AskHN Digest

1. Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

Top comment by modeless

Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Bluetooth ecosystem will get their act together, but it'll be a while and you'll have to buy all new devices because it's a standard made by hardware manufacturers for hardware manufacturers.

Also, some of those magnetic USB charging cables to keep them charged without fiddling with plugging in cables. The nice thing about these is that the same magnetic cable can attach to both microUSB and USB-C dongles, so you can charge any small device with one cable. And the dongles are tiny so you just put them into all your devices and leave them there, super convenient.

2. Ask HN: Courses/textbook recommendations for studying robotics?

Top comment by cashsterling

Kevin Lynch's book is free and very good: http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/index.php/Modern_Robotics - someone already mentioned his course.

The Robotics resources and texts by Peter Corke are good: https://petercorke.com/ -also has this good related course: https://robotacademy.net.au/

"Controls Engineering in the FIRST Robotics Competition" by Tyler Veness is free and a good short reference: https://controls-in-frc.link/

Also add the MIT Robotics Series books: https://mitpress.mit.edu/series/intelligent-robotics-and-aut...

Algorithms for Decision Making is free and awesome: https://algorithmsbook.com/

Also looks really good (MIT Press hardcopy): https://introduction-to-autonomous-robots.github.io/

3. Ask HN: WWYD? Built a company valued at $1B and may walk away with nothing

Top comment by sdrinf

> My #1 priority is to get the financing closed for the business.

> The strategy I would want to run as CEO is likely not something my COO or board will want to get behind

I'd argue that your #1 priority as a CEO is building alignment between all stakeholders -yourself included- on the direction to move forward; everything else is downstream from that. If you close financing at terms you're not aligned with, with boardmembers who are signing up for a strat you are not aligned with, the business will be pushed into different directions, and shatter at these cross-forces.

I've seen this before, and the deterministic outcome from it is you parting ways with the company in 6-12 months' time, at which point it will be in a significantly worse shape / position than it is now.

Presently you have some level of movement freedom. I'd start by sketching out a strategy you think have a high expected value X probability of working, and a roadmap to getting there. I'd look for investors who are okay with signing up for that plan, at valuation that reflects the business's true value given that strategy is successful. Get people aligned with that goal, and execute on that.

The second issue, "What's in it for me?" flows downstream from above. If your own expected value for a successful outcome is no longer motivating for you, your incentives are at odds with the company. To align these, one useful question is: "Okay, you fire me today, find a competent CEO. What would that CEO ask for to drive this?". Sell your board on this question, and take that specific package -with the advantage of the company being that they don't have to go through the C-level search process. Operationally, this can include: a bonus for achieving milestones on the strategic roadmap, and market-level salary.

In short, I'd start with alignment. Everything else -including what's in it for you- flows from there.

4. Ask HN: How do I keep my elderly father safe on the internet?

Top comment by troydavis

Here's a few more ideas:

- in iOS -> Settings -> Messages, enable "Filter Unknown Senders." Go through recent SMSes/iMessages and create contacts for short codes and numbers that he has communicated with.

This option won't block the messages, but it'll make them harder to find and make their links much harder to click on (AFAIK it's impossible unless he copies and pastes the URL or creates a contact for the sender).

- install uBlock Origin, which makes it much harder to reach the phishing scam sites that back a lot of these campaigns. They're often hosted on sites that are on malware filter lists. In uBO, enable all optional malware filter lists.

On iOS, do the same using AdGuard.

- in addition to the malware detection mentioned by others, consider enabling Google "Enhanced Safe Browsing": https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/11577602?hl=en

- for phone calls, install his carrier's robocall/fraud detection and blocking app. For AT&T, it's "ActiveArmor" (https://www.att.com/security/). If he has a landline, pay for caller ID and consider a phone that speaks the caller's ID (example: AT&T TL96273).

- depending on how his bills are paid: only put a small amount of money (a month or two of expenses) in accounts that are accessible without physically visiting a bank branch. If an account has no online access, no checks (nothing to read the account number off of), and no debit card, at least the maximum possible damage from a scam is limited. Either visit a branch one a month to transfer money or use a credit card for expenses.

5. Ask HN: Is it appropriate to ask a startup to let me see their cap table?

Top comment by jpgvm

The full cap table probably not. But you generally don't need that to ascertain the most important parts of startup compensation.

I generally ask these questions:

1. What was the pre/post money valuation of the company at the last round.

2. How much runway do they have right now including already planned increases in burn (i.e hiring plans for the quarter/year).

3. What % interest in the company would my options grant represent? (you use this in combination with the information about the valuation to determine value of said grant)

4. Who are the major non-founder investors in the company? (this is generally public knowledge because investors love to announce these but it's worth asking). Sometimes the CEO will also divulge details about how they work with their investors, level of involvement, board seats etc. CEOs love to talk about these things for some reason.

5. When do they plan to raise money next and do they feel like they are meeting the metrics required for an up round? If not then how does my hiring or other planned hiring seek to address that?

The last question is actually really important and generally how I a) tie my employment to actual value at the company and b) justify my compensation in negotiation stage and/or later negotiations when I can show how my performance has directly affected these important metrics.

Any company worth their salt at the sort of stage where these questions are relevant will answer these, the degree of detail will depend on transparency of the leadership.

