Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22319215

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

None of that works in the realm of reality.

Creating a fake ID = super illegal.

Credit cards: prepaid can be detected and blocked, same as the privacy.com ones - especially when the credit card is being used to validate something. Look at any major fraud prevention software, these things are trivial.

In the real world, if you want to make money, you need to show and prove ID with matching banking details. Any inconsistencies and you don't get paid. This isn't something you can outsmart. People smarter than you and I have been thinking very long and hard about these points, much more so than the two minutes you took to think up your post. The idea is like those videos of 'primitive underground dwellings with a swimming hole on top'. Cute, creative, but terribly impractical and useless in any real world situation.

It clears the liability for all involved, since no one can claim that the staff or a fellow patron 'took it'. It was pointed out by a customer and removed with witnesses. I generally mention it to more than one staff.

I try to baseline assume that the person I'm dealing with in public is not fully there (which would include the property owner). It makes it easier to deal with when it is actually the case.

Another idea I had after reading the article is that advertising is more pervasive in big cities. From what I can recall, big city inhabitants tend to have a lower life satisfaction rating than smaller town dwellers. So countries with more urban dwellers might normally have more advertising and less life satisfaction... because big cities, not necessarily advertising. Also richer nations tend to be less happy, and by being richer have more advertising. There's a lot of ways to interpret the data.

It's funny to see the group-think dynamic on display needed to make non relevant comments go up and comments related to the article be down-voted (which aren't even stating anything specific... you and I never even said 'it's this' just questioning 'maybe not that')

Another super interesting thing that I glean from the down-votes is the bottom down view only when convenient.

If you post on HN that tech companies are evil and conspiring against our privacy, people will say (IMO mostly rightly BTW) that it's mostly bottom up, with consumers CHOOSING bad options. But as soon as advertising comes in the mix, now the world is top down, with evil marketeers manipulating the masses anyway they want.

To all the down-voters: your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer!

The whole study is based on: there's a correlation between advertising spend per capita and life satisfaction between countries in Europe.

Now that COULD mean advertising is making people unhappy.

Or it could mean that people who are less satisfied tend to buy more crap and when people buy more crap they get more advertising. It's not as if advertisers are stupid.

The researcher in the article even admits to this being a one off with no other studies backing his claim. Now what's more likely, he discovered something no one else has, or he misinterpreted the data?

No, but I do like writing about restricting employers ability to discriminate employees based on their off-the clock personal hobbies and preferences.

Basically using your language, I hope that 'everyone is a protected class' when it comes to legal forms of entertainment and hobby.

I will say, just because it costs them more money doesn't mean they should legally be able to act on that.

Many times someone from a certain religion might cost an employer more than someone who doesn't need religious prayer breaks. But legally employers can't act on that.

I'm not saying smoking = religion, but I am saying information available to make logical decisions != the ability to act on that information. Just saying we've already made the decision that we will legally restrict companies from acting on certain pieces of information and therefore we can expand this existing framework to protect other life choices (eating fatty foods, skiing hobby, driving a sports car, having kids, etc)

If a company came out saying 'sorry, we don't hire feminists'... they might... face consequences. Even if that is legal.

Right now U Haul is going after an easy target, since most people hate smoking - but the idea that just because it's legal it won't have any consequences is silly.

Companies can be boycotted, they could get grilled in congressional hearings, new laws can be passed, and because of incendiary behavior they can get scrutiny for the non-incendiary behavior (see Shkreli) and other negatives can happen.

The law is supposed to codify what makes sense, and when it doesn't, it many times will soon. Many times that includes nailing someone to the wall to set an example.

I hope enough people call their lawmakers to pressure the system into dragging the U Haul executives who made this decision through the coals. This 1984 style 'we are going to see everything you do' is getting out of hand.

In each case, it took someone patiently going over points to help me see better. It takes time for me to fully incorporate new world views. It was a process that required the patience of another human who helped me work through thoughts without judgement or ridicule.

In my case, satire did not help. In fact, it has generally made me double down on my perspective, since it has an inherently ridiculing tone (you might not agree, but that is so by the very definition of the word) - Most people I know double down when confronted with ridicule. In fact most people generally double down on their opinion no matter how thin the evidence in favor of it.

So I'm asking, what deeply held beliefs did you completely change your mind on when confronted with satire? How did it go?

Hearing people's actual experience that is outside of my common conceptions is always super interesting. I'm always open to changing my mind.

