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hessenwolfon The Death of the Party

"In August 1993, the phrase Generation Y first appeared in an Ad Age editorial to describe those who were aged 11 or younger as well as the teenagers of the upcoming ten years who Ad Age defined as different from Generation X.[6] Since then, the company has sometimes used 1982 as the starting birth year.[7] According to Horovitz, in 2012, Ad Age "threw in the towel by conceding that Millennials is a better name than Gen Y",[1] and by 2014, a past director of data strategy at Ad Age said to NPR "the Generation Y label was a placeholder until we found out more about them".[8]"

hessenwolfon The Death of the Party

I was going to ask, but I figured I'd google it.

"Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends. Most researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s."

hessenwolfon The Case for More Traffic Roundabouts

Somebody gave me the argument in NASA that the US didn't switch metric because the cost would be too high because they are so big. Ireland and UK have gone metric in our lifetimes.

I mean, there are lazy people throwing out platitudes to justify doing nothing wherever you go.

hessenwolfon PostgreSQL Magic

Cool.

hessenwolfon A United States of Europe? Good Luck

Which makes it such a dreadful pity that die Mutti chose to go unilateral (whether she meant the broad invite or not, it was understood that way). The trick to having great power is not using it, until you really need it. She really shat the bed on this, and we will see the repercussions.

In the space of two weeks, many of us have gone from lifelong EU supporters to anti-Schengen. I'm upset.

hessenwolfon PostgreSQL Magic

Do you mean Postgres's implementation of Excel pivot tables? ;)

hessenwolfon The Internet of Way Too Many Things

It remains unexplained but things are correlated with it, and possibly have an unexplained causal effect.

hessenwolfon The Internet of Way Too Many Things

It's not 'unfair'. (are you implying I was unduly harsh on the gent?)

Let's take sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Because of SIDS, it is now recommended in the videos I watched yesterday, that infants be put down on their backs with no pillows in the parents' bedroom but not in their bed. This has no bearing on prenatal care or wealth, but has an effect, which could probably be enhanced by a smart baby monitor.

hessenwolfon The Internet of Way Too Many Things

http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=infant-child-and-teen...

Looks to me like infant mortality (under age one) has halved between 1977 and 2013. I understand the argument of "it worked fine for me", but, well, on a portfolio basis, you and I were dying a bit faster back then.

Outpatient care is a big field these days. Something that, with extremely little effort, can reduce the odds of death or disability, is quite tempting. A smart nappy/diaper with a disposable nutrition-analysing smart-chip is not that far off.

hessenwolfon Better and worse ways to spot a liar

But they tested it with fake liars, who, in my humble opinion, are less likely to exhibit emotions, and more likely to be too lazy to come up with good details on the fly for back stories.

Maybe it is just me that is sweatier and wilier when stressed.

hessenwolfon Solitary Confinement Is Cruel and All Too Common

1% of people in America are in jail. I don't know what is illegal. That is way outside of my risk management zone.

hessenwolfon Scientists discover the world contains dramatically more trees than was thought

Doesn't it seem that acreage is more relevant?

(I didn't read the article)

hessenwolfon Regretting the Golden Handcuffs: Beware the Costs of Burnout

I'll not lie, I'm a 14, 14, 6, 4 kinda guy. Then Friday through Sunday is for playing, thinking, and reading, but mostly meeting up with people to exchange ideas, potentially with beer.

hessenwolfon Why It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice

Multiple plan b's, sadly with a correlation of their go-bust probability of 1 in a scenario of economic stress, unless they are really diversified.

hessenwolfon Why It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice

Anecdotally, I don't agree with the hypothesis that culture fit means they want to hire nice people. I've worked in a few places where people needed to be, for example, tough, tricky, bitchy, to survive.

I think part of the reason I got my job is because I euphemistically referred to "successfully implementing technical solutions in a complex political environment", and everybody knew exactly what I was talking about.

hessenwolfon A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

It depends on a few other factors, among which are wind and humidity. -18 C in Munich is lovely for a stroll. 8 C on the west coast of Ireland is omfg.

hessenwolfon Online Lender Social Finance’s Latest Fundraising Implies $4B Valuation

Paywall.

hessenwolfon G is for Google

Alphabet just sounds evil, a bit like Umbrella Corp, E-Corp, etc. I am not a fan of the name.

hessenwolfon Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

Ha ha. Good one. In theory, yes. In practice, they don't for many reasons. Cross border business is still hella complex for insurance in Europe.

Source: People pay me to do that stuff.

hessenwolfon IKEA Gets Deeper into the Woods

Tell that to the supply line risk manager at Boeing or Airbus. They might look like they are not vertically integrated, but the level of control they have muddies the water.

hessenwolfon Using Windows 10? Microsoft is watching

How is the largest worldwide software roll-out, that happens to be the most important (debatable) operating system, not interesting on a daily basis?

hessenwolfon Ask HN: Does disrupt mean unnerve established player, so player must buy you?

Any examples for the latter?

hessenwolfon Teeth Whitening and the Hygiene Hypothesis

I do think it should be a personal decision. Also, euthanasia is certainly not preventable (I think of a certain gentleman that took the bottom of the river approach).

I have seen a few old people live beyond their time and wait for death though. It is quite harsh and undignified. "I am just so tired and I want to go."

hessenwolfon Ask HN: Does disrupt mean unnerve established player, so player must buy you?

Okay, so it certainly does not 'only' mean that. I am thinking a lot of the insurance industry, e.g, the wifi toothbrush (http://beamtoothbrush.com/). This is what started my train of thought.

When venture capitalists look at exit strategies, one strong possibility is to threaten to take market share, even unprofitably, from a cash-rich incumbent.

hessenwolfon Teeth Whitening and the Hygiene Hypothesis

Due to "rectangularisation of the survival curve", probably not (there appears to be a max age of around 110). Current rates are 3 months more life expectancy per calendar year. However, in the US and various other places the improvement is seriously wobbling due to wobbly bellies.

hessenwolfon Teeth Whitening and the Hygiene Hypothesis

Yes. Hopefully euthanasia will be a thing should I reach the decrepit stage. One last party (perhaps with a bit of morphine), followed by drifting to an infinite sleep... sounds fairly dignified.

hessenwolfon Teeth Whitening and the Hygiene Hypothesis

Let's say the treatment guarantees until life expectancy of 88, ignoring a few details. Do we say that 28 years of life is worth the same as 58 years of life, keeping in mind budget is fixed?

hessenwolfon Teeth Whitening and the Hygiene Hypothesis

The NHS approach of putting monetary value on a year of life and comparing the drug costs to that is a good approach to reducing the spend on tired old bod's.

hessenwolfon Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture

I didn't until the Americans told me it was a significant problem. I was a bit surprised. Minneapolis.

hessenwolfon Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture

This doesn't sound hugely informed. I spent the evening discussing this yesterday with Americans in a beer garden in Munich.

Actually, more than the working conditions, the Americans didn't want to go back because of the guns.