ecshafer

> And neither do any governments in America or Europe really step in to incentivize socially benefitial choices

NYS, as much as I complain about the state government, does actually do this a bit. One is the BOCES program which is an adult education system that teach trades, and highschoolers can go to for free (Think diesel mechanics, carpentry, and also things like computer repair or networking). The other is that there is a system for free associate degrees for adults 25+ (recently the requirement for them to not have a college degree was removed so that there can be reskilling), but the limitation is career focused jobs. So you can get a free associates degree in nursing, health sciences, engineering technology, metal fabrication, etc. but not in say literature.

Department of Education has no control over curriculum. Its for financing student loans. Abolishing the Department of Education and various regulations they impose on schools at all levels, could actually help curb the excessive admin and leadership hiring that you complain about in the first section.

Higher Ed (and Ed) has declined once again as well. There are many majors that are, to be completely honest, jokes and shouldn't even exist. I personally had plenty of classes that I wrote an essay and knew I would get an A as long as I agree with the professor's/teacher's pet political views, or the same paper would mysteriously be docked a few points. High Schools teach less Shakespeare, and more random children's books that aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Liberal Arts and Humanities spend too much time on pet modern social justice causes, and not enough time on Cicero, Aristotle, etc. If we go back to a solid foundation of a classical education, actually reading the great works in school, leaning into critical thinking, and adding rigor, then higher education will actually be worth it. Math and Science I believe is still pretty solid and rigorous in higher ed but k-12 needs to be totally revamped.

The US already spends more than the EU (combined) on hydrology and civil engineering. The US already has the expertise to do anything like that. ICE is an on issue for a dutch engineer working legally in the US.

> argon was announced to coincide with performance review deadline. carbon was announced to coincide with quarterly earnings release.

Same as it ever was. Google is really completing their IBM-ification. We need to release these models now because year end reviews are about to hit and I need a win.

The scrapers and AI companies resorting to residential proxy traffic like intelligence and hackers is pretty crazy.

Pascal's Wager if you read the entire book is more intricate than choosing to believe. He also argues that by practicing as if you believed, you may feel as if the choice is true and find God that way.

People always leave off the second half of Pascal's Wager. Pascal's Wager is not simply that you can map out the odds vs risk and decide being a theist is more practical. But rather that if you take the odds, decide to be a theist, then start acting like one (participating in rituals, living like one, practicing what is preached, etc) then you may find God through those actions.

60k workers, 1/4 of the workers. This is a big deal. It also really puts you into a bind if you receive the offer. Do you accept, take the money, and hope you can find a job (Now competing with many other Msft employees that are looking). Do you decline and hope you don't get hit with the layoff which hits if not enough people accept?

Currently the difference in my work between the best models and okay models is pretty night and day to the point its not worth using the older models. Now I haven't used the newest top open source models. But if I give the same code base to say Qwen 3.6 and GPT 5.6, Qwen will analyze the source of the problems wrong, provide actually wrong solutions, write code that takes 100x as long to run. Its not even worth it outside of querying for snippets of code. GPT 5.6 will help actually root cause the problems.

> Are you gonna open a second unconnected subway system in new York and compete with them?

Yes thats how it works in Tokyo. They get land, build stations, then dig the tunnels. Their profit comes from fares and rents around the stations that they own.

No, they are typically more impromptu set ups. $5 a person, leaves Queens for Bayonne at 8am, that type of thing. Some have set pick up/ drop off locations like a normal bus. Usually cash only, under the table.

They said transit as a class of natural monopoly and I showed a counter example where there are private companies entering a space where the natural monopoly already exists.

Tokyo uses privately run subway/train systems and is largely considered the envy of the world with regards to transit. The united states prior to WWII mostly ran on privately run transit systems, with private companies running street car and subway lines. So it does not appear to actually be that much of a natural monopoly.

Hacker News has slowly taken the road to reddit style communism.