diveandfight

I think I missed a connecting piece here, since this is a non-government contract for Palantir.

Since they've been able to do the above, I think they've developed a pretty good skillset at merging disparate data and surfacing it for analytics. Combine that with the fact that their government business is a money-printing machine, you basically end up with an analytics shop that has significant experience at scale and is extremely well capitalized. For a relatively non-tech savvy or uninformed customer, Palantir could look like a pretty attractive option.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that the bar had been subterranean. I've had to work on a few platforms that were either the incumbent Palantir was trying to displace or a competitor trying to beat Palantir. All were not great, but the non-Palantir products would be embarrassing to release to a general enterprise or consumer market.

My observation from the peanut gallery, is that Palantir has been successful because they created a tech-culture incentive system for engineers, whereas legacy contractors (Booz, Deloitte, Accenture, CACI, Boeing, etc.) treated engineers as cost center plus. I think it was literally as simple as: pay engineers Big Tech competitive salary, allow them to collaborate directly with clients to develop solutions, and actively remove Product Managers/Contract Managers from interfering -> megabucks.

To your point, I don't think this is an intrinsic or structural moat. To the extent someone can do these things better or faster than Palantir, I could easily see them beating Palantir in the future.

Wouldn't necessarily agree with the source of OP's metrics, but I would agree with the sentiment I believe they are expressing.

Comparatively, the other major metropolitan areas in the U.S. produce some product/service that is competitive in the common market: tech things (SF-Bay Area), financial services (NY), entertainment (LA), more tech things (Seattle), etc. [0] Another way I think about it is that these other metro areas have to produce something that people would want to exchange dollars for because they provide more value to them than their dollars.

The thing that separates D.C. from these other metros (and for lack of a better term, "the real world") is that the value-determination mechanism of exchanging dollars for goods/services is completely different than the other cities (and I would argue much worse). Government has little incentive to spend less and consequently seek goods/services that provide the best value. In fact, the U.S. federal government has quite the opposite motivation. Every department is incentivized to spend as much as possible within their allotted budget (which hardly ever decreases year-over-year), lest they demonstrate that they could actually perform their functions with less money than has been allotted to them (gasp!). This phenomenon can be observed in the frenzy to spend all the budgeted money by the end of the fiscal year. [2]

The end result is a city that continuously spends more money for goods/services that are almost orthogonal to providing value (since that is not their point). There's something perverse in the fact that of the ten highest median income counties in the U.S., 50% of them are in this area that produces goods/services of dubious to no value. [1]

[0] Apologies to anyone if I caused offense at these gross oversimplifications of their cities.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_countie...

[2] Anecdote: I literally worked on a project for a three-letter agency to develop an ML model that would identify which budgeted funds were "in danger" of going unspent by the end of the fiscal year. Leadership loved it. What was a manual process involving countless person-hours that usually began in late spring to comb through the budget, could be supplemented by a model-based prediction in February.

> Anglosphere

In my opinion, this is an underutilized term that could be used to group trends/behaviors and consequently policy decisions.

> That borg-like "you will be assimilated" sort of commentary is fascinating, disturbing, and goes far to illustrate how there are ordinary people who absolutely don't want you to exert your economic authority.

I've learned not to underestimate the extents to which people will go to rationalize their cognitive dissonance. In person, my tactic has just been to self-censor more - I guess I'm tired/lazy and don't want to be bothered unnecessarily.

So the author points out that some reasons constraining mobility are outside of a person's control:

> When we talk about limited mobility, we have to talk about states that are actively and legislatively hostile to marginalized people.

And then proceeds to frame the choice of "where to live?" as solely within a person's control, "What’s holding you back, and what conversations do you have with yourself about when and whether that will change?"

> And so, a prompt for discussion: What would have to change, for you to move closer to the people who nourish you, who support you, who make your life better and easier in so many ways?

I'm getting fatigued with seeing/hearing this meaningless virtue signaling. It usually takes the form of, "We see you," "We acknowledge particular challenges for certain people," and then proceeding to make a point that either completely disregards or directly contradicts (in this case) the speaker's/writer's acknowledgement of racism/hostility/lack of safety/etc.

This article is some privileged person nonsense.

Rather than types, maybe those qualities are more like ends on a spectrum?

Korea already provides a subsidy of ~$230/month to families with infants in their first year.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/19/1163341684/south-korea-fertil...

Any sources to clarify this observation?

