lujim

From the article... Nice

"I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me".

I'm skeptical... then this

"Speaking of Clinton — did you target fake news at her supporters? Or Gary Johnson’s, for that matter? (Horner’s Facebook picture shows him at a rally for Johnson.)"

"No. I hate Trump."

To be fair the next question somewhat addresses this with some anecdotal info. However at this point I can't take the authors credibility seriously. He sounds like a troll with way too much time on his hands.

"Is that it? You posted on Facebook a couple weeks ago that you had a lot of ideas for satirizing Clinton and other figures, but that “no joke . . . in doing this for six years, the people who clicked ads the most, like it’s the cure for cancer, is right-wing Republicans.” That makes it sound like you’ve found targeting conservatives is more profitable."

"Yeah, it is. They don’t fact-check."

I think it's fair to say that older people tend to be both a) more conservative on average than younger voters b) more susceptible to click bait and fake news. ie "Forwards from Grandma"

This guy could do so much more with his life.

Something tells me the term Alt-Right is becoming one of those worn out labels thrown around with the same amount of precision as a sawed off 12 gauge.

Ahh gotcha. Yes alcohol and opium are tough to keep people away from. Chantix worked the first time and within just a day or two made smoking a cigarette completely devoid of any pleasure. Zero problems with dreams.

The biggest epiphany you get from quitting smoking is realizing that cigarettes aren't inherently pleasurable, smoking one just removes the symptoms from nicotine withdrawal in a way that other nicotine replacements can't. While everyone seems conceptually know this, it's surprisingly hard to really get it to sink into your own brain. Truly understanding/believing that combined to a round of Chantix took care of things for good.

Sorry I'm not a mental health professional or a physician and had to google "reciditivism" which appears to be a reversion into criminal behavior which is maybe a fancy word for relapse I guess. You are saying that medicine used to treat psychological or behavior deficiencies is of little or no value? Don't you think the shared knowledge of acquaintances is kind of anecdotal? If we are using anecdotes then I would add that I used chantix to quit smoking years ago and never looked back. It flicked an instance switch in my brain that gave me enough distance from that negative behavioral feedback loop to quit for good. Then I quit chantix and never took either again. For me it was (probably literally) a life saver.

Maybe, although I do believe that tons of good science has chimed in on the role of dopamine in the human brain. Give a smoker some chantix without alleviating their financial burdens or changing "the system" in any way and watch how long it takes them to want nothing to do with cigarettes. There is a complex biological process at work here that plenty of smart people spend their entire lives trying to understand.

He probably would care to, but how much time would you care to spend listening to anecdotal bro science today?

The article addresses this question. Roughly half way down. Also the current top comment in this thread also directly addresses that.

I've read that the way gambling engages the dopaminergic system in gambling addicts is more akin to physical addictions like alcohol, tobacco, or opiates. So maybe a better analogy would be "in the same way freely available opiates would enable drug addicts".

There often seems to be a sentiment of "Why congratulate a recovering alcoholic? I've never had a drinking problem so why isn't someone congratulating me." from those who have never experienced or been close to someone who is experiencing a never ending addictive loop. Generally this attitude comes from arrogance, inexperience, and youth.

Who knows the definition, but I can tell you who is included. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN.... Watching the anchors on these channels respond to Trumps performance on election night was jaw dropping. I was amazed that they weren't even going to try to pretend that they were impartially covering this election. I've always known the Fox and msnbc were a joke, but I have zero confidence in a single US based news outlet after this election.

BTW Huffington Post stands out as an exceptionally huge steaming pile of partisan garbage as well.

*some misinformation

Well on a positive note, it's now clear that not even the Clinton's or all their political allies can rig a US general election. Like or hate the result, the Electoral College, or the "uneducated" US voter, it seems like even if the system isn't 100% fair or perfect, at least it isn't easy to rig. (Democratic primary not so much though)

We all have much less control over our career paths than we realize. Do your best work everyday, try to be pleasant to the people you manage/work with/work for. Throw a few percent of every check into a decent index fund, put down the smart phone when your kids want your attention, and if your career ends as a Walmart door greeter or replaceable corporate cog, all the "coulda's" in the world won't change anything.

The stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Since it's 9:37am the morning after I'm guessing many people are at anger moving into bargaining right now. "I'm mad and if I move to Canada it will show everyone and solve my problems". We should be moving into acceptance by the weekend. No need to DDOS this poor site.

There are mountains of good and bad info on meditation. Here is a primer on mindfulness as I understand it from Ronald Siegel (Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, author etc)

The human brain has two default modes of operation and you have very little control over them. They exist because they offered an evolutionary advantage in much more dangerous times, but don't necessarily promote a sense of well being/happiness in a modern relatively safe world. a) Pleasure seeking and pain avoidance b)Self referential thought ("Am I good enough, smart enough and do people like me?")

Mindfulness offers a third option. Relaxed open awareness with general acceptance. It can be done my anchoring awareness on a physical sensation like the breath. You won't be able to hold your concentration there very long before you realize you're thinking of something else. You are mindful when you realize your mind had drifted and you bring it back to your anchor.

It offers tons of well studied and documented benefits like increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex with is good for reasons that google can tell you.

A note from my experience. Expect the timeline of benefits to be similar to starting a cardio or weight training program. Your first few times may seem like a waste of time but the benefits start piling up after a few weeks.

I've noticed a lot of people that meditate struggle with aversion of thoughts and feelings vs "letting go" of thoughts and feelings. You certainly feel every bit of pain, anger, and sadness as a non meditator would.

