Posts by inthehands@hachyderm.io
(DIR) Post #AlR0Nrq8HtVNSd5vTE by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T17:14:25Z
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THE BIG QUESTION: What purpose does this serve?It wasted a lot of people’s time: mine, the pharmacist’s, the support person at HealthPartner’s, presumably a bunch of people deep inside the pipeline of this whole stupid machine.Did it improve care? No. Did it improve outcomes? No. Did help allocate some resource more efficiently or more effectively? No.Did it even improve net •profit• across the whole health system? No!5/
(DIR) Post #AlR0Nuo7FqfsfFArFA by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T17:19:59Z
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What purpose does this serve?Well, we’ve set up a hideous Nash Equilibrium where health providers, insurers, pharma corps, and governments all stand to save money by relentlessly trying to gouge one of the others into paying for everything.We are simultaneously trying to (1) sort of externalize the cost of health care (lest the market price individual human lives (not that it doesn’t, but we try)) while (2) using the market to make things efficient…somehow. Outcome: nonsense.6/
(DIR) Post #AlR0NxZgxvv3FNRsg4 by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T17:23:04Z
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I don’t love the idea of nationalizing all health care — I think it’s good to have many •strictly nonprofit• hospitals, docs, etc with some degree of autonomy — but I am ready to see private insurance eliminated completely. I don’t see that it adds any value whatsoever.7/
(DIR) Post #AlR0O0EB6NUbTWPF3o by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T17:25:59Z
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That said, stories like this one from @daniel remind us of the danger of one central system making a bad decision for everyone at once:https://social.treehouse.systems/@daniel/113040800671835057In the US, I do at least have the privilege of getting 2 boosters a year, simply because I think it’s a good idea. I don’t want to pretend utopia exists somewhere else.8/
(DIR) Post #AlR0O3Dvxk50ldJab2 by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T17:27:06Z
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TL;DR:- Paul is grumpity.- US folks, if your insurance hasn’t caught up with the updated COVID shot, pay out of pocket if you can and fight for a reimbursement. And maybe write to your electeds (I am)./end
(DIR) Post #AlR4aKlYxwIqSw9ntI by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T19:39:21Z
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@aral why, in this great year of 2024…
(DIR) Post #AlR54JFFBc2IR2Kk6q by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-28T19:45:01Z
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@aral Whereas here in the US our public policy is apparently written by rabid wolverines
(DIR) Post #AlV9VmBMslHqS0iGbg by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-08-30T18:54:00Z
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@futurebirdI am dubious, but greatly admire your capacity for optimism.
(DIR) Post #AlfkYQN04mhFYQsYts by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-04T17:50:42Z
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Oh, this is so good!It’s presented as being about video games, but it’s really about all software:https://lizengland.com/blog/2014/04/the-door-problem/(ht to my colleague Bret Jackson for the link)
(DIR) Post #AlfkYT7rpVNG6Mp1EG by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-04T17:53:30Z
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That link above is perhaps the most easily accessible general audience explanation I’ve seen of what @jenniferplusplus is talking about when she says that:❝The fundamental task of software development is not writing out the syntax that will execute a program. The task is to build a mental model of that complex system, make sense of it, and manage it over time.❞https://jenniferplusplus.com/losing-the-imitation-game/The code is the easy part. But the questions….Next time somebody doesn’t get that, they get the door link.
(DIR) Post #Alr0nIxJezmQuOXfpA by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T04:20:38Z
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A coworker of mine years ago once said of James Earl Jones’s voice, “When he says ‘This…is CNN,’ you think to yourself, ‘Oh my GOD, it is, why did I never think about that??!?”There’s something I want you to about James Earl Jones: he was a person who stuttered.1/
(DIR) Post #Alr0nJdr6po92KRe88 by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T04:23:25Z
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He said: “I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school.“ “It wasn’t that I stopped talking, it’s that I resolved that talking was too difficult.”So what cured him? Wrong question: “I’m still a stutterer. But we all find a way to mask it.”Interview video here: https://achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/#interview2/
(DIR) Post #Alr0nKAT9ZtafThgxs by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T04:29:34Z
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This is James Earl frigging Jones. •The• voice. Stuttered. His whole life. Poetry and acting helped him speak.We judge people impulsively and •incredibly• harshly by how they speak: a stutter, an accent, a dialect, how they make a certain sound, how they sound.In honor of James Earl Jones, let’s all just try to find that judgement within ourselves, grab it with both hands, and yank it out. I know I’ll try./end
(DIR) Post #Alr0nKexKEHYC1y2U4 by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T04:39:51Z
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P.S. Some quick advice if you’re talking to a person who stutters:Relax. Be patient. Don’t rush them. Don’t be anxious for them. Don’t “help” them by completing their word for them. (It’s NOT helpful!) If a stutter starts, let them find their own way through it. Chill. You’re good. It’s all good. Show them you’re listening and attentive, and you don’t mind them taking the time they need. Give them your patience, your attention, and your acceptance.
(DIR) Post #Alr0nNqlSmVi5WW0o4 by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T04:58:03Z
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(The above is paraphrased from my speech-language pathologist spouse, who I would like you to know kicks a whole lot of ass)
(DIR) Post #AlrnxIxjNyLPZy8Nuq by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T02:49:42Z
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To hell with the sliding scale.When I hear the highlights from the presidential debate tomorrow, I expect candidates to be intelligent, articulate, in command of facts and ideas, and thinking in ways that stand to help instead of harm the millions they’ll impact.That's just my lowest baseline standard here. The baseline doesn't move.Harris and Trump are running for the same job, and it's about damned time the press started applying the same standards to both of them.#uspol
(DIR) Post #AlrnxJc8xifdbJ2euG by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T02:55:06Z
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Wednesday morning, a bunch of people are going to be dissecting some minor detail of an esoteric detail of a subclause of an offhand Harris remark about some perfectly well-formed policy idea……and the same people are going to be drooling down their chins in awe because Trump formed •three• nearly coherent sentences when he only formed •two• yesterday.#uspol
(DIR) Post #AlrnxKAAvBtPIqxpx2 by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T03:02:58Z
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To hell with that.One of these people is going to end up steering complex, half-broken systems that can help or harm millions of people. Billions.One of these people is going to end up in control of a bunch of nuclear weapons.One of these people is going to, according the SCOTUS, exist outside the reach of the law while in office.I am not here to pat them on the head and give them doggie treats.#uspol
(DIR) Post #AlrnxKw23GAphHM3Xs by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T03:05:24Z
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Harris and Trump are running for the same job. It’s an enormous job. It’s a job that involves enormous power that probably no single human being should have — but •somebody• is going to end up having it regardless.It’s a job that matters. It matters who does it. It matters if they can think. It matters if they’re a fascist.I think it matters. I’m not sure the political press does, though.#uspol
(DIR) Post #AlrnxNUUY6vVcjUbXE by inthehands@hachyderm.io
2024-09-10T03:08:44Z
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Somebody who's going to be at that debate is really, really confused about the difference between reality TV and real life. They think that the only thing that matters is what the showrunners do to the characters to keep things interesting for the audience. They think that because it’s entertainment, the showrunners should keep it close between the contestants, concoct some drama, give us some fireworks.No, I'm not talking about Trump. I'm talking about the press.#uspol