skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"Why does anyone spend $35,000 - $50,000 on a car? It just feels like a number that is at least 5x too high."

If someone makes $250,000+ a year, it's not unreasonable.

"My 2005 Ford Focus sedan was $3,000 and should last me about 3 years before I need to make a decision about major repairs, so that's less than $100 a month in ammortized costs."

That's completely unrealistic. You have some sort of competitive advantage (REALLY know someone trustworthy), or you are delusional. $3000 cars are generally very high mileage, unreliable, in poor condition, etc. Timing belts, suspension components, drive belts, starters, ac compressors, minor electronics, etc tend to start going on these cars.

"Are there really hundreds of thousands of people who are making $5,000+ a month necessary to justify the purchase of such an expensive vehicle? I'm not far from that number and most of my money still goes to food and rent."

I believe a car should be 3 months income at most. So no, I can't justify anything past a $10,000 car.

What I can say for sure is that unless you are a decent mechanic with tools or have GOOD friends / relatives that are, you shouldn't walk around espousing 3k cars. They just cost way too much in time.
Why buy a MacBook Pro for $2k+ when you can get by with a ChromeBook for $150?
Outward appearance, vanity, they actually have the free cash, ignorance. There's a bunch of reasons people buy expensive cars... most of which don't make sense other than that's what they choose to spend their money on vs. whatever you've chosen to spend your money on.

It's also an entirely incomplete picture on their financial situation. Maybe they have a paid for living situation so this is their only liability, maybe they don't have any money in their savings account, maybe they don't have a retirement account.

And with Tesla it's probably even more complicated because there are some "feel good" motives to buying an electric car that may outweigh any sane financial decision.
I'm not sure I'm sold on the perspective that the worst Tesla detractors were actually just misinformed or wrong about the subject, rather than being actively malevolent by trying to gain money by shortselling while funding anti-Tesla articles.
So the author was excited about the concept of function composition? I'm a fan of lisp but I'm not seeing what's particularly novel about lisp here.
Not paying for infrastructure is a globally bipartisan issue
I was about to suggest the same thing. This is simply computational finite difference and almost follows directly from the equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_quotient
It's hard to Paint this as a bad thing.
I spent more than that on a car stereo. It's all relative and what you would consider "value", your financial health, and priorities.
I latched onto the URL idea because it's something we're wondering about with the `peru` project today :) https://github.com/buildinspace/peru/issues/193

Totally, fetching a single version through URLs works now, even on GitHub if you use tags. The tricky part is saying "I'm using 1.0, and 1.1 just came out, so I should upgrade to that." That requires ecosystem-wide agreement that everyone's going to use SemVer, and it assumes that everything's hosted in git or similar where there's a standard way to enumerate the available versions.
The article seems very imprecise on factual data.

> With $3 billion in the bank and a growing cash cushion, Tesla won't need to raise any cash to pay off the big $920 million loan that's coming due next March.

Except that there's less in the bank, and that Tesla owes something like $3B to suppliers.

I am not a financial expert, but I'd think that the situation is not as easy as it is depicted here.
There are quite a few stories about officers shooting someone when they were at the wrong house. In this case they were called to this house, but why are our police so quick to pull the trigger anyway? Can they never disengage and reassess?
After the merge, we'll probably branch out and become an even better SharePoint for developers
Who is the hit man here in this metaphor...
Magically, the first minute or so spells it out.
I think it's that you can calculate the value, but you can't (or can't as easily) create a new function that is the derivative of another function, and pass that around.
That's a different question than the parent (albeit a related one).
If there's no one to buy 35k cars, there won't be a steady flow of 5k cars indeed, but I don't think people buy 35k cars because they're nice people trying to provide 5k cars to other people after a while
The point about "you build it, you run it" not being sustainable really hits home for me. On a large project, there's a fairly natural specialization along many axes, with "deep in the guts" development vs. "close to the users" ops as one of the more natural ones. It's definitely important for developers to get some direct experience with operating what they produce. That's why I took my current job instead of letting myself become one of those awful "senior architect" types divorced from reality. Still, being on call is stressful. That stress is even greater when it's into areas others know 10x better, or when it interrupts progress toward the longer-term outcomes on which developers are measured even in a "devops" culture.

