Hacker News Reader

TheAdamAndCheon U.S. Population Growth, an Economic Driver, Grinds to a Halt

There is a strong connection between genetics and IQ.

TheAdamAndCheon Israeli military search team helped recover majority of Surfside victims

The comment you replied to was hyperbolic, but it has a point. Why are my taxes going towards paying for 30% of Israel's military?? They do nothing to improve the safety and stability of my country, in fact they increase geopolitical tensions.

TheAdamAndCheon Rumbling meteor lights up Norway; part of it may have landed near Oslo

By that definition, would a meteor that vaporizes in our atmosphere before impact just be considered a meteor?

TheAdamAndCheon Pegasus spyware seller: Blame our customers not us for hacking

The real worry from these tools is relative power. A man with a knife can kill a few people. A man with a rifle can kill a few dozen people. A man with a few zero days can cripple infrastructure around the country and cause hundreds if not thousands of deaths. Relative power asymmetries are why nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons are banned by international law.

TheAdamAndCheon Why won’t Americans get vaccinated?

This crossed the line into personal attack. Very not cool.

TheAdamAndCheon On Leaving California and the Silicon Valley

Why? I grew up in a rural area, moved to a city for a few years and hated it, and now live happily in a suburb. I get fresh air, see trees regularly, don't hear neighbors fighting or stomping, and can still drive into the city if/when needed.

TheAdamAndCheon Fed’s Powell expects inflation to stay hot for months

Wages haven't kept pace with productivity since the 70's, largely because of a lack of leverage by employees. Inequality and stagnation have been causing significant pressures, arguably causing the surge in populism in 2016. Why not let employees have leverage for a while?

TheAdamAndCheon Roger Waters – Thoughts on Facebook Ad Offer [video]

The post doesn't contribute to our curiosity, it just triggers our tribal monkey brain and doesn't add anything productive in the process.

TheAdamAndCheon Covid: Children's extremely low risk confirmed by study

Yes, actually. It's pretty great.

TheAdamAndCheon Covid: Children's extremely low risk confirmed by study

I haven't found anywhere that is largely unbiased nowadays. I subscribe to a single mailing list that emails me news cliffnotes every day, but nowadays I'm largely unplugged.

TheAdamAndCheon Pro-Trump social media app hacked on launch day as half million sign up

Yet the BLM riots and the politicians who praised them got a pass.

TheAdamAndCheon A Twitter addict realizes she needs rehab

If it's that important, either I'll get an emergency broadcast text or it won't be televised. Otherwise, a family member will call me or I'll hear about it from other people.

TheAdamAndCheon Health insurers are threatening not to cover some patients’ ER bills

There's more than one major political issue in the country, and only so much political capital that we can focus.

TheAdamAndCheon John Lewis slams UK education system and offers staff literacy lessons

For most people, math and writing aren't part of their jobs. Skills that aren't used aren't remembered.

I've seen this in myself. In high school, I got up to precalculus level math. I've been trying to relearn it, and when I started, I was amazed that I'd forgotten Algebra 2 level skills.

TheAdamAndCheon Pinterest bans all weight loss ads

Shame and disgust in myself drove a massive amount of weight loss. I feel better and am far more fit now.

Given America's obesity epidemic, it's sad to me that they are focusing on a small percentage of people with such issues.

TheAdamAndCheon Judge dismisses FTC and state antitrust complaints against Facebook

The difference between Coke and Pepsi is marketing and flavor, but they directly compete in the same market. The products they have are virtually the same, only minor differences.

The product differences between, say, Facebook and YouTube are night and day. You wouldn't add an acquaintance on YouTube and start messaging them through that platform. I'm not sure you can even message people like that on it anymore. But you can on Facebook. They're fundamentally different products, they only align because they both have some sort of social aspect to them. Kind of.

TheAdamAndCheon Judge dismisses FTC and state antitrust complaints against Facebook

Thinking of Facebook merely as a consumer platform seems overly broad to me. Each of those are social networks, but they fill a particular niche in the social experience. YouTube is for asynchronous videos from people you generally don't directly know, Reddit is for pseudoanonymous communities, etc.

Facebook's niche is in one-to-many communication with people you directly know. It's also arguably one of the stickiest forms of social network because of the strength of its network effects. There is very little real competition in that niche.

TheAdamAndCheon Social Arbitrage: The New New Path to Abnormal Returns (2007)

That's interesting! Something I noticed:

> During the first dotcom bubble, we had lots of startups run by MBAs that were getting trounced by the competition run by hackers. Today, the dotcoms run by guys who only hack are going to be trounced by the startups that also understand social systems.

Are we starting to see this in Google? Google+ was a complete failure, and they are eroding their PR with frequent shutdown of social tools. I am still bitter about the shutdown of Hangouts, which I used all the time.

