Viewing profile — DoctorZeus

I generally agree - we do want to give people space to privately struggle to reach their professed ideals without risk of public humiliation. But surely that must be balanced with …

This article has some interesting figures on pollution from gasoline vs electric cars: "There Are Places Where Electric Cars Pollute More Than Gas Guzzlers" http://www.motherjones.…

Presumably that's from rounding errors... for example, the distribution could be 4.7, 38.7, and 56.6 ... which adds up to 100, but when those numbers are rounded up they then add u…

The #run directive addresses some major pain points for me. Is there anything analogous in other languages?

I encourage anyone who reads Pinker's book to also consider Nassim Taleb's critique http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/longpeace.pdf

You might be interested in the book 'The Righteous Mind' by Jonathan Haidt... he talks about that group psychology, and the importance of having social contexts where those energie…

I admire your passion and dedication to having a positive impact on the world. My challenge to you is this: What gives you confidence that the impact you'll have on the world will …

And how does dismissing critics as "pc lynchmobs" advance the conversation? Some people have oversimplified Paul Graham's perspective; doing the same to other people's perspectives…

Your right! I wouldn't want to diminish the value of spending time with one's family or enjoying one's hobbies. But the article doesn't mention those, just security and having a sw…

This could be titled "Why I Am Content With A Mediocre Life and Why You (Probably) Are Too." Fighting for a product I believe in. Developing a product I'm passionate about. Late ni…

Most of us on here have probably had, at some point in our lives, the fantasy to attain a batman-esque power while behaving heroically against some clearly defined evil. And most u…

A worthwhile take on the historical place of MOOCs. The problem with these has always been not just that they are oversold, but sold from the wrong direction. Call them an alternat…

The market selects for amorality; the structure of corporate governance (especially with publicly traded companies) ensures that everything hinting otherwise is really just particu…

Good question. It would take some serious time studying history to have even a decent guess.

Not necessarily. Slavery might have indirectly assisted the north's industrialization in at least a couple ways. (1) Accumulation of financial capital in the hands of an investment…

Those who censor are not the only enemies of the internet. When being monitored by an unaccountable organization capable of all manner of violence, a threat is implied and speech i…

You can't reduce economic growth to single factor. Oil itself wouldn't be worth much without technologies to exploit. And without the right human capital, those technologies wouldn…

Sure, these are variables, so they correspond to different possibilities. X can be anything, and given X, the amount in the other envelope is one of two different possible values -…

Well, that singer might succeed, they might make to the Top 10 charts, after all we hear bland generic pop on the radio all the time. I just wish we wouldn't celebrate it.

Taking out the specific dollar amount doesn't change the math at all. If X designates the amount in the envelope I've selected, than 50% chance the other envelope contains .5 * X a…