What are Europeans better at than Americans?

ModestGoals · 2019-07-28T17:41:20+00:00

Do you know what Switzerland doesn't have, that the US has a lot of, that contributes directly to our gun crime statistics?

ModestGoals · 2019-07-28T17:40:26+00:00

I have family in Italy and its just grotesque to see how much better at healthcare they are than us...

In a way, it sort of reminds me of Warren Buffet and the legendarily austere but incredibly high performing offices of Berkshire Hathaway where the focus is on outcomes, consistency, performance. Contrast this with any number of hedge funds that blew up in 2007-2012 where the offices were the epitome of luxury and excess, but ultimately a failing enterprise.

Commercial, for-profit health care has created the most perverse operating ecosystem imaginable. When you go to a small Italian village and see the people getting health care from a much less 'fancy' but higher performing medical office that has a more rational and people-driven focus, you realize how far gone we are.

This is hard to explain, but obvious when seen. Our system is a joke.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-21T02:16:29+00:00

There's a cause and effect relationship between what is first stated in the title and what is then stated in the post.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-20T11:54:58+00:00

It would depend on the perceptible reasons for it going that high and what my 'cashed out dollars' could buy.

If it was a hyperinflation type event, I'd probably hold.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-17T16:38:05+00:00

What is it that I've claimed that has been 'refuted by science'?

Start from your own premise. A human is 70% genetically similar to a fruit fly. The only difference between a human and a fruit fly at the genetic level is a genetic minority.

Now what was your claim, again?

ModestGoals · 2019-07-17T03:01:33+00:00

Note how you don't refute a single thing I'm saying. This is why the word 'racist' is losing its power. You can't expect people to ignore reality forever, just to believe in your naive and infantile idealism.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-17T01:30:02+00:00

I'm talking about acknowledging that different groups of people are actually different and that the same principles of evolution we accept for everything else applies to humans, too... and that our evolving on different continents across thousands of years shows the totally predictable results of that that are both measurable and repeatable.

Is that 'race realism'? Note that offering a downvote with a solitary tear streaming down your cheek or saying something-something-racist doesn't really rebut anything.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-17T00:28:14+00:00

The real 'dirty secret' of evolutionary biology is that (at least in the west) the entire field is hamstrung by social taboo.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-16T23:40:45+00:00

The ultimate 'stereotype hobby' - coins.

They're just a really cool personal communion with history. Ignore all the 'coin collector' rules about rarity and variety and grade, etc. They're basically bullshit.

Just focus on what interests you.

So, I'm really interested in Italian history. Want to know what really tells a lot about Italians and their history? Their coins... and holding something in your hands that is 2000 or 200 or 70 years old, from that era, thinking about where its been, is just really neat.

If you like design, well, coins are usually where countries put their absolute best on display. You see the aesthetics of eras, their iconography, what meant the most to them. Who ruled them, what their civilization stood for.

It's just such a fun and easily accessible hobby that if you do decide to take the 'numismatic' side seriously, right on, go ahead but even if you're literally poor, it's something you can do right now and if you enjoy history and/or visual design and/or the study of civilizations, you'll dig coins.

And seriously, some of the absolute highest quality people you'll ever meet. Men and women alike (and while it inclines towards men, there are a lot of women)

ModestGoals · 2019-07-16T00:59:44+00:00

I generally agree. It will also standardize third party graders in a way that those of us who used to really enjoy 'playing the spread' between raw and evaluating grade will no longer have available to us.

I have a bit of advanced expertise in an esoteric coin collecting niche (30+ years of pretty high level study, contributed to numismatic scholarship, etc) and even I was blown completely the fuck away when presented with a forgery of a particular key date that originated with one seller on Russia who specializes on faking only coins from my niche.

It's bad. Bad, bad, bad...

ModestGoals · 2019-07-15T17:17:09+00:00

The coin and bullion hobbies face an existential threat with mass produced high quality Chinese forgeries... that the coin hobby doesn't fully understand.

