DHMO

I'm surprised that it was Windows 10 that made you switch. Windows 8 was my biggest disappointment.

Here's what I feel about each Windows release I've used much (1=low, 10=high):

    +-----------------+-------------+----------------+-----------+
    | Windows Version | Expectation | Disappointment | Usability |
    +-----------------+-------------+----------------+-----------+
    | 3.1             |           5 |              2 |         8 |
    | 3.11            |           7 |              3 |         6 |
    | NT 3.51         |           7 |              5 |         7 |
    | 95              |           6 |              3 |         7 |
    | NT 4.0          |           7 |              3 |         9 |
    | 98              |           7 |              2 |         8 |
    | ME              |           7 |              7 |         6 |
    | XP              |           8 |              3 |         8 |
    | Vista           |           5 |              5 |         4 |
    | 7               |           4 |              3 |         6 |
    | 8               |           6 |              8 |         2*|
    | 10              |           8 |              6 |         4 |
    +-----------------+-------------+----------------+-----------+

* - marred by experience w/Surface RT

The same we enforce it now- with nuclear regulation, e.g. http://www.nrc.gov/ http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/ip/intl-organizations.html#INRA https://www.iaea.org/ http://www.nea.fr/

In addition to the two actually dropped in Japan, the US and Russia have been close to accidentally firing nuclear weapons since then, in each case because they thought they were getting ready to respond to what they thought was an aggressive act. It's just not a good idea to have nuclear weapons at all.

So, instead of "no first use", I would just have a global agreement never to have or use nuclear weapons for any reason, not even for defense.

Nuclear pulse propulsion should be allowed for spacecraft, however. This was outlawed years ago by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_Nuclear_Test_Ban_Treat... but would be much more efficient than other currently used methods and safe if used with clean bombs in space. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

Weapons by their nature will continue to escalate as long as technology improves, so if nuclear weapons continue to be allowed, time will surely bring a weapon even more destructive to counter them. Whether you believe they've brought peace or not, do you want someone to invent an even greater weapon and test it as the next "weapon of peace"? I don't.

And: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons_tests_...

And others have also set off the bomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons_tests

Granted, weapons testing is a little different than intentional use in war against an enemy.

> Many people don't handle the level of autonomy well, or don't stay motivated in isolation

But just because that is true for a number of people doesn't mean it is true for all.

I don't work from home anymore, but, personally, I always felt happiest when working from home.

I did have a remote job which sucked, and part of it was because it was remote and I didn't have as much familiarity with the code or the company and part of it was that the job just really sucked.

I think though that if you are already familiar with the code, know the people you are working with well, don't have significant problems interpreting what others say via IM/email and need to speak with them in person to get context, and just get a total morale boost when working from home because you are in your own world and can concentrate better, then- please!- work from home!

Are you a strong believer in putting a caret in front of every point?

I understand the association with up and optimism, but in this document, I think that it could be distracting the reader from the content you are presenting.

Thank you for writing this, though!

You sure about that?

"...calculations in semiclassical gravity suggest that quantum effects may be able to violate this condition in curved spacetime. Although it was hoped recently that quantum effects could not violate an achronal version of the averaged null energy condition, violations have nevertheless been found, so it remains an open possibility that quantum effects might be used to support a wormhole."

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

Do you disagree with Dr. Kip Thorne?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Thorne#Wormholes_and_time_...

Wormholes for matter and energy are not incompatible with physics. We just probably won't ever see one like the one he proposed, because creating it would require manipulation of matter or gravity at extreme scale.

But, it is wrong to say it is impossible. It is theoretically possible.

> they didn't find correlations with acetaminophen before and after pregnancy, so that's 3 distinct factors just there

No, it's perfectly valid for a drug to only have affect on the growing fetus but where there were not studies proving harm to the child or adult, e.g. Thalidomide.

In addition, a study in college students showed it can reduce empathy (although pain may also reduce empathy):

http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/02/scan...

