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Hatfield
Participant[quote=zk]That was just like when my wife’s family is over, and I’m listening but they’re speaking Chinese, and suddenly they all laugh.[/quote]
When this happens, I always assume the joke was on me.
Hatfield
ParticipantHahahahaha.
To be fair, I was also attracted to Cog Sci because it seemed focused on solving problems that traditional computer science fails at. Knowledge representation, pattern recognition, NP-complete problems, etc. In the end I found that the only jobs in the field seemed to be in the defense industry. I had paid for college with an internship at a defense contractor, so I knew enough to know I didn’t want to work in that field any longer. In the end it all worked out, and as Rich noted, your academic credentials become less meaningful as your gain work experience. In the end I’m happy with the outcome; that said I wish I’d worked harder in the calculus class, as FFTs and DFTs have crossed my path many times and a better intuitive sense for them would have served me well.
I stacked my major with a lot of CS classes also, including Compiler Construction which I really enjoyed, even though it was one of the tougher classes I took. The instructor (L. Bradley I believe was her name) was awesome. In fact I think I only took two mainline psych classes – one of which was an experimental statistics class for psych students. The other was an awful intro to cognitive psychology class, which had all the hallmarks of what Richard Feynman called a Cargo Cult Science.
Hatfield
ParticipantDunno what your story is, but I couldn’t handle Math 2F (multivariable calculus) so I switched from EECS. :p
I graduated in ’89, the last year before it became its own department. So my diploma actually says “BA in Psychology (Cognitive Science)”. I seriously considered delaying one quarter so I could graduate with a BA in the new Cognitive Science department but I wanted to get on with my life. In the end it mattered little.
Hatfield
ParticipantNice interview. Also: UCSD Cog Sci, represent! I had no idea.
Go Tritons!
Hatfield
ParticipantPerhaps you can have some fun with LMGTFY
Hatfield
Participant+1 on the Honda and Yamaha generators. They’re reliable and quiet. If you wait till you need one and run out and buy a Harbor Freight piece of shit, you’re not gonna be happy.
Hatfield
Participant[quote=hslinger]I’d get a non-stop from San Diego to London (same dates)for $ 884.06 return on BA and then get a budget ticket on easy jet or ryanair to Frankfurt.
It wont be much more than your ticket and the nonstop across the Atlantic out of san diego can’t be beat.[/quote]
Plus you’d be clearing customs & immigration at SAN instead of LAX or some other hellish international arrivals terminal.
Hatfield
Participant[quote=aimless]Have you decided one way or the other yet?[/quote]
Nah, not really. I did look at some properties and I’m on a realtor’s email list, so I get sent new listings and receiving notifications when existing listings change price. At the end of the day, it’s the HOA fees that are causing my spreadsheet to blow up. Mammoth had a dismal ski season this year and I only made it up there once. The whole town seems to be slowly dying on the vine.
Hatfield
ParticipantI think Zillow estimates are most useful for tract houses where you’re comparing apples to apples. (“Oh it’s a Windsor Deluxe with the 4th bedroom option, let me look that up.”) It’s of little use in beach areas where all the homes are custom, some have views, some don’t, some have been extensively remodeled, etc. As tools go, it’s a pretty blunt instrument.
March 25, 2014 at 10:28 PM in reply to: Study shows mortgage interest deduction doesn’t encourage home ownership #772249Hatfield
Participant[quote=SK in CV][quote=Hatfield]I always liked the idea of a flat tax for individuals. Get rid of all deductions and AMT entirely. Everyone gets a standard deduction of say, $80k, and then tax perhaps 25% of all income above that. You’d have to tinker with these numbers but I bet you could dial it in where overall revenues are about what they are today with a much fairer tax structure overall.[/quote]
Most of the complications in the tax code have nothing to do with graduated marginal rates. They have to do with defining income. Under your flat tax idea, are the following items income?
Student loans
Cash out home refinance proceeds
Medical Insurance reimbursement
Medical insurance premiums paid by an employer on behalf of an employee
Other insurance reimbursements
Gross income from a trade or business (before any expenses)
Life insurance proceeds
I could go on. I hope you get my point.[/quote]
Actually, I have to confess that I don’t. I’m not sure that I understand any of these obfuscations. Loans are not income, so you can strike those examples. Reimbursements are not income. Gross income from a business is not income, net income is.
March 24, 2014 at 7:02 PM in reply to: Study shows mortgage interest deduction doesn’t encourage home ownership #772195Hatfield
ParticipantI always liked the idea of a flat tax for individuals. Get rid of all deductions and AMT entirely. Everyone gets a standard deduction of say, $80k, and then tax perhaps 25% of all income above that. You’d have to tinker with these numbers but I bet you could dial it in where overall revenues are about what they are today with a much fairer tax structure overall.
Hatfield
ParticipantThat is correct – Home Depot has a bin where you can drop off CFLs but not the long tubes. There’s a place in Kearny Mesa where you can take those, otherwise you have to find an e-waste event.
Hatfield
ParticipantI feel your pain.
I hated the look of CFLs so never switched over. Oh we might have one or two of them but that’s about it. We’ve slowly been replacing our soffit-mounted PAR spots with LED replacements. They have a nice color, they don’t flicker, and they’re dimmable. Jury’s still out on how long they last, but so far so good.
Hatfield
ParticipantI hate having a bulky wallet and bought one of these when it was still a Kickstarter project: http://capsulewallets.com
May not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s well-made and I’ve been pretty happy with it.
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