Little Talk:

***

Seven walks for seven brothers

On November 14, I started the Waterdog Challenge, though initially I was not aware of it (Waterdog is a nearby lake). The rules for the challenge, as they evolved:

1. Seven different routes for walks near Waterdog Lake, the shortest of which is worth 1 point, the longest of which is worth 4.5 points (1 point equals about 40 minutes of walking)

2. 1 point for every 3 km on the treadmill

3. 1 point for every 48 minutes on the elliptical

After a few days of walking, the goal I set for myself was 180 points, and so far I have not had a reason to cut it short, or stretch it out. I am currently at 144.5 points, perhaps an average of slightly less than 3 points a day.

I think I assumed that once I started trail walking, I would stop using the elliptical, or the treadmill. But somewhat to my surprise, I found I really liked the combination of television + elliptical. Televison + treadmill is also not bad, but I perhaps found it too easy to pick up blisters when trying to combine the two. Perhaps I will try to replace the treadmill with an exercise bike.

Another, not exactly surprise, but clarification, was the discovery of my ideal routine, in the context of the challenge:

1. Foot hits the trail: Half past nine-ish. The earliest I managed to hit the trail was seven. The latest, while still managing to actually hit the trail, was perhaps 12. Therefore the ideal, canonical time to hit the trail was perhaps half-past nine.

2. Foot quits the trail: Half past one-ish. Three hours walking + one hour mooching, malingering, moseying and meandering equals four hours on the trail. I rarely spent four hours on the trail. But sometimes I did.

3. Foot hits the machine: Half past three-ish. I very rarely managed to hit the machine by half-past three. But I generally started to think about hitting the machine around then. And, of course, machines, unlike trails, do not have a deadline for daylight.

4. Foot quits the machine: Five-ish. 98 minutes on the machine equals 2 points, and 2 episodes of a 50 minute TV show, or perhaps one World Cup football match, which is a satisfying amount of television to watch, in the context of exercising. I also remember a Peter O'Toole marathon, where I worked through a Lawrence of Arabia DVD over a few days, then a Becket DVD, over a few days more. Incidentally, Becket's attitude towards Brother John seems to me the correct attitude for complacent middle-age to have towards non-complacent youth.

I think I have wanted to do something like this challenge for at least the past five years. Possibly I have wanted to do something like this for as far back as 30 years ago. At least, in 1993, I have a memory, of waking up very early, going for, not a long walk, but a short jog, and then coming back home to watch the French Open on early morning TV. I think, back then, in 1993, I kept up that routine for two or three days.

***

How much web-surfing does a man require?

My current answer: Several peeks, two of them named, and two pokes.

Peek #1: Dawn

Peek #2: Dusk

Poke #1: Noon (Morning / Afternoon)

Poke #2: Night (Evening / Night)

*** 

I was unable to donate a Poirot DVD until I had first re-watched the scene where Poirot eats a hand-made chocolate. Perhaps because I know my dad liked that scene as well. When we watched it, my dad made the point that the way Poirot enjoyed the chocolate made the chocolate-maker feel good, and appreciated.

***

Next post: January 29, 2023

Little Talk:

***

One more memory of my dad: We were watching the 2021 Nets-Bucks series, and suddenly my dad said, "That Dadhiwala is for New York? I thought he was Houston!" I might be biased, but "That Dadhiwala" seems to me to be the perfect basketball nickname for James Harden.

***

Notes On Technical Reading IV: This Time It's Technical

0. Skimming

1. Reading

2. Walk-through

3. Review questions (if any)

4. Exercises (if any)

5. Reflection, review, re-reading, repetition

I suspect what happens for many people in school is that because of pressure of grades, deadlines, dominions, principalities, powers, parties, they go from skimming straight to review questions.

***

 How Much Diet Does A Man Require?

Alas, I still don't know. But I have a at least settled on what my natural eating pattern is:

1. Morning Snack: 7-8ish

2. Breakfast: 9-10ish

3. Lunch: 1-2ish

4. Tea: 4-5ish

5. Dinner: 7-8ish

6. Evening Snack: 9-10ish

The morning and evening snack are, of course, probably optional, except possibly when exercising early, or exercising late. The people who do intermittent fasting inform us that breakfast and dinner are also optional, though, to be honest, I have never found them to be so.

The right way to go about it, perhaps, is to find a diet that works in terms of energy, alertness and enjoyment, and then decide what sacrifices, if any, you wish to make in order to propitiate the weight-loss gods. 

