zaroth

45 ms·

481.
by zaroth 4y ago
Reading blog posts from founders ranting about exactly the problem that their startup is trying to solve is kind of par for the HN course, is it not?
482.
by zaroth 4y ago
First of all, are we talking about “systematic” or “systemic” or “structural” racism. These terms are not interchangeable. Put that aside for a second… I assume your example is talking about Prop 58. [1] Is Prop 58 racist? Of course not, th
483.
by zaroth 4y ago
It can also be straight up dangerous to try to express a countervailing opinion.
484.
by zaroth 4y ago
Where did you get that number?
485.
by zaroth 5y ago
I fully agree that part of his motivation is self amusement. It's one of the things I really like about Musk, is that he's clearly still connected to his inner child, and I think that's part of what keeps him dreaming. I thin
486.
by zaroth 5y ago
Right, you do this small act of service because you are in love with your partner. Ideally not even because it makes her happy, but because it makes you happy to make her happy. The upshot of the article, IMO, is that they were no longe
487.
by zaroth 5y ago
Or here’s a different theory. Maybe this couple weren’t actually in love anymore and just didn’t want to come to terms with it, because there was a confounding variable, namely, a child. It’s not the toothpaste cap. You can argue about the
488.
by zaroth 5y ago
I think you’d be hard pressed to find anything else in human history with a 10-year or 100-year average value as stable as gold. Do the exercise in terms of housing/lodging, loaves of bread, nice attire, annual median wages, etc…
489.
by zaroth 5y ago
We haven’t had oil long enough to do the exercise. In 500 B.C. in Babylonia apparently an ounce of gold would buy you 350 loaves of bread. It’s roughly the same today. Augustus paid his centurions about 40 ounces of gold a year in 0 B.C. To
490.
by zaroth 5y ago
“Real price of gold” is an interesting concept, probably showing a statistical quirk of backtracing CPI than anything useful though? I’d have to study how it was calculated. Yes, your graph at the end showing SPY in gold falling below the 2
491.
by zaroth 5y ago
Did you really just toss out a market graph going back to 1880 in a discussion about how the market is reacting to news today ? Maybe try this one: http://pricedingold.com/charts/SP500-2006.pdf It’s ok though, I give
492.
by zaroth 5y ago
The comment was relative to why the market was up. The point is, in real terms the market is not in fact “up”. The market is repricing based on future expectations of the real value of the USD. The terms “real” and “nominal” make it abund
493.
by zaroth 5y ago
What do you mean? Perhaps you’re looking at the change (inevitably decrease) in the value of fiat currencies, not the change in the purchasing power of an ounce of gold. The purchasing power of an ounce of gold in terms of real goods that c
494.
by zaroth 5y ago
Sorry if I’m using the wrong vernacular. The reason why market prices look so high is because it’s priced in US dollars, and US dollars aren’t worth what they used to be. The reason why markets go up when the Fed seems completely unconcerne
495.
by zaroth 5y ago
It’s not supposed to be cute, but actually a useful historical fact. To be well clothed in any moment in human history would take the currency equivalent of roughly an ounce of gold. Since gold has been actual currency many times throughout
496.
by zaroth 5y ago
Gold never appreciates. The value of gold is invariant. A good suit always costs 1 ounce of gold, since there were suits and gold.
497.
by zaroth 5y ago
Comparing one pile of festering garbage against another and saying one smells better… you’re still standing in a pile of trash.
498.
by zaroth 5y ago
What do you think that chart is showing? How do you square it with a chart of USD value versus an asset which has held consistent value for millennia? https://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au1825nyb.html
499.
by zaroth 5y ago
The market is “up” mostly because the USD is down, not because real values are rising. USD value is going to be hit extremely hard as it loses reserve currency status. The days of the petrodollar have come to an end. It will be a typical “c
500.
by zaroth 5y ago
You’re not reading what 0xy wrote, so you’re just arguing against yourself. An appeal to authority isn’t convincing when the authorities themselves have been utterly clueless and entirely politicized. 0xy say many measures were essentially
501.
by zaroth 5y ago
See my take-away from your first paragraph is quite different from your second paragraph. The point isn’t to argue about who’s counter-factual is right or wrong, it’s impossible to say. At this point everyone has taken a position as to whet
502.
by zaroth 5y ago
Sorry if I missed the word “qualified” - I felt it was presumed by the word “hired”. Obviously a business would not be particularly successful hiring janitors to write code simply because they could pay them less.
503.
by zaroth 5y ago
That’s not what I wrote. In fact, not even what you quoted me as writing. A bizarrely uncharitable non-takedown, and completely besides the point as well?
504.
by zaroth 5y ago
Budgets are set by costs. When you run a business, you care about the “fully burdened” cost of each employee, and you hire as many as you can within your budget. One of the line items in that is my half of the payroll tax. Another line item
505.
by zaroth 5y ago
My reply had nothing to do with Tesla. If a definition says “ad” is basically any piece of text on the internet, the definition is wrong. That seems uncontroversial.
506.
by zaroth 5y ago
The MW definition is obviously wrong, it vaguely describes every piece of text on the Internet.
507.
by zaroth 5y ago
Energy is the key driver of productivity in this world. Now, energy costs money, which incentivizes people to try to use it efficiently to achieve whatever their goal or whatever it is they’re trying to produce. The question isn’t quite “sh
508.
by zaroth 5y ago
This makes no sense. The “capital tied up in the home” is the reason that the home was built — obviously someone had to pay for it. So what you’ve stated is effectively a tautology. Either ownership embues the owner with the right to rent t
509.
by zaroth 5y ago
> Every single preventable death is a tragedy of cosmic magnitude, and much disruption is justified in avoiding even one. Couldn’t disagree more. Death is inevitable, and most death is preventable. There is absolutely nothing cosmicall
510.
by zaroth 5y ago
You can rent virtually any durable good of value. “Power” has nothing to do with it, ownership does.

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