BC ALL
Saved by @zmbnski

If an employer is willing to be abusive to you prior to hiring you, when you have maximum leverage and they are maximally incentivized to play nice, I think that gives you *extremely actionable* signal as to how they'll treat you when you're working there and dependent on them.

 For candidates: evaluate prospective employers accordingly.

For startups employing e.g. engineers: given that your candidates should evaluate you accordingly, be *extra special* careful to operate like professionals with regards to e.g. interviewing, offers, and negotiation.
"Can you be more explicit about 'abusive' here?"

Not without violating a confidence, but as someone who has been on hiring side of table and is a capitalist, there are *clearly* things you could do which would be "sharp operating, but we're all sharp operators" in some contexts.
Hiring employees is often not one of those contexts. The nature of the relationship, the asymmetry in power, and the social contract strongly counsel you to be a lot better there than you are minimally required by law / contract.
A thing which aesthetically frustrates me is that a lot of the things I've heard companies do here serve *no legitimate business purpose.* In some cases it's getting tens of dollars of advantage. TENS! On an engineering candidate!
Imagine the primal scream of a capitalist:

"WHY ARE YOU POISONING THE WELL FOR EVERYONE HIRING ENGINEERS OVER TENS OF DOLLARS. DO YOU THINK THAT WILL BE IN YOUR S-1 AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE STRENGTH. DOES THIS REFLECT YOUR MANAGERIAL COMPETENCE WITH RESPECT TO YOUR AGENTS."

More from Patrick McKenzie

Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
There are a *lot* of software shops in the world that would far rather have one more technical dependency than they'd like to pay for one of their 20 engineers to become the company's SPOF expert on the joys of e.g. HTTP file uploads, CSV parsing bugs, PDF generation, etc.


Every year at MicroConf I get surprised-not-surprised by the number of people I meet who are running "Does one thing reasonably well, ranks well for it, pulls down a full-time dev salary" out of a fun side project which obviates a frequent 1~5 engineer-day sprint horizontally.

"Who is the prototypical client here?"

A consulting shop delivering a $X00k engagement for an internal system, a SaaS company doing something custom for a large client or internally facing or deeply non-core to their business, etc.

(I feel like many of these businesses are good answers to the "how would you monetize OSS to make it sustainable?" fashion, since they often wrap a core OSS offering in the assorted infrastructure which makes it easily consumable.)

"But don't the customers get subscription fatigue?"

I think subscription fatigue is far more reported by people who are embarrassed to charge money for software than it is experienced by for-profit businesses, who don't seem to have gotten pay-biweekly-for-services fatigue.
STARTUPS
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
The payments wars in Japan are heating up and one of the battlegrounds is convenience store coffee.

“Coffee? What does that have to do with payments?” I’m glad you asked.

Convenience stores are low net margin businesses, which sell some high gross margin goods/services but a lot of low ones, and have high fixed costs and a low ticket size. The typical transaction is under 500 yen ($5) and many are about $1.

They need repeat custom.

A few years ago, all of the chains had a good idea for increasing frequency of use: make a minor capital investment in automatic coffee machines. Sell access to them for the price of a cup / ice; customers self-serve with the machine.

The price point is $1 to about $2.

Coffee quickly became one of the most frequently repurchased items at convenience stores, in no small part because it’s the one thing they can sell which is phameceutically habit forming but totally unregulated. (Just telling it like it is.)

But the coffee is not very defensible

The problem, such that it is, is that competing chains are everywhere and *all* of them serve Thoroughly Adequate Coffee at similar prices, so you’re back into the brutal economics of “Who is 3 meters closer to 40 customers at 1 office?”

Enter payment apps.
FINANCE
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Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
Some people really benefit from hearing advice that everyone knows, for the same reason we keep schools open despite every subject in them having been taught before.

In that spirit, here's some quick Things Many People Find Too Obvious To Have Told You Already.

Your idea is not valuable, at all. All value is in the execution. You think you are an exception; you are not. You should not insist on an NDA to talk about it; nobody serious will engage in contract review over an idea, and this will mark you as clueless.

