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mactrey

493 karma · joined September 14, 2018

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mactrey··on How housing became the world’s biggest asset class
Maybe because

> owners can get a positive return even if rent doesn't pay the full mortgage

mactrey··on Apple Commits $2.5B to Ease California Housing Crunch
Which is unfortunate because while that decision works out for their bank accounts it is a worse result for the entire rest of society.
mactrey··on Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
CloudFlare banned a site that was far, far outside the American political mainstream. Blizzard banned a player for saying something that is completely within the American political mainstream, to the point that supporting Hong Kong is a rare bipartisan stance.

When you go against the mainstream American stance to curry favor with an authoritarian regime that is also a current political enemy, well, that's kind of kicking the hornet's nest.

mactrey··on Free AI-generated headshots put stock photo companies on notice
If you scrolled through thousands of actual stock photos I'm sure you'd find plenty that seem "off" in some way. Those just cost a lot more.
mactrey··on China's slowdown deepens; industrial output growth falls to 17.5-year low
GDP growth rates are generally reported "real" i.e. inflation is taken out. But yes you want GDP to grow at least as fast as population to maintain a given standard of living. The US population growth rate has been below 2% since at least the mid-70s.
mactrey··on California Approves Statewide Rent Control
From the article: "[The measure] was unopposed by the state’s biggest landlords’ group."

It shouldn't be a surprise that more landlord-friendly rent control measures get less resistance from landlords.

mactrey··on Waymo’s Backseat Drivers: Confidential Data Reveals Self-Driving Taxi Hurdles
10 percentage points, 25% relative improvement (40% non-5 stars to 30%), seems quite good to me.

Although I wonder if seasonality is important here - obviously Phoenix isn't Minnesota but could driving conditions have been worse in Q1 compared to this summer, from the perspective of a self-driving car?

mactrey··on Mortgage Market Reopens to Risky Borrowers
This line implies otherwise, since we can safely assume mortgage originations overall didn't double YoY:

> Some $2.5 billion worth of subprime loans, those with FICO credit scores below 690, ended up in mortgage bonds in the first quarter of 2019. That is more than double a year earlier and the highest level since the end of 2007.

Although the phrasing makes me wonder if more subprime loans are being originated or if more are just being securitized as opposed to being held on balance sheet.

mactrey··on We Have Ruined Childhood
Kids in Japan lead carefree "be home by dark" lives up until late middle school and high school, when they start studying 4+hrs/day and sleeping <5hrs/night to prep for standardized tests. I don't think Japan is a horrific dystopia for teens but it's hardly the "let kids be kids" culture that America of yesteryear (apparently) was.
mactrey··on Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2019 Results [pdf]
I hear this a lot - but are people really watching longform political YouTube videos and passively letting the algorithm choose their next video for extended periods of time? I very rarely watch a political video on YouTube but when I do it's usually linked from a site like Reddit, and then I'm very unlikely to watch the next video in the queue after it finishes.

If the algorithm actually does suggest more and more radical videos I wonder if it's a case of reverse causation - the algorithm suggests a more radical video because it learns what people actually want to do and choose to do, which is watch the most outrageous and/or bloodcurdling video out of the options presented to them?

mactrey··on The video game industry can't go on like this
So it sounds like we can be less sympathetic toward game developers because they have lots of other career options
mactrey··on Waymo gets green light in California to pick up passengers in self-driving cars
The status quo is you either have to pay someone ~$10/hr to drive for you, or you have to focus and keep both hands on the wheel and actually drive yourself, and it's still pretty dangerous. Self-driving cars could improve on the status quo significantly without actually being less dangerous.
mactrey··on Scientists Are Giving Dead Brains New Life
Simply clone the brains with the fewest plaques
mactrey··on Tokyo proves that housing shortages are a political choice
https://i.redd.it/i3ndx7dhc5x21.jpg

Historic, historic, architecturally beautiful, indescribably beautiful San Francisco...

mactrey··on Arm announces its new premium CPU and GPU designs
I think you mean:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14384/arm-announces-cortexa77...

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14385/arm-announces-malig77-g...

mactrey··on Dividends and Buybacks Now Larger Than Total Reported Earnings for Entire S&P500
No, the market can still expand, it's just that shareholders (as proxied for by boards and management) would today rather have the marginal dollar in pocket rather than invested in some growth opportunity. Companies have invested billions in growth opportunities in past decades and we're currently seeing how the returns from those investments play out, and that's where today's growth is coming from. There just aren't as many good places to put money to work in the market right now.
mactrey··on Calorie per Dollar List – Eat for 21 Dollars a Week
Doesn't the UK have something equivalent to TANF/food stamps?
mactrey··on H-1B visa: Government says work ban for H-4 spouses coming this month
And how exactly would allowing H-4 spouses to work be a threat to their future and the future of their children?
mactrey··on Reckless Loans Devastated a Generation of Taxi Drivers
It doesn't validate their behavior but it points toward the issue being systematic within the U.S. economy rather than due to the corporate governance at Lyft and Uber.
mactrey··on Reckless Loans Devastated a Generation of Taxi Drivers
But how are Uber and Lyft specifically exploitative in ways that e.g. WalMart, McDonalds, Starbucks, local landscaping companies, etc. aren't? Those jobs all pay roughly similar wages.
mactrey··on Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs
What do the yacht builders do with the money?
mactrey··on Tesla is raising up to $1.5B through convertible note and share sale
Probably has more to do with the fact that people preferentially engage Autopilot when road conditions are fair to good.
mactrey··on How pharmaceutical industry financial modelers think about rare diseases
To play devil's advocate, imagine a drug that costs $1b to develop and would only break even in costs - obviously drug companies wouldn't pursue the drug. But suppose spending $1b to develop and then $2b to market the drug does better than break even - possibly way better, with the right advertising agency. Then the drug company would pursue the drug. So advertising can lead to more drugs being developed overall, since it can do so much to improve the cash flows that accrue to any given drug.
mactrey··on Lambda School wants to teach nursing
Hah, you think medical practitioners aren't already googling best practices right after they step out of the exam room...
mactrey··on Hong Kong Property Tycoon Gave Away Children’s $400m Inheritance
Yeah, obviously "in the aggregate" everyone is average-looking and of average height. When looking at a single individual in a first world country genetics will be the primary determinant of their height and physical attractiveness.
mactrey··on At Colorado, a Breach in Football’s Wall
False dichotomy. You can get strenuous, competitive, healthful physical activity without ever risking brain trauma. Swimming, tennis, track and field, etc.
mactrey··on The IRS Tried to Take on the Ultrawealthy – It Didn’t Go Well
> "...[glitches] break the system and every player is hated for using them."

That's not my experience, having played numerous competitive games. Bhopping in CS, wavedashing in melee, all of the various glitches necessary when speedrunning almost any game, are pretty universally loved and players that can perform them well are looked up to.

mactrey··on Goldman Sachs will open-source some of its trading software
Or any life form, really.
mactrey··on Artificial meat: UK scientists growing 'bacon' in labs
Lots of things are unhealthy if eaten in excess. Is the argument really just that bacon is unhealthy because it tastes so good?
mactrey··on Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
What a joke. To claim that for example using Chrome is “inescapable” is pure hyperbole. You’re worried about Google tracking your credit card purchases but not worried about credit card companies tracking that? Because I assure you they do. And ISP monopolies do follow you when you move: across huge swathes of the US you have one or maybe two options for internet access.
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