pyoung

36 ms·

271.
by pyoung 14y ago
If they can afford a crash pad in new york city, then a little extra in property taxes is probably not gonna break the bank. Another way to look at the issue, is to evaluate the 'tax collection opportunity costs' of the absentee owners. Fo
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by pyoung 14y ago
This is based on my experience in SF (i.e. muni/bart), but the public transit experience is pretty variable. Crowds, homeless people, traffic conditions, timely connections. The tube is probably a little better/consistent, but rating the
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by pyoung 14y ago
The problem with the original argument (if I read it correctly) is that Bostrom assumes that the "growth and expansion sensibility" is a near certainty and that lack of evidence of this type of civilization, and the fact that we exist (as c
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by pyoung 14y ago
I really liked point 2. It seems to be the default assumption that we as a species should seek to increase our chances of survival by looking to colonize other planets. However it is entirely possible that our mindset may change in the fu
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by pyoung 14y ago
I think it is a stretch to say that a country that is half as wealthy as CA is in the same ballpark. To flip this around, if you made half of my salary, I would not say that your salary is in the same ballpark as mine. I like your point on
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by pyoung 14y ago
From what I have heard, that bus ride is pretty hairy. Not sure if this was in first class or not but a friend who recently went there opted for the flight. Then again he was only there for a few weeks and time was probably a bigger facto
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The Big Curiosity Rover Discovery Is a Big Misunderstanding(mashable.com)
4 points by pyoung 14y ago|0 comments
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by pyoung 14y ago
Out of curiosity, what does the 'carcass' usually consist of? Wouldn't any leftover money go back to investors? Or does that get divided out to founders (seems like that would be a bad incentive). Or is it mostly related to the product (
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by pyoung 14y ago
Not to belittle your point, as it is a rather amusing anecdote, but Lady Gaga came to prominence in 2008 almost 4 years ago. In 2008, my older relatives from the rural midwest where still trying to figure out e-mail. Now, they all have fa
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by pyoung 14y ago
It still sounds like you think of a 'typical drug user' as an addict. I think the point was that a good portion of drugs are consumed by fairly responsible, recreational users.
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by pyoung 14y ago
I find it depressing that 'voting Democratic' is used as anecdotal evidence of intellectualism. I am not disagreeing with your point, just merely pointing out how absurd it is. While I am an ardent Democrat, I long for a day when we can ha
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by pyoung 14y ago
This is what has been bothering me about the proliferation of cleaning service apps targeted at the tech crowd. I have found cleaning and other menial tasks to be rather meditative. In fact one of the reasons I love working from home is t
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by pyoung 14y ago
There is a magnitude of difference between the two. When you run a top heavy campaign to get elected and a critical project fails miserably, that falls on you. When you preside over a government that consists of a large number of relativ
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by pyoung 14y ago
Generally Objectionable. I think it gets packaged with windows server and exchange server for free (or nearly free) which is probably the only reason people use it.
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by pyoung 14y ago
I disagree with you on your point on efficiency. California has had a ton of success implementing efficiency programs, and these efforts are starting to be copied by other states. My guess is that your perception of failure is largely driv
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by pyoung 14y ago
I think the lack of visibility in this industry has more to do with who the target customers are. Storage/Energy tech is primarily sold to governments, utilities, or large industrial customers. If you are a consumer app, getting a lot of
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by pyoung 14y ago
And to add insult to injury/starvation: the person who got to the store first probably bought 10x more food then they needed and now has a bunch of food spoiling in their non-functioning refrigerator.
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by pyoung 14y ago
There was an article on Slate that addressed the price gouging issue. The author made a lot of good points about how price gouging is a good thing in times of crises, most of which I agree with. However, in the long run, if you piss off yo
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by pyoung 14y ago
Regarding your first point, I don't have an answer. But, for a more ironic take on the issue, please read 'Player Piano' by Vonnegut. Regarding your second point, I addressed this in the other post, but post-scarcity economics seems to be
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by pyoung 14y ago
Totally agree. Once again, I may read too much sci-fi, but I think the end game (as it should be) to technological progress is the elimination of labor, completely. This probably won't happen in my lifetime, but assuming civilization can
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by pyoung 14y ago
Both of those examples seem like temporary solutions at best. And robotic tech already exists that could theoretically replace humans for those tasks. I may read too much sci-fi, but I am fully convinced that we are heading to a future whe
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by pyoung 14y ago
I suppose I should change the language of my post to say that "manufacturing employment has been gutted", as that is what I actually meant. You are correct, there has been a resurgence in manufacturing in the US. The issue is that these ne
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by pyoung 14y ago
For non-professional investors, the "so let's buy Gamestop" strategy isn't necessarily a bad strategy. Assuming you are putting the bulk of your investments in low cost index and mutual funds, using a little bit of you savings to play the
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by pyoung 14y ago
That is a difficult question to answer. A good parallel to what amazon is doing to retail is what globalization did to manufacturing. As we all know, manufacturing in the US has been gutted and is now largely based in developing countries
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by pyoung 14y ago
That would have definitely been the much more sustainable approach. Although I have a feeling that offering discounts of 10-15% would not have resulted in the hysteria that they originally generated and thus would have limited traction. I
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by pyoung 14y ago
I would say they are more like a funnel. And they are trying to make their funnel even bigger. They make their money by sending you to other websites and services, which is why most people don't consider them a walled garden.
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by pyoung 14y ago
I think your instincts are spot on. There was nothing wrong with the fist two ideas, it was just the third that may have crossed the line. Talking to vendors is fine, just realize that they are probably sales oriented people (largely depen
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by pyoung 14y ago
You are ignoring the high demand for used bikes. I imagine a lot of people buy cheap used bikes because they now that there is a high likelihood of their bike getting stolen. Ironically, this behavior fuels the demand for the very same bi
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by pyoung 14y ago
Aren't things discrete at the quantum level. Couldn't that be the 'level of discreteness' of the simulation. A bit over my head here, so correct me if I'm wrong.
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by pyoung 14y ago
That would be an interesting future. Go to a bar at night (dropped off by your robocar/house). Get really drunk. Get picked up by your robocar/house. Wake up really hungover, shower, change and then walk out of your robocar/house that i

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