Technologists tend to severely underestimate the difficulty and expense of creating software, especially at companies which do not have fully staffed industry leading engineering teams ("because software is so easy there, amirite guys?")

Charge more. Charge more still. Go on.

The press is a lossy and biased compression of events in the actual world, and is singularly consumed with its own rituals, status games, and incentives. The news necessarily fails to capture almost everything which happened yesterday. What it says is important usually isn't.

Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees.
TECH
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
A thread on HN about bad code in legacy projects both makes me think how little we've learned as a discipline over the years and, honestly, how little credit we give ourselves for some pretty major

Fun going down this list and thinking: "Hmm, plausible at a well-run modern software shop", "Hmm, possible, but requires implausible tradeoffs", "Literally disallowed by languages", and "If you were to attempt doing that our test suite wouldn't let you merge."

I think we as an industry celebrate (not quite the right word) failure too much and don't celebrate success nearly enough. There is no DailyWTF for competent execution, word of which generally stays pretty local to the source while incompetence passes into legend.

Alrighty let me try to thread the needle on being the change I want to see in the world while not giving away anything that will get me in trouble:

Ruby has wonderful developer ergonomics. Typed languages are easier for machines to guarantee the correctness of. We built a type checker for Ruby (and I believe it is slated for OSS release sometime).

c.f.
TECH
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
This lunch is 500 yen ($4.80) at Sukiya, a Japanese fast food restaurant which belongs to a category with about three big competitors.

I love the aesthetics of this category and they’re under remarked upon.


I think people underestimate QSRs in terms of social utility, but Sukiya et al describe themselves as mission-oriented enterprises. I believe this is largely sincere, and goes back to the 60s and 70s, when the clientele was primarily manual laborers who had migrated to work.

Japan was not a rich nation at the time, and day laborers in particular were both unlikely to be able to cook for themselves and unlikely to have much of a food budget, and so the chains sprung up offering an honest-to-goodness cooked meal delivered in under a minute for cheap.

This heritage continued over the years, even after Japan became a much more wealthy nation, and these chains function as social support and dignity for folks in diminished circumstances.

They also are a wee bit of a cartel, and I appreciate the aesthetics of the cartel:

Back when I was first in Japan, in the mid 2000s, there was an increase in the price of beef.

And the heads of the three chains got together, and decided that the price of the basic beef bowl needed to increase, but given the economic circumstances how could they hold the line.
FOOD

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Sumit Grrg
Sumit Grrg
@sumitgrrg
These 10 threads will teach you more than reading 100 books

Five billionaires share their top lessons on startups, life and entrepreneurship (1/10)


10 competitive advantages that will trump talent (2/10)


Some harsh truths you probably don’t want to hear (3/10)


10 significant lies you’re told about the world (4/10)
ALL , MOTIVATION , BOOKS
\u2728Anshika Sharma
✨Anshika Sharma
@Anshi_________
Low-risk, High-return stocks are what we look for relentlessly

But many of them we know but ignore
some of them don't grab financial headlines

Here are 10 low-risk, high return stocks (that we ignore):

What I mean by “high-return”?

These stocks have OUTPERFORMED the market:

💹Chart with upwards trend Since IPO
💹Chart with upwards trend Over the last 5 Years or since IPO

These are all long-term winners that will keep on winning

What do We Mean by “low-risk”?

A combination of:

❣️Great management
❣️Broad moat
❣️Financially strong
❣️High ROCE
❣️Low Disruption/Dilution/Volatility
❣️Consistent Organic Growth
❣️Assorted Customers/Suppliers
❣️Low debt

1-#CDSL

A depository is a big business and will grow continuously, Its a sustainable business
cause "Market hai toh CDSL bhi hai or rahega"


2- #Dixon

High Management Efficiency with a high ROE of 19.30%
Healthy long-term growth as Net Sales has grown by an annual rate of more than 30%
High Institutional Holdings
LOW RISK HIGH RETURN STOCKS , LOW RISK HIGH RETURN STOCKS FOR LONG TERM , LOW RISK STOCK IDEAS
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Elliot Alderson
Elliot Alderson
@fs0c131y
THREAD: I'm looking at a Huawei P20 from China, let see what can I found

The 1st app I reversed is an app called Decision

Look at the name of the files contains in the assets folder:
- airport_china.txt
- city_china.txt
- cityinfo.db
- parkinglot_china.txt
- railwayinfo.db
- trainInfo.db
- trainstation.db

Interesting, no?


