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3 yr. ago

  • I'd rather program a normal way than try to wrangle some of the abominations I've seen in excel sheets

    That's the way I also think about learning fancy spreadsheet stuff. Spreadsheets are good for putting data into a graph. They're good for basic numeric stuff where there's a simple pattern that repeats. But, pretty soon you're in a situation where you should either have a real database or a real program. If you're doing a lot of manipulation of data, you should have a program with loops, conditionals, errors, exceptions, etc. and most importantly with comments. If you're storing a lot of data, you should be using a real database, not hundreds of lines in a spreadsheet.

    If, at the end, you do want something visual, and don't feel like dealing with a graphics library, you can always export the data to a CSV and import that into a spreadsheet.

  • Let's just say AI truly is a world-changing thing.

    Has there ever been another world-changing thing where the sellers of that thing had to beg people to use it?

    The applications of radio were immediately obvious, everybody wanted access to radios. Smart phones and iPods were just so obviously good that people bought them as soon as they could afford them. Nobody built hundreds of km of railroads then begged people to use them. It was hard to build the railways fast enough to keep up with demand.

    Sure, there have been technologies where the benefit wasn't immediately obvious. Lasers, for example, were a cool thing that you could do with physics for a while. But, nobody was out there banging on doors, begging people to find a use for lasers. They just sat around while people fiddled with them, until eventually a use was found for them.

  • The British might have killed grandma, but they also eventually shared medicine that ensured that junior didn't die.

    In 1800, more than 1 in 2 children in India died before reaching 5 years old. From 1900 to 1915 it dropped from 535 deaths per 1000 to 332. By the time India gained independence it had dropped to 260.

    I'm not arguing that colonization is wonderful. But, it tends to happen when a technologically advanced civilization encounters one that's technologically behind. The eventual result is that the less technologically advanced civilization has their technology level advance. One of the most dramatic results of that is that childhood mortality drops. Does that make you better off? In the modern world, most parents would say that the death of a child is one of the worst things that can happen in your life. Parents would do just about anything to avoid having that happen. Then again, in civilizations with high childhood mortality, there appears to be much less of a bond between parents and children, because parents don't invest emotionally as much in their children because they know they might die.

    So, maybe from the perspective of an Indian in the 1800s, the colonization wasn't worth it. But, would a modern Indian be willing to go back to a pre-colonization lifestyle, not only with massive childhood deaths, but also with a rigid caste system, constant internal wars, etc.?

  • There you go, someone who is unwilling to actually think.

  • A bit less, but not a lot less. I'm definitely not interested in living in a place where people routinely walk around armed.

  • You are allowed guns

    Which would be a red line for Americans who think that guns are an inherent right and that the very idea that the government might be able to say "no" is unacceptable.

  • Does anybody in the country have the right to go to a store and get a gun without question? What makes the US unique is that the constitution is currently interpreted to mean that gun ownership is a right, and that the government can't do anything to regulate it.

  • Well, the post is about Denmark, so Denmark?

  • IMO the biggest cultural difference is guns. Apparently there are liberals in the US who think nationalized healthcare, cheap or free university, paid parental leave, guaranteed long vacation, etc. is all wonderful. But, they love their guns so much that that would be a red line. They'd forfeit all the great things that a European socialist country has to offer if the deal also requires that they give up their guns.

  • In the short run, no. In the long run, it depends.

    Many countries that were colonized had absolutely terrible child mortality rates. Parents had to expect that a third of their children would die before they became teenagers. One in five didn't make it to one year old. Being colonized eventually brought medicine which reduced childhood mortality so parents didn't have to watch their children die.

    How important that is depends on your point of view. Maybe you personally don't care much about your children dying, and having unspoiled nature is more important. If so, then maybe there are no major benefits to being invaded / colonized, even decades or centuries later.

  • How many rallies has Putin held?

  • The interesting thing about this is that people are now stuck with whatever PC they had when the prices suddenly shot up. In the past there was always a hardware adoption curve, where some people had the newest stuff, other people waited for it to get cheaper before they bought it.

    In the past, if a game company was developing a game that was scheduled to be released in 2 years, they could look at what hardware people were using now, and estimate what people would be using in 2 years. Graphics and gameplay that was possible on game studio machines running the latest hardware would be too much for home PCs when development at the studio started. But, by the time the game was ready, home machines would have caught up and people could experience these amazing graphics at home. Now, I assume game studios are going to have to re-think things and assume that most people at home will still be playing on the old gaming PC they built before the AI price apocalypse.

  • You said that America is being filled up with Nazis.

    No I didn't.

  • When those immigrants were coming to the US, they were not considered "white". Sometimes the discrimination was because of skin colour, sometimes it was religion. But, they weren't considered to have the morals and work ethic of the English-descended protestants that dominated the USA.

  • They still have to file income taxes. But, most places have higher taxes than the USA. Most places also have reciprocal tax agreements with the US. There's also a deduction of something like $100k, so the first $100k (or local equivalent) you earn in another country isn't taxed. As a result, unless you're making high six figures, you don't actually owe any American taxes.

    OTOH, just filing US taxes is a real pain in the ass. In the US it's made very slightly easier by your employer, bank, etc. all supplying you with the tax forms you need. If you're overseas, you need to figure out the info you'd need to supply on that form yourself.

  • Can I pause for a second to just admire this guy's walk-in pantry?

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  • Exactly, and it's a cycle. They buy things on credit, carry a balance on their credit cards, owe a lot of money, and the stress gets to them. Eventually they buy things as a way to feel better and relieve the stress.

    Trying to "not look poor" or "keep up with the Joneses" can lead to real misery. But, if instead you make a budget and save just a little bit every month it can be liberating.

    Fundamentally, the problem is unequal wealth distribution. But, we should also try to help people live within their means while we attempt to fix that societal issue.

  • There are Nazis in America and rather than leaving the "bar", Americans stick around.

  • You don't talk about Hitler "more often than not" being popular with Germans. Hitler famously had huge rallies filling stadiums.