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frikskit

127 karma · joined December 30, 2022

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frikskit··on Is mathematics about to enter the conservatory?
Assuming they work 40 hours a week. Do they?

Maybe I’m just off the mark but this doesn’t seem like the kind of job you clock in at 9 and stay till 5.

frikskit··on Isar Aerospace reaches orbit and deploys payloads on second flight
That was not a useful metaphor, but by all means try again (if you want) and teach us something interesting (and concrete) based on your unique experience.
frikskit··on Why some US restaurants are banning tips
While I very much agree with your sentiment and to be honest I prefer dining in the USA, it’s naive to think (in most cases) that they actually care about anything other than getting you out of the restaurant as soon as possible to work a new party.

Of course, there’s a bit of future optimization where they want you as a repeat customer, but that manifests in pretending they don’t want you out, not actually feeling that way. It makes sense - a rational revenue maximizing business does want you out but they need to pretend they don’t. The veneer is thin in many cases (though it varies by establishment). Personally, I’d prefer the incentives aligned with being a bit more straightforward, down to earth and without fake flattery.

I remember I had a meal once as a group of 5 about 10 years ago at a beachfront restaurant in Boca. At this group size a tip of 18% was added by default. Our waiter had been so cloying and over the top, calling us friends, etc. When the bill came and I didn’t tip anything other than 18% the waiter started shouting from across the room and made physical contact with me because he thought I hadn’t tipped. It was really a horrible experience, but very telling.

frikskit··on Why some US restaurants are banning tips
It’s not surprising to anyone that two random Spaniards may disagree on whether a number like this is high or low. That’s because Spaniards don’t all get together to agree on a common position for online posting; and because high/low depends on the context and comparison to other countries.

Spain’s gini coefficient indicates it is much more equal than USA, but not as equal as, say, Denmark.

frikskit··on S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic
You’re right but this chain of reasoning is irrelevant/missing the important point.

You don’t need to track index X to be affected by changes in X. You only need to hold something related to X. Almost all pension funds, heck almost every investment account in the world holds something affected by some index.

frikskit··on S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic
If you think seasoning windows don’t matter and pre ipo price signal is already great, true and fair, explain Cerebras price after IPO in the midst of one of the biggest sectoral bull runs in history.
frikskit··on S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic
So what that it’s total market? We must be talking about different issues. The main issue for me is that the seasoning window was reduced. Of course eventually spcx should be included, I’m not arguing against that (and I haven’t heard anyone else argue that convincingly or at all either).

If everyone expected the price of the stock to remain the same or higher after the seasoning windows then why were those with the most to lose if it did not, lobby so hard to change the rules?

Also, what do you mean the 0.3% thing never happened? The ipo hasn’t happened yet, so obviously the index rebalance hasn’t happened.

frikskit··on S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic
It’s not just Nasdaq-100 it’s Russell indices too, which are way bigger by the way (not that it matters).

Regarding misplaced corruption allegations. Virtually everywhere it is illegal to both give a bribe as to receive a bribe. It’s not just Musk et al who should be called out.

As for the unnamed sources doing the scaremongering, it seems you should be calling those specific people out instead of downplaying this whole issue. You’re dismissing the argument not on its merits but because some people argue for it badly.

frikskit··on S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic
But… it’s not just nasdaq it’s Russell indices too.
frikskit··on S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic
What was unlikely to happen? It already happened in Nasdaq. It’s nice that it didn’t for S&P but for most investors it already did happen, so I’m not sure the ‘whatever’ attitude is warranted.