For example, the trainstation database contains:
- address
- name
- latitude
- longitude
- city


In the manifest of this application, there is a GeoReceiver
ALL
Anand Ranganathan
Anand Ranganathan
@ARanganathan72
Travelling during Noakhali riots, Manu told Gandhi she had mislaid his pumice stone. Incensed, he ordered her to revisit their last stop. The terrified Manu, just 16, walked 30 miles. Gandhi later told her: Had a rioter assaulted & killed you my heart would have danced with joy.

Here is Rajmohan Gandhi describing the grisly incident though I had read it first in Kriplani's biography of Gandhi. It totally creeped me out then, as it does even now.

Manu was only 16. Gandhi made her walk alone through dense jungle and rioting villages. For his pumice stone.
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TraderLion
TraderLion
@TraderLion_
How to identify the next Market Leaders (Thread)

After a basing/corrective period in the market, new merchandise will start to emerge and show itself as the market is setting up for another uptrend.

Some leaders from the previous run may continue their moves, but often it's the new leaders which will provide the most alpha.

So keep an open mind and search for the stocks that are standing out from the crowd with the strongest combination of superior price + volume action and fundamentals.

Here is how to find these next leaders:

First, market leaders by definition lead the market. They will often be making new price and relative strength highs as the market starts moving up from a potential bottom.

Keep an eye on Relative Strength Lines especially. A Relative Strength New High Before Price is a key Leadership Blueprint. For instance, $TSLA showed this characteristic before advancing 350% in 2020

The RS Line is calculated by the Price of the stock/ SPX
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1. The entire world is looking at #India ‘s comparatively low #COVID19 numbers with suspicion. Having lived in #Germany & been to #India last month, here’s a thread of my personal experience and why #India is doing better despite higher population density.

2. Let’s start with how international arrivals are handled. Before flying to #India self-declaration form should be filled out online & Aarogya Setu app installed. #Bengaluru further required Apthamitra & Quarantine watch apps. COVID -ve result is required to reduce quarantine.

3. We(husband & I) both took RT-PCR test 2days before flying & took a hard copy of our -ve certificates. During check in at the #Frankfurt airport our self-declaration forms were checked & phones too to ensure we had installed the required apps. Our contact details were noted.

4. While flying out all restaurants except McDonalds were closed in #Frankfurt airport. Only bakeries were open. Safety enforcement was quite lax even as many lined up at the test center at the airport. There were few hand sanitising stations & no one to enforce mask wearing...

5. & social distancing. Infact, no one at the ticketing office had a mask on. Other than the check-in, there were no other new protocols for international fliers. We went through immigration & boarded just as normal. We flew through #Dubai & the flight to Dubai was mostly empty.
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Paul M Domenick\U0001f43a
Paul M Domenick🐺...
@PaulMDomenick
10 Signs of Social Intelligence 🧠

1-Smile
2-Good posture
3-Strong eye contact
4-Fluid hand gestures
5-Let’s others talk more
6-Listens & relates
7-Comfortable Touching people
8-Walk with a swagger
9-Speaks at slower pace
10-Keeps calm under criticism

[ QUICK THREAD ]


1-Smile

How do you feel when you see someone that looks angry?

It’s a downer

No one will want to interact with you if you look pissed all of the time, it’s just negative energy

Plus, smiling is a sign of confidence and boosts others moods


2-Good posture

Don’t walk Into any social setting looking like the hunchback

It’s weak and makes you look low energy

Plus, you’re displaying low status with weak posture

Stand up straight with your chin up & chest out like a god

Walk like you’re proud of yourself


3- Strong eye contact

Ever shake someone’s hand & their eyes are either looking down or darting?

