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vcjohnson commented on As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony”   texastribune.org/2018/10/... · Posted by u/howard941
pram · 7 years ago
Yeah, what point are you trying to make? Texas being the biggest wind energy producer doesn't count because the citizens aren't ideologically pure enough?
vcjohnson · 7 years ago
As mentioned in my comment, I realized mid-writing I didn't necessarily have point of contest to the thread OP. In retrospect, there was probably a more coherent place elsewhere in this thread to put my comment. Just providing context to what I've seen in the state and that from my subjective experience, Texan polling affinity for renewables was less related to environmental concerns and more towards economics. I'd consider this a much better vehicle for renewable adoption than ideological alignment anyway since it's significantly harder to convince people of environmental priority than it is to put more money in their pockets.
vcjohnson commented on As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony”   texastribune.org/2018/10/... · Posted by u/howard941
txcwpalpha · 7 years ago
Interesting to see you say that about Texans, as my experience is nearly the complete opposite. Texas is the country's leading wind power state, and is pretty big on solar as well. Among most of the people I interact with daily (friends as well as colleagues), are not people I would consider "pro fossil fuel" at all. And this is coming from people mostly in Dallas/Houston, where oil & gas is much bigger than in Austin. I can even think of a couple friends of mine that actually work for the major oil companies, and even they I would not describe as "pro fossil fuel". One of them drives a Prius. When I was at school at UT, even amongst the buildings and lecture halls that are sponsored and paid for by Chevron/Exxon, I never encountered an anti-renewable sentiment. Hell, McCombs has a masters degree program specifically geared towards exploring renewable energy businesses (as well as several undergrad classes, one of which I took), and I know the engineering school has an entire department for researching renewables.

Most of my friends are in their late 20s/early 30s though, so maybe that makes a difference. I could see older folks who grew up when oil was king maybe being opposed to solar/wind. But even then, now that I think about it, one of my friend's grandparents (who are from West Texas) were very thankful for the wind industry and the money it brought to their town (it got brought up because we made a remark about how there seemed to be endless wind turbines in every direction on the drive through W Texas to visit them).

I just browsed through a few polls and based on them, it seems you must be really unlucky to encounter so many people unwilling to discuss renewables. According to these polls [1][2][3][4], 80%+ of Texans support renewable/clean energy.

I'd be interested to hear more about what types of conversations you try to have and who (age range, industry) you interact with when you find these people. It surprises me that this has been your experience, especially in Austin of all places.

1: https://www.citizen.org/may-11-texas-poll-shows-citizens-wan...

2: https://www.wsj.com/articles/which-state-is-a-big-renewable-...

3: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/05/04/survey-texans-suppor...

4: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/climate/renewable-energy-...

vcjohnson · 7 years ago
Grew up in the Permian basin (Odessa, UT grad as well), there really is a disconnect between larger cities and smaller towns in the state on ethos of renewables. DFW will likely be one of the first major metroplexes in the US to be powered 100% by renewables, but it won't be because the state is particularly environmentally friendly (even if DFW/Houston/Austin are). It will be because there is a vast expanse in the west side of the state to plop wind turbines and it’s cheaper than digging it out of the ground.

Not sure what point I’m trying to make here, just adding more context. Reality is that while many Texans may answer a survey asking if we should move away from fossil fuel dependence in a positive way, for most conservatives in the state I’d be surprised if it was anywhere near their chief concern when voting and would likely actively vote against it if the platform they are voting for meets their primary concerns. Thankfully, their chief concern is usually money/economy and Texas is a state that can be that can be very effective at migrating to energy alternatives in an economically beneficial way thanks to 300+ days of sunlight a year in most regions and large flat windy expanse from central Texas to Big Bend and up the padhandle.

Would just add that there is another level of complexity here. While fracking and the shale revolution do present a huge environmental problem, it’s advancement in the last 5-10 years does provide the US an extremely valuable foreign policy tool in removing the necessity of energy reliance on the Middle East whenever we want. I hope the state continues to move forward with renewables but fossil fuels, specifically in the Permian basin, is here to stay for a long time even if the state goes 100% renewable. It’s now a national security and economic priority in an age when American/Middle East relations are waning and American retrenchment from traditional allies is increasing.

vcjohnson commented on Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know   lesswrong.com/posts/E4cKD... · Posted by u/cepp
dalore · 8 years ago
Correlation doesn't mean cause. Otherwise you would draw conclusions like divorce rates in Maine affected by margarine consumption.

https://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=1703

People consuming fruit could be more healthy individuals in general, exercising and avoiding other types of food which might have more effect than consuming fruit. So be careful about drawing conclusions from correlations or epidemiological studies as you have to consider other possibilities.

vcjohnson · 8 years ago
But I didn’t imply causation? I literally gave the same “could be skewed due to healthier lifestyle choices” in my comment...
vcjohnson commented on Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know   lesswrong.com/posts/E4cKD... · Posted by u/cepp
gotrecruit · 8 years ago
fruit is not healthy for you, contrary to what you may have traditionally heard. you can get everything you need, vitamins and minerals wise, from vegetables, without the sugar that comes with fruits.
vcjohnson · 8 years ago
>fruit is not healthy for you

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/105/6/1462/4569801

Fruit consumption is inversely correlated with all-cause mortality as best we can tell. Probably something to be said about people who eat fruits being among the more health minded individuals as well and skewing results but it’s probably not “unhealthy” to eat fruits.

vcjohnson commented on Microsoft Surface Laptops and Tablets Not Recommended by Consumer Reports   consumerreports.org/lapto... · Posted by u/mnm1
eksemplar · 9 years ago
I'm a long time Microsoft user, sure I dabbled with Linux in my youth, but I never quite got into the tinkering culture and having to spend a day per month in configuring to make things work the way I wanted just wasn't me.

