fartVader
2d ago
I'm letting someone close to me crash for the summer between grad-school semesters. :)
Not urgent. We want to find the right person.
With 2 founders moonlighting (I + friend) and 1 free full-stack intern, we are covered on the essentials.
We have 2 distinct dates - July or October.
- October to join the W25 YC application and be paid a human wage from Day 1.
- July if you want to start moonlighting with us.
On stacks:
Prefer stable+popular+easy (React, JS/TS, Python) if no strong opinions.
Very open to other frontend frameworks (Svelte?, this is your domain, you pick your poison)
Early on, simple is better, so pick what gets you off the ground fastest.
No premature backend optimization. So avoid C++/Java/Rust early. Special exceptions if you are uniquely productive in a specific language.
What we've used before: Containerized ( GPU -> Torch -> Python -> FastAPI ) -> TS -> React
fartVader
4d ago
Does a bear wanna kill me ?
Afaik, only 3 kinds of bears attack humans
- Polar bears for food
- Mother bears to save subs (a solo bear has no subs, so not a factor here)
- Other bears when they scared
- Sloth bears cuz they crazy
A Polar bear will need to be starved for weeks before it starts hunting the one other human in the forest. And they don't climb trees, so I can reliably protect myself in the short term. Most other bears can be avoided strategically.
The reason humans are scary is that a serial killer will want to start planning their kill from minute 1. You have to fight the human on even ground. On the other hand, the bear will take ages before it decides to engage with you. You can plan your engagement with it perfectly.
That's why a sloth bear is the scrariest. They can climb trees, eat more often, actively engage with humans and react with incredible aggression. Nothing I can do. Dead before sunrise.
fartVader
4d ago
"Trans people are oppressed because girl bosses who gatekep what it means to be woman and then gaslight them by claiming to be allies?"
That's my best guess
fartVader
4d ago
Does a Fullstack Engineer on here want to found a startup together with a larger vision of solving communication on the internet?
I'll have a demo for y'all in a month, but if you're keen to take a leap of faith and wanna know specifics, hit me up.
Internet strangers are reputed as neckbeards in their mom's basement, but some of us do well for ourselves. We are both well-compensated engineers but neither of us do web-work / full-stack work. For grounding, we're targetting YC W25 and have a well-defined product plan with sensible unit economics. For once, cynical quokkas might just be the right people for this kind of endeavor.
I'll be doing it anyway, but you know what they say : "2 is a company, 3 is a startup founding team."
fartVader
5d ago
I would take the bear.
It is a whole ass forest! Random collisons would already be unlikely, but on top of that, I am sufficiently experienced with hiking to know how to avoid bears. I also don't need help, so the alternative (friendly human) is kind of useless here.
So, the only bad event that can occur is a freak instance of a pscho-killer sprawning and wanting to screw me over.
I have thought this through:
- If polar bear & aduly grizzly-> climb a tree
- If black bear &
sloth bear-> you can scare it off - If forest has ton of food -> don't need another human
- If forest has very little food -> don't want another human.
- If the forest has no food -> I would rather fight a bear who gives me a few days to prepare, rather than a psycho who can rush me and won't fall for stupid traps. (also, I'd rather eat a bear than a human. Just sayin)
The only situation where I'd take a man, is if I was stuck there for life. Need some companionship, and bear ain't gonna cut it.
Actually, no, scratch that. I take the man.
Sloth bears are aggressive, nimble and amazing tree climbers. They would probably rush me and kill me before I get anything off the ground. Only about 1-2% of bear are sloth bears, but that still more than serial killers. So there are 2 bad outcomes, and an aggressive sloth bear is far likelier than a psychopathic killer who is also stronger than me.
fartVader
6d ago
This is lovely. Please do more. Had no idea Pittsburgh was hilly.
A few questions.
Does CMU being the best CS university in the world affect the day to day of the average person in Pittsburgh? For example, the JHU's excellence at Medicine or Clemson at Automobile Engg. defintely seems to affect the economic makeup of their respective cities.
Does Pittsburgh ever feel like a college town? Upitt + CMU makes for 50k students not that far from downtown.
I've seen Pittsburgh compared to Seattle wrt weather, hilliness, whiteness and having tech. How fair is the comparison ?
fartVader
7d ago
Agreed on all counts. There are zero real democracies that have managed a transition from poverty to wealth. They all grew as autocracies and converted to democracies once stable.
India is unlikely to become autocratic, but the current setup has too many checks and balances. I am a big proponent of reducing states rights and opening the judiciary (primarily by allowing fast track appointments for those who excel at standardized testing , setting targets for case clearance as part of promotions and limiting the supreme court to matters of constitution, rather than morality).
That's a good start. India has fair elections. Let those elected to the parliament choose the path for the nation. Too much beaurocracy is no good.
fartVader
8d ago
Experts without specific takes are the worst bunch. If Modi hating is your full-time job, then have your attacks honed to perfection. These 'everything is horrible' articles are exhausting and teach you nothing.