A less stigmatizing way to talk about weight might be to talk about energy/food ratios. People who have a tendency to put on weight easily can perhaps be thought of as people who have a tendency to have low energy/food ratios, and who therefore have a tendency to eat more, in order to try to keep their energy levels up. And when exercise helps people lose weight, my guess is that it is not because of the calories burned, but because, in these people, exercise increases their energy/food ratio. (To quote the Bette Midler character in Ruthless People: "My body's become a more efficient machine! I go farther with less food!") For - though no one will believe it - weight loss is a technical and difficult subject.

A bit of Wodehouse:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Mr_Mulliner

"How do you do? A whisky-and-soda?"

"I thank you, no. I am a total abstainer. I found that alcohol had a tendency to increase my weight, so I gave it up. I have also given up butter, potatoes, soups of all kinds and . . .However," he broke off, the fanatic gleam which comes into the eyes of all fat men who are describing their system of diet fading away, " this is not a social call, and I must not take up your time with idle talk. . .

Wilfred's eyes narrowed. . .He gazed piercingly at his visitor, no longer deceived by the superficial geniality of his appearance. He had read too many detective stories where the fat, jolly, red-faced man turns out a fiend in human shape to be a ready victim to appearances. . .

To attempt to analyze the young man's emotions, as the next week dragged itself by, would be merely morbid. Life cannot, of course, be all sunshine : and in relating a story like this, which is a slice of life, one must pay as much attention to shade as to light: nevertheless, it would be tedious were I to describe to you in detail the soul-torments which afflicted Wilfred Mulliner as day followed day and no solution to the problem presented itself. . .

His eyes became sunken. His cheek-bones stood out. He lost weight. And so noticeable was this change in his physique that Sir Jasper ffinch-ffarrowmere commented on it one evening in tones of unconcealed envy.

"How the devil, Straker," he said - for this was the pseudonym under which Wilfred was passing, " do you manage to keep so thin? Judging by the weekly books, you eat like a starving Esquimaux, and yet you don't put on weight. Now I, in addition to knocking off butter and potatoes, have started drinking hot unsweetened lemon-juice each night before retiring: and yet, damme," he said - for, like all baronets, he was careless in his language, " I weighed myself this morning, and I was up another six ounces. What's the explanation? "

"Yes, Sir Jasper," said Wilfred, mechanically.

"What the devil do you mean, Yes, Sir Jasper? "

"No, Sir Jasper."

The baronet wheezed plaintively.

"I've been studying this matter closely,' he said,' and it's one of the seven wonders of the world. Have you ever seen a fat valet? Of course not. Nor has anybody else. There is no such thing as a fat valet. And yet there is scarcely a moment during the day when a valet is not eating. He rises at six-thirty, and at seven is having coffee and buttered toast. At eight, he breakfasts off porridge, cream, eggs, bacon, jam, bread, butter, more eggs, more bacon, more jam, more tea, and more butter, finishing up with a slice of cold ham and a sardine. At eleven o'clock he has his 'elevenses,' consisting of coffee, cream, more bread and more butter. At one, luncheon - a hearty meal, replete with every form of starchy food and lots of beer. If he can get at the port, he has port. At three, a snack. At four, another snack. At five, tea and buttered toast. At seven - dinner, probably with floury potatoes, and certainly with lots more beer. At nine, another snack. And at ten-thirty he retires to bed, taking with him a glass of milk and a plate of biscuits to keep himself from getting hungry in the night. And yet he remains as slender as a string-bean, while I, who have been dieting for years . . .am growing a third and supplementary chin. These are mysteries, Straker."

"Yes, Sir Jasper."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," said the baronet, " I'm getting down one of those indoor Turkish Bath cabinet-affairs from London; and if that doesn't do the trick, I give up. . ."

***

 How Much Exercise Does A Man Require?

My current answer:  5 days of light/moderate exercise, 1 day of moderate/heavy exercise, 1 rest day.

My current definition of:

light: 2 short

moderate: 2 short, + 1

heavy: 2 short, + 2

where warm-up equals 0 to 10, short equals 10 to 30, medium equals 30 to 60, long equals 60 to 100.

***

How Much Work Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

core work hours: 9-10ish to 7-8ish

super-core work hours: 11-12ish to 5-6ish

super-super core work hours: 1-2ish to 3-4ish

extended work hours: 7-8ish to 9-10ish

super-extended work hours: 5-6ish to 11-12ish

super-super extended work hours: 3-4ish to 1-2ish

Perhaps another way to think about it:

6:30 to 10:30: ease in to work

10:30 to 6:30: work, with breaks

6:30 to 10:30: ease out of work

***

How Much Day Job Does A Man Require?

