throwawayIndian

Dang! I see it now, the comment was intended only for the parent though. I guess it's better left like this only.

It's only sad when developers sell UX gyaan on standards on one hand and screw the same standard with things like react elsewhere; only because some large corp says it's cool.

> that the site was built by hunter-gatherers

Hilarious, ha ha ha! And thus fodder continues… It's almost like the western linguists were there only yesterday:

"people with no granaries, no specialists, no taxes or central authorities." :-)

> If we're going to argue that the Mahabharata is an account of nuclear war, we need to remember that it's extremely similar to the Irish Cattle Raid of Cooley.

Correct! I would rather measure up 'rise of civilization' against both texts than a stupid set of stones with nothing written on them -- which at best seems like a partial rise of civilization. Hence, the hilarity.

How about a simple infographic timeline of estimated, claimed and measured history? Measure it along time and not some myopic view held by the west (or east).

"Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization"

Ha! It is hilarious to see west measure 'rise of civilization' against some dumb set of stones wedged by people who probably didn't know how to write. Plain fodder for insular minds.

Civilizations in the middle east (such as the now broken Syria) and even Indo-Srilankan subcontinent have been known to have practiced and even have written transcripts of things like heat sensing weaponry, a "nuclear standoff" and an equivalent of what we call theory of atoms -- read about brahmastra or brahmand, for example, in Mahabharat[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata_(disambiguation)

> Calling RSS alt-right, completely makes the whole article laughable.

RSS is alt-right of India even if you think it isn't. Anyone who claims otherwise simply because INC or TDP jokers did something wrong elsewhere is either stupid or simply insane. RSS is and always will be an alt-right outfit even if every other political party like INC/TDP/BJP cease to exist.

Go read the some history yourself. I can meanwhile eat some beef nuggets on the side. ;)

Yeah similar to how columnists with alternative views are called "outside columnists" -- us and them -- or sometimes deshdrohis. Many Indians fail to see the reality in chasm of words.

It's nice you mention the supreme courts of India here. Notice, they also discharged(?) Salman Khan of Bollywood for his 2006 road kills! It's almost a joke when you use SC to say that your PM/candidate doesn't have a questionable past.

I'm fairly certain that you'll also fail to accept the fact that Modi was the mastermind of a series of murders including that of his own cabinet minister Haren Pandya following the events in 2002.

It is a fact that Modi encouraged killing of Muslim families to catapult himself at centerstage politics. One of his cabinet ministers is even a convicted murderer!, of his own colleague in office: research on home minister Haren Pandya.

> it's really funny to see outside columnists trying to paint broad generalizations of Indian politics.

It is anything but funny. In ways similar to the rhetoric "Should everyone else go to Pakistan?".

Oh man! The Big Lebowski reference is 200% accurate. On a serious note though, it feels almost certain that the Modi Government is going to lead India into another bloodshed, sooner or later. I hope not but that sinking feeling just doesn't go away given his track record.

Edited. I picked it up from the FFTF (Fight For The Future) email I got in my inbox today morning.

> Wapo king of fake news[1]

WaPo has been central to a lot of real news in recent history. Why do you say that it is fake?

No matter which side you're on it is in our interest to not let net neutrality go down without any resistance.

> It already is possible to algorithmically deduce who people are voting for.

YES, it is! Therefore, in all honesty, the foundations of democracy have already been eroded -- thanks Obama/Osama/Bush/Clinton/Trump/whoever -- it will take a few years for ordinary people to grok this.

While that happens it is our duty to make people around us understand this without getting them all hassled up or making anyone feel left out in the conversation.

> I am not benefiting from surveillance. I am a game developer and engineer. I see things from that perspective.

Good to hear that. There is nothing wrong if you were in fact. Smart entrepreneur et al. ;)

> We just ceded our government to a guy who won by way of asymmetric information. We had his opponent's taxes and emails, but we didn't have his. How can candidates be judged fairly in a situation like that?

