mdakin

7 ms·

1.
by mdakin 13y ago
No, I would have cited it. Rhetoric. I'm starting to realize that my zeitgeist has diverged from the zeitgeist of hacker news such that my comments are not understood by the majority of the readers here. C'est la vie. In-perso
2.
by mdakin 13y ago
Major "national security asset." <cough, cough, puke>
3.
by mdakin 13y ago
e^(pi*i)=-1 -- Definitely right. 1+1=0 -- Definitely wrong. Math has been around the entire time. So have right and wrong.
4.
by mdakin 13y ago
"While the socialist left has fantasized for generations about global revolutions and global class wars" Global-scale revolution would be rare and unprecedented, however national-scale revolution is extremely common, almost all na
5.
by mdakin 13y ago
Hehehe, she lives 1/3 of the way around the world, and I'm not rich so that's def. not my objective. Plus how can you hit on someone you've never even seen? Personally, I don't want to go much more down the rabbit
6.
by mdakin 13y ago
?
7.
by mdakin 13y ago
I've been by the bay for going on seven years and I'm just now starting to perceive this caste-system aspect of the place. I perceived it first as something that I call "dynastic culture," which is, I think, how it show
8.
by mdakin 13y ago
An angry man punched him because a critical mass of humanity continues to choose dystopia over utopia. All of the specifics and examples in that article really are just symptoms of dystopia. The phenomenon of mentally ill people running ar
9.
by mdakin 13y ago
I call these anti-creative people of the world who work to hold the world of humanity fixed in one conceptual place/time "The Lords of the Status Quo." These "lords" are great in number, but always individually wea
10.
by mdakin 13y ago
"Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology! Ain't got time to make no apology" -Iggy Pop There are people who work on the ethics of science and technology full time and they are awesome. If every technologist wo
11.
by mdakin 13y ago
I... want Rome to burn. The authoritarian, hierarchal power structures that exist in this country/world ("Rome") are in need of re-formation or collapse. I'm not interested in participating in that process though. I c
12.
by mdakin 13y ago
I don't see this as a good/bad/moral calculation. I see it as a practical calculation. We don't need to go into the moral domain when the cause and effect domain is capable of completely outlining the problem. Working
13.
by mdakin 13y ago
I think hard problem vs. social media problem is a false dichotomy. I wish people would focus on wise problems. High tech is too dangerous at this moment, even though it's the best stuff to work on long-term for humanity.
14.
by mdakin 13y ago
I think you're right about the "attraction of advertising." But the real attraction there is that (1)+(2)=(money pump). And these companies don't seem to know what to do with the type of money pump they are capable of
15.
by mdakin 13y ago
I've had an idiosyncratic but highly useful definition of the word 'genius' since I was a little kid thanks to my mother. She taught me that a genius is an intuitive/rational thinker-feeler-person who was lucky enough t
16.
by mdakin 13y ago
You seem to only be able to see the world for the way it is now, and has been over the recent past. Getting stuck on these thinking patterns is self-limiting, much like getting stuck on a programming language like PHP-- both are one-trick-
17.
by mdakin 13y ago
Agreed. I also believe there is a sociological component. A situation such as we have is only possible when a critical mass of engineers/scientists/creatives/technicians consciously choose to work on anti-human technology.
18.
by mdakin 13y ago
"But he has nothing on!"
19.
by mdakin 13y ago
I guess they don't eat their own dog food.
20.
by mdakin 13y ago
Yeah, I think the "Communist methods" that were tried in Eastern Europe and Asia are generally horrible ideas. And those methods are now tied up with the philosophy for better or worse. I def. don't think those methods work. America provi
21.
by mdakin 13y ago
I haven't read it, but I did love _Cat's Cradle_. Thanks for the reference!
22.
by mdakin 13y ago
I think labels can be useful when they are used to facilitate communication and understanding. But they can also be used as weapons and to manipulate people who have trouble communicating and understanding. I suspect we're on the same pag
23.
by mdakin 13y ago
I'm probably more of a social anarchist than anything, but I think labels are often unhelpful. The beauty of our current situation is that we can build it on top of America as it exists today. No need to label it-- just build it. :)
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by mdakin 13y ago
We're moving towards a future in which "working" will be an optional activity. If you can get enough farms/factories producing the widgets of everyday life essentially for the sum of the input commodity costs, energy costs, and some small o
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by mdakin 13y ago
History and truth are often out of synchronization (esp. in these days of pervasive propaganda/active manipulation of the population using mass communication technology). The chapters of the human story that played out 15,000 to 5,000 year
26.
by mdakin 14y ago
I've observed this phenomenon/pattern in both California and Massachusetts. Also by direct experience, I've found that there are certain niche subfields of software engineering that seem to be practiced long-term only by people of this "Gu
27.
by mdakin 17y ago
At this year's SF Documentary Film Festival I watched a great documentary about modern origami called Between the Folds . If you have the opportunity to see it you should take advantage. The book to read about folding is Origami Design S
28.
by mdakin 17y ago
See Table 5. Discussion is interesting too.
29.
Giftedness Is Statistically Associated with Particular MBTI Results(sengifted.org)
30 points by mdakin 17y ago|27 comments
30.
by mdakin 17y ago
Teaching a kid that people (and by implication the kid him/herself) are inherently good/bad (or in any way "fixed") is a really bad idea for a number of reasons. He's trying to keep her mindset growth-oriented. "There are no neurotics or g

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