Hacker News Reader

AlexTWithBeardon America needs supply-side reform

1. Consumers will prefer safer conventional vehicles over shitty EVs

2. People will just burn oil

3. Add more regulations on farms - and the food will also be imported from China.

4. It probably has been decided at some point that it's cheaper to intervene while the person in their childhood, rather than dealing with adults who grew up in miserable conditions

5. It will increase labor force supply, therefore decreasing salaries. Is it the intent?

AlexTWithBeardon Supreme Court limits EPA’s power to cut emissions

You mean the court should've stuck with Plessy vs. Ferguson [1]?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson

AlexTWithBeardon Supreme Court limits EPA’s power to cut emissions

Pretty much by definition whatever decision a court takes, someone will be disappointed.

Otherwise we wouldn't need courts.

AlexTWithBeardon Supreme Court Overturns Roe vs. Wade

I often hear about "my body - my choice".

But after spending nine months in woman's body the child becomes the part of her life for twenty next years. Should it rather be "my life - my choice"?

AlexTWithBeardon Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

Talk to the person and you will (1) hear a lot of bullshit and (2) filter out a ton of good but not really silver-tongued candidates.

P. S. I hate coding interviews.

AlexTWithBeardon What Propels Cancel Culture? (2020)

Cancel culture does not exist - until you get cancelled.

AlexTWithBeardon IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access

... but then you realize that Florida with zero state tax also somehow manages to build and maintain the roads.

AlexTWithBeardon U.S. Political Party Preferences Shifted Greatly During 2021

Agree.

Add lives saved by various requirements. Subtract lives from increased traffic fatalities [1]. Multiply by the number of businesses decapitated by lockdowns.

Do you know what we gonna end up with? I don't...

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people...

AlexTWithBeardon In defense of flat earthers (2020)

> * When I see my flight plan, I understand why it's curved.

Just came off the plane yesterday. I remember the earth on the flight map was perfectly flat. The path was weirdly curved though...

AlexTWithBeardon In defense of flat earthers (2020)

More like a geometric method used in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29975544

The simplest way I could come up with while discussing the issue with my kids, was to call a grandma on the other side of the globe and ask here when did she have a sunset. It still could mean that the earth is a hemisphere, but at least it's not pancake-style flat.

AlexTWithBeardon In defense of flat earthers (2020)

Belief is a keyword here. Most of "spherical earthers", alas, also believe what they are told. They happened to pick the right set of beliefs - kudos to them - but there's no critical thinking whatsoever.

We watched some time ago a why-do-we-think-earth-is-flat movie with friends and I asked: okay, so what's wrong with their explanation? For an extra credit: how a layman like me can check what is the shape of the earth?

And suddenly it turns out that these questions are a bit harder than it seems.

AlexTWithBeardon People behave more sadistically when they’re bored

That. Or we can put the line between misdemeanor and a felony.

AlexTWithBeardon People behave more sadistically when they’re bored

TIL: In Singapore parents can declare their children "beyond parental control". From that point the government will take care of their behavior.

[1] https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/what-is-a-beyo...

AlexTWithBeardon Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

Plane spotting gets a new color with that.

AlexTWithBeardon People behave more sadistically when they’re bored

I do not. But what are the alternatives? Spanking?

AlexTWithBeardon People behave more sadistically when they’re bored

so... what do we do with non-criminals? All the small things like bike theft, not paying child support, fare evasion and urinating in the streets?

For extra credit: assume the offender has no money.

AlexTWithBeardon People behave more sadistically when they’re bored

Without more details it sounds like seeing everything as a nail when having a pet golden hammer.

AlexTWithBeardon Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

That was one of the reasons behind having factory whistles: all workers take their places, the whistle, then the whole thing is started. While it's running people are not supposed to move around.

AlexTWithBeardon Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

In early 20th century in London there was an alternative hydraulic "power grid" with plants (aka pumps), storages and an underground distribution network of pipes. A building, for example, could connect to high pressure water mains and use it to power elevators. Electricity eventually won, but it's interesting to see an idea coming back.

Zeppelins next!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Hydraulic_Power_Company

AlexTWithBeardon Intel removes Xinjiang references from shareholder letter

The same way any cancellation works: refuse to buy stuff made in China. Boycott Amazon until it stops selling Chinese stuff. Don't watch Chinese movies. And so on.

The subject of the cancellation doesn't have to use Twitter. The consumers should - which is perfectly the case here.

AlexTWithBeardon Intel removes Xinjiang references from shareholder letter

They have Twitter here though.

AlexTWithBeardon Intel removes Xinjiang references from shareholder letter

Interesting. China seems to tick all the boxes from human rights to climate change.

How comes it's not cancelled by the Twitter mob yet?

AlexTWithBeardon Big data may not know your name, but it knows everything else

Kinda. I expected some people to leave a good feedback, but theirs was way beyond my expectations.

AlexTWithBeardon New York City will make it mandatory for companies to post salaries on job ads

Not sure why the downvotes.

I used to go through a bunch of H1B paperwork and the salaries listed there were indeed something like $100k-$250k.

I'm pretty sure these numbers were correct: a "senior developer" can be anything from someone who just have hatched form juniors and still struggling to find the way around to a guy with a zero bus-factor who holds the skies in the company.

AlexTWithBeardon Fuck Off Google

Aye, aye. Again "stupid people" just want to live their lives instead of fighting evil Google, evil Wall street, evil oil and car manufacturers lobby and evil <insert your pet peeve here>.

AlexTWithBeardon Big data may not know your name, but it knows everything else

No consequences. There was nothing I didn't know before.

EDIT: I first wanted to say that in any way there would be no consequences, but "there will be no consequences no matter what people write about me" is probably too strong of a statement for anyone to make.

AlexTWithBeardon Big data may not know your name, but it knows everything else

Can confirm.

I used to have a team and at some point they all had to submit their feedback on my performance. The answers were then fed back to me unattributed, but it was pretty obvious who wrote what.

AlexTWithBeardon Once poor, always poor?

I'm not aware of such societies: the whole idea of women not being destined for childbearing is relatively new.

Some countries are firmly on the course though: https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/news-and-press-releases/2020-...

AlexTWithBeardon Once poor, always poor?

I think they're losing to the middle class, yes. Folks like Bezos and Zuckerberg didn't start rich.

AlexTWithBeardon Once poor, always poor?

> if you're a teenage girl, depending on your culture, your family seems to be peer pressuring you to be a mother

Ironically, societies that do not steer girls to parenthood are subject to extinction. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It's just the law of nature.