Hacker News: kolpa

New comment by kolpa in "Why is history always about humans?"

kolpa — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:20:13 +0000

For humans, elephants are write-only memory.

New comment by kolpa in "The Wrong Abstraction (2016)"

kolpa — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:18:00 +0000

You don't need to undo the abstraction, just opt out: Fork the shared artifact and modify or rewrite the copy (prune useless parts) as you need.

New comment by kolpa in "The Wrong Abstraction (2016)"

kolpa — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:11:24 +0000

People often forget "copy-on-write". Coupling doesn't have to be permanent. If refactor to create a sahred component, and then you want to modify a shared component to help one client, you can fork it -- it's not worse than simply not having created the shared component in the first place.

New comment by kolpa in "Fukushima’s nuclear signature found in California wine"

kolpa — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 19:40:16 +0000

The sun is radioactive. Sunlight is not radioactive, it's radiation.

New comment by kolpa in "Fukushima’s nuclear signature found in California wine"

kolpa — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 19:38:55 +0000

How would you feel if your body temperature increased 3%? Barely visible in a 0-based graph.

New comment by kolpa in "Fukushima’s nuclear signature found in California wine"

kolpa — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 19:36:55 +0000

0 is only relevant for linear utility/impact functions The effect of an isotope isn't necessarily linear in its magnitude from 0. The baseline should be something that matters, like maximum safe dose.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 22:06:12 +0000

That doesn't help people who are getting paid less for doing useful work with the skills they already have.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 22:01:38 +0000

Businesses don't have to sell stock. They can finance via debt, and many do.

Annual reporting has nothing to do with how people response to the value of a company.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:59:22 +0000

Tyranny of minority isn't better than tyranny of the majority.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:58:07 +0000

housing, food, clothing, and energy must be paid for before the rest of income is invested. 20% annual growth of 0 is 0.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:56:22 +0000

If you don't have high wages you can't buy stock.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:52:36 +0000

The average American has no particular reason to stick with a "savings account". They could buy equities and ETFs that are as simple as savings accounts.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:50:53 +0000

To be charitable, the Fed runs the money supply, but they don't control who gets the money. It's the job of Congress to regulate corporations and unions and minimum-wage and all that jazz.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:49:18 +0000

Please don't toss around stereotyping caricatures.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:47:52 +0000

I will as soon as I get some wages for my work, but unfortunately that's unlikely, per the OP article.

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:47:16 +0000

It's not even a relevant comparison. "Corporations" don't spend profits on luxuries for themselves. Their human owners do. Owners pay capital gains tax (which you can argue is too high or low or too easily avoided.)

New comment by kolpa in "Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:44:22 +0000

That's a start, but land is only a small fraction of capital.

New comment by kolpa in "Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About Customers"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 20:45:19 +0000

Insurers are paid in premiums, not health outcomes. An insurance company is incentivized to help avoid costly claims, but if you are likely to make costly claims, and they can't drop you, they are incentivized toward healthcare choices that kill you before you need long-expensive term care.

New comment by kolpa in "Did Qatar pay a billion dollar ransom?"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 18:47:49 +0000

"Connections - Episode 1: The Trigger Effect"

https://www".dailymotion.com/video/x4e30ki

The punchline is at 29minutes

New comment by kolpa in "Learning advanced math by drawing, playing with beach balls and knitting"

kolpa — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 18:38:37 +0000

I'll defer to the math professor on this one.