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homme

71 karma · joined December 28, 2008

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homme··on Japan's Universities Are Failing
I spent a thanksgiving back in junior year with a japanese student (along with a jewish bro) in my american uni smoking chronic and covering led zepplin guitar in between turkey eating. Japan needs to send more college students to the US.
homme··on Wall Street’s Brain Drain Defense
It's stunning that someone in Florida can live off of the profits of mines in Madagascar, fast-food restaurants in California, steel mills in South Korea, and insurance companies in Connecticut, all without spending more than half an hour a week reading brokerage statements.

Really, now, is that all it takes? Well, then, we all know what to do from here on out.

homme··on What I've Learned from Hacker News
What effect has it had on you as far as going from just posting an essay to posting an essay and having it deconstructed? Has instant criticism made you more reticent in what you say, or even annoyed?
homme··on The Eligible Bachelor Paradox
My sampling of Jersey was high school and my early twenties, so I have an especially bad memory of the area.

There was also a completely irrational market and bid up of low quality stuff due to shortages. The attitudes are proportionally high-maintenance. It is a very bad place for a young man to be. Avoid it at all costs. The only place I can think of that could be worse is possibly silicon valley.

As far as the Pacific NW, I don't know much of it and what the prevailing attitudes are. I'm guessing the distance from NY can't be a bad thing and you are more likely to run into females with a more naturalistic, feminine affect. Never been there though, so I am not the man to ask.

I'm dead serious about the dilution hit. Something happens around 30 that suddenly puts you incredibly at ease at the same time that the women are getting more anxious. Also, the younger ones (early 20s) start making themselves more available. I can't tell you how many propositions I have gotten from women who wouldn't look at me once in high school. The funny thing is, when you don't need them, the options keep increasing.

homme··on The Eligible Bachelor Paradox
You are dead on about Europe and NJ. Nothing worse than Jersey dumpster diving, especially when you are unaware that is what you are doing.

Some friends of mine went to Europe and came back with 10s, all of them. The most shocking thing they told me was that to talk to women there...you don't even have to have anyththing, you can just be you

Unfortunately, I learned too late. For all the young college guys out there having a hard time, take heed. You get a dilution hit cashing out now, just hold onto your stock and ride it through. Time is on your side.

homme··on Ubuntu 9.10 is named Karmic Koala, promises to bring boot time under 25sec
I purged my dell laptop of xp and installed ubuntu over it. Love everything about it except the loss of wireless. It even gave me 9 extra gigs on my hard disk, 6 more than the advertised disk space!

If the linux community could step it up on the driver front for wireless cards it would be a beautiful thing.

homme··on Why the Smart VCs Are Boarding their Jets
you can't use books to make clean water, except by ripping out pages and using them as water filters

I think you would do better by using books as kindling to boil water, killing any latent bacteria.

homme··on Has human evolution stopped?
No argument there.
homme··on The Human Obsession With "Formal Proofs" is a Waste of Time
The maniacal obsession with unassailable formal proof gives mathematics its credibility, above all else. There is a lesson here for all other endeavors that seek truth: Rigor uber alles. Take nothing for granted.
homme··on Has human evolution stopped?
every time a human being does not get offspring because his/her desired mate gets snagged by a more appealing specimen that's evolution in progress

No, that would be natural selection. The two are different, keep in mind.

homme··on I was driven mad by the Chinese education system
Sure, makes some sense. What interesting questions/problems are you looking at these days?
homme··on I was driven mad by the Chinese education system
Sounds like a great method to produce a mechanic but not a creator, i.e. an American Idol winner rather than a Bob Dylan.
homme··on The Open-Door Bailout
Democracy has always been non-rational

Seeing the US House of Representatives in action recently seems to support this statement. What alternatives do you propose?

homme··on ConnectU Spills Value of Facebook Deal: $65M
So it's $65 million if you believe that Facebook is worth $15 billion.

