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michaeldhopkinson At 20 Amazon is bulking up. It is not yet slowing down

DE Shaw is a quant firm and tends to hire out of STEM fields, not arts like business.

michaeldhopkinson What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?

That's not true. I have the experiences of having prepared taxes professionally and counting and reporting donations at a church. By combining those I can observe that the majority of donations are proportional to income, not whether the donator can fill out a Schedule A. (The ability to fill out a Schedule A and deduct donations essentially depends on whether the taxpayer has a mortgage, for middle class.)

michaeldhopkinson How To Survive A Death March

I think the author of the article used it intentionally. The premise of the article is that sometimes developers find themselves having to or choosing to do a death march despite knowing it's unsustainable long-term, and there are ways to make the death march more productive and mitigate the negative effects.

michaeldhopkinson Is delphi dying?

I know a couple of Delphi developers; good developers. I don't think that they would recommend learning the language today because the number of legacy systems still in Delphi are declining, few new projects use Delphi, and while there are web frameworks, app development frameworks, etc., they really only exist to help existing developers and are not remarkable enough to be worth learning the language.

michaeldhopkinson Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism

Germany has not had nearly the problems with homeschooling that you imagine. Its prosecution of homeschooling families has been appalling, though. Seizing children (at gunpoint) and forcing them to go to a public school against their parents' wishes, and not allowing the family to leave the country, is not healthy for the children, the parents, the classmates or the country.

michaeldhopkinson Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism

I think it actually has a good reputation here. The people who seriously oppose it today either are committed to mandatory state education for political reasons or have not met many homeschoolers. Most of the hard political battles about the right to homeschool were won 20-30 years ago. Most public and private schools have programs or arrangements for homeschooling families that wish to take some classes or enroll in some extra-curricular programs, as do junior colleges, so even many professional educators have positive things to say about the method.

michaeldhopkinson Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism

I think that you misunderstood me. The majority of child abuse happens at home (~72,000 parents vs. ~58,000 known non-family [0]), but it happens in broken homes, second marriages, etc. Most homeschooling parents are together and in their first marriage, so they, just going by the statistics, aren't likely to abuse their children.

For a source on the uneven distribution of abuse by family members, I would suggest to start with this HHS report: [1]

"Children living with their married biological parents universally had the lowest rate, whereas those living with a single parent who had a cohabiting partner in the household had the highest rate in all maltreatment categories. Compared to children living with married biological parents, those whose single parent had a live-in partner had more than 8 times the rate of maltreatment overall, over 10 times the rate of abuse, and nearly 8 times the rate of neglect."

[0] http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/NCANationalStatisti...

[1] http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/nis4_report_...

michaeldhopkinson Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism

That is not true. Parents use quality textbooks and lesson plans. They also get together to pay specialists to teach difficult subjects one or more times per week. Also, by the time a homeschooled child is of the age that their subjects can only be taught by specialists, they either know how to teach themselves or take courses from local junior colleges or correspondence courses.

There is no one proper pedagogy. Teachers use a lot of different methods, as do parents, whether they have an education background, a science background, or are just using well-reviewed curricula.

The ability to give a child a customized, one-on-one education is an advantage over the classroom model. The parents have time because one parent does not work or does not work very much; they are a full-time educator and put in a lot of work to be good at it.

Regarding your earlier remark about abuse: abuse does not really happen. The safest place for a child is in a home with intact parents, and most homeschooling families are intact.

I mean this kindly when I say you are completely ignorant of what homeschooling is like. I encourage you to acquaint yourself with actual homeschoolers. There are probably several communities in your area and you would be invited to observe some of the co-operative activities and talk to the parents.

michaeldhopkinson Why the Climate Corporation sold itself to Monsanto

No comment on Monsanto in particular, but it's frequently, but not exclusively, lobbying and regulatory capture that libertarians dislike about large corporations. This tends to especially be true when about a company that sells something that affects basic life (eating.)

michaeldhopkinson Ask HN: If Politicians were selected by Random Lotto?