Changing teams to get a break from being on call starts to seem less disruptive than staying, and I'm sure plenty of other people where I work hit that realization long before me. I think more of a "pair programming" approach would often produce superior results. Two close associates don't need to know every command-line flag and semicolon of each others' work to understand and appreciate each other's contributions to the challenges they share.
It's like "machine learning" a spam filter, isn't it? It sounds so simple and elegant, and then somehow you end up with 200 rules, most of which are entirely manual, and weekly tweaks to keep it working well.
Fear of Decoupling
To me it's very common in the tech community. Maybe a transfer from the embedded/sysadmin/DBA side of things, from what I've seen its usage move over time.
Some don't look at the sticker cost as how much it will cost to them, but the cost of a few years of financing it (on good rates) + the money they lose to depreciation before they trade it in for a new car.
Remember their "Secret Master Plan?" This was published 12 years ago:

>In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-j...
Two incomes of 100k+/year - outside of CA, NYC, DC - you can buy two 35k cars, save for retirement, afford a mortgage, and have plenty left over.
How selfless.
Well, somebody has to buy new cars or there wouldn't be used cars. If most of your money is going to food and rent you must live in a very expensive location.
The short answers are: cars can be resold, so you're only paying for interest, taxes, depreciation, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and gas.

After working with vehicle data for 6 years, I can guarantee that someone who buys a 1-year-old Prius is actually paying less per month than you are for your 2005 Focus.

People who buy brand new cars are obviously paying a huge "drive it off the lot" tax in the form of depreciation, but they know that and think it's worth it. Some people are afraid to buy used, some like to drive a new car.

It's just another example of "it's expensive to be poor". If you can buy a better car, you end up paying less over the course of your owning it.

Of course, that idea breaks down if you buy something unreliable AND expensive. It also becomes fuzzier with luxury cars, since they're expensive to repair.

But a used, super-reliable car that holds value well, like a Prius or a Camry, is generally going to have the lowest total cost of ownership out of the whole spectrum of car options.
The most I'll spend is at the low end of that range. I've driven fancy German cars and understand the attraction but not enough to shell out the money.

I like getting a vehicle with the features I want and the room to haul all my various sports gear. I've bought used vehicles but, generally speaking, I like being able to buy a car with the features I want and basically not having to materially think about maintenance for a very long time. I can't say that I've found the used cars I have purchased to be particular deals in the long run. Car maintenance is one thing I'm willing to pay just not to deal with as much as possible.

I do think a lot of people spend more on cars than they can/should. I could spend less myself but on an annual basis I'm pretty frugal and haven't had a car payment for many years.
I'm keeping a close eye on repos such as py-kms.
Agreed. The difficulty is in the details here. Arguably TV was largely, almost entirely entertainment in days of old. Yet, the internet screens are a step back from that, offering both more entertainment potential and far more education potential. It's a dangerous and powerful tool, but one that we need a certain resolve to use productively.

I still hope one day we can find a way to tie productivity into the addictive brain centers of the brain. Ideally customizable such that whatever you want to be productive on, be it work, exercise, study, etc, we can use that system to achieve our goals.

Our brains do not seem designed for this age of entertainment overload. We need help, and it's becoming increasingly concerning. I hope we can hack our brains to do good, because largely our efforts seem to be going to "bad".
Sounds like you're a fiscally responsible person. Keep in mind most people are not, and our economy is built on top of easy credit / debt.
This strikes me as some weird virtue signaling, as part of the package of well-to-do enlightened whiteness. Watching tv or playing with computers is not intrinsically good or bad; you have to think about what content you're delivering. I spent most days watching old-school History Channel while playing with Legos or army men. Likewise, almost all of my knowledge of geography and a significant chunk of history comes from playing strategy games on the PC. If I was watching the Disney Channel and playing Fortnite, then that would be less productively used time, I suppose.
Google is great at attracting these kind of weirdos. Starting from the top. Nothing less sexy than some
awkward kinky nerds...
I don’t really agree that doing calculus refutes the idea that lisp programs can be hard to follow, the syntax is kind of a nightmare imo, but a fun read.
Why the smart home still sucks
There’s a secondary interface at wheelchair height with a Braille-equipped keypad where you can type in a floor.
A lot of new cars these days start out at $20-25k. I imagine a lot of people are interested in the $35k Model 3 because it will have lower ownership costs than a gasoline car, is more fun to drive, and is neat. When you take that into account, the difference between a $25k gasoline sedan and $35k Model 3 is not THAT big.

I used to do the whole used car thing, but at this point in my life I spend more to feel safer and to be more comfortable. I still have never spent more than $25k on a car, but I definitely want to drive something that I am confident will not break down.
That has not been my experience. The industry is highly competitive. Each matter might be pitched to half a dozen firms. If tech does shave costs, that can be a huge differentiating factor.

For the most part though it doesn’t. There are many clients who won’t pay for first year associates. For those clients, firms don’t roll out legal tech. They do the work and write it off. Even at top wall street firms realization is 80-90% hours billed. Nor do firms trot out legal tech when it comes to contigency or fixed-fee cases, where there are no billable hours. Some major clients these days demand arrangements where they pay a fixed. monthly price. There is no legal tech leveraged in those cases.

