cooolbear

> Instead of simple, readable text-based menus, icons everywhere because they are "more intuitive". Navigation aids because, otherwise, "users get lost".

I'm not especially dumb but after they dropped "hamburger button" I think it took me about 10 years to ever look for the "hamburger button" for basic functionality, especially on non-touch devices.

What horrors lie beneath the hamburger? What void of regular function could there be?

The studies you link to about Parkinson's do not support and/or contradict what you say here

> One product of mine takes reports that come in as a table that’s been exported to PDF

Here's the first problem!

I can't believe actual businesses think that a report is anything other than for human eyes to look at. Typesetting (and report generation) is for presentation, and otherwise data should be treated like data.

I mean it's a different story if the product is like "we can help process your historical, improperly-formatted documents", but if it's from someone continually generating reports, somebody really should step in and make things more... computational.

No one got hurt

Nice try, but getting 10,000 people to dig holes (e.g. gigantic infrastructure projects) ends up costing much more than what it takes for "one guy" to "design a microchip"

You might be really missing the point here in simply echoing the conventional wisdom of the last 100 years

I think they've grown up already awoken to it

look before you leap my friend

> Just more evidence pointing to the glaring truth that the mind arises from the brain, and that if there is anything like a soul then it disintegrates away within minutes, hours, and days after cessation of cardio-respiratory processes.

Is it ...?

I'm surprised that the definition of 'community' he uses here so strongly revolves around a shared identity and activity, and that what is shared is what defines a community.

For one, I don't really think communities where people share the same interests or ritual really does the trick, otherwise so-called YouTube 'communities' or Twitch stream 'communities' or even strangers you play games with online would be all that's needed. In those cases, whether it happens in real life or online wouldn't really matter. I think some people can tick all the boxes he has here with an online group and still feel lonely from it. Some people still feel lonely going to church every Sunday.

There certainly needs to be a common thread--that's what you get out of place-based communities, for example: we all experience the same weather--but what I feel really combats loneliness and creates belonging is having to connect with people that are different you and, importantly, to witness and connect with people because of their difference, and that these connections are made because you have no choice. The richness and complexity of life and all of the kinds of sorrows and joys that you get to see and relate to yourself and relate to others is what is sorely missing from incidental, emergent, real-life community. I suppose I'm basically just describing the Breakfast Club experience.

Like kids don't feel lonely because there isn't an authority figure around that can boss them around. That makes for a more ... socially conditioned ...? person, and maybe a wiser, more carefully-guided person, but not necessarily a less lonely person. It's not the bossing around that makes them feel like they're in a community, it's the fact that there is someone with a different experience with whom they share some connection, and it's a coincidence that it's an authoratative one.

So their politics on freedom and privacy of blah blah blah non-cohesive ideology doesn't correlate with their actual stance on crypto. A politician being pro-crypto does, however, tell me that they are dumb enough to be duped/greedy enough to be paid into wasting time giving lip service to something that, regardless of ideology, is actually completely worthless.

Why is it so hard to make software developer jobs that are humane and dignified, where you cooperate with people to make interesting and useful things that also provide a decent living? The bloat of VC and the expectation for company profit and 'generated wealth per worker' has such terrible implications for salaries and expected duties.

Ah! It's greed once again!

wh-questions are different than polar questions, and in particular, saying "no" is infelicitous in most cases, and denying presuppositions is also different than answering a polar question with "no".

From the Washington Post: Does sister need to know her abusive husband is why they stay away? Do landlords have to provide AC? Is your lamp the right size?

The law also doesn't seem to work quite as well when the verb is a modal (e.g. should, can, could, ...).

> Over 92% of Americans have health coverage.

How many choose to use it, though, and specifically, how many are afraid to use it because of cost? I'd count "waiting for an appointment/life to line up to see someone 'in network'" that as "lucky enough to get treatment"

> I can also see practically any specialist next week....

It can be similarly the case in Canada if you pay out-of-pocket or with private insurance or travel, and people do the same in the US too.

> Then why are there stories of Canadians crossing the border to seek care in the US?

Because they got the scrap to pay for it and they can't quite get what they're looking for in Canada. There are private clinics here, too, where you can pay out-of-pocket or maybe with private insurance for treatment where you haven't gotten a referral from your family doctor (PCP), but if you're looking for something specific and fast, you're in basically the same boat as any American.

For example, my wife got a referral from our family doctor to what would basically be some local ENT for surgery on something that wasn't at all life-threatening but still needed to be dealt with. I'm pretty sure people from all over Canada come to see him and he's internationally-renowned, which I've gathered from him being out of the office for a few weeks to work out in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He's got all these plaques on his wall for teaching at the university here here and in Saudi Arabia and such. I'm sure he is the cream-of-the-crop given that he's going to the other side of the world to do his thing. He just happened to be the guy that she got to see with just regular provincial health insurance. Also a totally lovely dude.

Compare this, too, to the the whole debacle about Americans having to buy Canadian insulin ...

> I work with some Canadians in Toronto. They’re always complaining how terribly slow and inefficient their healthcare system is.

Well, it is slow and inefficient compared to most things when people expect to get everything on-demand, and it is probably worth complaining about. I'm pretty sure it's mainly because there's a doctor shortage crisis here and there's a lot of factors that go into why that's the case. But having grown up in the states where my family had very little money and I didn't go to the doctor at all for probably 10 years, I'm very glad to be here and get to go to the doctor at all.

> I am by no means defending the US healthcare system as good. It’s not - it’s terrible.

No worries--just saying that it can be hard to weigh salary vs. amenities (or necessities?!) and especially that things can be better than they are in the US :)

> I just wish that those here that want to see it improved/reformed would look across the Pacific, not the Atlantic (or the northern border) for what a truly good healthcare system looks like.

For sure. Now I'm curious about how it works and if there are any issues in funding or doctor supply like there are uh ... everywher eelse

Aside from the usury of US healthcare, even with insurance from your employer, dealing with the healthcare in Canada is a dream to the US. You might have to wait to see a doctor (most people probably still have to wait in the US if you're lucky enough to get treatment), but there's essentially no fight with layers and layers of occult insurance for anything you get a referral from a doctor for. No surprise or hidden 'networks' to speak of. I think that people who are fine with US healthcare don't really realize how incredibly inefficient and harmful it is to be so uncertain about whether or not insurance will cover your treatment.

Exactly what I was thinking. I'm really looking forward to when the second read-through will call to me and what I'll get out of it then

"Generate wealth" means "make somebody's number go up" i.e. allocating real resources/capital somewhere, with the assumption that 1. allocating that capital creates a net boon for society and 2. those who have "generated wealth" are wise and competent investors/leaders and their investments will create a net boon elsewhere. The first point is probably not especially true very often in contemporary tech (other than 'job creation') and is arguably not true for advertisement. The second point is not really a given at all and seems to be pretty consistently shown otherwise.

false equivalency

I don't think like this and no one really thinks like this. It is a shallow analysis that can only really be done after the fact and is, at best, a curiosity

I don't think it's especially helpful to use this kind of "let's look at an infinite timeline/every possible outcome" type of reasoning. What if a region's local economy crashes and there are no more cars or pedestrians? Those bollards sure seem like a waste of money now! What if? What if?

There's no algorithm to make this decision. It is best to do it iteratively, intelligently, and wisely. You use a bit of science and statistics, read the room to make a vibes-based analysis of what people want, present the public with a proposal that matches their principles with your own principles, and to finally look at the results after some time. You mention yourself what is basically the 'optimal engineering outcome' is apparently to eliminate pedestrians altogether. If that's what engineering wants, then engineering is wrong.