beat

48 ms·

541.
by beat 7y ago
I read Digital Minimalism back in February, and did a cleanse in March per his recommendations. One thing I noticed... I normally keep track of books I've read. I jumped from reading two books a month to reading six. Was I seriously
542.
by beat 7y ago
You're making excuses in order to ignore my data. I've presented both current growth rates and long-term per capita growth for periods of over 50 years. You're just lying to yourself in order to avoid acknowledging that forme
543.
by beat 7y ago
No, I understand what you're weighing, but you're still weighing it wrong. You're looking at individual deaths. What is the maximum number of deaths/injuries that can be caused by a solar power accident? Two, maybe? No
544.
by beat 7y ago
If you read Factfulness , you'll find that it's not a strange way to engage at all. One thing Hans Rosling proved and taught is that even well-educated, caring, attentive people are incredibly wrong about simple facts about globa
545.
by beat 7y ago
I would argue that, at the moment, economic development of former colonies is happening considerably faster than development in the former colonizers. And the evidence agrees with me. Take China, for example. Per capita income there has g
546.
by beat 7y ago
What makes you think the gap is compounding? Is that fact-based, or feelings-based? I'd recommend reading Factfulness , by Hans Rosling. It'll cause you to rethink some things. edit: Here's an interesting fact for you. In th
547.
by beat 7y ago
I dunno. What do you think is stopping them? My home state of Minnesota jokes about mosquitoes being our state bird, but I have zero risk of catching malaria from them. That's because malaria isn't carried by our native mosquito
548.
by beat 7y ago
They're both important. The question is, which is more important? Well, what are we measuring? Success in goals. And which is more likely to achieve goals... good writing with poor sales, or good sales with poor writing? I'd argue
549.
by beat 7y ago
Let's put it in concrete terms. I'm going to toss a coin, you call it. If you win, you get $5. If you lose, you pay me $1. You probably do it, right? Next scenario. I'm going to roll a 100-sided die. If it comes up one, I&#x2
550.
by beat 7y ago
Ugh. In that case, you should move to someplace that values those skills.
551.
by beat 7y ago
It circles back to my point, though. It doesn't apply to them because they don't try to sell their own ideas. If more engineers took the reins of their own work, I think they'd be happier and more successful.
552.
by beat 7y ago
All sorts of accidents are expected. We take them into account. For example, if you operate a large data center, you simply assume that a certain number of drives and motherboards will fail, and build it into the plan. No one planned for Fu
553.
by beat 7y ago
When's the last time a new plant got built in the US? What's the construction rate for new plants, even in less regulated and more centrally controlled nations like Russia and China? Economics is very powerful.
554.
by beat 7y ago
Most programmers simply do the tasks assigned to them, because most programmers don't know how to sell! If you can sell , then you get to decide what you should be working on, convince your manager (and team leads, and other manager
555.
by beat 7y ago
Start with How to Win Friends and Influence People , by Dale Carnegie. Ignore the cheesy-sounding title; this book was written in the 1930s and has been in print continuously ever since, which speaks to its effectiveness. I also recommend
556.
by beat 7y ago
And as a follow-on comment rather than an edit... There's nothing smarmy or dishonest about sales. Misleading sales is bad sales. The best salespeople are focused on fulfilling the customer's needs, not selling the product. The pr
557.
by beat 7y ago
I used to be a huge proponent of learning to write well as the most important skill an engineer can learn. Now, I think it's the second most important skill. The most important skill is sales . The key value of writing well, in a work
558.
by beat 7y ago
Then you don't understand risk. There is no case in which the failure of a wind farm could cause death or injury to millions of people at once. The whole "safety" argument of solar is buried in flat-out bullshit analysis abou
559.
by beat 7y ago
The whole article reeks of politicized shaming of those stupid treehuggers falling for the lies of corrupt Hollywood. Sigh. Meanwhile, out in the real world, the arguments for nuclear power are rapidly fading - on economic grounds, not safe
560.
by beat 7y ago
Talking about risk mitigation in hindsight as unnecessary is a very bad view of risk management, especially for someone who is supposedly an expert at it. You don't do risk mitigation because things will go badly, you do it because i
561.
by beat 7y ago
How it could have been worse, and why. The layer after layer of lies and coverups going on within the Soviet government are very much at odds with the heroism of those actually on the ground. Kinda like working IT in a big American corporat
562.
by beat 7y ago
The RBMK design was very safe, too. And it exploded due to a combination of design flaw and dangerous operation. Sure, the rest of them were fixed after that, but. Fukushima was a very safe design, too, and well regulated. Three Mile Island
563.
by beat 7y ago
Belief that the poor nations of Africa and Asia and the rest of the "third world" are simply doomed to poverty and suffering is widespread, even among educated and sensitive people. That's why I always make a point of showing
564.
by beat 7y ago
Please, never say "safer than solar". Even if technically correct from a certain perspective, it sounds like an "argue to win" point, and just alienates the very people you want to win to your side - environmentally-mind
565.
by beat 7y ago
I don't see it as a problem, myself. Children have gone from economic boon (more child labor to help the family) to economic expense. It makes more sense to parents to have one or two kids and pour resources into them, rather than havi
566.
by beat 7y ago
Ok, for sake of argument, I'll give you that, although the UN disagrees - they expect the number of babies born per year to be about the same 100 years from now as it is today. Looking into this more, I got some UN statistics on histor
567.
by beat 7y ago
Yes. Desperately poor ones. And most of them are improving, rapidly. The process takes a couple of generations, once it gets rolling. Take Egypt, for example. Its birth rate is currently 3.26, which is "high". but That's down
568.
by beat 7y ago
I don't think a 4 unit townhome is practical on these small lots with alley garages. Townhome construction around here is a burbs thing, and done in large clumps of 2-10 city blocks or so of area (and which tend to be singularly unattr
569.
by beat 7y ago
What does "NIMBY" mean in these contexts, though? I think this is more handwaving. I live in a city that is taking active steps to increase its density and affordability ( https://minneapolis2040.com/ ). This direct
570.
by beat 7y ago
No what? Are you disputing any of the facts stated here? I'll give you my reference... Factfulness , by Hans Rosling. If you seriously intend to disagree, cite sources. If you're just saying no to something that is a demonstrably

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