swatow

31 ms·

271.
by swatow 12y ago
The sheepskin effect doesn't directly measure the effect of having a degree vs having exactly the same experience/education but no degree. This is because the person who gets the degree after 4 years might on average have worked
272.
by swatow 12y ago
I wonder if General Equilibrium Theory were presented in a completely novel way, whether it could be popular on HN. Something like "Russian mathematicians come up with a decentralized way to solve resource allocation problems" or
273.
by swatow 12y ago
I'm not one to throw around the c-b word, but I really thought this article would be about a prison in a Buddhist country that used meditation as a form of rehabilitation. I was disappointed with the actual article.
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by swatow 12y ago
The claim that neoclassical economics is a straw man, is a double edged sword. On the one hand, you are right the economics can't be accused of ignoring obvious flaws in neoclassical economics (e.g. various market frictions). On the ot
275.
by swatow 12y ago
There is no Chinese curse of an "interesting life" or "interesting times" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_tim...
276.
by swatow 12y ago
I don't see how that answers the question. The question was by what means economists were especially rewarded for being in favor of the rich and the status quo. What about other academic departments who tend to be more left wing (e.g
277.
by swatow 12y ago
I disagree. There is no reason to think that just because oil owners stand to lose a lot of money, they will be able to block changes. After all, if they were able to effect arbitrary changes, they could simply force the government to giv
278.
by swatow 12y ago
I'm willing to face any fact that is true, but which owners in particular must be compensated, and why? What is your specific critique of the carbon tax that the book proposes?
279.
by swatow 12y ago
how and why is Economics different from other academics disciplines in that respect? and why is so much focus given to this one kind of bias. What about the potential for self-perpetuating bias that arises from the self-governing nature of
280.
by swatow 12y ago
Your post contains two unfair criticisms. The article was making a cheap shot at economists. Clearly economists don't claim to be experts at predicting "demand" in every possible markets, only at understanding the general p
281.
by swatow 12y ago
Vaguely reminiscent of maps of Israel and Palestine. Of course in the case of Native Americans, they are primarily to blame for obstinately refusing to accept the very generous division of 1807, in which they had the majority of the land.
282.
by swatow 12y ago
>I am confused. If you feel there are much better languages than Haskell, how would Haskell be the "theoretically most advanced language"? Let me rephrase: I think that there are much better languages out there, that haven&#x
283.
by swatow 12y ago
Funny, I once asked the same question about pure mathematics, and got similar answers. In the end I decided pure math wasn't the best bang for buck in terms of benefit to humanity, and decided to work on other things. When it comes to
284.
by swatow 12y ago
In general government regulation should prevent negative externalities, not restrict entry to certain occupations in order to keep wages high for those occupations. The issues you cite (healthcare, transportation, telecommunications, energy
285.
by swatow 12y ago
The US public debt is 72.5% of GDP. This is roughly equivalent to a person owing a debt of 72.5% of their annual income. High, but not impossible to pay off by any means.
286.
by swatow 12y ago
If a theory is mathematically elegant, I would consider that evidence for the theory. For example, the ability to explain the exact gauge groups and representations that comprise the Standard Model, or the masses of the elementary partic
287.
by swatow 12y ago
Thanks for getting it. Interesting how there are not replies other than downvotes, even though my post wasn't phrased in an inflammatory way.
288.
by swatow 12y ago
How does needing more evidence follow from the stats you quoted? If you read the paper you'll find the differences you quote are all significant.
289.
by swatow 12y ago
That doesn't seem consistent with your first post. Overall, would you argue that older engineers do or don't suffer worse outcomes because they require higher pay? Is it the case that employers hire younger engineers instead, or
290.
by swatow 12y ago
If you're so good at negotiating that you end up without a job because no one will pay what you demand, then you are actually bad at negotiating.
291.
by swatow 12y ago
Your post reminds me of how silly the way our society protects certain categories is. "Attention-Deficit Teenegers" could be viewed as offensive to some, as it uses a medical diagnosis as a pejorative. Perhaps the author could ar
292.
by swatow 12y ago
I'm going to assume that IQ does measure general intelligence, since it is highly correlated with all sorts of positive life outcomes that seem to be associated with general intelligence. Given this, I'm more inclined to draw the
293.
by swatow 12y ago
Sure, my claims are actually consistent with this result. I was describing a partial equilibrium effect while the paper is describing a general equilibrium effect.
294.
by swatow 12y ago
Increasing the availability of any kind of labor (whether ordinary programmers, or "great" programmers) always lowers the price, and if it didn't lower the price, there would be no effect. The startups looking for great progr
295.
by swatow 12y ago
So the theory (see "general equilibrium theory" of "welfare theorems of economics") is that increasing the supply of labor (or any other input for that matter) results in greater total output. And since the more expensi
296.
by swatow 12y ago
I think it's useful to rephrase the emotive, and unclear language used in this debate (like "driving down prices") into the language of economics. Let's assume there are two types of programmers, normal and great. Now in
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by swatow 12y ago
I'm totally on board with the idea that research software is a problem. My question is whether formal training (which the Sustainable Software Institute who created this study seem to advocate) is the best or most important solution.
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by swatow 12y ago
I'm happy that people are discussing this, but I really don't like they way the article uncritically repeats the message of the Software Sustainability Institute. The study by the SSI, only proves that people are writing software,
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by swatow 12y ago
But the post you were replying to stated >Truth is that American's ancestors where quite genocidal among other things. To the point of almost exterminating most of North America's population. Just like the Buffalo. If the poi
300.
by swatow 12y ago
People misunderstand classical economics, because it is subtle. The prisoner's dilemma is an interesting game because it is extreme: people are able to lower the total welfare while raising their own. But classical economics asserts th

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