For the most part I’ve found software in general these days to be underwhelming. It took me years to find software that I trust enough to keep track of highlighted points in court opinions. (Shout out to the folks who make Citavi.) I remember writing about predictive coding in law school almost ten years ago. I have never used it on a case. Ironically, the only cases where there were enough documents (millions) for predictive coding to make sense also involved so much at stake the client wanted to spare no expense.

The highest value legal tech has been review platforms like Relativity, but they are also crap. Like, loads documents slower than you can read them crap. It’s like technology to help programmers. You still just use Emacs because all this visual IDE shit doesn’t really help.
> Maybe it's appropriate for your company, but it is not appropriate for a college campus or other larger organization with many salaried employees.

Why do I care about what's appropriate for other orgs? My job is to deal with the needs of the one that pays my salary.

> I don't like policies that cause tech workers to need to bring some of their work home with them.

The policy has nothing to do with that. If you need it for work it will be unblocked in a timely fashion. If you need entire categories of things unblocked we can do that too, and just for your account.

You don't find it a bit strange you're talking about how this policy would block access to a personal project, but that in so doing it somehow causes you to have to bring work home? Which is it? Is it something you work on for work or is it a personal project?
My kids get school supplied iPads. They get some real life experience from this: how to deal with terrible school mandated applications. This mirrors my experience working at IBM.

For example, in one app they have to enter answers to homework, but the app does not allow you to edit the answers once entered. So, my kids have learned to write their answers in a google docs, and then cut / paste when they are really done.

Oh, they also learn that the school IT guy reads their email if they use naughty words in it. Also there is a perennial question of whether the iPad spys on our home network when they are home..
I live in northern Mi, I see Tesla's everyday, and I don't think they can be bought in MI, so despite the inconvenience they are moving cars.
Tether Redeems and ‘Burns’ More Than Half of USDT in Circulation
Reversibility and Fast Decision Making
Show HN: UserCV network – better than Linkedin? Is this a Next Big Thing?
There are as many reasons as there are people, I don't know if you could really generalize an answer. I spent $40K on my current car because I'm an enthusiast and it puts a smile on my face every time I drive it that a 15 year old Focus definitely would not. To each their own. And in the grand scheme of things, the monthly payment (on a 1.9% loan) is about 3% of my income. As long as I meet my goals for savings, I don't really feel guilty about spending some money on stuff I enjoy.
Civilization in particular is phenomenal. The Civilopedia was a treasure trove of details about different real-life historical concepts. And the "Women's Suffrage" video in Civilization 2 made quite an impact on me as a kid.

Having said that, I do think there's a big, big difference between playing games of that sort and... Candy Crush.
Ok, at least they are a one issue party (improve circuses!). Then again, the are a one issue party ... Thang you for the info.
Yeah I'm too frugal to spend like that on a car. At some point I'll buy a used Model 3...once it costs 30% of that.

For now I love my 40mpg and low maintenance and insurance costs of a 10 year old hybrid Civic.

But you have to think about all the people who buy cars for other reasons...supposed signaling, the impression it gives others, devout brand loyalty, good old consumerism... There's just so many reasons that are "misguided" from a financial perspective, but logical from the personal perspective.
I really don't agree with you, and I think the nature of this disagreement between us is a significant cause of trouble in the world. There are some who are fine with living a lie; there are many who think their lies are the only truths. I believe cultural appropriation to be positive, because its a means by which the falsehood of cultural identity can persist.

In the big, wide universe, there really isn't any such thing as "America" or "Sweden" - these are creative inventions of humans, the only living things in the universe known so far, to lie to themselves in such a fashion.

Cultures don't exist unless the lie is perpetuated by those who have a self-interest in the identity.

Where I do agree with you, is that people need to have respect for each others lies. Without that, we end up with conditions whereby nobodies lies persist - i.e. war. I just happen to think that its possible that appropriation is a form of respect.
It is true that at the moment a conventional (non-electric) vehicle is cheaper. However some people do want to own a car that has a lower negative impact on the environment and are willing to pay more money for that (which is a good thing).
What do you think it is like? This is what unlimited power over others does to people. I suspect it's the same or likely worse (there's a lot we don't know, what is public is just the tip of an iceberg) in those other companies.
shadowsocks is on their radar now...and they have been able to detect its usage with some success, unfortunately...

i.e. The Random Forest Based Detection of Shadowsock's Traffic, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8048116/

I don't really understand what kind of scientists would do such researches to help the government carry out the censorship more efficiently, over their fellow people...it's either those intellectuals have no brain, or no heart...
I've learned quite a bit about foreign cultures from Civilization which has prompted me to do my own reading/research to further my knowledge. There are also educational aspects to games like Factorio which can teach good logical problem solving and applied math skills.
I recently bought a new car that was less than that, but still in the $20s.