One reason I ask is because if one is just looking at the Korean-American population as a whole, there are a couple other factors that could be leading to the gender imbalance:

- Mothers raising their kids in U.S. while the father works in Korea

- Historic immigration after the Korean War, during which a large portion of the male population was wiped out

> actually they (the asian you say) would face less discrimination but they just dont know it so they could be also racist by themselve (english is not my best, just trying to explain, of course they are not racist)

Thank you for speaking on our behalf and enlightening us on where we would/would not experience more/less racism.

so... Asians are at fault for the rising cost living?

The fact that the founders named the company based off a Hawaiian-English dictionary look-up strikes me as pretty bland-corporate, "The company was named after akamai, which means 'clever,' or more colloquially, 'cool' in Hawaiian, which Lewin had discovered in a Hawaiian-English dictionary after the suggestion of a colleague." [0]

From what I've seen living here and hearing Hawaiian Creole English (aka pidgin), nobody uses akamai to refer to something that is cool... Always used in the smart/clever context. But then again, I wouldn't expect the founders to know that if they didn't have knowledge of local Hawaii culture.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akamai_Technologies#History

^All former Midshipmen thinking this as well.

Not seeing many mentions of Simplenote. Does anyone else find it sufficient (syncing, web-app, tags, search, *no-payment)?

The emperor of Japan has 125+ mil subjects.

States that recognize the British monarch as head of state: 67 mil (UK) + 38 mil (Canada) + 26 mil (Australia) + 5 mil (New Zealand) + others less than mil people = 136+ mil

So pretty close, but this appears to be a correct statement.

I've heard those positive sentiments before and I'm glad it is a better product for some people.

One of the features that kills me about Teams though is that I'm not able to join from Firefox.

Anyone got data points from Linode?

> 1) Multiple brands for one producer

Was literally in a conversation just a couple months ago where I was expressing that I had finished deleting facebook for privacy-related reasons.

They chimed in with, "I know right! That's why I only use Instagram..."

I think the me of a few years ago would have discounted point 1). Today, I think it's a fairly salient point, with regards to actual market effects. Albeit, I'm not advocating for any action(s) to be taken with regards to it.

ah, thanks for that. I wonder if this also explains why spaceports in the U.S. have tended to be located further south.

Not sure if I missed something, why did this have to be shipped across the ocean to a spaceport in French Guinea? Would it have been less of a logistical challenge to launch this out of Vandenberg in CA?

Is there something uniquely strategic about property owners in Southern Pines?? If anything, based on my knowledge, military contractors would be the strategic play down there (just as in VA/MD).

Is it really useful to think of these beliefs as being formed from facts? Or are these beliefs really more a by-product of certain moral positions people take?

"Social intuitionism proposes four main claims about moral positions, namely that they are (1) primarily intuitive ("intuitions come first"), (2) rationalized, justified, or otherwise explained after the fact, (3) taken mainly to influence other people, and are (4) often influenced and sometimes changed by discussing such positions with others."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_intuitionism

First, thank you for at least taking the time to try and understand how the history of Hawaii has shaped many of the issues facing Hawaii today. Second, I will add that I was not born in Hawaii but lived there for several years and have learned a lot about it myself from my wife, who was born and raised there and did research into some of these issues as a graduate student.

> We love visiting the islands but learned a while back that large parts of the indigenous population see the US as an occupying entity and not their country. While heavily relying on the tourist income, this creates a challenging relationship between the locals and visitors (not to mention the disrespect some tourists show to the local land and culture).

Yes, there is a contingent of the Native Hawaiian population that is making the case for sovereignty. Again, I do not have skin in the game, nor am I an expert in these matters. However, it is acknowledged by the U.S. itself that the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawaii was undermined through force and not by any mutual treaty or agreement; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Hawaiian_King....

However, your statement seems to be conflating "locals" with Native Hawaiians, which is incorrect (but not uncommon among many Americans). The majority of the current local population are descendants not of Native Hawaiians but of other laborers that were brought to the Hawaiian islands by U.S. persons-owned sugar plantations during the 19th century, "Few natives were willing to work on the sugar plantations and so recruiters fanned out across Asia and Europe. As a result, between 1850 and 1900 some 200,000 contract laborers from China, Japan, the Philippines, Portugal and elsewhere came to Hawaiʻi under fixed term contracts (typically for five years). Most returned home on schedule, but large numbers stayed permanently. By 1908 about 180,000 Japanese workers had arrived. No more were allowed in, but 54,000 remained permanently." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom#Economic,_soc...]. Considering that the current population of all eight populated islands is only around 1,415,872, you can do some rough math based on average population growth from those workers to get an idea of how much the influx of these laborers changed the demographics of Hawaii.

