FredPret

51 ms·

901.
by FredPret 2y ago
So games are too cheap. For $50 you can get near-endless dynamic content created by passionate people. For the same price you can watch a pre-made movie out (granted, usually movies have higher production value and it's a night out), o
902.
by FredPret 2y ago
The other thing is - though US median performance is high and average performance is much higher - it's not just a couple of billionaires pulling up that average. It's millionaires - tens of millions of them. There's somethin
903.
by FredPret 2y ago
I did a linguistics course by the amazing John McWhorter. He discussed how much-used languages have lots of adults learning it, badly. This smooths the rough edges away over time. But tiny languages can be as hard as our brains can accommod
904.
by FredPret 2y ago
Some wheelchairs are custom-fitted
905.
by FredPret 2y ago
True - but then the simulation will have human rights
906.
by FredPret 2y ago
That’s right. Studies will say that they “control for age and income” but even doing just that is probably not possible, unless a) you break a number of laws and ethical rules and b) you have a population of hundreds of billions of humans t
907.
by FredPret 2y ago
Here’s one of the fundamental problems with studying human diet and psychology, from the article: > The best way to assess the effects of alcohol would be to randomly assign people to drink it or not in childhood and then monitor their h
908.
by FredPret 2y ago
Not sure where that stat comes from - median wealth in the USA compares extremely favourably with the rest of the world, while the average blows everyone except Switzerland out of the water. Also, living paycheck to paycheck != being poor.
909.
by FredPret 2y ago
Are you under the impression that people in the US don't have purchasing power? Also, Europe is a power house right now, but won't be a generation from now if trends continue. All forms of power are built on economic power or ar
910.
by FredPret 2y ago
Have an industrial revolution -> get rich enough to care about science -> realize we should track the environment -> start to take measurements and writing them down. The only other path that leads to environmental tracking is if s
911.
by FredPret 2y ago
This is hardly accurate. It's the global poor who are most impacted by a (hypothetical) slowing economy. Sure, some billionaire won't get that third yacht. But it's the several hundred million women in Africa doing their fami
912.
by FredPret 2y ago
Check out the wonderful earth.nullschool.net. Here's a link to global CO2 levels [0]. As I understand it, it's live data from satellites. You can see it's lower (redder) where forests and plankton are growing, and higher (whi
913.
by FredPret 2y ago
One username that always stands out is “1970-01-01”. Every time I do a double-take, thinking a timestamp has gone wrong.
914.
by FredPret 2y ago
In my traditional-engineering education, we spent a ton of time on the basic science and theory, with a super broad overview of actual methods used in practice. The expectation was that you graduate and you're then equipped to go to a
915.
by FredPret 2y ago
I once wrote a linear programming optimal solver for a business problem. But because it was all equations and logical reasoning, it was hard to understand, and boring to non-enthusiasts. So my manager had me make a visual simulation instead
916.
by FredPret 2y ago
Ah yes - you’re right. I was thinking of neutron stars all along - which, correct me if I’m wrong, look like they have similar density to an atomic nucleus and for which the upper limit is apparently 3 Sols. [0] [0] https://en.m.
917.
by FredPret 2y ago
Apparently the smallest a neutron star could theoretically be is 0.1 - 0.2 Solar masses. [0] And then 1.4 Solar masses is the upper limit. [1] [0] https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/143174/43351 [1] https:/
918.
by FredPret 2y ago
Data in --> slop out. Slop in --> yikes
919.
by FredPret 2y ago
I think arcade games worked like that. Looked it up and oscilloscopes do, too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_monitor
920.
by FredPret 2y ago
8 '! How high were your basement ceilings - was there any breathing room at all?
921.
by FredPret 2y ago
Defanged the tax system!? The world's democratic governments tax and spend a greater % of GDP than ever before. The last time we were in this ballpark was in WW2.
922.
by FredPret 2y ago
Don't sharks have large livers that collect all sorts of chemicals? You'd expect high concentrations of many pollutants.
923.
by FredPret 2y ago
Max warheads = 31k Current warheads = 3.7k I wonder how long a nuke in storage lasts - ie, how much work does it take to maintain a stockpile of x nukes, and if you can turn those swords into ploughshares relatively easily.
924.
by FredPret 2y ago
The best way to do a completely unbiased focus group is to come up with an MVP and try to sell it to them. There's no more honest endorsement than someone handing you money to solve their problem. If they buy, you're on the right
925.
by FredPret 2y ago
Imaging colliding with this guy. Like shouldering a locomotive
926.
by FredPret 2y ago
Assuming you’re asking in good faith: 1) Ephemeralization [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization ] is when we arrange a given set of atoms in increasingly useful ways, letting us get the same thing done with
927.
by FredPret 2y ago
Off topic, but your site - damninteresting.com - really lives up to its name. I’ve been reading it for probably 15 years now
928.
by FredPret 2y ago
There are strong arguments to be made both for strong technocratic bureaus that make decisions, as well as for direct democracy where the people decide everything directly or through congress. You don’t want to have completely unaccountable
929.
by FredPret 2y ago
Looking at the wildly hostile media coverage of him post-2015, you’d come away thinking he’s a major charlatan. Looking at the glowing media coverage of him pre-2015, he seems like a unique business genius. The truth is probably in between.
930.
by FredPret 2y ago
I agree with your point, but I think your examples are charming one-on-onenor in small groups only. To be considered charming to a large group of people, like half the USA, you need to be conversant in things that are relevant to all of the

More ›