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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 22h

It's an absolutely cursed incentive structure for sure, but maybe we can get the doctors on board. For instance, a law that subsidizes all doctors' pay and also stops the AMA from limiting the doctor supply. There's no law of nature that says doctors' pay has to be set by supply and demand only.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 22h

I think you're right. If we paid doctors 50% more and got rid of the AMA, before long we would have a cheaper healthcare system overall.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 22h

The AMA causes a lot of problems, but isn't all doctor compensation in the US around $0.5 trillion? Whereas the healthcare system as a whole is ten times that. If doctors were paid half what they are now, the savings would be enough to offset healthcare inflation for about one year.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 22h

You're right. Total compensation for all doctors in the US is around 0.5 trillion dollars, compared to about 6 trillion for the healthcare system in total. If all doctors were paid half what they are now, insurance premiums shrink less than 4%.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 3d

It reminds me of physicists saying that chemistry is solved since we know the Dirac equation, or a kid thinking they can open any combination lock once they know how to spin the dials.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, exactly. And nobody but specialists seems to know about it yet. If we posted the price of solar cells by the side of the road like we do the price of gas, maybe politicians would notice that they have some rethinking to do.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 4d

I still recommend the book, partly because it's interesting to see what an intelligent person thought of these technologies not long ago. The world really has changed. www.withouthotair.com

David MacKay FRS: : Contents

www.withouthotair.com

James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 4d

I remember MacKay in his Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air (generally a great book!) say that the best way to use solar energy in Britain was to use the sun to grow grass and use the grass to graze sheep.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 5d

I don't know, which is easier?

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 5d

I found a strange match between periodic cubic splines and a certain integer series: instead of solving a linear system of size N, you would just use N terms. I suspect the number theory is known but the application is novel. Never published because the benefit is small for ordinary values of N.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 9d

regrettably if you try to point this out online you'll get yelled out by 79208 journalists going OH SO YOU WANT JOURNALISTS TO STARVE??? even if you're, say, a journalist yourself, and point out that while there are clearly no easy answers, the status quo isn't exactly working for society

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 15d

The only problem with this is that it doesn't work. Conservative pseudo-Christianity is well aware of this line of attack and carefully prepares its members to defy the direct commands of Christ.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 17d

I agree, but it's important to note that this is easy to mess up. How often has the NY Times interviewed a "swing voter" who turned out to be a local Republican bigwig? It's easy for one's model of the marginal voter to be confused by prejudice and accessibility bias.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · 17d

There are lots of persuadable Trump voters, but you can't tell who they are just by asking.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 26

"At long last, we have created the Chesterton's Fence Remover from the classic conservative allegory Don't Remove Chesterton's Fence."

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 26

The strangest thing about these times is watching self-described conservatives trying to figure out which parts of the world are load-bearing using the sledgehammer method.

SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · Aug 26

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Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · Aug 25

It’s much harder to build housing in Blue states than it is in Red states.

So yes people are moving away from Blue states.

One more reason that addressing the housing shortage in NY and elsewhere must be an urgent priority.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 24

I felt rather betrayed when I learned that mineral sunscreens often work by means of "SPF booster" compounds like butyloctyl salicylate which are basically repackaged chemical sunscreens.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · Aug 23

DEMOCRATS:

1. THE WAY TO MOVE PUBLIC OPINION IS TO ATTRACT ATTENTION

2. THE WAY OT ATTRACT ATTENTION IS TO AMPLIFY GENUINE CONFLICT AND REAL CRISIS

3. THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OF WASHINGTON, D.C. IS A GENUINE CONFLICT AND A REAL CRISIS

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · Aug 23

The most impressive thing about this campaign is how *creative* they are. They’re trying new stuff! Multiple times during the last few months I’ve thought “wow, I’ve never seen a campaign do that.” Much more of that needed everywhere.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Aug 23

Game on.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 23

Come to think of it, the same is probably true of politicians.

James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 23

In other words, they need to realize that their interests are on the side of upholding principles even if they don't do it perfectly themselves.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 23

We need to convince the median voter that their little scam (say, exaggerating tax deductions) is still less than the amount that they are getting hurt by other, bigger scammers.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 22

I have often wondered if this kind of price difference is just a mistake (overestimating how many people want these shoe colors), or if it's a way of finding those who are more price-sensitive than color-sensitive and giving them a deal.

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James Stevenson @allaboutchemist.bsky.social · Aug 21

I would be happy to hear that the industry is not in trouble, but that is not my understanding.

News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools

Chatbots are replacing Google’s traditional search, devastating traffic for some publishers.

www.wsj.com

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