asdflkj

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151.
by asdflkj 18y ago
I met a guy one time who did what he loved for most of his life--he played the piano. Despite practicing for 8 hours a day for years, he still wasn't good enough to be a professional performer. (His situation is not uncommon, apparently). N
152.
by asdflkj 18y ago
Actually, they believe strongly in black/white and right/wrong in Russia, but within a tighter social circle. This difference between Russia and the West is of degree, not of kind. Most Americans care little about how their actions affect p
153.
by asdflkj 18y ago
What is this "bigger picture"? So far you've offered a smaller picture, by telling us what should not be learned. What should be learned instead?
154.
by asdflkj 18y ago
The pathos is there, but it's a terrible, jumbled metaphor. The problem of the fish, or at least the persona he projected on it, is not that it was humbled by its own limited ability to understand. It was precisely the opposite: the world w
155.
by asdflkj 18y ago
This is the sort of thing you'd see on early reddit, and I wish there was more of it. I'd guess that half of you think this is "not hacker news", or not appropriate, or whatever--so I wonder where this would be appropriate. Anyone know?
156.
by asdflkj 18y ago
Defense spending has increased (not really doubled, though, according to those numbers), but much of that increase was poured down the drain actually making the war happen. Defense contractors' profits probably don't scale linearly with def
157.
by asdflkj 18y ago
The way to have ideas is to understand the field really well. That sounds kind of banal, but I haven't seen anyone approach startups this way explicitly. So, I would study history of technology and of money, and especially recent history of
158.
by asdflkj 18y ago
"It's also the internet, take the joke, it's not serious business." That looks like a non sequitur to me. If it's a joke and not "serious business", fine. Same might be said of a person yelling profanities at you on the street. But what doe
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by asdflkj 18y ago
All the more pathetic in light of this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66842
160.
by asdflkj 18y ago
What you call "the high road" is actually the low road, because it involves telling other people how to live. It's an enormous privilege to live in a time and a place where you can get ahead without imposing on other people. If I found myse
161.
by asdflkj 18y ago
If you were an AAPL shareholder, nobody would be holding a gun to your head and preventing you from selling your AAPL stock.
162.
by asdflkj 18y ago
I meant a society, not the society. I should have used a different word. The things you've listed are all-male for traditional reasons. If someone were to start an all-male group now (like, say, an all-male mentoring group), it would ge
163.
by asdflkj 18y ago
PG's actions imply that it's okay to discriminate on the basis of intelligence and ability. Here we probably all agree. This woman's actions imply that it's okay to discriminate on the basis of gender. If you don't have a problem with it, t
164.
by asdflkj 18y ago
It's an instance of a more general pattern: your rational mind is superseded by another, more primitive part of you, which really only understands one type of "argument"--Pavlovian conditioning. A lot of things started to make sense when I
165.
by asdflkj 18y ago
Not always accidental, apparently. Wikipedia has references.
166.
by asdflkj 18y ago
Can you say how much money? When they were just starting, I remember thinking, "How narrow and trivial. Do they honestly expect to make money?". I'm looking to make this lesson even more potent.
167.
by asdflkj 18y ago
A telltale sign to me that a person is slimy is if he uses the phrase "build character". Funny--I had never been aware of this until now.
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by asdflkj 18y ago
Infanticide for "economic" reasons is an evolutionary adaptation common in many mammals, including humans, including in rich societies. In the US, it usually gets classified as SIDS. I'm yet to see a convincing argument for why it's unethic
169.
by asdflkj 18y ago
Can you give an example of startup that would benefit by solving problems that are trivial to the really smart people? I can't think of one. All good technology that's designed to be suitable to "dumb" people is equally suitable to smart pe
170.
by asdflkj 18y ago
How can a non-scientist better understand science? Do you know of any good books?
171.
by asdflkj 18y ago
What is the difference between creating wealth and having "good effects on the world"? Wealth is what people want, and people want good effects on the world, presumably. While we're on the subject: one thing has always bothered me about tha
172.
by asdflkj 18y ago
HN would be a lot better if people didn't high-five each other so much over how great this community is and how much everyone else sucks.
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by asdflkj 18y ago
And Alloway of Motte & Bailey says he’s able to outwit the megalisters’ computers, provoking price wars and then buying up books at below market value, holding them until prices readjust. And yet in the mind of most people, small and
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by asdflkj 18y ago
On that note--does anyone know where to find basic information on nutrition that's not full of bullshit?
175.
by asdflkj 18y ago
There are two entire sentences there that could be thrown out without any change in meaning.
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by asdflkj 18y ago
Most people care about the label on their clothing, and for good reason. Certain brands advertise you as an idiot, and as "one of us" to a particular type of idiots.
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by asdflkj 18y ago
It's easy to find any set of facts to accommodate any simple theory, if the implications of it don't have any effect on your life. Most otherwise reasonable Russians also believe things about America that are just ridiculous. I'd ask you wh
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by asdflkj 18y ago
I don't know, to be honest. My knowledge of the 90s is first-hand, and of today--reliable second-hand. I have relatives there. After my experience with Russia and Western media's version of Russia, I had been wondering how to get reliable i
179.
by asdflkj 18y ago
Your simplistic view of Russia is what happens when you learn some select facts and plug them into a formula that's designed to accommodate Western societies. If every fact you know about Russia (assuming even that your facts are accurate,
180.
by asdflkj 18y ago
"What philosophy books would you recommend? I can't think of any I'd recommend. What I learned from trying to study philosophy is that the place to look is in other fields." http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html

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