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Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

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Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#151

Post by pjc50 »

IshKebab wrote: post #142
Tepix wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What‘s the source for the 20 years? Seems unlikely to me. b) You can also buy used EVs. I bought one last year, 2 years old, for 56% of the original price.

My source is just personal observation, but I'm clearly not far off: https://www.scrap-car-dealers.co.uk/latest-news/post/average... > As of 2025, the average age of a scrapped car in the UK is between 16 and 20 years old! ... > You can also buy used EVs. True, but you're quite limited there since good EVs have only been around for a very small number of years. Maybe you can get an old Tesla for not too much but that…

> True, but you're quite limited there since good EVs have only been around for a very small number of years

You'd think that, but (I am shopping at the moment) it is routine to see last year's EVs on Autotrader, at 30-50% off list price. That does make me a little suspicious (is this being got rid of because it's a lemon?), but they're there.

I think we can narrow the statement to "if you are buying a new or nearly-new car, or leasing, and you can charge at home or work, you should seriously consider an EV". Fleet and business use should definitely be thinking very hard about it.

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#152

Post by YetAnotherNick »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #81
nostrademons wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In any case, it is a bad idea to invest in the company you work for I'd question this conventional wisdom, simply because you have a lot more information about the company as an employee than a random investor does, even if you are not in possession of things like financials that the SEC considers "material non-public information". Things like culture, intelligence of your coworkers, whether or not you're actually…

No you don’t. If you did, you would be subject to lock outs. The average rank and file employee at any BigTech company knows only a minuscule more than the general public. Amazon for instance has over 1 million employees. You know nothing about most of your coworkers or whether other teams are delivering featured

> The average rank and file employee at any BigTech company knows only a minuscule more than the general public.

They know the clients, the contracts, hiring, cost cutting way before the general public does. The problem is that many BigTech is sum of many units which might not be correlated, but for say Nvidia or Apple I would assume the employees would be a good people to take the stock advice from.

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#153

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #152
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you don’t. If you did, you would be subject to lock outs. The average rank and file employee at any BigTech company knows only a minuscule more than the general public. Amazon for instance has over 1 million employees. You know nothing about most of your coworkers or whether other teams are delivering featured

> The average rank and file employee at any BigTech company knows only a minuscule more than the general public. They know the clients, the contracts, hiring, cost cutting way before the general public does. The problem is that many BigTech is sum of many units which might not be correlated, but for say Nvidia or Apple I would assume the employees would be a good people to take the stock advice from.

And this is again an obviously naive assumption. Your average developer at Apple has no idea how many iPhones Apple sold in China. Nor do Nvidia employees they know how many GPUs NVidia sold. Your random Amazon developer didn’t know Jassy was going to announce at the earnings call that Amazon was going to announce that they were going to spend more this year on Capex for AI related hardware than they’d free cash flow tanking their stock.

Again, I worked at AWS and we had no insider knowledge

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#154

Post by Schiendelman »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #128
Schiendelman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be willing to share your math?

Okay, it immediately costs more to buy an EV than it does to run my existing car. The monthly payment to buy an EV is more than I spend on fuel. Then I'd be paying roughly ten times as much for insurance, because it's a new and valuable car, and being "keyless" it cannot be secured in any meaningful way without locking it in a garage, which I don't have. Because I don't have a garage or a driveway I can't park right…

Those are arguments, not math. Will you share your actual math?

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#155

Post by flextheruler »

asdff wrote: post #78
flextheruler wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing autocratic with authoritarian. Total war reached its most recent zenith in the 20th century. If governments have always been able to control people to the same degree, why was not until Napoleon that we saw the beginnings of nationalism? I say this rhetorically, as it is quite obvious that it was technology and industrialization. When we look at ancient Empires and see their territory on a map it wou…

There was nationalism pre napoleon. Arguably east asia is a better example than european history IMO. I would say there is strong sense of nationalism among han chinese both now and in history. Likewise for Japan and Korea. Pre islam Persia as well. I guess the source of this was consistent centralized authority over a large region vs any technological change. You had that in east asia. You didn't have that in europe…

India is a great example of how relatively recent technology was required to finally unite and control a people. One can also just observe urbanization, capitalism, communication mediums(media). While China is unique for its cycles of unity and then disunity. These kingdoms were also dynastic and worshipped the emperor as a god. Such ways of government are a justification for ruling which supersedes the need of a national identity.

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#156

Post by Tade0 »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #128
Schiendelman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be willing to share your math?

Okay, it immediately costs more to buy an EV than it does to run my existing car. The monthly payment to buy an EV is more than I spend on fuel. Then I'd be paying roughly ten times as much for insurance, because it's a new and valuable car, and being "keyless" it cannot be secured in any meaningful way without locking it in a garage, which I don't have. Because I don't have a garage or a driveway I can't park right…

First time I hear that all EVs are keyless and have expensive insurance.

What model were you considering and why only this one?

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#157

Post by chermi »

zdc1 wrote: post #104
camgunz wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah I think the advice generally is "ignore options."

People who sell lottery tickets, on average, do better than those who buy them. The same applies to stock options. Which is why "bonus" options are fine, but "buying" them by taking ESOP over potential salary, can be a bad choice.

What behavioral incentive do lotto tickets give the buyer? Options/stock work for both parties because of alignment.

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#158

Post by Tade0 »

IshKebab wrote: post #107
pmg101 wrote: post #106

I'm not sure. Don't underestimate the power of inertia. I bought an EV last year and it's definitely been a "good idea" for me. Luxurious ride, fuel costs a tenth, doesn't stink. Seems such an obvious upgrade it slightly confuses me take-up hasn't been quicker among people who like me can charge at home.

> it slightly confuses me take-up hasn't been quicker among people who like me can charge at home No big mystery: a) most people keep cars for 20 years or more, b) most people don't buy new cars - they're too expensive.

There are very few 20yo+ cars on the road, mostly because the probability of a totalling over the course of this many years is pretty high.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/123niq7/ag...

I know for a fact that the figure for Poland is exaggerated, because plenty of cars which are currently shaving people's beards and have been performing this duty for years now remained in the registry and were purged from it only in 2024. That was 7 million out of 41 million originally there and most likely there's many more, as the criteria were set to avoid false positives.

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#159

Post by pmg101 »

n4r9 wrote: post #137
pmg101 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine is a model available with different power trains, so nobody knows. Or cares, I'm sure!

I don't know about you, but as soon as a car starts I'm pretty sure I know whether it's an EV or combustion engine.

Oh I see. So yes, for pedestrians standing nearby when you start up. That probably represents 0.01% of the people I encounter on my drives. The other 99.99% don't notice.

Re: Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

#160

Post by ghtbircshotbe »

With the current moon mission I'm reminded of how whenever someone from NASA is interviewed they like talking about how the billions spent are justified because of the practical results of the research - Velcro, Tang, etc. It always seemed like a stretch, but I have the unpleasant feeling the US is going to lean the true value of being the research leader when it's gone.
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