Viewing profile — foamflower

Did you read OP? In context, the idea is clearly that Facebook violated some sort of contract with its users.

IANAL either, but two things stand out. First, breach of contract is not a criminal wrong, only a civil one. Second, it would be a big stretch to say that the relationship between …

When my family lived in Japan years ago, we noticed that when taking the train, approximately three attendants checked our tickets before we boarded a train. At least two of those …

The opposite is true. At some point in the past, elevator operators served a useful function, since elevators were hard to operate. Today, even the existence of automation (i.e. ac…

> There is a tradeoff between freedom and community. This largely depends on the conception of freedom in question. If freedom implies that individuals as a result of a the prolife…

I've seen a few variants of this comment, so I wanted to address it. I don't think we disagree much here. I agree that medicine in particular is hard on its own. I'm not entirely s…

I think we're kindred spirits in a way. I don't find programming terribly vexing, either (I started when I was 12), but trying to teach others has given me more appreciation for ho…

> If you want to know just how hard programming is, try teaching it to someone. > The lack of barriers to entry actually makes it harder. There are "law schools" and "med schools" …

One (semi-pedantic) quibble with the article: there absolutely are barriers to entry for programming. Programming is hard! These barriers may not be artificial, but they are real. …

> You will never, ever, ever have a government that's too small to be worth bribing. Sure, orchestrating a state that has 0 returns to bribery is likely not possible without comple…

> The invisible hand doesn't symbolise the problem of state intervention, but of state capture (i.e. merchant elites lobbying governments to protect their monopolies). On the other…

This article is mostly accurate about Smith (although the man himself was much more favorable to entrepreneurs and innovators than is presented), but fairly inaccurate that “Right-…