Something else that can help with being heads-down is medication. It's good to talk with a psych and see whether they can help.

And, don't forget to talk with HR at work if you don't think you'll get fired to see whether there is a way to reduce distractions. Many are more-than-willing to help- whether it's with buying some noise-cancelling earbuds, relocating you, letting you work from home, or another option. If it's a team member or more that is noisy or distracts you, mention that to your manager or HR.

You can go a long way helping yourself.

1. I know it is tough collecting data, but a sample size of 97? It seems like there are a number of larger organizations that would be interested in participating in such a study if kept anonymous, and I really start to wonder about conclusions based on such small sample sizes, especially if it was only done at a single company or in a single geographic region.

Culture between companies and between geographic regions can be really different. For example, if you performed this study in Mumbai in a company where all of those involved in the study were die-hard workers that didn't believe in burnout, that would have seriously skewed the results and they still might have looked good statistically.

2. While it's evident to many that have been working several years or more that people tend to get promoted even when they'd be happier in lower non-managerial positions, and that promotion can end in unhappiness or burnout, what wasn't mentioned in the study is whether you really want power-hungry people in management positions just because it would be a better fit for their motivations.

I had some piss-poor managers that loved power and for them it was a good personality fit.

It might be better in many situations to have someone that doesn't want the power, is knowledgeable of the job of those they are managing, is well-respected, and is a great leader to lead for some years and burnout or leave than it would be to have a power-hungry imbecile with no respect from their team leading for many years because they are a good personality fit.

That said, I think that if you can find someone that is both a good personality fit and a great fit as a leader of the team, then that's better than promoting someone that will burnout, but only as long as it is just information used for decision between candidates and not a determining factor.

I was quoting. Did you read everything that I wrote? I thought I did a pretty good job telling the entire story.

Beyond the "email me" example, as an author of free source projects for the past several years, I can say that if the project is used and if users have access to the source, they will find and fix bugs- not all, but more than would have been otherwise.

On the flipside, if few use your project, bugs can last for ages. I've had this experience also- distributing projects with free source that don't work, and not finding out until much later when I noticed it myself.

Making source free is not bad for security, because it's not about high visibility. Security problems are more frequent when the vector of attack is larger, e.g. when your car can be stolen because they didn't anticipate misuse of the entertainment system that was accessible via the carrier.

Related to that topic, Chrysler has recently been paying hackers to try to find security flaws: https://www.wired.com/2016/07/chrysler-launches-detroits-fir...

If the source is free or open, then people can find flaws more easily, so that they can be fixed. You want to be able to find bugs fast and fix them quickly. When you don't, that's when you get into serious trouble.

As a warning though, source being free and open and well-used doesn't mean that bugs can't go a very long time without being seen, after which point they are everywhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellshock_(software_bug)

Was not aware of this until reading:

"Your license to use React.js can be revoked if you compete with Facebook"

http://react-etc.net/entry/your-license-to-use-react-js-can-...

This is the scariest part to me:

"The library is open sourced under BSD, but it comes with an added patent clause that you should be aware of."

https://github.com/facebook/react/blob/master/PATENTS

From reading more, it appears that Facebook can just terminate your right to use their patents, but not React. However, it isn't clear to me what is patented and what rights you lose.

Related past discussions here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9271331

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11270213

On the bright side, it's said that Apple and Google are ok with the latest version:

https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/3554#issuecomment-235...

The rocket-propelled over-the-top one isn't patented, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrrorPT8jsM&feature=youtu.be...

Still- that's a lot of money. Here's the breakdown for 2014:

https://static.mozilla.com/moco/en-US/pdf/Mozilla_Audited_Fi...

HB2 is ridiculousness.

Everyone I know that lives in NC is upset about it. The only bright side is that it hasn't been and can't be enforced.

