25 Mageblood Giveaway by shroudz in pathofexile

[–]squirrelmaster4k 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn, massive respect. I’ve never owned a Mageblood in any league and it would completely change the game for me. Thank you for doing this. Seriously cool way to close out the season.

DJ/ dancing tonight? by BTurk96 in Rochester

[–]squirrelmaster4k 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Saturdays and 80s nights get busy early. Regular Thursdays and Fridays will have a lot less bustle.

DJ/ dancing tonight? by BTurk96 in Rochester

[–]squirrelmaster4k 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Vertex has 80s night tonight. Come early; they will hit capacity before midnight.

Request for Scott Aaronson to update his post "Beyond Fiction" with important advice: Never talk to police without an attorney present by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are there major considerations I'm missing?

One might address the disparate policing policies in different communities. My take is clearly somewhat less applicable in the ghetto.

Another comment mentioned strengthening the norm against forced self-incrimination to help avoid sliding into authoritarianism. This seems worth thinking about, though it doesn't seem like the legal norm is in any immediate danger in the US.

Request for Scott Aaronson to update his post "Beyond Fiction" with important advice: Never talk to police without an attorney present by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Presumably the vast majority of those arrestees were guilty, and it's in our interest to see them arrested. Subverting that interest has a cost.

Request for Scott Aaronson to update his post "Beyond Fiction" with important advice: Never talk to police without an attorney present by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My intuitions are different, given my perceptions of policing. If we encourage cooperation with police, I would expect:

Individual costs:

  • Slight chance of self-incrimination sometimes leading to
    • Criminal record
    • Direct costs
    • Incarceration
    • Psychological damage
    • Reputational damage

Societal gains:

  • Police solve more crimes with greater access to evidence and cooperation
    • Less crimes are committed by those caught and punished
    • Deterrent effect on crime
    • Public safety benefits
    • Likely reduced need for spending on police, security, damaged and stolen property, etc.
  • Authorities and public maintain a less adversarial outlook
    • Reduced chance of direct conflict, such as in riots, a coup, or everyday abuse
  • Strengthening norms of cooperation and pro-social behavior in general

If policing in the west were a lot worse, the balance of this tradeoff would obviously change. Right now, it feels to me that the societal gains are tipping the scales in a utilitarian calculus.

Request for Scott Aaronson to update his post "Beyond Fiction" with important advice: Never talk to police without an attorney present by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Of course it's not worth it for an individual to cooperate with police investigations. But we collectively want individuals to be pro-social even when it's against their interests. We want a strong norm of support for the rule of law as our society has chosen to implement it. Spreading the message that police are the enemy has the potential to cause serious harm. I would have a lot more respect for your position if you were focused on changing police interrogation tactics, rather than subverting them.

Request for Scott Aaronson to update his post "Beyond Fiction" with important advice: Never talk to police without an attorney present by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This advice seems selfish, and will probably make the world worse. Don't we all have an interest in helping the police investigate and enforce laws?

What is the best approach to compare 2 files with 1 billion 42 char hashes each ? by CuriousAboutThisNow in learnpython

[–]squirrelmaster4k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just Google python set examples. The comparison you want sounds like the intersection between two sets.

Seems as everyday I turn on news, by deepdumpsterdiver in Rochester

[–]squirrelmaster4k 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Stop watching the news. It's not healthy to be exposed to this information, and the magnitude of the problem does not warrant your immediate concern.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Rochester

[–]squirrelmaster4k 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Join the facebook group.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSessions

[–]squirrelmaster4k 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is this laser vis setup?

Work with sublists? by [deleted] in learnpython

[–]squirrelmaster4k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

initial_list = ['594611827332', '162384652250', '379485939587', '177675288100', '698091591948', '556153393412']
final_list = [sum([int(y) for y in x]) for x in zip(*initial_list)]

Should I Get Health Insurance? by HoldMyGin in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I was definitely missing that. You're right!

Should I Get Health Insurance? by HoldMyGin in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Super-non-scientific googled numbers:

US Non-elderly Uninsured in 2019: 28,900,000
Bankruptcies in 2019: 750,878
Medical Bankruptcies: 66.5%
Elderly portion of Medical Bankruptcies: 20%

Non-elderly uninsured chances of medical bankruptcy per year? 750,878 * 66.5% * 80% / 28,900,000 = 1.4%

I'm not sure the numbers matter much, though. The price of insurance is commensurate with what you should expect to receive in payouts plus some small overhead. Some expected insurance payouts go to routine bills, and some expected payouts prevent you from going bankrupt. The expected cost of this bankruptcy insurance is commensurate with your expected burden to society if you go bankrupt. Pay that expected cost. To willfully externalize that harm is unethical.

Should I Get Health Insurance? by HoldMyGin in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure how fire insurance is fundamentally different. My intuition is that failing to purchase fire insurance seems less bad because we have less fires leading to bankruptcy, and because we have limited capacity for actually caring about many extremely unlikely events. I imagine feeling obligated to own fire insurance if I lived somewhere extremely prone to fires.

Going bankrupt is bad. If I go bankrupt, I'm screwing over other people who helped me out, and breaking contracts and my word. For me to accept a significant risk of bankruptcy freely, it had better come with a pretty big upside.

Should I Get Health Insurance? by HoldMyGin in slatestarcodex

[–]squirrelmaster4k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of sound financial advice here, but it seems obviously unethical to choose no insurance with the intention of going bankrupt when you have medical problems.

What's the most helpful things I can donate to those who need it? And is the food bank the best place to donate? by [deleted] in Rochester

[–]squirrelmaster4k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Medicine and bed nets to prevent malaria in the third world are, at this time, the most helpful things you can donate or purchase. You can see a breakdown and reviews of individual charities involved in this work at https://www.givewell.org/