benc666 (u/benc666) - Readit News

benc666 commented on Billionaires Build paulgraham.com/ace.html... · Posted by u/okgabr

bedhead · 5 years ago

You are right about the feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty. The most uncomfortable one to talk about is basic social network effects. Two people meet at some prestigious college and get married - are we shocked they have children who are predisposed for success? Besides from having god-given IQ, they are likely some combination of ambitious, punctual, respectful of authority, long-term oriented, hard-working, etc. But would one of those parents have ever been interested in marrying and having kids with some high school dropout, someone from a vastly different social place and lacking those values? It's pretty rare. Society organizes itself around this stuff and it's extremely powerful. The two high school dropouts end up hooking up and having kids and it's often times (though obviously not always) the opposite cycle. And yeah there are plenty of societal biases that are real, but I really don't think anything will ever be as powerful as this self-organizing dynamic of how people marry and have kids. It's cold and depressing and uncomfortable but it's reality.

benc666 · 5 years ago

Thank you for this well-thought (and written) comment. Human nature - ignored at own peril.

benc666 commented on Chronic alcohol use reshapes the brain’s immune landscape scripps.edu/news-and-even... · Posted by u/gmays

minikites · 5 years ago

Both, in my opinion. I don't think we should return to Prohibition times but I do think it should be significantly more difficult and costly to purchase alcohol.

benc666 · 5 years ago

That's a valid view, but some alcohol in moderation certainly helps grease the wheels of social interaction.

This is probably why alcohol was known since ancient times. I'll cite: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcoholic_drinks] [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/02/alcohol-...]

benc666 commented on No More Free Work from Marak: Pay Me or Fork This github.com/Marak/faker.js... · Posted by u/ingve

mgsn · 5 years ago

You're right, of course. But I am so, so tired of having to "sell" over and over just to have the value of my contributions recognized. And I think gp would agree.

The poster, marak, is a founder [0]. They definitely understand product-ization. Yet two weeks ago they suffered an apartment fire and have been struggling to keep a roof over their head [1].

I can definitely understand the kind of bitterness that comes out of going through something like that only to realize how little the fellow humans around you really value you. Realizing that for all the positive signals (such as "popularity") you received before, precious few are willing to actually put resources on the line for you.

So, I think gp and marak aren't coming from a place of misunderstanding the world as it is, but rather a depressing understanding of our world.

Imagine, if you can, a much different world. A world where helping or recognizing the efforts of others meaningfully didn't put you worse off. A world where your quality of life wasn't determined by your ability to take more than you give (or to have started off with enough resources that you can afford to give more than you take).

Once you really see what could be, I think it's difficult to suffer what is.

[0] https://twitter.com/marak

[1] "I lost all my stuff in an apartment fire and am barely staying unhomeless." https://twitter.com/marak/status/1320465599319990272

benc666 · 5 years ago

Surely home insurance is going to make it whole?

benc666 commented on IPv6 Is a Nightmare teknikaldomain.me/post/ip... · Posted by u/whereistimbo

audunw · 5 years ago

As a networking novice that article actually made me feel positive about IPv6 during most of it.

I feel like maybe firewall based security is a bit of an outdated model. It’s going to take a while to figure out how to secure our networks/devices well, but it feels like a model that pushes more of the configuration to the device will be more secure and more universal (since more and more devices will be LTE connected)

The model where you by default have access to everything inside the network if you can just get a connection behind the firewall never seemed all that great to me. If we can’t assume that any connection from the local network is authorized anymore, maybe it’ll push us to make servers/services more inherently secure, and accept/reject connections based on actually authenticating the user/device connecting to it. But then again, I’m not a professional so I may be wrong.

benc666 · 5 years ago

A layered approach to security (onion model) is the only sane approach because any given layer will always have flaws.

The notion I get from the article is that security becomes a huge problem when every node is exposed to almost every other node by design intent. That's why NAT is mentioned several times.

benc666 commented on Why most African countries are not prospering iafrikan.com/2020/04/28/i... · Posted by u/iafrikan

dustinmoris · 5 years ago

EDIT:

Below is the text of the article.

---

Why most African countries are not prospering By Tefo Mohapi - 28 April 2020

It is not by mistake, “juju”, or a curse that most African nations are failing and in most cases poor (as far as providing a good life for citizens is concerned). Despite being blessed with having all sorts of natural resources, land, etc. to this day, Africa is “poor.”

Correction, not poor, but terribly managed.