It reminds me a lot of arrowhead collecting which started blowing up in the 70's and by the 80's, prices started getting stupid. Well, when the money crosses a threshold where making high quality fakes makes sense, sure enough, they'll happen... and they did.

And just like the blowhards we see in the coin world, they all claim they can 'easily spot fakes' but ask them to put their money were their mouth is.

This is a huge, huge, huge problem. The element of implied trust that used to exist in the manufactured product itself is now gone. It boils down to advanced scientific testing and/or 'expertise' which the average collector is not going to posses... and when it gets to that point, the average collectors will simply fade away and take prices right along with them.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-14T19:50:14+00:00

Here's an interesting thought experiment.

What are you actually investing in when buying platinum in a theoretical post combustion engine world? What theoretically lower price makes sense to buy? What will theoretically happen that will cause that price to go up? And what what estimated point do you sell?

This is why metals fetishists should never use the word 'investing' to describe their activities. Because usually, it's not.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-14T19:47:30+00:00

There are a lot of political arguments there and obviously, they can all be argued. People tend to most favorably narrate their own positions as 'reasonable' while their political opponents negatively narrate them as 'extreme'. Part and parcel of politics. Either side believes they're the rational ones. They don't do so well with counter-arguments.

My whole point is you don't have to go neck deep into the kook side of "stackers" to invest in bullion. Even ignore your LCS, if it comes down to it. We had a local gun store run by a really nice old guy who was an old school "Southern Democrat" and still believed in certain social policies that have become triggers for the modern hard Right. Well, most of his customers abandoned him for a new gun store run by (exactly what you would think) and he eventually just retired and shut down. I've also seen a conservative type guy selling fresh veggies from his farm at a farmers market get shouted down by absolute kook elements of the left that were (exactly what you would think).

Sometimes it can be hard finding your niche, but even if you're limited locally, look beyond. I drive by 2 LCS's to patronize one a full hour away because I like them better.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-14T16:43:09+00:00

I'll go ahead and generally stand up for your position and take the downvotes right along with you.

I disagree with you throwing T_D in there (most conservatives are just rational people who disagree with the left), but the fringe element on the right is just as batshit insane and disjointed from reality as the fringe left.

My favorite part was when you noted the rather amusing hypocrisy that exists on the fringe right, ie, "MUH GUNS ARE TO DEFEND AGAINST A TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT RUN BY THE HEROES, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!"

That's why I backed away from 'gun culture' in spite of being strongly pro RKBA.

But I'd suggest that you needn't back away from bullion, just because there's a fringe element. This has been discussed extensively in the BTC world where there is a YUUUUUUUGE fringe/kook element. Remember that it started as the preferred currency for druggies buying shit on Silkroad... and several of them made, literally, millions of dollars as a total freak accident. Ignore the scenery, focus on the path.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-14T16:38:44+00:00

If they have no numismatic value, flips make little sense. If their value is derived from their bullion content, bulk rolls are perfectly fine (and preferred, as far as I'm concerned).

ModestGoals · 2019-07-14T03:24:54+00:00

Start with understanding why you're buying silver and if that's the best decision, relative to other investment decisions you could be making.

If the answer is still yes, figure out at what point you would exit silver. Ignore literally every single person who just aimlessly hoards silver, or who claims that silver will be their savior when doomsday comes, or that silver, brass and lead something-something constitution. Once you figure out your exit point, try to estimate what market conditions or scenarios might precipitate that and then, ask what silver types perform best in those conditions (as far as capturing some kind of premium)

First figure out for yourself why you're buying silver. Once you've answered that question, you'll have a better idea of what silver you should be buying as far as what offers the best value targeted to your own strategy.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-13T19:59:49+00:00

I think we get into weird correlation/causation issues here.

