api

237 ms·

13891.
by api 12y ago
"In case you doubt the appeal of authoritarianism just go look at the popularity of Stalin in Russia, or the readership of the Daily Mail in the UK, or the overwhelming political support for the NSA / the PATRIOT Act. Lots and lot
13892.
by api 12y ago
Really interesting. An investment analogy comes immediately to mind: cutting on a bad investment instead of falling for the sunk cost fallacy. If it's just not going anywhere, you might be better off just moving on. Sometimes I think &
13893.
by api 12y ago
"I'm not sure we could ever see that level of participation from crowdfunding" I would not bet on that. There could be loads of startups that work to further 'democratize' this.
13894.
by api 12y ago
Real companies won't want a bunch of gnats on their cap tables, but scams won't care. Honestly the fact that this still makes it hard for legitimate companies to raise from the public means that the likelihood of the public be
13895.
by api 12y ago
Ouch.
13896.
by api 12y ago
There's a difference between defending yourself and offensive war.
13897.
by api 12y ago
I do to some extent. Class mobility at the highest echelons -- say hundred-thousandaires to millionaires or billionaires -- helps class mobility overall by introducing new ideas and by enriching people who still remember what it was like to
13898.
by api 12y ago
Without the government it would be a hodgepodge of walled gardens based on different protocols and standards with everyone trying to make a 'platform play' to lock it down... exactly like what you see today with OSes. You'd a
13899.
by api 12y ago
Yeah my terminology is probably off, but I think the ideas are fairly sound.
13900.
by api 12y ago
I also don't understand why things like homosexuality are orders of magnitude more important than all the other sins named in the Bible -- and often far more clearly and unambiguously. You don't see Christians protesting outside c
13901.
by api 12y ago
No, and I meant relatively speaking compared to other mechanisms. Startups mint new money rather than enrich old money, and they create high paying jobs.
13902.
by api 12y ago
You can certainly botch entrepreneurship with business-unfriendly policies, but they are not the ones right wingers always harp on about. High-ish taxes are okay as long as they are not punitively high. Regulations are okay as long as they
13903.
by api 12y ago
No they aren't -- not nationwide. Americans in most of the country are no more entrepreneurial than Europeans. Americans in a few cities and regions are very entrepreneurial. These are not necessarily the cities and regions with the lo
13904.
by api 12y ago
Great point. Startups are one of the only mechanisms doing that in our contemporary financial pyramid economy. They are one of the only true class mobility engines left.
13905.
by api 12y ago
Yeah. Any boring money printing machine has to offer fatter salaries to attract talent because there is no other intrinsic appeal. Finance is just a particularly big one. I might also add government, though you want to avoid lower-level con
13906.
by api 12y ago
You're right, and I hit on that at the end. Problem is twofold: (1) You get the most by being a very early employee -- like #1 - #5. It's a hockey stick distribution here. The later you get in, the exponentially lower your stake
13907.
by api 12y ago
On the coding front, I'm considering learning Go. Otherwise I am looking at something soon where I'm going to need to learn better management, promotion, networking, and general people skills (in a biz context). I'm a "j
13908.
by api 12y ago
Yes, in a few ways I am familiar with: (1) Finance. They make so much "free" money that they can afford to just pay massive salaries and not blink. You just have to be okay with doing things that basically add no value to anything
13909.
Famed San Francisco toy store to close after rent is raised to $40,000/month(sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)
6 points by api 12y ago|0 comments
13910.
by api 12y ago
> The article is trying to implicate old rich men in wheelchairs In other countries we call such individuals 'oligarchs.' They probably are not involved much in the day-to-day nuts-and-bolts operation of these programs, but I&#
13911.
by api 12y ago
While that list is valuable, it's only telling us who is implementing and operating these programs. That's like implicating Smith&Wesson in a murder. Yes, it was done with a Smith&Wesson gun, but who was holding it? Wh
13912.
by api 12y ago
One thing I've learned by being a "smart person" is that intelligence is not everything. I do not believe that high intelligence or even super-intelligence would automatically yield power, wealth, influence, or anything else
13913.
by api 12y ago
This is a big topic, and there's a lot to unpack. I agree with some of what you say, and that's partly why I am not dismissing dangers associated with AI. I just don't think it ranks as something to lose sleep over compared
13914.
by api 12y ago
I live around tons of people with wildly varying value systems, and very few people hurt each other. Differing value systems do not guarantee conflict, especially if there are common interests and economic interdependence. Common value syst
13915.
by api 12y ago
Java comes to mind. It's almost an OS, and easily could be with some additional parts bolted into the JVM. Very popular.
13916.
by api 12y ago
I'm the author. IMHO that post is not fully baked, but I figured I'd share it anyway. I think the best part is actually the argument against "exploding" AI and runaway self-improvement. If I had the time I'd give
13917.
On the Imminence and Danger of AI(adamierymenko.com)
2 points by api 12y ago|1 comments
13918.
by api 12y ago
That's basically the sort of thing I was getting at: that motives are by no means straightforwardly rational among humans, let alone aliens. Your point about extremely long-sighted competition is interesting though, and might be a rati
13919.
by api 12y ago
"This rendering—the unknowable future that eats the present—may resonate more with an anxiety endemic to capitalist societies; as we will see, it is a characteristic nightmare of the capital-accumulating class. Capital always has one f
13920.
by api 12y ago
"What's good for GM is good for America" used to be a quote around Washington. What an awful company, and a cautionary tale about taking "public/private partnership" way too far. GM also ruined Los Angeles -- l

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