Back in the day, I was utterly defeated by the problem of combining diet, exercise, a day job, a passion project, and a longish commute. In hindsight, my opinion on what I should have done:

1. Leave enough time for at least 60-100 minutes of walking. For example, two two-mile walks, or one four-mile walk. The easiest way to do this might be a two-mile walk to work, and a two-mile walk back.

2. Divide the work day into 3 sessions of between 2 to 4 hours. For example, 10-1, 1-4, 4-7. Or 11-1, 1-4, 4-6. Or 10-1, 1-5, 5-7. Or 10-1, 1-5, 5-8. Or 9-1, 1-5, 5-8. Or whatever.

3. Keep the first 2 sessions for core responsibilities, whether at work or home.

4. Keep the third session as a wild-card session, to be used for core responsibilities, or passion projects, or work events, or community events, or friends & family, or whatever.

Would this have worked? Probably not. But it perhaps would have had a chance of working.

***

How Much Web-Surfing Does A Man Require?

My current answer: Several peeks, two of them named, and one poke.

Peek #1: The email, the messaging, the choosing of the playlist. Plus, the web!

Peek #2: More email, more messaging, more playlist, more web.

Poke: Leisurely loitering, without too much intent. If any.

Approximate timings for all this peeking and poking:

Peek #1: Before work

Peek #2: Short breaks from work

Poke: Long breaks from work / after work

Weekday:

Peek #1: Before 10:30

Peek #2: 10:30 - 6:30

Poke: After 6:30

Weekend:

No restrictions.

***

How Much Playlist Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 10 items in the queue

Types of podcasts:

Poco podcasts: short podcasts, to allow you to wet your beak, a little 

Pezzonovante podcasts: podcasts of substance, podcasts of the belly.

Paisan podcasts: light podcasts, chit-chat podcasts. After all, we're practically paisan.

"Ideal" playlist:

3 poco podcasts

3 pezzonovante podcasts

3 paisan podcasts

1 Podcast to rule them all.

***

How Much Week-End Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 

Baseline weekend activities: work/errands

In addition to baseline: 

One-Scoop Weekend ("Saturday"):

Morning-Noon: recreation, rest, or reflection

Afternoon-Night: recreation, rest, reflection or relaxation

Two-Scoop Weekend ("Saturday" & "Sunday"):

Saturday morning-noon: recreation & rest

Saturday afternoon-night: recreation, rest or relaxation

Sunday: reflection, rest, recreation or relaxation

Three-Scoop Weekend ("Friday", "Saturday" & "Sunday"):

Friday-Saturday noon: recreation & rest

Saturday afternoon-night: recreation, rest or relaxation

Sunday: reflection, rest, recreation or relaxation

If on an irregular schedule: Define different days as "Friday", "Saturday" or "Sunday"

If on a very irregular schedule: Define Tuesday as "Friday", Wednesday as "Saturday", Thursday as "Sunday".

It would perhaps be progress if people found ways of relaxing that do not dull the faculties. Perhaps.

***

How Much Cardio Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 2 short.

Types of cardio sessions:

warm-up: 0-10 minutes

short: 10-30 minutes

medium: 30-60 minutes

long: 60-100 minutes

Quantities of cardio:

In terms of sessions:

Absolute Minimum: 1 short

Marge Innovera Minimum: 2 short

Herbert-Sherbert Moderation: 2 short, + 1

Marge Innovera Maximum: 2 short, + 2

Absolute Maximum: 2 short, + 3

In terms of ranges:

abs min: 0-20 minutes

moe min: 20-60 minutes

hsm: 60-120 minutes

moe max: 120-200 minutes

abs max: 200-300 minutes

In terms of a number:

abs min: 10 minutes

moe min: 40 minutes

hsm: 90 minutes

moe max: 160 minutes

abs max: 250 minutes

Herbert-Sherbert moderation refers to the most sensible man in the world, Bob Herbert, and the most sensible dessert in the world, sherbert: not as rich as ice cream, not as skint as sorbet.

 https://washingtonmonthly.com/2007/10/01/why-is-bob-herbert-boring-2/

  ***

How Much Reading Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 

2 types of reading, tracked and untracked.

For tracked reading:

Non-difficult, non technical reading:

Absolute Max: 96,000 words / 480 pages a week.

Absolute Min: 6,000 words / 30 pages a week.

