687 karma · joined April 21, 2015
Question, what is a good example of a market place that is now highly profitable where the unit economics/contribution margin were negative for a very long time.
Amazon is not an example, I guarantee they were making contribution margin on every book sold fairly early on.
Its funny this is a milestone for a company at this stage. Congrats you aren't losing money on every order!
So people mine bitcoin, which is really just validating the transactions on the network, and they get paid in bitcoin for doing so. However, they will receive fewer and fewer bitcoin over time because of the fixed supply. At some point doesn't mining become unprofitable, causing the network to crash. And if the price drops doesn't this exacerbate this problem? Would love some clarity here.
As with anything, i've noticed the discussion is really about how much, not should it exist at all. Almost every debate in American politics is painted as black and white, whereas the actual debate is where we fall on a spectrum. It seems like everyone disagrees so much, but really I think we are haggling over a slight deviation to the right or to the left and because we have to talk about everything in such black and white terms, the real discussion gets lost. We all agree on much more than we disagree on.
One thing i've been shocked by over the years is how often even well educated, highly intelligent individuals have a very poor education in personal finance and make terrible decisions. Theres just so much noise out there and its still crazy how much of the investment management industry exists despite showing negative value. If I had to sum up personal finance advice for the average person in a few bullets it would be this.
1. Invest in a well diversified portfolio that pays very low fees (vanguard funds for instance) 2. Do not try to time the market 3. Save as much as you can as early as you can - maximize your 401k/ROTH contributions 4. Never carry a balance on your credit card from month to month
And yet so much goes wrong...
I'm not being very articulate here, but i'd say the problem with pay transparency isn't the transparency part, but the actual process of determining fair/market-clearing wages for employees.
Mostly though, I think there just should have been much more regulation given the number of parties operating in the same space.
My direct memory is basically as follows:
1. Whoosh of pole, bang noise. 2. "Was that a sailboat" 3. See/feel the world rotate 4. "I think we are going to crash" 5. "I could die" 6. I don't actually remember the impact just flipping and all of a sudden seeing the ground above my head upside down 7. "I'm still alive...but its not over yet" 8. The glass shatters and we come to a stop 9. My friend asks if I am okay. I respond yes. 10. I quickly feel my face as i'm not sure how injured I am, there is some blood on my hands, but not a large amount. 11. I start to feel a burning sensation as some jet fuel and other chemicals are reacting with my skin 12. I start to panic as I realize the gravity of the situation and begin to call for help. 13. Just as I am beginning to really panic, I feel a hand reach in and the plane lifts up. 14. I undo my harness, as my leg moves for the first time, I realize a sharp pain in my foot. 15. I am pulled from the plane and dragged from under my arms with my legs facing the plane. I watch the plane get farther away as im dragged. 16. I am layed down and am instructed not to move until the paramedics come.
1. Regarding solutions: This airport does not have a tower, so its up to the pilots to use the radio to announce intentions etc. To me, the core problem is that this does not loop in the boats and so there is no way to communicate. I think having the boats or some third party announce when a crossing is occurring would help. I also think, in response to this accident they moved the runway a few hundred feet further from the channel.
2. Regarding blame the NTSB actually ruled it pilot error, but I think that is myopic and only because there wasn't really anything else they could say since their jurisdiction doesnt extend into the rules of boats. Technically it is pilot error, but there were other errors as well from each side that all combined.
3. In terms of fear of flying, im actually okay. I had to fly twice per week for work for many years following this. Sometimes i'd have some flashbacks or bad thoughts, but overall don't have an issue. I've also been back up in a small plane just to do it. That said, I view commercial airplanes as completely safe and have no real fear with them. With small planes theres just so much can go wrong. The planes are not the issue, they are safe themselves. However, because of many small airports not having a tower, the lack of safety comes from having to deal with many other factors at play. I want to fly again later in life, its amazing and I have a love of planes. At this point though I feel like it would be pushing my luck so don't really do it.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/two-hurt...
The author's description of both not feeling his injuries until he tried to move as well as his own recognition of not being dead were spot on. I would have described it exactly the same way myself. I ended up with a broken foot and leg, but overall no lasting damage which was extremely lucky. Looking back on that experience is always incredibly surreal.
I run a site called TransparentCareer (https://www.transparentcareer.com) and we've tried to make all of this data quantitative and verify that the person actually worked at the organization and what role they were in. We are getting ready to release a qualitative type review/question answering system using the same verification method and you will be able to see what department within the company the review is in reference to.
I would love to hear how people think this could be done better as we are currently developing the product and would love if it could solve this need in the best way possible. Is employee verification the biggest problem or is it something else?
The general vibe of the assumptions feels like a bunch of privileged millennials going to become hermits for 6 months and then talk about all they learned from their solitude on their Harvard Business School essays and how it shaped them into a better leader.