mzarate06

We are in fact seeing press attention regarding military budget cuts the Trump Administration's looking to enact:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-maj...

mzarate06

2 years agodiscuss

One of the best moves wrt nutrition, fitness, and productivity I've made the last couple years is adding electrolytes to my supplement stack.

I've always been deliberate about having sufficient water intake, but supplementing electrolytes on top of that made a small, but noticeable, difference. I take a small amount by pill w/each meal (along w/a multi-vitamin, etc.), and via powder form in my water or beverage once a day. I feel more refreshed and focused while at work or at the gym, and I no longer experience muscle cramps (I never had them frequently, but being deliberate about electrolyte intake has removed them entirely).

So, while the study focused on 'hydration', it's worth remembering that doesn't comprise of water intake alone. My performance and focus on sufficient water intake, while ok, felt inferior compared to sufficient water intake + electrolyte supplementation.

mzarate06

2 years agodiscuss

As a longtime PHP developer, my opinion differs from yours regarding PHP vs. Python syntax.

Python took some getting used to, but the more I used it the more strongly I began preferring its lack of things like curly braces, semicolons, even parenthesis in some cases. Because of that, python feels more concise, human-readable, and more efficient to write, than PHP.

I like both languages, and still rely on PHP for a lot of web work, but for data science or ML I do end up enjoying my time with python.

mzarate06

4 years agodiscuss

And just hours later, we're starting to see reports claiming exactly this: "Hidden paragraph of Putin's decree allows to mobilise 1 million Russians".

Granted, that's a Ukrainian news article, but I won't be surprised if the true scope of Putin's claimed "partial" mobilization ends up being far more than they're masking it as.

[1]https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/09/22/7368607/

mzarate06

4 years agodiscuss

I feel "partial" in 'partial mobilization' intends to be deceptive. The version of the decree released to the public [1] contains nothing limiting number of recruits. That number is specified in a classified portion of the decree [2]. If it simply stated the same number Putin and Shoigu claim (300k), I doubt it would need to be classified.

Sounds like they're masking this as "partial" mobilization in the same way they've masked their war as a "special military operation."

[1] May need to open in reader: https://www.politico.eu/article/text-vladimir-putin-mobiliza...

[2] https://tass.com/politics/1511291

mzarate06

4 years agodiscuss

> The report treated "who did it" as an unimportant detail ... it was the only reason they were invited.

Might've been why they were invited, I don't think that's why they went.

Their tweet of mission objectives [1], and their article over appeal made for the visit to the UN Security Council [2], merely stated motivation to "carry out ... activities in nuclear safety, security and safeguards and at the same time provide a stabilizing influence", and to "provide an independent risk assessment of the nuclear safety and security risks."

I've yet to read, in those 2 sources or others, assigning responsibility for the shelling in their objectives. Do you have sources that do?

B/c it sounds more like their scope was limited to assessing damage and establishing a presence to ensure safe operation of the plant.

[1] https://twitter.com/iaeaorg/status/1564097055798075393

[2] https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/hostilities-at-zaporizh...

mzarate06

4 years agodiscuss

I often listen to movie or tv series tracks. Recently that's included music from Hans Zimmer (Mission Impossible [1], Rush [2], etc.), Calm with Horses [3], El Chapo [4, 5], and The Kingdom [6].

I sometimes listen to my favorite bands (Tool, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, etc.), but like OP, I'm mostly biased towards non-lyrical while working.

[1] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=677

[2] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=967

[3] https://youtu.be/85Byny4WRLU?t=89

[4] https://youtu.be/BBqgevV5JhQ

[5] https://youtu.be/wVDzx9zM0Nw?t=35

[6] https://youtu.be/zA5kgZvRBaE

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

> a sprint / heavy session would feel good ... but fatigue ... would cause me to skip a follow up. This year's focus will be on consistency - only do as much as will allow another session the next day

One of my martial arts instructors had a memorable saying for that - "train today, so you can train tomorrow." His point was similar to yours - he often had to temper enthusiasm for hard or over training in favor of consistency and longevity.

Regarding the garage gym - I did something similar and agree it's an excellent health/life investment.

I avoid back squats due to injury, but I do have a station for belt squats, a flat bench w/olympic bar, hex bar for dead lifts, an assortment of plates/dumb bells/kettle bells, all on gym mats. Having a gym next to me has provided excellent motivation to get out of my desk chair 3-4 times a week to use it. I dropped 25 lbs this year thanks to consistent routine, and my body and day-to-day feel so much better; less joint aches, better sleep, and more energy, mental clarity, and confidence.

To tie that back to OP's question on self care, avoiding burnout, etc. ... I'd say it's worth paying attention to mentions of physical fitness and exercise in this thread. Staying physically active and taking care of your body helps protect against some of the negative mental states or outcomes these kinds of threads try to avoid.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

I heavily favor end-to-end integration tests as well. For the kind of code you commented on, but also for older code bases w/out a hint of prior test automation. My experiences sound similar to yours - I've found they provide excellent understanding of general code paths and data movement, and that they help those remain stable during new development or refactoring w/out having to change too much within the code base.