> "This issue was made very apparent during a Pearl Harbor tour when the bus driver described how many Hawaiians actually identified more closely with Japan than America during WW2 (and still do to this day)."

I will not speak for this bus driver's opinions, but I would encourage you, if you get another chance, to take a look at the memorial plaque of civilians who died during the attacks on Pearl Harbor an observe how many names were of Hawaiians (locals, not native Hawaiians) of Japanese descent; although these individuals were also Japanese-Americans, Hawaii was only a territory at this point and did not become a state until 1959.

My point here being that who the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii "actually identified more closely" with at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor is complicated. Considering that: 1. Hawaii was not a state at that time 2. Many Japanese (and Chinese/Filipino/etc.) were residents of Hawaii prior to it becoming a U.S. territory 3. The government sanctioned xenophobia/racism at the time.

Another important data point to keep in mind on this subject was the service of the 442nd regiment during WWII itself; which to this day is the most decorated unit of its size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(Unite.... Meanwhile while they were fighting on behalf of the U.S., many of their relatives and family in Hawaii faced outright discrimination based on their descent and appearance (not to mention any relatives they had in California who were straight up imprisoned simply because they were of Japanese descent).

Tiered property taxation hasn't solved the the problems OP has described for Oahu; or Hawaii as a whole for that matter.

For example, Local NIMBYist restrictions, mostly those individuals that have resided there for a long time (and have the lower property tax rate you describe), have resulted in areas immediately adjacent to 40-story downtown developments being zoned exclusively for single-family homes; see Kaimuki, Upper Tantalus, Manoa, Punchbowl (to an extent), etc. Consequently, even homes built over 80 yrs ago with only ~1,300 sqft sell for about $1.1 million; https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1001-Belser-St-Honolulu-H....

The majority of people employed in hospitality and trades that support the local tourist economy (electricians, masons, carpenters, etc.) are increasingly driven to the west side; where commutes to the city can easily be 1-2 hours normally (pre-COVID). This eventually becomes such a stressor that many of the people working these skilled trades leave for the mainland.

From second-hand experience (hearing directly from someone who was from a place like this), I would also add Hawaii to this list of places. Although the dynamic has existed there for a long time, it seems definitely to have accelerated in recent years.

It's somewhat received wisdom that those who can afford private schooling throughout their K-12 years leave the islands for labor opportunities (outside of tourism and real-estate management) in the lower 48 (the mainland). Meanwhile those who have to suffer through the Hawaii public education system are destined to do their part in entertaining wealthy mainlanders.

Extremely high land and input costs have long pushed many innovative/nascent businesses to the mainland. Consequently the jobs created by those firms are not available to people from Hawaii. I've heard of some promising new ventures that are seeking to change this, but I'm not holding my breath that this dynamic will change anytime soon.

Note: I apologize if I've casted shade upon anyone who's been through the Hawaii public education system and found a career that suits them.

I'm with you on those downsides, they all bother me too. The value add for me is that I get access to publications I'd have to pay separately for otherwise; e.g., WSJ, Wired, etc. My use case is primarily to open it and navigate to the content I want under the Subscriptions tab.

Apple News+? I know it's not necessarily the most popular or well thought of, but it's the only widespread platform (I'm aware of) that provides that kind of service for the price point I'm wiling to pay; i.e., Netflix-ish monthly fee.

> China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan grown exponentially not due to authoritarian rule but due to the hard work of their people and in the belief that with hard work they can change life (very much embedded in Confucius teachings).

The assertion here is that "Confucian values" led to these countries economically developing from un-developed to developed economies. Yet earlier you state the "counter example" of North Korea being an authoritarian regime that brought about economic downfall.

So, "Confucian values" + authoritarian regime = economic growth (SK)

"Confucian values" + authoritarian regime = economic stagnation (NK)

?

These are two nation-states that had literally the same culture prior to mid-20th wars; if we're focusing on the "Confucian values" part of a culture.

What is the actual argument here? Or is this some ancient Chinese wisdom/Confucius say bulls*t?

The Apple One bundle is definitely not worth it to me. But Apple News+ on its own isn't too bad of a deal; I'm a subscriber.

Had a previous $4/month subscription to WSJ, but cancelled it and switch to News+; which gives me access to a few other paywall news services without having to pay separately for those.

Note: I am in the US, so maybe the deal is worse in other countries.