dougmccune

8 ms·

31.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Right, sorry for the confusion. I was responding to two separate items in the question. One was the price, the other was the age of the article. I thought the question was clearly asking about both. Question 1: is $40 fair? Question 2: is t
32.
by dougmccune 8y ago
I assume the price is probably too high, but for $50/month you can essentially get access to a Netflix for articles, called DeepDyve[1]. It's certainly not complete in that they don't have agreements with every publisher on t
33.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Yes, at the core of the problem is how we measure good science. If you want to try to crack that nut I absolutely salute you. Improvements here could pay massive positive dividends for society as a whole. Meta[1], which was bought by Chan Z
34.
by dougmccune 8y ago
This is true. Someone else in this thread posted the long-form article about the history of Robert Maxwell, which is absolutely worth the read. I'm definitely not of the opinion that the existing publishing system is the only way (or t
35.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Totally fair. You can definitely take the stance that without knowing what a substitute is for publishers it's still worth trying to destroy them, and have faith that something will rise up to fill the void. My argument would be that y
36.
by dougmccune 8y ago
I didn't mean engage with the publishers to work together with them. I meant engage in the conversation to really understand why changing the behavior of academics is so hard, so that you can be more effective at doing whatever you are
37.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Some folks are trying to do this. The Conversation [1] is meant to be a bridge between academic research and layman's news stories about that research. And Kudos[2] is trying to encourage academics to write more layman-focused summarie
38.
by dougmccune 8y ago
I agree with you and particularly with the funding agencies being the most effective catalysts for change. The good news is that it's working. STM publishing is moving toward open access, the momentum continues to build (most recently
39.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Not sure if you're asking about the role that academic journals play in general, or about what specific actions publishers do. Journals in general serve to curate an ever-increasing body of research and provide a crude method of gaugin
40.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Nope. I'd be in favor of shorter copyright terms in general. The truth about $40 prices are that they aren't intended really to be the fair price of a good. They're there simply to allow the subscription business model to wor
41.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Sure, I wasn't saying it's not possible to disrupt publishers, and I'm not discouraging anyone from trying. I'm simply saying that to do so you're absolutely going to have to understand what makes the industry work
42.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Academic publishing is a favorite recurring topic on HN, and it's one I've occasionally dipped into discussing, although these discussions are typically 99% one-sided and void of nuance or reasoned arguments. It's like discus
43.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Isn’t it pretty simple to just say that Page and Brin shouldn’t have ever dated anyone in the entire organization?
44.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Totally fair, but then what use is the data? If we have totally different digestive reactions / problems, then can you really tell much of anything from the microbiome data?
45.
by dougmccune 8y ago
My wife and I both got kits (reasonably quickly shipped) and got our results, also reasonably quickly (within a few weeks of sending them back if I recall). But the results were almost identical between us, even though we have very differen
46.
by dougmccune 8y ago
They used to do it and made an intentional decision to stop. They say it’s because it was costly. You come along and say they’re lying (meanwhile acknowledging the testing burden). I don’t get it. You think this non-profit, dedicated to the
47.
by dougmccune 8y ago
We legalized all cannibis products this year in CA. So no need for a card, and in the Bay Area delivery services will show up faster than Ubers.
48.
by dougmccune 8y ago
So you actively seek out and work for companies that you believe are most likely pure scams? I don't mean this to come off as too judgmental, I'm honestly curious what your take on it is. Does the fact that you know your client is
49.
by dougmccune 8y ago
One thing to keep in mind is that none of this, even when it comes to Elsevier, is black and white. Yes, Elsevier has been one of the staunchest opponents of the move to Open Access. And yet simultaneously, Elsevier has made one of the most
50.
by dougmccune 8y ago
Just one note regarding insurance and cost. I think the number of therapists that are covered under insurance plans varies dramatically region to region. The bay area, as an example, seems to have an incredibly small number of therapists th
51.
by dougmccune 8y ago
There’s a certain empathy that is hard to have unless you’ve gone through it. People without kids have a tendency to underestimate both how challenging child rearing can be and also how totally different kids can be. That ends up with peopl
52.
by dougmccune 8y ago
I'd say ignore most advice from people you do know too. Especially anyone who doesn't have kids, or only has one kid. There are definitely good tips to take from parents or books -- the stuff from happiest baby on the block (swadd
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by dougmccune 8y ago
A huge amount of Mapbox's tech is open source, including the entirety of their WebGL rendering engine. They rely heavily on OpenStreetMap, which is all open data.
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by dougmccune 8y ago
I can at least verify that I had an incredibly bad sleeper for my second child and had she been a good sleeper we would have had a third kid, but after that experience we’re definitely done. Yes, memories fade, but a kid who wakes up every
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by dougmccune 8y ago
I honestly don't know. I can see arguments in both directions, maybe more building makes everything more affordable and my property becomes worth "less" or maybe it results in nothing but expensive condos and my fancy neighbo
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by dougmccune 8y ago
I literally said I support rezoning my block and support someone building a 4-6 story building next to my house.
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by dougmccune 8y ago
Yes
58.
by dougmccune 8y ago
I live in Oakland, in an expensive neighborhood near BART full of single family homes, and very much support rezoning my neighborhood to allow for 4-6 story buildings, and would take those buildings on my own block. No, I am not willing to
59.
by dougmccune 8y ago
A few years ago my wife (a psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy) and I (programmer) collaborated on an article about CBT: http://cbtsanfrancisco.com/cbt-is-for-hackers/ CBT matches a software devel
60.
by dougmccune 9y ago
I've heard this one before when discussing a non profit that was thinking of shopping itself around for an acquisition: "I thought they were not-for-profit?" ... "Well, yeah, but they're also not-for-going-out-of-bu

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