Likewise on the controversy - my favor toward integration tests tends to get replies in favor of unit tests instead, in which case I'll say I understand their benefit and use them too. E.g. sometimes a method or class that handles some computation needs more coverage than what an integration test typically provides. Maybe the class or method gets called within an API, where inputs or contextual data are well understood. But it might also be called from back end jobs, or by code written by internal data teams where inputs or related data are more nuanced. In such cases, it's worked well to mock the class and go to town with various input or edge case data that might fall outside the perview of an end-to-end test.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

> The absolutely crazy thing is the person who caused this doesn't think they did anything wrong.

And now he's saying this of the person he took the work from [1]:

1. "I believe he is a good person, but love colorette too much and prefer impulsive actions ... Impulsive behavior can be very dangerous."

2. "Comments like this [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28662796] shows that his behavior in that case was very questionable. Seems like he is systematically put himself in conflicts."

True or not, I find his claims of the victim having impulsive or questionable behavior, and systematically creating conflicts, ironic.

On a more positive note - it looks like both parties are starting to discuss a resolution [1]; maybe even co-maintainership of the original work in question [2]. I personally think that would take a lot of guts, from both parties, given everything that's transpired.

I also think johnnyshields in the linked GitHub thread [1] deserves acknowledgement for some noticeably simple, but effective, attempts at facilitating resolution.

[1] https://github.com/ai/nanocolors/pull/14#issuecomment-927346...

[2] https://twitter.com/jorgebucaran/status/1442055448899641348

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

Which is nowhere near no_wizard's point. And nowhere near what you've done.

Gorge Bucaran, author of Colorette, summarizes your actions here https://github.com/ai/nanocolors/pull/14#issuecomment-927134...:

"Colorette isn't some obscure project either. It is well used. Now imagine I find a project that meets that description. Clone it. Erase the .git directory. Initialize a new repository. Make a few extraneous changes. Incorrectly benchmark it. Falsely claim improved performance. Tweak the docs. Change the name. Add a logo. Start aggressively promoting it and sending PRs to high-profile projects while leveraging a non-trivial social media following. I'm not against forking a project and adding new value to it. I encourage that. But that's not what's going on here. This is the collector getting away with a new piece for their collection."

Comparing that, to "promoting alternatives" to one of your projects on Twitter, shows a creepy lack of acknowledgement.

But that's why we're here, isn't it?

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

It's telling that bad leaders I've worked with exhibit opposite traits from OP's list. Off the cuff, they've had tendencies to:

   - stubbornly devote majority of their time to coding, despite negative feedback of their leadership
   - be consistently unaware of their calendar, to the point of developing a reputation for forgetting commitments
   - insisting on being involved in every meeting, or being noticeably insecure when they weren't
   - lack ability to execute on medium or long-term goals or visions
   - being noticeably insecure when they were no longer the most experienced on the team

There's a time frame of forgiveness for some of that, but ultimately some degree of transition must occur for a leader to become effective. Their role, priority, and especially leverage, all change, and require corresponding changes in mindset and execution.

Good leaders I've worked for didn't just understand that, they embraced it. They also had enough supporting experience, intuition, and team respect to execute well on it. They showed not just acceptance, but perhaps later even a level of mastery, in their new role.

Which is all to say, one adapts and grows into an effective leader. And their leadership, in turn, grows into a distinguishing signal for team effectiveness, maybe even team happiness too. B/c of the teams I've worked for, I stuck w/good ones for longer than I would have expected largely due to positive environments fostered by the leaders at the time. I also left bad leaders earlier than I would have liked, despite having good relations w/teammates in general.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

I don't know about needing to be the "best", or an "expert", but I do believe a consultant should have a certain skill level, or set of skills, that provides some value to a team.

That's to say some consultants are very strong engineers, in the general sense; very capable in various roles. While others might possess a sufficient narrow skill set. E.g. maybe a front-end React dev, or data engineer assisting with integrating parts of a data pipeline, or a SQL consultant helping trouble shoot database performance issues. Other times, a team covers both bases (high degree of skill breadth, and depth), but lacks time to devote to all pressing issues.

So consultant relationships are formed for any number of reasons; they need not be an expert, necessarily.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

I strongly agree with the title sentimment. Strongly!

But, I'll add this - work at a company first, full time, for as long as you find it rewarding. Maybe several years at least? ... the longer the better. Bonus for each promotion you receive, primarily b/c of different levels of responsibility and leadership that places you in.

I think that's key to getting the most out of independent consulting, for 2 reasons:

First, b/c fresh out of college or early in your career, you still don't know what you don't know. That makes learning w/out benefit of teammates, mentors, interactions with other teams (Customer Success, Sales, Marketing, etc.), quite dangerous. Without that wide array of awareness and guidance on a regular basis, it's easy to form bad habits. And bad habits attained during one's formative years can be long-term or hard to break.