Totally agree!

I'm glad that this discussion is even happening right now. Judgement of candidates (fair/unfair) is still due -- we're clearly in a bet right now. I believe that each comment here is a step towards making more and more people aware about where things really are today.

It's clearly a mess.

Absolutely! It is possible to deduce pretty accurately who somebody is going to vote for without even looking at the ballot or peeping into the booth box.

All actions people do online like sharing a newspiece on their Facebook walls, likes or dislikes, chats, mails, texts, add up to something that makes the person -- and that information is quite valuable.

One of the foundations of democracy is "secret ballot". If it's possible to algorithmically deduce who you're going to vote for, a tyranny can easily take you down or try to influence* you in ways you shouldn't be.

I think you have no idea about what you're taking here. Other option being you benefitting off of surveillance in some form (Don't want to be rude, only addressing the concern.).

* We experienced this first hand in the 2016 elections -- which is why it always felt weird to most of us all the time.

> US does not have a democracy

Hate to say this but I agree!

At the moment I have following feelings:

The Snowden moment is only but a point in time when democracy realized it had been subverted. The "act" of takeover happened way earlier than that when the idea of secret ballot was compromised with complete erosion of individual privacy. Naturally modern day people will not realize the looming dangers of a tyranny until the tyranny itself manifests into some form that affects them individually.

Two examples in the world exist where a surveillance state has actually succeeded: Singapore and also in some ways China. It only depends on what percentage of people feel they're prosperous and doing well; which is an odd metric because there is, for example, a significant percentage of people in North Korea who will be happy to attack America at first chance. Despite the economic disaster they've been forced to live into.

> Rampant individualism probably emboldens all this.

It does complicate the matter. But even in a group it'd be very difficult -- nearly impossible -- to take down a surveillance state with sweeping coverage and the ability to surgically dissect and disable strategies of any such a group however large. In my opinion it is very much a feeling of going after a "lost cause" that most people seem to have internalized -- not necessarily a selfish stand which kind of alienates them even more.

Don't agree!

I'd blame the democrats alone (the party, leadership, delegates, superdelegates and a section of voters + ~~liar~~ media) for giving away the presidency to Trump. For free, literally.

How is Peter Thiel or anyone else (Trump's supporters) responsible for what comes out of the man's mouth when at the same time the other party is clearly doing what's downright corruption/stifling a democratic nomination?

ICYMI, Peter Thiel did mention that he'd have preferred a race between Sanders and Trump instead (watch his interview to the press club) -- where he quotes: "because they get it" -- and that Trump gets the big things right even though his behavior isn't acceptable.

I don't see any reason for YC or any other organization to follow through with your advice. It is also mind numbing that a portion of democrats who made a joke of Trump when he said "he will accept the results only if he wins" are unable to accept the result of the election themselves.

Move on folks, open your ears and do your job.

On downvotes: I'm pretty sure downvoting over here is symptomatic behavior of a community that doesn't like to listen. Thank you for proving the point. I am happy that Trump is leading us and he is the elected premier for this country despite his weaknesses.

Elsewhere, a for-profit prison extended their contract[1] with Feds barely a month after the Department of Justice said it would end[2] contracts with private prison operators.

[1] https://twitter.com/i/moments/789498562904293376

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/08/1...

These are pretty quick u-turns by an establishment that's confident about business as usual following elections. Gravy-train!

Incidentally, this is exactly what hollywood and other big publishers want. Supporting surveillance is a really cool way for them to take control of the web, undermine it even more and then reap profits without worrying about all those bills like SOPA or PIPA that never seem to pass. Hell, they don't even have to face a backlash anymore!

IMO, pushing bills for changes in laws or copyrighting is probably their second best bet. Their best bet is to push people away from the web -- like they succeeded with physical books by dumbing down ebooks as much as they could.

> how will "going nonprofit" be more motivating?

It may not!, but usually healing others is also self-healing.

