stvswn

34 ms·

241.
by stvswn 11y ago
You can simultaneously fight against right-wing politicians who would capitalize on terrorism and also acknowledge that these aren't "crazy people who happen to be Muslims," these are committed killers who are murdering in th
242.
by stvswn 11y ago
I'm not endorsing it, but the French attitude (generally) is that religion is a private concern that doesn't belong in the public forum. They view public displays of religion by private individuals with suspicion and distaste, wh
243.
by stvswn 11y ago
I wasn't endorsing, and I think you and I would probably agree about quite a bit. I was pointing out ways in which French values are at odds with the terrorists'. Still, I admire their resilience, solidarity, and the willingness
244.
by stvswn 11y ago
France jealously guards its secular republic. Separation of church and state is a top priority (well above the U.S. and U.K. -- for instance, head coverings are not allowed in public schools). The French are notably resilient in the face
245.
by stvswn 11y ago
When you say "here come the..," which posts are you talking about? It seems like your point is that the French are to blame because they didn't properly integrate Muslim immigrants? This is shockingly bad taste. People are s
246.
by stvswn 11y ago
Right, I don't mean to imply that technical knowledge isn't central to the job. It is. But it can be learned. A lot of engineers on this thread might not realize that within MBA programs, the word is out -- "don't even
247.
by stvswn 11y ago
Also went to Wharton, and I'm a PM. My background was only a CS minor as an undergrad (8 years ago) and that I taught myself Rails in order to attempt a startup. This demonstrated a propensity for software but is completely useless p
248.
by stvswn 11y ago
As a PM at a large, engineering-driven company, I would say that convincing engineers like you that my process was rigorous is about half the job. It's annoying but enforces discipline. The engineers don't agree to build feature
249.
by stvswn 11y ago
The "dress like Steve Jobs" thing is starting to feel kind of messed up, am I right? (I read somewhere that she claimed that she hadn't considered that Steve Jobs used to wear black turtlenecks, that she was more inspired by
250.
by stvswn 11y ago
You've hit on a really key point. Life is easier when you have more money. Not trying to be callous, but it's going to come out that way -- maybe the answer is to try to make some more of it. Because trying to redesign society to
251.
by stvswn 11y ago
I agree, I didn't say we were at the perfectly optimal point of equality of opportunity. I was defining what I think the term means. I agree with most of those points. Except social security cap -- social security was supposed to be
252.
by stvswn 11y ago
You're playing with semantics. Every single one of the policies you describe are exactly wealth redistribution (except for corporate lobbying -- that's restriction on speech). You just perceive them as examples of good policies.
253.
by stvswn 11y ago
True, and I don't have an issue with inheritance. I'd prefer no estate tax. Whether zeroed-out grantor-retained annuity trusts should be a valid tax avoidance scheme is a valid question, if that's your point.
254.
by stvswn 11y ago
They have the right to be rich, but there's an issue with their unequal wealth? I don't understand the difference between "being rich" and "having unequal wealth." Magnitude? What's broken with the system
255.
by stvswn 11y ago
Yeah, because Matt Yglesias is leading the conspiracy on behalf of the big banks. I guess you're not familiar with his work.
256.
by stvswn 11y ago
I also think that we fundamentally disagree as to what "equality of opportunity" means. You think it means that the government has a role in making sure the poor and the rich have the same outcomes available to them. In that sens
257.
by stvswn 11y ago
Oh -- so income inequality is evidence of disparity of opportunity, so you are actually concerned with income inequality. You'd prefer incomes to be more equal. If opportunity were perfectly equal (your ideal state), what would you im
258.
by stvswn 11y ago
And I'd add -- the Waltons would be a weird example to key on if you were concerned mainly with punishing Wall St. speculators but keeping dynamism and entrepreneurship alive. Regardless of how you feel about WalMart, the Waltons are
259.
by stvswn 11y ago
Or, another explanation: they really are talking about income inequality, and you don't agree.
260.
by stvswn 11y ago
But Bernie Sanders IS talking about wealth distribution. "There is something profoundly wrong when one family owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million Americans." - Bernie Sanders (Also a really misleading stat. If you have a
261.
by stvswn 11y ago
You're talking about equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome? This is specifically not what Sanders is talking about. He's saying that the basic fact that the rich have become richer than they used to be, relative to eve
262.
by stvswn 11y ago
Organizing school districts by geography, and then enforcing that children attend the school nearest them, is a bureaucratic convenience that a) makes it easy to centrally plan resources by forecasting student population, b) eliminates comp
263.
by stvswn 11y ago
Do people generally like that this UI exists, or not? To everyone who says "wow that's creepy, I wish I had known, God knows what else they have-" do you feel better or worse seeing this UI available, and having the option to
264.
by stvswn 11y ago
Can we all do that? Wouldn't that be great -- everyone just does a collective 3 year chill-out?
265.
by stvswn 11y ago
Right, but how did the cookie get associated with a Google search query and then get to the 3rd party who did the shady mapping? That's what wouldn't have happened.
266.
by stvswn 11y ago
I know that's the argument, but I disagree with the premise -- you're essentially saying that it's valid for the government to enforce healthy decisions when it wants to limit the chances of a future payout. This would mean
267.
by stvswn 11y ago
In other air crash investigations, the technical analysis is the most important part -- because a technical component failed, or because the type of missile needs to be deduced, etc. In the 9/11 attacks, people intentionally flew the
268.
by stvswn 11y ago
The next version of Android ("M") does this.
269.
by stvswn 11y ago
So your hypothesis is that Google took the knowledge of the search query and attached some sort of indicator that the user was interested in AA onto the user's personal data (in violation of its own policies for interest-based advertis
270.
by stvswn 11y ago
You're not being controversial, because there isn't a controversy. There was lots and lots of information disseminated to the public. What do you think was withheld?

More ›