kimdouglasmason

8 ms·

31.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I wish people would stop saying that currencies are based on consensus. They are not. If you live in any country (say the US), and engage in economic activity, and never acquire the local currency, you WILL go to jail for tax evasion. At so
32.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
There is a major difference, which is that genetic correlations can be tested for, and a strong one can indicate that frequent testing is needed, catching cancers earlier when they're more treatable. For many cancers, catching them ear
33.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Being willing to work for low payoff seems to be one decisive trait. If you're willing to work for low payoff, people often want to take advantage of you. Being a sucker also seems to matter more than raw intelligence, and betting on s
34.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
From the article: "That shit would be too much," Gupta said. "It'd be like that Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears A Who and shit. I read that when I was, like, six, and it totally weirded me out." Nailed it.
35.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
From the article: "400 septillion watts per second" ... And the context is talking about solar output, not a rate of change. Sigh.
36.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
So many logical fallacies in a single post. Well done sir. If you substitute 'newcomers' with 'foreigners', and 'Latino' with 'white', your post reads as exactly the same xenophobic screed I've h
37.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I looked at their website. All I can see is a group of moneyed people choosing to live in an unconventional way, in semi-rural environments. For people earning a wage and living in large cities who have no choice but to rent, it's utte
38.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
One thing that gets you less far than sarcasm is condescending pithy platitudes. Edit: Rather than quote meaningless self-help fodder, you could have pointed out that it is difficult to convince people of the benefits of a different approac
39.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
For what it's worth, I'm in a newish (2010) apartment building in Berkeley. It's one of those wood and drywall jobs, and we never hear anything from neighbours except those above us if they drop something or stomp. Perhaps th
40.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Zipcar. CityCarShare. A number of other organizations. Zipcar now have differential pricing (i.e. more expensive on weekends), so a 24 hour rent Mon - Fri is under $100. Expensive, you may say. But... I pay only $70 per year for a full insu
41.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I wish they would just be more honest and state that killing cash would give them: 1. A payment processing oligoply that would persist forever because of regulatory capture and regulatory barriers to entry. 2. A privileged insider position
42.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Certainly a place to watch considering that they're going to run out of ground-water sooner rather than later. I imagine the graph of population will look pretty similar to that of reindeer on St Matthew Island: http://www.g
43.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I am reminded of the efficient market hypothesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis
44.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Many people who have successfully understood Maxwell's equations but were unable to grasp coding would beg to differ. Over and over again on this board I see people underestimating how demonstrably difficult the concepts are for many p
45.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
This is another example of a field where coding is relevant to the job. Many current scientific methods involve heavy use of computers for things like simulation, complex calculation, or control of custom built equipment. I still maintain t
46.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I'm still not convinced by those examples. My reasoning is opportunity cost. If you have to learn to code to write some software, and then write it yourself, you will generally be less efficient at it than contracting someone else to d
47.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
By no means. I believe that having GDP per worker be 4x median wage is socially and politically dangerous, and results in persistent high unemployment because of lack of demand. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. Capital needs a ret
48.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
<sarc>Yeah, writing code all day is so much more fulfilling than being a doctor or a teacher or a plumber or any number of things without which society would fall apart. And people who don't to technical work all have drudge jobs
49.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Well said. Other things that strike me as more important than knowing how to code, which aren't common knowledge: 1. How our political system works. 2. How the economy works: specifically, what money is, where it comes from, how the ba
50.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I didn't mention github, and don't see it as especially relevant. If you are an 'excel jockey', then your job involves coding. Of course knowing how to code to some degree will make you better. I don't see that as a
51.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I explained why comparing coding to literacy in my post is a false equivalence. It's nice to see that you completely ignored that part.
52.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Programmer salaries aren't outrageous. Most peoples' real incomes have declined substantially, making programmer salaries look high. US GDP is $15.68 trillion (2012), with 146 million people employed (April 2014). That's $107
53.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I completely disagree. Having everyone knowing how to code is the opposite of specialisation. It's inefficient and pointless. If a certain profession needs a piece of software, it's much more efficient for specialist developers to
54.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
Most startups fail. Throwing some of the best years of your life away and shirking parental responsibilities for a remote chance of a payoff is simply a dangerous form of gambling. Paul Graham is basically just talking his own book. His mod
55.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
If the moon was orbiting the earth faster than the Earth's rotation, then the effects of tides would increase the Earth's rotation and decrease the moon's orbital velocity. This would result in the moon descending.
56.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
I wonder if the Chinese will charge a few Americans with something in retaliation. Standing on its own, this action is pointless. As part of a larger strategy to provide evidence to justify future tariffs or sanctions, it would make sense.
57.
by kimdouglasmason 12y ago
To me it conveys that they are a group of grognards that can't be bought and never mince words or use euphemisms, even if it upsets people. Precisely want you want for developers of a security library.