wrd

Former chemist here. I worked in a lab where our main goal was to attach a special fluorophore (= fluorescent molecular probe) to a protein so we could observe how it changes conformation under different conditions. The way we did that was with click chemistry: we incorporated a synthetic amino acid (homopropargylglycine) into the protein and then used a copper-catalyzed click reaction to attach the probe to the synthetic amino acid. (Specifically this reaction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_chemistry#Copper(I)-cata...). It's definitely cool stuff.

Walking onto a set without permission is inconsiderate and disruptive because the crew is working very, very hard to make something happen and his presence isn't helpful. He effectively got lucky that he didn't mess something up and accidentally force the crew to work longer and harder than they have to. There's a reason the entire job of some production assistants is just to keep random people off set.

Definitely don't do this. Film sets are very controlled / precise environments and an innocuous piece of equipment can be INCREDIBLY expensive ($200k+). The chance of messing something up as a rando is very high and you'll just end up making the crew work longer and harder than they need to.

If you're thinking about doing like this guy did, please don't.

Film crews are incredibly overworked, underpaid and work in absolutely terrible conditions. Film production is an intricate machine that requires everything to be perfectly in place in order to get a shot and things very frequently go wrong even without random people walking on set and gumming up the works.

Distracting people or touching / moving things can absolutely hold up a shot and bring the entire set to a halt. The result of that is you'll end up keep a very tired crew out for much longer than they need to be. It can also easily cost a production assistant their job.

Film production isn't a secret. You can watch a documentary on it, read about it in forums or even get permission to observe a film shoot where they'll place you safely out of the way. There are much better ways to satisfy this curiosity than just walking onto a set.

>>> What’s interesting, though, is that even experienced meditators can see the value of a quick meditation in the middle of their day, like during their lunch break or right before an important phone call.

Yeah! I think that's a great aim. Cultivating a mindset of constant mindfulness is key. As an "experienced meditator," though, I have trouble seeing the value in using this app to do that. IMO there's little need for technology beyond a simple notification to remind you to bring your awareness back to the present, not unlike a bell during meditation. But, I think this is a case where I'm just not in the target demographic since quick guided meditations aren't part of my practice. I'm sure there are folks out there who also qualify as "experienced meditators" and who would find a 5 minute guided meditation valuable.

On further reflection, another thing I might be reacting to is the language surrounding meditation vs. mindfulness. These two things are really just different flavors of the same thing, but to me "meditating" means something much more specific -- i.e., a formal sit. We can meditate at any time, but when I hear "meditate" I think of sitting in a particular way and focusing long enough to at least quiet my mind. Since this _always_ takes longer than 5 minutes, I find the idea of "5 minute meditation" difficult to understand. But, "take 5 minutes to bring awareness back to the present moment" makes lots of sense to me. I think it might be an issue of semantics, and if your positioning is confusing to me it might be confusing to others as well. Just a thought!

Cool app! Thanks for sharing. I think this is great for an introduction to meditation and to help build a habit.

One difficulty I have with apps like this is that they're not necessarily incentivized to produce good meditation habits. If a user builds a real meditation practice then they're likely not going to want to use an app like this -- they'll probably want to meditate in silence and for much longer than 5 minutes. I'm curious how you think about what the ideal end-game is for each user and if you're concerned about churn? How do you plan to serve users who grow beyond 5 minute meditation?

Custom fields in tasks will be out in early 2016!

I'm a similar way in that I don't like to say something unless I'm pretty sure of it. When the loud, boisterous, assertive types try to push something on me I'll either question them a lot to test the depth of their knowledge or I'll just flat out tell them, "I'm not able to evaluate what you're saying since I don't know anything about it." When said with a bit of edge it's a great conversation stopper ;)

I was just in Manila a couple of weeks ago and found the Internet to be infuriating. I could simply not find a place with decent Internet. Even the mobile Internet was terrible. I left Manila and one point and went to a remote-ish island and got faster mobile Internet there than I did in Manila.

From my understanding, the reason for the slow speed is both infrastructure and business. Apparently all traffic in the Philippines is routed through California or something weird like that. On top of that, Filipino telecoms are corrupt and have little incentive to provide good service.

Internet is going to be spotty all over Asia unless you're in South Korea. The only reliable trick I've found is to find a local coworking space that caters to the tech startup scene. Typically these spaces have good, reliable Internet.

Otherwise, to deal with the censorship and monitoring VPN is the way to go.

When it comes down to it the wearable fitness tracker market has essentially no barrier to entry.

Can someone else make a similar device? Yes. Is there any reason someone has to use FitBit? No. Can someone else operate more efficiently? Probably. Does another company out there in the same space have better customer loyalty than FitBit? For sure.

