Viewing profile — Hubbert

The common thread in most of these is dematerialization: like the phone example, discrete physical objects have been replaced by software functions running on generic computing dev…

Aside from the rule against incorporating, the Glass-Steagall Act was very helpful in preventing the Too Big To Fail bailouts for many decades. While the author may have omitted so…

And in addition to a predictable revenue stream, the monopoly made Bell research more visible because the 1956 Consent Decree prevented Bell from entering other industries, leading…

I believe that this is intended to preserve the principle of local _control_ over education. I don't see how that would prevent the DoEd from creating a series of reference textboo…

"As a globalist: the people living south of our border are just as deserving of a livelihood as we are." As a ctiizen, I believe the opposite. In a representative government, the s…

Not quite; Engineering Society of Detroit job fairs of the past few years feature hundreds of unemployed people with degrees and masters' degrees and experience. You can say "it's …

And not just his art, but his life as well: "they lived off his wife's teaching salary. During the 1970s, Gibson made a substantial part of his living from scouring Salvation Army …

2) is factually incorrect: http://www.urban.org/publications/411562.html Or visit an Engineering Society of Detroit career fair.

Because we are politically powerless. This the wage for an entry-level programmer/engineer at $36,667: $30k/year salary and $20k "investment." In contrast, the American Medical Ass…

In fairness to the grads, they have just "invested in themselves" for 4 years plus a direct cost of possibly $200k or so, and really have nothing left to give at that point. Seriou…

I found his honesty refreshing, and didn't see much bragging, only a description of the lifestyle and sacrifices that are necessary to achieve success. Claims of effortless success…

Because it is an extremely expensive "relationship" if it happens "regularly." Even if his specific tactics are wrong, he is correct that it is very difficult to operate profitably…

Immigration policy is far too consequential and complex to be decided merely on the basis of an anecdote about roadside assistance (or tasty food).

But if 40 is the best data that we have, why is it so commonly treated as an "absolute minimum?" Why are so many "professionals" "expected" to work far more, when hundreds of years…

It really varies by company and region, and it's very much a "guideline." "9-5" is mostly an archaic figure of speech anyway: in the Midwest, arriving at 7:30 is not unusual, but a…

I once defined a class of 3-D vectors and overloaded operators to them, but I agree with the problem. The problem is that redefining core symbols creates a larger communication pro…

Jason, thanks for articulating "show progress." That is really profound and applies in many areas of life. I've seen a lot of posts about "iterate" and such, but none of that direc…

There's actually an upside, though: labor laws force kids to get creative and pursue activities which are at least entrepreneurial and generally more educational than the dead-end …

Yeah, but I think "his parents' very technical books" is a little more central. During my first few weeks of college, I asked my mother to buy a book on UNIX if she ran across one.…

Yes. Experience is great, but everyone has to start somewhere. The unemployment rate for under 25 is extremely high. Society doesn't focus much attention these days on "upward mobi…

Teachers get paid pretty well for 9 months of part-time work; see http://www.lawsuitindustry.org/html/cr_50.htm and others. Of course some do work long hours during their 9 months,…

Wow: 7 whole months of paid schooling! The minimum standard for an engineer / programmer these days seems to be: * Hard classes in high school * 4 years of undergrad paying $$$$$$ …

Paul Graham is a counter-example: "Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for…

To your excellent point, I will also add that a) the IP jobs follow manufacturing, which is bad for Silicon Valley design work in the long run and b) why not crank them out in Flin…

If your prediction is correct, then the location of these SuperFactories is even more essential then they are today. You are also skipping over the part of Grove's thesis that the …