DefinitelyNbdy's comments

DefinitelyNbdy | 14 years ago | on: You've Probably Read Enough

Re-posting a comment to the blog to get HN reaction:

Since this article doesn't obviously have an intended audience, you seem to be saying that everyone, everywhere should stop reading all articles once they posses the ability to read English well enough to comprehend this article. It is an interesting idea, but I suspect that this would lead to very uneducated people, so that people who ignore your advice are going to be better educated. If a senior citizen is told, "You've probably read enough" then, yes, maybe they will agree and proceed to purchase a plane ticket to the Bahamas. But if a teenager reads this article, the reaction will probably be, "sure, and by the same token, can you tell my teachers to stop assigning me homework?"

In any case, the core of the point is that by ignoring your advice, your readers can be better educated. Now, I am a Christian, but stupid priests who proclaim the creation myth until their vocal chords give way share something with you: if you ignore THEIR advice, you will be better educated, at least in science.

But really, you're right. The human race has reached the end of knowledge. There really isn't anything more anyone could possibly learn, so why try?

DefinitelyNbdy | 14 years ago | on: Generation Sell

Our society is "fundamentally agreeable"?

Seriously?

Let me counter with: Two land wars in Asia, thirty (!) years of cancerous deregulation of the private sector leading to an economic implosion, 9/11, OWS protests, raging unemployment...

Having said all of this, I would agree that PORTLAND, OR is a fundamentally agreeable society...it is difficult to communicate this in writing, you really have to visit the place to understand.

DefinitelyNbdy | 14 years ago | on: "No matter what price we choose, we always make the same revenue"

In some sense it is irrelevant whether or not revenue is independent of price...if you're extrapolating from that dataset, then you really need to give yourself a few good whacks on the head with a stats text. I mean, N=2? Give me a break.

DefinitelyNbdy | 14 years ago | on: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

1. If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

2. Success is measured in many ways, and one of those ways is dollars. There are many different ways to get dollars.

3. Failure leads to success.

4. Diaspora got GREAT and HIGHLY SUPPORTIVE press about 2 months ago from Free Software Magazine.

5. Diaspora had substantial cash flow shortly after launching the foundation. In fact they got SO MUCH MONEY that PayPal froze their account, probably because they thought it was fraud (fraud detection is REALLY hard and false positives are cheaper than false negatives...this is IMHO the most likely interpretation).

On the contrary, Ilya was in a GREAT position. LOTS of people would have given their left testicle to be him. Now, if he couldn't handle the stress, or he had one too many shots of Vodka, that is tragic, but don't try to bring Diaspora down with him. The facts are not on your side.

tl;dr It is WAAAAY too early to be declaring Diaspora a failure.