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It's hard to build an oscillator

(lcamtuf.substack.com)
219 points chmaynard | 14 comments | 21 Nov 25 07:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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ofalkaed ◴[21 Nov 25 09:56 UTC] No.46002962[source]▶
When I was starting out in electronics I found the easiest way to build an oscillator was to build an amplifier and the easiest way to build an amplifier was to build an oscillator. I guess the trick is to be 7 years old and have far more ambition than skill. Couldn't guess at how many tries it took me to make an amplifier that didn't oscillate and when I moved onto oscillators, they never oscillated but they did amplify. In that first year or so, I couldn't actually read resistor color codes, but I thought I could.
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1. seg_lol ◴[21 Nov 25 10:10 UTC] No.46003047[source]▶
> the trick is to be 7 years old and have far more ambition than skill

Never lose this

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2. hollerith ◴[21 Nov 25 10:12 UTC] No.46003053[source]▶
Apologies for my bluntness, but in my humble opinion, American society would be better if it had fewer adults like this.
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3. ofalkaed ◴[21 Nov 25 10:18 UTC] No.46003080[source]▶
Being able to enjoy and find worth in the process regardless of the outcome is bad? Are we man-children if we don't treat everything as if it were as serious as cancer? I'm not really sure what you are trying to say.
4. immibis ◴[21 Nov 25 10:31 UTC] No.46003157[source]▶
Ambition develops skill. One of the problems with American society is people thinking they have skill when they don't. If people knew they had ambition and no skill, they'd try things and learn.
replies(1): >>46005061 #
5. fragmede ◴[21 Nov 25 10:43 UTC] No.46003210[source]▶
that's a helluva thing to just drop. What are your priors? Are you American yourself, or living in or near it? In what way would it be better? How so?
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6. taneq ◴[21 Nov 25 11:43 UTC] No.46003580[source]▶
I think the scenario of childlike wonder and limitless ambition is a little different to the scenario of embraced ignorance and wilful misrepresentation of any surviving facts in furtherance of the agenda du jour.
7. jacquesm ◴[21 Nov 25 12:01 UTC] No.46003700[source]▶
Yes, but then again, we could make a very similar comment about Hackernews.
8. JKCalhoun ◴[21 Nov 25 13:02 UTC] No.46004097[source]▶
You are likely talking about a different aspect of child-mindedness than the person you were responding to.
9. eru ◴[21 Nov 25 13:42 UTC] No.46004515[source]▶
Why talk about Americans now?
replies(1): >>46005143 #
10. fuzzfactor ◴[21 Nov 25 14:44 UTC] No.46005058[source]▶
Wait until you see what some of the people in other countries do when they try to imitate Americans.

It makes you think, why even bother?

Not my downvote BTW.

11. majorchord ◴[21 Nov 25 14:44 UTC] No.46005061{3}[source]▶
Dunning-Kruger actually applies to everyone, especially to people who openly and over-generalizingly criticize an entire nation's supposed lack of skill.
12. hollerith ◴[21 Nov 25 14:54 UTC] No.46005143{3}[source]▶
Only because I don't know the rest of the world well enough to say.
13. hollerith ◴[21 Nov 25 17:31 UTC] No.46006632{3}[source]▶
Yes, American citizen living in the SF Bay Area.
14. HeyLaughingBoy ◴[21 Nov 25 21:51 UTC] No.46009407[source]▶
Ambition should always outpace skill. Otherwise, how would we get anywhere?