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Patrick Collison's Questions

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Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#121

Post by donw »

actuator wrote: post #92
donw wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. :) I'm not sure "work-life balance" is even the right concept in Japan. Japanese companies are structured around the idea that you devote your life to the organization. Overtime and weekend work are common. In exchange, the company will take care of you: you will never be fired, you will be provided with access to a broad social network, a group of friends, a spouse should you desire, and enough salary for…

Hey, thanks for taking the time for answering that. Your answers are realy helpful. - Definitely an interesting way to look at it, I am not sure whether I would be able to convince myself of this though, based on the cultural difference I have grown up with. - The US company thing sounds great, even entry level tech roles have $150k+ comps, and I think in Japan that should still be really good. - I can live with a li…

USD 150k is roughly JPY 16M, which is 2-3x an entry-level salary here. Google might be laying that down for new graduates, but they'd be the only ones that are.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#122

Post by jariel »

paxys wrote: post #111
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 11 workers died during construction, a safety record matching or surpassing most modern projects. Do you have a source for that? 11 deaths seems like it would be shockingly high for a modern project.

The bridge's safety record was revolutionary at the time, mainly due to the introduction of hard hats and safety nets ( https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about... ). It's hard to find a comparison to an equivalent project in America today, but looking around the world the numbers aren't much better (e.g. 9 people died in 2019 building world cup stadiums in Qatar - https://www.theguardian.com/glob…

" but looking around the world the numbers aren't much better"

? Qataris use indentured servitude, paying subsistence wages, forcibly holding passports and people in work conditions, not letting them leave, no access to healthcare, making workers 'pay for their debt' of the 'flight from India to Qatar'.

So this is not remotely any kind of basis of comparison for 'why we have a hard time making bridges'.

Japan has a different attitude, they're able to 'make stuff safely' but it's a different culture.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#123

Post by analog31 »

ISL wrote: post #76
apsec112 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

I got my physics PhD in 1993. By this time, this expectation was already held in disregard. Most students were aware of what we called the "birth control problem." My dad got his PhD in the 1950s, and told me that it was common knowledge back then too.

But while students vaguely knew that most of us would not end up on this path, we got little or no guidance on what else we could do. A common aspiration was to teach at a lower tier school, but the academic job market was saturated from top to bottom. I was ready to go into some kind of engineering. A lot of us became programmers.

I got lucky -- a friend of a friend owned a company, and hired me.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#124

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

ncmncm wrote: post #77
drcode wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Could ask the same about SF, LA, maybe Portland OR, Seattle, Vancouver and really anything in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_Seismic_Zone

I'd trust the Japanese more in anything related to earthquake proof building, in spite of their little fuck-up with Fukushima.

At the end of the day, no matter where and when you are, it's your mandatory share of risk in the lottery of life.

Deal with it.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#125

Post by analog31 »

aeternum wrote: post #87
bumby wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was Freakanomics that had an episode about textbook cost. Their idea was it was a disparity between those choosing the textbooks (professors) to those bearing the costs (students). In other words, it is much easier to increase the cost of a product if those bearing the cost don’t have a say.

I definitely had a few classes in which the professor wrote the text-book which while impressive in some ways also yields a conflict of interest.

Oddly enough, one of my professors wrote textbooks for his classes that he gave to us for the cost of copying them. He was outraged by the price of textbooks.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#126

Post by lioeters »

thundergolfer wrote: post #52
dbcurtis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that takes a lot of effort? I suspect it would not be hard to find a tutor at readonable rates. (Speaking as a former home-schooling dad. We used math toturs for 1:1 instruction at various times. )

I'd be looking for a tutor in graduate mathematics, and particularly the subjects that I can most readily apply to my work. In Sydney I don't think there'd be that many available, and it would take time to find the right 'fit'. I don't think you can assume that once a reasonable rate is settled that the partnership would be a success.

A private tutor in graduate-level mathematics, with emphasis on subjects that can be applied to your work - what a great idea!

Like the sibling comment suggested, I imagine there must be an over-qualified and under-paid talent pool around universities, with enough candidates for you to select a suitable tutor.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#127

Post by zachware »

calinet6 wrote: post #103
paxys wrote: post #97

The infrastructure one really stands out to me, and I'm always astounded by it. Adding yet another example - The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 4 years for $1.6 billion (inflation adjusted), under budget and ahead of schedule. 11 workers died during construction, a safety record matching or surpassing most modern projects. In contrast, a project to install suicide nets around the bridge has been under development fo…

I would bet it’s tied to the neglect of work in both real wages and respect for workers. We no longer take pride in work. We pay people less and make them compete for the mere privilege of holding a job. Then, we tell them what to do, disrespecting their intelligence and autonomy and ability to make something they can be proud of. For the brilliance of this strategy, we pay leaders ten times more than we did before,…

It's entirely possible that you are right except for construction and civil project jobs.

I've built several large-scale buildings and developments at urban scale in California and Nevada, both heavy heavy union states.

I can't point to the systemic problem leading to the delays but I can tell you that any job even tangentially related to construction requires high wage labor. This is universally true for civic projects.

Some of those unions (e.g. electrical workers, carpenters) provide exceptional training services for apprentices. Others (e.g. the people holding the stop signs at highway construction sites) are mostly strong-arm groups.

These groups could be causing delays and from personal experience I can tell you they do, sometimes. But overall I can certainly say that the point you made here is not the reason why projects are delayed.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#128

Post by paxys »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #115
paxys wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bridge's safety record was revolutionary at the time, mainly due to the introduction of hard hats and safety nets ( https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about... ). It's hard to find a comparison to an equivalent project in America today, but looking around the world the numbers aren't much better (e.g. 9 people died in 2019 building world cup stadiums in Qatar - https://www.theguardian.com/glob…

So, in other words, your statement "a safety record matching or surpassing most modern projects" is something you made up. Bringing up the stadium in Qatar only further highlights that point: I remember that building project getting tons of press outlining how shockingly bad the safety record was compared to what should be expected.

Take some time to research safety and deaths in large construction projects happening today at the scale of bridging the Golden Gate back in the 1930s. E.g. Channel tunnel - 10 deaths, Panama Canal Expansion - 7, Three Gorges Dam - 100+, Gotthard Base Tunnel - 8, Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge - 19, Istanbul Airport - 55. I'm not sure what statistics you are looking for, but construction isn't a no-risk profession even in modern times. If you want to just look at America - 3 people died at the Hard Rock Hotel construction site in New Orleans last year. Two people have died in the last two months building the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Two more died digging a trench in Phoenix two weeks ago.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#129

Post by lioeters »

ncmncm wrote: post #77
drcode wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> According to a study by Tokyo University, 87% of the city's buildings have been constructed according to modern anti-seismic standards.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#130

Post by nemothekid »

ffggvv wrote: post #43
akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

why can’t you just attribute it to culture? it’s clearly that

You can, but it looks like everyone else in this thread is lazer focused on Japan (likely due to the prestige of Japanese culture).

But that doesn't explain Switzerland. Is Switzerland closer to Japanese in culture than they are to Dutch? I think obviously not, but from the thread you would assume otherwsie.

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