One has to figure this path for themselves.

> I think you need to fix the depression issue first.

Absolutely! However, solving inability to work is equally important. Otherwise the patient will fall back into a depression again.

P.S: The comments above were for OP's inability to work, find work or be motivated about it. It isn't a solution for depression, which obviously needs thorough professional or medical help.

Dude, I can understand what you're saying here!

Those who haven't lived through a depression will never understand your plight and obviously not be able to "see" the challenges you face -- how oddly suppressed your voice is against this entire world -- but walk out of this ditch right now. It is going to kill you and even then the world will not understand your pain because it's designed that way.

You don't have to contribute or be a part of the machinery. Do not feed the for-profit machinery that you, like many of us, sorely dislike. Go into non-profit mode perhaps?: help a charity, give shelter to other underprivileged people or may be start an open source movement to make the machinery bleed.

Don't just sit and lose these moments explaining your situation to people who're blind and deaf and presumably dumb. They'll never see. They'll never see until this depression hits them for reasons of their own.

> hiring fun people…

Absolutely! This is super super important. Fun to work with, not annoying to waste time with.

> know nothing about computers

It's sad that you think this way of people who couldn't answer your questions at the expected level.

> Or are there actually more criteria than you let on here?

Yes! One way to know if they're any good or not suitable is by giving them a problem statement like so:

'Design X, feel free to choose a language that's suitable for this problem', and then may be proceed to hint with: 'You might want to look at advantages of Static versus dynamic typing'… and then let them ask whatever questions they want to ask or read up or search or start implementing whatever.

Observe what they do -- and how fast can they get to the decision of what language and why. And how to make X (break down of steps) or if they can dive and start making X there itself. Note, if they had theoretical knowledge of what you seek during an interview it will work to their advantage naturally. Or sometimes not.

Of course, this process may not work for you as it does for us -- therefore seeking direct answers about static vs dynamic language may not be such a bad question after all (I get it), but expecting people to accurately remember what an http request or its response looks like may not be fruitful at all. It can throw good people off guard and ruin the rest of the interview for them.

> It would be like an accountant not knowing what the number 4 is.

It's a hypothetical no-go! Every person, even the fourth grader knows the number 4. So why ask a question that measures their ability to remember 4, say 4 or show that they know 4.

> I don't see how a programmer could be remotely competent without having been exposed…

Share this link with them:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1517582/what-is-the-diffe...

Invest in people and people will invest back in your business. Interview process that I follow at my workplace has just one goal to assess: whether or not it'd be great to work with this person and spend over ~50 hours per week with them.

> "Could you write out what an HTTP request and response looks like on the board?"

Why should anyone remember what an http request or response should look like? Statically typed vs. dynamically typed language?

Fuck.

Are these entry-level positions or for someone with 10 years work-ex? A simple search on Google can tell anyone the answer of these questions, why do you expect people to carry an imprint of it in their memory? If the problem they'll work on mandates knowing these things it'd be pretty easy to solve with just one search. It is exactly questions like these that are worth kicking the host organization back in the butt.

Either your interviewing process is hilariously stupid or you're just spiking it up to boost the ego here.

Worry not, 'Murica! Hillary is considering to drone this guy as well. So that you can be safe. :-)

> dreadful DVD player apps of yore, that mimicked physical DVD players, making us push the same inconvenient buttons we hated on the physical devices too.

Yes! But you see those were "bad designs" even in physical world and those were copied over to apps. It's isn't a fault with skeuomorphism per se, but in the design that were referred from.

I agree with you mostly.

Not with the anti-skeuomorphism tirade however. That is pure propaganda.

Anti-skeuomorphism picked up momentum only after Apple's iOS7 update -- around the time when Tim Cook took over and Apple (and its fanboys) moved away from purpose-inspired design to selling 'flat and clean' (supposedly purpose-oriented) design.

Whether it was good or bad move for them eventually is another subject altogether.