Hacker News: jocaal

New comment by jocaal in "Dear Software Makers"

jocaal — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:33:57 +0000

"We" have not gone anywhere. The rise of tiktok is a clear example that the network effects of the social giants are not strong enough to keep competition away. This is what the market demands.

New comment by jocaal in "Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy"

jocaal — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:02:13 +0000

This is a naive take. Sure they had wealth, but multiplying wealth to the scale some of those people do is no easy feat. I am not defending them, just trying to state a fact.

New comment by jocaal in "SpaceX wins $1.6B Space Force contract for 18 Falcon 9 launches"

jocaal — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:56:33 +0000

That utopia exists, the only problem is it is a communist country where you have no individual rights and can't own land.

New comment by jocaal in "A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice"

jocaal — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 19:57:55 +0000

It's simple accounting. Net money in must be more than or equal to net money out when adjusting for any temporal changes in the face value of the assets. If you use more than you produce, either you are going to have to pay in the future, or in the case of the government, you can die and let your children pay.

New comment by jocaal in "A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice"

jocaal — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:39:50 +0000

Funny how people complain about federal debt, when the people complaining benefitted the most from the system. It is your children who will be paying the interest, while the older folk enjoyed a heated economy with high government spending. Economics is just as fundemental as physics. There are conservation laws that cannot be violated. However you can make other people hold the bag.

New comment by jocaal in "Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?"

jocaal — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:41:48 +0000

No, I was under the impression that foundations must be established with a non profit goal in mind. I thought you cannot just give beneficiaries cash. I see I was mistaken and that private foundations allow you to treat the structure the same as a trust fund.

New comment by jocaal in "Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?"

jocaal — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:22:59 +0000

Also estonian law doesn't recognize trusts, so if you want to save your assets for your children that's a problem.

New comment by jocaal in "TerraPower in deal with Meta for eight Natrium 345 MW nuclear plants"

jocaal — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 05:11:13 +0000

It will hit their balance sheet. For the debt to get the credit rating they want, facebook must commit to spending money on whatever the special purpose vehicle is doing.

New comment by jocaal in "The Kaiser and a "Mediocre Man" Theory of History"

jocaal — Sat, 30 May 2026 14:31:29 +0000

Competition doesn't have to be merit based. My view on competition rules is that it should prevent winners, period. If there is a company so good that they can effectively monopolize a market based on merit alone, they should still be punished. How is that advocating for merit?

New comment by jocaal in "The Kaiser and a "Mediocre Man" Theory of History"

jocaal — Sat, 30 May 2026 13:10:14 +0000

> How does a system that rewards people for being good at what they do 'take away liberties'?

Define being good at what you do. It's not such an easy thing. IMO the best way we can do such a thing is let markets and trade define what it means to be good at what you do. If you provide value to others and your customers are willing to pay you a premium, that means you are good at what you do.

It's hard to explain my way of thinking to you in a comment on an online forum, if you are willing to look it up, the word to search is libertarian.

> Who decides this now?

The system is currently a democratic one, with a large state. The people decide who gets to control the state. The problem is, the government has so much power, it motivates greedy people to try to control it. So the rich and greedy spent their money on manipulating the democratic vote in order to get control of the government and hopefully make the money they spent back with some extra.

In my opinion, the government should be weaker in terms of its monitary power and stronger in terms of its policy power. Less taxes and more enforcement of competition rules.

New comment by jocaal in "The Kaiser and a "Mediocre Man" Theory of History"

jocaal — Sat, 30 May 2026 12:28:52 +0000

The system is too big and complex for there to be a notion such as merit. We are animals and just like all animals we must fight to survive. Some people get lucky, some get unlucky. Merit is irrelevant.

And if you try to create a merit based system, you take away the liberties of the people. Who decides what person deserves more than another? You will create a system ripe for corruption.

New comment by jocaal in "Danish Pension Blacklists SpaceX over 'Catastrophic Governance'"

jocaal — Fri, 29 May 2026 17:42:35 +0000

You cannot however sell only SpaceX shares from your ETF to cover your short's losses. So due to liquidity issues I wouldn't recommend your strategy.

New comment by jocaal in "U.S. Senators Vote to Ban Themselves from Trading on Prediction Markets"

jocaal — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 20:04:09 +0000

Why though. This is a dead serious question, what is the difference in using financial derivatives and prediction markets. Both are a transaction between parties that is influenced by some other underlying event. Why is it ok for the event to be a stock price, but not ok for it to be a sports match?

New comment by jocaal in "CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider"

jocaal — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 19:25:56 +0000

How are radio telescopes and mars rovers in my interest? How would you know what is in my interest? I worked for my money so the person in the best position to judge what is in my interest is me. I am sorry for you if that is such a hard concept to understand.

New comment by jocaal in "CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider"

jocaal — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 15:42:11 +0000

What actually happens is, smart people are isolated from the problems of the general population and work towards meaningless goals at the cost of the everyday tax payer doing unglamorous work to earn a living. Decoupling science from the state will also reduce the meaningless competition of academia that leads to the publish-or-perish and replication crises, because the people who will be doing it, will do it for the love of the game, regardless of social status and money.

If you want to live in this world, you have to trade your time and provide value to others. You shouldn't get a free pass because, just because you convinced yourself and the government that you're smarter than everyone else.

New comment by jocaal in "BYD Sells 4.6M Vehicles in 2025, Meets Revised Sales Goal"

jocaal — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 05:59:01 +0000

Funnily enough, the future of the Chinese economy depends on being able to access their local market. The chinese people save too much and aren't buying their own products

New comment by jocaal in "China mandates 50% domestic equipment rule for chipmakers"

jocaal — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:40:19 +0000

I don't think many equipment makers are Taiwanese. The names I am familiar with are KLA from the US. Tokyo Electron from Japan and ASML from Netherlands. TSMC buys equipment from them and build the fabs. The PRC wants complete vertical integration.

New comment by jocaal in "Science Communications on YouTube"

jocaal — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 20:31:56 +0000

Funnily enough, linear algebra is a good example of how doing doesn't lead to understanding. Just calculating eigenvalues and eigenvectors don't give you the geometric view of what is happening. Also talk to some engineering students who learned how to do matrix multiplication, but can't tell you what a vector is (it is not just something with magnitude and direction).

New comment by jocaal in "Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity"

jocaal — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:55:01 +0000

Power travels near the speed of light. In theory, the entire globe can be connected and countries with daylight can supply those at night in a cycle.

New comment by jocaal in "Taking money off the table"

jocaal — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 20:24:50 +0000

I don't agree. How can wasting your money in your twenties and thirties be more valuable than saving for an early retirement. Imagine being able to retire at 40 and do whatever you want. If you weren't stupid, your health should be good enough. Why prolong the time you have to do stupid chores for other people when you can be strategic and opt out as early as possible.