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rationalconspiracy.com
Personal blog · rationalconspiracy.com · on HN as apsec112economicsstartupsculture
rationalconspiracy.com is a personal blog at rationalconspiracy.com about economics, startups and culture. Since 2012, 25 different Hacker News readers have linked it 73 times, most often “Two Types Of Startups (2012)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers mostly link this blog as a source, especially for the 'Chinese robber fallacy' concept and for data on new housing construction in San Francisco's Mission district.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Two Types Of Startups (2012)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-07-19
- New York Times Makes Up Facts About SF Housing3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-05-26
- San Francisco’s Tech Problems3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-02-11
- MIT Technology Review Article on GPT-3 Is Highly Misleading2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-08-15
- /2016/06/02/radar-detector-detector-detector-detector-almost-certainly-a-hoax/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-02-21
- /2015/03/08/the-chinese-robber-fallacy/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-07-11
- Meritocracy and Doublethink2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-07-11
- /2014/04/17/money-doesnt-matter-in-politics/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-04-26
- Universities vs. Scientology2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-06-16
- New and Old Elites2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-02-20
What Hacker News says?
"It was renters living in the Mission who were (not incorrectly) terrified that new development means they will get evicted and displaced." New development as the cause of displacement is just outright misinformation. There has been very little development in the Mission: https://rationalconspiracy.com/2015/05/25/new-york-times-mak... There is an extremely strong negative correlation between development and housing…
Comment linking /2015/05/25/new-york-times-makes-up-facts-about-sf-housing/
on “Housing in the Bay Area”Submitted Dark Patterns by the Boston Globe as a story · 726 points
HN discussionOn the contrary, the GP is a (light) instance of the chinese robber fallacy. https://rationalconspiracy.com/2015/03/08/the-chinese-robber... They're using "a generic problem to attack a specific person or group, even though other groups have the problem just as much (or even more so)" and should be called out on it.
Comment linking /2015/03/08/the-chinese-robber-fallacy/
on “33 dead after arson attack at Kyoto Animation studio, dozens injured”Submitted Why Academic Papers Are A Terrible Discussion Forum as a story · 89 points
HN discussion"It's called subscribing to your local newspaper" This won't support, or get you access to, the overwhelming majority of articles, though. It's as if each musician required their own, independent monthly subscription. "The NY Times costs something like 33 cents a day, for example." Newspapers can, and will, quietly double their prices without telling you and then make it very hard for you to cancel. See my article o…
Comment linking /2016/04/24/dark-patterns-by-the-boston-globe/
on “Underestimating the power of Jeff Bezos”Submitted What If My Kid…? (A Guide To Odds) as a story · 25 points
HN discussionGlad to see that my anecdotal experience with Google Maps and Waze turned out to be correct[0]. I've noticed, consistently, that Waze underestimates the drive time that it quotes and I've also had the sneaking suspicion that the routes weren't perfect (though I had no expectation that they would be; there's a lot that can go wrong on a 40-minute without traffic commute). I think one of the reasons for Waze under-est…
Comment linking /2016/06/02/radar-detector-detector-detector-detector-almost-certainly-a-hoax/
on “Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze”Submitted NSA Can't Do Arithmetic as a story · 17 points
HN discussionComically, what you're doing is called the Chinese robber fallacy: https://rationalconspiracy.com/2015/03/08/the-chinese-robber... Also just an absurdly small sample of "one news story" and "something I heard secondhand."
