Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

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A related video from Dan Jurafsky where his team analyzed the words in 6500 menus and found correlations of adjectives & nouns used by the cheap vs expensive restaurants.[1]

(Or put another way... imagine this thread's "menu design" story being multiplied 6500 times and DJ researchers analyze the output of those consultations -- the 6500 menus. The corpus reveals some interesting repeating text patterns.)

To apply DJ's findings, we notice that the author India Mandelkern writes:

>Back at the office, our team pooled our observations on multicolored sticky notes that we stuck to a giant whiteboard. “Dishes have no freshness cues.”

We assume this results in a Pei Wei menu[2] with these excerpts (and with particular words _underscored_):

>Then we wok-sear it in our _delectable_ orange sauce and finish it with _fresh_ orange slices

>our Wei Better Orange Chicken and Wei Veggie Orange Chicken are made with _fresh_, not frozen chicken,

According to DJ, the expensive restaurants would not use words like "delectable" and "fresh".

[1] deep link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYwUh1Hdho&feature=youtu.be...

[2] https://www.peiwei.com/orangechicken

I learned the concept of counter-signalling from that video

"Contrary to this standard implication, high types sometimes avoid the signals that should separate them from lower types, while intermediate types often appear the most anxious to send the “right” signals. The nouveau riche flaunt their wealth, but the old rich scorn such gauche displays. Minor officials prove their status with petty displays of authority, while the truly powerful show their strength through gestures of magnanimity. People of average education show off the studied regularity of their script, but the well educated often scribble illegibly. Mediocre students answer a teacher’s easy questions, but the best students are embarrassed to prove their knowledge of trivial points. Acquaintances show their good intentions by politely ignoring one’s flaws, while close friends show intimacy by teasingly highlighting them. People of moderate ability seek formal credentials to impress employers and society, but the talented often downplay their credentials even if they have bothered to obtain them. A person of average reputation defensively refutes accusations against his character, while a highly respected person finds it demeaning to dignify accusations with a response."

https://kelley.iu.edu/riharbau/cs-randfinal.pdf

Could something similarly explain how law enforcement treats the poor and minorities?

I've gone darker than that. I've argued that the obsession with "self-defense" firearms is kind of like a lottery ticket. You don't buy a lottery ticket to get rich. You buy it to fantasize about getting rich. Likewise, you don't buy a gun to defend yourself. You buy a gun to fantasize about defending yourself - to shoot some bad guy and be called a hero for it, rather than a murderer.

The simple answer is that the enforcers of the law don't usually come from poor and minority communities.

Interestingly even if they do they still don't treat the poor and minorities very well.

Thanks for this, despite being a video it was really enjoyable and informative.

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