"Chemotherapy simulator" seems like a bit depressing game.
It sort of exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Dragon,_Cancer
Readit Newstwinkletwinkle_ commented on Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood cscaz.cansurround.com/art... · Posted by u/neomindryan
Whenever I think of audiophiles, I imagine a couple of wealthy successful older men hanging out on a weekend. While the wives are elsewhere talking about the latest vacation or whatever, they need something to talk about.
Because they're the kind of men who love maximizing making numbers go up, it needs to have something to do with optimizing performance. Because they're wealthy and their success is a big part of their identity, it needs to be something expensive.
Then, because they're friends who want to feel useful to each other, it needs to be riddled with inscrutable lore. That way there's always some handy bit of research, some nuggets of wisdom that they can share with each other. That's what this is really about: feeling like they can bond by sharing expertise about some complex hard to optimize problem.
The actual problem is self is essentially arbitrary and subjective. In fact, it's better if it is arbitrary. Because any problem that can actually be solved means reaching an end to the ability to kibbitz and geek out. That's why bringing up objective metrics is such a faux pas in the audiophile world: it kills the game. And the whole point is to play the game together, forever.
See also:
* Car tuning
* JavaScript front-end frameworks
* Barbeque
* Linux distros
* Cycling
* Optimizing passenger flying experience
I think your summary is spot on, but how could you miss listing the premier (in my opinion) example, Wine?
Without going into too much detail, I once encountered an Experian identity verification question on behalf of someone else. This person was an Uber driver making ~$20,000 per year.
The question was: "According to our records, you purchased or leased one of the following vehicles in the previous year. Which vehicle do you currently own?"
A. Maserati Granturismo
B. Ferrari 458 Italia
C. Aston Martin Lagonda
D. Honda Accord
So... 2 Italian supercars, another supercar with only 200 ever produced, or a mass market sedan.
Bonus - of the 4 questions, you only needed to answer 1 correctly to pass the check.
twinkletwinkle_ commented on Two envelopes problem en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two... · Posted by u/niklasbuschmann
The right resolution is: suppose the two amounts are $50 and $100. If the envelope you have contains $50 and you switch, your gain is $50. If it contains $100 and you switch, your gain is -$50. So your expected gain from switching is (0.5)(50) + (0.5)(-50) which is zero.
The way that they fool you is by saying that you either double your money or you halve it, leading you to think that your expected ratio is 2.5/2. But that isn't correct. That ratio doesn't mean anything. That's the wrong step.
I think you nailed it. If the question were posed as "Two envelopes with $A and $(A+1)" then there would be no talk of ratios and no "paradox" would ever emerge.
This is probably a silly question - but what are the complications of mitigating dust sticking to devices like solar panels on mars?
My inexperienced mind thinks of things like windshield wipers, maybe some electronics to oppose the static forces of dust sticking to the panels?
We sure can't send someone over there every 6 months to wash the panels off, that's for sure.
The helicopter is already outside its original mission parameters. It was only supposed to make 5 flights - probably the engineering team didn't want to invest money or weight or complexity in something they knew wouldn't be an issue during their originally scheduled timeframe.
It's not about minima/maxima, it's about the rate of change. Xkcd has a beautiful illustration: https://xkcd.com/1732/
twinkletwinkle_ commented on Books I loved reading this year gatesnotes.com/About-Bill... · Posted by u/Tomte
> I enjoyed The Martian, but Artemis was horrible.
I personally hated both. With the risk of sounding elitist, the guy writes like /r/SubredditSimulator/
It's kind of like junk food. A little bit is enjoyable, too much makes you sick.
twinkletwinkle_ commented on Books I loved reading this year gatesnotes.com/About-Bill... · Posted by u/Tomte
> Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
No. Just no. It is hard science fiction, but there is no character development. I had no empathy for the main character and did not care about him or his fate. Also he is unusually prude, which he blames on being a school teacher, but even his inner dialogue consists of “HOLY COW!” when surprised. I mean, really??
I think that's just Andy Weir at this point. I enjoyed The Martian, but Artemis was horrible. Characters were indistinguishable from one another, they were all just Andy trying to emulate the success of the cocky sarcastic hero from The Martian. After reading that I don't think I need to read any more of his work.
twinkletwinkle_ commented on Aliens might just be too far away nav.al/far-away... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti
There's a song by one of my favorite artists, Peter Mulvey, which touches on this point. It's more of a spoken word poem, titled "Vlad the Astrophysicist". In the song, Peter asks Vlad if there are aliens, and if there are, why haven't they contacted us? Vlad answers basically that there almost certainly are aliens, but civilizations don't last for long enough compared to the size of the universe.
> "You see?" He said, "They never meet each other. Time is too long, space is too large. I mean sure, maybe at one time, right next to each other at the same time, fss, fss - Two civilizations sprang up and they had war, better yet they had peace, They had arts exchanges, they had an intergalactic library... but they are all dead now, too. In all likelihood, we are alone, and by the time the next civilization arises, We'll have been gone for a long, long time."
I did a stint contracting for Goldman Sachs a while back. I can relate. Don't think I can say anything more without a team descending on my house from a black helicopter, though.
I once worked at a tiny startup where we were trying to sell a dataset to GS. Before we could even send a sample, they sent over some boilerplate forms for us to sign. I remember two distinct stipulations - anything we sent them was immediately and forever their property, AND they had the right to drug test any of our employees. We ended up not signing so there was no deal. My boss said it was their way of getting rid of us.