JacobJans's comments

JacobJans | 4 years ago | on: The new dot com bubble is online advertising (2019)

That is actually the definition of bad, inneffective advertising. Good advertising comes from a deep understanding of what people want to do, and then presents them with an opportunity to do just that. This is literally why Google is so valuable. Their ad business is largely based on understanding “intent.” As any decent advertiser knows, you can’t create intent, but you can harness it.

JacobJans | 4 years ago | on: There is no ‘getting back to normal’ with climate breakdown – Mark Blyth

The only hope is massive political pressure on our leaders. If enough people force our leaders to force change on all of us, then we stand a half a chance. I wish this was a hopeful situation. It is not. If this were a war, we would be badly losing. We are effectively sending our children into the deadly hands of our enemies.

JacobJans | 7 years ago | on: Middle School Misfortunes Then and Now, One Teacher’s Take

Think about this:

How many times in the past 24 hours did you unconsciously check your email, browse Facebook, visit a website, or check some other app?

Do you ever find yourself looking at your phone, and not remember consciously deciding to look at it?

If you're like 90% of smart phone users, this happens to you all the time.

Sure, you can be like the 10% that doesn't fall victim to the "slot machine" psychology of the modern internet. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean the other 90% aren't going to impact your life.

I feel the quality of conversations has vastly decreased, on average, because of the intense level of smart-phone addiction that is so common now. Even if nobody is looking at their phone. ("Attention residue" is a real thing.)

JacobJans | 7 years ago | on: The U.S. Is Getting Closer to a Recession, Data Show

I don't think that's the right logic.

Say there are ten "events" that have had recessions follow them (or not). Each of these events happened 10 times.

For the first type of a event, a recession happened just once afterwards.

For the second type of event, a recession happened twice.

For the third type of event, a recession happened three times

The third, a recession happened three times.

The fourth, a recession happened four out of ten times.

The fifth, a recession happened five times.

Etc...

This has very little to do with flipping a coin, and much more to do with deciding the right time to pay attention.

Half a chance of getting hit by a car is not the same as "flipping a coin."

Generally, throughout the past hundred years or so, there has been much less than a 50% chance to enter a recession. I don't know the numbers, but for any given year, it could be 10%. If there is now a 50% chance, isn't that a 5 fold increase in risk?

JacobJans | 7 years ago | on: Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

This is a very immature view of advertising, that, unfortunately many advertisers share -- and it leads to scummy ads, with no eye on the long term relationship with the person viewing the ad.

However, many ads are not deceptive in any way, and instead simply offer something of value to people who may be interested, without any deceit, psychological trick, or ulterior motive.

Just because there are bad ads does not mean that all advertising is bad.

JacobJans | 7 years ago | on: The rise of alternative milks

Store bought almond milk also has additives that may not be good for you. Emulsifiers, thickeners, starches, preservatives, etc. For people with sensitive digestion, it may be safer to make it at home.

JacobJans | 7 years ago | on: How chicken became the rich world’s most popular meat

The problem is that people want to dictate publisher's business models.

> they’ll put out a single decent article a month, and you’re currently required to subscribe to everything to read it.

> But you can’t make an informed payment.

It sounds like you are informed about this publisher, but simply don't think it's worth it to subscribe to them. That's fair, but it's not a valid reason to infringe on intellectual property rights.

I fail to see how allowing readers five or so free articles a month fails to give you a proper way to evaluate whether a subscription is worth it.

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