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starwind

1,395 karma · joined November 12, 2021

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starwind··on U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology
Bork argued that antitrust law shouldn't inherently challenge bigness. He felt that the antitrust should seek to maximize consumer welfare. That's been interpreted by the courts to mean lower prices, but any economist worth their salt will say consumer choice is an aspect of consumer welfare.

It doesn't matter if Little Caesars pizza is the cheapest option, if there aren't any other pizza options, consumer welfare is severely negatively impacted because some consumers won't like Little Caesars.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg—despite being lionized by liberals—was an extremely pro-business justice who played a strong role in the Supreme Court siding with businesses in all but one antitrust case from 1995ish on. With her gone, I think this case may actually have a chance

starwind··on Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
Here's a picture of the store manager greeting Yeltin. Can you imagine?

https://cdn.hpm.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/21152245/Paul-...

starwind··on The FTC plans to curtail the use of non-compete clauses
Trade secrets already get legal protections so the non-competes aren't relevant there anyway
starwind··on Wikipedia editors serving long sentences in Saudi Arabia since 2020
Certainly a respect for the individual played a role. Thomas Hobbes argued for a strong monarch specifically to protect their subjects and their subjects’ property. Other philosophers like John Lock, David Hume, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill would expand on this and build the classically liberal tradition.

But we also can’t underestimate the impact of: 1) abundant energy sources—initially wood and then coal that could power machinery. 2) a scientific tradition with engineering applications in mind. 3) the Black Plague that let people just drop their scythes and move to the city to become tradesmen and earn a better living. 4) the Common Law tradition placing property rights and the right to contract on near-sacred grounds. 5) Access to abundant fishing off the coast of what became North America.

I don't think there's any one thing we can point to explain the rise of West, it's a confluence of factors that I'm very grateful happened before I was born

starwind··on The FTC plans to curtail the use of non-compete clauses
From the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914:

"Under this Act, the Commission is empowered, among other things, to (a) prevent unfair methods of competition, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce; (b) seek monetary redress and other relief for conduct injurious to consumers; (c) prescribe trade regulation rules defining with specificity acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive, and establishing requirements designed to prevent such acts or practices; (d) conduct investigations relating to the organization, business, practices, and management of entities engaged in commerce; and (e) make reports and legislative recommendations to Congress."

Seems to me like the FTC is exactly the group to make this decision

starwind··on Data engineering, a good career choice?
Yes, lower barriers to entry than general software development. Get to program, stand up and configure cloud systems, and might get to do some data visualization if that's your thing.

It's a good alternative to data science. The market for data scientists is flooded (especially at the lower levels) and more and more companies realize their data pipelines are a mess.

starwind··on What is a good office chair worth?
I couldn't bring myself to buy a Herman Miller. I bought this one and I'm really happy with it https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/2724332/WorkPro-Ocean...
starwind··on Ask HN: What are some surprising ways to gain social status?
Learn how to do something cool and dangerous and expensive. Race motorcycles, fly planes, climb mountains, go skydiving. People will want to talk to you
starwind··on Ask HN: How to best take advantage of the coming recession?
People have been calling for a recession since June and you can see the signs everywhere except where it really matters to people: the labor market

Slow down? Sure. Recession? Eh.

starwind··on Where to look for jobs trying to break into Software Development?
LinkedIn is good for finding potential contacts. Message people who seem like software engineering managers and ask if they have internships. See where your classmates get roles and ask if there are some openings or if they can vouch for you. If there's a meetup, try going to one. Don't discount looking at company's websites either.

All but one job I've gotten was because I knew someone or someone knew me. The other one, I just applied through the company's website and they called me

starwind··on ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)
What time did the storm roll in?
starwind··on Ask HN: What are the foundational texts for learning about AI/ML/NN?
Does the order matter for Kochenderfer? Any one of those put more emphasis on controls than the others?
starwind··on Identity thieves bypassed Experian security to view credit reports
You can freeze the worknumber so people running background checks can't get information. When I changed jobs the company ran a background check and they kinda freaked out cause they couldn't get anything out of this database. I loved it.
starwind··on Please don’t film me in 2023
I haven't seen a video from the Verge where they walk up to random people randomly, stick a mic in their face, and ask them random questions
starwind··on Please don’t film me in 2023
I would have asked him to publish it on TikTok. Let's just make this real weird
starwind··on Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?
Agree on taking financial accounting at a community college or a university. Accounting is a way of thinking and I can't imagine learning it on my own.

Finance on the other hand is a bunch of mathematical formulas that are usually dumbed down. With OP being technical they should be able to learn the finance stuff on their own.