Botswana is arguably one of few countries in Africa that has been able to hold onto being stable and relatively prosperous over the decades and centuries. This is both before the British came to the country and after Botswana assumed independence. The Southern African country is doing relatively well for its citizens not because it has a small population (many countries have similar populations as Botswana but are failing) but simply because, even after assuming presidency, Seretse Khama and his political party chose to enforce inclusive political and economic institutions. Of course the country has had its fair share of problems but it has fared better for its citizens than many African countries. 1950: Ruth Williams Khama with Seretse Khama on a hill somewhere in Botswana. Credit - History Today It’s worse when you consider that today, almost all the world’s knowledge is not only available in books, but also in most cases for free on the web. So, if that’s the case, with all the technology solutions available in the world and all the knowledge available, why are most African countries failing?

I would argue the primary reason, at the core of it all, the wrong people are in the wrong positions. As such, the wrong people are making the wrong decisions based purely on their egos and patronage. Think about it. It is actually like a pyramid (scheme) of patronage, with decisions at every level made in favour of whoever the next upper level patron is. So, for example, instead of hiring the best people and deploying the best available technology to address any particular problem, a solution and people that do things that benefit the patron are entrusted with developing solutions.

This is also why criticism which aims to improve is also frowned upon in general, because…that’s not how patronage works.

Which brings me to one of the most insightful books I have read - Why Nations Fail.

I think the book "Why Nations Fail" should be required curriculum before anyone assumes any public service office at any level in any African country. In the book Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson explain what causes countries to fail economically, giving specific examples throughout history. In the same vein, they give case studies on how to "break the mold." The above diagram is a good illustration of the key concept of the book, i.e. the more extractive a country's political and economic systems, the more likely it will fail and not benefit its citizens. So, the next step that follows from a system of patronage is that extractive political and economic systems are developed (the authors don’t mention patronage, but I think it is a precursor to the beginning of a failing state). For example, despite it being known that digitized and transparent government procurement systems are the most efficient (for the benefit of citizens), a country that runs heavily on a patronage network will hang onto inefficient methods simply because new technology threatens this patronage pyramid (scheme).

This is also something many technology startup founders miss when they pitch their efficient and innovative solutions to African governments, i.e.if it threatens the patronage network, my friend, forget it.

How do we get our various African countries out of this cycle of poverty and failure?

benc666 · 5 years ago

"the primary reason, at the core of it all, the wrong people are in the wrong positions".

South Africa in 2020 is a case study for that. Inheriting the most industrialized economy in the whole of Africa in 1994, the ANC government's methodology of deploying cadres - instead of the most capable person for the job - led to exactly where the country is at make-or-break point due to an incapable state unable to deliver services it taxes the citizens still able to pay taxes, so dearly for.

benc666 commented on I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 newyorker.com/humor/daily... · Posted by u/fergie

ed25519FUUU · 5 years ago

A mentor once told me “if you want something done quickly, give it to a busy person”

benc666 · 5 years ago

reminds me of another one:

nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.

For me it just pushes the point that every situation is a negotiation.

benc666 commented on I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 newyorker.com/humor/daily... · Posted by u/fergie

DoreenMichele · 5 years ago

It wasn't a criticism of video games and if you are suggesting I am underestimating something, I got myself off the street a few years ago of my own efforts.

I still play plenty of videogames. It's something I can drop at will as I get my act together, make the connections I need to make, etc. I like games and my kids always joked "Video games are our only education."

But the reality is I would rather have a life and if I had more of a life, that fact would drive a lot of my activities and there simply wouldn't be time -- or need -- to play games for hours.

benc666 · 5 years ago

You're so right - video games shouldn't even have been mentioned. As human ingenuity goes, there's infinite ways to "waste time".

I've spent many hours with the family playing MineCraft, and it's an amazing way to teach things like not being selfish, being cooperative, etc. to children because they experience the effects or lack of in compacted real time without permanent real-world impact.

benc666 commented on Seniority in Software Engineering medium.com/swlh/seniority... · Posted by u/karakanb

fallous · 6 years ago

Indeed. As I've had to remind many people over the years, "doing the same basic work you learned in your first year repeatedly for 10 years is not 10 years of experience... it's 10 of the same one year."

benc666 · 6 years ago

There's a term for that ..."expert beginner"

benc666 commented on A U.S. Citizen Was Detained While Trying to Pay for a Gift for His Daughter theintercept.com/2019/10/... · Posted by u/jbegley

annoyingnoob · 6 years ago

This border zone thing is pure Fascism. I live and work in a border zone and I still have rights.

benc666 · 6 years ago

Gestapo in the making.