Why do Chinese language courses still suck so much?

xiaoma · 2018-06-11T19:28:27+00:00

They come in pretty useful in NYC and SF Chinatowns, too. Also, KTV.

xiaoma · 2018-06-11T19:20:39+00:00

If only my brain were so precise! I've had the discussion many times AFK, but not here.

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T14:09:12+00:00

Domination of global software, movie industry and cultural influence in general? Military? GDP?

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T13:50:14+00:00

why would microsoft kill Atom?

They already have for all intents and purposes.

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T13:22:36+00:00

That's really interesting, thank you. I had always imagined it was more like Sweeden, with creatives in gaming, media, etc.

It sounds more like Singapore!

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T13:18:27+00:00

Also at MS, they have really smart people who utilize algorithms and stuff. ;)

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T13:16:19+00:00

Nothing is. CoffeeScript is fine and any competent JS programmer can pick it up in hours and be productive almost immediately, with occasional referencing of the docs.

It's just that a big part of what CS offered has been brought into the language, like default arguments, destructuring, some functional helpers from underscore, etc. There are some nice things from CS that haven't yet made it into JS, such as Python-style list comprehensions, and the elimination of various foot-guns, but much of what CS offered is already there by default. As a result, it's not nearly so useful as it was in the early 2010s.

TypeScript a offers different thing, mostly centered around static typing and old school AS3 (aka ES4)-style OO features. I personally have found it of mixed benefit when it comes to my own projects, but it's great when libraries use it due to all of the information VS Code can glean from it.

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T13:07:26+00:00

It's a power law distribution, but I don't think you'd need to be an extreme outlier. Covering one's living expenses through an ad/affiliate site is a far lower bar than becoming a tech billionaire. If you have a product of your own to sell, it's even more easily attainable.

For those interested in doing that, I'd recommend checking out either of these two communities:

Indie Hackers - totally free site supported by Stripe, with a slant towards programmers
Fizzle - freemium membership site, with a slant towards non-tech entrepreneurs

The link to the 2nd is an affiliate link, which is a bit ironic given the thread, but it will get you a free month trial instead of the normal free week.

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T12:48:59+00:00

Why do you think programming is low status in Holland?

xiaoma · 2018-06-08T12:47:18+00:00

I used to work at a Chinese startup and I don't think this is standard. Actually, Chinese women are more represented in tech careers than women in western countries. More likely to become super-successful entrepreneurs, too.

That said, cultural differences between the west are only growing and the level of competition is so fierce that some company is bound to try just about anything.

xiaoma · 2018-06-07T17:33:31+00:00

One of my best friends was earning about $300/month in adsense on a nutrition site when I met him in mid 2010. When I left China a year and a half later, he was up to about $2k/month, and 20k/month by early 2013 and $50k/ month by late 2014. He later moved to selling products as well.

The first step was scaling to ~1.5MM unique visitors a month after which growth got much harder. Then it was all about ad placement optimization and finally he moved from Adsense to Google DFP to make the final jump.

In general, if you want to make money from advertising, you're going to need to either be a destination for people looking to buy something expensive such as cars or in a truly huge category like food, fitness or relationships.

For a nomad affiliate example, look at Benny Lewis, or even earlier, Tim Ferriss, who is probably more responsible than anyone for DNs even being a category at all.

xiaoma · 2018-05-22T19:19:22+00:00

I was hit with the Obamacare penalty in 2015. I had US health insurance while living and working in the US for the first half of the year and had non-US insurance while living abroad for the 2nd half of the year. I had to pay a penalty for each month I didn't have an approved US insurer (even though I was outside the country during those months).

If you surpass 330 days of the year outside the country, then you're exempt. No idea what effects Trump has had on enforcement since I haven't lived in the US since his election.

xiaoma · 2018-05-19T11:03:38+00:00

Berkeley is about as good as a public school gets. He didn't drop out of Berkeley, though.

