Yeah, that's how I felt about CommonMark, too (but I've come around). The thing I'm shooting for is not a new standard, it's a tool that implements all of the existing "standards." I'm not creating new syntax or enforcing new rules, just making a tool that means you don't have to think about which processor you're using and what extensions you might be giving up by choosing one over another.
I think it's a cultural acceptance of lower quality, happily traded for deft execution, over and over.
We're better at encapsulating lower-level complexities in e.g. bridge building than we are at software.
All the complexities of, say, martensite grain boundaries and what-not are implicit in how we use steel to reinforce concrete. But we've got enough of it in a given project that the statistical summaries are adequate. It's a member with thus strength in tension, and thus in compression, and we put a 200% safety factor in and soldier on.
And nobody can take over the ownership of leftpad and suddenly falsify all our assumptions about how steel is supposed to act when we next deploy ibeam.js ...
The most well understood and dependable components of our electronic infrastructure are the ones we cordially loathe because they're composed in shudder COBOL, or CICS transactions, or whatever.
Exactly. The properties rarely matter outside the item. The column is of such-and-such a strength, that's it. But when things get strange we see failures. Perfect example: Challenger. Was the motor safe sitting on the pad? Yes. Was the motor safe in flight? Yes. Was the motor safe at ignition? On the test stand, yes. Stacked for launch, ignition caused the whole stack to twang--and maybe the seals failed....
I've been watching my investment accounts, particularly the TSLA fraction, and see-sawing between "This has got to collapse soon, I should..." and "You cannot time the market, idiot".
I'm dissatisfied with the inaction, but I can't come up with a coherent theory about how I should act... Bleah.
Recognize that holding is an action and a choice, too.
If you don’t have a coherent theory to {act}ively hold an asset, you probably shouldn’t be acting to hold it, and be acting to sell it.
This is equally true for TSLA and NVDA as it is for VOO and BRK.
Why? Because when prices are too low you need to be able to hold (and ideally buy) with conviction and when prices are too high you need to be able to sell with conviction, although the latter is less important if you have steady income.
If you don’t have a theory of value, you’ll be able to do neither effectively, and risk loss of principal and opportunity in a downturn.
I understand your point; but against it I lay the truism that every time a retail investor trades, value is destroyed. ;)
My own personal financial history has been more damaged by actions taken, than by forbearance and waiting. "Time in the market beats timing the market", style. So I wait for the moment when I've got Something Better To Do with the money, and then I act. And try not to second-guess later.
One possible solution to my framework is (1) to only buy things for which you have a coherent theory (2) that coherent theory holds water over the duration of your investing life.
It's possible that you had a coherent theory for purchasing TSLA at a certain price. If that price has out-run your theory, there is no contradiction in selling that TSLA and parking it in some place you have a coherent theory for, like VOO. This is maturity and humility, not hubris.
If I were in your position, I'd try to ask myself: does this decision to rollover TSLA into something I better-understand (e.g. VOO) fall inside or outside the pattern of "my own personal financial history has been more damaged by actions taken".
FWIW, "Time in beats timing" is a truism that applies to market-spanning indices, not a choice between individual securities. It would be a mistake to apply that logic to individual positions, unless you've given yourself the arbitrary restriction of only buying or selling TSLA and nothing else!
Yep, I’m sitting on the same fence. We can all see the circular deals in the high tech sector which has been the recent engine of the stock market. It’s all uncertainty, everywhere you look.
One of the important roles of the Palantir was that they were scrying devices. Sauron gained some influence over them warped the impressions of those who used them, by affecting what they could and couldn't see. It was part of the subtle misinformation he used to twist people into alliance with him.
it's at least a little funny to name your company in the business of secure communication products after a fictional communication device with a famous security flaw
Do you really mean that it's very nearly the same thing "To be a" you, and an Elon Musk, a homo sapiens infant, and an Orangutan? And only modestly different from these to be a dog or a horse?
If I've understood you correctly, I'll suggest that simple sensory intersection is way way not enough: the processing hardware and software are material to what it is like to be someone.
Jerry Pournelle wrote about this, I think I recall reading in USENET; how with the burgeoning availability of media, the role of the editor, the curator, would become critical.
He thought well and deeply about the challenges of the growing net.
It's got really decent naval combat, with a distinct feel compared to the land and air.
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