And second, b/c every engineer needs to experience what it's like to maintain and improve a product for years on end. E.g. while I didn't recognize it at the time, I believe time I spent with a product for 3 of its generations proved to be one of the best learning environments I've had as a software engineer. That kind of timeline provides first-hand experience to the long-tail of product decision making. It provides long experiential lessons in best practices like automated testing, a structured dev process, engaging in customer feedback, team culture & cohesiveness, etc. And b/c I was with the same cohort of employees for so long, and saw how leadership could fluctuate, I also found it helped develop my intuition for effective leaders.

All said, I wouldn't have gotten as much out of consulting if I wasn't backed w/prior experience. From an engineering standpoint, I was able to hit the ground running since I already had years of experience developing software. Soft-skills gained during that same time translated directly and immediately to client relationships. I also felt fortunate and well prepared to handle longer-term needs and concerns from bigger clients (Fortune 100/500), some of which I still maintain relationships with.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

All true.

To add some history - AMD's semi-custom segment dates back prior to Su's CEO seat. It was initiated in 2012-2013 under CEO Rory Read [1], although Su was heavily involved in it back then too (as SVP, and eventually as COO, before taking over as CEO in 2014). It ended up primarily targeting game consoles, though it claimed residual wins in other markets too.

It turned out to be an excellent move at the time, as it proved to be a bit of a lifeline during AMD's rough years. And modern-day AMD continues executing on it well.

I also agree w/your general point - given AMD's history doing this kind of thing, it's tough to see what Intel could do in this segment that AMD couldn't do better.

[1] https://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/7281?cPage=4&all=False&...

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

Nice work!

I was looking for a way to screen for unusual option volume (Volume noticeably above Open Interest), but didn't see a way to do that directly. I do see the filters for Volume and Open Interest, and I can play with those in various combinations to see what I want, but I think something like a single filter that allowed viewing all contracts where Volume > Open Interest would address this in a more direct way.

p.s. I know the level of commitment required to launch an MVP, and to grow and support thereafter. I had a job at the time, and it was a lot to juggle. I don't think I could have done it if I also had a family. I wish you the best of luck moving this forward!

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

I typically sum this up with a phrase Kent Beck made popular:

Make it work, make it right, make it fast.

I've shared that with a couple teams in the past, and it always catches on.

https://wiki.c2.com/?MakeItWorkMakeItRightMakeItFast

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

I'm curious that you mention project management courses from university. How much benefit have you found them to provide in practice?

Asking b/c I've taken two courses in dev process or project management in my academic career, and neither provided substantial value or benefit to how I've lead projects professionally.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

To speak specifically to this: "I have a questionable habit of working into the evening, and sometimes on weekends. ... I worry that I may be going down the wrong path ... Am I working too hard?"

Working late, or on weekends, can be perfectly ok, at least to a point. Something I consider a dividing line, or sign of caution, is one sentiment - resentment.

Speaking from experience, I've gone through periods of months, even years, where I was intensely motivated and satisfied to work long weeks, into evenings, sometimes on weekends, etc. As long as I found the work rewarding, challenging, and had great relationships with co-workers, I was all in and felt perfectly fine. Some of my very best memories involve risky, challenging work, long late nights, and teammates I wanted to be beside and support. So taken alone, I don't think long hours or committing to work more often than peers, leads to burnout.

I think burnout starts creeping in when those same long hours become expected, mandated, directed at work that's not as stimulating, or requires challenging teammates. In short, resenting work, or conditions of it, builds a potential path to burnout.

Which is why you sound ok to me. You work hard, but you enjoy what you do. It sounds like you're in a healthy work environment and have positive reinforcements (positive teammates, exercise habits, your partner, etc.).

But do continue keeping tabs on your work habits; not just how often you commit to them, but how they make you feel. If work stops feeling positive or worthwhile, know that that's perfectly ok! ... we all experience that at some point. The healthy thing to do in that case, is slow down and start asking questions about why you feel the way you do, what might need to change, etc.

mzarate06

5 years agodiscuss

Thanks for this. All good to know, and I wouldn't want to hamper anyone's recovery. I probably should have said "...each bout leaves a successive weakening...". Difference being to your point - I'm uncertain of serious irreversible damage imposed by burnout, in the literal sense.

What I meant to convey, is that w/each bout I felt successively weaker and more sensitive to toxic patterns or conditions recognized from prior bouts. When experienced, I found they took me to bad places more easily (mentally, emotionally, etc.), and for longer durations. I felt less resilient.

And not just compared to who I was before each bout, but also when I inquired, or compared myself, to teammates next to me going through the same conditions. They often didn't feel as affected or concerned. Is that b/c they never experienced burnout? Is it b/c I have, and am more sensitive to it or have lingering effects? I don't know.

But that's what I meant - I feel each bout with burnout takes more out of you, in a way that makes you less resilient to subsequent bouts.

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