timwiseman

But, having worked in a couple of call centers, I feel obliged to point out not all of them are that way. I have been in call centers for major products where there were no scripts, the representatives (or "agents") were expected to think and help solve problems for the customers as well as provide feedback to other departments making the products. But I will agree those are a minority and in some call centers they are separated out into "level 2" or something equivalent.

Not yet. There is no broad based Linux support yet (it supports Android, which is technically Linux, but no Linux Desktop distro is supported) and iOS support is still in the works.

The only time I prefer video is when it is something that truly benefits from being demonstrated in a way that is cumbersome to describe in words. Working with software is almost always best described in words with some pictures, but I found videos extremely helpful in origami.

Its worth pointing out that one of the best ethical ways to make money is provide people things or services they want at prices they are willing to pay. As long as you are doing that in an ethical way for people that are also generally ethical, you are probably improving the world while earning money for yourself.

I can let my children get on the app store without worrying too much it will lead to questions I don't feel like answering at that age. I have greater confidence that getting a game for the kids won't come with overly onerous spyware. I also have a better feeling that it will generally work.

This is not the way I want to operate, but I see how it appeals to some people.

I do not believe it has ever been fully tried in practice (though a strong social safety net comes somewhat close in a piecemeal fashion). But there is no reason in principle it cannot work and some respected thinkers such as Thomas Paine have advocated it. There would be enough people motivated by a combination of the love of the job and the desire to earn more than the low-guarunteed minimum to ensure necessary societal functioned.

It may have some undesirable side effects, but in principle it could be made to work.

Edit: Slight edit for clarity.

I think one very significant factor is making sure that they can come to you, as a parent, when they come across a new concept. Of course, as you said, I would prefer to introduce the concepts on my timeline, but I also need to be ready to deal with them whent he come up. More than that, I need to make sure my kids feel comfortable coming to me when they come up. Otherwise, it won't be a discussion I need to have "right now", it will be a discussion that happens with other friends that are probably just as confused and unprepared as mine are.

I played Planescape Torment many years after it was released because I kept hearing about it. Comparing it to graphics in other games that I played at the time the graphics were poor. But it had a tremendous story and was a lot of fun, so I played it through and still recommend it to others even though it is now even more dated.

I found my studies of theoretical math in college enormous fruitful just as I found jogging beneficial. But I thought doing numerous arithmetic problems in middle school to be of minimal value and the rote memorization of things like multiplication tables to be worthless.

In short, much like exercise, studying math should be done in a way that is pushing your personal limits at least a little.

It makes sense that the best way to get work in certain fields is to have a reputation. Sometimes the best way to get that reputation is to give away a certain portion of your work.

As for it being healthier, it all depends on your choices. If I am eating in, but having noodles and microwave pizza it will be much less healthy than getting a salad out. I have been on business trips where I ate every meal at a restauraunt for more than two weeks, but it was a relatively healthy diet.

I am no economist, but I would expect the opposite. Having too many people in one field would result in a reduction in wages and prices until people started leaving that field as a result and the supply/demand ratio stabilized. What am I missing or misunderstanding?

There are many good resources to learn math, most in the form of books (some of which have digital versions). Personally, I find it best to find a subtopic that interests me and dive in. Though I will say that I would recommend "Chapter Zero" to most people wanting to get back into math after a long break.

But as for I refuse to believe that there is a student anywhere that really wants to learn but cannot. That is true, but only to a degree. There remain plenty of places, even in America, where internet access is limited and a young student in particular may not have the resources to get consistent and frequent internet access. Similarly, there are places where the libraries are not accessible in a practical way.

A truly determined person, such as Srīnivāsa Rāmānujan can rise above, but they are the exceptions and even Ramanujan got help from people to reach his peak.

This is anecdotal, but I find at least the math I have learned to be fun. I got a BS in math and took some masters-level classes because I enjoyed it. I still work through recreational mathematics and play with project Euler and fractals when I have time.

You mention higher levels and more abstract forms of math, and I cannot say I would still have found it fun if I pursued a PHD and tried to truly breach new frontiers, but I can say that my professors generally all told me they enjoyed it. They did it because they had fun with it.

