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anemoiac

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Squirrel connoisseur, cat evangelist, and breaker of things.

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The article's dek is relevant here:

The region isn’t the world’s richest, or its most populous, or the one that spends the most on sport. Yet in men’s football it has spent decades performing far above what its economy would predict.

Having a bachelor's degree in CS doesn't mean that you're underemployed if you work as a programmer or something in business. The criteria for underemployment in the referenced report is:

"...graduates working in jobs that typically do not require a college degree. A job is classified as a college job if 50 percent or more of the people working in that job indicate that at least a bachelor's degree is necessary; otherwise, the job is classified as a non-college job."

Institutional knowledge often plays a huge role here, but can be difficult to measure. A team member whose experience allows them to quickly provide needed context that would otherwise take hours/days/weeks to obtain might significantly boost their team's productivity without generating any metrics that demonstrate their contributions.

Zoning is a scapegoat that allows us to avoid thinking critically about the "fuzzier" complexities behind housing prices. Of course it may be a primary driver of rising prices in some areas, but I think it's simple-minded to assume (and misleading to claim) that zoning is the cause of high prices in general.

A world with high levels of inequality is also a world where power is highly concentrated, which makes the focus of the majority largely irrelevant... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The "Oh, well everyone has a little bit of ADHD..." opinion seems to be fairly popular, perhaps due to the increasing ubiquity of digital distractions we all encounter daily, but reading just a small amount of actual research led me to the conclusion that this is completely misguided and "real" ADHD (whatever that is) has likely left a significant amount of its victims dead, in prison, or terminally drug-addicted.

One simple example that supports this conclusion can be found in driving (the most dangerous routine activity most people engage in?), where stimulant medication significantly improves outcomes for those with ADHD. I don't have specific links handy, but a simple Google search (https://www.google.com/search?q=adhd+medication+driving+safe...) will offer ample confirmation.

This isn't really news to anyone, but the headline dramatically understates the actual situation if we extend beyond the conventional understanding of 'jobs that require a college degree'

What the article discusses are lower-paying, non-"professional" jobs that don't include a degree as a required qualification, however the majority of jobs which do "require" a college degree (your typical non-specialist corporate role, for ex.) only use that requirement as a filtering mechanism when hiring. That "requirement" doesn't actually reflect a need for any specific knowledge/experience that might result from getting a college degree, which is evident when we consider those hiring for these positions don't usually care what degree an applicant has - only that they can tick off the "college degree" checkbox.

It seems like you didn’t finish your response… Why is depopulation terrifying? And why shouldn’t we be concerned about resource constraints? Malthus being wrong implies nothing about the future.

Why can’t businesses just charge enough to pay their employees adequately and eliminate tipping altogether? Tipping adds unnecessary ambiguity and degrades the customer experience.

I have no problem paying higher prices, if that’s the solution to the problem, but I find the (seemingly) increasing pervasiveness of tipping across US industries annoying and feel no obligation to tip in situations where it was not traditionally expected.

TIL (I initially only read the first half of the article).

I still think opposition to their presence differs from the anti-wolf movement in the continental US, which is primarily driven by commercial interests.

Major difference is that musk oxen are essentially an invasive species, whereas wolves play a critical role in the surrounding ecosystem. Look into the impact of Wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park if you're curious about that role.

What the ubiquitous prescriptions of college education as a panacea for mass unemployment seem to miss is that, for most, a college degree is primarily a signalling mechanism intended to keep their resume in consideration long enough for it to reach human eyes. Jobs that were formerly held (and performed adequately) by non-degree holders now inexplicably require a degree (or multiple degrees!).

If we could simply flip a switch and grant all American adults a college degree (and the general knowledge that supposedly accompanies it), it seems far more likely that the average job's "requirements" would simply inflate to account for this increase than that we'd see a huge drop in unemployment.

Hmm maybe we shouldn't allow men to drive before the age of 25? 30?

Statistically, young men are shown to be the riskiest drivers so this should definitely have a positive impact on the safety of our roads.