Superficially speaking, it's a great way to scare a generation of to-be parents or those considering becoming parents into behaving responsibly.
Personally, coming from a background where family members go to n-th limits to keep pregnant women happy with the belief that happy emotions keep balanced hormonal levels beneficial to the unborn child, this just seems to add to the truism in the old wives tales.
Think about Galileo. For every stereotype you cite, I can quote exceptions and make it a circular argument. You did lump every "smart person" in your argument and I wanted to call you out on that. No ad hominems there, just a progression of my counter-argument.
OK, as per your theory of conformism, smart people want to be accepted as smart by other smart people. That is why they are atheist in the current times. The fallacy of this argument is so transparent in that smart people are generally considered non-conformist. That is the essence of geekiness if one can put it that way.
That there is god is for the theist to prove and not the atheist to disprove. What anyone who is rational chooses to believe is the sum total of his knowledge and his experience. You have lumped smart people as characterless by calling them conformist. So either you are a charlatan theist trying to get in a word sideways or someone who is truly and hopelessly wrong.
This is just wrong philosophy masquerading as science or skepticism. The question of lightning finally got solved by science and there're always things which are beyond the explanation of current science and technology. That doesn't mean that we'll not be able to explain it in the future.
Your belief in a "Personal god" is only equivalent to others believing in a gift of virgins and flying spaghetti monsters. - my opinion of course.
There's a rider to that headline. The effect is in UK, not the US. Here in the US, I do find that in the entry-level employers are more than willing to recruit people who get on-the-job training.
Helped a guy who was an acquaintance, who I thought was a friend move into my apt while in grad school with my other roommates, vouched for him, paid his part of the security deposit too. He turns to be of the kind who talks behind the back, borrows without repaying, a general douche.
Long story short, months later, said guy moves out. Lost my money, lost my other roommates, and lost my reputation as a guy who can vouch for others. Lesson learned: takes years to know a person.
Nonsense. Anyone who knows his talent and worth, and has an ounce of pride wouldn't stand being jockeyed or lowballed. If I figure at any interview that it's being played like the article says, I'd walk right out. It's the company's freaking loss. Any guy worth his salt should do it.
This is a dumb idea. Restricting what is quickly becoming one of the necessities of modern life and learning is a retarded way of dealing with enforcing copyright. People in the know will start using services such as relakks and other ssl vpns to hide their ip's. This is going to deter only superficially.
Great article. Yes, I do believe the language you think in and speak affects the way your thought progresses.
I had an interesting discussion following this article at work and a colleague of mine who is a non-native speaker of English told me that when he thinks programming/ engineering English seems to work quicker in thought progression compared to his native east Indian language.
That was a well thought out post. In addition to my previous comment posted here, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=217636 I forgot to mention that Yahoo is quite big in the non US, BRIC (Brazil Russia India China) market. I am not sure finance types really understand what drives techies, creation and creativity as the root of one's personality and validation. While I'm as much for making a buck as the next person I'd rather do it while creating something.
MSFT stock has been flat for half a decade now while Yahoo's been going up slowly in the same time. If their Panama system does well, maybe they can get a piece of the Adwords pie.
I think Ballmer's been a disaster for Microsoft, no CEO has had such flat ratings on stock for about a decade and still kept his job. Though stockholders might think Jerry's doing a lousy job only 16% of their stocks would've seen the MSFT valuation of $35. Which translates to about 12% gains overall or a $2.4 increase in share value from when MSFT's interest in Yahoo went public. Even if they dump their stock now, they're coming out on tops. So I give props to Yahoo for aligning with Google in the meanwhile and safeguarding their research and development teams and work.
Sorry but I got to completely disagree with Arrington's analysis. Yahoo is a media portal and they do graphic ads in search pretty well too. Where Yahoo went bust was in trying to usurp Google's lead in search. That is the only area where they are #2. Yahoo still is the #1 media portal on the web and the following they have is very loyal.
If Yahoo had taken MS's deal it would've struck at the very heart where the competencies lie.
They would've had to give up on their Panama system which is being tweaked and is currently showing better prospects.
$1B for putting paid to all Yahoo research and their tech is an insult to Yahoo techies.
MS just provided an opportunity to increase the current operating income and cash flow but in all other quarters straitjacketed Yahoo.
Yahoo would be forced to stop managing and hiring search engineers and just display ads. It is an industry fact that MS's per query revenue projected is lower than Yahoo's current revenue.
What Microsoft was asking Yahoo to do was too risky. They have a history of screwing up internet deals and straitjacketing Yahoo's core competencies in exchange for cash is too much to ask.
I will agree Jerry mismanaged Yahoo a bit much, but running a $2B company isn't a joke.
I believe Yahoo was right in rejecting MS's deal. They needed Yahoo more than it needed them.
And Icahn isn't an angel. He is just itching for a fight to make a few hundred millions.
Focusing on the Google alliance gives Yahoo enough leeway to get marginally additional revenue while concentrating on their media and Panama divisions.
The stock might be down now, but the market is quite open for experimentation. And if they get it right, who knows, the stock will perhaps shoot up like before.