mikegagnon

7 ms·

1.
by mikegagnon 13y ago
The problem with the world isn't too many physical credit cards. It's too many lines of credit.
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Perhaps http://www.madinamerica.com/2012/02/why-anti-authoritarians-...
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I find the scheme abominable because corporations are attempting to mold the unconscious minds of elementary school students to morally support specific political policies (viz. copyright). And they're using public education as the dis
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Yes, that lesson plan is outrageous. But no, it's not outrageous that lessons plans exist and are shared in general.
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
"Brainwashing" isn't a precisely defined word. I believe the word is often used to describe persuasion via psychological vulnerabilities. In this sense, the article is correct in calling the technique a form of brainwashing.
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Corollary: sales techniques are often a form of brainwashing. I mean this seriously.
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
> It seems like you're implying that these non-profit founders put a lot of weight in salary as a consideration to whether or not they pursue their vision. I was implicitly assuming founders of non-profits care about salary. I think
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
You are right; I should have said "there is less __financial__ incentive"
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I think you misunderstood my point. I agree with you that a "non-profit does not have to be equated with near-zero-salary for employees." My only point is that while there is a __financial__ incentive for for-profit founders to es
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
thanks
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I agree it could add a lot of value. I am skeptical that the financial contribution will be significant.
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I am very excited for this initiative. However, I think there is a mismatch between venture-funding models and non-profit funding models. Venture capital economics is premised on founders accepting low initial salaries based on the hope for
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Yes. According to Reuters: "The New York Times and ProPublica said they were asked not to publish their findings by intelligence officials who argued that their foreign targets might switch to newer forms of encryption or communication
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Just because a theory is unfalsifiable does not mean that it's not true. It just means that science and logic are insufficient to refute or confirm the theory. Where science and logic are not capable of shining a light on reality, we c
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
> "Although we can think of reality as objective, there are some special cases that prove it's nothing of the kind." This paradox does not say anything about the objectiveness of reality. Rather it just points out an inter
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
> I love this blog's UI. Did you make it yourself? Thank you! Yes, I made the UI. It's open source: sidenote.io > I like the idea of the doorman but what if you could somehow pass back useful math to the client? I think it w
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
That post is a great, poetic allegory. But ultimately, I think the analogy presents a bad idea. The allegory makes the point that we could entirely avoid OOM errors by engineering a system such that resources are never overcommitted. This i
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I find it beautiful that people could come together --- even for a pointless cause. And I find it tragic that their overzealous response led to the failure of their objective. Even though the game was "pointless" (aren't all
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
"Instead of paying taxes in money, every Incan was required to provide labor to the state. In exchange for this labor, they were given the necessities of life. Of course, not everybody had to pay labor tax. Nobles and their courts were
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
> Are people honestly still proud to be American when things like this come to light? Humans have an amazing capacity to hold contradictory views. > Why would you want to continue to live in a country that seems to make things like th
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I don't know for a fact that Alexander is a good person. I just assume he is because I assume people are good in general, and, pragmatically, that assumption leads to more fruitful debates. People lie all the time, to themselves and to
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Exactly. I believe Gen. Keith Alexander (and the others who espouse that idea) have been seduced into believing in benevolent dictatorship. That's not how democracy works though. Fundamentally, democracy is premised on mistrust in auth
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I just read a review for "The Free Press." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/opinion/18tue4.html To me it seems like they share some commonalities, but also have significant differences. Belloc
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I think the author's most important point is that she sees the NSA Director as a "good man," even though she considers his activities to be criminal and a threat to democracy. I agree with her. I think it is important to real
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Exactly. The biggest threat from surveillance and censorship isn't the imposition on average citizens. Rather, the risk is that surveillance, censorship, intimidation, selective law enforcement, and so on are targeted at specific polit
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
I am surprised the author did not discuss Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model I believe it accurately predicts mass media's biases in this situation. The propa
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Whenever possible I avoid using Java libraries in Scala. Scala and Java have very different programming styles, which are codified in the APIs for libraries. You lose the benefit of Scala style when you are forced to program against a Java
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
sbt + sublime is certainly sufficient. I program in Scala all day long. I know many developers use the IntelliJ IDE.
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
Wow. That message is stunning propaganda. Sure, I could give someone a dollar and that person could use it to buy a small portion of their last hit of heroin which finally ends up killing that person. This message is saying that I am respon
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by mikegagnon 13y ago
> "Money doesn't come only from taxes, it can also come from printing." If the government printed money and gave it directly to the impoverished it would be equivalent to a tax on everyone else (and the wealthy would exper

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