Apr 25

One button

Everything done to make computers easier to use for stupid people makes them vastly more difficult and annoying to use for me.

Also, did you hear about the homeopathy rally in Washington? Though no one showed up, it was still very effective.

Apr 25

Have be

If every form of behavior (as Ted Chiang states, summarizing the default view of science) is compatible with determinism, then determinism has no predictive power.

Does determinism fall out of the laws of the universe? That’s a far stretch from what we can and cannot observe. A likely stretch, but still a far one.

Apr 24

The usual

This is the usual Crooked Timber intellectual trash heap, with its focus on individual effort to combat the effects of global climate change while ignoring overpopulation and capitalism itself as relevant factors.

For historical reasons, much of the pseudo-left would rather have 12 billion of us living like Cro-magnons during a famine than 500 million us living like fulfilled humans with worthwhile lives.

This I will never understand and those people are my enemy.

Apr 23

In the ruble of a civilization

If I and so many others are Russian agents as the Clintonite pseudo-left believes, I wish the Russians would kindly start depositing some rubles in my bank accounts. Haven’t seen a single one yet.

It’s hard being an agent when no one is compensating you for all this hard work we are all doing. I mean, it’s just bad form.

Apr 22

Assuming immortality

Assuming medical immortality but that the rate of accidental death stays roughly the same, the average Western human lifespan would still only be around 1,000 years long.

And after 5,000 years, the large-cohort survival rate is only around 5%.

A thousand years ain’t bad, but nowhere near immortality.

Apr 22

Tonian

I see so much stupid specious word detritus like this.

Trump ran a far better campaign than Clinton. He spent half the money and got better results. But want specifics? Ok. Here you go.

1) Media manipulation/leveraging. Trump’s campaign was a master at this. Clinton was by contrast (as usual) tone-deaf, condescendingly exhortative and polished (which doesn’t get any attention). Those damn deplorables….

2) Social media. Not much to say about this. Trump’s campaign made better use of this medium and reached far more people whose votes were actually contestable.

3) Messaging. This is a really big one. Should’ve listed it first, but who cares when you’re responding to people who care not a whit about reality and are kind of dumb to boot. Anyway, Trump’s messaging about the working class, about the negative effects of NAFTA, China trade, etc., were spot on. Clinton’s mush-mouthed flip-flopping (TPP) were the exact opposite. (Note this is separate from the likelihood of Trump now keeping any promises. I think he will not.)

4) Trump concentrated campaign funds very intelligently on areas and rallies where they were likely to make a difference (Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, etc.). Clinton did not. Simple as that.

5) Trump’s other outreach efforts were also more effective, while Clinton’s were often extremely counterproductive.

That’s five. There are more. But this narrative that Clinton! Was the most qualified! Candidate! In the history of the universe EVER! Just has to die.

This is America, for better or worse. Our ethos is the proof that you deserve to win is that you won.

Who is president? Right. Not Clinton. The superiority of Trump’s campaign effort could glibly be described in just those few sentences.

See also this typical garbage by Lance Mannion.

The Democrats are spreading this ridiculous narrative wide and far, when really all they are conveying is how badly they want to lose in 2018 and 2020.

Apr 22

OFY

Oh fuck yes.

Linnell even proposes that employers, were they looking to design the best workforces, consider stationing employees who need to concentrate outside the city.

Immediate productivity increase for me of 50%, more likely double, if I were allowed to work from a well-connected place in the countryside, with birdsong and near a riverbank.

Companies, though, care about “efficiency” and not actual efficiency.

Apr 22

Why algo trading is garbage

I don’t agree with a great deal of what Robert Prechter writes and believes, but this is indeed true.

Gilburt: With the advent and proliferation of computer-executed trading, what effect have they had on Elliott Wave analysis, other than the speed at which trading is done?

Prechter: Virtually none. People build their errors of thinking into their programs.

Algorithms reflect what everyone “knows.” Which is often all wrong. Like cows, they herd, and stampede at a loud noise. This might be true even sans humans composing them, but is definitely true with humans coding them up.

Apr 21

As You Are

Wonderful. I saw Nirvana perform this live on stage in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1993. This is different but just as good.