benwalther

Amazing. Well done. Thank you.

I'm forgetting - which author wrote about 'Friends of Privacy' who would create false profiles and websites in order to protect the populace?

Question for you - how much would you be willing to pay for your name, user accounts, and other specific information to never come up on the first page of Google, Pipl, or other search engines?

A very handy question to ask yourself:

"How is that serving me?"

Today was yet another day I didn't start something from my list of ideas. I didn't have to put in hard work, got to relax, and will be able to avoid possible failure for one more day.

Of course, that doesn't stop me from slacking off, but at least I know the true reason why and can try to accept it: I'd rather be comfortable than have a chance at larger success.

Great article, and a good moral.

It does fail lesson #1 of journalism though: put the important bits at the beginning, not the end. It was tedious to read through a history I already knew.

Relevant link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Mania

It popped all right. The largest players that survived were a sound investment. But then again, if you invested in Microsoft or Cisco in the tech boom, you'd be sitting pretty right now (I think; didn't check stock prices). Doesn't mean that it wasn't a bubble.

Tricky. I'm in a similar position (3.5 years of info sec background) and I'm willing to work anywhere in the entire world. The problem becomes interviewing; nobody wants to fly me out to Amsterdam.

As someone who struggles to come up with 'lifestyle business' ideas, his advice on just talking to people was like a punch in the gut. So obvious it hurts, yet I ignore it and spend time 'thinking.'

Why not just post these questions on stack overflow, under the 'security' tag?

Interesting but incomplete. Furthermore, really bad science.

This sounds like an undergrad research study (use LUKE, an automated text analyzer, to count 'meaningful' words), then hypothesize about why those words turn up.

No reproducible results, no predictions, no working model, no evidence that can be used to support or disprove existing theories.

A waste of time. Only reason it got press was that it hinted at sex and romance.

Apple won this round because they already had access to people's pocketbooks through existing iTunes users.

It will take years (5?) for any other company to build up a marketplace like iTunes. Honestly, Amazon or eBay could out-compete Google or Microsoft in this area right now, because they have regular paying customers. Hell, Amazon already has some experience with mobile devices (Kindle).

Check out CouchSurfing for an example of how to solve this problem. Craig is just talking about how to make it universal rather than site-specific.

CouchSurfing provides enough trust data that you'll have someone into your home based on a web profile. Some of the mechanisms include personal references, friend lists, community awards (that are meaningful and hard to get), and unrevokable vouches.

There is already a "Great Halving" underway, where people find personal satisfaction and prestige by working less than 40 hours a week. As an ex-pat, I meet a lot of people running 4HWW type lifestyle jobs (which usually turn out to about 20-30 hours a week, not 4). Corporate culture just hasn't caught up yet, and may not without drastic social changes.

It's my fault and people like me.

Reddit's quality has been dipping significantly lately (there's been 3-5 front page self posts on "are you smart but too lazy to do anything with it?") and so people like me are subscribing to HN again to get that 'old reddit' feel.

Keep the focus on immediate actionable steps rather than armchair pontificating and you'll drive off the non-constructive layabouts.

This form of "Do one thing" implies minimal action to solve a complex problem. It's picking off the low-hanging fruit. There are times when it's appropriate and times when it isn't.

Another form of "Do one thing" is to focus on one core competency and offload everything else. This is a common way to drive economic value through specialization.