The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a story about this.

michaeldhopkinson Introducing Jelly

This is a good idea. I would just like to be able to ask questions without using the camera, and to have a favorites list that would make it easier to email or text the URL to the question.

michaeldhopkinson Why we should give free money to everyone

You said that $3,600 was nothing. I explained its relation to $15,000 and $100,000, two numbers you apparently thought were significant, and how an extra $3,600 per year can turn into those numbers.

You also quoted savings amounts in response to someone talking about income, so I explained that poverty is usually measured by income.

I am not saying anything beyond explaining those things to you.

michaeldhopkinson Why we should give free money to everyone

$3,600 is a little less than 25% of $15,000, and it's about 3.5% of $100,000.

If a person spent as much as they earned in a year and had no savings, $3,600 a year would accumulate $15,000 in savings after five years. A couple, spending as much as they earned, who wanted to save $100,000 before starting a family, each receiving $3,600 and investing it moderately, would save $100,000 after 10-12 years.

However, poverty is usually defined as an income level and not a level of savings.

michaeldhopkinson ATF uses rogue tactics in storefront stings across nation

He quoted part of your post directly and responded to it. It was this part: "Talking of bankruptcy in that context is a nonsense introduced by politicians intent on doing away with it for ideological reasons."

I'm just explaining to you that he quoted you since you were unsure.

michaeldhopkinson The Secret Law of Page Harmony

For footnotes, to make space for the hands, because we slightly perceive vertically centered text as below center, because culturally we expect documents to start at the top of a page, and to reduce the degree the head or eyes must turn to look at the text.

michaeldhopkinson If Satoshi Nakamoto has over 1,000,000 BTC, why doesn't he just sell it now?

The combined 30 day volume of the five exchanges on the homepage of http://bitcoincharts.com/ is about 140 bitcoins per minute. Adding 100 per minute all on the sell side would be a 70% increase in volume, and there would not be a corresponding buy interest added until the price of bitcoin fell considerably. This would reduce the value of the bitcoins.

michaeldhopkinson Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

It's not easy to say she is evil; it requires consideration of what is evil, what is an evil person, her particular situation and how it might apply to the definitions.

Concluding a person is evil does not preclude looking at any other angles on the case. So, I don't think it is lazy to consider it.

michaeldhopkinson A universal income is not such a silly idea

In order for a basic income program to save costs on bureaucracy and replace existing programs, those existing programs must be closed by legislation or executive order, and the people employed by them must lose their jobs, and the number of employees in the new basic income agency must be fewer. Many of these employees will not find replacement work due to age or their industry (government bureaucracy) shrinking so will go from middle class to poor on basic income.

This will have a large economic effect unless it is done slowly, but if it is done slowly, both programs will have to exist at once without paying too much to the same person. This will require the basic income agency to have the same kind of bureaucracy as the other agencies or else have no oversight. In the first phase of the transition, at least, it would cost much more.

The agency would need to maintain some bureaucracy to guard against fraud since obtaining benefits would never require a visit to an office or proof of some activity. It would be easy for someone to claim extra people without oversight.

michaeldhopkinson YC Interview Feedback - What Next?

Two possibilities:

1. You didn't say your third paragraph or didn't say it loudly/clearly/often enough. If this is the case, be more clear about it next time.

2. You said it but they disagree with you. If this is the case, maybe they are right, or maybe you need to find a way to prove the adaptability. Keep in mind everyone thinks their startup is adaptable to a huge market to a degree. You need to be relatively more able to develop a huge market than other interviewees.

michaeldhopkinson Ask HN: CS Degree, felony conviction, need not apply?

That is encouraging. However, you are not entirely free from your past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UtsSPOdQzw

michaeldhopkinson Car Mechanic Dreams Up a Tool to Ease Births

As you know, any field is constantly advancing and sometimes it returns to an older idea and uses it in a new way. This is happening in obstetrics right now. It isn't that the downsides of sedated, prone births were "missed" so much as that they were part of the best birth technology of the time and innovation and changes in viewing that technology do not happen quickly. That model is now being replaced by births that combine medical advances with the mother's natural abilities more effectively.

