lsc

124 ms·

961.
by lsc 9y ago
Materialism is well-defined and means something in philosophy[1] - if you are using it in the sense of "greed" well, that's a different sort of thing entirely. My own experiences and assumptions all point to 'diminish
962.
by lsc 9y ago
I suppose it would be... difficult for me to see anything except through the lens of materialism. But I think that's true of most people; the number of people who don't see the world in a fundamentally physicalist way is... shri
963.
by lsc 9y ago
You are missing what i mean by being a violence based economy. Of course, you can't have property without violence. I'm not even saying that the dark ages were more violent than other ages. (I think they might have been, but it
964.
by lsc 9y ago
>Also, the young ones have less opportunity costs. Failure is comparatively cheaper for them. People keep saying this, and it's simply not true. I spent about a decade on my company, give or take, getting serious-ish when I was 25 o
965.
by lsc 9y ago
My observation, at least at my level, is that the engineers who do best get seats on rocket ships that have already made it to orbit. Established companies give out bonuses on good years that look like the payouts I've seen engineers
966.
by lsc 9y ago
>Most history professors I've known refer to the dark ages as the "so-called dark ages" because that time period served as proof-positive that you can have civilized society without the state. Eh... there was a state, it w
967.
by lsc 9y ago
True, but that quote is often used by all who oppose the anarchists; all who believe that in order to have civilization, we have to give up some rights. I have noticed an uptick in the number of ideological anarchists lately, though, both
968.
by lsc 9y ago
Things like this make me wonder if I just have an extreme lack of... grit, or tolerance for risking other people's lives or something. I mean, the idea of spending an hour and a half a day driving, experimentally, means I break after
969.
by lsc 9y ago
Isn't this what semiotics[1] is all about? The difference between connotations and denotations? My parents were really into that sort of thing "Words have power" - So during my 'bratty teenager' phase, I standardi
970.
by lsc 9y ago
eh, I think the fundamental bit is that teaching is still skilled labor done by humans; we try to automate and scale it, but then it... kind of becomes a different thing. MOOCs are great; I love Khan Academy; but it's not college.
971.
by lsc 9y ago
I think the "life altering changes" required to attend a university for four years are... a big part of the point of going. I think the cost, well, if that is worth it depends largely on what you value and the marginal value of yo
972.
by lsc 9y ago
>Our office cleaner is a recent IT graduate. Dirty secret about the "IT" degrees. I know managers with MIS, CIS, CIT, and similar degrees, but I don't know anyone who got such a degree before they had a solid IT job, who
973.
by lsc 9y ago
People giving up is a different problem. If you have looked for work and determined there is nothing for you out there, it's rational to re-evaluate this periodically, no? If you can't get on the computer once a month, spend som
974.
by lsc 9y ago
>Such as tuition and administrative budgets and endowments ballooning while teacher salaries stay flat? Is that what is happening? I honestly don't know, but I thought increased tuition was mostly a matter of government cutting su
975.
by lsc 9y ago
>Some of these schools are teaching things on the cutting edge, but how much of that applies to undergraduate degrees? Most of what you get taught there has been the same for decades if not centuries. eh, I think there's a lot to be
976.
by lsc 9y ago
Interesting, because yeah, I think people who fall out of the workforce should often be considered a social or psychological problem rather than an economic problem. You are 'unemployed' if you have looked for work in the last mon
977.
by lsc 9y ago
maybe? Like I said, sometimes there are inefficiencies. Still, if you want good teachers, you are gonna have a hard time achieving that goal if you don't pay them enough that they don't need another job. Compared to a silicon va
978.
by lsc 9y ago
>Sure, college is a worthwhile investment if you are allowed to attend Stanford or Berkeley-caliber institutions. The vast majority of Americans do not have that opportunity. Don't I know it. I'm trying to get in now, and even
979.
by lsc 9y ago
If you are paying 50% of your income as taxes in the US, you are making enough money that you shouldn't be complaining about college being expensive. And... there's a weird hump, because capital gains are taxed at a much lower rat
980.
by lsc 9y ago
I'm not saying that MOOCS aren't valuable; they certainly are, but they aren't college. You don't get the socialization, among other things. This is super obvious to me, as someone without an education who works wit
981.
by lsc 9y ago
we still have these, and they are often short term. I think in the trades, 2 to 4 years is traditional; 'internships' which is what we call the same thing in the tech industry, tend to be 3 months to a year. I have no colleg
982.
by lsc 9y ago
I'm not saying anyone should go to the university of phoenix; there are better publicly subsidized options out today, but I do know a handful of people who were partly educated there, who did just fine.
983.
by lsc 9y ago
do you see the conflict inherent in arguing both that you want to spend less money on a good and that you want the people providing that good to be more skilled? I mean, it's natural to want both of those things, and sometimes, there&#
984.
by lsc 9y ago
I disagree... I think that the current wave of Anti-intellectualism is entirely political. the current unemployment rate is under 5%
985.
by lsc 9y ago
Unemployment is at record lows. Where are you getting that people aren't getting jobs?
986.
by lsc 9y ago
See, while I can see how college could be unaffordable for the poor, I don't think it is particularly expensive, for what you get. Hell, paying full freight at Stanford is only two teslas for your undergrad, and that degree is going
987.
by lsc 9y ago
The biggest difference is not in how the FTEs treat you; I've never had a contract gig where I was treated badly enough to really care. The big difference is the prestige. Getting a FTE job at one of the top tier silicon valley co
988.
by lsc 9y ago
That would put your $90/hr contractor at $162K full time salary; and for base, sure. Base-wise, I'd expect a $90/hr contractor to come out closer to $150K if they converted to full time. But bonus and stock often make up
989.
by lsc 9y ago
> I hire contractors. I don't have time for people to ramp up on the job. I need them to come in knowing the stack we are working in. Employers can bluster all they want; in the end, either they need to be happy hiring someone will
990.
by lsc 9y ago
I shouldn't say your dog isn't valuable, but I must insist that the human worker is more valuable than the dog. I do think it is fundamental that an injured worker who was injured on the job is the employers financial responsibili

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