Linking to basically a book, without so much as saying why the book is good, is another.

I'm not relying solely on what the OP says. But I'm not spending hours reading through 200 pages to figure out what is being shared. I read a lot of books, but generally I'll read the jacket, then the intro, then maybe the first chapter, and if that grabs me, then the book.

Not sure why you are trying to imply that I only read summaries, but that's on you.

Linking to a news article is one thing.

Linking to basically a book, without so much as saying why the book is good, is another.

I didn't say it was bad. Just asked the OP, why submit this? What's interesting in it? If I find the summary interesting, I read further. I also mentioned that when posting 200 pages without so much as a summary, most people won't read, leaving the less intelligent 'title commentators' (something I think is discouraged in this forum, which is why I participate)

These type of submissions attract the worst commentators; people who will talk about the topic based on what they can infer from a title. Mostly just rehashing some personal anecdote or curious fact semi-related to the title.

Not sure I want to invest so many hours of reading to get to why this was posted. Maybe the OP could provide some context?

From Wikipedia: "satire is a genre of literature and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement."

Not only is satire bad for communication, it's bad for learning, since it must presuppose the person creating the satire is not in the wrong. Generally people who are open to learning start from the perspective they too might be wrong. Of course, you are welcome to show me examples of when satire changed your mind... that would make me reconsider a different perspective.

It does not help build bridges of communication between people who think differently. That's why I think it's looked down upon here.

You are right on the /. point. :)

So the idea is that almost all government stuff is public information. It's why FOIAs are so powerful. Literally anyone can ask the government to open up it's docs on virtually anything as long as national security isn't involved (and this is abused, but to a degree only) it has to comply.

Now, such a tool will inevitably have good and bad. Just as having private court cases will also.

Personally I think we need to create a privacy reform similar to the Civil Rights act of 1964 to address this and many other concerns. I'm simply explaining the thought process where our current tradition came from.

Florida actually has much broader public information laws than the rest of the country. That's why you see so many 'Florida man' stories. My understanding is FL takes it a step further than just being public, they publish much of it by default, making it easy for reporters to sift through and find headlines.

If that's what you are looking for, may I suggest reddit? On there, an article is posted and you'll have 10,000s of silly one liners with no information or further understanding. Most never having even read the FA. I personally love the fact that /. doesn't allow this. It means those of us who want to discuss topics can actually do so without drowning in a sea of silliness.

Also, fusion has only really been seriously considered AFAIK since the 70s (yes theoretical research happened before) so not sure how you get to the 'always 30 years away' thing, which sounds like we had several cycles of Osbourne effect. Not to mention the word 'always' gives your post an 'all or nothing' type of feel which is generally characteristic of people in distress whose fight or flight mode is active, blocking more nuanced views.

You might be right that we are very far away and this is only harmful, time will tell, but I truly hope the breakthrough is here.

It seemed to me you were arguing against my freedom point by trying to say America wasn't much more free than USSR. Since such a position seems so utterly disconnected from reality and history, I asked you to clarify your position, maybe I misunderstood.

I also asked what your point was, since I honestly can't see what you are trying to get at in the context of the conversation: should the US have more anti-freedom ML technology applied to mass surveillance and social control? Do you think that will help? Read the FA and opine, I'd be happy to hear a smart analysis. You seem to be able to do that, you seem quite smart. But picking at the edges of arguments without actually participating is kinda... detracting from the goal of conversation and moving towards ego boosting.

Also, even if you are smart, if I understood correctly that you honestly believe the USSR to be more free than the US in any significant manner based on the definition of freedom, then I'm not going to participate in this line of thought.

I've had a conversation once with someone I had just met. He mentioned 'dinosaur bones were placed there by the devil to trick us'. I asked if he meant it. With a straight face he said yes. You could say I laser focused on that, because after it, I never went beyond 'hows the weather' with him. He has every right to see it that way, I and many others have every right to think of him as slightly less 'there' and therefore avoid getting tangled with what we see as incoherent.

3 ifs and one might. Let's see: If my grandmother was male and if she was catholic, she might be the pope. I only had to use two ifs to get to that one.

I'm really not sure what your point is.

Are you seriously arguing that overall there was more freedom in the USSR than in America? I just want to be totally sure I get where you are coming from. Because my post was the general freedom as in the literal definition of it: "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint"