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Patrick Collison's Questions

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Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#71

Post by jariel »

Some of these are odd questions.

"How do we help more experimental cities get started?

It seems that the returns to entrepreneurialism in cities remain high: Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, and others, "

???

HK and to a lesser extent Singapore are some of the most inegalitarian places in the world, that thrive because they have established Western commercial practices in a sea of otherwise more obvious corruption. There is a very dark underbelly to HK.

Dubai is an Oil Rich state, with a fairly ruthless totalitarian leadership wherein the pay Indian workers 10's of cents an hour in a form of indentured servitude. An Arab Dubai resident could kill one of these workers and probably get away with it.

They also are nice places for rich people to hide their money.

There are no mysteries here.

Dubai is the 'anti civilisation' - maybe one of he worst examples of 'what to build'.

As for 'why some things are more expensive'?

Some things are commodities, some are not, some things have price inelasticity, some do not.

Why was the P43 made in a few months?

Because WW2 planes are very simple, and it was during war, and we didn't care about safety back in the day. 'Crash tests' for cars? We didn't even wear seat belts. No emissions standards. etc.. Most of today's projects are much more complex. It takes government 10 years to do anything because those systems are complicated, we have strong government unions, and a kind of civic dysfunction in many places.

The GDP is not consistent - it just looks like that in the chart.

The GDP naturally, is not going to change that much year over year - because we are largely engaged in the same patters of activity. But the rate of growth swings a lot. There is no mystery to solve here.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#72

Post by bawolff »

actuator wrote: post #70
bawolff wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: North Korea.

I am sometimes baffled at how the leaders at NK can't have a look at just down the DMZ and see what they could have. The difference in social indicators is magnitudes better. Their ideology has been proven so wrong. I wonder what will take them to just give up. If they are worried about punishments for what they have done, they could just cut a deal to let them have a lot of assets and be immune from judgement agains…

I'm sure the leaders enjoy their position in north korea quite a lot. Better to be a king in somewhere like North Korea than to be an ordinary person somewhere else.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#73

Post by ncmncm »

ISL wrote: post #28

On the Chinese research question: Just wait a decade. In all likelihood, I am permanently departing academia in about a month. The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave. I am about to join them. There is literally no path forward. In the decade that I have watched my wo…

In my informal searches, a surprising number of the really interesting new catalytic materials seem to be coming from Chinese researchers.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#74

Post by verroq »

bawolff wrote: post #48
verroq wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethno states with shared culture and little internal division due to racial tensions tend to run quite well. See: China, Korea, Norway, Denmark, Czech republic

Counterpoint: North Korea.

When was the last time North Korea had a race riot?

Also North Korea has a lot more geopolitical disadvantages at hand, namely sanctions.

An ethno state helps you avoid several classes of problems, like strict typing prevents runtime type errors. It doesn’t solve all administration problems.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#75

Post by actuator »

bawolff wrote: post #72
actuator wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sometimes baffled at how the leaders at NK can't have a look at just down the DMZ and see what they could have. The difference in social indicators is magnitudes better. Their ideology has been proven so wrong. I wonder what will take them to just give up. If they are worried about punishments for what they have done, they could just cut a deal to let them have a lot of assets and be immune from judgement agains…

I'm sure the leaders enjoy their position in north korea quite a lot. Better to be a king in somewhere like North Korea than to be an ordinary person somewhere else.

Could end up as a rich real estate mogul though as a unification condition. Still a decent deal.

Probably have to be at that position to understand that rationale I guess, right now it just seems heartless.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#76

Post by ISL »

apsec112 wrote: post #36
ISL wrote: post #28

On the Chinese research question: Just wait a decade. In all likelihood, I am permanently departing academia in about a month. The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave. I am about to join them. There is literally no path forward. In the decade that I have watched my wo…

If academia is structured the same way in China as it is in the US, that situation won't be sustainable for long there, either. If each professor produces ten new PhDs, the only way for them to all find academic jobs is through very rapid growth in faculty size, which can't be sustained for that long.

Agreed -- one can only hire like crazy in a growth phase. The frequently promulgated expectation that every new PhD can become an R1 professor is incorrect, unwise, and unhealthy. If that expectation alone were altered in the undergraduate consciousness, a lot of sadness could be averted.

The contrast here is that the US (in particular -- the EU seems to be more thoughtful) doesn't seem to be maintaining its robust research program, while China seems to understand that leadership in basic research has compounding benefits on decadal timescales.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#77

Post by ncmncm »

drcode wrote: post #50
andrewstuart wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited Japan and was just astounded at how much better the society is run. As a tourist, my obviously naive impression was of a place that is incredibly well organised, that seems to have no trouble investing in its own infrastructure, that is extremely safe and clean and generally prosperous. Where the people seem to have a sense of joy and fun. Just. so. well. organised. I really loved Japan. My favorite country…

I agree Japan is awesome (visited twice) but let's not overlook this: https://www.businessinsider.com/world-suicide-rate-map-2014-...

...or that hundreds of Tokyo buildings will collapse in the next big earthquake? Or have they been fixed, since we learned about it? If so, how?

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#78

Post by icelancer »

mef wrote: post #57
verroq wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good. A country should foremost look after its own people. Worry about foreigners (gaijin) later.

_Gaijin_ is commonly used for non-Asian foreigner. Take a look at how citizens of non-Japanese heritage are treated if you want to understand what the parent comment is referring to. For example, Korean or Chinese heritage Japanese, or Ainu (indigenous Japanese)

Ha, or worse, Japanese-American.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#79

Post by hintymad »

ISL wrote: post #28

On the Chinese research question: Just wait a decade. In all likelihood, I am permanently departing academia in about a month. The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave. I am about to join them. There is literally no path forward. In the decade that I have watched my wo…

I might as well add that Chinese universities respect research. They will not allow a mob to lock down a research facility in the name of social justice, let alone identity politics. They would certainly not let go a professor just because the professor wanted to unlock the building to do research.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#80

Post by verroq »

mef wrote: post #57
verroq wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good. A country should foremost look after its own people. Worry about foreigners (gaijin) later.

_Gaijin_ is commonly used for non-Asian foreigner. Take a look at how citizens of non-Japanese heritage are treated if you want to understand what the parent comment is referring to. For example, Korean or Chinese heritage Japanese, or Ainu (indigenous Japanese)

They are pretty xenophobic, if you are Chinese or worse Korean you might as well be a gaijin.
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