xtian

61 ms·

511.
by xtian 7y ago
Because the US has for-profit healthcare and it’s worse on all societal-scale metrics than nationalized healthcare in other countries. And we had for-profit fire departments and the result was poor people’s houses burned down. For-profit ut
512.
by xtian 7y ago
You can argue for improvements to the political process, but public entities do many things better than the market. For example: the fire department, parks, utilities, roads, healthcare, education.
513.
by xtian 7y ago
Ok, but you still haven’t made an argument for why it would be better to spend a lot of effort designing a complex system of incentives and punishments for private companies rather than focusing on building a quality public service.
514.
by xtian 7y ago
The largest private companies in the world (e.g., Yahoo, Facebook, Equifax, Target) can barely keep user data private, leading to massive data breaches. It would be a shame if people's private information were to be compromised with es
515.
by xtian 7y ago
I would encourage everyone to vote for the candidates who best represent their values even though voting by itself does not produce meaningful change.
516.
by xtian 7y ago
Certainly all the greatest societal reforms have been brought about by individual purchasing decisions.
517.
by xtian 7y ago
That remains to be seen, but if all that's on offer are corporate-backed candidates then the Republican strategy of focusing on cultural issues will definitely win in rural areas.
518.
by xtian 7y ago
Vote with your vote. As far as I know only two candidates in the presidential primary race support right-to-repair: Sanders and Warren.
519.
by xtian 7y ago
“Even if you solve atmospheric conditions, CO2 and temperature, still you have the pollution of the waters, mass extinctions due to habitat loss, car-tyres rubbering off everywhere, unknown untested toxins even on your cloths. Thats like, n
520.
by xtian 7y ago
You can’t divorce poor life choices from the economic context they are made within. These are complex issues, but is it controversial to say that people are more interested in investing in their health when they have less stress and more op
521.
by xtian 7y ago
It's an act of extraordinary hubris to view the global ecosystem through the lens of human entertainment. If there is one lesson we should learn from the last 100 years it's that our species understands very little about the compl
522.
Elinor Ostrom(en.wikipedia.org)
1 points by xtian 7y ago|0 comments
523.
by xtian 7y ago
Intuit lobbies to keep tax filing over complicated. Look at other countries’ systems for examples of how it could be 100x simpler. Same thing for healthcare. One has to wonder whether the only thing preventing our government from succeeding
524.
Speaking Truth to Power: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft(onezero.medium.com)
1 points by xtian 7y ago|0 comments
525.
by xtian 7y ago
Check out Days of Destruction by Chris Hedges. One chapter is focused on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
526.
by xtian 7y ago
Well 1) everyone does not have equal access in practice and 2) they should have to pay more specifically to help provide more equal opportunities to everyone in the future instead of resigning ourselves to dynastic feudalism. And also becau
527.
by xtian 7y ago
These individuals accumulated their massive wealth by utilizing the infrastructure and economic substrate of our society. So the people who make up that society have a right to decide democratically how some of those resources are allocated
528.
by xtian 7y ago
This isn't actually true. Look up the legal definition of fiduciary duties for US corporations.
529.
by xtian 7y ago
Bohm was not a blowhard in the slightest.
530.
by xtian 7y ago
Care to elaborate and substantiate your certainty? Doubt is the default stance of the rational and inquisitive mind.
531.
by xtian 7y ago
> The main goal of this diff-based code review seems to be to prevent people from checking in bad code. Perhaps some people use code review that way but what is "bad code"? Code that doesn't match your style guide? Style c
532.
by xtian 7y ago
I think it's short-sighted to view “tragedy of the commons” scenarios as some sort of rhetorical wall. The “tragedy of the commons” is not a fact of nature but rather a product of the prevailing beliefs of our society. We’re not going
533.
by xtian 7y ago
Most performance problems come from incidental complexity and programming techniques which don't take into account what the actual hardware is doing. Your focus should not be on tactical optimizations like caching but rather on expandi
534.
by xtian 7y ago
Has there been an increase in unsolved murders/human trafficking? Is there evidence that traditional police methods are no longer effective? Let's not infringe upon personal liberty for the sake of an extremely hypothetical worldv
535.
by xtian 7y ago
They might not teach it but many do practice it in lots of more or less subtle ways.
536.
by xtian 7y ago
How do you reconcile that belief with examples of humans who don't have these motivations?
537.
by xtian 7y ago
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Number
538.
by xtian 7y ago
I might be misremembering but I think I heard that in a speech by John Ralston Saul. Sorry I can’t remember anything more specific!
539.
by xtian 7y ago
As early as Athenian democracy the dependencies had been identified as comprehensive education, quality information, and time to debate.
540.
by xtian 7y ago
My point is that conditioning children to think of art in this formulaic way can only be attributed to ignorance or malice. There is no need to test for reading comprehension using a banal interpretation of poetry. For evidence of the signi

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