I could see Theranos trying to solve #1
Things I still can't do in November 2014
71–80 of 153 posts
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#72[deleted]
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#73Honestly, I find some of these points quite disturbing. And a lot of them are not a matter of technology. 13. Keep track of where everybody in my team is physically right now. I don't want to work with you, ever. 40 hours a week are for the team, sure, but during the remaining 128 you don't have any business in my life. What you propose is creepy. 25. Be able to take a course online and get graded -- and get a diplom…
"Be able to get a $100 MRI. It can be done for this price." [...] Also you may get it for free when you actually need it, if you live in a place with a sane health system (i.e., not the USA)."
As someone who lives in Germany where people pay almost 20% of their salary for non-opt-out health insurance, I'm astonished by people that think a state-forced health insurance gets you free MRIs.
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#74The fact that this guy seems to want to be able to track his teams physical location, sell his advice for a large sum of money and be able to get quick divorces tells me this isn't the kind of person I want in any kind of real power...
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most fat people don't have reasons other than stuffing their faces for being fat. As evidence for this, consider the fact that obesity is skyrocketing while most of the things on your list are not changing.
I don't disagree, but I feel you're implying that obese individuals have complete "self-aware" autonomy over their decision making. I can pick an obese individual out of a crowd and go "That guy is fat because he eats too much. Dude... have some self control, stop eating so much, buy healthy food, do some exercise, learn to cook for yourself." Focusing on an individual, all these things may be true, and one may seek…
Society is an abstraction for the aggregated product of individual actions. It's an abstraction layer above the level of individual choice, much as thermodynamics is an abstraction layer above mechanics.
Now lets suppose we do want to work on the societal abstraction level. The problem is that the proportion of people making a certain individual choice has gone up. One solution is a pigouvian tax to disincentivize this choice.
I agree you can't blame every single obese person for eating too much. You can only blame the vast majority of them - a small fraction really do have thyroid issues (and could potentially be excused from said tax).
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#76"Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers" This argument seems to be pretty common among the glitterati from Wall Street. I wonder why they don't see the incredible irony.
Not that I agree with the quote but, can you explain the irony?
Maybe because wall street was deemed "too big to fail" and propped up with billions upon billions when it collapsed?
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or just dumb ideas. Call the police from an app? Your phone is still a phone ...
While it's easy to call emergency services by 911, it's more difficult to call, say, the local sheriff's office for something that's not an emergency especially when you're traveling. An app could help solve that and resolve the best non-emergency number for you in your current location.
Isn't that called a phone directory? I can go to my country's directory website, type "police", choose "near me" (it gets the location from the device) and click search to get the number.
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#78> 26. Be able to sell my advice online. It's worth something and I should have some way to monetize it. It is called Google Helpouts[0], and it isn't going very well. Reason why - almost everybody overvalues what their advice is actually worth. People who can provide value usually already are through their usual economic activity - be it a job or entrepreneurialism (ie. If your advice was worth something, you'd alrea…
There have been a bunch of attempts. I think that one might eventually succeed.
The problem is the difficulty in actually figuring out who's advice is worth what & where. But, in many cases 30 minutes with the right person could be incredibly valuable.
Technical/scientific/engineering expertise is one are, industry knowledge is another one. I think the second might be the most important.
Say you have some sort of awesome technology that you want to market to the hotel industry. You need to understand how that industry works. What software they use & how. What they pay for various things. The right person could get you months ahead in 30 minutes.
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#79Honestly, I find some of these points quite disturbing. And a lot of them are not a matter of technology. 13. Keep track of where everybody in my team is physically right now. I don't want to work with you, ever. 40 hours a week are for the team, sure, but during the remaining 128 you don't have any business in my life. What you propose is creepy. 25. Be able to take a course online and get graded -- and get a diplom…
"Be able to get a $100 MRI. It can be done for this price." [...] Also you may get it for free when you actually need it, if you live in a place with a sane health system (i.e., not the USA)." As someone who lives in Germany where people pay almost 20% of their salary for non-opt-out health insurance, I'm astonished by people that think a state-forced health insurance gets you free MRIs .
Yes, the usual nitpick about tax-funded services applies here. It's not actually free, as in it doesn't come from the sky, but if you pay your taxes you're covered, which means that A) you WILL have the service when you need it, with zero cost at the moment of purchase (that is the key here: no headaches related to money, no loans necessary, etc), and B) average Joe pays less in taxes than what he would spend if national healthcare was provided, since when it is not, the high entry barrier allows the development of a price-raising oligopoly.
I guess that it's a matter of opinion, but personally, looking at the state of healthcare in the USA, I'm quite glad I live in Europe.
Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/healthcare/fatties-and-smokers... > Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on. The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000. And as Kip Viscusi has pointed out, when you add in the costs of the state pensions that those who die young don’t get, smoking and gorging save the government vast sums of money.
Thanks. Quite a surprising finding. That article links to another one from the NY times [1], with this interesting line: The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run. [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.97488..…
20-56 is the working age. If you wanna do this comparison you should include whether skinny people work more/pay more taxes while the obese are busy being sick. It gets complicated :-)