endzone's comments

endzone | 9 years ago | on: Why professors, pundits, and policy wonks misunderstand the world

and now you wouldn't have a job.

in the uk, the plumbers/electricians are lucky to make £20/hr.

endzone | 9 years ago | on: Why professors, pundits, and policy wonks misunderstand the world

i can't think of any reason why basic economic principles wouldn't apply.

endzone | 9 years ago | on: Why professors, pundits, and policy wonks misunderstand the world

witness the hysteria about brexit among academics and london based commentators who have no idea about the reality of life in britain

endzone | 9 years ago | on: Why professors, pundits, and policy wonks misunderstand the world

a shortage that's not reflected in the wages for skilled jobs (outside of powerful unions)

endzone | 9 years ago | on: Dispelling myths about the autistic programmer

some real abuse of psychological terminology here. most clinically autistic people don't hold down jobs, certainly not professional roles, even if they have a high IQ

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Interview with Dr. Bennet Omalu – the risk of high-impact contact sports

well we know who was always picked last

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

working conditions in all of those industries are terrible compared to almost all software jobs. and the work in finance and law is tedious. you're dreaming.

endzone | 10 years ago | on: An Admissions Surprise from the Ivy League

or instead of this parade of bullshit, they could decide admission on a truly meritocratic basis as is still done in the UK, EU and most countries around the world. you score high enough in the relevant exam and you gain entry.

anyway, the real scandal of ivy league admissions is the insane discrimination against asian americans. if you're from the preferred ethnic groups, you already get an enormous effective boost to your test scores.

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Japan orders universities to end education in social sciences, humanities, law

what really is the value of studying these subjects at undergraduate level? i don't think i've ever seen a persuasive argument in favour

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Ernst and Young drops degree classification threshold for graduate recruitment

the uk funding arrangement means that no one has to fully support themselves through university, so your point really doesn't apply here.

endzone | 10 years ago | on: How Germany abolished tuition fees

only a select group of employers are really subject blind. for technical jobs you still need a technical degree.

endzone | 10 years ago | on: How Germany abolished tuition fees

indeed. people like to imagine an idealised world of highly able, motivated and disciplined students. why design an education system for a set of students that doesn't really exist?

endzone | 10 years ago | on: How Germany abolished tuition fees

it's not a problem specific to germany, but he makes a legitimate criticism of the classic lecture format. it is an antiquated mode of delivery, an extremely poor use of students' time, and really should not be part of university education any longer. i suppose it is one way of limiting cost...

endzone | 10 years ago | on: How Germany abolished tuition fees

i would contend it makes very little difference because of the naturally limited fraction of the population with the ability to benefit from post secondary education.

endzone | 10 years ago | on: How Germany abolished tuition fees

quite simply, britain overspends massively on higher education

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Economics Has a Math Problem

you know not all theoretical models are equilibrium based? guess not if keen is your primary source

i can't find any coherent argument in your final paragraph. can you rephrase it in a way that has some meaning?

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Economics Has a Math Problem

mathematical formalism was introduced precisely to allow the formulation of "cogent arguments". you can't evaluate the evidence without economic theory

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Economics Has a Math Problem

google the "lucas critique"

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Economics Has a Math Problem

gosh, i wonder why those traders use those simple, outdated models to make extraordinarily expensive decisions every singly day when they could just read the "black swan"

endzone | 10 years ago | on: Economics Has a Math Problem

reminder: noah has never published an academic paper in economics and it looks unlikely that he ever will. he is simply not a competent guide to the field. this entire thread is a perfect example of the blind leading the blind: a journalist (noah) presents an entirely one sided view of the field, and intellectually lazy posters take it as a cue to dump on an entire academic field while freely admitting their ignorance of any of the details.

newsflash: most economists are acutely aware of the imperfections in their models. sure, you can find the blinkered and dogmatic, but that is unsurprising in such a large and varied field. the subject encompasses a serious variety of subjects and methods you (the hn poster) simply know nothing about. for example, machine learning techniques are really nothing new. theorists have been aware of the kahneman/tversky result for decades. please bear this in mind before you lazily declare the intellectual bankruptcy of the entire field.

p.s so-called econophysics was a direct attempt to apply models from hard science to economics and it has been a complete failure, since it lacks an underlying model of human behaviour. turns out this is quite important...