I wasn't around for the second millennium versions. At some point, doesn't there exist a kind of activation energy threshold where enough money/promise etc is gained from the prototype that this pattern works for good ideas and not for bad ones?

Yes ... However. Most car manufacturers manage to deal with this without it becoming too common, with standard engineering controls ( proper fasteners, torque specifications, QC etc).

You do realize averages don't imply anything about local conditions?

I'm sorry he won't be able to reply, he drown in a pond that was on average 2 feet deep.

Yes, but this seems to be a problem at every Antarctic base I've read about.

The buildings are themselves grounded in snow, I imagine there's a sinking effect

Don't your rule and corollary disagree?

This is one of those things that's incredibly context dependent. There are lots of fat cat small companies out there who do easy tasks with thick margins. There are also jobs that are deceptively hard which it makes sense to hire out.

I usually try to err on the side of diy, but everyone has a different threshold on these things. Sometimes the economics work out when you don't count your time.

Probably? I mean, I knew I could get the jointer moved cheaper myself, because I have an idea what a competent rigger costs[0]. I just couldn't do it myself with that level of skill. Watch some YouTube videos of people doing rigging. The good ones are very good.

For the record, I didn't want to do the job myself because 1700 pounds moving in the wrong direction didn't sound like a bad time. I tried getting a quote to see if it was within the range I was willing to pay to not have to do it myself. When it came back at the cost of my truck rental, I couldn't see any way they could be charging enough to be good. Like, you wouldn't pay $15 to get a cavity filled. I would've tried getting more quotes, but the seller had a deadline.

[0] I went to an auction at a defunct furniture company. As the bids were finalized, a rigging company went around leaving quotes on the heavier machines for how much it would cost to move them. $700 doesn't move a lot of cast iron, and it certainly doesn't get it moved 4 hours away.

Oh, I see. I must have misread, my bad. That makes a lot of sense.

I'm all for safety and health at a reasonable cost, but yeah, seems like it doesn't matter how good things are. We gotta have something to worry about.

This reminds a little of the paperclip simulator, but this seems about 85% less likely to cause me to skip an entire day of work while clicking furiously. It's really good though!

People willing and able to do this probably have a few things going on at a time. Plus they're not necessarily at the high end of living expenses. A couple grand haul for a couple hours work is pretty good.

Would be nice if you would stop expecting the whole web to have stopped developing at your preferred point in time.

I don't have anything nice to answer to this ;-).

You could say the exact same set of objections to shoreline paradox.

But most borders are not defined as "on the shoreline", they are defined using something reliable.

Exactly. The coastline paradox is a mathematical curiousity, not a practical objection to measuring things. Coastlines are not infinite length in practice. You define a system of measurement then a length in that system

What? Neither of those three applies to a shoreline.

Physical shorelines instantiations of a true fractal are always limited. I'd go so far as to say that there is no such real object in the world.

I think I'm in agreement with you, but not sure if I'm agreeing that the are no fractals in the world, or that there are no shorelines.

Anyway, true fractal shorelines definitely never put sugar on their porridge.

This is an interesting point of view, and I think it intuitively makes sense. But it breaks down when considering people who block the flow of traffic by running red lights and clogging the intersection - that's just straightforwardly worse for everyone except the blocker.

People do that everywhere I’ve ever driven. Not getting in other people’s way is a core cultural tenet here more than most places but there are self absorbed jerks everywhere. Consider the vitriol unleashed on people that do that. It’s not acceptable.