It’s weak & you probably won’t trust them

Or in conversation?

Eye contact while talking means you’re listening and paying *Attention*

Strong eye contact displays confidence


4-Fluid hand gestures

Use your hands to talk & express your points

Don’t stand there like a robot

Using the hands can make what you’re talking about exciting

It can also be used to emphasize

Exciting = positive emotion

Remember, making people FEEL is what’s important
LIFE
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STEALTH JEFF
STEALTH JEFF
@drawandstrike
THIS.

Russia hasn't been a willing partner in this treaty for almost 3 decades. We should have ended the pretense long ago.

Naturally, Rand Paul is telling anyone who will listen to him that Trump is making a HUGE MISTAKE here.


Rand is just like his dad, Ron. 100% isolationist.

They've never grasped that 100% isolationist is not 'America First' when you examine it. It really means 'America Alone'.

The consistent grousing of pursuing military alliances with allies - like Trump is doing now with Saudi Arabia.

So of course Rand has also spent the last 2 days loudly calling for Trump to kill the arms deal with Saudi Arabia and end our alliance with them.

What Obama was engineering with his foreign policy was de facto isolationism: pull all the troops out of the ME, abandon the region to Iranian control as a client state of Russia.

Obama wasn't building an alliance with Iran; he was facilitating abandoning the ME to Iran.

Obama wouldn't even leave behind a token security force, so of course what happened was the rise of ISIS. He also pumped billions of dollars into the Iranian coffers, which the Mullah's used to fund destabilizing activity [wars/terrorism] & criminal enterprises all over the globe
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Seth Abramson
Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
I don't care one way or another about the Elizabeth Warren DNA kerfuffle; it's silliness bred of Trump's lunacy, not a serious political matter.

But—*but*—the blowback on Warren is useful as a reminder that facts, science, and really truth of any kind is now anathema to the GOP.

2/ If you're online trying to convince a Trumpist of *anything*—I mean *anything*—stop right now.

The Trumpists' reaction to Warren's DNA test—a cacophony of fact-free insanity about race and DNA and even just *the bare facts of what happened*—tells you you're wasting your time.

3/ I don't see the point in baiting Trumpists, or insulting them, or calling attention to their madness on a daily basis. These people are fundamentally unserious about truth, discourse, and anything resembling a community of ideas. So:

1) Ignore them—completely.
2) Vote—always.

4/ I don't always live up to that standard, but I'm *trying*. I'm *trying* to ignore as beneath dialogic significance those who say "most people" have Native American ancestry, or who can't read basic studies to understand Warren's DNA test, or who say Trump never made a bet, &c.

5/ Trump wants to call Warren "Pocahontas" because he's a racist, wants to appeal to racists, and his cult-like following so ignores *everything bad he does* that they think that, had she lied—she didn't—*this* (this!) would be worse than anything Trump has done.

*Process that*.
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SPACVet
SPACVet
@SpacVet
My number 1 stock pick for 2021 is: Pine Island Acquisition Corp.

$PIPP

Let me break down why I think this will be THE SPAC of 2021. 👇

TL:DR – the management team is loaded with President Biden’s closest friends and advisors. No other SPAC has this level of access.

$PIPP company overview:

-focused on defense, government service & aerospace
-perfect focus when you consider who is on their Management Team


$PIPP Management

-here's where it gets EXCITING
-founded by John Thain (ex Merrill Lynch CEO and Uber director)
-then STACKED with veteran Government and Administration key figures


$PIPP Insane Management Connections

-the list of PIPP "DC Partners" includes:

-- President Biden's pick for Secretary of State (Tony Blinken)
-- President Biden's pick for Secretary of Defense (Gen. Lloyd Austin).


$PIPP - The Joe Biden Connection

- Tony Blinken and President Biden are close allies.
- Blinken has been an advisor to Biden for decades
- Blinken set to be appointed Sec. of State
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