"India's is doing badly because Modi......" Come on, keep going. Modi how ? What specific policies did Modi enact that ruined the economy ? What alternatives does the opposition propose that will fix the economy ?".
IMO, This article correctly points out the main challenges to economic development in India.
(quotes from the article)
In private many businesses still complain about India’s complex tax regulation, difficulties in acquiring land, rigid labour laws, weak intellectual property enforcement and clogged courts. It takes almost four years to enforce contracts in business disputes, among the slowest globally, according to the World Bank.
Simplifying tax laws means consolidating the tax code at the national level. States see this as a powergrab and Modi gets termed a fascist.
Judicial reform requires parlimentary inference in the indepdendent judiciary. Democracy watchers view this as a powergrab and Modi gets termed a fascist.
Non-BJP states have among the strongest labor protections in the nation (Delhi, WB, Kerala, Bihar, ex-UP, ). When BJP regains control, it tries to weaken them. Ofc, he gets called a corporate sell out.
Modi is public about his desire for India to have a market-based, private sector-driven economy,” he said. “But this view is not shared by much of the opposition and even the nativist wing of his own party
Modi has many failings. I would be sympathetic towards the opposition if they agreed with informed economists on Modi being too-left wing. Instead, critics of Modi call every pro-market move fascist and his political opposition encourages dragging India back to Nehruvian-era socialist isolationism.
To avoid being hypocritical, here are his specific failings from my perspective.
Lack of eggs (protien) in school diets
India is at the bottom of the Global Hunger Index, below North Korea and above Afghanistan.
India uniquely underperforms on child wasting. The reason goes back to 1970s and the introduction of the wheat, rice & simple carb heavy diets post green-revolution. Under-nourishment is low because because peopel get sufficient calories. However, the lack of protien causes child-wasting.
Indian farm laws massively subsidize wheat, rice and simple carbs, and that's all poor families can afford. Modi tried to fix this by removing grains-specific subsidies in the 2019 farm-bill. This bill recieved massive push-back from opposition and the elite global left for being anti-farmer. Under pressure, Modi's revoked the bill. This was his first mistake.
We need more eggs in school lunches. More protein. Modi hasn't done anything towards this, neither has anyone else.
Demonetization
Demonetization (2017) was a disaster. It is known. That being said, the article primarily focuses on post-covid recovery (or lack there off). India's economy is in a recent (2023-24) rut. I don't have an answer to what recent change has caused this.
Unsufficient progress on ease of doing business
Land acquisition
Modi has failed to pass the land acquisition bill over 2 terms. It has been touted as the biggest impediment to doing business in India. Modi claims he will bring the reforms in during a 3rd term. But he had a big-enough mandate from 2019-2024. The reason for this failure, was due to global and national pressure because the bill was percieved as anti-farmer.
Judicial reform
The slow moving judiciary is the 2nd biggest impediment to doing business in India. India's judiciary is full independent, so the Govt. doesn't have much power here. Afaik, there is massive resistance to any Judicial reform by the Modi govt. So both sides continue to be in an uncomfortable marraige, while cases pile on.
Simpler tax codes
Modi hasn't exactly failed here. It is more so that he hasn't pushed enough. GST was implemented, good. It remains unpopular among the opposition, the left and the global elite. But, he got it through However, other campaign promises remain in 'draft' phase... Overall, I find this to be an insufficient reform. Good start, but taxation remains insanely complex.
Overall, I remain cautiously bullish on India.
From a resource standpoint, it is agriculturally self-sufficient, has an incredible appetite for solar power and has an adequate water supply. Societally, it has strong family structures, a commitment to education and a stable fertility rate. You can't underestimate the long term benefits of this.
Some tax reform, eggs and weaker labor laws should keep India over water for the next decade. If the ease of doing business genuinely improves, then we might just be in for a bumber decade.
If India misses this decade of population-pyramid perfection, then we're FUCKED big time.
fartVader
24d ago
Sunscreen acts as a moisturizer and protects your skin from irritants if your oils have been washed off. It prevents dryness, acne, sub burn and cancer. The good stuff isn't sticky or smelly.
I apply it once a day, but I am also brown and work indoors. Strong recommend.
fartVader
26d ago
It helps that the leader of Singapore is a literal genius. He was the senior wrangler = top math student at Cambridge.
The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain".
fartVader
29d ago
There are only 3 public newsletters that I think gives you a genuine alpha over the 75th percentile trader.
- https://stratechery.com/
- money stuff - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/ARbTQlRLRjE/matthew-s-levine
- https://sinocism.com/
Do they sound unreasonably dense and hard to parse? Yes, they are meant to be. You don't get an alpha by doing easy things.
Otherwise, the best way to be a stock trader is to become a rich person's golf buddy, and hope you overhear some stuff between drives.
check out https://dynomight.net/seed-oil/
More options
Context Copy link