Viewing profile — a1pulley

This is (anecdotally) not true for families in the highest income decile (in California). Kids are pushed harder to learn things earlier than when I was growing up. For example, ne…

"I have known more people whose lives have been ruined by getting a Ph.D. in physics than by drugs." This seems a bit hyperbolic. In the mid to late 2000s, only 5 of the 15 close g…

Forgotten by some, maybe, but there are many Iranian-American and Armenian-American families with medlar trees in their suburban LA yards. It is sold at Paradise Nursery in Chatswo…

> Reportedly the leadership of SpaceX manages him like he's a medieval boy king A family friend who works closely with Elon at SpaceX puts it like, "you have to make him believe th…

> translates natural language prompt to Google Ads Query Language I'm curious—did your translation layer change in light of ChatGPT? Are you still using the one you wrote 6 months …

If I were inclined to rob houses, I would find the challenge and risk of robbing houses here quite interesting. Apart from the fact that all roads in go through manned gates, this …

I came here to say the same as the sibling comment. Why not slow down? That is what happens in my city: residents drive slowly because they don't want to hit a neighbor.

I'm fond of warm, yellow hues for indoor spaces. If I were forced to choose a color for outdoor lighting, I would go for the same. However, white vs. yellow has already played out …

> If I live in such a place, I expect to be able to walk on sidewalks without a flashlight. We don't have any sidewalks. People either take trails adjacent to roads or walk on the …

> Do people walking on foot carry torches? It depends. If there's a full moon out, I often walk without a light. It's wonderful. Otherwise, I use a headlamp. > Doesn't this cause i…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Hills,_California

HOAs have their downsides, but I do really appreciate one of my CC&Rs: in my ~4 square mile city, we are not allowed to have exterior lights apart from ones to illuminate driveways…

The alternative is gating on soft skills and job experience. Do you really think it's easier for privileged kids to game our industry's admissions tests? A poor kid would have a mu…

Does anyone have experience with going to a "school within a school" for "gifted and talented" kids? I was trying to figure out why I don't remember any bullying from my middle sch…

I was a physics major until I stumbled across the jargon file online. It was an, "aha, my people!" moment. It was already showing its age then—nearly 20 years ago!—but sucked me in…

I grew my first giant pumpkin this year. Unfortunately, it's a bit too small for me to sit in—it's only about 500 lbs [1]. I will know for sure next Saturday when I move it to a co…

Ethics have a cultural and temporal context: if you believe strongly enough in the expansionary imperative of humanity, you would gift the generational ship's inhabitants with a su…

Where'd you get used hardware? That's awesome. I moved to a new house, so I'm again in the market for solar hardware!

Our electricity usage increased significantly when we realized that predictable temperatures result in better infant/toddler naps, so the "post-installation" numbers below are for …

I got a couple of quotes for an installation in late 2019, balked, and tried to install and permit the panels myself. I'd never tried a "physical side project" or home-improvement …

I'm willing to spend, say, 5 or 10x what one would at Uniqlo or Old Navy to buy quality garments that will last a long time and be socially acceptable in upper middle class west co…

I am. To be more specific, I have X dollars in a Robinhood cash sweep account because it paid the highest interest rate 6 weeks ago, where X >> whatever I get paid biweekly. Now I …

As interest rates climb, I manually move cash to maximize interest income. Is there a service that automates this? I'd happily pay a subscription fee to not have to do the research…

No worries. I unfortunately had to make my own cheating accusations when I TA'd other classes... Reading some of these old proofs is a little cringe-inducing. Masking cluelessness …

Chinmay was a TA for CS38—the required algorithms class for the computer science major at Caltech. I saved that class for the final quarter of my senior year. After finishing my la…