Programmable Money South Korea’s COVID-19 stimulus payments were programmed to expire in Aug 2020, and could only be spent at qualifying shops. Australia’s cashless welfare card [currently in pilot stages] cannot be withdrawn as cash, nor used at alcohol, tobacco and gambling joints.
Monzo, a UK-based digital-first mobile baking app, supports IFTTT recipes. This enables budgeting logic, “If I spend at KFC, then move $5 to my penalty pot”....
Third Base Not recognizing your blessings feeds into the dark side of capitalism and meritocracy: success is a choice, and that those who haven’t achieved success are not unlucky, but unworthy.
I’m relatively lucky. I don’t know how much of the techie hubris that I bear. I have unresolved feelings about meritocracy and fairness. Race is usually used as a proxy for bridging the gap, e.g. affirmative action at colleges....
Criticism/Defense Of Billionaire Philanthropy Taxes will probably not go to the same causes, e.g. reforming the bail system, grassroot efforts for migrants, etc.
Admittedly, these are things that the government should be doing, but it seems that the government doesn’t do enough. Furthermore, some of these issues so politicized, e.g. immigrants, that government support can be fickle.
Foundations are more effective than governments as they do their due diligence, e....
We ran the numbers, and there really is a pipeline problem in eng hiring. Aline Lerner. http://blog.interviewing.io/we-ran-the-numbers-and-there-really-is-a-pipeline-problem-in-eng-hiring/ . https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21694348 . Dec 3, 2019. Wait, but research shows:
STEM in early education is unfriendly to children from underrepresented backgrounds Lack of a level playing field and unequal access to quality STEM education Hostile university culture in male-dominated CS programs Biased hiring practices Non-inclusive work environments cause higher churn of underrepresented folk....
The Proper Use of Humility Confessing your fallibility but doing nothing about it braggery, not humility. Designing fail-safe machinery is good humility. Dismissing evidence for evolution because we can’t really know for sure that evolution is correct is misplaced humility.
The Third Alternative Sometimes we justify questionable policy by claiming its absence is undesirable, e.g. believing in Santa makes children behave nicely, and therefore Santa-ism is the best of all possible alternatives....