I don't. Why should anyone?

homme··on Trying to Live on 500K in New York City
Cripe, more than the US president less all the attendant duties. A functionary making that much...obligatory greenspun (nsfw) http://philip.greenspun.com/school/tuition-free-mit.html
homme··on [dead]
Thanks, you didn't come across harsh at all. I cringe on re-reading that comment and wish it could be purged, but sometimes we have to live with our actions...best, regardless.
homme··on Technology is Heroin
people are accomplishing absolutely zero in their lives so they need the fake feeling of accomplishment and respect from hitting level 60 in WoW. If we re-engineer society so that people actually have an opportunity to make friends, do productive work, get exercise

Someone has taken your (and DanielBMarkhams) arguments to their logical consequences...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=472731

homme··on Technology is Heroin
And what does it matter? Oh, are there consequences...

http://cyber.eserver.org/unabom.txt

homme··on [dead]
No, I was apologizing for an offensive post I made awhile back.
homme··on How We Kill Geniuses
Further, how is an orthodoxy/political belief murderous? I thought only people could commit murder.
homme··on [dead]
So a muslim, atheist, and former christian preacher turned atheist walk into a debate hall...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oocFLfoT0Q4
homme··on [dead]
Why does this worry you so?
homme··on [dead]
Sorry, yters. No harm intended.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=430118

homme··on Why Your Startup Shouldn't Copy 37signals or Fog Creek
This has to be a record for single comment upmods. Well deserved though, by a solid community contributor.
homme··on Carly Fiorina: Government shouldn't decide executive pay
Deleveraging and conservative restructuring may work for a commercial bank, but not the hybrid commercial and investment banks that we're talking about here.

AFAIK, Morgan and Goldman are now commercial banks and restructured to this form to stay alive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/23wall.html

These companies are involved in many diverse business lines and, bungling in the mortgage-backed business aside, many of these businesses are hugely profitable.

Is this legal since they are now commercial banks? Do you have any citations on these hugely profitable non-core businesses? At any rate, gains from trading desks will be seriously diminished by holding/leverage requirements.

If a trader makes $30 million in this way, he is in a position to demand, say, $5 million to $10 million or he will be happy to join a different firm that will pay him that amount.

Do you have any stats on any member of the trading desks of these firms doing these types of numbers? Further, is it reasonable to assume these traders can continue to be as productive in this leveraging/financial climate? Is the current market for that talent still as strong?

homme··on Carly Fiorina: Government shouldn't decide executive pay
Who is this talent? Name them. What have they done/are doing that their leaving any of these companies will cause a greater apocalypse? What crucial functions do they serve that make them irreplaceable?
homme··on Carly Fiorina: Government shouldn't decide executive pay
I don't know. Steve has excellent empathic design acumen and taste, but do you think thats whats required to stop making dumb loans and restructure and write off bad debt?

Not saying he couldn't do it, but the skill sets seem orthogonal.

The crux of my argument is the refutation that you need someone of that caliber to do what appears to be pragmatic banking and risk management.

homme··on Carly Fiorina: Government shouldn't decide executive pay
Instead, you will be stuck with the incompetents who got you into the situation in the first place and are just happy to keep their jobs, multi-million/billion dollar pay cut or not.

Or clearly superior talent like John Thain, et al.

Do you seriously mean to imply that there are no individuals out there making less than 500k per annum who could not pull off a deleveraging and conservative restructuring of a business? No one?

Who are these individuals who will work for no less than several million per annum who have pulled off such miracles that no mere person earning less than half a million per year at the moment clearly outclass?

Certainly they have not been at the helm of any financial institution I am aware of. Hell, I nominate mynameishere for one of the positions, as he seems to have a clearer grasp than most of the idiots at the helm last go-round:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=308425

And he probably is available for 500k/yr.

homme··on Still Doing the Math, But for 100K A Year
This was textbook destruction of a poorly argued line of reasoning. Hope to see a lot more of you around here, the BS needs to be called out on the regular.
homme··on Confirmed: Apple and Adobe Collaborating on iPhone Flash
Certainly not. I stand corrected, codeview.

Every time I read 'iPhone' I get a reflexive reaction to a closed, evil gatekeeper keeping me from doing what I want to on the plaform, and projected that onto Adobe. My bad.

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