Wow I was about to gush about how much I LOVE my NP compared to my old crappy, braindead MDs. I could share stories of how bad MDs are...and the horrors of insurance.
She is sharp as a whip. Smarter and more motivated than ANY MD I've EVER had. Anything she doesn't know about, she researches (on her own time/dime). She prescribes everything - dirt cheap. Lets me text/call/email ANY time. Refers me to a specialist for anything beyond her expertise (just like any MD would!) DIRT CHEAP (eg: MRI for $300, scheduled within a day or two down the street). A single, cheap, monthly fee ($65/mo!) lets me see her any time day and night, ask anything, discuss as long as I like...and I do all these things! No MD going through standard insurance would allow anything even remotely similar.
...I could go on...
imo the NP model is FAR superior than the traditional insurance+MD crap model we have right now. It's one of those things "they" don't want people learning about since it'll crush the traditional way of doing things once people realize how amazing that model is.
Yes I have basic insurance since it's required. And, just in case - she obviously doesn't have an emergency room.
Your access to care is the result of the direct primary care model not your NP necessarily. Your NP might be good, but I'm willing to bet on average the people who have a minimum of 15,000 hours of clinical training (MDs/DOs) before independent practice are more competent than the ones who only are required to get 500.
More motivated? Why wasn't she more motivated to go to school for four years, get in-depth training in residency, and become an expert in her field rather than taking the easy "route" to practice "medicine"? I guarantee the IM docs and surgeons slugging it for 80+hour work weeks in residency to become experts are more dedicated and motivated to care for patients than the NPs who train part-time and online.
Bravo. It's weird sort of moral pretzel to advertise your donations which simultaneously wins you some respect and a whole lot of antipathy for being self-righteous. Unfortunately there's no way I know of to self-advertise your donations without being self-righteous but it's the right thing to do. Ironically you find yourself wondering do you pay more with your pocketbook for the charity or more with your social capital for the charity advertisement (which makes the charity more impactful).
By the way I don't donate anything to charity at the moment, although I plan to someday. So I'm speaking from a no-skin-in-the-game perspective.
"They are betting that PC/Laptop/Mobile hardware will stagnate from this point on."
Me playing the devils advocate...
Perhaps not //forever//, but perhaps for the next few years (enough for them to make some good money).
Why? Chip shortage, GPU shortage.
Anecdotally, I just bought a computer for $7500, that, two years ago would have cost about $2500 (granted, it is the new tech, but even so, new tech of this tier two years ago would have been approx. $2500). On top of that, have to wait two months for it to be assembled. (ouch)
I agree with you that speed will probably not stop increasing, but if prices continue to go up, or even just level off, few people will be able to afford the new tech.
That being said, would I invest in Mighty? No since I agree with you in general....and agree with you about the zero privacy issue...very regressive position for someone like PG imo.
That assumes that AWS/Azure/GCP won't have the same issues getting chips to run Mighty on that PC manufacturers have getting chips to sell to consumers though. If the shortage keeps up, that is not necessarily true.
What if the future is that you don't necessarily just buy a machine in the future.
What if, when you purchase your machine, it includes a host of features including a could suite of things like; VPN, Cloud Browser, An actual amount of decent cloud storage, portable applications, hosted in your cloud bucket, but accessible from any device (If I have Illustrator, I can just run it from any machine - not just my own. I can allow guest access to my paid licenses - like Say i want my brother to be able to draw stuff on my Illustrator license while I am not using it.
Etc.
Imagine if instead of that $7,500 "computer" you bought a $7,500 'stack' and the access terminal you happen to be using most is the physical laptop that youre used to.
I tried to build something similar to this more than a decade ago (2007 or so - but wrote about it in 2004).
My biggest issue is better information/knowledge management.
I have TBs of files and data strewn all over. We should be focusing on "my information" and let me manage and secure that - and access it from any device easily, and securely.
If augmented reality tech works better the necessity of cloud as your machine will become ubiquitous.
However I think we gonna do have RTX in our mobile devices - AR glasses, whatever modern mobile tech - because of decentralization (security/ethics purpose)
On the same token, me having low testosterone (age-induced) I became extremely rage-prone, temperamental and aggressive until I started receiving testosterone injections. Immediately calmed me and allowed my "true" personality to emerge.
So I don't think you can come to any conclusion about how it will affect one person based on how it affects another.
I suffered from undiagnosed low testosterone due to a concussion for many years. I was definitely more irritable/emotional. I wouldn’t say I had more rage/aggression, but that’s just not very like me.
On testosterone I’m definitely more motivated. Hell, one time when my estrogen went too high I had an intense craving for chocolate.
It should be clarified that running a node isn't worthwhile as a "set it and forget it" contribution. If you're not actively using it for something, it will just silently break if the network does something against the rules and does nothing to improve decentralization. It doesn't even really matter from a software signalling perspective, because Sybil attacks are easy from someone with enough money to run lots of nodes.
At best it's a gateway drug to get people more involved.
Interestingly, running a lightning routing node actually is a way an individual can run a full node to not only generate some fees to cover the cost, but actively and consistently participate in the cyber economy and have a marginal voice in enforcing the rules. The nodes you have channels with are incentivized to care about your vote if they want to stay connected to you.
To me that argument about "paying your fair share" never made any sense.
Wouldn't "fair share" be defined as how many/much of the government offerings you use?
So how is it that someone making $1m/yr in exchanges is somehow using MORE government offerings and therefore has to pay more in order to keep up with their "fair share"? Do they somehow use more roads because they have equities? Perhaps they use the sewage system more? Use more welfare dollars? Use more school?
Just makes no sense. It's straight up inequality and classism.
Personally there is no such thing as fair in taxes or even in life. there is only what "the people" can agree on via their representatives.
one way to rationalize it is like insurance. someone protecting a 100K house pays much less than someone protecting a 500K house. It might not be linear with the value of the house.
Your share of the military is larger than someone that makes less because the military is creating more value for you by protecting more assets.
Your share of the SEC is because you receive more value from the SEC than the poor
etc
It is value based taxation instead of cost based taxation.
Is that really less fair?
In the end the only thing that matters is 1) enough taxation to pay for the things "the people" want. 2) minimize the drag that taxation causes on the economy.
Hang with people who are one trait and you tend to become that trait. Hang with people who are not, and you'll tend not to be either.
If you want to "chill", hang with those people. If you want to "work hard", hang with those people.
I'm not judging, I'm just saying. Choose your circle of friends wisely.