https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=tptacek&comments=t

"Human life the Stoics appear to have considered as a game of great skill; in which, however, there was a mixture of chance [...] In such games the stake is commonly a trifle, and the whole pleasure of the game arises from playing well, from playing fairly, and playing skilfully. If notwithstanding all his skill, however, the good player should, by the influence of chance, happen to lose, the loss ought to be a matter, rather of merriment, than of serious sorrow. He has made no false stroke; he has done nothing which he ought to be ashamed of; he has enjoyed completely the whole pleasure of the game. [...]

Our only anxious concern ought to be, not about the stake, but about the proper method of playing. If we placed our happiness in winning the stake, we placed it in what depended upon causes beyond our power, and out of our direction. We necessarily exposed ourselves to perpetual fear and uneasiness, and frequently to grievous and mortifying disappointments. If we placed it in playing well, in playing fairly, in playing wisely and skilfully; in the propriety of our own conduct in short; we placed it in what, by proper discipline, education, and attention, might be altogether in our own power, and under our own direction. Our happiness was perfectly secure, and beyond the reach of fortune."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12995076

Excerpt: JavaScript is the XML, the Yugo, the Therac-25 of programming languages. The sheer amount of human effort which has been expended working around its fundamental flaws instead of advancing the development of mankind is astounding. The fact that people would take this paragon of wasted opportunity and use it on the server side, where there are so many better alternatives (to a first approximation, every other programming language ever used), is utterly appalling.

The fact that {} + [], [] + [], [] + {} are all valid and all give different results ? [1]

The fact that it has some silent error conditions like NaN ?

The fact that, in v8 (which is the most common js engine out there), if you add a comment to a function, it can suddenly start performing poorly ?[0]

I love JS, I really do. Hell, I write nodejs for a living ! I find prototypical inheritance to be an awesome idea. The simplicity, and extensibility of the language is something that I really like from it. But I can see where people hating it are coming from. I wish lua had been used instead of JS.

[0]: https://top.fse.guru/nodejs-a-quick-optimization-advice-7353...

[1]: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

I know a lot of people view using so much tooling as a con of the language, but if you use Babel + Eslint + Flow/Typescript, JavaScript becomes a lot nicer and safer to program in. For small to mid-sized projects, I think JavaScript is pretty great.

Hence the initial comment about putting effort into fixing something fundamentally broken.

Also lets not pretend that having a bunch of quirks like these is exclusive to JS. I'd say there are equally as many ways to shoot yourself in the foot in many other languages. For example, for C++, which isn't necessarily beloved but people don't want to "eradicate" like OP's comment states about JS, you can have an entire talk[0] on the quirks of type deduction.

I think where JavaScript earns its bad reputation isn't necessarily its quirks, but its quirks in combination with a low barrier to entry, lots of beginners, a large community, being a multi-paradigm language, and the fact that most people writing it were forced to write it because it's the language of the web not because they wanted to. All that in combination results in a lot of bad code...but if you take the time to learn it and use a bunch of tooling (which isn't ideal), it's actually quite nice.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQxj20X-tIU

Beautiful.

I actually really enjoy node.js and the ecosystem + community surrounding JavaScript. There's seriously a lot of passion and work going in to it.

JavaScript itself though? Horrible. I hate it.

In a year, that's the tally of how terrible or great a language is.

Bad languages don't just make bad choices, they make bad choices and then make different choices for other, similar questions that should be related.

What's bayesian and frequentist statistics: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741146

Again: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=384399

DSA math: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6195606

Automotive development: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10496625

QNX and message passing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9872640

Path through InfoSec: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11710028

What does performance in Erlang mean: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6359493

Emacs and C/C++: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8617300

Money and self-publishing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8373185

Kerbal Space Program: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12640451

Bush v. Gore: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12187666

Teaching a class: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818367

Precedence climbing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13915458

Yes, it was probably the only block in the world with two Nobel Prize winners living on it.

[0]: https://www.tarsnap.com/

I remember a couple of techies sitting around, watching the thread, and the guy pissed us off to the point where I just couldn't keep my mouth shut.

In particular this one [2].

"I'm pushing the other direction. If you can see your entire compiler at one go on a standard computer screen, what sort of possibilities does that open up? You can start thinking at the macro level, and simply avoid a whole host of problems because they are obviously wrong at that level. When you aren't afraid to delete you entire compiler and start from scratch? What sort of possibilities does that open up to you?"

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=arcfide

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13565743

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13571160

anamax 3190 days ago | on: So, you're gonna code the whole thing, do the serv...

If they don't have the money to pay you, you're not an employee, you're a founder and you get the same deal that they get.

If they balk, suggest that they find another code monkey while you find another biz monkey and let the market decide who ends up with the bananas.

On Knuth, C, and Haskell: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12741430

On npm and In Praise of Idleness: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12209300

On revenue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11307264

On cranks: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931403

On "Great Men": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10166372

On the vastness of space: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9937353

Advice from a doctor: https://www.are.na/block/324266

A+ dig at pg: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7140065

A+ troll: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7229519

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9473209

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9476202

While this is a wrong place to continue this, I still think that I must answer this.

This analogy is incorrect. Let me rephrase your statement about the integral: "I'm incapable of calculating the integral therefore it cannot be calculated"

It's not a question of human capabilities. The problem with EmDrive is not that we say that humans are incapable of inventing a reactionless drive.

The problem is that all working physics theories embed conservation of momentum, and reactionless drives contradict conservation of momentum. This is equivalent to saying "here's a proof this integral cannot be calculated in all useful mathematical formalisms". Please note that there are no "proofs" in physics, and I'm only using this as an analogy.

Of course you could define a formalism that makes it possible to calculate the integral, which EmDrive proponents don't do.

I would be glad to be proven wrong. If there was a rigorous experiment that invalidates all modern physical theories, I would change my mind really fast, so would the majority of scientists. However, EmDrive proponents produce no rigorous experiments. The analogy would be saying "oh those silly mathematicians saying I couldn't calculate this integral, here's my calculation!" while having many errors in your calculations.

> By the way we saw the same thing in algo trading, were a cabal of finance professors argued for more than 10years that the EMH theory holds and algo trading is a hoax. Just saying..

Again, this analogy is incorrect, because you won't find an adequate physicist that disputes conservation of momentum. And EMH was/is disputed.

I specifically said that reactionless drives contradict conservation of momentum. This is a direct result of all useful physical theories.

> what if your assumption is wrong? What if emdrive don't violate it?

Believe it or not, but I've answered this question before. If EmDrive doesn't violate conservation of momentum, then according to standard model it cannot produce more thrust than a photon drive, which makes EmDrive utterly useless.

> My point is, rather focus your energy on building your own version [...]

My own version: EmDrive inventor is a crackpot, which can be deduced from papers he writes and statements he makes. I'm not obliged to explain every single crackpot claim. The burden of proof is on the side making extraordinary claims.

> [...] than throwing out statements which also have no proof

Please quote specific statements rather than making broad accusation of baseless speech.

I'm tired of dissecting every single one of your sentences.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9048947

JumpCrisscross's comment about perfectionism being bad https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12729864 and pg with a similar thought https://twitter.com/paulg/status/855342574063800320

This one from 'How To Die With No Regrets'

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079

The thing I liked about the thread is also has Drew Houston from Dropbox talking about his then startup idea.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095

Why backdoors are bad: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12751461

energy systems https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8386603

delayed IPOs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13831214

desktop v mobile https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7182345

free fruit https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10728601

role of self-experimentation https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965307

I learned quite a few things about both Rust and Go!

http://www.opusnota.com/hnbc

Edit: naturally, there is a strong bias for older comments in the list.

Code I use:

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There have been quite a few good comments since then.

It is worse to make an incredibly biased list than no list at all.

enobrev 673 days ago on 'The self-hating web developer':

> I've always been a fan of collecting money for solving problems and letting others worry about whether what I'm doing qualifies as "real" programming. Knowing how to listen to potential clients has gotten me a lot further than worrying whether PHP is a real programming language.

- - -

kingsidharth 2356 days ago on 'Evernote makes $800,000 per Month':

> This is the biggest mistake most of the people make. If it worked that way, every weekend app released here would be making tons of money. (We have better apps here as weekend projects than out there in market).But this is NOT app v/s app game. This is business v/s app. And you can't take down a business with an app. You need to create a business.

- - -

knob 1217 days ago on Your best passive income? (2014):

ozh: > "Do some freelancing during office hours & double the income."

viach: > This would not be passive.

knob: > You have to think bigger man. Outsource the outsourcement... Interact with top-level outsourcer once per week... he interacts with low-level outsourcer daily. Profit.

- - -

mcphage 653 days ago on Japanese mini Segway “WalkCar”:

> "Can you remember the Segway?"

> Yeah.

> "And how we all thought of it as the new way of human transportation?"

> No, I don't remember that bit.

- - -

cableshaft 619 days ago on '‘Give Away Your Legos’ and Other Commandments for Scaling Startups':

pbreit: > I dunno, hopping on board the rocket ship still seems a lot easier than building the rocket ship.

cableshaft: > But building the rocket ship is more fun. Especially if you know it's going to explode midair once it's launched and you don't have to be in it when it does.

- - -

graycat 760 days ago on First Round Capital Open Application for Startups:

> Can a solo founder of an IT startup hope to be successful without equity funding? Should be: All across the US, cross roads to the largest cities, solo founders do well mowing grass, selling pizza or hamburgers, pumping gas, paving driveways, ..., big-truck, little-truck distribution businesses, etc. without equity funding. IT should be an advantage.

- - -

puranjay 838 days ago on 'Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard':

> I have the same issue (find the time). I've set aside 10pm-2am every weekday to learn how to code, plus entire Saturdays and Sunday mornings. I can, at most, manage 20-25 hours, usually when I'm already bogged down. I've been toying with the idea of quitting everything and going all-in for 3-6 months. Would that be 100% retarded or just about 70% retarded? I can live with 70%.

- - -

And my favorite:

blake8086 1962 days ago on 'How Trello is different':

spolsky: > We wouldn't provide that kind of support, nor would be it be expected, for a free and easy-to-use product.

blake8086: > I think you deeply underestimate the sense of entitlement people get about products they enter lots of text into.

So much so that the comment and surrounding discussion is much more valuable than the actual article it's on! Has helped me and many people I know interview at phenomenal companies.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413

This one for me, it's so apt for HN.

Edit. I'm laughing, didn't take long for the down vote!

Come on guys, take a joke will ya!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7314434

> For all the intellectual firepower of people in the tech community, there is a curious strain of anti-intellectualism that comes forth in projects like this; an eagerness to discount the expertise of people who have studied a subject for their entire lives, just because they weren't CS majors. It's like trying to send a man to the moon without working with any aerospace engineers. I honestly do not understand it.