Difficult, technical reading:

Absolute Max: 48,000 words / 160 pages a week.

Absolute Min: 3,000 words / 10 pages a week.

For untracked reading:

It's not tracked.

***

Big talk:

***

One of my favorite blog posts is Kieran Healy's imagined conversation between a Bright and a Person On The Street. 

https://crookedtimber.org/2003/07/13/bright-is-as-bright-does/

Bright: Excuse me, did you inquire about my worldview, and my life-philosophy?

Person On The Street: No, I asked whether you had the time.

Bright: Well, actually, I am a Bright.

Person On The Street:

In that spirit, my opinions about effective altruism, as far as i can make them out:

1. If you can make a difference, you should.

2. It's difficult to make a difference in your own life, let alone in the life of someone else.

3. Nevertheless, perhaps because of the paradoxical nature of the world, sometimes it can actually be easier to make a difference for somebody else than for yourself. One should be alert for those opportunities.

A letter of CS Lewis: 

https://books.google.com/books/about/Letters_of_C_S_Lewis.html?id=fuz-CwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

To 'Mrs. Arnold': from Magdalen College

26 December, 1951

 I am v. glad you have discovered Francois de Sales. I would regard his prose and Geo. Herbert's verse as the sweetest of religious writings. And how remarkable it is that such a man's mere statement that anxiety is a great evil at once helps you to escape from that evil. That indeed seems to be one of the magical Laws of this very creation in which we live: that the thing we know already, the thing we have said to ourselves a hundred times, when said by someone else becomes suddenly operative. It is part of [Charles] Williams' doctrine, isn't it? - that no one can paddle his own canoe but everyone can paddle someone else's. . .

 ***

Podcasting shows promise for being one of those democratic mediums, like teaching or talk show hosting, which everyone assumes that they can do. My 2 ideas for podcasts:

1. Facts, Kibbitz, Outrage & Kiba

First, you start with facts. Facts, facts, facts, facts, facts. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

When you have enough facts, time to kibbitz. Kibbitz, kibbitz kibbitz, kibbitz, kibbitz. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

At some point in the kibbitzing, you should be feeling just and appropriate outrage at some of the more outrageous facts. It's time to express that outrage! Rage, rage, rage, rage, rage. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

But, as with most things, it's possible to rage too hard, or too long. Once we reach that point, we need the Kiban philosophy of charity, good will, and shepherding each other away from the path of poison and destruction. Perhaps that, along with walking the earth, will see us through.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_Kiba 

2. Method of Exhaustion

A big room, a big topic, and:

3-5 experts.

3-5 generalists.

3-5 gluttons and winebibbers.

3-5 publicans and sinners, of no merit whatsoever.

3-5 friends of publicans and sinners.

3-5 moderators, moderating web forums and audience call-ins.

3-5 editors

The experts pull more experts into the conversation, as needed. No one leaves the room until the world is set to rights and everything that can be said on the big topic, has been said. Then the editors get to editing, until they have a transcript of a podcast, and a podcast.

***

One of the challenges for democrats in this election is playing defense on crime, immigration and inflation. What I think I might want to hear from politicians on these issues:

On crime: Over-policing is a problem, and under-policing is a problem. We have thought about both, and have policies for both.

On immigration: Too little immigration is a problem, and too much immigration is a problem. We have thought about both, and have policies for both.

On inflation: Inflation is caused either by too much money, or too few goods. We have thought about both, and have policies for both.

On the issue of transportation inflation specifically, I would like democrats to make a commitment that every American should have a reasonably low-cost, reasonably convenient, low-emission way of getting where they need to go. I think that might be achieved partly by subsidizing low-cost EVs, partly by putting more money into public transit, increasing the the frequency of routes, and route coverage. For example, I was genuinely surprised to find that there were no bus routes that will get you to the Sawyer Camp Trail.

***

This seems like a good podcast to me:

Productivity and workforce whiplash

***

My ideal playoff format for major-league baseball:

1. A 140 game regular season. Every win in the regular season gets 1 point.

2. An end of season tournament of 25 games. The tournament games count as regular season games, so technically the regular season would increase from 162 to 165 games.

3. The top six teams in each league qualify for the first division tournament. The next 6 teams in each league qualify for the second division tournament. The bottom 3 teams in each league qualify for the third division tournament. If major-league baseball ever expands, the bottom teams in each league might qualify for a fourth division tournament, along with top teams from the minor leagues. The lower division teams compete for cash prizes.

