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Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

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Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#71

Post by Empact »

protomyth wrote: post #38
pasbesoin wrote: post #33

Gun control in the U.S.. I used to be more in favor, with the goal of a safer society as well as one less inclined to the isolation of sub-populations. Now, I'm considering widespread ownership more in terms of a last bulwark against one or another form of totalitarian rule. Perhaps it is a limiting factor against pushing the population too far. You might call this a knee-jerk reaction; nonetheless, it's on my mind.…

About 15 years ago, I was at a state sponsored meeting in Minot ND. A group the state hired was there telling us about risk factors in the community. The group hired was from the west coast and all the research they cited was studies done in low income urban areas. They pointed out guns were a big risk factor. The head of one of the local social service programs took exception to this. He asked how many people in the…

Some further evidence: over the past 30 years, concealed carry laws have loosened dramatically (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rtc.gif), while crime has consistently declined, including year over year in the states at the time they loosen their restrictions.

This year, Washington D.C. had an 17% drop in murder rate (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07...), immediately following the overturn of their gun ban via the Heller decision. Which is not to say the decision is responsible for the drop, but even if the impact was negative, it was swamped by other minor factors such as the rain.

I'm more and more convinced that gun restrictions have everything to do with perceived, rather than actual safety.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#72

Post by rsheridan6 »

xayide wrote: post #5

Seat belt laws. For years, my inner Libertarian would cringe at the idea that the government could force someone to do something they didn't want to when it was their own life at risk. But then my inner Republican realized that if I were to be at fault in an accident, I would be financially and possibly criminally liable for a much steeper offense if the other party wasn't buckled up.

There are all sorts of cases like that. We're probably going to get universal healthcare, so other people's health expenses affect you since you'll be paying for them. So cattle prods + fatties + treadmills = more freedom for you.

I'm glad I'm not a libertarian or I'd be experiencing cognitive dissonance.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#73

Post by tel »

RK wrote: post #70
tel wrote: post #39

My desire to become a doctor. As a college undergraduate in a biomedical engineering major there's a lot of contact and allure toward that field, but after extensive shadowing experience in the ER I realized that while I undeniably admire those who can become doctors, there is absolutely something missing, for me, in that profession: The ability to innovate, build, create, explore. An MD's life is more oriented towar…

Consider MD/PhD. The MD part of the degree gets you through a ton of doors that would otherwise be closed or incredibly difficult to open (unfortunately). It would also allow you to build products or perform research and actually be on the clinical side of things when it comes to testing (if you care).

It is a consideration, but with the 10+ year path it takes to acquire it, I'm a little shaken. At any rate, I'm looking at PhD in neurosciences so it'd be a decent play with an MD if I wanted it later. I'm not certain that this still lets you get MD tuition waived, but that would be excellent.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#74

Post by Zarkonnen »

protomyth wrote: post #38
pasbesoin wrote: post #33

Gun control in the U.S.. I used to be more in favor, with the goal of a safer society as well as one less inclined to the isolation of sub-populations. Now, I'm considering widespread ownership more in terms of a last bulwark against one or another form of totalitarian rule. Perhaps it is a limiting factor against pushing the population too far. You might call this a knee-jerk reaction; nonetheless, it's on my mind.…

About 15 years ago, I was at a state sponsored meeting in Minot ND. A group the state hired was there telling us about risk factors in the community. The group hired was from the west coast and all the research they cited was studies done in low income urban areas. They pointed out guns were a big risk factor. The head of one of the local social service programs took exception to this. He asked how many people in the…

Switzerland is actually a very bad example to use. The unusally (for Europe) high number of firearms there is because the members of the militia army keep an assault rifle at home. This is rather different from a handgun or a shotgun, and you're not allowed to use them outside military training.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#75

Post by Kevin_C »

protomyth wrote: post #61
die_sekte wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read somewhere that total crime rates in Switzerland are comparable to other European countries' rates, but that Switzerland has higher gun crime rates compared to other European countries' rates.

