thoms_a

Expose your kids to activities that are more compelling than screens. Trust me, once you take a kid go-karting, they aren't going to be as excited playing a video game.

Do cool shit with your kids. Go skiing, camping, fishing, go-karting, flying (small plane tours), drone racing, etc.

I know most of us here are nerds, but the jocks really do have life figured out when it comes to fun stuff.

Democracy has become a mantra. It means nothing. There are many corrupt and dysfunctional democracies throughout the world.

More precisely, we have an aspirational world government led by the American Empire which is run by a few extremely wealthy and powerful elite families, including the ones you've alluded to. Of course, these powerful families own all the media companies and thus control how they are covered in the mainstream media, which explains their absence and subsequent emphasis on politically inconsequential billionaires like Musk.

The American Empire is run via these families through a distributed influence network of private companies, NGOs, think tanks and PACs [1]. Although made up of many entities, they are funded by the same few individuals. Thus, this is a very difficult system to reform without immense capital expenditure.

The countries which do not submit to this order are the designated public enemies (we have always been at war with Eastasia). Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea being the most prominent of these.

Disclaimer: I am a deeply committed conspiracy theorist who also believes in the Earth being flat, so please take everything I say as the ramblings of a kook (especially any hardworking federal employees perusing HN)!

1. https://graymirror.substack.com/p/a-brief-explanation-of-the...

Every time a car passes you with a massive speed differential, you are gambling with your life. As long as you (and your family) are willing to accept that risk, then all the power to you.

Also, rural roads aren't exactly known for their alert drivers. Drunk driving is far more common due to lack of taxis/ubers.

Came here to say this. Bicycling is absolute madness to me in any location that doesn't have dedicated separate bike paths. You are maximizing all possible sources of risk by riding a bicycle on shared roads.

I've ridden motorcycles since I was 16, and everyone always sees me as the daredevil. Yet, I still think bicycle commuters are the true madmen. Zero protection, can't keep up with traffic, your very presence is a psychological irritant to motorists which causes them to wish you harm, etc.

But don't take my word for it: https://youtu.be/wM8Xli2KTzI

My only advice to cyclists: put your bike on your car's bike rack, take to a bike path and enjoy. If you want to get on a road on two wheels, buy a motorcycle and wear every piece of protective gear you can afford. You (and your family) can thank me later.

As a counterpoint, I bought my first iPhone (first ever Apple product) this week, and it was specifically because it seems like Apple is finally designing products with usability and functionality as their top priority.

Ive was great, but he was way too much of an artist to understand that computers are mostly tools. Ive was more interested in folding katanas and the process of creation than the mundane design of a productivity tool.

As an example, I remember being utterly bemused by the relentless port-pruning on the Macbook Pro. It just didn't make sense to me to remove ports on a machine designed primarily for productivity. But Ive didn't like ports, because katanas don't have ports. So the MBP didn't have ports.

I can think of one "routine" prophylactic amputation that was and is still performed with no anesthesia on newborn male infants.

The Hippocratic oath really does seem like a marketing gimmick in light of many such facts about modern medical practice.

I've asked very young students what they think a computer is and how it works. There's always at least one student who correctly replies: "It's a machine that does what someone told it to do".

Of course modern computing devices are absurdly complex and intricate machines all the way from silicon to software, but the basic mechanism is easily grasped by children. For all their complexity, computers are still just programmable calculators.

This doesn't mean that the opinions of powerful people do not affect you, however.

The Civil Rights Act and its consequences have meant that America will forever be politicized along every fault line of human identity. Whether it can withstand this burden and remain a functional civilization remains to be seen.

Life on Earth has survived much, much worse than the burning of fossil fuels. For example, the K-Pg extinction event.

It's all a matter of perspective. But humans are irrationally social creatures susceptible to memetics, so no amount of empirical evidence will alter socially beneficial memeplexes.

I'm glad you saved me the effort of reading this article. I've been following fusion for years, and have been cautiously optimistic. Recently, with the progress of both Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Tokamak Energy, both startups with private funding which aim to develop commercially viable Tokamaks, I'm ready to throw caution to the wind.