Every scientific advancement must be preceded by a time when that advancement was not known or known but not used, no matter the age of the field.

michaeldhopkinson Amazon to Begin Sunday Deliveries, With Post Office's Help

The USPS pension obligations are around 100% funded (has been overfunded at 105% in the past; may still be the case.)

The average private company funds its pensions at about 80%. It's supposed to be a complete funding when interest rate of investments is factored and the average used to be about 90%. There are (questionable) accounting tricks that private companies can use to underfund pensions that are not available to the USPS because of the way their Congressional mandate is written, and because of the enormous amount of public scrutiny.

So, to bring the USPS in line with what is required of the pensions of private companies, they would reduce their obligations by 10-20% at most. They would still have the same problems.

Public pensions don't have funding requirements. This is a disaster for millions of workers since they won't get their pensions. It's not a good idea to rely on perpetually increasing government revenue without any kind of savings in reserve.

That said, eventually, the USPS will need to reduce pension payments in order to survive if their other initiatives fail, or they will have to obtain direct funding from Congress. If they are required to pre-fund to the end, then retirees will benefit at the expense of current employees. If they are allowed to drop pre-funding and move to the public pension model, then retirees will suffer for the benefit of current employees.

michaeldhopkinson Amazon to Begin Sunday Deliveries, With Post Office's Help

Correct. I wasn't saying that they have to be unprofitable going forward, just that the pre-funding doesn't entirely explain the losses.

I think it's a sensible document and it shows the USPS understands their situation and is willing to remain solvent in a humane and useful way.

michaeldhopkinson Amazon to Begin Sunday Deliveries, With Post Office's Help

This is not true. The USPS loses billions every year before pre-funding. However, pre-funding pushes them against their statutory debt limit.

You can see in their annual report that they expect losses of up to $20 billion annually even after 2017 (when pre-funding catchup ends) and their plan to eliminate pre-funding would only save about $8 billion per year -- and do nothing to address that the USPS will not be able to pay pensions since they lose so much money.

I urge you to read primary sources. The USPS' annual report is an easy-to-understand slide deck that explains everything very well. http://about.usps.com/strategic-planning/five-year-business-... Please read it before the next time you say something about this issue.

michaeldhopkinson From a Model S owner in Tennessee

It's supposed to show that the Tesla car is structurally sound and prevented the object on the road from ripping further into the car than it otherwise would have. It's also supposed to show that the car got the driver out of a dangerous situation by displaying warnings early. Finally, it is supposed to show that the car is resilient when bad things happen because it is still drivable.

I'm just explaining the viewpoint of the letter since you were unsure. I'm not opining that it is effective/ineffective or productive/counterproductive.

michaeldhopkinson Show HN: Achieve Greatness with the Power of Obsession - INDOCTRINATOR

Does this book say anything new?

Is this book well-written? What is the writing style?

In general, what's going to be covered in the book?

Do the methods in the book actually work for real people?

What are the qualifications of the author to write the book?

michaeldhopkinson Ask HN: Which companies have 4-day workweeks?

Ah, yes, you are right that they still have it around. The first time they did it, they were hoping that it would work year-round and they had to get rid of that idea. I'm glad they are able to make it work periodically, though.

michaeldhopkinson Ask HN: Which companies have 4-day workweeks?

37signals doesn't have a four day workweek. They tried it and found it wasn't quite enough time to do everything they wanted to do in a week.

michaeldhopkinson Because it needs to be said

I am a happy member and longtime reader of MetaFilter but I wouldn't look to it as a positive example.

MetaFilter has several full-time moderators who, because they feel they need to be doing something, are stifling discussion and deleting a lot of threads. Many long-time, valuable members have left the site because of staff decisions.

Meanwhile, a group of noisy, low-value users are mostly allowed to bully others, mock people different than them and even write death threats from time to time.

MetaFilter prides itself on being a place that knows all about Consent™ etc. and maybe that is worth everything else, but it's not a place where people can get together and have a civil discussion.