davideous
Joined 13 years ago
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454
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Member since
Oct 1
Recent submissions
Comment · 2 days ago
My state (Indiana) has a constitutional clause that prohibits borrowing except in the case of an unexpected shortfall in revenue or war. This means the state may not pass a deficit budget except in time of war. It had worked out well for the state.
Comment · 1 year ago
In my example in the grandparent post to yours, it was actually the empathy of the medical provider toward my paying the bill that prevented the unnecessary test.
Comment · 1 year ago
Setting prices by supply-and-demand and having insurance "pay for whatever is needed regardless of the cost" are incompatible. Insurance blocks the pricing cost signal back to the patient. Insurance also prevents better doctors that provide better service from charging more because the patients will pay for it.
An example: about 20 years ago I had just a major medical plan and I was at urgent care for a problem. After diagnosing the likely problem and prescribing the solution, they were about to run some tests "just in case." When I told them I would be paying for the tests due to the major medical plan, they explained that the tests didn't have any benefit, so we didn't run them.
I don't know of a real solution to these problems.
A partial solution is exposing some of the cost to the insured to create an incentive to save (like what I had when I was paying for the tests). At my company, we fully pay for a high-deductible plan AND a give company-funded contribution to a Health Savings Account that mostly covers the per-person out-of-pocket max. If the employee does not spend the HSA money (which is their money in their account), it can be used for retirement savings... so they have an incentive to save. But once someone hits the out-of-pocket max, there is no more incentive to save.
Comment · 1 year ago
Agreed that sometimes it is appropriate for insurance to say no.
After one round of physical therapy for tennis elbow, which made some progress but didn't completely clear up the issue, I got denied my insurer (not UHC) for the additional physical therapy that the PT recommended. The problem resolved itself on its own in a month without additional therapy. Seems like they may have been right that it wasn't medically necessary.
Comment · 2 years ago
HN and Desiring God are my two favorite websites.
Comment · 2 years ago
Here are a few key paragraphs from a sermon that has the most compelling explanation of that sentence that I've heard:
> When Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:10, “The love of money is the root of all evils,” what did he mean? He didn’t mean that there’s a connection between every sinful attitude and money — that money is always in your mind when you sin. I think he meant that all the evils in the world come from a certain kind of heart, namely, the kind of heart that loves money.
> Now what does it mean to love money? It doesn’t mean to admire the green paper or the brown coins. To know what it means to love money, you have to ask: What is money? I would answer that question like this: Money is simply a symbol that stands for human resources. Money stands for what you can get from man, not from God! (“Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money come buy and eat!” Isaiah 55:1.) Money is the currency of human resources.
> So the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer. So the love of money is virtually the same as faith in money — belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy.
> Therefore the love of money, or belief in money, is the flip side of unbelief in the promises of God. Just like Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 — you cannot serve God and money. You can’t trust or believe in God and money. Belief in one is unbelief in the other. A heart that loves money — banks on money for happiness, believes in money — is at the same time not banking on the promises of God for happiness.
> So when Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evils, he implies that unbelief in the promises of God is the taproot of every sinful attitude in our heart.
From: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/battling-unbelief-at-be...
Comment · 2 years ago
The Bible speaks about this:
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” — 1 Timothy 6:6-10 ESV
Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
The book "Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail" by Ray Dalio compares the rise (and decline) of the American "world empire" to prior world empires. The two most recent are the U.K. and the Netherlands.
The same things that are happening now have happened before -- just not in our lifetimes. The history and his analysis is quite instructive.
The book was refreshing in its objectivity, lack of political bias, and clarity of writing. I've given copies to several friends.
It's pretty clear from his analysis and the data that the U.S. is in a decline of global influence.
https://www.amazon.com/Changing-World-Order-Nations-Succeed/...
Comment · 5 years ago
The heat flux through the walls depends on the temperature of your apartment and your neighbor's apartments -- not on if your thermostat is on or off. So even if you leave your thermostat on at 19° you still benefit. And you have no obligation to turn your thermostat up.
Comment · 5 years ago
Fair enough.
In your earlier comment you mentioned:
> MBTI has the predictive value of horoscopes, more or less
My understanding of MBTI is that it's not supposed to be predictive, but it helps you understand a different person's preferences or view-point. Preferences don't necessarily predict behavior.
Understanding the J vs P preference difference was revolutionary early in my marriage. I'm P and my wife is J, and our different preferences on that dimension helped explain much of our conflict. And understanding her preference helped me be more considerate and loving to her. MBTI helped me understand her (not predict her).
When I read a description of an MBTI type for someone I know really well, about half of it rings true -- but then reading and talking through it together sparks a great conversation where we learn a lot about each other.
The book does recommend using a qualified MBTI coach/trainer, so that it's not mis-used.
Hope this $0.02 is helpful.
Comment · 5 years ago
Five Dysfunctions of a Team completely was absolutely revolutionary for me and my team. It's not about MBTI at all, but MBTI is just a tool it mentions to help with dysfunction one.
Here are the five dysfunctions:
The foundational dysfunction is a lack of trust -- trust defined as belief that your skill weaknesses and deficiencies will not be used against you. So people conceal weaknesses and don't ask for help from each other, etc.
This leads to fear of (healthy, productive) conflict -- you don't hash things out, but rather any meaningful discussion gets suppressed. Creates an environment where back-channeling and politics thrive, etc.
This leads to lack of commitment -- the team has not really had heathy, productive conflict/discussion so they don't buy into decisions. There is ambiguity about direction and priorities.
This leads to avoidance of accountability.
This leads to inattention to results.
Here's a high-level overview: https://www.executiveagenda.com/application/files/3215/6401/...
Comment · 6 years ago
Where are you selling it? I want to know where to buy a used 16” MBP.