RhysU

It makes driving more appealing if one discounts the best alternative use of the funds, which humans are irrationally likely to do. That driving seems better is because people suck at thinking about what else they might do with the money given compound returns on its investment.

[flagged]

You have never tried to leave the city for the suburbs after 9 pm. Driving is still immensely useful, as I sit in my Uber on the way home.

From the IRS...

> A portion of the Child Tax Credit is refundable for 2024. This portion is called the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). For 2024, up to $1,700 per child may be refundable.

In the US the child tax credit serves a similar purpose and is precisely a negative tax: $300/month under age 6 then $250/month thereafter.

Essentially the same amount as Germany give or take currency. That has long been in place though the amounts have changed over time.

Not every family gets this credit. It phases out at sufficiently high income.

Much, but not all, of 'Phoebe and Her Unicorn' has just-enough echoes of C&H while doing its own thing.

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn

You're not alone in this feeling. I occasionally smile when it's not my kid.

Chilean Space Bass.

I second the utility of the Kagi Assistant. I didn't think I would use it much but now do so constantly. Especially because ending a regular search query in a question mark will cause the results page to lead with the Assistant answer! It's a delightful way to try both search and LLMs in one UI interaction.

> The problem is that hiring in New York City government is subject to possibly the most insane rules in the country.... And I say that as someone who didn’t think anything could be worse than the federal hiring rules.

This piece is a great, accidental argument for smaller government in NYC.

> We have these supposedly merit-based hiring systems because in the mid- to late-19th century, positions in government were filled through patronage, or what’s known as the spoils system.

One can either have "supposedly merit-based" or definitely spoils (i.e. graft). Smaller government that accepts some (smaller) spoils to gain nimbleness is a good balance IF the free press calls out egregious graft and IF the electorate will throw out any bums.

Therefore no one should study alternatives to the public schools...?

We accept that different colleges (and other post-secondary training) at different cost points serve different populations.

We somehow do not accept the same idea for secondary or primary education. Why not improve educational outcomes for some of the population?

> The effective history of computing spans a lifetime or three.

"Computer" goes back to 1613 per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(occupation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_algorithm was 300 BC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_equation has algorithms back to 2000 BC.

The Sequel: Decline e-Delivery.

Too bad ska-punk beat him to today's value of 109 cents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck-O-Nine

30% error.

The gap insurance will be more expensive. Resell still matters with gap insurance.

> The thing that's hard about the intellectual curiosity part is knowing what comments are from actual experts and what are very smart people opining outside the edges of their circle of competence...

Three thoughts...

1. I really enjoy seeing what the extremely technically accomplished users think about non-technical topics.

2. I like that only my accumulated knowledge of their usernames allows me to easily connect the dots for thought #1.

3. It is fun when you come to appreciate someone's thinking on many non-technical topics then later, on a technical thread, realize that user is the person behind $SOMETHING_BIG. But that fun relies on accumulating #2.

These guys are, after all, running a business. If they thought the best thing for their business was a rewrite, they'd do it.

This reminds me of Peter Egan's columns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Egan_(columnist)

For example: https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/2016/11/1/the-very-l...

I don't understand why you think a seatbelt or an airbag is a better analogy to a helmet than a helmet. Helmets are perfect analogies to helmets.

Motorcycle airbags exist, add safety, and are perfect analogies to car airbags.

Motorcycle seatbelts are possible, are a net loss to safety (because you're strapped to the outside of a giant mass then crushed), and are perfect analogies to car seatbelts.

My point stands: All drivers in all vehicles are safer when wearing a helmet. Yet, for motorized vehicles we only legally impose helmets on motorcycles. It's seen as ludicrous to suggest we mandate helmets for the others though it'd save lives, cut societal costs, etc. It's seen as so ludicrous that people immediately redirect the topic. Like I made a category error or inference mistake in suggesting it.

If I gamble by joining a startup, I am trying to provide something of value to someone. Otherwise, my startup will fail. The bet is not societally zero sum in expectation. Long odds, sure, but possibly value creating.

If I gamble on a sporting event, the outcome of the sporting event does not change. Someone wins. Someone loses. No value created. The outcome is societally zero sum in expectation.

> A three-fold increase was found in the rate of organ donation for unhelmeted motorcyclists compared to helmeted motorcyclists (p = 0.006).

First the statistics but then the following op-ed...?

> From a public health perspective, helmets should be required for all motorcyclists...

Personally, I always wear and will always wear a helmet. Legally, however, requiring them is pure nanny state.

Consider: We would certainly save more lives by requiring all vehicle drivers to wear helmets, including cars/trucks/etc in addition to motorcycles. Like, wear a helmet inside your car. Professionals do. But we amateurs do not. I would be laughed for proposing a universal helmet law. So, clearly saving lives isn't the only valued metric

Suppose you buy bread, meat, and cheese and pay sales tax for each of them. You make a sandwich. You eat the sandwich.

Do you now owe the government the difference in sales tax on the market price of a pre-assembled sandwich versus on the market price of the individual bread, meat, and cheese?

Is it "fair" to owe the government the incremental sandwich sales tax? Should someone who can buy separate bread, meat, and cheese ingredients get such marginal sales tax benefits relative to someone who only can buy pre-made sandwiches? Or does owning the bread, meat, and cheese mean that whatever marginal value you extract from the ingredients' use is fully yours?

Supporting imputed rent seems consistent with supporting my hypothetical sandwich marginal sales tax. It's ridiculous.

Licensing is a poor filter. Have you ever gotten a bad haircut? Is there a hairstylist or barber at your usual shop that you avoid? Those folks are licensed too.

With another ump.

The current state is such first-order thinking. When will we be able to bet on whether or not the umps have taken a bribe?

> ...unstable singularities are exceptionally elusive; they require initial conditions tuned with infinite precision, being in a state of instability whereby infinitesimal perturbations immediately divert the solution from its blow-up trajectory.

Can one "find" an unstable singularity if writing it down requires an endless computational process to produce the incremental digits as one marches towards infinite precision? It sounds like chasing a set of measure zero.

Anyone have an ELI5? I can't quite put my finger on what's happening here. It sounds like the PINNs are being used as fancy discrete basis functions to solve similarity transformed fluid equations so they can chase the unstable solutions comprising a set of measure zero. I don't know how one thinks about grid convergence in these settings. Does one need PINNs or could traditional discretization approaches accomplish the same?

> ...there were absolutely courses that were just a waste of time.

How? Surely over 15 weeks each course taught you something about either the world or yourself.

I just looked back over my undergrad transcript to double check my experience. I took something away from every single class. It wasn't always the material itself.

I suspect the administration is indeed playing chess like you suggest.

This H1B policy will put internal domestic pressure on India to put sanctions pressure on Russia. If so, waive the fees for the Indian consultancy firms. Anytime India lets up on sanctions, the fees will come back.

Either the US will get the sanctions it seeks or it will get a revenue stream from a policy that plays well to many US voters.

> simply not enough cars to meet demand due to manufacturers constraining supply to maximize by price.

Awhile ago, Harley-Davidson did this, not expand supply to keep per new unit numbers high, for years during their high demand phase. It's a legit business strategy if one is confident in one's demand curve's robustness.