Comment linking /2015/03/08/the-chinese-robber-fallacy/
on “Former Apple Employee Charged with Theft of Autonomous Car Project Trade Secrets”Submitted Why Everyone Should Be Upper Class as a story · 17 points
HN discussionJoin the club! One useful phrase to keep in mind is "Chinese Robber Fallacy"[0] (edit: and for more than just spotting questionable uses of "whataboutism"[1]). It's "where you use a generic problem to attack a specific person or group, even though other groups have the problem just as much (or even more so)." Of course if you engage in this sort of "fallacy fallacy!" argument style, you rapidly get far from the disc…
Comment linking /2015/03/08/the-chinese-robber-fallacy/
on “Update from Chef”Submitted Why Doesn't Our Government Actually Do Anything? as a story · 13 points
HN discussionMine is https://www.rationalconspiracy.com
Comment linking /
on “Into the Personal-Website-Verse (2019)”Submitted Compound Interest Is A Lie as a story · 12 points
HN discussion> This gives a rough ballpark for the amount of energy they are willing to invest into major strategic advancements. I'd say, rather, that it gives a rough ballpark of how much the government was willing to invest in the 1940s , at the peak of its ability and willingness to take on projects of incredible scope. There was still a fair amount of this for a few decades after that, but not since the 70s. See https://rat…
Comment linking /2012/06/03/why-doesnt-our-government-actually-do-anything/
on “Factoring may be easier than we think (2016)”Submitted Why No Second Hardware Startups? as a story · 12 points
HN discussionCompare https://rationalconspiracy.com/2016/06/02/radar-detector-det...
Comment linking /2016/06/02/radar-detector-detector-detector-detector-almost-certainly-a-hoax/
on “Two CMU Computer Science Professors Resign, Citing “sexist management””Submitted Y Combinator and Equity Theft as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI find it amazing that someone can write so much about the cost of college, and yet treat tuition bills as if they were handed down on stone tablets at Mt. Sinai, rather than something colleges themselves might have any responsibility for. Colleges have become giant money-sucking machines, similar to Scientology. In fact, they're so similar that I made a handy comparison chart ( http://rationalconspiracy.com/2015/06…
Comment linking /2015/06/15/universities-vs-scientology/
on “Our Universities: The Outrageous Reality”Submitted Snowden Petition Is Useless as a story · 8 points
HN discussionYes. Contrary to popular belief, not a single housing unit (at any income level) has been torn down in the Mission, for any reason, since at least 2010 (as far back as online records go). Source: http://rationalconspiracy.com/2015/05/25/new-york-times-make... Also, I should note that, contrary to popular belief, there's not much new luxury housing in the Mission. In fact, there's not much new housing in the Mission…
Comment linking /2015/05/25/new-york-times-makes-up-facts-about-sf-housing/
on “The poor are better off when we build more housing for the rich”Submitted New York Times Makes Up Facts About SF Housing as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThey aren't being displaced. There's a good breakdown of the new construction that's happened in http://rationalconspiracy.com/2015/05/25/new-york-times-make... ; the short version is, new units are replacing vacant lots and abandoned buildings.
Comment linking /2015/05/25/new-york-times-makes-up-facts-about-sf-housing/
on “The poor are better off when we build more housing for the rich”Submitted Four Layers of Intellectual Conversation as a story · 5 points
HN discussionMr. Doepfner seems to fear Google's power. As a newspaper publisher, that is reasonable. But in a wider societal context, as he seems to be implying, it is nonsense. Google has so little political influence that the city council won't let them build a twenty-foot bridge over a creek between two Google office buildings ( http://rationalconspiracy.com/2014/04/17/money-doesnt-matter... ).
Comment linking /2014/04/17/money-doesnt-matter-in-politics/
on “An open letter to Eric Schmidt from Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer ”Submitted Know Your Orders Of Magnitude as a story · 5 points
HN discussion"because that’s trivial. Of course it will." Many in San Francisco (and other cities) argue against this. It's certainly not universally accepted. "The question is: “what if you have to knock down N affordable units to build M market-rate units?” This “simulation” doesn’t even come close to addressing that question." That's because housing units are virtually never knocked down in San Francisco, so this question bas…
Comment linking /2015/05/25/new-york-times-makes-up-facts-about-sf-housing/
on “Does Adding Expensive Housing Help the Little Guy?”Submitted The Real Reason For The Drinking Age as a story · 5 points
HN discussionMy friend had another post on this subject that you might find interesting. http://rationalconspiracy.com/2014/04/17/money-doesnt-matter...
Comment linking /2014/04/17/money-doesnt-matter-in-politics/
on “Silicon Valley is broken and heading for social unrest”Submitted Why Your Invention Should Be Banned as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