Different people find different things fun, but I think its safe to say that some people find even advanced mathematics fun.

You made excellent points up until this sentence. On a world wide scale, a couple million dollars is not even a drop in the bucket. But it can do tremendous good locally.

In my own life, I was helped out enormously because someone loaned me just $5000 at a critical time. More broadly, one of my professors is involved in a small nonprofit that targets one poor village in Africa. Their global impact is minute, but they have already helped that village create (not given, but helped it create for itself) a school for its children. Globally, a couple of million is probably not objectively measurable, but if targetted and used well it can make an enormous difference in the lives of a smaller group of people.

If the original author is completely unavailable and I am the new maintainer, then "I don't get this code" might be a valid reason to rewrite it. Even if I can't improve it, by the end of it I will know what those pitfalls are and understand that code.

You can if what you are apologizing for is the way or time you expressed it. Slavery is probably a controversial example because almost everyone now will agree it is morally wrong. But even absolute facts can be offensive at the wrong time.

For instance, I think more people should be aware of the extent of the dangers of drowning and the right ways to prevent it. It would be insensitive at best if I started discussing that during the funeral of a young child that had drowned. It is a good message to get out, but it would be appropriate for me to apoloize for bringing up in that context.

They can also add their stamp of approval to it (I know that this means nothing to a lot of buyers, but it does mean something to some. I have heard a couple of readers of mass fiction rave about trust Del Rey books to be worth reading because they trust Del Rey), and an established publisher can more easily get it into print if/when it is worth doing.

Of course an author can do all of those themselves or hire others to handle those steps for them. But it is certainly value-added to have all of that done for you.

In the broader sense, it becomes somewhat hard to talk about because it might matter greatly much how old the child is. My 3 year old is simply not in an position to make many good decisions for herself, but my 6 year old gets a fair bit more freedom, and as they get older I will hand more of the reigns of their own lives to them happily.

It is also hard to talk about separately because in a sense a child's rights are what is left over after the state and the parent divide up their rights, any right absolutely given to the child is denied to one of those two entities. Should I have the ability to restrict what my 3 year old sees? I think most would agree that I should.

Should I have the ability to restrict what my 13 year old sees (when one of them reaches 13)? That is touchier, but I think most will answer, "Yes, but you should use it less and listen to their judgment more." I certainly think that even when my child turns 13 I will want to keep them away from materials that overtly objectify women and I will judge on a case by case basis if they are ready for horror films or not.

For what it's worth, I agree with your sentiment at the end that many parents overly coddle even older children. But I also respect that each parent has the privelege and duty of making those decisions for themselves and their children until those children cease to be children.

Second, even if and when we reach a point in society where racism is truly gone, it is useful to know how we got there. To Kill a Mocking Bird not only helps show how society was before, it was itself a small piece of history that helped in a small way make society the way it is now with less racism.

Even if we reach a utopian day where its lessons are no longer relavent (and we are not there yet), it will remain a significant aid in understanding our history.

Yet, the copyright holders biggest arguments for strict copyright enforcement also seem to go out the window if they make it impossible to legitimately purchase the content in a certain market. They cannot claim they have lost a sale if they have made it impossible for that sale to go through any reasonable, legitimate channel.

Based on his answer, if he could deal with a truly global middleman that could distribute throughout the world and paid him fairly for that privilege (rather than only caring about their own current region), he would probably cease to care.

I would not force the children of other parents to watch it, and I would be outraged if some government body said I couldn't show it to my three year old.

That kind of copying is clearly inferior to either gaining the knowledge to make an informed decision or hiring an expert to do it for you, but for most projects that need crypto neither one of those is practical. So, copying the experts is the best practical approach in most cases.

I think the best thing to do, when the situation permits, is to clearly think through what you want to say before you start speaking. Then you do not need filler. If you find yourself reaching for filler, then I think it is better to stop entirely until you clearly think of the next cogent thing to say.

(Note thought that filler is different from a transition phrase. A transition phrase, which might include "on the other hand" and similar phrases, don't add meaning per se but do clearly indicate you are shifting arguments slightly which can help others follow your reasoning. But that is meant to transition, not form filler, and even then transition phrases are often overused.)