This all spells major trouble for FitBit. Apple could easily achieve a much better economy of scale than FitBit and in the long run win a war of attrition. Even if Apple doesn't succeed in this space, the fact that the barriers to entry are low suggests that FitBit will never be wildly profitable. Any competitive advantage it currently has will not last.

I've lately spent a lot of time trudging through 10-K's and financial data, so this is really cool! I've almost made this exact service myself on a number of occasions but stopped due to the unreliability of XBRL, which meant that even if I had a sweet API I'd still have to go back and double-check the numbers by hand.

For me, Excel integration with products like CapIQ is good enough -- for now.

The author's numbers represent a lower bound on the amount of lithium required -- in reality, the amount of lithium required to produce all of those cars is much greater than just what's in the car. Each processing step from lithium-bearing ore to advanced lithium electrode materials has some yield less than 1, which quickly compounds. E.g., if there were only 10 steps between ore and electrode material (optimistic) and each step had an average yield of 90% (again, optimistic), then only 34% of the material in the ore would actually make it into the electrode.

Looks pretty slick! Nice job!

I'm still learning.

I learned elementary programming from my father who taught me some Visual Basic when I was 12, which I played with off and on throughout my teenage years, including writing my first program for profit when I was 18. I didn't major in CS in college, but I still futzed around with Linux in my spare time and occasionally wrote things like poetry generators for fun. After I dropped out of grad school at 23, I took a job programming and that's when I really learned how to code. I recently outgrew that job and so now I'm on my own, learning more.

I read three books in 2014 that I've been recommending to everyone I know:

1. The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

A treatise on how humans' awareness of their own mortality is the driving force behind their behavior. Artfully written and incredibly thought-provoking. Completely altered my conception of what it is I "want" out of life and why.

2. Escape from Evil by Ernest Becker

The sequel to The Denial of Death that expands Becker's thoughts on how awareness of mortality influences individual psychology to society in general, ultimately getting at the question of why individuals and societies are violent and oppressive.

3. Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall

A sociological and anthropological account of the worldview and moral systems of middle managers in large American corporations. Moral Mazes paints a clear portrait of how bureaucracy and the hierarchical structure of a corporation create a deeply toxic environment for both employees and consumers.

My assessment of this is that you have motivation in the sense of interest but that you're afraid. Not entirely sure of what, but mostly it sounds like social consequences of being/feeling inferior. I can empathize -- that's a real fear. Fortunately, it's not something that's going to kill you in a physical sense so you can train yourself to work around it. It sounds like right now you're running low on courage. The key word in your question is "depression," and it sounds like everything else you've said points to clinical depression of some kind. It seems like there are things that you want to do but right now you're keeping yourself down out of a set of abstract fears that are difficult to verbalize. I don't know that this works for everyone, but I think one way to wiggle yourself out of this hole you're in is to deliberately do things that scare you. Cultivate courage. Teach yourself to be strong and resilient. Learn to keep pushing forward no matter what. Don't give in.

To be concrete: We want to develop courage as a skill, so we need to practice it. When faced with two decisions, pick the one that requires more courage, even if it doesn't make as much sense. When you feel like you can't keep up or that you're failing at a task, quietly tell yourself, "No, I'm not going to stop. Even though it doesn't feel good I am going to keep doing this to make myself more courageous." Just do whatever you can to exercise that courage muscle. You can start small and work your way up. If you keep it up you'll soon find yourself able to be courageous in situations where you couldn't before. But it all depends on practice. So be courageous, even in small ways, and work from there. Once you have courage, depression--and life--become easier to tackle.

What is the root of human behavior? What are all people striving for? And how does the ensemble of individuals striving for the same thing(s) produce the systems we live in today? These questions are some of the most fundamental questions you can ask, and answering them is tantamount to solving one of the deeper meta-puzzles that life presents to you. You are your biology, psychology, and environment, and understanding how these all influence each other is incredibly useful.

The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker.

It's about how death shapes life and human society. Completely changed how I view life and the world around me. Also launched me on a path that's resulted in me successfully combating depression and anxiety (and no, it's not a self-help book). It's a fascinating read.

As scandalous as this letter is, the politics, intrigue, and retaliation follow to a T the description of corporate mangers' logic and ethics as written in Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall. I highly recommend it for a better understanding of why people act the way they do in a corporate context.

Exercise works well for me. I do Muay Thai (AKA Thai kickboxing) which is a high-energy, high-impact, quick, always-on-your-toes sort of sport. When I spar, I find myself in a state of psychological flow and that whatever was bothering me just melts away.