goldfish

D'oh, thank you

I’m not as convinced as you are that perceptual grasp of relative object size is innate. See recent research in Molyneux’s problem: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molyneux%27s_problem

Hi Hoseja—

I am indeed talking about ground effect–that's why I included a link for "flying close to the surface reduces aerodynamic drag" which explains how it works.

I also specifically addressed how algorithms differ from memes in footnotes 4 and 14.

Curious to get your thoughts.

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It does include a survival penalty for a false attack. I laid out the assumed payoff matrix here: https://www.adamjuliangoldstein.com/blog/paranoia-parameter/.... The penalty for false positives is also baked into the simulations (see first few lines of code here: https://github.com/adamjuliangoldstein/anxiety_algorithms/bl...).

Hi all, this is a follow-up to two essays:

1) The parallels between anxious ideas and immune system threat prediction (discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22475370)

2) The game theory of determining which imagined threats are worth our attention (discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22760540).

Thoughts and feedback welcome as always :)

You'll get no argument here that it's hand-wavy! My goal was to point out that both our immune systems and our minds are imperfect at assessing threats and we can suffer greatly as a result. I'm glad you still found it thought-provoking.

If you are able to deal with existential threats without "feeling the slightest bit anxious or paranoid," you are very fortunate and not the intended audience :)

I agree, however, that planning is often helpful for reducing anxiety, insofar as it reduces uncertainty.

That's what the next essay is about: how to move the Paranoia Line

Thanks for sharing! I agree that certain anxieties are "rational." As I mentioned at the end of this piece, my second essay in this series will be about why people get anxious about different things. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on how my model for that compares to your research.

That's right, I'm writing this essay series for founders whose anxiety is interfering with their happiness and effectiveness.

Regarding blue instead of black, you read my mind for the second essay :)

We get our data from mostly the same sources, so this should almost never happen. (There are also lots of times we have better rates than Kayak, e.g. on Amtrak and Airbnb, which they don't have.) Next time you see this, could you email contact@hipmunk.com?

You can enter multiple airports (as long as they're in the same time zone). Just separate them with commas.

And we (Hipmunk) support the first 4 of those too. Just type two colons after your city code. :)

We would love to integrate Southwest! Unfortunately, they don't let anyone do that. You'll find other low-cost carriers on Hipmunk, though.

Southwest offers a lot of flights between SFO and LAX, but it's not true that the big carriers don't. I did a search on June 25 one-way SFO-LAX. Southwest has 12 non-stops. Delta has 11, and United has 16.

It depends on the kind of traveler (business travelers have shorter lead-time, leisure travelers have longer), but 3 weeks is a reasonable guess—probably on the shorter end—for what Google customers will be looking for.

No tears over here! We've known this was coming for almost a year—Google announced their ITA acquisition before we even launched. We've also been preparing some sweet responses :)

We (Hipmunk) have Jetblue, and so does Kayak and Google. We also let you figure out the cheapest days to fly: just click "I'm flexible."

Possibly due to a fare update happening around the time you did the search. When I do that search on Hipmunk I see a lowest fare of $899 (http://www.hipmunk.com/#!ORD_HNL,Dec28_Jan05@0,0) for a one-stop flight in each direction. Kayak's price is the same for the same itinerary.

Admittedly Kayak has one flight for $870 and a few for $896, but they involved two stops.

No, we don't.

There's a major difference between the behavior of leisure and business travelers. Leisure travelers have (historically) been price-sensitive in the extreme. Business travelers have been way more schedule- and airline-sensitive. This is why you see so many perks thrown at business travelers (free upgrades, etc.)—it's an attempt by the airlines to win the business of their most profitable clients.

As to whether airlines will be inspired to install more wi-fi, consider this: all the major US airlines that don't already have wi-fi on their entire fleet have announced plans to install it on a lot more of their fleet this year. They're hoping people—especially business travelers—will make their purchasing decisions on the basis of wi-fi.

I'm no fan of software patents either, but nowadays it really can be a matter of company survival. If some big, entrenched player starts picking on you with their patents, and you don't have anything of your own to defend with or cross-license, you're in bad shape.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Sorry you don't like the structure. I tried to emphasize the import points so even those who were skimming could get an idea of what to remember.

As to the question of "niceness," I disagree wholeheartedly. All the advice here is to use resources that are provided to all passengers.

Moreover, the person who makes it to the front of the line in the status quo has no moral superiority over others that somehow makes them more deserving of a convenient flight. Indeed, the reason someone would make it to the front of the line is typically a function of luck (they're seated nearer to the front of the plane, or they know exactly where the counter is because they fly through the airport often, or they're alone and in good health and therefore able to sprint to the counter faster than the elderly, disabled, and families).

By contrast, you actively do a service to your fellow passengers by using this article's methods: you don't take up a space in line that makes everyone else wait longer.

But if you're a believer in generalizability instead, consider this: If everyone followed this article's advice, everyone would be equally likely to get the best remaining seats (which seems ultimately the most fair allocation). But nobody would have to wait in long lines.

True—but Matrix doesn't let you book tickets. :)