I had previously been driving old cars, which was OK, but I had never bought a new car before, so it was nice from that perspective.

It also had some features that I wanted and do appreciate. Like Bluetooth, USB audio storage, and various safety features. Excellent fuel economy too.

I plan on keeping it 15 years and/or 200K miles, or more, so the amortized cost isn't bad. Given my age, it is likely the only and last new car I'll ever purchase, because I'm sure the driving landscape will be substantially different than it is today.
I think the reason humans see movement is actually CNNs. We don't actually detect movement with our eyes, just like a still camera doesn't. We just "convolve" a few frames over time.

And if an image shifts + the 16 pixels or so under consideration "look like" something that ought to move, guess what, the movement signal goes beep.

Which is presumably why our optical sensing system goes to such great lengths to keep the image on our eyes stationary.
Upcoming USDT Redemption – October 24th, 2018
Stories about Uber's toxicity started popping up when it became unclear that all of those working for it would become multi-millionaires next two years.

Stories of Zenefits ickiness started popping up when it became unclear that those working for it would become multi-millionaries in next few years.

Stories of Netflix culture toxicity started popping up when it became no longer clear that Netflix will continue to eat the world of streaming -- hence continuing to provide massive $$ to those working for it.

People would take more abuse for a higher chance to make a boatload of money. The smaller the boatload or the less are the chances of making it, the less employees are willing to take.

If you are to look at Google and Facebook stories over last 6-12 months you would see more and more questions about how far those two companies can grow. As the growth trajectory slows down more and more stories about the internal ugliness show up because fewer people are willing to take it.
On the other hand, maybe the cost to review an employment agreement will enter into the sub-$100 range. Or to draft an NDA for a startup, etc.

The path from passing the bar to being a successful / well-paid attorney has been extremely difficult for a decade now. AI will simply continue this trend.
"Here, good boy, I know you can't be expected to know how to zoom your PDF file, so I'll just prepare a version for you without the margins and with some colors or something. Here, take a cookie. Good boy."
Disruptions normally result from a newcomer finding a new way to do things that legacy companies can't keep up with or compete with. A problem for Tesla is that many of the big car makers are joining in on the "disruption" and doing so very well, making it more of an industry evolution than disruption.

Another problem for Tesla is having only 5 quarters of positive cashflow out of 35. A single quarter hints at a turn around but there needs to be several positive quarters in a row to prove that it's not just an accounting trick (e.g. by counting more income in the quarter and delaying payments & write downs).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Tesla, but living in Oslo I see a lot of electric cars and Teslas are no longer the majority. Plus the Tesla repair workshop near me is always full, which isn't a great sign!
I don't think that means what you think it means. "leftists" in the US generally prefer "progressive" and tend to stand for equality and social services. The goal is less income inequality and a higher standard of living for everyone. It is the "a rising tide lifts all ships" kind of idea. This is why they often support higher minimum wages and job training programs for unskilled people to learn skilled jobs.
If it's so menial and you "don't learn anything", then why not just pay people off of the street to do it?

I think you're heavily discounting the fact that searching through case law is not just "type in words into LexisNexis", but it's searching, parsing and consolidating case law that is relevant for a Partner. You actually read the case law, spend time understanding it, and build a report around it.
Well, I hope power generation at your location isn't coal-fired.

Ars technica even has an article about sudden EV-charging power demand may force electricity company to fire up coal-plants for the load, which causes even more pollution. If they have a set schedule and not cause a shock load, then the power company can stick with more of the renewables.

It isn't the silver bullet that everyone claims it to be - don't look too hard at the manufacturing either.
http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/
Yes, this confused me too. Especially considering Spandan Madan is an MIT researcher, I don't understand the overt branding of a different school
Test Your Software Rewrite with a Pilot Release – 5 Essential Steps
New medium post, s/bootstrap/VC/g, and back to bootstrapping.
This. Saying this during an interview should mean the same day termination for the interviewer. Of course that's not the case for people with power or influence in the company like this guy.
When using retention rate as a metric, it might also be important to include the reason for leaving as a factor.

For example, software engineers at tech giants might typically leave because they're bored, whereas employees in the Amazon warehouse might leave because they're burnt out and overworked.
My mother tolerated my and my sibling's videogame obsession throughout our youth, but she still largely felt we were wasting our time. I don't think she ever really understood the appeal.

Now she's older and retired, and whenever I visit to see what she's doing with her leisure time, she spends most of it on her laptop playing a fish aquarium game or Farmville on Facebook.