I'd venture to say with a solid understand of financial accounting they can probably learn financial statement analysis on their own too. I really like this book: https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Statement-Analysis-Practiti...

starwind··on Please Sell My Personal Information
Agreed, there's greater sins and lesser sins and it's insane to think otherwise.
starwind··on Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
I had a biology professor say something to the effect of "when you have energy that's because you're burning energy." You workout, you get your heart rate up, your metabolism is going, you feel energized and you think better.

Another way to put it is laying around on the coach, eating and sleeping a lot will not make you feel more energized even though you filled up your tank

starwind··on U.S. moves to bar noncompete agreements in labor contracts
Upvoting cause I agree in principal with where you're coming from in the sense that employers and employees should be able to bargain in their contracts and include clauses like non-competes as long as they square with the public policy of the state.

My issue (and probably yours) is the way non-competes get handled by employers * Every non-compete I've signed has been sprung on me while filing out paperwork on my first day. What am I supposed to? Walk out and be unemployed while I look for a new job? * What do I actually get for a non-compete clause? Judges routinely rule that continued employment is enough consideration for near-anything including non-competes. But if some companies don't have non-competes, to me that isn't true consideration. Me signing a non-compete that isn't worded in this-for-that like standard contract clauses should be should be treated as a gift on my part by the courts that can be revoked * Many states have restrictions on non-competes but most non-competes for national companies are boilerplate and often too broad. Combine this with a mandatory arbitration agreement and employers are doing an end-run around state labor laws either through arbitration or just strong arming employees

starwind··on Ask HN: Elevator Pitch for a Polymath?
Yeah I like this angle. I think his elevator pitch is "I'm a software developer who likes doing project management work, and I know statistics"
starwind··on Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers
Newton is a fascinating guy. Did way more work in alchemy trying to turn lead into gold than he did in math and physics (the mercury he used probably made him nuts). He took a day job running the British treasury where he investigated counterfeiters which was punishable by death at the time. And he was responsible for setting the exchange rate between gold and silver. He messed up, all the silver was worth way more melted down and used to make things like utensils than it was as currency so it disappeared from circulation which was critical for creating the gold standard that would last the next 300ish years
starwind··on Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers
In your example I think it's more like "If you don’t stop stealing, the country will find a way to force you."
starwind··on Ask HN: I’m Lost. Help?
Yeah, I got some hobbies. Reconnected with old friends. Starting working out and taking care of myself a lot better. I was way too emotionally tied up in my job when I was working for big corporations. I got kind of lucky cause I work with a good group of people and even when we're remote we interact all day long-I do wish we went into the office more though

Nice thing about contracting is the hiring process is a lot more streamlined, and there's no expectation you'll stay for years. So, when you're feeling better, you can move on to a regular job again

starwind··on Ask HN: I’m Lost. Help?
Yeah I felt the same way about 18 months ago. I took a contract gig (hybrid) that pays well, lets me pick up some new skills, but limits me to 40 hours a week, isn't that hard and I'm not emotionally invested since I don't even work for the company.

It's been a nice way to get some space and figure out what I actually want

starwind··on Ask HN: What true thing do you believe that few people agree with you on?
Variable rate loans are awesome from an economic perspective. When the economy is good, your income and investment portfolio and property value should increase along with the rate increase. But if the economy goes south and the Fed drops interest rates, the interest rate drops along with it. You’re squeezed but your bills just got smaller.

2022 is basically the only time since 1985 where interest rates have gone up while the economy has gotten weaker—and that’s by design to reduce inflation. (And you’d have a hard time seeing the economy slow down just by looking at the labor market.)

Unless you can lock in a really low fixed interest rate, you should seriously consider variable rate loans for cars, houses, student loan refis, etc.

starwind··on The Mathematical Hacker (2012)
Math hard. Can confirm. Starwind have math degree. Starwind much better at programming than Starwind ever was at math.
starwind··on Binance caught commingling funds between US and international exchanges
Crypto is def the future
starwind··on Skilled tech workers snapped up despite downturn
Seems like business as usual for private equity
starwind··on School of Quant: At $29,000, a Public NYC College Outclasses Princeton
One of the professors, Dan Stefanica edits a book series on mathematics for financial engineering http://www.fepress.org/fin_eng_background_series/

I've been waiting for the probability and differential equations books for a while :/

starwind··on Goodbye, data science
I went data science to data engineering and been very happy. You may have trouble moving into backend development direct from data science because data scientists don't have a reputation for writing solid maintable code so data engineering could be a nice intermediate step cause it's heavy python
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