MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: Coinbase announces proposed direct listing
MartianSquirrel's comments
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: The richer you are, the more likely you’ll social distance, study finds
Fair enough, that part did not register as OP said it was "anecdotical" and in his experience
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: The richer you are, the more likely you’ll social distance, study finds
I did not mentionned political affiliations. I don't understand why everyone seems to focus on politics recently. Yes, there have been troubling events, but the world did not stop revolving
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: The richer you are, the more likely you’ll social distance, study finds
I would tend to think the education level also plays a role, and considering wealthier individuals usually have a better access to education/are more educated (read correlation not causation here), said individuals might have a better grasp off what is happening.
Edit: Remote working is also easier when you have an office job
Edit 2: I hope more research like this will come out so we can prepare and protect the ones who are more at risk when the next pandemic comes. Uderstanding the risk factors and how a disease spreads is the first step of debugging it. Sadly it is the first pandemic where we have the necessary tools to track all the information and analyse it. We have been lucky the death rate was not much higher
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: At-home test for colon cancer is as reliable as traditional screening: experts
It's not a problem you face often with a single payer system (or anything similar)
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
I cannot say for sure. My personal income is the same I would get in Toronto, but it's anecdotal. I know they are slightly lower on average, but when you factor in the cost of living (rent is 2x higher in TO) it is probably very similar. On the other side, I would say the quality of life is much better in MTL, as the public transportation is better, people do not live as far and are closer to the various activities, etc.
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers
Long term benefits? check
Good for our constituants? check
Good for whoever pays for my campaign? check
Oh, you say it will jeopardize my reelection? fuggetaboutit /s
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
Canada has been at it for quite a while, otherwise the economy would be stagnating. And it has the advantage that it can chose its immigrants based on the market's needs. Compared to other countries, people coming to canada are also highly skilled:
> Over half of recent immigrants have a bachelor's degree or higher [0] > Recent immigrants were even more likely to have a master's or doctorate degree, with 16.7% of them holding these graduate degrees in 2016. [0]
[0]: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/daily-quotidien/171129/dq...
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
It was indeed a weird model, I think the tech scene here always looked at eAI like some type of outcast, leaving them alone.
But it drew attention to the AI scene, universities received massive funding in AI which is fantastic, startups grew around it, VCs started investing more in MTL(not only because of them, but it did play a role), FAANGS expanded their offices and openned AI labs downtown and in the mile-end.
I was not a fan, but the publicity they received has definetly been good for the scene.
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
Shush! Don't tell them about the little hill! It's only one of them on the other side anyways, we can ignore it... here we go, MTL only has 4 universities now /s
Quebec is weird, true, but I tend to think of the Montreal Metropolitan Area as some sort of semi independant micro state
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
It is not legally required, strongly advised by the government. It would go against Section 2 of the Canadian constituion to discriminate on a language basis.
The OQLF asks for companies to use french terminology and tools where possible (the tech sector blatantly ignores it, I've always worked in english, even with french co-workers) and to offer a french translation on signs, menus and documentations in stores.
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
Not anymore, not in tech at least. Every single company is looking to hire, they don't have the luxury of cherry picking over languages.
The provincial government can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but they tend not to mess with startups or the tech sector.
My partner is running an interior design business, she is an immigrant, does not have her citizenship/PR yet, with a mediocre french and never really had problems with discrimination or legislation. All she had to do was to make sure every written signs had a french translation somewhere on them, which is common here
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
You are right, the legislation on that part is counterproductive, but there are many ways around, especially for tech workers.
And tbh we alway used english at work considering some of our team mates didn't speak french.
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
Bonus: there are 56 craft breweries on the island alone
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay
Disclaimer: Clearly biased, I am from Montreal.
> That’s part of why I think that if any city in Canada has the potential to actually develop a Bay Area grade startup scene (smaller, sure, but actually the real thing), it’s clearly Montreal
I would have to agree with the conclusion of this article, Montreal has:
(i) 5 universities very close to each other(i.e. 10 to 20 minutes walk from each other) + Great public transport
(ii) Lots of government subsidies for startups, on municipal, provincial and federal levels
(iii) Small tech companies and startups can afford rent downtown (or in the mile-end), where other tech companies and universities are located. (I also have a 1200sf apt downtown for 1/6th the price of SF)
(iiii) It's an amazing market where to fail quickly. Quebec is some sort of small scale self-sufficient society where you can experiment before scaling. And outsiders tend not to look at failures in the Quebec startup scene
(iiiii) It's surprisingly easy to get funding from the massive government investment funds(IQ, CDPQ, BDC), and they have been focusing more on the startup scene lately.
(iiiiii) The french Canadian "culture" tends to be bolder and more dynamic than what you would expect in the rest of Canada. Can't hurt the ecosystem if you're expected to move fast and fail quick
(iiiiiii) Move to MTL already, we want more startups!
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
PrEP might be available, but there are still countries where it is not easily accessible, and where HIV is still spreading.
https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/why-the-hiv-epidemic...
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: So let’s talk about Parler
At first glance I thought it would be another post about recent events. Still decided to give it a try.
It is surprisingly interesting, pointing out incongruences, mostly regarding the "anti-social media" business model and quite a few details we don't usually see in the medias.
E.g. potential links with russia[0]; The first thousands of accounts set up in russia; One of the shareholding LLC was set up by the US president's attorney's former firm... while said attorney was frequently travelling to Russia.
Which, if true, could prove to be an entertaining story in the next few months. It could also be a massive security threat on top of a very creative way of destabilising a foreign government.
[0]: https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/1327269280895918086
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: Tell HN: Lately, things have been strange
[-1] Bonus, related: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/14/7561
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728132
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25357315
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13755673
[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16582136
[4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18224227
[5]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[6]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25679354
[7]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25692617
[8]: I'm not alone! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25501216
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: America Can’t Even Produce the Things It Invented
No, the job market isn't zero sum. If the west produces more goods/services it needs a higher input of lesser tier goods and services to which value can be added.
MartianSquirrel | 5 years ago | on: America Can’t Even Produce the Things It Invented
Yes, but no.
Automation could, should and will bring back more manufacturing towards the west, in the sense that the west will produce more goods, in terms of net quantity/value compared to today.
It does not necessarily mean more jobs.
It does not mean the west will produce a higher percentage of global products.
Paul Krugman, amongst others, has written about the subject, I will try to link articles once I get home.
Quick edit: example: GM produces more cars than before the crisis but employs less people
Edit 2: here's one https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/krugman-trade-job...
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Usually companies use blogs as marketing tools to drive traffic to their websites. I might be wrong, but in the case of Coinbase I have never really seen anything they wrote that was precisely intended at selling a product. It's usually more informative, and shows they are trying to be more of a positive force in the industry compared to a dominant one. Kudos on them if it is the intent, and I guess it would explain the choice of platform instead of investing time and assets in developing their own.