Many don't know that HB2 also originally included provisions that took rights away from workers to sue for discrimination. Months after, they took that part out, but left the rest of HB2 intact. They could have just killed it, but the legislature was just too fucking stupid.

In 2010, NC got the first Republican majority in their state legislature since 1900. They created HB2 in response to something completely innocuous, went completely off the rails, and have been in no way actually representing NC's citizens.

Despite the NC Republicans Gerrymandering several years ago, they should be soundly defeated in all elections in the near future. It just won't be soon enough.

Sounds like a miniature modern version of Seahaven, Florida:

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

Tossing wanker slag cheese eating surrender monkey bastards of daft cow arsehole barmy chav dodgy gormless git of a manky mingers. Muppet naff nutter pikey pillock plonker prat scrubber trollops uphill gardener twit knobheads. Piss off you bell end lazy sod skiver knob wazzock ninny berk airy-fairy ankle-biting arse-licker arsemonger chuffers, daft as a bush, dead from the neck up, gannet, gone to the dogs ligger like a dog with two dicks, mad as a bag of ferrets maggots who only bugger plug-ugly mingebags not batting on a full wicket.

You don't have to use do; end or do |a,b|; end in Ruby; you can use { } and {|a,b| }, even for multiline. There are options.

I'm going to keep flossing. Screw them.

> and not related to the application they would actually deploy.

this.

Granted, it's the same with everything- if you expanded every compressed file and counted every class, most languages and frameworks would just be incredibly nuts, because all of them aren't needed.

But, something could be done about that; you could better differentiate what is there for convenience, and what needs to be there and make the developer more aware of what they are using. It can make development more difficult if done poorly, but good examples of minimalist development are out there, e.g. Sinatra and similar frameworks that said X is too much- just use this.

> I'm not sure about flagging such people, but I'm okay with downvoting them.

It may save your time, but a downvote doesn't explain why you think someone is clueless. Even link a link to something they could read to enlighten them to your point of thinking or a book title might be adequate in making your argument and would take maybe 30 seconds more, at most.

> delete all insulting posts

This would be ok on HN. I'd rather that than people downvoting because they disagree or because you made an honest mistake. It wounds me every time I get a downvote, and often I just logout and create a new user, so that I don't feel marred by being associated with a past comment that someone didn't like. I had a serious amount of karma about 9 years ago and probably should've just gotten over it, but I said a few things I believed at the time, got seriously embarrassed when others disagreed, and then just started quitting and creating new users, and have been doing it ever since. I'm not proud of it. Really- I'd much rather everything just be anonymous. That would be easier.

I also disagree with the rules saying that you can't frame something as "I know I'll get downvotes but..."- really, I don't understand why it matters. I think flagging offensive or spam comments really should be the only control necessary. I know that being a moderator is tough, but the community should be welcoming to all sorts of ideas and comments. I'm not a troll.

I think this is great. People need to be aware of toxic behavior.

That said, though, I am often bugged at work because I am both an introvert and need to isolate my environment by wearing headphones. My team and others make assumptions that I'm unfriendly. It's frustrating and I've just started to go along with it and agree, "Yes, I'm wearing headphones because I am trying to shut you all out." The truth is, I am not mean, but I enjoy my alone time and need quiet to be productive.

Also, a lot of times, I've gotten frustrated with the leadership in the companies I've worked for over the years. Not every company- about half. And a lot of times in the past, I would vent to co-workers about this. I'd also be honest in reviews and surveys describing in detail what had been done incorrectly.

I don't think of myself as toxic, but because I've been so persistent at times talking about someone else failing to do their job correctly as a leader, people see me that way and as a pessimist.

I'm aware of this and have made attempts to be more optimistic. It has really helped out, but it's still tough. I often realize too late that I'm being down on something, even as I try to imagine a future where everything gets better.

I don't think I'm a jerk, bozo, or asshole, and I don't want to be any of those things. But, I also just want to be allowed to be who I am. I'm not always going to be sunshine.