Author: Joel Gross

In my first job out of college I worked at a company called Visible Technologies that is now out of business. The company had a cool product in 2006 they were building for tracking social media sentiment before that was really a thing. The founders need to go to all of their attention to this project.… read more “My First Job Out Of College”

Authorities in many areas are planning on distributing the Covid vaccine to those most at risk first. I agree that health care workers and other front line workers like grocery store personnel should receive the vaccine first. I do not think that the vaccine should be distributed to the elderly in nursing homes first though.

Studies have clearly shown that the death rate is much higher for the elderly than for the young, so why do I think the elderly should not receive priority vaccinations?… read more “Vaccine Distribution: All Covid Deaths Are Not The Same”

I would like to see a cycling computer game that combines the following:

• Open world with multiplayer and teamwork similar to World of Warcraft. Find a way to have a much simpler and less involved keyboard though. Basically, control everything from your phone and not have to continuously be clicking on it.
• Gaming elements that allow for either very intense sprint workouts with max heart rates for short periods, or allowing for endurance efforts of six or twelve hours if someone chose.

I have been reading some articles lately about the various apps for indoor training platforms… Zwift, Rouvy, CVRcade, Peloton, etc, etc.
I think all of them are missing something… they all try in various ways to replicate the experience of actually doing the activity in question outdoors (running outside or riding in a race with people).… read more “Indoor bike / treadmill = game controller?”

As a person who, in a very small bit part, has helped to build the internet, I am surprised to find that I am terrified of it.

I am embarrassed to admit that I got sucked into unhealthy rabbit holes online today. I started the day well, getting up at 6 am and programming on a new tool I am building and handling emails that came into my company.… read more “The Internet Is Now Terrifying”

What would happen if we did away with the income tax, sales tax, estate tax, property tax, and all other taxes?

The government could simply finance itself by printing money / inflation. Let’s say the government total expenditures were 5% of GDP each year, then you would simply have 5% inflation.

This would solve all the problems we have with income inequality, worthless heirs of the wealthy hoarding riches, and of very complex and expensive IRS and CPA work.… read more “Idea: Inflation Taxation”

Back in his office, Mr. Dealtrey remembers how disturbed he once was about the size of the deficit. “I used to care about my kids and grandkids being stuck with it,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “But nobody cares anymore.” “Maybe I don’t care anymore,” he said, momentarily surprised at his own words.

That above quotes an article in the NYTimes and embodies the attitude of Boomers to future American generations.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24858750

Ban ransom payments and establish a global death penalty for this crime.