manxu

Pseudocode:

for individual in users:  
    if individual.net_worth > 1_000_000:  
        skip

In my experience, a lot of the bloat in software comes from the decision to specifically pick user interface designers that know nothing of software engineering. The basic idea is that the user should get the perfect interface for them instead of whatever monstrosity is more convenient for the developer.

I agree with the sentiment to a large extent, but the limit should be where the change slows down the software significantly. That doesn’t mean the user interface shouldn’t have features that are very expensive at run time, but it does mean that there should be a dialog about cost and benefit.

For what it’s worth, I had the same instant reaction as @[email protected]. In particular, (a) if he’s nearing retirement, then he’s way too young for the type of behavior, and (b) the belligerence and anger reaction when contradicted match what I’ve seen with family that had dementia, and it sounds like that’s new.

As for the question at large, I can’t confirm your experience. Where I live, older people behave just like younger people when it comes to stating opinions or telling stories. They are more stuck in their ways, no doubt, but I guess it’s harder to change the way you do things if you’ve done it successfully one way for 40 years.

Why yes of course they would push it - they generate it themselves and pay themselves generously!

How long have you not used Spotify any longer? Because I would have agreed with your assessment in the past, but I gave up two years ago because new suggestions sounded more like promoted music than anything related to my taste.

They may have bought the Rolls-Royce specifically for the insurance fraud? As in, what is a readily available vehicle that costs a ton of money, so we can make a high-end insurance claim?

Never heard of it before, thanks for posting!

Population density is not really a problem: Most of the country is virtually empty, but there are a series of urban agglomerations that have incredibly high density overall. The North-East corridor (DC to Boston, more or less) is the most obvious one, but Chicago and environment or Coastal California are great options, too.

The “secret” reason why it’s not happening is public indifference and corporate sabotage. A campaign of decades of worsening public transportation has made people convinced that a high speed train would be just for poor people, which they imagine to be someone else. Also, eminent domain land seizures are slow, environmental impact studies slower, and both force costly changes from original plan that the public hears about as cost-overruns.

Final nail in the coffin: in America, for bizarre reasons, passenger rail has lower priority than freight rail. The freight rail companies don’t want to give up the privilege, and obviously you can’t have a high speed service wait on freight trains bumbling by.

OP, I tried out one of those guaranteed offers. it’s a giant scam: they told me amount X, but they’d send an inspector to adjust in minor details. The inspector came, they made me wait another week, and then offered “guaranteed” 60% of X. The whole thing wasted two weeks of my time that I could have spent finding a buyer.

Note: when you sign a contract as a seller with a realtor, you are generally on the hook for the commission even if you don’t sell through the realtor. You could force a clause into the contract that makes that exception, but the realtor is realistically going to wait with marketing until that’s sorted out. You’d still lose time, basically.

Now, if you are not currently talking with a realtor, you might as well invite as many of the cash offers into your place to give you a binding offer. I’d make sure they are still reputable firms that aren’t just there to scope your place or to sell your information, but if you are not actively thinking of contacting a realtor, you might as well talk to these people and see if they are for real. Do not sign anything, of course, until the final number is there.

You are absolutely right, but the time frame for a traditional house sale is still in the month range, at least. The only way around it is a cash buyer that voids all inspections, because just coordinating a mortgage, appraisal, inspection, and mandatory repairs takes some time.

If you are lucky, you’ll find a cash buyer with no contingencies, but it’s rather rare, depending on how (little) desirable the property and the location are.

It’s weird how the first-past-the-post voting system emerged. You start with geographic areas that are tightly integrated and only loosely associated with the greater polity. Then the polity is integrated and it is less important to elect someone for specifically your place. Then parties are formed that represent factions of the polity instead of the place.

Once national parties are formed and geography is not the primary distinguishing factor, first-past-the-post in geographic districts makes no sense. In fact, gerrymandering is only possible because geographic districts make no sense any longer and it makes no difference to you as a voter if you are in one of them or the other. You are going to vote for party anyway.