Also, since when is it appropriate/intellectually OK to respond to allegations of corruption by saying ‘stop freaking out, it’s only a small amount of corruption PER PERSON’.

frikskit··on The Classic American Diner
94K GDP/Capita for US is wildly off it’s around 66K.
frikskit··on Michelangelo's first painting, created when he was 12 or 13
You shouldn’t be getting downvoted. If people would read the article they’d see it’s not an original.
frikskit··on EU household real income per capita up 22% since 2004
No. Since 2004. Since 1955 it’s way more than 22%.
frikskit··on EU household real income per capita up 22% since 2004
By “flat” you mean “similar” ?Because your link shows approx 22% increase.
frikskit··on EU household real income per capita up 22% since 2004
Good point. It would be sufficient for there simply to have been an increase in % of households where both parents work. That can lead to fewer hours worked per employee, low productivity growth, and increase in household income.
frikskit··on EU household real income per capita up 22% since 2004
Hours worked for full time employees in EU apparently has been falling year over year since at least 2013. Maybe it has increased for part timers though?

Not sure how to square that with the fact that there’s been low productivity growth since 2008.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser and either search or use data code tps00071

frikskit··on World Economic Forum: Top Emerging Technologies of 2025
I don’t understand your point about them being economists? How could anyone, economist or not, make a statement on future unexpected developments?
frikskit··on We're learning more about what Vitamin D does
With so much of the UK with living with unspecified malaise, some significant part of which likely contributing to their low employment participation rate, I suspect giving everyone vitamin D would be very cost effective.
frikskit··on Brain has five 'eras' with adult mode not starting until early 30s
Can you elaborate on the last point? As someone going through a very hard time with my wife at the moment I’d love any words of wisdom.
frikskit··on Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws
Europe does have Microsoft. Actually, it has Microsoft in almost every single respect except the primary beneficial ones: taxes, employment and oversight.
frikskit··on Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
Well America is pretty freaking cool, so I guess I don’t blame them.
frikskit··on Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
Net migration US/Ireland is positive to Ireland.

UK numbers yes, though maybe gloomy weather plays a role? Just kidding. That said, Brits are slightly more likely to move to Spain than US despite it being a tiny country in comparison and not necessarily easier to move to after Brexit.

Spain, not sure. It’s tricky to compare since non immigrant Spanish speaking population in US is probably significantly lower than Spaniards speaking English. But yeah, you probably have a point on that one.

frikskit··on Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
Would it? People don’t exclusively learn English to migrate to the US.

What language do you think Germans and Spaniards use to do commerce with each other? There needs to be a common language, there’s no bandwidth to learn all languages, so due to historical and modern reasons, English prevailed.

Re Australia, Australians have highly preferential options to move to US which is not reciprocated.

frikskit··on Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
High fractions of Europeans speak English, eg Poland has 50% of population speaking English (for those of working age it’s probably much higher) whereas the fractions of Americans speaking non-English European languages is much lower (0.25% for Americans speaking Polish).

If 50% of Americans spoke Polish by the shake of a wand, I bet there’d be more Americans in Poland than Poles in Poland.

frikskit··on Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML
Are the papers useful/impactful or does the EU just blindly throw money at scammers with PhDs?
frikskit··on Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything
So industrialization is a binary bit? You just “do” it and it’s over? Not a very convincing take imo.

Industrialization, like deindustrialization, is a continuous process. Every industry suffers from depreciation and decay which means that pace of industrialization per unit time matters.

frikskit··on Did California's fast food minimum wage reduce employment?
Thanks, yes, I was trying to show how the alternative is absurd
frikskit··on Did California's fast food minimum wage reduce employment?
Why not set very low maximum wage ceilings and have 100% employment? /s
frikskit··on Did California's fast food minimum wage reduce employment?
Small decrease in employment in exchange for ~25% higher wages for those employed? Did I get that right? Obviously every single row in the dataset is a unique human, but overall sounds like a big success?
frikskit··on The US stops sharing air quality data from embassies worldwide
Redo your analysis with something less absurd than 8%. For example 4.5% and you see no improvement in 100 years. 5% growth and it takes 59 years.

Historically major tax cuts in the US increased GDP growth by -1 to 1.5%.

You bring up a good point but in all realistic scenarios it actually misleads.

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