Tokamaks work, high temp superconductors work, and the combination is likely to result in working fusion reactors. If it doesn't, then at least we'll know soon enough via these two private companies. It doesn't make sense to write articles heckling companies which have literally put millions of dollars where their mouths are. Just let them get on with the work, and if they fail, they fail, and we learn something.

I know your line of reasoning is not popular, but I would like to add some nuance.

The empirical reality of this situation is that societies directed towards the maximization of individual desires (or "rights") will tend to be in conflict with creation and sustenance of communal societies. As such, we're seeing the breakdown of relationships, marriages, communities and even nations via social atomization. This is the result of liberal philosophy followed to its logical conclusion. The individual reigns supreme, and thus the community suffers.

Traditional societies throughout history had strategies for building families and maintaining communities, but the liberal West deems these anachronistic. We want to have our cake and eat it too, and we're learning this is simply not possible.

Well said. I'd also add that life has stages. YC-style hyper growth startup culture is suited for the young and ambitious. As we age, that immense drive of youth gradually declines. So it makes sense to use that energy productively while it's there for a chance at outlier success. But there is an age at which the slow and consistent life you've described becomes far more preferable to the constant hustle .

Why not work remotely? I can't see any benefits to living in the USA. I assume you already have experience living here, and for the life of me cannot fathom why anyone would choose the USA over most of Europe.

I could list all of the benefits of Europe, but I'm sure you know them as a resident. The USA is a very strange and highly dysfunctional (healthcare, social strife, violence, etc.) country. Most predictions for the future of the US are not optimistic, and there are good reasons for this.

You can also look at Canada, which brings in ~500,000 (documented, skilled) immigrants per year relative to their 35MM population. Of course, housing in Canada is now the most expensive in the entire OECD.

Alas, the Canadian government is deeply committed to the same lord and savior of the USA, the Free Market(TM), to magically produce the required infrastructure for this massive population influx. However, His Invisible Hand has not yet intervened in Canada's favor.

Indeed. The "Free Market" can elevate a ruthless plutocracy of robber barons with private armies far longer than the little people can stay alive.

As the Bezos Battalion, the Zuckerberg Zealots and the Musk Machines close in around your hometown's lithium supply, you can of course die with pride knowing that you believed in the Constitution and lived as the Founders intended.

(plz no ban, I love Free Markets, I'm just working on my creative writing)

You aren't biased at all [1]. Our dear colleagues (along with the majority of the American populace) are just deeply ideologically committed to the idea of the Federal Reserve being a public institution, because they've been told this implicitly all their lives.

The truth, which is difficult to uncover and requires digging into some legislation, is of course unsettling, because it points to the nature of the American system and which institutions have power. Hint: if an institution is immune to bankruptcy or prosecution, it's probably the one in charge.

1. https://publicbankinginstitute.org/money-banking-basics/

Indeed, and since it is a privately owned entity [1] with a figurehead appointed by a politician to give the illusion of public accountability, the Fed has very little incentive to do anything but enrich its shareholders: private banks.

"Liberal Democracy" is all theatre, all the time. It is a plutocracy with an extremely advanced propaganda arm designed to fool even the most intelligent observer, as can be seen by the high degree of trust placed in the system by my esteemed colleagues here at HN.

Alas, we get the rulers we deserve.

1. https://publicbankinginstitute.org/money-banking-basics/

Not a down-voter and I agree with your positions, but why stop at congressional oversight? Why should a private company [1] be controlling a nation's money supply?

1. https://publicbankinginstitute.org/money-banking-basics/

I was wondering how far I had to scroll down to find one person (on HN no less) finally stating the obvious.

Thor could be 8ft tall and able to lift to a house. It won't save him from a drone swarm designed by a nerd at Lockheed.

I can think of another genetic factor that has a much, much greater impact on survival. And it is absolutely taboo to mention the heritability or genetic basis of this trait.

Take solace in the fact that if you find yourself on HN, you're likely at least a few SD above the mean in this trait, so you don't have much to worry about. Furthermore, you can use this trait to understand the fickle nature of sexual attraction, and how to obtain whatever it is you're looking for in an efficient manner.

Have to chime in with my agreement here. As an engineer, to me the beauty of the mechanical watch lies in its embodiment of "form follows function".

