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Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

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Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#91

Post by menloparkbum »

rms wrote: post #87
davidw wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really - what is going on here? -29 for some batty comment about Christians and pawn shops? I would have voted it down to -1 too, but come on folks. We've always reserved big downvotes only for offensive, insulting trolls, not things that were in some way "wrong". A -1 or 0 is sufficient to indicate that.

Every now and then there are comments that elicit a "minus infinity" response. Enough people find his sentiment deeply offensive that it's going to minus infinity.

I'm not sure if people found his sentiment offensive or are just opposed to blatantly off-topic trolling.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#92

Post by ashu »

ovi256 wrote: post #86
jrockway wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the atheists that are causing the economy to collapse by buying houses they can't afford and maxing out their credit cards! God is punishing them, finally!!11! Oh wait, you mean most people in the US identify as Christians, and they're the ones having problems? I see.

>most people in the US identify as Christians Exactly. With a strong emphasis on identify, or make that auto-identify. Like Ghandi, I like Christ, but not Christians. Except, maybe, Eastern Orthodox, but that's another topic.

Who's Ghandi? I am only aware of someone named Gandhi.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#93

Post by astine »

ovi256 wrote: post #78
lee wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, the issue was resolved in the 1490s for the Catholic Church with the discovery of the New World. The expeditions required financing and the financing entailed interest. The explorers were painting pictures of golden cities, boundless riches and fountains of youth, somehow the church managed to magically resolve the interest issue.

That was the point I was trying to raise. The Catholic Church was very liberal, when financial interests were at bay. All Western churches inherited its corrupted moral base. Edit: and the downmods restart. I would like to see some arguments against my remark. Something with more substance, besides obvious re-statements and appeals to number such as 'but everybody does it'. I thought HN visitors would be familiar wit…

If you were trying to raise a point, you utterly failed. On two counts:

a. Your argument was vague and lacked proper distinctions. It was so to the point of being annoying and insulting the intelligence of people with even a vague understanding of history. If you want to make a point, at least be clear about it.

b. It was off topic and out of place. There was a very good discussion on how to make a living off of consulting going on and you had to distract from it with your personal pet peeves with Christians. If you want to start a debate, get your own thread.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#94

Post by attack »

whacked_new wrote: post #53
mixmax wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on guys - modding down is OK, but -12? It's an opinion, not a charge on someones children.

Wow, I'm surprised too. I'm betting it's not the normal crowd -- or it has grown much larger over the past month?

Yup, bunch of closed minded people who are jerks.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#95

Post by astine »

lee wrote: post #76
astine wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few Christians take that stance on interest today. Most haven't for at least 400 years.

Interestingly, the issue was resolved in the 1490s for the Catholic Church with the discovery of the New World. The expeditions required financing and the financing entailed interest. The explorers were painting pictures of golden cities, boundless riches and fountains of youth, somehow the church managed to magically resolve the interest issue.

Actually, it had more to do with centuries of corruption in the banking system and the eventual realization that prohibitions against 'usury' were a. ill defined and b. unenforceable.

For a history on the subject, read "Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles", by Jesus Huerta de Soto.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#96

Post by mixmax »

ovi256 wrote: post #39
edw519 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Network, network, network, network, network! (Sorry, I cannot overemphasize this.) You are your own marketing department. All the time. No, you don't have to be one of those Amway pests, but don't be afraid to say what you do and to volunteer your opinion about something computer related. You're not doing it to get business; you're doing it because that's who you are. Even if nothing happens now, it could 6 months la…

>He said he had a friend who owned a pawn shop with a computer Unethical to aid a pawn shop, especially if you are a Christian. But hey, who am I to judge. Edit: pawn shops are unethical from a Christian viewpoint, as they charge interest. And the parent said he was doing Bible study. But again, who am I to give advice on such topics as an heathen. Just downmod and show me I'm wrong.

Seriously - ovi256 is now down to -15 in karma, and (as far as I remember in regard to the modding system) can't even comment anymore. Just because he thinks it's unethical to own a pawnshop. His other comments are fine. Would you PLEASE vote the poor guy up a bit.

I don't mind burning karma doing this, I've got plenty to spare. This is just wrong.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#97

Post by rms »

mixmax wrote: post #96
ovi256 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He said he had a friend who owned a pawn shop with a computer Unethical to aid a pawn shop, especially if you are a Christian. But hey, who am I to judge. Edit: pawn shops are unethical from a Christian viewpoint, as they charge interest. And the parent said he was doing Bible study. But again, who am I to give advice on such topics as an heathen. Just downmod and show me I'm wrong.