TheAdamAndCheon Draft UN climate report warns of drastic changes over 30 years

Only if it makes economic sense or improves their quality of life will the rich countries adopt green energy massively. We need to subsidize, develop, and deploy cheap forms of nuclear that scale well. Small Modular Reactors have me hopeful. Thorium is promising, but still has difficulties to overcome. Without mass nuclear development, I don't see how we will adapt fast enough.

TheAdamAndCheon John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27609346

He's also indicated much more recently that any "suicide" wouldn't be such.

TheAdamAndCheon John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

Though it is also highly notable that he publicly posted "I'm not going to kill myself, and if I do then I was probably assassinated" before his death.

TheAdamAndCheon Linux Foundation to ban non-vaccinated people at their events

That's a good argument before the vaccine was released. Now the vaccine is available to all who want it. Only those who don't want it remain. Why should they be shamed and forced to take something that is only available because of an emergency use authorization?

TheAdamAndCheon Linux Foundation to ban non-vaccinated people at their events

Or you can just treat the unvaccinated like adults and let them behave as their own risk tolerance allows. That means no required masks, social distancing, or security theater like individually portioned food.

High freedom, high liberty, high choice

TheAdamAndCheon Rhode island makes financial literacy classes required for high school students

I was required to pass a personal finance class in high school, it resonated with me, and I am far more comfortable than most people my age. A class may not resonate with every person, but for those who take the lessons to heart and grasp the incredible potential of exponential growth, it will be absolutely life changing.

TheAdamAndCheon Troubled teens left traumatised by tough love camps

Yes to all of that, but it's tangential to the main topic here.

TheAdamAndCheon Troubled teens left traumatised by tough love camps

My statement on the feminization of society doesn't come from trauma. Global testosterone levels have been dropping for decades[1]. You can see it in old pictures: men were less fat, more competitive, and happier. Rates of sex and relationships among men and young boys have dropped precipitously.

Speaking anecdotally, I feel most fulfilled when I embrace my masculine side and focus it on positive pursuits. Competition, pursuit of status, and power can all be good things if focused. This event unlocked that in me and helped me live a more fulfilled life I'm the long run.

In fact, your response is exactly what I'm talking about. Productive masculine behavior is shamed nowadays. That's sad to me.

[1] https://carraghermethod.com/the-hard-truth-for-men-declining...

TheAdamAndCheon Troubled teens left traumatised by tough love camps

When growing up as a teenage male, there was a turning point in my mental development. I was sitting in class cracking jokes when this jerk kid stood up and punched me in the back of the head. I didn't know how to respond, so I just sat there. I was an out of shape kid who would have definitely lost.

That event changed me. In the weeks and months ahead, anger and shame in my response led to a focused and intentional mental and physical development. I started exercising, eating better, and learning how to fight. I developed social responses that helped me become better respected and less manipulated, and changed from a rotund pushover to a normal male.

Our society has changed massively over the decades, and one of the biggest changes I've seen is that it's become significantly more feminized, but I think it's important to acknowledge that some things that work for feminine young women won't necessarily work for masculine young men. I think that tough love programs exist because many men who go there and run the place went through similar experiences as me. If the stress is handled adaptively and not maladaptively, it can be a motivator for positive change while dealing with our weaknesses.

TheAdamAndCheon Mars helicopter employs advanced control techniques to survive in-flight anomaly

It's funny/amazing to me how we lived without GPS for thousands of years, but it's become so integral to our society that it's one of the first things we're setting up there before visiting.

TheAdamAndCheon Why more women identify as sexually fluid than men

> It would just reinforce the belief that the original term was nothing but a slur against masculinity as a whole

That's how people use it, and that's how it's interpreted by normal people.

> That almost no one seems willing to even assume that modicum of good faith suggests it doesn't matter what terms you use, the premise will be rejected anyway.

When dealing with large groups of people, pragmatism runs paces around accuracy. I really do understand what you're saying, but trying to change pedestrian interpretations of words with multiple legitimate interpretations is like yelling into the wind. The pragmatic choice would be to change the language so that people stop arguing about the language and focus instead on the core concept.

If you are a domain expert talking with domain experts, then jargon is good and makes communication more efficient. When dealing with everyday people, it gets more difficult.

TheAdamAndCheon Why more women identify as sexually fluid than men

Language really matters and changes over time. The term "moron" shifted to "retard," then to "mentally disabled." These shifts occurred because the vernacular use of the term became drastically different from the technical term. They became loaded with negative connotations.

The same has occurred with both feminism and toxic masculinity. While the technical terms may be narrow and egalitarian in goal, the vernacular usage has shifted their de facto definitions to be "female empowerment" and "masculinity is bad." You can fight this all you want, but I personally think it would be a better move to just find a new term for the technical definition of "toxic masculinity," because as I mentioned above, it does reference something real that needs to be addressed.

To be honest, I think an altogether new word that isn't a linguistic compound[1] and is narrowly defined as the negative aspects of stereotypically masculine behavior would be the best way to avoid miscommunication.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_%28linguistics%29?wpr...