thesmokingman

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Privacy in Exclusive: Reddit in AI content licensing deal with Google

It was founded without Aaron Swartz. He was brought in later as part of a YC merger. Next you’re going to say that Elon Musk was a Tesla founder.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Technology in ‘I’m proud of being a job hopper’: Seattle engineer’s post about company loyalty goes viral

Your second paragraph tells you who you’re trying to find in your third paragraph: FAANG. Hiring 500 engineers and bragging about it something you can do when you’re just interested in shareholder value not customer experience.

I wouldn’t hire the guy in the article because I haven’t seen strong candidates come from FAANG and I’ve been very happy to lose the people I did to FAANG because they weren’t good engineers, they just knew how to leetcode and tunnel vision trivia.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Technology in Reddit user content being sold to AI company in $60M/year deal

I have a replacement action set up to change a ? and a ! to ‽. I use it at least once a week!

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Technology in Reddit user content being sold to AI company in $60M/year deal

That’s how little they got‽ Holy shit. That’s the steal of the fucking century for all that content. Reddit clearly puts the same stock in its negotiators as it does its 3rd party ecosystem. Anyone who values them more than maybe 2x this price for their IPO is a fucking idiot. Forget Trump’s Art of the Deal. spez needs to write a book.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Privacy in The Erosion of Financial Privacy - Marginal REVOLUTION

Currency transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports, do they not sound like something the Stasi would demand in communist East Germany?

No. Not in the slightest. They’re a response to crimes of capitalism committed by capitalists governed by capitalists. If making sure everyone gets equity means people moving about 20% of the median American yearly salary have to be transparent, I’m okay with that.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Memes in On Inflation

You raise a really interesting question there. I always ignore Tether as a joke because it’s just a crock of shit. But what happens if someone makes a run on Tether? They publish accountability reporting which, crucially, tells consumers to inform themselves of the general risks and potential legal issues. It would appear that Tether does have ~80bil in USD assets of various maturity. Only ~400mil of that is cash. There’s another ~20bil in other assets. If there is a run on Tether, it collapses at under 1% of its balance, ie of the ~100bil in Tether only ~400mil/0.4bil of it could be converted to USD today (well, 2023-12-31 per the last report). Since it’s not insured, there’s nothing to prevent a run on it. Its value is supposed to be its ability to be converted to USD, so if a run occurs and people are not able to make the conversion, its value plummets and can only be rescued by the fire sale of assets well below market value. Tether, more so than fiat currency, has completely made up value.

I’m not a finance person so I bet someone that knows more than me has already done a better job of explaining how Tether is a scam.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Memes in On Inflation

I’m flabbergasted. I would have thought that your graphs that claimed to show no inflation yet clearly increased would have prepared you for irony.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Memes in On Inflation

Wow, it’s so amazing that the price of gold remains forever consistent. If we had a resource-backed currency inflation could never happen because we never adjust the cost of silver. Scarcity and psychology have no power here!

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Memes in On Inflation

The Fed printed at most 200bil in 2023, down from 330bil in 2022. There’s about 2.25 trillion in circulation and about 15% of the notes are destroyed every year, which is loosely equivalent to the cash order the Fed created, give or take a couple of percent. Inflation for 2023 using the Consumer Price Index was about 3%. That means net cash supply didn’t really change much and prices went up.

If you think that ~200bil in cash has any effect on inflation I’ve got an amazing investment opportunity for you: it’s called crypto and it’s totally legit.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to 196 in Scalping Rule ☭

I think everyone should have access to books and audio. It’s very important for people like yourself to consume a lot of material so you know there are people that don’t have infinite money to buy and store all the things. I know that comes as a shock. Would you like some resources that might expose you to other new ideas that will help develop yours?

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to 196 in Scalping Rule ☭

I really don’t understand your perspective on commerce. You seem to think that everyone has unlimited space in a house that they own or the money to fund movers to keep shifting things around all the time and that no one ever has to get rid of anything ever and everyone can always afford everything ever or companies are always making everything they’ve ever made. I think you’re just trolling so I’m done with this conversation.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to 196 in Scalping Rule ☭

You used the phrase “paying” while saying it’s not much work? Where do you think money comes from if not time and work? It sounds like you don’t have to worry about money but most of us do. That’s another incorrect assumption.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to 196 in Scalping Rule ☭

There’s a huge difference between throwing something on a shelf and taking care of it. You’re assuming I have a house to let something sit on for 30yr. That’s an incorrect assumption. You’re assuming I have unlimited space in my apartments and moving trucks. That’s an incorrect assumption. You’re assuming all storage is created equal. My climate controlled apartment and external garage with a crack in the foundation prove that to be an incorrect assumption.

Apparently you have all of those things and that’s fucking awesome. I’m happy for you. Not everyone is as privileged as you and some of us have to make decisions about what we keep and where we keep it.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to 196 in Scalping Rule ☭

I feel like there has to be a half-life for scalping. If I buy a new-in-box item that has limited supply and immediately flip it, that’s definitely scalping. If I sit on it for 30yr and then flip it, is that really scalping? I dunno. I buy a lot of old mint board games to actually play them. I have to pay a huge markup. I don’t know that it’s necessarily right from a commerce perspective to expect someone who’s held onto something for 30yr and kept it in good shape to not get something extra for that time and work.

thesmokingman , 4 months ago to Technology in Disney+ Drops 1.3 Million Subscribers Amid Price Hike, Streaming Loss Shrinks by $300 Million

I’ve shared it with my very young nieces and nephews for a few years. We do Simpsons and Star Wars, they do everything else. Now that Disney is pulling a Netflix, I don’t see a reason to double my cost for probably less viewing. For the price of a year’s sub, I can get a lot of movies or box sets. Over the years, I can get even more and never worry about losing access. Assuming Disney continues to raise prices, I can probably buy more and more for the sub price (although buying power will also drop). I can never share my access with my family any more. I can share box sets. Guess which one makes my nieces and nephews happy when they come visit.