Seriously - ovi256 is now down to -15 in karma, and (as far as I remember in regard to the modding system) can't even comment anymore. Just because he thinks it's unethical to own a pawnshop. His other comments are fine. Would you PLEASE vote the poor guy up a bit. I don't mind burning karma doing this, I've got plenty to spare. This is just wrong.

that's a yc urban legend actually, an editor needs to kill your account for it to be killed. It just so happens that by the time someone reaches negative karma an editor has usually killed their account.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#98

Post by menloparkbum »

mixmax wrote: post #96
ovi256 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He said he had a friend who owned a pawn shop with a computer Unethical to aid a pawn shop, especially if you are a Christian. But hey, who am I to judge. Edit: pawn shops are unethical from a Christian viewpoint, as they charge interest. And the parent said he was doing Bible study. But again, who am I to give advice on such topics as an heathen. Just downmod and show me I'm wrong.

Seriously - ovi256 is now down to -15 in karma, and (as far as I remember in regard to the modding system) can't even comment anymore. Just because he thinks it's unethical to own a pawnshop. His other comments are fine. Would you PLEASE vote the poor guy up a bit. I don't mind burning karma doing this, I've got plenty to spare. This is just wrong.

Don't feel too bad about it. If ovi256 really can't comment, ovi257 can pick up the usury/pawnshop debate where he left off.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#99

Post by doubleplus »

mixmax wrote: post #96
ovi256 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He said he had a friend who owned a pawn shop with a computer Unethical to aid a pawn shop, especially if you are a Christian. But hey, who am I to judge. Edit: pawn shops are unethical from a Christian viewpoint, as they charge interest. And the parent said he was doing Bible study. But again, who am I to give advice on such topics as an heathen. Just downmod and show me I'm wrong.

Seriously - ovi256 is now down to -15 in karma, and (as far as I remember in regard to the modding system) can't even comment anymore. Just because he thinks it's unethical to own a pawnshop. His other comments are fine. Would you PLEASE vote the poor guy up a bit. I don't mind burning karma doing this, I've got plenty to spare. This is just wrong.

I agree, but I'm not at all surprised.

Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?

#100

Post by msg »

ovi256 wrote: post #75
menloparkbum wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point, he's trying to be an insulting troll, or at least bait the OP. His comment is almost incoherent so it can be misread as some weird guy who hasn't kept up to date on xtian usury prohibitions.

It was trollish and I was trying to bait the OP, in the sense that it was completely off-topic and that I was suggesting the OP was an hypocrite. Which I still believe to be true. Duh. Christianity and usury? I thought it was obvious for everyone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury#New_Testament I would have liked to know how the OP solves the cognitive dissonance between his beliefs and the accepted practices of tod…

This continues to be a troll, but I'll bite. Hopefully in such a way that no one else has to.

Arguing from obviousness about religious beliefs? Come on, people have fought wars over the iota in homoiousious. Arguing from obviousness in interpreting a passage in the New Testament? Learn about hermeneutics. One text, many interpretations, and as many as there are people willing to approach the text authentically.

And let me give you something only a Christian would say, so you can be educated. Bible study is not an end in itself. It is a means to becoming more like Jesus, becoming closer to Jesus. So I take a dim view of arguments that purport to assume a Christian belief and the status quo, then derive a contradiction. These arguments are about the periphery of Christianity. If you want to create some cognitive dissonance, head for the center.

I read that (crappy) Wikipedia article on usury, including the strands of Christian thought that disagree with the non-interpretation of those New Testament passages in the Wikipedia. For instance, the section on the scholastics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury#Usury_in_scholastic_theol...

So instead of taking the reductionist appeal to obviousness and playing word games with quotations that you interpret privately, maybe you can go through the two millennia of source material on the question and offer the definitive breakdown. Send me a link to your dissertation when you're done.

More to the point, this and many other religious beliefs inhere in systems of thought, not random answers to random questions. You just asked, "When did you stop feeling cognitive dissonance about your beliefs?", and I might rightly be skeptical that you even cared about the answer.

You don't understand a religion until you understand it from the perspective of someone who lives it. You don't understand a religious belief unless you locate it in the network of beliefs, the worldview, that it belongs to. And you don't discredit a religion by raising questions about disputable matters.

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