The distinction is that you work on "meta-cognitive awareness". You try to avoid getting swept up in the narrative thought stream if possible. So here goes from my own experience (doesn't work 100% of the time).

without mindful awareness Guy cuts me off -> "WTF is that guy doing? What a moron! Someone always has to mess with me! Look at how smug he is. I want to jam his nose into the back of his head"

with Guy cuts me off -> "WTF is that guy doing? Woah feeling that anger. I can feel it right in my chest and kind of a warm feeling in my face and arms. Hmm interesting. I wonder if he is rushing to the hospital or to some emergency. Just like me, I've accidentally cut someone off before. Oh well what's on the radio"

It helps you build more mature mental models. Mental models are useful but often wrong. Mindfulness can help you question your own mental models and take things less personally. Tons of reputable studies will back up mindfulness and meditation as a standalone or complementary tool for stress, anxiety, depression, and pain. Medication still plays a very important role.

Edit: Upvote to you for bringing up a good point. It is very hard to sort out the bull*hit in the meditation community. There is an awful lot of tradition, psudo-science, and plain old snobbery in this community. Anyone that gets involved should start with the basics and avoid as much of the spiritual hype as possible.

Life doesn't relent. Even young, rich, beautiful people are susceptible to feelings of unsatisfactory-ness that leave them reaching for the booze and hard drugs or just feeling all around unfulfilled and miserable. Humans are built to run on a hedonic treadmill, not to be content in the moment.

Meditation is a tool so that when your life scks, your boss is an ssh*le, and your personal relationships are a mess, THEN someone cuts you off in traffic you take a minute or two of breath awareness and open monitoring instead of running them off the road and karate kicking them in the head.

It helps you relax into feelings of anger, pain, or depression instead of running from them and chasing your addictive behavior of choice to escape. Also like every other tool out there it isn't 100% effective.

It's been a while since I read it, but according to kindle search it deals with Smart Order Routers (SOR) at location 6941 (and a few other places)

If you're looking for the nuts and bolts on how capital markets around the world work this book is hands down the best there is.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Quantitative-Professionals-M...

Equities, Futures, Rate Swaps, Options, Credit, Treasury, Corporate, Municipal, Mortgage and Agency Bonds. Then the technology that supports it all.

It is not only a fantastic high level view, but it get granular enough to explain things like how US Treasuries prices quoted in 32nds of a dollar or how fixed income securities are identified by something called a CUSIP or what a strike price is for an option. Granular enough to explain practical day to day concepts that would help you at your first job in a financial firm.

I didn't see in his post where he wanted a startup. He didn't seem to say anything about anti-startup culture or lack of capital. He didn't seem to be worried about just wanting to make enough runway to start a company. He also appeared to be comparing the U.K to Berlin. He wasn't looking at other places in Europe that had lower taxes, just Berlin.

What if you used the 1000 gallons of gas to run a free carpool with the explicit goal of saving 6 people per day a drive to and from work and in the process saved 6000 gallons.

You funded your project through a blog and social media campaign dedicated to awareness of fossil fuel pollution and sold ads only to solar companies and bike manufacturers.

In would later estimated that your 1000 gallon investment created enough good will and awareness to save an estimated 10000 gallons per year and launched you a new career as a pro green/solar consultant.

What then buddy?

I get that. In the US, airline pilots have limited employers to choose from and lose years of seniority if they move to a new employer. Unions play an important part in conjunction with government regulators in keeping a safe workplace.

It IT/software dev in the US there has been quite a bit of demand for the past several years, so when a company starts abusing their employees they see their dev team start to evaporate.

You need a union for this? Do you think the average IT worker everywhere else routinely works nights and weekends? Maybe in a startup or someone with an infrastructure support job, but those are the expectations when you sign up for those types of jobs.

To be fair "attitude" wasn't his only argument. He cited what seem to be concrete arguments which included lower pay, higher taxes, and fewer benefits relative to the UK and US. You countered by questioning why he expects high salaries then provided your own unique experience for becoming a partner at a consultancy company.

What are the best prospects for your friends who did attend university or anyone else who didn't work 50 hour weeks for 5 years and become a partner at a consultancy company?

> I’m a smug, bourgeois liberal who lives in North London – so the result felt like a powerful rejection of my entire worldview.

This sentence said just about everything I needed to know about the author. Being smug isn't a badge of honor, and describing oneself as 'smug' is as much of a red flag as a date that shows up late and describes themselves as 'A jealous person' or 'high maintenance'. They believe that they are so special and unique that annoying behavior is actually endearing. Heaven forbid something happens that shakes his worldview.

Edit: Apparently it's ironic humor. This isn't the first or last time I've underestimated just how subtle British humor can be.

The one in the article is actually piloted. It's just not that hard to fly. Once it's completely automated CNN will run a story about "Unmanned MUAV's"

It probably falls into the realm of safer than a piston powered R-22, but less safe that a multi engine turbine powered helicopter.

even if that is the definition of manned it still doesn't make sense. because the "U" in UAV stands for Unmanned not Unpiloted. However "Manned space flight" would still apply even if the astronaut was just ballast right?

A trip to mars would be completely automated but you still wouldn't call it unmanned if a scientist was on board that did nothing but scientist stuff.

The people I encounter on my commute will find a way to mess this up.

I'm going to let the term "Passenger drone" slide, but I will feel a hint of aggravation when CNN reports on "Manned UAVs"

Isn't Ebola very contagious, just not airborne? Also didn't a strain of it go airborne in a primate enclosure Virginia in the 1990s? Asking because I thought that was the case but can't remember. I read "In the Hot Zone" a few years back but don't remember the details.