funklute (u/funklute)

funklute commented on If you're so smart, why aren't you rich? (2018) technologyreview.com/2018... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

jongjong · a year ago

To me curiosity is the most important trait. People who aren't curious seem empty, superficial and over-socialized. They lack a real identity. They seem almost unconscious to me.

I know they can grow out of it, I have seen it, but I don't have the time or energy for people at that stage of development.

funklute · a year ago

Perhaps some meaning is getting lost in translation here...

If you mean curiosity as in academic achievement, then I think this is a deeply disrespectful way of thinking of other people.

If you mean curiosity as in having empathy for the people and world around you, and not being a narcissistic sociopath, then I probably agree with you.

But from what you wrote earlier, I get the impression you're talking about the former rather than the latter...

funklute commented on If you're so smart, why aren't you rich? (2018) technologyreview.com/2018... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

jongjong · a year ago

It's true that most people are optimizing for a range of possible outcomes and not actually laser-focused on getting rich.

For example, I always had a dual goal of:

1. Gain wealth. 2. Gain knowledge and critical thinking skills.

I was trying to get rich, but only in ways which would result in me gaining more knowledge and critical thinking ability on the way. So I was going about it in a very specific way and missing out on many possible paths as a result. It's why:

- I completed my university degree instead of dropping out early and becoming a founder.

- I chose to get involved in complex open source distributed systems projects instead of building social media apps and add-ons.

- I changed companies multiple times, even when I found ones which paid a high salary for little work. There's only so much you can learn at one company in one industry. I wanted to see how software works across different industries.

- I avoided cutting corners.

In retrospect, I can only speculate that maybe I would have been successful in gaining wealth if I had been laser-focused on that and disregarded self-improvement.

Still, I think the article makes a critically important point; it's mostly about luck. In other words; the vast majority of people who were 100% laser-focused on getting rich and couldn't care less about self-improvement also failed to get rich... And these people, those who survived the ordeal, have literally nothing to show for it.

They probably blame themselves for their failures and engage in self-loathing because they're not intelligent enough to realize that it's not their fault; it's just probability.

Anyway, when it comes to social and sexual relationships; knowledge and critical thinking ability can often get you the same things which money can get you, but better quality.

The best people are naturally attracted to knowledge and intellect.

funklute · a year ago

> The best people are naturally attracted to knowledge and intellect

That is a pretty narrow-minded way of evaluating other people's worth...

funklute commented on Combating olive oil fraud with nuclear innovations iaea.org/newscenter/news/... · Posted by u/adomasm3

artursapek · 2 years ago

olive oil isn't even particularly great for cooking because of its low smoke point. avocado oil or beef/duck tallow are a good choice.

funklute · 2 years ago

That's not the whole story though. Often, what is more important is how stable the oil is below the smoke point. There's a pretty decent video on this by Adam Ragusea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_aFHrzSBrM

funklute commented on Things I just don't like about Git cohost.org/tef/post/30097... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

Buttons840 · 2 years ago

> I can obviously ensure that any branches on the origin are never rewritten

That is all I meant. As you say, people can still rewrite their own history on their own computer before submitting it.

We could get philosophical about what "history" is. If I press backspace am I rewriting history? What granularity are we talking here? If I make change X by frequently committing and then squash, have I rewritten history? If I make the exact same change X with one big commit at the end (no squashing), have I not rewritten history? Whether or not I rewrote history the pull request at the end is the same. Or what if I'm using jj which amends a "working commit" hundreds of times, have I rewritten history?

Ultimately the division of changes into commits is a matter of authorship, a creative endeavor. I'd prefer to do this creative work with whatever tools I choose, but if you force me to never squash, I can still achieve the same creative output using other tools or by altering how I work. At no point were commits ever an actual history, they were always a presentation of the history the author chose to present.

(I've rambled on here, most of this isn't meant as a direct reply to you.)

funklute · 2 years ago

Ah, fair enough!

On my team we use pre-commit[0] a lot. I guess I would define the history to be something like "has this commit ever been run through our pre-commit hooks?". If you rewrite history, you'll (usually) produce commits that have not been through pre-commit (and they've therefore dodged a lot of static checks that might catch code that wasn't working, at that point in time). That gives some manner of objectivity to the "history", although it does depend on each user having their pre-commit hooks activated in their local workspace.

[0]: https://pre-commit.com/

funklute commented on Things I just don't like about Git cohost.org/tef/post/30097... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

Buttons840 · 2 years ago

Git made the only choice a popular VCS can make. History rewrites will exist, period. If you're opposed to history rewrites, then git gives you the tools to ensure the repos you control are not rewritten, and that's all it can do in a world where people have control of their own computers.

If Fossil ever becomes as popular as git, people will create software that allows history rewriting in Fossil.

