api

1361 ms·

1. 15601.▲
   by api 13y ago

   Well, I can say that if Osama bin Laden "hated our freedom," then... well... 9/11 worked, and he won.
2. 15602.▲
   by api 13y ago

   Oh they're sending a message alright. I'm just not sure it's the message they want to send.
3. 15603.▲
   by api 13y ago

   Same exact thing here. Overall the experience was okay, but I ended up getting mixed signals at the end. Yes? No? Huh? Was never asked about GPA. I have no idea why the "no" in committee, but I get the impression that they approve
4. 15604.▲
   by api 13y ago

   My point was that the job was demonstrably unnecessary. I have seen, from an outside vantage point, entire departments that are wholly unnecessary doing nothing but creating work for other wholly unnecessary departments.
5. 15605.▲
   by api 13y ago

   I think there's a degree of truth in that, especially in very bureaucratic organizations, but I think it's orthogonal to this discussion. I did a stint in business consulting and rubbed elbows with a lot of certified 100% grade-A
6. 15606.▲
   by api 13y ago

   You just described in a nutshell why it's usually governments that make big infrastructure-scale and basic research investments. Governments either don't care about ROI at all and are motivated by other factors (war, national secu
7. 15607.▲
   by api 13y ago

   I get the impression that investment banking culture is biased against that in the sense that it does not hire polymath geek types. It hires suits with finance degrees, or people who have a demonstrated record building businesses. Since we
8. 15608.▲
   by api 13y ago

   > "Never invest in a business you cannot understand." Which suggests a #10 on the OP's list: investors don't understand technology very deeply or widely. The last boom was the web, so we have an over-population of inv
9. 15609.▲
   by api 13y ago

   That's true. I've been in meaningless make-work jobs before, jobs where I could literally goof off 90% of the time. I left. A lot of people might think "wow! awesome!" It's not. It's soul-crushing and unbelieva
10. 15610.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Great job mentioning Skinner boxes. I think this might be another dimension to this pathology: to what extent is our economy a Skinner box? And you're technically right about classical Puritans. They would regard a lot of what we &quot
11. 15611.▲
    by api 13y ago

    I agree with the last point. Even if GMO foods are overhyped and not all they're cracked up to be, many of their opponents are fanatics not worth listening to either.
12. 15612.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Borlaug's rebuttal definitely applies to some anti-GMO activists, who can easily be described as privileged Western elites engaging in fashionable protest. At the same time, there are some long-term criticisms that are not mentioned he
13. 15613.▲
    by api 13y ago

    > Let's adopt GMOs! It's from the guys that brought us Thalidomide! This is IMHO a really major reason for opposition to GMOs: people do not trust the "establishment" in general anymore. I actually hear someone say on
14. 15614.▲
    by api 13y ago

    It is within mature markets. It is orders of magnitude more difficult for an American firm -- especially a small one -- to market in South America or Asia due to language and culture barriers.
15. 15615.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Shut down the site. You win.
16. 15616.▲
    by api 13y ago

    "Silicon Valley" (as a euphamism for our industry) has a chance to lead the culture here, and also to respond to an emerging criticism of itself in a way that is socially positive. I'm seeing more and more articles to the eff
17. 15617.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Bullshit jobs certainly exist, and in great numbers. The proof is in the fact that many of the people who "do" these jobs actually goof off a significant part of their working day and yet things still march on as if nothing is dif
18. 15618.▲
    by api 13y ago

    I think you are largely correct: it's an emergent pathology. Complex systems are full of those. But that doesn't answer the question as to why we never read articles like this. Why doesn't anyone ask this question? So I also
19. 15619.▲
    by api 13y ago

    I've gotten into so many flame wars over GMO by taking a side that is sympathetic to anti-GMO activists. I have a degree in biology. I'm sympathetic to the activists even though I do not agree scientifically with many of their c
20. 15620.▲
    by api 13y ago

    HN is a smart bunch, so I'm going to ask: Why do people think the security state is being rammed through with such a sense of urgency right now? Are they expecting something? A war? An economic crisis? Ecological meltdown? Invasion fro
21. 15621.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Part of the problem is that it's immensely difficult to do science with people. The hardest of the social sciences will create experiments where they try to study a single variable, like a person's reaction to a specific set of st
22. 15622.▲
    by api 13y ago

    I was talking about an idea more than a place, and should have made that clear. The places where innovation comes from are going to be places that believe in the future, are open to experimentation and risk, and reason from first principles
23. 15623.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Take a look. Silicon Valley real estate prices are unhinged. I mean like frothing at the mouth, must be restrained or else he'll bite his tongue off crazy. Manhattan is similar to SV, but the thing is this: it is possible in New York
24. 15624.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Reality distortion fields don't emit actual products that work. It's a field alright, and it does have some reality-distorting side effects, but there is actually a "there" there. If I had to boil it down I'd say it
25. 15625.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Just wanted to say one more thing: I've heard some Googlers say this is accurate, and I've heard some say 20% time is alive and well. Google is gigantic these days. It probably depends a lot on where you are in the company. Two pe
26. 15626.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Nothing. It was great, and the profs were excellent. But it's not on the coasts so it might as well be from somewhere that ends in -stan. :)
27. 15627.▲
    by api 13y ago

    "Or to put it another way: "You can't cost cut your way to a growing company"." "For the engine which drives Enterprise is not Thrift, but Profit." - John Maynard Keynes
28. 15628.▲
    by api 13y ago

    SV technorati pretentiousness is indeed awful sometimes, and stereotypical MBAs do not have a monopoly on brain-dead business ideas. But last I checked SV and California in general pumped out more innovation than the rest of the country com
29. 15629.▲
    by api 13y ago

    True to some extent, but over time fields with deeply perverse incentives end up driving away smart people. Smart people see perverse incentives and think "that field would suck," and run away. Large sums of money can draw them in
30. 15630.▲
    by api 13y ago

    Me too. My productivity curve looks very rocky, with very tall spikes -- huge amounts of very hard stuff done in hours -- and days where nothing happens. There seems to be a longer-duration cycle too. I have super-productive weeks and ho-