I work at Featurespace - we stop fraud, scams, money laundering and other financial crimes.
We build software that runs real-time machine learning models at scale, deep in the financial 'rails' that move money around, and we license it to banks and other financial institutions.
A surprisingly large number of my colleagues are here because of similar reasons - we like making a positive societal contribution.
I have, it's worth getting, it definitely scratches the same 'must ... optimise ... better ...' itches.
It's early access but very playable and feature complete, but it does feel less polished than factorio (obviously can't compare to an 8 year development effort!)
Satisfactory is another great play for fans of the genre.
Both games are 3D, and both use the additional dimension well. You can play them fine just like factorio (I did the first runthrough) and treat 3D as eye candy, but you'll do better if you 'cut with the grain' and learn how to build 3D factories.
> what is the best calculation to make when trading off code quality vs features?
> do most YC startups write tests and try to write cleanish code in V1 or does none of this matter?
It only matters when bad code hurts your overall business velocity - what that means, only you can answer.
Nobody's writing tests for their purist aethestics, they're there to let you go faster - but there's an up-front cost you have to pay for them. Sometimes that's worth paying, sometimes the land grab is more important.
I've been through deals with large financial institutions that have taken 2-3 years from an initial incredibly positive demo and PoC and strong buying signals, through to a signed contract.
IMO going through that successfully is also sending a signal that you have sufficient endurance - there's a large risk for a corporate to sign up for a long contract with a startup, they don't know how long you're going to be in business for. If the startup doesn't have the appetite to spend 2-3 years to get a contract over the line, then they aren't going to be a stable partner for the long term.
You need to also have sufficient numbers of small/medium scale deals so you're not 100% relying on elephant hunting.
For some reason, in the UK at least, desks do seem to be measured in mm, yes. It's not a particularly common unit for measuring other large items though, more generally we'll use metres and centimetres (with the correct spelling ;-)
yes - my question is whether escape velocity is necessary to leave a gravity well.
and if it's not, taking that to its logical conclusion - why do we NEED to go faster than the speed of light to escape from inside the schwarzschild radius of a black hole? can't we leave under constant thrust at 1 m/s?
a rocket takes off. let's say it's going upwards at 1 m/s at some short time after takeoff. why can't it then reduce (not to zero) acceleration such that it stays going upwards at 1 m/s all the way out of the gravity well? don't aim for escape velocity, keep the velocity at exactly 1 m/s until you're out.
but MUST the rocket achieve its 'escape velocity' in order to escape? why can't we have a casual stroll out of the gravity well?
escape velocity applies for an unpowered vehicle, right? throw a rock, it's gotta be going at least at the escape velocity or it won't escape. but throw a rock that's propelling upwards itself all the way out ...
if I want to climb stairs, I propel myself gradually on every step, I don't require that I launch myself off step 1 with the speed to get me to the top.
“Even then, AI output is never treated as an authoritative source. Everything must be verified.”