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"The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert Caro

This is an incredibly long biography of a man who figured out how to build an urban empire. While he wasn't an "entrepreneur" per se, he figured out how to generate huge amounts of revenue via tolls/bridges, how to manage and manipulate public policy, and how to attract the best urban planning talent.

... and you can then read about how it all fell apart.

Regardless of your opinion on Robert Moses / NYC, it's an incredibly fascinating read or (~90-hour) audio book.


It reminded me of one of pg's old essays – http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html. Highly recommended.

On a personal note, it's also something that worries me for the day when I'll finally have my own children.

I wouldn't want them exposed to modern cyber-addictions from young age, but at the same time, I'm not sure how to protect them, when I can expect that all their peers will be on whatever social app's gonna be popular at that time.


If your lifestyle supports it, I highly recommend watching this THREE AND A HALF HOUR (yes) video that touches upon both games and the original Deus Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgJazjz9ZsA

That probably sounds like a big ask, but I assure you it's worth it. Think of it less than one video rather than a multi-episode documentary on it.


Antichamber [0] is a masterclass in this type of spatial disorientation. I really enjoyed the way this game approached puzzle design and how it constantly subverted expectations.

Another great one is The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. [1] Initially, the game doesn't play around with spatial disorientation much, but certain branches of the narrative really lean into it in a delightfully satirical way.

Finally, Superliminal [2] explores some similar concepts to Antichamber but with a very different approach.

There a plenty more examples, but hopefully that gives you a jumping off point to see that gameplay in action. I thoroughly enjoyed all three!

[0] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/219890/Antichamber/

[1] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1703340/The_Stanley_Parab...

[2] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049410/Superliminal/


Knowing alternative-interface sites to get around paywalls / regwalls helps.

For Medium: https://scribe.rip/ (replace the host/domain part of the URL).

Twitter -> Nitter (e.g., https://nitter.net/ ... there are numerous others)

YouTube -> Invidious or Piped (e.g., https://yewtu.be/ or https://piped.kavin.rocks/)

Instagram -> Bibliogram (https://bibliogram.art)

Reddit -> Teddit (https://teddit.net/)


I still appreciate having a tool like ranger for emacs: https://github.com/ralesi/ranger.el

It's not quite the two-column file manager; but it's inspired by a file manager + preview, with simple keybindings for navigating.


i wish there was a crowdsourced browser addon like sponsorblock that just blocked any video with a thumbnail with a surprised face

Here's a well cited perspective, written by one of HN's own active commenters:

https://whatisnuclear.com/thorium-myths.html


This wouldn't be a problem if the self-driving cars used celestial navigation, which I've always advocated for.

> The surprising thing about so many of the artists is that they only work 2 or 3 hours per day, then spend the rest of the day walking around, socializing, etc. But they consistently show up and put in the work and it adds up to some amazing things over time.

Artists don't have stand ups, team meetings, planning sessions, one-on-ones, commutes and whatever other office distractions to deal with though. I suppose figuring out how to survive as an artist is distraction enough.


The dot after the TLD represents the root domain. From right to left, URLs read from least to most specific. Root -> TLD -> domain -> subdomain (eg www). The root domain is almost always left out, because it’s always the same and its presence is implied. But if you include it explicitly, it is a distinct URL.

So idk how bloomberg.com works under the hood so I can’t specifically explain this case, but rules that match URLs won’t necessarily see the two versions as identical. This is actually something worth testing your own sites against, to make sure including the root domain doesn’t do something dumb like bypass authentication or whatever.

Edit: also, forgive me if I’m explaining things you already know w/ regard to the root domain and stuff.


My advice is to just start a side programming project where you have to learn the concept. I think it's a much, much faster way of learning, to have to implement the technique, than to go through textbooks and exercises. I don't think most people who aren't career mathematicians will truly understand linear algebra until they write a few Matrix and Vector libraries in support of some other thing they are deeply interested in building.

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