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crassus2

Re:A Natural A/B Test of Harassment on Friday October 24, 2014 @04:28AM (#8502662)
I disagree with the tone with which yummyfajitas is discussing this, but I absolutely think he should have the right to voice his opinion. Aren't downvotes punishment enough? I wonder if he had been more cautious in his phrasing if his comments would still be dead-ed for picking the "wrong" side of an issue.

I see the direction that hacker news is going. Whether by mod or by algorithm, it ain't pretty.

Re:A Natural A/B Test of Harassment on Friday October 24, 2014 @03:01AM (#8502439)
I just want to say that I'm deeply uncomfortable with how quickly hacker news mods have moved to kill comments they disagree with since the new "professional" management came in. Is yummyfajitas hell-banned now? He had nearly 7 years of history. All his comments here are dead-ed.

For the record, this is what the grandparent said that got him hell-banned:

"According to the article, the author received one unwanted message every 50 days. How is it "cognitive dissonance" or "denial" to describe pressing delete every 50 days as a minor problem?

Note that in a typical 2 week period, I probably get more than 36 recruiter spams. Could you concretely explain what you feel is being denied?"

You might disagree with it, but it's hard to see how it is beyond the pale of polite discourse.

Problem is, only 1.7% of college football players are ever going to play professional ball.
Lyft Line blows my mind. It's like a Lyft, but half price. Works great within the city.
Re:Rental America: Why the poor pay $4,150 for a $1,500 sofa on Friday October 17, 2014 @07:09PM (#8473914)
We do more good for more people when our beliefs reflect reality, rather than what we wish were true. If it turns out that the cognitive science research showing that some people are smarter than others is correct we might decide that merely educating poor people will not convince them to act like less-poor people.
Re:Why Germany Is Better at Training Its Workers on Friday October 17, 2014 @06:55PM (#8473847)
Not all expats are created equal. For example, Mexicans living in the US tend not to do so well in education or the economy, dragging a lot of US national statistics down. This is because a lot of Mexican-Americans come from lower class backgrounds and not Mexico's educated elites.
Re:Rental America: Why the poor pay $4,150 for a $1,500 sofa on Friday October 17, 2014 @06:48PM (#8473817)
Education can only make up for so much of a deficit in cognitive ability. We know that cognitive ability and income levels are correlated.
Re:Why Germany Is Better at Training Its Workers on Friday October 17, 2014 @12:01AM (#8469383)
Chinese and Germans in the United States also do very well in the economy. Maybe there's some third factor that we're missing.

These kind of articles make the implicit assumption that countries are the same except for being located in different locations, and that successful institutions from one can be transplanted to another. But each is an organic entity, with different histories and cultures

He might describe himself that way, but he advocates for socially conservative values more often than libertarians do (see "Coming Apart"). He's at least a borderline case, like a Ron Paul. AEI is a right-wing think tank.
Asians and Jews beat vanilla whites at I.Q. tests, but also any other test that measures cognitive/academic ability - PISA, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, ASVAB - they're all correlated.

It is truly miraculous that racist white people managed to come up with so many tests that confirm the black/white cognitive gap while simultaneously screwing them all up and biasing them in favor of east Asians.

Charles Murray's books are all worth a read. He's likely the most meticulous data guy on the American Right.
Re:The legend of John von Neumann (1973) on Friday August 22, 2014 @01:45PM (#8213116)
Nietzsche has interesting things about our need to tear down people who have great, unique accomplishments over common weaknesses - calling this the "slave morality". The weak need to feel superior to the great, so we redefine greatness to mean other things.
Re:At Burning Man, the Tech Elite One-Up One Another on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @11:52PM (#8205860)
It feels in violation of the spirit of the event to have paid help in your camp, but otherwise Burning Man is for everybody.
The most important question: what are the demographics of the founding team?
This sounds like something that could be taught in a 30 minute lesson. What's the problem?
I don't understand how this happens. The tech industry is pretty much the only economic game in town. How does it fail so hard at politics, losing out to a relatively small amount of middle-aged homeowners?
Culture is capital. The degree of social trust and respect for property needed to create a wealthy society is an historical anomaly. If we didn't have borders, the whole world would be the third world.
If a business owner raises wages, he solves his labor problem but spends more money and reduces profit.

If instead he complains about a labor shortage, then maybe politicians will pass a law allowing more immigration and he will be able to lower his wages and increase his profit.

It's beneficial for business owners for there to be a general belief in a labor shortage but it is not beneficial for people to believe they are stingy.

Re:Diversity and Startups on Friday July 25, 2014 @10:41PM (#8088752)
Could you point out for me where Sam talks about diversity of perspectives? All I see him talking about is what the OP mentions - gonads and skin color.
Re:Diversity and Startups on Friday July 25, 2014 @06:51PM (#8088080)
The San Jose Mercury News estimated that Silicon Valley tech jobs are mostly held by Asians.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_22094415/asian-workers-now-dom...

Based on my experience, I'd believe it, though the proportion is likely less in San Francisco and more in the South Bay.