Oil ain't a picnic either, so what's the answer?
Grid-powered public transit replacing 80% of trips by personal vehicle.
Readit Newselefantastisch commented on Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together? · Posted by u/shanebellone
Every year at Christmas, I get a card from a family member with a short, personal hand-written note and a 1-page, generic printed update on how their year has been, usually with some pictures.
This is what I want from a social network.
I want to be able to keep up some regular connection with people I don't see on a regular basis. I want us to remember each other, know about major life events, and have a convenient way to reconnect more personally when that makes sense.
For people I see (or want to talk to) regularly, I'll just send messages or group messages.
For more of the topic-centered type of internet community I may want in my life... well HN already does that perfectly.
elefantastisch commented on Statistical Process Control: A Manager's Guide two-wrongs.com/statistica... · Posted by u/kqr
Thank you, kgr, for writing and posting this. I find this a much more digestible summary of the topic than the other recent posting on Statistical Process Control.
elefantastisch commented on Betting on things that never change (2017) collabfund.com/blog/betti... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar
This article seems like a good reminder to know what your fundamentals are and to be deliberate about picking them.
But I'm not convinced that this advice can be used to pick your fundamentals, your core business model.
Amazon opted for more choices and lower prices.
Barnes & Noble stuck with faster solutions to problems (get your book today not after a week of shipping as was common when Amazon started), deeper human interactions (you can go into the store and ask someone for recommendations, meet authors, etc.), and increased confidence/trust (you know what you're getting because you can hold it in your hand and read it before you buy it).
Low-cost carriers have moved in on traditional airlines because while it's true that people will never stop caring about added comfort, it turns out they care about lower prices much more.
But Apple built a staggering market cap relying on the assumption that while people care about lower price, they care about great control of your time (just works) and higher social status more.
So it seems like this article provides a good framework for thinking about your business, but doesn't give any answers as to the actual strategy you should use.
Or am I missing something?
elefantastisch commented on How to sell tickets fairly barnabas.me/blog/2022/11/... · Posted by u/barnabask
There is no such thing as a "fair" way to sell anything where demand vastly outstrips supply.
There are just choices about what resource you want to prejudice for: money, time or luck.
Right, this is a values problem, not a technical problem.
Who should get to see Taylor Swift? How much should they pay? How should profits be distributed?
These are philosophical questions. If you assume a particular set of answers to these questions, designing the correct sales process is not difficult. But everyone has a different set of answers.
elefantastisch commented on We've filed a lawsuit against GitHub Copilot githubcopilotlitigation.c... · Posted by u/iworshipfaangs2
LOL we look like taxi drivers fighting Uber.
If Kasparov uses chess programs to be better at chess maybe we can use copilot to be better developers?
Also, anyone, either a person or a machine, is welcome to learn from the code I wrote, actually that is how I learnt how to code, so why would I stop others from doing the same?.
Judging by the majority opinion in this thread, it seems pretty clear GitHub could have asked and gotten enough people to opt-in to have no problem training their model. They probably would have been thrilled to do it and proud of being included in the training data.
But the preference of the majority does not override the conditions placed by people who prefer not to participate.
elefantastisch commented on Ask HN: Expected value of a $2 powerball ticket is now $4.10. Is it worth it? · Posted by u/margalabargala
We have an even better example of mistaking the numbers for the whole picture. Becoming famous for winning obscene amounts of money greatly increases your chance of being harassed, murdered, or driven to mental breakdown. The expected value of a losing ticket (a chance to fantasize, enjoyment, etc.) is much higher than the expected value of a winning ticket (a lifetime of being hounded for money in increasingly desperate and violent ways).
1. Why did they ever call it "Hangouts".
2. Why did they proceed to have half a dozen different messaging services?
3. Why didn't they relentlessly focus on feature parity with iMessage in the default Messages app on Android phones?
4. Why didn't they invest heavily in a single unified app that iOS users would be attracted to, just like they're attracted to Maps and Mail?
It's really baffling to me how such a smart company has managed to be so dumb.
Definitely this. I have been an Android user since my first smartphone. I've been a Gmail user much longer than that. I still to this day don't have the slightest idea what the distinction between Hangouts, Chat, and Messages (and whatever else I'm forgetting... Wave?) even is. Sometimes my new phone has an app called Chat, sometimes it's Messages, one time it was Hangouts... they all seem to be the same app to me.
So I just use WhatsApp.
What I really want is mandatory opt-in to be able to contact me.
Unknown numbers get to send a single standard length SMS, carrier embeds the full legal name and, for businesses, legally registered mailing address, and I can choose whether to accept. If I don't, no other contact from that number is connected to my phone. Ever.
I can also report the message as unsolicited and every company's unsolicited contact stats are made available to regulators.