It always strikes me how much commonality exists across different software engineering disciplines—not to mention across fields outside of engineering (e.g., how double-entry bookkeeping mirrors immutable design principles, or how federalism resembles class-based OOP).
Great to see an attempt at describing this phenomenon. A great start to what will surely be an awesome resource.
To those bashing the author as uninformed -- this is George V. Neville-Neil. Member of FreeBSD Core Team who wrote the book on FreeBSD. He might know a thing or two about POSIX! [1]
> In arbitration, this doesn't work. It's a vastly more even playing field for consumers, who tend to have less money than the companies they're suing and less downside in the case outcome (money damages versus e.g. having been sexually harassed).
I dunno, not my personal experience. I took a large bank to arbitration over a low value credit reporting dispute. Offered to "settle" several times for nothing more than a fix to my credit report, which would have cost the bank $0.
The bank refused and so we went all the way to a final judgement.
The arbitration dragged out over 16 months. 4 days of hearings in which multiple attorneys and witnesses were present on the bank's side. Numerous conference calls, 800 emails, 250 pages of legal briefs, 1000+ pages of exhibits, discovery, etc. I would not be surprised if the total outlay eclipsed half a million for them.
Lest anyone come away from this thinking that arbitration is good for the consumer, this story only has a happy ending because the business chose to settle.
I also took a corporation to arbitration. A Big 4 bank destroyed my credit over a billing mistake that was their fault, relating to a credit card account with a $230 balance. Despite seeking nothing more than to have my credit fixed, the bank refused to settle. I contacted upwards of 100 attorneys with no luck, so decided to self-represent.
16 months, 25 hours under oath, and over 2,000 hours later, I "won" a judgement forcing the bank to fix my credit -- but no monetary recovery at all.
I suspect that there is a strong non-linear effect, i.e., introducing novel drugs into a state with very cheap housing does not move the needle that much on homelessness (WV) but is catastrophic when done in a city with expensive housing (LA).
We should address the housing problem. We should also address the drug problem.
Jake, I get the argument. Fifty years of bad housing policy have yielded high housing prices today, high housing prices leads to homelessness, and homelessness leads to drug abuse. Fixing housing policy now will lead to lower housing prices, homelessness, and drug abuse in the future.
So we should fix housing policy. Ok.
That seems very reasonable and logical, except that no one seems to know how to actually make housing policy changes happen. You write a (interesting and informative) blog post about Proposition HHH, Matt Yglesias writes a blog post about 1950s boarding houses, PhDs at Zillow churn out peer-reviewed papers, and LA voters even throw $1,200,000,000 at Proposition HHH -- and yet the problem gets worse and worse.
You write that the "homelessness problem is intractable without zoning reform". Well, what if zoning reform is also intractable?
Focusing exclusively on fixing housing policy, which appears to be intractable for the foreseeable future, is a mistake. We should be focusing on drug abuse as well, which is a very serious problem in LA.
Comparing the number of available beds with the number of unsheltered homeless people does not disprove parent's argument that there is a bed for everyone who wants a bed.
A better question would be -- what the average shelter utilization?
If you are naïve enough to think that we will simply build our way out of the homelessness crisis, I encourage you to book a flight to Los Angeles and strike up a conversation with any first responder. They will all tell you the same story -- the homeless are nearly all on Methamphetamine and/or Fentanyl.
Yes, rent prices have increased over the last decade. But the affordability, purity, availability, and use of those very destructive drugs have also increased over the same time period.
The chart that I would be interested in seeing is are those elements plotted against homelessness rate. I suspect that the correlation coefficient between per-capita meth use and homelessness rate would be ~1.
You may have a circadian rhythm disorder, e.g., delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (DSWPD) [1]. It is rare in the general population (<1%) but my intuition is that software engineers are overrepresented. Irrespective of whether you do, there are likely concomitant behavioral issues that are exacerbating the issue.
I struggled with sleep for years. I had difficulty falling asleep before 2am or so, difficulty getting out of bed, and any multi-day period without obligations (e.g. holiday) inevitably resulted in my bedtime shifting by an hour or more each consecutive night. Tried everything. Described symptoms to several somnologists, primary care doctors, psychiatrist, psychologist, etc. Last couple of years I saw improvement. What helped was:
- 0.5mg melatonin 7 hours before bedtime [2] [3]
- Do a CBT-I program with a psychologist
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Taking melatonin near bedtime did absolutely nothing for me. Taking melatonin at 5pm was magic. Symptoms that had persisted for years evaporated within two weeks.
CBT-I is very effective for behavioral issues but it's not magic. It is expensive and take a lot of time and effort. Don't use a self-directed app or book. Find a psychologist who specializes in CBT-I. Insurance may not cover it. It will require a couple of months of effort and cost $2,000 or so. It is worth every penny.
Everyone knows that light can affect your circadian rhythm, but body temperature can as well. Cold = sleep, warmth = wake. Consider investing in something that can increase temperature in the AM. Might be as simple as a space heater on a timed outlet. Might be as sophisticated as an Eight Sleep mattress.
Great to see an attempt at describing this phenomenon. A great start to what will surely be an awesome resource.