

50 Fascinating Things I've Read Lately - bcl
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/04/15/50-fascinating-things-ive-read-lately.aspx

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TomOfTTB
_"In school they give you a question and ask you to find an answer. In the
real world the answers are everywhere -- the Internet, calculators, history
books, reference manuals. The trick is asking the right questions." \--Adapted
from speech by Conrad Wolfram_

There's something really profound here. Teaching fact memorization was
necessary in the past because people didn't have those facts readily available
to them where ever they went. Now that they do we should really examine the
way we teach and adjust accordingly

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pragmatic
Agreed. I think synthesis of many facts/ideas/etc is the major advantage of
the knowledge worker.

When I was getting into programming in the early 00's, most people had stacks
of books that they would refer to. I was using Google (and google groups was
really useful back then) and just blowing by my co-workers in knowledge and
productivity. I became the go-to person simply because I could research a
problem and synthesize a solution quickly.

Rainbow's End <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End> by Computer Science
prof Vernor Vinge tells of a future where synthesis of data is the major
skillset. Interesting read.

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splat
>"So [government] spending [in 2010] was $186 billion higher than if we'd
stuck to the [2000-2007] trend, and revenue was $681 billion lower. In other
words, the giant deficit is mainly the result of the collapse in tax receipts
brought on by the recession, not the increase in spending. Nice to know, huh?"
\--Justin Fox

This one seems a little misleading. Fox is comparing 2010 spending vs. revenue
to the 2000-2007 trend, but spending far outpaced revenue in this period. When
revenue dropped in the recession, he points to that and says, "see, it's a
revenue problem." But even if revenues somehow hadn't dropped dramatically
during the recession and the trend continued, the federal government would
still be spending much more than it is taking in. That seems to me more
indicative of a spending problem.

~~~
pohl
This is the first time I've seen the revenue shortfall blamed on the
recession. Typically one sees the tax cuts taking the fall for that, don't
they?

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vinhboy
Matt Ridley seems to be mis-attributing advances in medicine and technology to
economic equality. In his world, I can only be truly poor if I rode a horse
drawn carriage to work.

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pumpmylemma
Something I really enjoyed recently:

    
    
      Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat. --Stuart Chase

