Burt Rutan - the Ruth/Gretzky/Bradman of aviation engineering
Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
151–160 of 240 posts
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can you quantify the amount of liberty in America??? Let's say taxes were higher, that doesn't mean a decrease in liberty. They fought because of taxation without representation, not because of high taxes. So you're saying that majority rule in USA tends to prevent the smarter people from getting any power? I think what generally happens is that people who are smarter, and do things better, will do it. At least t…
I consider taxes to be a decrease in liberty, because I am no longer able to dispose of my income in a way that I please. Instead I am forced to hand some of it over, at pain of imprisonment. I have no actual power to prevent this.
We all have to sacrifice some liberty. You sacrifice your right to shoot someone so that you in turn will not be shot by someone else. Laws are instituted so that we sacrifice some liberty in order to better preserve other liberties.
As far as the war of independence goes, they were being taxed and not being represented properly, and this was an infringement on liberty. Were they doing it so that they can tax themselves higher later? No, of course not. That's not the reason why they wanted independence. They wanted independence to oppose that specific tyranny. So you can't argue that it was a bad decision because they ended up later having higher taxes anyways. You can't say independence was unjustified, because the act of fighting for independence does not by default lead to less liberty by taxation
Likewise the statement that blood of tyrants must be shed to preserve liberty is not necessarily wrong by your reasoning because the current act to preserve liberty by bloodshed committed by the Americans was not done with knowledge that it would lead to higher taxation--and less liberty-- later on. So Jefferson saying that bloodshed is necessary to oppose any current liberty restraining powers is independent of any future infringements on liberty, because if such future infringements occur, simply reapply Jefferson's commandment and kill your oppressive leaders.
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#153Mr. Rogers. The guy was amazing on so many levels; there are lots of examples but I'll go with a HN related one. He contributed valuable testimony to the betamax case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers
Here's the Junod profile of Mister Rogers (it's never, ever "Mr."): http://www.thedqtimes.com/pages/castpages/other/fredrogersca... It will make you cry.
Thank you for this link. I read it. It is very nice.
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
False all around. Aging is a result of evolutionary neglect, not evolutionary pressure. We haven't evolved to live longer because until extremely recent times, only a negligible fraction of us lasted long enough for old age (or menopause) to become an issue. Furthermore, your argument about tarantulas rests on group selection, which is discredited.
That's a semantic argument. But what it means for aging is functionally the same; we're programmed to last a certain amount of time (when there is pressure) and when the pressure runs out... we break down. This is essentially the same as having a programmed break down time. Secondly, the argument on tarantulas does not rest on group selection at all. For any one male tarantula, he spreads his genes better by living 2…
So what if there's pressure? You argue that we must rewrite the source code -- so? Genetics = source code. So rewrite the source code.
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Don't care if the cat is a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches the mouse, it's a good cat." Basically for those who are interested in the background of the quote, Deng arose to power at the end of the Cultural Revolution, at the height of Chinese communism ideology when the government was so communist that they broke away from the Soviet's and accused of USSR as "revisionist"; destroyed all of the Buddhi…
> he viability of either models remains to be seem. I think it's safe to say that any model which encourages individual freedoms would be superior. And the reason relates to my beliefs in self-education vs school education. It's more efficient if people do what they want. So even an oligarchy with an emphasis on practical results will still be less efficient than individual people managing themselves freely.
> And the reason relates to my beliefs in self-education vs school education. It's more efficient if people do what they want. So even an oligarchy with an emphasis on practical results will still be less efficient than individual people managing themselves freely.
I actually completely agree with this, but regarding your first sentence:
> I think it's safe to say that any model which encourages individual freedoms would be superior.
I agree with this, too, but neither of the two models being discussed here actually does this. Perhaps the question, then, is which of the two models does a relatively better job, and the answer is not so obvious. There are some who would argue that the Chinese model does a better job of it, and they are not completely nuts.
Edit: I wanted to add that your post deserves praise, because you have made an essential connection that few people have. It is more efficient when people do what they want, this does indeed apply to schools/education as well as large-scale economic organization, and in no way is this a coincidence!
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#156Deng Xiaoping. In the pure utilitarian sense, he may have had the greatest positive impact of any person in the 20th century. In a century wracked by war between the ideologies, his philosophy was just the tonic the world needed: "Who cares if the mouse is black or white, as long it catches the mouse".
"Don't care if the cat is a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches the mouse, it's a good cat." Basically for those who are interested in the background of the quote, Deng arose to power at the end of the Cultural Revolution, at the height of Chinese communism ideology when the government was so communist that they broke away from the Soviet's and accused of USSR as "revisionist"; destroyed all of the Buddhi…
Thanks for the informative post. I do have one quibble though:
> Whether the current Chinese/Russian model of free markets but central strong political oligarchy without an ideological emphasis, versus the American model of free markets and free democracy with a strong ideology (leader of the free world), the viability of either models remains to be seem.
Neither of these models can accurately be described as consisting of "free markets". All three governments you mention exercise total control over their respective territories.
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
China has continued to become much more free since 1989. The comparison with Russia or the East European states is particular interesting, because China's growth rates have been much better. As for Tienanmen, every single mob revolution in the history of the world has caused far more deaths than the number of people who died at Tienanmen. Imagine how many millions of lives would have been saved if Louis the XVI had a…
Are you saying the end justifies the means?
If he is, then so did the mob revolutionaries. In fact, so did an HN poster right here in this thread:
> The French Revolution was a step forward for humanity, no matter how messy it was.
(from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=868344)
The idea that the government should kill protesters might seem far too disrespectful of human life, but then, doesn't the word "messy" in the above quote evoke the same reaction?
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#158I like George Carlin, but I do not admire him. I called that name here, because currently he gets a lot of my attention (haven't seen all of his performances yet). I find Carlin views very close to mine and admire professionalism and desire to work hard on his job.
But I don't think we should admire people, especially for a long time in our lives. I guess, it's like "liking -> falling in love -> peaceful loving or forgetting (if it didn't work)". I think it's healthy to find things you don't like in the person you admire and enjoy accepting them as is and gain understanding of your own views this way. I guess this would be the way you build your own personality.
Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#159Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?
#160Teddy Roosevelt. They don't make presidents like that anymore, in any country.
Also my buddy, who, whilst being induced into the Catholic confirmation process whilst in primary school, refused, saying that "I'm not convinced. It sounds like some sort of cult". I wish I had been so self-confident (not that being confirmed hurt me).