quantdev · HackerTrans

It's very possible we never break the factoring problem. Since we have no properly unified theory of physics (e.g., one that models the observer in QFT), there are outstanding unknowns with quantum computing that may make it so that Shor's algorithm is not practically useful.

quantdev

6년 전discuss

We have no good evidence or accepted model for how life started, besides "randomness" in a primordial soup, which is as good as "no idea". As such, it seems like a reasonable assumption to explore.

quantdev

6년 전discuss

Only technology can save us from global warming and only private enterprises like Tesla and others can develop and - more importantly - cheaply scale that technology. There are billions of Chinese and Indians who will become the equivalent of American middle class in the coming decade and no amount of conservation or carbon tax is going to prevent the acceleration of global temperatures that would cause.

quantdev

6년 전discuss

Yes, you're right. I should have said, there's no better choice of symbols that will remove the huge set of prerequisites you need to first understand. There isn't as large of a tower of abstractions to understand most codebases.

quantdev

6년 전discuss

I'm both a programmer and a mathematician. Mathematics is written in English (or another human language) plus added symbols. The symbols are what we refer to as the notation. It's not comparable to programming language. Here the words are equal to the symbols.

Also, no better notation could help you understand most modern mathematics. There's no better choice of symbols or names that will help you understand Galois theory. You simply need to understand high-school algebra, then group theory, then Galois theory.

quantdev

6년 전discuss

The primary transmission route in inhalation in close proximity to an infected person. Yes, it can persist on surfaces, but this hand-washing meme is mostly a result of (1) it costs nothing and may help, so we should try and (2) masks are supply limited and the healthcare industry doesn't have enough. In reality, if we had an abundance of masks, masks would be more important than hand washing. As it stands, we reserve them for HC workers and infected persons. The point being, subways are worse.

quantdev

6년 전discuss

What does hardware 1 and AP1 have to do with the latest hardware and autopilot?

quantdev

6년 전discuss

The system is absolutely AI based today. There is no hardcoding like this. Hardware 3 in Tesla cars is an ASIC meant to run neural nets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Autopilot#Hardware_3). Why are you so confidently stating things you don't know about?

quantdev

7년 전discuss

Future profitability is how equities are priced. Ford is expected to not be (very) profitable while Tesla is. Number of units sold is irrelevant.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

The idea that the ascent of humanity into the stars and the potentially incredible understanding of the universe we could gain would be stopped by 2019 regulations because amateur astronomers are short-sighted is just so cliche HN.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

Leetcode premium doesn't mean you'll see the problem. I suspect the probability of that is low, given these problems are constantly changing (there's a banned problem list at Google) and the interviewer pool is as well.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

I 100% would be able to solve this problem without seeing it before. Yes, this is because I've practiced a lot of algorithm problems (and I enjoy them, frankly).

Yes, this is hackable, but relying on resumes like every other industry (which is implicitly relying on hoop-jumping and college prestige and GPA) is a much worse form of hackable. This levels the playing field and is a signal for (1) how smart someone is and (2) how much they prepared for the interview, both of which are weakly related to the job. Further, people who excel at algorithm are very unlikely to be bad at the kind of work at big tech.

It's not perfect, but finding something better at scale is hard.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

Some analyst at Morgan Stanley made up that $100B number. It has ZERO meaning and no one should take it seriously. The market cap of a company is what investors are willing to pay for it. Given that Alphabet wholly owns Waymo, there is no way the market is implicitly valuing Waymo at $100B given the present value of Google's advertising business and Alphabet's market cap.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

So what? Products improve. This one will too. Imagine seeing an ad on Youtube and immediately being able to play the game on your chromebook. I don't know that's what is going to happen and it can't work today, but maybe in a few years.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

As someone concerned about climate change and very bullish on alternative energy, I still think this is a slippery slope. Google shouldn't choose who can use its services based on politics. GCP/Search/Maps should serve all legal businesses. This is both a moral (not legal) position and risk-averse one (who knows what employees will want to censor in 10 years).

quantdev

7년 전discuss

VW has $44b in cash and $160b in debt.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

Tesla has over $5Bn in cash and positive operating cash flow. You can argue about $TSLA the equity's valuation, but whether it survives long-term is no more questionable than whether VW survives.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

There is absolutely no way beef spikes insulin as much as rice does. Beef has zero carbohydrates and while some protein does convert to glucose, it is a slow process and thus the insulin response will still be much less than if one consumed the equivalent of carbohydrate in rice. This is further slowed by digesting the fat in the beef.

""Between 50–60% of protein becomes glucose and enters the bloodstream about 3–4 hours after eaten." Perhaps 50–60% of protein goes through the process of gluconeogenesis in the liver, but virtually none of this glucose enters into the general circulation."

http://journal.diabetes.org/diabetesspectrum/00v13n3/pg132.h...

quantdev

7년 전discuss

Agreed. I don't want to see hosts challenging their guests' ideas. I appreciate Sean Carrol's physics podcasts for exactly the same reason: he doesn't always agree with his guest's interpretation of quantum mechanics or understanding of consciousness, but he does not argue with them - he helps them present their best case.

If you want to see guests arguing with their hosts, well that's a form of entertainment you can get on cable.

quantdev

7년 전discuss

Why shouldn't we hear what nationalists have to say? Who gets to decide what is a conspiracy theory? They're not all as simply false as flat earth. Keto in the low-fat 90s would have been a conspiracy theory and a culture of censorship would have killed it.

We need many groups of people believing different things and civilly arguing for what's correct. We don't need de-platforming or cancelling - that can only lead to groupthink and groupthink is incredibly dangerous: see the housing crisis or the Nazis.

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