AskHN Digest

1. Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

Top comment by BeefWellington

- Technology Connections for general household "how stuff works"

- DIY Perks, which is on the project/creation end of things

- Xyla Foxlin for a variety of projects

- Veritasium for well basically anything and everything science

- Simone Giertz does a lot of projects to solve problems in both ridiculous and entertaining ways

- Element14 Presents, if you're interested in building your own electronics

- Hugh Jeffreys for device repair

- Both Steve Mould and Joe Scott for miscellaneous general science learning

- Major Hardware, all you wanted to know about computer fan design and then some

- Primitive Technology, an almost zen-like demonstration of building things the way our ancestors mostly had to

- The Modern Rogue, for all things shady and interesting

- Electroboom for all things electricity (and loud noises)

- Undecided w/Matt Ferrel, for a look at emerging tech

- The Hook Up for a wide variety of Home Automation and IoT reviews and projects

2. Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?

Top comment by EddySchauHai

Exercise, drop the drugs, ensure you have some part of your identity unrelated to work.

I was in a rut for years because my work was my identity and I wasn’t where I wanted to be (thank you effective altruism for the identity crisis lol). When I moved out to California I quit drinking (for a while, quit again more recently), focused on exercising, and set a goal of not seeing my whole identity as a software developer. It helped so much with my physical and mental health, and in turn that helped me with my work life.

Honestly if you just view work as a source of income to do the things you want to do, and get out and be a bit more active, you could get out of the rut pretty quickly.

And if you don’t care for any of these suggestions - just stay positive these things are temporary and you’ll feel better in time anyway :) We all have these moments.

3. Ask HN: Higher order derivatives in everyday life?

Top comment by jules

"In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection."

-- http://www.ams.org/notices/199610/page2.pdf

4. Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

Top comment by Matthias247

Having moved from germany to canada (Vancouver BC) in 2017, I can tell you that "quality of life" is highly subjective, and a lot of things in germany work far better than it seems - but you will only notice it if you have anything to compare against.

E.g. [online] shopping and stock availability is so much better in germany, and you only notice what a privilege it is to get everything you need in 1 day once it's taken away from you. Groceries are super cheap in germany compared to canada. Cellphone and ISP service and pricing is often looked down upon in germany, but still also better than lots of other places. [Free] eduction is also good.

Housing in Berlin in 200k should be as comfortable as in Vancouver on 400k and new building construction quality is good. But sure - there will be tons of other places on this planet where housing is cheaper.

Then there's considerations about healthcare (where germany is probably neither at the top end nor the bottom end of the spectrum).

And of course also about long term job perspectives. While you might be able to find a remote job now, it could be much harder to maintain it or look for future opportunities in some locations than in others. Being in a country with a big tech industry or at least in the same timezone will help retaining opportunities.

5. Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

Top comment by LAC-Tech

Honestly my whole career has been a series of these.

Growing up no one in my family had a professional job. Most of them didn't even work. So while I knew that in theory I could get a CS degree and have a software career, it wasn't something I really felt in my bones. Even after I got the degree I did not feel confident that one of "us" could get a job like one of "them", especially when you're raised with that working class crab mentality.

Later on, it was getting my first self employed contract. I had dreamed about going solo, but always doubted I could pull off. Then it was getting my invoice paid by a director of an overseas company I had never met. Something I knew was possible but felt like utopian science fiction when I read it on HN.

So as cheesy as it sounds - my career has changed my life forever. The realisation that I didn't have to struggle to make ends meet, and that I was in the drivers seat of my own life.

6. Ask HN: Why are there so few artificial sunlight or artificial window products?

Top comment by atoav

One thing: most LEDs suck at mimicking daylight. The cheap ones are bad at delivering the full light spectrum.

The higher end of LED is slowly getting there. The measurement one should be looking for there is CRI ("Color Rendering Index"). The sun has a CRI of 100. Any lightsource above 90 to 95 CRI is (to my experience) indistinguishable from daylight. The best stuff there currently is are (of course) the Skypanels by ARRI for laughable 6800 USD per panel (film equipment is expensive as usual).

Blasting a 2.5 kW HMI lamp ("Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lamp") trough a window from the outside is a good emulation of daylight. So good in fact that the poor souls shooting films inside will have their bodies in confusion as they exit the room and realize in horror that it is dark outside.

The electrical bill of anything emulating the sun is no joke tho.

7. Ask HN: What are the best programming tricks you know?

Top comment by mabbo

The most clever trick I've learned as a programmer is not to use clever tricks.

Write code that is obvious, clearly readable by future programmers maintaining the code. Don't do clever things that are hard to read and reason about until there is a strong motivating reason to do so.

Honestly most of the clever things you're about to do, the compiler is already going to do for you, but better and without the bugs you'll introduce when you do it wrong.

8. Ask HN: What is a sustainable methodology for taking notes of your learning?

Top comment by nstart

If you are truly interested in sustainable methodologies, I think one area that requires acceptance is that the volume one consumes needs to be second to the volume one can take meaningful notes on. There is no sustainable notes strategy that can support randomly opening HN and skimming a random article on the front page during a break at a bus halt.

If you want to take notes of what you are reading, no matter what method you choose you need to synthesize your ideas. You need to make them your own. That takes time. Personally, I found that for the time I was taking notes* I had to first discipline myself in how I consumed material. This lessened how much I read and made me focus on quality which in turn made me focus more on what I was reading which then turned into a positive feedback loop.

This answer may feel like a cop out, but I add it only because too many people try to find a note taking methodology to support an unsustainable consumption habit and then they think the note taking method was the issue when it really wasn’t.

* - I ultimately stopped taking notes on most things when I decided one day that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I narrowed my areas of interest to ones where mostly practical experience mattered much than theoretical knowledge (eg: illustrating). The only areas I take notes in still is security research and even that is far more practical

9. Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

Top comment by edent

As with anything - what's the user need?

The vast majority of people don't seem fazed about their credit card company knowing they've bought a sex toy. Hell, if Amex offered double-cashback at PornHub I expect they'd be inundated.

For those which do want a bit more privacy, it's dead easy to buy a single-use gift card or cash card. Will that stop the police from tracing you? No, but it makes it harder for a company to build a profile or a spouse to snoop.

So you're left with things which are (rightly or wrongly) illegal. Or incredibly taboo.

Is there a huge market for those things? If so, what are the customer benefits of Monero against cash? Or barter? Or owing a favour?

How easy is it - for both sides - to get set up? I can check cash isn't forged to a high degree of accuracy very easily. How much hard work do I have to do for Monero? How much educating my customers do I have to do? If Monero is restricted to shady stuff - how much of a target am I painting on my back?

It's possible for a company to stimulate and create user need. But that's a lot harder than tapping in to a currently unsatisfied niche.

10. Ask HN: Do you maintain a list of RSS links of GOAT blogs?

Top comment by gwbas1c

(Joke) I'm kind of surprised that Hacker News readers are into goats! My cousin runs a goat company, and she's not the kind of person who'd read Hacker News. (She rents out her goats to remove problematic vegetation, like poison ivy and invasive vines.)

According to Google, "GOAT Blogs" are blogs about goats: https://www.google.com/search?q=GOAT+blog&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS99...

Suggestion (edited): Edit the post just enough to explain that GOAT stands for "Greatest of all time." For example: Do you maintain a list of RSS links of the GOAT (Greatest of all Time) blogs? If you do can you please share?