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Explaining to my parents what I do

neelsomani.com

31–40 of 51 posts

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#31
post #7

// Albert Einstein said: "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." I like to think this is true about explaining things to my parents - Isn't this a quote by Richard Feynman?

Neither Einstein nor Feynman. It's just one of those quote memes that get stuck to famous people because those are the most likely attributions to get repeated.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/10/19/barmaid/

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#32
post #23

> ... it is a well-known type of problem, called a multiple integer program (MIP) Is this meant to be "mixed integer program"? Nice read. I find this especially interesting as I'm familiar with everything you've talked about here except only in Australia (AEMO). What you've written is like a parallel universe to what I know - very similar, but distinctly different.

I don't personally like the pricing model for energy in Australia and I can't wait for the realities of the 5 minute bid and future battery use like FCAS. But that said, even if this was a public utility model like I think it should be, and not this quasi free market (it's a highly regulated and very distorted market at times) price models like this would very probably work, and apply to balancing the energy supply and consumption.

Demand management as a virtual generator is interesting too. Supermarkets and shopping centres have huge HVAC which can bid in and out to consume surplus power into water chilling or heating and use it for its thermal qualities later.

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#33
post #25

I know close to nothing about economics and was a bit confused by this statement: "The line sloping downwards represents demand. As quantity increases (bottom axis), the price people are willing to pay also decreases." This makes it sound like there is an "available demand quantity" that is the independent variable and a "price" that is the dependent variable. But it seems a lot more intuitive to say "demand increase…

Not sure why you're getting downvoted for asking a question, but hopefully this page helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_graph

It wasn't the graph that confused me (I've seen a supply-demand graph before and understood the axes were "reversed" compared to most other disciplines), but the description in the post itself.

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#34
post #23

> ... it is a well-known type of problem, called a multiple integer program (MIP) Is this meant to be "mixed integer program"? Nice read. I find this especially interesting as I'm familiar with everything you've talked about here except only in Australia (AEMO). What you've written is like a parallel universe to what I know - very similar, but distinctly different.

Lol thank you! Evidently I did not have anyone proofread this...

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#35
post #7

// Albert Einstein said: "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." I like to think this is true about explaining things to my parents - Isn't this a quote by Richard Feynman?

I think that is probably a "folk quote", the attribution to Feynman is also inaccurate AFAIK. He said something similar though: > Feynman was a truly great teacher. He prided himself on being able to devise ways to explain even the most profound ideas to beginning students. Once, I said to him, “Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics.” Sizing up his a…

I like the subtle hidden arrogance that "we don't really understand it" if Feynman can't explain it at freshman level.

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#36

I know close to nothing about economics and was a bit confused by this statement: "The line sloping downwards represents demand. As quantity increases (bottom axis), the price people are willing to pay also decreases." This makes it sound like there is an "available demand quantity" that is the independent variable and a "price" that is the dependent variable. But it seems a lot more intuitive to say "demand increase…

Yeah I agree, I typically think about quantity as a function of price

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#37

Super interesting read. I ended up getting curious as to who he worked for, checked out his LinkedIn and it turns out he works for Citadel.. I swear I've heard of that company somewhere? ;)

> I swear I've heard of that company somewhere?

Care to share where?

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#39

Super interesting read. I ended up getting curious as to who he worked for, checked out his LinkedIn and it turns out he works for Citadel.. I swear I've heard of that company somewhere? ;)

> I swear I've heard of that company somewhere? Care to share where?

Google 'meme stocks'

Re: Explaining to my parents what I do

#40
I'm an anti-intellectual ball buster, so I'm triggered by the "ELI5" conceit preceding a verbose summarization of the linear programming problem. A better follow-up to the ELI5 condescension would be, "I exploit discrepancies between what energy prices are and what they ought to be for the benefit of my employer, and thus myself."
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