I do believe you are correct (I remember the same thing). People use what they have, but being dead from a knife is still dead. I find the rate of various crimes important as opposed to the tools used. Tools can be substituted.

Tools generally only have partial substitutes. (From memory only...) Suicides decreased in the UK when catalytic converters became required on cars: other means of suicide remain available, but most are harder for the potential suicide than sitting in a car with a pipe from the exhaust through the window.

Knives are substitutes for guns, but it's harder to kill 10 people with a knife than with an automatic. Which may explain why generally (always with exceptions) high gun ownership correlates with high homicides.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#77

Post by [deleted] »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #69
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting frame to the question -- whether you are a good match for the community. Wouldn't the question work better the other way around -- Whether the community was a good match for you or not? You would judge the answer based on how much the community helped you reach your goals. Whereas with the other question you're always looking outward for somebody else to validate you (which seems prone to gettin…

Being a match is close to symmetrical, but "usefulness" perhaps isn't. I get a great deal from this site and the musings of many of its participants. It's only reasonable that I should try to give something back, but repeatedly things I think are interesting get absolutely no response. With me getting a great deal out, but the community not getting much back, are we therefore a good match? Perhaps that's not really t…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#78

Post by alabut »

NASA and the ability for a government program to be startup-like, as well as my impression that test pilots were selected only for bravado.

I'm reading Carrying The Fire, a book by the Gemini and Apollo astronaut Michael Collins. I was totally caught off-guard about how fast-paced, creative and generally entrepreneurial the early space program was. A common description of their working life was that people on a space mission put in insanely long hours because they were captivated by the long term vision and routinely made fun of other areas of the government where people were just punching the clock.

Even working with otherwise disagreeable folk was tolerated. Collins on learning that he'd have to work with John Young on Gemini 10:

"...besides, I would have flown by myself or with a kangaroo - I just wanted to fly. All that stuff about crew psychology compatibility is crap. Almost anyone can put up with almost anyone else for a clearly defined period of time in pursuit of a mutual object important to each."

Also, I thought test pilots were crazy people with a death wish, probably because of The Right Stuff. Turns out they practice a form of user-centered design and consider themselves as advocates for the end user (pilots in the field). It doesn't surprise me that the current field of HCI was born from the study of airplane cockpits. A joke in the book was about the true story of emergency instructions printed on the inside of a canopy - all the steps after the first one were completely unusable in the context of a real emergency because step #1 was to blast off the canopy.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#79

Post by req2 »

btilly wrote: post #62
req2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence A modicum of research reveals that 'The authors reported a correlation of 0.60 between atheism rates and level of intelligence, which is “highly statistically significant.”'

Yes, it is statistically significant. But it can't tell the difference between educated people being more often exposed to the ideas of atheism, and being more likely to find them convincing.

The furor over creationism vs. evolution indicates that even if the ideas themselves are not well exposed to uneducated people, some of the basic building materials and one of the frameworks of the discussion is there.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#80

Post by lazyant »

xayide wrote: post #5

Seat belt laws. For years, my inner Libertarian would cringe at the idea that the government could force someone to do something they didn't want to when it was their own life at risk. But then my inner Republican realized that if I were to be at fault in an accident, I would be financially and possibly criminally liable for a much steeper offense if the other party wasn't buckled up.

In Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends & Influence People" he says to never argue with anyone, since you'll never convince the other person and if you do they'll resent you for making them look foolish (or something like this).

The case for wearing a seat belt is my exception to this rule. I was talking to a "libertarian" friend and he mentioned his life is his responsibility and he should wear the seat belt or not if he didn't want to. I told him that if he got in an accident and paralyzed because of not wearing seat belt then it wouldn't be fair to the rest of us tax payers to support him because of his decision. (This was in a modern country with universal health care).

He thought for a second and said, "oh, yes, you're right".

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