Another user in this thread linked to jj [0], an alternative git client that does some pretty weird things. For example, it replaces the working tree with a working commit and commits quite often. I like git and that seems weird to me, but I'm not offended, people can do what they want on their own computer and I have the tools to ensure repos under my control are not affected. That's all I can hope for, and I'm happy that jj makes git more usable for some people.

[0]: https://github.com/martinvonz/jj

funklute · 2 years ago

> then git gives you the tools to ensure the repos you control are not rewritten

I might betray my ignorance here, but what tools are those?

If I host a git repo, then I can obviously ensure that any branches on the origin are never rewritten. But how can I ensure that people who submit pull requests have not rewritten their history?

funklute commented on Wayland Isn't Going to Save the Linux Desktop (2022) dudemanguy.github.io/blog... · Posted by u/zinekeller

funklute · 3 years ago

It's not actually clear whether you're using Wayland and complaining about X11, or the other way around... (or on a different OS altogether...)

funklute commented on Institutionalized Belief in the Greater Fool investing1012dot0.substac... · Posted by u/Palmik

jovial_cavalier · 3 years ago

Most of my family is shocked that I haven't vested in a 401k account. The fact that I haven't decided to funnel upwards of 5% of my income straight into the big craps table elicits an almost medical concern from them. They come to me in hushed tones and ask why I'm making such an obvious mistake, so I ask them why they expect their portfolios to perform well, and of course they can't answer.

I think that's what GP is talking about. I don't think it's unreasonable to put your money into stocks, but there are a ton of people in America that put a ton of money into the stock market without even getting to the point of doing some of the reasoning you do in your post.

funklute · 3 years ago

That is a fair point!

funklute commented on Institutionalized Belief in the Greater Fool investing1012dot0.substac... · Posted by u/Palmik

breezeTrowel · 3 years ago

I don't think it's that hard. Just ask - is the S&P500 lower now than it was three months ago? If the answer is "yes" then maybe stay in cash and put that money in when the answer is "no".

Alternatively, if you want to get "fancy", you can use the 50/200 SMA crossover to determine entry and exit points. It's a much safer bet than "buy and hold" since it avoids massive drawdowns.

funklute · 3 years ago

Your first suggestion is basically momentum investing [1]. But as the wikipedia article alludes to, there are some issues with this, such as a potentially high risk, that one would need to carefully consider.

I think there is a big difference between merely applying critical thinking, versus investing the necessary time into essentially becoming a semi-professional day trader.

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

funklute commented on Institutionalized Belief in the Greater Fool investing1012dot0.substac... · Posted by u/Palmik

Taek · 3 years ago

We educate our children to participate in greater fool games.

Go to college, regardless of tuition.

Put your money in the stock market, regardless of its health and structure.

Buy bonds, regardless of the interest rate.

Own a house, regardless of market conditions.

---

Most people don't think critically about their money, which makes them easy prey for greater-fool games built on top of institions they were educated to trust.

funklute · 3 years ago

> Most people don't think critically about their money

This is a bit of a naive viewpoint. Take your example of putting money in the stock market, regardless of its health and structure:

So I'll follow your advice and I'll think critically about it. I'm not an economist, but I'm technically and mathematically quite literate. And what I see is that historically, it's generally been a good idea to put money in the stock market. But of course that doesn't mean that will apply to the future.

Except, how can I tell whether the stock market is in good health? Even as an academic researcher, that is a really hard problem. The best I can do is look at the past, and then take a risk.

It's not my lack of critical thinking that is the problem. It's that it is a genuinely very hard problem.

funklute commented on Sweden adopts new fossil-free target, making way for nuclear power-technology.com/news... · Posted by u/thunderbong

ZeroGravitas · 3 years ago

It doesn't make financial sense to build batteries or nuclear to fill in a variable gap that probably won't exceed 4 weeks, and might not even happen in any particular year (or decade if you have cross country links).

It doesn't even make environmental sense compared with fossil based methane (though greener methane sources are available).

See https://twitter.com/DavidOsmond8 for a real time simulation of how Australia would cope with 5 hours of battery storage (he has some in depth articles that go through his methodology too).

funklute · 3 years ago

And am I correct that these dunkelflautes are becoming an increasing concern because of the increased likelihood of extreme weather events? Otherwise I don't really see why this is suddenly a bigger concern now, than it was, say, 50 years ago...?

> See https://twitter.com/DavidOsmond8 for a real time simulation of how Australia would cope with 5 hours of battery storage

Forgive me for being sceptical, but you did state that batteries have solved base load for most of the planet. Australia is probably the least convincing example anyone could pick, due to its extremely low population density, long coastline, and high amount of sun hours. I'd be much more interested in seeing this calculation for places like China, India, Nigeria, Brazil, Russia.