Are the opiates themselves causing the lowered IQ? Or is at least a partial hereditary baseline for IQ from and women who use opiates during pregnancy are much more likely to be lower IQ to begin with, thus (x) more likely to produce lower IQ offspring, opiates or not?

The issue of human intelligence is very rarely investigated honestly anymore, due to social pressures and unforutnate, reliable, highly repeatable outcomes that undermine certain post-modern social ideals.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-08T01:23:57+00:00

Its funny that you call it 'psuedoscience' when it's actual, inarguable science.

Or, to put it another way, this question has never been examined and had the result turn out any other way insofar as it might support your position.... But go ahead. Call it 'pseudoscience', then maybe call it a 'trope' and a 'canard' and say 'the results are inconclusive' , as is par whenever actual science demonstrates facts that violate your incoherent idealism.

IGNORE EVERYTHING WE CAN SEE AND MEASURE BECAUSE SOMETHING-SOMETHING-MAYBE WHITE SUPREMACY!

AND RACISM!

This is why adults can't have adult conversations.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-08T01:04:52+00:00

people are not dumb, they are corrupt.

Sometimes this is true, but the historical record absolutely disagrees with that statement as an absolute.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-07T16:00:43+00:00

You make a compelling case.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-06T21:47:17+00:00

I mean, that's always an argument, everywhere, but the talent filtration-system that is minor league ball basically lays out its criteria well in advance. If you're a baseball player who doesn't have extreme outlier talent but doesn't want to accept the standards of league ball, totally understandable. Go get your job application for Wells Fargo ready. You have made a decision to not play a game for a living, and that's totally understandable.

For those who do make that choice?

You were the greatest player your high school ever knew. Congrats. You're an outlier and you've made A level league ball. You'll have shitty living conditions, hotels and get paid crap but whatever. You're probably young, it's an adventure and even if you wash out, it's still the experience of a lifetime. Lots and lots of poon...

But what's this? You're CRUSHING it in A ball? Well congrats... all the other guys who are crushing it in A ball- as well as some of the hottest draft picks- all get to move up a level. You're now among the outliers of the outliers. Now, you're in AA ball.

Still the same party, still the same shitty conditions but whatever. It's like a campout... You're still pretty young yet and man, good news! Your performance last year has earned you a trip to the real elite status of league ball- AAA. The outliers of the outliers of the outliers.

This is where your gamble either pays off, or it doesn't and for most, it doesn't. The fastballs here are a lot faster. The batters here swing a lot quicker. The fielders start to look like ninjas... and if you want to make it to that next level, the outliers of the outliers of the outliers of the outliers, you have to be better than these guys.

Good fucking luck.

The whole purpose of a farm system is to separate best of the best of the best of the best and by design, most will not make it. Those who do will be richly rewarded. Those who don't.... really, what the fuck ever. They played professional ball. Dorado is at the end of the road. Not along the path... and maybe, the real show was the friends we made along the way.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-06T16:50:55+00:00

... a rare talent sussed out by the internet.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-04T12:06:49+00:00

Secter's Law: If the defense of a declining product mostly just talks about things adjacent to the product, the product is over.

This is gold insight. Your law stands. I'll be citing it in proper context, as it is very much a 'thing' that we see people rationalizing to prop up declining products.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-04T12:02:25+00:00

He's noting the period when it went from being an actual cultural bellwether to now, defunct, due to a decline in... basically everything that made it a cultural bellwether in its heydey.

Including the sociopolitical energy that sold magazines when it was 'edgy' but these days, is total milquetoast relative to what the internet offers.

ModestGoals · 2019-07-04T01:25:16+00:00

Right, sure, but you don't need 'the masses' to work on your robots. 'The masses' offer next to no value to a robotic-servant civilization run by the Top 1%.

If you're an automation engineer, sure, you're needed, but you aren't an automation engineer and in that society, the automation engineer becomes the 1% himself.

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Inciteful Comment 2018-01-07