bachbach

Habits are hard to break but I've also found it surprisingly easy to manipulate yourself by putting an annoying obstacle in the way. For getting work on time I can't snooze-beat the combination of a wake up light and a distantly located mobile alarm.

On internet use restriction the best solution so far has been to use a simple electronic plug timer connected to a laptop without a battery. Zap - no internet for you.

There ought to be a solution that installs itself into the computer's firmware though. Most of us on HN install new operating systems at a much higher rate than the typical user so having a persistent solution would be huge.

I have had this experience.

Still don't understand the fascination - maybe I had inferior quality bubble tea.

The US has its issues but nothing to complain about in comparison to Mexico or Brazil.

50,000 murders a year - that's a low intensity war.

Even elite University education in STEM is a terrible investment. All the people boostering it are recipients of multiple selection filters or from different age cohorts and really have no idea what the fuck they are talking about.

When you do the math - it's terrible compared to almost any other alternative - even minimum wage jobs.

This doesn't apply if you have a wealthy family and can be assured of a job with dad's company or other connections - but for a blue collar kid university is not a good route to fortune in the UK.

The level of effort required and the wages are simply not commensurate and everybody who thinks so is delusional because they're not comparing and contrasting the effort with other options. The stats are all skewed by confounding factors like half your class will be going to work for Goldman Sachs.

Modern universities are a way of manufacturing poor people with stunted ambitions, not upward social mobility.

But the word 'Capitalism' did not exist in Smith's day!

Quibble - this comes from Smith. It's not specifically a Marxist complaint - just one popular with them.

Like leveling up in an RPG!

Horseshoe Theory is not true.

Your supporting link says it has no substance - it's a simple meme that is wrong.

This subject annoys me because I am convinced that not only does the Horseshoe Theory have no predictive power - but also that it denies something which really is true - that political violence can come out of the Center aka from Liberalism.

This is a huge blindspot in modern political culture. Conflict coming out of the Center would be a true Black Swan event.

It is true and no argument is required - just observation of history.

If you examine the history of political philosophy of Liberalism you shall see immediately that Republicans and Democrats are both part of the Liberal Party.

I know some people come to this conclusion by viewing it as a conspiracy but it's really not.

That modern day Democrats are called Liberals causes confusion because from the historical context they are just a subset of Liberals. The older definition includes most Conservatives and Libertarians.

Political philosophy is a family tree. If you go back into the history you find that apparent enemies are more accurately described as competitors.

This is demonstrated in the present each time there is an external threat too.

Communism and Monarchy are both Western political philosophies that reject Liberalism. If you say far right or far left and this group still supports the goals of political Liberalism then you've made a category error.