nbouscal

21 ms·

181.
by nbouscal 12y ago
A good post on the subject: http://lesswrong.com/lw/iq/guessing_the_teachers_password/
182.
by nbouscal 12y ago
Esperanto isn't in use by the vast majority of the rest of the world. What's with the false equivalences?
183.
by nbouscal 12y ago
If you're going to correct someone, you should do so correctly. You're missing the word "you" in "I hope you won't mind". You're missing the word "I" in "When I read that". It shou
184.
by nbouscal 12y ago
If all you've done is looked at tutorials and glimpsed at a book, I think it's very unlikely that you actually get the advantages or really understand any of the patterns like Monads. Write some code. The only way that you'
185.
by nbouscal 12y ago
Some do, others don't. There is an interesting dichotomy: much of mathematics does appear to be completely dissociated from reality, and yet in the other direction, reality appears to be entirely mathematics. I think to reach a unifica
186.
by nbouscal 12y ago
Point 1 is only true for a proper subset of mathematics. This subset tends to be the only mathematics that are taught in high school (or even in undergrad unless you're a math major), which I think is a huge part of the problem. I can&
187.
by nbouscal 12y ago
> I couldn't be happier with my choices. > I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice. Interestingly enough, the second does not follow from the first. As it turns out, people are different.
188.
Utopian Science(slatestarcodex.com)
3 points by nbouscal 12y ago|0 comments
189.
by nbouscal 12y ago
That's true, and there does seem to be a disproportionate number of Haskell jobs in Singapore, but overall I don't think it has a huge effect.
190.
by nbouscal 12y ago
My point is that "hard to hire" implies more jobs than candidates, whereas "hard to find jobs" implies more candidates than jobs. They can't both be true. You can say things like "there are few candidates"
191.
by nbouscal 12y ago
It is very interesting, because the dominant narrative seems to be both that it's hard to hire for and hard to find jobs in, which can't both be true without massive communication inefficiencies, which I'm fairly sure don&#x2
192.
by nbouscal 12y ago
There seems to be a very common perception that it is hard and expensive to find employees who can be productive in less mainstream languages, but I rarely see evidence to back that up. I can't speak for Greg, but in my experience, hir
193.
The Control Group Is Out of Control(slatestarcodex.com)
179 points by nbouscal 12y ago|74 comments
194.
by nbouscal 12y ago
That still sounds a little weak, but even under that definition, how does Haskell qualify? Do-notation may make things look like statements, but they are still expressions!
195.
by nbouscal 12y ago
I strongly disagree, but am sure that that disagreement comes only from us defining terms differently. If you define the term "imperative" widely enough to include Haskell, what language does it not include?
196.
by nbouscal 12y ago
Huh. We clearly mean different things by "imperative programming". To me, sequential computation is a necessary but really-far-from-sufficient aspect of imperative programming. A monadic expression is still an expression, not a st
197.
by nbouscal 12y ago
I don't know who you've been talking to that considers Haskell to be an imperative language, but that's nonsense. Haskell is about as far from multi-paradigm as you can get. Do-notation is nothing but syntactic sugar for regu
198.
by nbouscal 13y ago
According to their previous updates, they picked a particular rice protein that apparently has a different mesh size, thanks to an innovation by the manufacturer that has not spread throughout the industry yet. This choice was made to achie
199.
by nbouscal 13y ago
One thing that is important to know is that there actually are not any confirmed cases in Sierra Leone [1] or Mali. There were many suspected cases in both countries, but all of them have tested false so far. So for now, at least, it is onl
200.
by nbouscal 13y ago
The 90% refers to this specific strain of Ebola, the Zaire strain. The article does make some mistakes, though: for example, the cases in Sierra Leone are not yet confirmed to be Ebola.
201.
by nbouscal 13y ago
Common Lisp does not have dependent types. The example given is unfortunate because it often leads people to think they already have (and understand) dependent types, when that isn't the case.
202.
by nbouscal 13y ago
The article unfortunately does quite a poor job of explaining what dependent types are and why they're valuable. They're a lot more complicated than just "storing the length of a vector in its type". Dependent types allo
203.
by nbouscal 13y ago
When you were a beginner at Java, did you by chance already know how to program in an imperative or OO manner? I find it highly unlikely that anyone unfamiliar with imperative/OO programming in general would get any benefit from read
204.
by nbouscal 13y ago
You have an easy time understanding the libraries of your native language, but a hard time understanding the libraries of a language in a completely different paradigm that you're a beginner at? You don't say. Seriously, the Haske
205.
by nbouscal 13y ago
Your problem with Haskell as a language is the pedagogical approach taken by the author of one of the books about it?
206.
by nbouscal 13y ago
If you want to know what the actual effects of HFT are on individual investors rather than hypotheticals, a study was done in Canada last year on that exact question. Spoiler alert: HFT is good for the little guys. http://qed.eco
207.
by nbouscal 13y ago
An interesting study on the topic concluded that HFT helps retail investors and hurts institutional investors: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/pub/faculty/milne/322/IIROC_FeeCh...
208.
Do retail traders suffer from high frequency traders? [pdf](qed.econ.queensu.ca)
1 points by nbouscal 13y ago|0 comments
209.
Michael Lewis: shilling for the buyside?(scottlocklin.wordpress.com)
197 points by nbouscal 13y ago|212 comments
210.
by nbouscal 13y ago
Fairly certain that most people would disagree with "any work that puts food on the table is work with purpose and dignity." Easy examples come to mind: prostitution, arms dealing, etc. The thing about usefulness to society is tha

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