Professionaly I'm now in management but the majority of my development experience had been with .Net. Sure I dabbled with all the open source hyped techs when I was younger, but ultimately settled for .Net and enterprise (which I'm happy is also open sourced now by the way, even if .net core isn't really production ready and takes up way too much devops time to deploy).

These days windows just feels wrong though. It's probably just me but I feel like my windows machines are basically iPads with keyboards that I can't really do anything with the way I want to.

Git sucks on windows, paints replacement sucks, almost anything that isn't .Net development sucks and Visual Studio has to live in a cage or it takes over everything from wanting to debug your steam library to howling at the moon.

And now you're telling me the life expediency of a surface is 2 years. Heh.

vcjohnson · 9 years ago
Personally love .NET and Visual Studio development, especially when I was forced back into Java recently. I'm not a huge fan of Windows 10 and but I really would love to stay in the development ecosystem for the foreseeable future.

That being said if they ever put out a fully functional VS for linux, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

vcjohnson commented on The Google memo isn’t sexist or anti-diversity, it’s science   theglobeandmail.com/opini... · Posted by u/20100thibault
sp332 · 9 years ago
But if other countries have more equal representation in tech, India and Malaysia for example, then doesn't the biological argument fall apart? The difference isn't between men and women but between America and other countries.
vcjohnson · 9 years ago
For what it's worth, the stuff I've read on societies that flatten our social pressures for job roles, specifically the most egalitarian societies like in Scandinavia, have larger exaggerations of traditional job preference for the sexes rather than more equal distribution.

I don't think it's clear why both of these occur however and I haven't been convinced that people who try to derive a position solely off societal level trends tend to do anything other than show off their ideological preference on both ends of the debate.

vcjohnson commented on Unlearning the myth of American innocence   theguardian.com/us-news/2... · Posted by u/kawera
ivanbakel · 9 years ago
Well, any number of historical reasons: slavery; violence against indigenous people; colonial sources, such as exporting of natural resources; the actions of a state, which might not be recognised as an authority; or simply inherited property from a time of aristocracy.

Equally, people might reject systems of ownership out of hand, and consider the gulf of wealth causes by those systems to be the product of immoral behaviour.

vcjohnson · 9 years ago
Ah I see what you mean. I suppose I do identify with both the arguments then. Grateful to be born into a society that is as prosperous and free as the one I live and also cognizant that it was at least partially obtained using ventures that were, by today's standards, morally reprehensible.

Kind of a double edged sword though. Any society that currently allows the gratitude probably has a fairly checked past, even those outside the U.S. Not sure where one line begins and another ends.

vcjohnson commented on Unlearning the myth of American innocence   theguardian.com/us-news/2... · Posted by u/kawera
ivanbakel · 9 years ago
>and lack even a shred of gratitude for the vast wealth, comfort and freedom they've been born into.

Because they consider it immorally gotten? Why do you assume that people with completely different value judgements to you ought to think as you do about history and society?

vcjohnson · 9 years ago
Could you expound a bit on what you mean by immorally gotten?
vcjohnson commented on Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo   bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/_vvdf
kevingadd · 9 years ago
Holding an opinion isn't a firing offense. The firing offense is violating the agreements he signed as an employee (the most obvious poor decision here being the choice to post his manifesto on corporate services using corporate equipment).
vcjohnson · 9 years ago
>the most obvious poor decision here being the choice to post his manifesto on corporate services using corporate equipment

Why is this a violation? Not trying to be argumentative, actually just curious. Seems like putting personal thoughts on company Google Docs would be a questionable decision for privacy concerns, but not a violation.

vcjohnson commented on Internal Reactions to Googler's Manifesto Show Anti-Diversity Views Have Support   motherboard.vice.com/en_u... · Posted by u/madars
brighteyes · 9 years ago
To describe it as "anti-diversity" kind of proves the manifesto's point - that one political side controls the debate. Because the manifesto clearly states it is for diversity, including diversity of gender and race (and even suggests ways to try to improve things there).

It's fine to disagree with it - it has many flaws and inaccuracies, to be sure - but we can do that with honesty and fairness. Not just for the author's sake, but for our own.

vcjohnson · 9 years ago
>it has many flaws and inaccuracies

Can you expound on these a bit? Seemed like most of the adverse responses were appeals to emotion rather than dealing with the statements and I'd like to hear a rational critique of the issues.

u/vcjohnson

KarmaCake day70September 15, 2014View Original