dasmoth

dasmoth

  • Commented on Writer, Interrupted
    If high-visibility workplaces were actually about performance, there'd be arguments against one-size-fits-all approaches. But it has much more to do with status (and, in particular, maintaining the manager/doer divide). One-size-fits-all works great for this....
  • Commented on Writer, Interrupted
    Noise cancelling headphones (or isolating earbuds) do help somewhat, but they don't eliminate the people moving around in your peripheral vision, or the feeling of being overlooked. These things aren't quite interruptions, but do still increase stress and make achieving...
  • Commented on Writer, Interrupted
    An explicit "open plan to save money" workplace would actually be preferable, in that it's not too hard to turn the argument around to "let me work 90 or 100% remote and you can save even more money." Promoting interactions...
  • Commented on Writer, Interrupted
    Writing fiction is, at least, still widely recognised as a valid solitary activity. Within companies, software is usually now seen as something that can, or perhaps should, only be done by a team with fairly close coordination. While the open...
  • Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
    As far as I'm concerned, every new built house and flat in the uK should be built to passivehaus standards. Not everyone wants to live in a Passivhaus (although I'd maybe consider it if someone explained how you fit...
  • Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
    It's a fun idea, but -- like most "inheritance tax" schemes -- ways to work around it will proliferate fast. Highly-speculative counter argument to some of the anti-life-extension stuff: perhaps keeping first-generation billionaires around indefinitely is preferable to having a...
  • Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
    "Really big inflation" is, surprisingly, good for us: it drains savings, sure, but it flattens economic inequality. Does that really follow? Diluting savings probably does, overall, reduce inequality between middle and lower classes (although not in an evenly-distributed way)....
  • Commented on The revolution will not be hand-stitched
    There are some intermediate possibilities between troublesome natural fibres and easy-to-print synthetics. The various reconstituted-cellulose fibres (rayon, etc.) come to mind, especially if they can be reconstituted out of somewhat-more-benign solvents....
  • Commented on Parasites
    Viruses, especially those with reasonably stable latent phases. Varicella zoster (chickenpox/shingles) is a pretty good example....
  • Commented on Snowden leaks: the real take-home
    Do you think that many of the Boomers really enjoyed their jobs-for-life (as opposed to the status they conveyed?). I'm not saying that the current arrangements are wonderful -- but was the 20th Century really better?...
  • Commented on Snowden leaks: the real take-home
    Retiring doesn't necessarily mean "ceasing activity". There's a lot of scope for research and creativity if you've got enough cash saved that you don't have to go to the day job every day....
  • Commented on We interrupt this broadcast ...
    For what it's worth, I've just had a message from the River People saying "new estimated delivery: this Saturday". Fingers crossed......
  • Commented on The permanent revolution
    Self-cleaning windows are coming along pretty nicely, thank you. I think they're still mostly used in commercial buildings, but you can certainly buy them if you want them. I'll own up to the occasional pessimistic thought about the rate of...
  • Commented on What are the big issues of 2013 going to be?
    Orbital's Minotaur rockets are based on old Minuteman and Peacekeeper stages. They're only used to launch government payloads, and my understanding is that there are some rules in place which prevent the use of ex-US-military hardware to launch civilian payloads....
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