I read this entire article as I find the horology and the hobbyists fascinating, but my passion is strictly that of an engineer for his tool. I like robust, well made tools by companies that value craftsmanship and longevity. Status, collectability and such are superfluous in my estimation.

Now, the history of a watch is important, but that is a personal thing which you create with your own watch. Any watch can have its own story, and the most important story is the one you're living with your own watch, whether it be a Patek Phillipe or a Casio.

I'm extremely curious to learn about both the implicit moral frameworks referenced in these comments. I genuinely would like to see an explicit listing of axioms upon which these moralities are based.

I genuinely had a good laugh at the idea that simply by building an underground colony, the inhabitants would become "curmudgeon underground mole people".

I would personally love such a habitat, and would market it as a Safe Space for The Curmudgeonly(TM).

I'm a huge fan of Musk's engineering work, but comparing the American pioneers to early Martian settlers is naive at best.

Humans have evolved on Earth. Even the least habitable place on Earth (e.g. Antarctica) is paradise in comparison to Mars. Mars settlement using current technology is an intractable problem.

Musk is selling his vision as an aspirational goal, not something achievable in his (or any of our) lifetimes. He knows better than anyone that a planet without a magnetosphere, fertile soil or a breathable atmosphere (just to name a few) is a death trap for humanity. But he has made it his life purpose to get the ball rolling.

If we look at the goal of colonizing our solar system rationally, a far more optimal strategy is robotic colonization. Advances in AI are now making it possible to fundamentally change how manufacturing is done via robotics. Once this happens, Mars colonization becomes far more feasible. Musk knows this, hence his pivot of Tesla from cars to robotics. The idea of sending people onto a hostile planet, where they then build a colony is archaic. People will arrive once the colony is fully built and operational.

I also, am flabbergasted by the fact that I couldn't stop reading this stream-of-consciousness post.

I shudder to think what it reveals about me. I may be immune to Google's algorithms through my total abstinence, but it seems that there exists a non-random sequence of words that can capture my attention against my will.

This concerns me deeply.

The story and characters are phenomenal, but random battles are cancer. That's where Chrono Trigger wins IMO. Sticking with random battles was an absurd decision which I never understood, and the momentum lasted way, way too long at square.

There is nothing wrong with turn based combat, but structured encounters with meaning always beat infuriating RNG encounters that are there just to run out the clock so they can claim a "40h experience".

Did I mention I hate random battles?

This is a bizarrely specific conspiracy theory (and seems to be designed for maximum divide & conquer of voting populations) which I've never heard of. What exactly led to its inception? I always enjoy engaging with conspiracy theories, as they are a great training regimen for keeping one's mind sharp and empirically grounded, but I don't even know where to start with this one!

>Of course, since you mostly test them how good they are at repeating given solutions you wont see this difference in classes.

Very few teachers do this in math/science/technology classes. Teachers in these subjects understand that it's the design/problem solving process that is being taught, not the particular details which are only retained on an as-needed basis.

The reality is that formalized education is rote by design. The reason many on HN were frustrated by formal education is because they are not the average student. When you are two standard deviations from the mean in ability (in either direction), school will feel like a very painful grind. Most on HN could do the entire K-12 curriculum in a fraction of the time that it takes the average student. However, the education system is designed for the average student, who by definition are the majority. Students who learn very rapidly tend to get tired of the "training wheels" which are employed in formal education. However, only once you have seen the full spectrum of student ability from the other side as an educator do you understand why they are necessary.

The real sad part of all this is that we lie to students and tell them that computer science, which is by far the most abstract and cognitively demanding subject taught in school/college, can be learned and even mastered by all. This demeans the field of computing, and often can make students feel inadequate, as they are told that everyone finds computer science very easy to understand. When faced with a challenging concept, they then immediately feel that they are stupid for not understanding it immediately.

Cognitive load theory helps with difficult subjects like CS, because it prepares the learner for intense effort. When I teach CS, the first sentence I utter to my students is: "This is going to be the hardest subject you've ever taken. Prepare yourself, and don't give up."

How is it possible to provide evidence for something that, by definition, lies outside the empirically observable universe? Militant atheism is just as comical as all-knowing theism when faced with the sheer incomprehensibility of existence. The reality is we have no idea what existence entails, and any claims that one does are meant to assuage one's ego more than anything else.