nck4222's comments

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: France, Italy, Belgium stop hydroxychloroquine use for Covid-19 on safety fears

Because your statement is misleading. Some countries are are using it more frequently than the US, but Germany and the UK prescribe it much less. Italy had the highest prescription rates, but are no longer using it. While France prescribed it more often than the US but are also stopping.

Lastly, the argument of "if countries outside the US are prescribing it, it must work" is just nonsensical. Doctors prescribing a drug is not evidence a drug works.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.statista.com/chart/amp/2141...

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: The death of corporate research labs

Considering Star wars media continues to print money for Disney, and core Star wars consumers were appalled at the franchise before the acquisition (prequels), that's not the best example.

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: CDC staffers say White House putting politics ahead of science

This has been painfully obvious for the duration of this administration, nevermind just recently.

The danger is that at some point an administration would be so adept at this that it's not painfully obvious. In theory, at the very least the electorate is informed enough at this point that they can consider this information when voting. Admittedly, that's pretty optimistic take on the US electorate however. An educated, well informed public is necessary for a successful democracy, and America's problems with education are well documented.

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: Whale fall

I had the same thought, which made me think how little we know about the ecosystems on earth, which made me think it's even more important to protect the environment. We destroy things before we even know they exist.

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: The most prized degree in India became the most worthless

In my experience most people use them interchangeably with no distinction between them. The only time I've seen anyone show disdain for one term vs another is here on HN.

I've never cared what people refer to me as, and I've never seen anyone voice a preference for it among people I've interacted with.

I call myself a Software Engineer, because pretty much every job title I've had has used that term.

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: Rebuilding our tech stack for the new facebook.com

>This is 100% incidental complexity.

The article talked a lot about their new dark mode feature, how they wouldn't have been able to implement it in their old tech stack, and how they were able to reduce their CSS size while adding a dark mode.

But is dark mode all that important? Even as a developer I don't care at all about FB having a dark mode, did they really need to rewrite their entire site to implement features no one cares about? Also, for a photo and video sharing site, is CSS size really important? I just loaded the page and it loaded 13.2mb worth of data while making 249 requests. Thanks for cutting down your 400kb CSS file though I guess.

nck4222 | 5 years ago | on: U.S. field hospitals stand down, most without treating any Covid-19 patients

Did we read the same article? It praised the actions of building the hospitals, while stating what you said in that it shows we weren't as prepared as we should be for a pandemic.

>we kept the infections low enough that we didn't need to use it.

The article specifically said the hospitals were needed despite being unused. The problem was existing hospitals didn't have policies in place to use them, so instead doctors were treating patients in overrun hallways while these beds lay empty.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

I don't mean this to be rude, but it doesn't sound like you have much experience working at home with children around. I don't think you should be so quick to assume you know the solution to a problem/situation you have no insight in to.

Maybe what you're describing would work for some people. But to so confidently say it's a blanket solution for everyone and is not actually a problem, is frankly laughable.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

Children probably. Don't get me wrong, I love being home and spending time with the family more, it's really the best part of this experience for me.

But there's no way I'd be able to be as productive as expected under normal circumstances. I'm lucky if I get 4 hours in.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

> - The system must maintain an incentive to return to work. Paying people 100% of their replacement income to not work will reduce the incentive to return to work.

Is there any evidence that shows this? I would think 4 months of 100% replacement income followed by no longer receiving unemployment benefits provides plenty of incentive to return to work.

>This is a difficult topic to discuss because people reach for strawman arguments about families becoming homeless, but realistically a $60K/year equivalent income is not far from the annual median household income. People can and do find ways to live on that amount all over the country.

I mean, the median household income in 2018 was 62k, and an estimated 78% of the country lives paycheck-to-paycheck. Yeah plenty of people can survive fine on it, plenty of other middle class people would be unable to afford their mortgage on it. Forcing people to sell their houses due to job loss from a pandemic seems like a pretty morally unfair system, as well as a poor economic outlook for the country.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

Isn't the point to be able to sustain someone until they can get another job? What's the point of giving someone enough money to pay their mortgage but not enough to eat, or enough to feed kids?

There's more expenses to living than mortgage and utilities. Food, health care, home repairs, funerals, car repairs, etc.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

>Would you trade 9 million unemployed for 9 million dead?

No, I'm not advocating to abort a quarantine and have people return to work.

>It's a fantasy to assume people will just go back to work, the economy will get better, and everything will return to normal

Agreed. I'm advocating we stop believing in this fantasy and face reality that this is the start of a long term recession.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

This "economy is paused" idea is getting more and more unjustifiable by the day, weeks, and months.

We're not going to emerge from this and just hit the unpause button. Yes some industries will bounce back quickly, but 9 million people over two weeks losing their jobs is an absolutely massive number, and we haven't hit peak yet.

There's no way they'll just be simply rehired when this is "done".

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act

>simply describe why things are the way they are. It's complacent, and it's sad.

>It's not a very helpful comment

I would think understanding the problem would be the first step to solving it. I'm not sitting here pretending I have all the answers. I saw an opportunity to shed some light on the situation so I commented. It seems weird to me that your critical of me for not contributing thoughts related directly to a solution, when you haven't contributed any thoughts about a solution either.

To each their own I suppose. But consider me thoroughly uninterested in discussing this further, which, seems to be what you wanted from me anyway.

nck4222 | 6 years ago | on: Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act

I'm not sure where I gave the impression of being ok with what zoom is doing, but I'm not. I'm saying this is the expected course given the incentives we as a society have established for companies.

Hoping zoom and other companies prioritize the public good over profits is foolish, and the solution is to align profits with the public good.

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