ssmoot

In addition to the engine going under the vehicle (even at fairly low speed crashes; just watch NHSTA videos on YouTube), the front motor in a Model S is more dense and weighs about the same as a 4 cylinder engine, transmission and accessories. I'm gonna call that a wash until I see evidence to the contrary.

Straight on collisions aren't even the toughest ones to pass. It's the small offset tests that really seem to give manufacturers a hard time. And no engine there.

That really depends on the fuel cell doesn't it?

There's still annual maximums, in-network coverage, PMO, HMO, etc. The minimums can be pretty basic.

It looks like the ACA doesn't really do anything to change the picture for a $474,000 medical bill. The guy got charged $39 each for over 200 glucose checks. That's the price of a new meter for every check.

No. I don't. I mean that they had the most important safety net of all: Family with the will and ability to help financially.

I'm genuinely curious what financial life lessons you think a middle class kid is learning that a poor kid doesn't understand at a much deeper level.

My own experience is that (some) middle class kids succeed despite their own failures (dropping college classes before the grade becomes part of record stands out in my mind), and then attribute their success to their superior work ethic and intellect.

If most poor people fail to move up the class ladder, then in their same situation you're just as likely to fail. It's either that, or believe yourself somehow innately superior. I can't really think of a third option. It's like the adage about being surrounded by assholes.

You're right. Life isn't fair. But that doesn't mean the person cleaning my house isn't entitled to financial stability. I'm not religious, but I can't think of a secular version of "but for the grace of God".

I know middle income people spending their money on craft beer on the weekend and not participating in their company 401K. Or living effectively paycheck to paycheck. They may have "disposable" income, but only in the sense that they can float emergency spending on credit.

So yeah, there's a difference, but it's one of privilege.

Bad long-term financial decisions aren't exclusive to the poor.

You grew up poor. That doesn't mean your new middle-class peers had to learn the same lessons you did. They aren't middle class because they're smarter, more disciplined or have a better work ethic. They're middle class because they were born middle class.

Wanting to improve class mobility is one thing. Blaming the poor for not doing so on their own is another.

> The fact of the matter is, people make bad choices. People who make bad choices are more likely to be poor. Lack of impulse control is extremely prevalent in poor communities. Like the GP, I was poor, I know poor people, and 95% of them are just shit at thinking long term.

This is true of most Americans and is incredibly condescending. The poor are better with the money they do have than the middle class by a huge margin IME. The poor by and large don't blow their money on "fine dining" or new cars. They change their own oil. They don't spend over $100/month on cable TV packages. You can find exceptions to all those of course, but they prove the rule IME.

BTW, your post didn't get the attention I'd hoped, but THANK YOU for "fighting the good fight".

IMO this stuff is more important than any technical choice you could possibly make. And I happen to think some technical choices are pretty vitally important. But even so...

Like the Agile Manifesto it's all about balance (IME).

One of the (many) ways I failed as a manager was to not trust my gut. To want to enable my team, even when what I thought they were pitching was questionable. I'd hoped that some technology, or this particular team would prove my own previous experience wrong. That through the power of team work and ambition it would turn out differently this time, but most of all, I couldn't figure out how to present a convincing argument to the team why I was skeptical and I didn't want to leave it at "because I said so".

On reflection, a cure might've been to ask for further analysis, both rewards and risks, balanced against costs. But that often comes with it's own cost and what I really wanted to say was: "We're not doing this because the solution in hand is good enough and better at any non-trivial price doesn't serve our business interests."

Of course being a developer myself that's a difficult message to internalize.

I guess it comes down to: I'm still not sure how to handle this situation, but experience definitely needs to be weighed heavily IMO and if your processes (and management experience) are lacking in maturity a lack of leadership in preventing a less experienced team (though very technically skilled, enthusiastic and hard working!!!) from making bad decisions can be devastating as well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, through my own mistakes managing teams, I think a lack of confidence and projected authority can be just as bad as any of the sins listed here, and is an important balance to consider on the flip-side of Arrogance.

That said, the rest of the list here is spot-on. The only nit I'd pick is Sloth. A description closer to my own experience might be one where the requirements are known, but not communicated thoroughly and clearly.

When a developer can say: "Show me where I was told this" and you can't respond with a URL to an Issue, instead relying on a months old email, Slack message that wasn't acknowledged, or no proof at all, then you have a big problem. Knowledge that isn't communicated, or analysis that's only half done, can mortally wound any project where the developers don't have the authority to decide the success parameters (time, budget or scope).

+1. I'm talking to you Sharon! I'm tired of getting your loan application details and RNC propaganda delivered to my inbox.

I'm just as annoyed at companies that don't bother with any kind of email confirmation click-through before sharing personal information though. I even frequently get one-click links to edit people's profiles with all their personal details.

If it includes a phone number I send them a polite text and ask them to be more careful when typing in their email address. I figure a little stranger danger fear might help motivate them to stop signing me up to be spammed.

OTOH I'm seriously considering leaving behind my many years old GMail at this point. I really only use it as an identity service for other site's logins 99% of the time. I just don't know what the options are and I don't feel like signing up for something that might not be around next year.

There's nothing I love more than a long thread of point-by-point rebuttals, but I think I'll leave this one alone for once. ;-)

If you like what you're doing, more power to you. I picked up Ruby because I thought it showed promise as a good scripting language and web development tool (this was pre-Rails) at a time c# didn't really excel at either.

> You seem like quite the masochist

Maybe. DM was created to solve a problem. I didn't burn anything down. I just walked away. The best time to do the right thing is yesterday. The next best time is now.

After 8+ years, I realized I'd spent much of it trying to work around limitations in Ruby. It was just time to open myself up to the idea that there is more to programming than what I knew.

I think I'd blocked out the pain of dealing with mutable strings. :-)

We were a pretty enthusiastic bunch back in the day. Glad to hear you're still pushing things forward.