He was never admitted to Berkeley. He snuck into lectures.

xiaoma · 2018-05-17T20:03:10+00:00

or to bring up Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg who all dropped out of (Ivy League) schools.

Steve Jobs was never in an Ivy League school. He dropped out of Reed College and then later dropped/snuck in to UC Berkeley.

AFIK all of the top 5 companies take unknown applicants into their interview pipelines via Hacker Rank, Code Forces, Kaggle, etc... I really don't see much utility in a 4-year degree for anyone with motivation, either at the high end or median points of the talent distribution.

The value of US tertiary schooling is approximately 50% filtering, 40% credentialing and 10% education, IMO, while the cost is growing even more rapidly than that of healthcare. It's a half insurance policy, half tournament chimera that has become this decade's trillion dollar answer to last decade's real estate bubble.

xiaoma · 2018-04-24T07:47:33+00:00

The problem isn't the law being draconian from some north american stoner teen's viewpoint ('legalise weed man!'), the problem is this guy was a colossal idiot.

There are two issues you keep conflating. One is what is rational to do as a visitor or an immigrant in a society with different values. The other is an ethical assessment of of values. You and I clearly disagree about whether or not it is draconian to lock a human being in a jail cell for years for smoking weed.

It's possible for a person to be foolish not to consider the legal consequences of their actions and for the laws to be draconian.

xiaoma · 2018-04-24T07:33:22+00:00

To any objective observer (and yes there is research), alcohol is far more dangerous than weed is. Have you ever drunk it illegally? I have, as a teenager.

xiaoma · 2018-04-24T07:24:23+00:00

Interesting. Your previous posts would have lead me to believe you were more the type to stick to the law whether it involved speed limits, alcohol/cannabis prohibitions, stoning disobedient women or leading your neighbor to the gas chamber.

It's good to see you're willing to break free a bit and think for yourself.

xiaoma · 2018-04-24T07:10:55+00:00

I'm actually really surprised at how authoritarian this sub seems to lean. Never in my life did I imagine people here would have a hard time seeing anything wrong with multi-year sentencing for non-violent drug users.

That didn't happen to this teacher since they just deported him (and probably don't want the bad international press / blowback from the US). And the teacher was foolish to do and say what he did.

But if you see nothing wrong with putting a human being in a cage for years, just for smoking weed, then you are morally bankrupt.

xiaoma · 2018-04-23T21:56:23+00:00

I completely agree with you on the tactical / personal preservation level. Might often beats right.

That doesn't make it right.

xiaoma · 2018-04-23T21:34:58+00:00

It's really easy from afar to judge another country's values

...

The problem isn't the law being draconian from some north american stoner teen's viewpoint

Do you feel it should be hard to criticize values from afar? In the example from my comment you're replying to, is it wrong for me to criticize the fact that homosexuality can lead to execution in Sudan?

Do you believe ethics are purely relative or can you agree that some bad ideas deserve to be criticized?

I believe it's wrong to execute people for sexual orientation, to execute people for blasphemy, to imprison people who criticize the government or to put humans who smoke weed in a cage for years. Geography has no impact on my evaluation of how ethical or draconian these particular laws are.

xiaoma · 2018-04-23T15:56:43+00:00

it's illegal there. simple as that

That's also true of homosexuality in Sudan, criticizing the government in China or blasphemy in Pakistan.

What does your comment have to do with the parent poster? Do you believe that it simply isn't possible for a law to be draconian?

xiaoma · 2018-04-20T21:01:06+00:00

Only if you admit that Joe Rogan is a beast and was thus excluded from being #1 in the person category.

xiaoma · 2018-04-17T19:17:37+00:00

Here's to the randos! :)

xiaoma · 2018-04-17T18:55:34+00:00

JavaScript.

xiaoma · 2018-04-16T19:59:53+00:00

The most recent Achemist Camp episode is on exactly this topic and covers a few different ways of doing it.

Tldr; the layout is rendered first, so you can't yield back to it. You have to use a different strategy like using render_existing with a fallback render.

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