tools for solo SaaS founders?

Top comment by dangrossman

I've been living off solo SaaS products my entire adult life -- almost 20 years. These are the only services I pay for:

    * AWS and Cloudflare for hosting
    * Rackspace for incoming email
    * Sendgrid for transactional/outbound email
    * Namecheap for domains
    * A merchant account and Spreedly for payments
    * ShareASale to run an affiliate program and pay a percentage commission for referred sales
    * Facebook and Google ads