Generally speaking when looking to join a company of this size you will be meeting with the CEO, usually after meeting everyone else and before negotiating compensation - that is when you ask these questions and this is exactly what that meeting is for.

If they don't want to answer these then take that as a sign things are worse than they seem and perhaps negotiate for a more cash rich compensation and don't bet hard on the companies future.

6. Ask HN: What's your best resource for keeping up-to-date on AI developments?

Top comment by ulrikhansen54

https://paperswithcode.com/ is arguably the best source and overview of all the research. Its also (somewhat) unbiased (owned by Meta), not being an SEO-optimised company blog.

7. Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?

Top comment by tyingq

It's been a while, but the most rewarding experience I had in this space was engaging directly with a small local charity. I just pitched them the idea of me getting 10 minutes with every worker that had to use a PC as part of what the charity did. I used the time to interview them, and try to identify something that affected the largest swath of workers.

As it turned out, what I helped them with wasn't code, but a bit of configuration and tuning, but they said it honestly created about a hour of time back per day for most of the workers. There was part of a flow that would often grind a long time and/or error out. Making that fast and reliable was the best low-effort thing I could deliver.

8. Ask HN: What helps you focus and get things done?

Top comment by AmericanOP

At age 35 I was diagnosed with ADHD. Woah! I try to minimize medication.

A few tricks..

1. An ADHD diagnosis looks at 5 areas, Activation, Effort, Memory, Attention and Affect. I struggle with Activation and Effort.

If I am inactive, I now know enough to say, "Activate!" And this gives me a trigger to change my behavior.

2. ADHD folk oft describe a phenomena where they excel under pressure or when doing tasks for others. There was a recent thread on /r/adhd where people offered to clean other's houses because they recognize they don't do things well for themselves!

As a mental trick, I externalize myself. I create myself as a person I want to do things for. Part of this is recognizing that when we do things for others, like cook a great meal or do a spring clean, we don't expect them to appreciate every detail of our work. We just want to impart a feeling of deliciousness or well-being. Similarly, do not ask your future self to marinate in every detail of your work- the goal is the overall feeling.

3. Thanks to life experiences, medication, and a lifelong infatuation with builder games like Factorio, I know what I am like and what I can do when a project engages me and I give it my full effort. Identify, Organize, Create/Act, Debug, Repeat. I now understand that moments of inspiration, medication, and grit & discipline are different paths to attain this state. Thus I have some control over summoning that state directly.

4. I now understand there is an emotional signal sent by the cerebellum that facilitates executive function- the impulse to get stuff done. Physical exercise, eating well, sleeping well, core things that reduce depressive feelings are correlated with improving executive function. Embrace it, treat your body well.

4. ADHD research & brain scans have identified two key mental states. The first is DMN, a passive-receptive state where memories and stimuli flow more freely. The second is TPN, when we become focused on tasks and the brain inhibits these stimuli. In people with ADHD, the DMN rarely quiets down. So now I can recognize that engaging with memories, good and bad, and various stimuli, are a part of how I function. I can somewhat identify that function, accept that its happening and maybe interfering, and politely ask it to relax.

I hope this helps.

9. Ask HN: People with direct knowledge of YouTube Algorithm-why the repeats?

Top comment by nokya

Watch this scene: https://youtu.be/LXaHbJhKWLc

I think that what he says pretty much applies to almost everything that seems sophisticated to us such as health tech, privacy tech, fin tech, anti-terrorism tech and of course user behavior prediction tech. A lot of people are convinced that what these companies do is highly sophisticated and very difficult to achieve in terms of algorithmics. Most of the things that look sophisticated are just mediocre at most, with a handful of companies just having successfully delivered on a handful of problems and pretending to have solved many others.

One of the reasons I suspect i they're failing at so many things is that these companies have focused extensively on hiring the brightest minds to solve the most difficult problems they had to solve 10-15 years ago.

During all this time they failed at solving simple problems that do not require the brightest minds in the world but just people who actually can discuss with other people and solve simple problems with their technologies.

You're perfectly legitimate in hoping that YouTube would have solved these problems but no, they haven't, they're actually quite weak at solving many simple things and it is crucial that the large audience doesn't realize that.

10. Ask HN: Fastest way to turn a Jupyter notebook into a website these days?

Top comment by kwamenum86

No need to use AWS at all -

Jupyter Nbconvert: Jupyter Nbconvert is a command-line tool that allows you to convert Jupyter notebooks into various formats, including HTML, PDF, and Markdown. You can use the nbconvert command to convert your Jupyter notebook into an HTML file, which you can then upload to a web hosting service or a file-sharing platform like GitHub or GitLab. To use this method, you will need to have Jupyter installed on your computer.

Binder: Binder is a free service that allows you to turn your Jupyter notebook into a live, interactive website that can be accessed by anyone. Binder creates a virtual environment that includes all the dependencies required to run your notebook and launches it in a web browser. To use this method, you will need to upload your Jupyter notebook to a GitHub repository and provide a link to your repository to Binder.

Google Colab: Google Colab is a free cloud-based service that allows you to create and run Jupyter notebooks in a web browser. You can create a new notebook in Colab, write your code, and then export it as an HTML file using the nbconvert command. You can then download the HTML file and upload it to a web hosting service or file-sharing platform.