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If we're talking about "opportunity cost" in a very fuzzy "you made an assessment that prefers another option" kind of way that's fine (though its goofy HN pseu

If we're talking about "opportunity cost" in a very fuzzy "you made an assessment that prefers another option" kind of way that's fine (though its goofy HN pseud-speak, but w/e), but it's also completely unhelpful in a discussion about what to focus on learning. To your point, everybody lives life this way, there's really no other way to live life than to make judgements, so why respond w/ that unless you're actually making some more targeted point about only learning things that provide you the highest utility.

coldtea 7y ago
>though its goofy HN pseud-speak Opportunity cost is an open-ended economic term, not some obscure math or physics arcana, and it's core is all about preferring one option over another after an assessment (of what you lose by not going with the other, etc). Using it casually is totally compatible with the concept, it's not like using hard math (e.g. Godel's incompleteness theorem") in some pseudo-scientific fashion. >To your point, everybody lives life this way, there's really no other way to live life than to make judgements, so why respond w/ that unless you're actually making some more targeted point about only learning things that provide you the highest utility. Everybody uses O/C in some way or another in their lives (it's not some obscure idea of only academic interest), but not everybody uses it well. Many waste efforts on multiple things ("jack of all trades"), others chose the thing that makes them worse off professionally or personally over better options open to them, etc. So, that's the point I was making: choosing math over Chinese (as the author suggests) can work out well from a O/C perspective. Understanding math better is more approachable than learning a language like Chinese adequately to make anything of it, and can have a wide impact (especially to a programmer, but also in personal life, business decisions, etc).
- almostdeadguy 7y ago
  > Opportunity cost is an open-ended economic term, not some obscure math or physics arcana, and it's core is all about preferring one option over another after an assessment (of what you lose by not going with the other, etc). lol I know its not arcana or hard math, but framing a decision people regularly make in life without any means of holistic assessment or accounting for the options like its a micro-econ problem if you just informally mean "make a judgement call", is the type of terminology abuse that's the hallmark of a pseud. > but not everybody uses it well. Many waste efforts on multiple things ("jack of all trades"), others chose the thing that makes them worse off professionally or personally over better options open to them, etc. And this is at the root of my objection to this, what could you possibly mean here by "not everybody uses it well"? To what or whose criteria can you possibly make such an assessment? > So, that's the point I was making: choosing math over Chinese (as the author suggests) can work out well from a O/C perspective. Understanding math better is more approachable than learning a language like Chinese adequately to make anything of it, and can have a wide impact (especially to a programmer, but also in personal life, business decisions, etc). You might fall in love with a Chinese national and want to learn your partner's native tongue. You might have your life wholly changed by a work of Chinese literature. This is why this whole framing is utterly insane, there's no way to account for all the ways your life might be bettered by both these pursuits. Why even make some facile pseudo-analytic attempt. It's just dumb STEM dick measuring to pretend like there's a way to assess this.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    >And this is at the root of my objection to this, what could you possibly mean here by "not everybody uses it well"? To what or whose criteria can you possibly make such an assessment? Well, I'm not an alien that just landed. So I have personal experience with life, an understanding of culture, an education, some historical knowledge, etc, and so I can make judgements (even without writing some full formal paper of citing stats) about people making the wrong choices in their lives. Maybe not perfect judgments, but it's not like I'm some alien that has just landed on Earth from space, and one has to wonder how could I ever possibly "make such an assessment" for others. But even if you ignore me as a non-authority on the matter, I can argue that people themselves frequently lament their own previous life choices and with they'd gotten with X or Y, or lament how their choice on Y brought them to the bottom, and so on. So from that alone, we can safely assume that "not everybody uses [their assessments on what options to follow] well".

coldtea 7y ago

>though its goofy HN pseud-speak Opportunity cost is an open-ended economic term, not some obscure math or physics arcana, and it's core is all about preferring one option over another after an assessment (of what you lose by not going with the other, etc). Using it casually is totally compatible with the concept, it's not like using hard math (e.g. Godel's incompleteness theorem") in some pseudo-scientific fashion. >To your point, everybody lives life this way, there's really no other way to live life than to make judgements, so why respond w/ that unless you're actually making some more targeted point about only learning things that provide you the highest utility. Everybody uses O/C in some way or another in their lives (it's not some obscure idea of only academic interest), but not everybody uses it well. Many waste efforts on multiple things ("jack of all trades"), others chose the thing that makes them worse off professionally or personally over better options open to them, etc. So, that's the point I was making: choosing math over Chinese (as the author suggests) can work out well from a O/C perspective. Understanding math better is more approachable than learning a language like Chinese adequately to make anything of it, and can have a wide impact (especially to a programmer, but also in personal life, business decisions, etc).

almostdeadguy 7y ago
> Opportunity cost is an open-ended economic term, not some obscure math or physics arcana, and it's core is all about preferring one option over another after an assessment (of what you lose by not going with the other, etc). lol I know its not arcana or hard math, but framing a decision people regularly make in life without any means of holistic assessment or accounting for the options like its a micro-econ problem if you just informally mean "make a judgement call", is the type of terminology abuse that's the hallmark of a pseud. > but not everybody uses it well. Many waste efforts on multiple things ("jack of all trades"), others chose the thing that makes them worse off professionally or personally over better options open to them, etc. And this is at the root of my objection to this, what could you possibly mean here by "not everybody uses it well"? To what or whose criteria can you possibly make such an assessment? > So, that's the point I was making: choosing math over Chinese (as the author suggests) can work out well from a O/C perspective. Understanding math better is more approachable than learning a language like Chinese adequately to make anything of it, and can have a wide impact (especially to a programmer, but also in personal life, business decisions, etc). You might fall in love with a Chinese national and want to learn your partner's native tongue. You might have your life wholly changed by a work of Chinese literature. This is why this whole framing is utterly insane, there's no way to account for all the ways your life might be bettered by both these pursuits. Why even make some facile pseudo-analytic attempt. It's just dumb STEM dick measuring to pretend like there's a way to assess this.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >And this is at the root of my objection to this, what could you possibly mean here by "not everybody uses it well"? To what or whose criteria can you possibly make such an assessment? Well, I'm not an alien that just landed. So I have personal experience with life, an understanding of culture, an education, some historical knowledge, etc, and so I can make judgements (even without writing some full formal paper of citing stats) about people making the wrong choices in their lives. Maybe not perfect judgments, but it's not like I'm some alien that has just landed on Earth from space, and one has to wonder how could I ever possibly "make such an assessment" for others. But even if you ignore me as a non-authority on the matter, I can argue that people themselves frequently lament their own previous life choices and with they'd gotten with X or Y, or lament how their choice on Y brought them to the bottom, and so on. So from that alone, we can safely assume that "not everybody uses [their assessments on what options to follow] well".