foamflower

6 ms·

1.
by foamflower 8y ago
Did you read OP? In context, the idea is clearly that Facebook violated some sort of contract with its users.
2.
by foamflower 8y ago
IANAL either, but two things stand out. First, breach of contract is not a criminal wrong, only a civil one. Second, it would be a big stretch to say that the relationship between users and Facebook (or any nominally free service) is a cont
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by foamflower 8y ago
When my family lived in Japan years ago, we noticed that when taking the train, approximately three attendants checked our tickets before we boarded a train. At least two of those jobs are "bullshit" in terms of producing wealth,
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by foamflower 8y ago
The opposite is true. At some point in the past, elevator operators served a useful function, since elevators were hard to operate. Today, even the existence of automation (i.e. accessible elevator UI) has not completely driven the elevator
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by foamflower 8y ago
> There is a tradeoff between freedom and community. This largely depends on the conception of freedom in question. If freedom implies that individuals as a result of a the proliferation of human rights are able to live atomistic lives w
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by foamflower 9y ago
I've seen a few variants of this comment, so I wanted to address it. I don't think we disagree much here. I agree that medicine in particular is hard on its own. I'm not entirely sure about law, because the legal profession h
7.
by foamflower 9y ago
I think we're kindred spirits in a way. I don't find programming terribly vexing, either (I started when I was 12), but trying to teach others has given me more appreciation for how difficult it is to grok something so rigidly log
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by foamflower 9y ago
> If you want to know just how hard programming is, try teaching it to someone. > The lack of barriers to entry actually makes it harder. There are "law schools" and "med schools" to teach you all the knowledge req
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by foamflower 9y ago
One (semi-pedantic) quibble with the article: there absolutely are barriers to entry for programming. Programming is hard! These barriers may not be artificial, but they are real. To use a non-software example, there are barriers to entry t
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by foamflower 9y ago
> You will never, ever, ever have a government that's too small to be worth bribing. Sure, orchestrating a state that has 0 returns to bribery is likely not possible without complete anarchism. That being said, not every state is go
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by foamflower 9y ago
> The invisible hand doesn't symbolise the problem of state intervention, but of state capture (i.e. merchant elites lobbying governments to protect their monopolies). On the other hand, merchant elites are a "necessary evil&qu
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by foamflower 9y ago
This article is mostly accurate about Smith (although the man himself was much more favorable to entrepreneurs and innovators than is presented), but fairly inaccurate that “Right-wing” politics is some perversion of Smith. At the end, we g