Live data from Hacker News

Too Clever by Half

epsilontheory.com

21–30 of 261 posts

Re: Too Clever by Half

#21
post #14

I really enjoyed this article. Summary Coyotes are too clever because they know that people shaking jars full of coins can’t hurt them. Thus the animal control patrol has to get called and when they don’t shoo, the animal control person who loves animals has to shoot the coyote. Coyotes are winning the mini-game of each human interaction, but they are losing the meta-game of what society will do if coyotes aren’t sca…

This is probably a highdea, but what if coyotes are having a tough time in the wild and they are smart enough to see how we treat dogs, so they are actually doing what wolves did thousands of years ago by slowly, cautiously edging their way into human society in hopes that they can integrate with us?

They aren't particularly hostile, they seem to just want to survive. There have been maybe a couple hundred reported coyote attacks in the past 50 years[0] compared to millions of dog-related attacks per year[1]. Of course, one would expect dog-related attacks to be more common because they interact with us more, so it's not quite a controlled comparison.

Why hate on coyotes? I guess it boils to how cute they are, unfortunately. I don't think we truly need them, and they aren't cute enough to keep around for most people. Perhaps if I raised a baby coyote, I would be very inclined to keep one as a pet.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_attacks_on_humans

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_Unite...

Re: Too Clever by Half

#22
>> When the dog gets close to the wire, the receiver starts to beep, and when the dog gets all the way to the “fence” boundary, the receiver generates a small electric zap. I know, I know … it’s negative reinforcement and it’s a shock collar and all that. Don’t care. It’s fantastic for us and our dogs.

That's disgusting.

Re: Too Clever by Half

#23

>> When the dog gets close to the wire, the receiver starts to beep, and when the dog gets all the way to the “fence” boundary, the receiver generates a small electric zap. I know, I know … it’s negative reinforcement and it’s a shock collar and all that. Don’t care. It’s fantastic for us and our dogs. That's disgusting.

Do you know what's worse? Your dog straying out of the farm and getting eaten by a bear. Or run over by a truck

Re: Too Clever by Half

#24
> Coyotes can change the world. (But) Not if they fetishize ANY financial instrument as an intrinsic aspect of a commitment to liberty and justice for all. Because it’s not.

This. In and tags

Re: Too Clever by Half

#25
I think the metaphor is a stretch, especially when applied to Bitcoin. There were many factors which played a part in the financial crisis, including the following non-exhaustive list which were not mentioned is the essay:

- By bailing out big banks and other institutions, the government signaled to these institutions to pile on risk because they'd just be saved by the government when things went bad

- Policy which gave incentives for risky mortgages under the intention of helping the poor

- Tax policy continuing to give incentives for people to buy houses instead of renting

Re: Too Clever by Half

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FamilICO -- pegged to the net worth of the world's poor. Not sure I'd buy that coin.

If BLM and the feminists are right, the coin is undervalued. What is the probability that they are right?

As Google can’t find it, I’d say NaN percent.

Even if the coin did exist economists do actually know how poor the poor are, and so would include racist and sexist pay policies in the coin price (assuming cryptocurrencies can even be tied like that); and even if they didn’t know that neither BLM nor feminists are claiming their pay turned out to be Monopoly money or chocolate coins.

BLM started as a result of black people being treated like their lives didn’t matter, hence the name, not their poverty not mattering.

Re: Too Clever by Half

#28

>> When the dog gets close to the wire, the receiver starts to beep, and when the dog gets all the way to the “fence” boundary, the receiver generates a small electric zap. I know, I know … it’s negative reinforcement and it’s a shock collar and all that. Don’t care. It’s fantastic for us and our dogs. That's disgusting.

How would you keep a dog from straying into the wild and getting injured? These are pets and not wild animals able to survive in the bush on their own.

Re: Too Clever by Half

#29
post #14

I really enjoyed this article. Summary Coyotes are too clever because they know that people shaking jars full of coins can’t hurt them. Thus the animal control patrol has to get called and when they don’t shoo, the animal control person who loves animals has to shoot the coyote. Coyotes are winning the mini-game of each human interaction, but they are losing the meta-game of what society will do if coyotes aren’t sca…

This is probably a highdea, but what if coyotes are having a tough time in the wild and they are smart enough to see how we treat dogs, so they are actually doing what wolves did thousands of years ago by slowly, cautiously edging their way into human society in hopes that they can integrate with us? They aren't particularly hostile, they seem to just want to survive. There have been maybe a couple hundred reported c…

> in hopes that they can integrate with us

I think you can stop right there. The dog thing happened not because dog "wanted" to be with humans. Dogs were clueless about what happened, it just did. The explanation is on a higher level, not in their desires, not even in the desires of the humans who participated in most of the dog domestication (even if some of them may have thought about it, but by then it was already happening).

Re: Too Clever by Half

#30
post #3

He’s just saying block chain is the next CDS(credit default swaps)

...but for individual instead of for institutional investors:

> Turns out that B̶i̶t̶c̶o̶i̶n̶ a AAA-rated tranche of Alt-A mortgages wasn’t the store of value that coyote-math “proved” it was, to the detriment of i̶n̶d̶i̶v̶i̶d̶u̶a̶l̶ institutional investors who put a significant portion of their portfolio into these securities, and to the ruin of those who used leverage to acquire these securities.

Post reply on HN