4. In the tournament, each team plays each other 5 times. The higher-seed plays 3 games at home. 

5. The amount of points a team gets for each tournament win depends on how much you want the regular season to count. If each tournament win gets 4 points, it would be relatively easy for a wildcard team to overtake the top seed. If each tournament win gets 2 points, it would be more difficult.

6. The pennant winners for each league play in a nine-game World Series

 ***

My ideal playoff format for the NBA:

1. The top seeds from each conference get a bye into the conference semi-finals. 

2. The other 9 playoff teams would play in a playoff tournament, where every team plays each other once. The higher seed plays at home. 

3. The top 3 teams from the tournament would qualify for the conference semifinals.

4. The 1 seed and the 4 seed would play in a best of 8 series, where the 1 seed has to win 4 games, and the 4 seed has to win 5.

5. For a 1 seed to win the NBA championship, they would have to win the Moses Malone 4-4-4. Lower seeds would have to win more.

6. This system would increase the number of playoff games. But it would also increase the value of getting the 1 seed. And the top seeds would have the advantage in the tournament that they would have most of their games at home.

***

I've mentioned that there were two moments in the Trump presidency that shocked me.

The first was in the first week, when word started to come from the airports that some people with green cards were not being allowed into the country.

The second was the Comey firing. I have said before, and have no problem saying again, that until that day the US was not the type of country where the President could call in the FBI director, request lenient treatment for family and friends, and fire the FBI director when he refused to go along.

There were in fact two more moments.

The third was when Trump started promoting Ivermectin on national television. I remember thinking at the time, "Either this treatment better damn well work, or surely Trump will have to resign." Well, the treatment did not work. Trump did not resign.

The fourth was the rush to execute in the final weeks of the Trump presidency.

https://theintercept.com/2021/01/14/dustin-higgs-federal-executions-death-penalty/

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260

The sins of democracy are sloth and envy, the sins of un-democracy, cruelty and servility. I think most democrats would agree that as bad as the cruelty of the Trump presidency was, the servility was even worse: Dr Birx looking at Trump during those press conferences, like the Healer at St. Mungo's looked at Gilderoy Lockhart.

Next post: December 29, 2022

Little Talk:

***

A few more memories of my dad:

1. Like every econ-adjacent person (he was an operations research phd), my dad had his plan for reforming the tax code. His plan, to the extent I understood it, involved a kind of a progressive VAT tax. The key idea was that the first five or ten thousand of dollars that people paid in VAT would be refunded to them. The result was that people in the informal sector of the economy would have an incentive to report their income, rather than having an incentive to keep their income off the books.

2. At his first big job, with his first big employer, the company instituted a plan that if an employee came up with some idea or innovation which increased revenue, the employee would get a percentage of that revenue. One of my dad's colleagues came up with a simple idea, which led to a fairly large amount of revenue. The company perhaps felt that the idea was too simple and too obvious, and was not the kind of thing that they meant to reward. They refused to pay up. My dad's colleague sued, and got a somewhat sympathetic judge. At first. Before things got too serious, the company appealed, and got a more senior,  corporate-friendly judge assigned to the case, who found for the company, and nipped things in the bud.

3. One year, my dad dawdled, dithered and delayed in getting his flu shot. I particularly enjoyed the roasting my mom gave him, after he tried to come up with some reason to justify the delay: "Ranga, are you a complete illiterate? Do you understand anything about science?" Then she went into some detail about how the vaccines are made, details that I did not in fact know.

***

Notes on technical reading III

So, the bottom line is that slowly, over the past thirty years, I seem to have learned how to read. Perhaps over the next thirty, I will learn how to write!

I suspect we will find that slow, deliberate reading has some of the same benefits as slow, deliberate breathing or slow, deliberate exercise.

***

I read through the first four chapters of Thomson and Welling's PHP and MySQL Web Development, the last chapter of which ended in a long exposition on regular expressions. Well, it felt long, anyway. After reading about regular expressions, my head hurt, and I felt in need of a change, so I went to the library and borrowed five books:

1. Javascript Everywhere (Adam D. Scott)

2. Web Development with Node & Express (Ethan Brown)

3. MongoDB: The Definitive Guide (Shannon Bradshaw, Eoin Brazil & Kristina Chodorow)

4. Learning MySQL (Vinicius M. Grippa & Sergey Kuzmichev)

5. Using SVG with CSS3 & HTML5 (Amelia Bellamy-Royds, Kurt Cagle & Dudley Storey)

If I can renew the books a few times, I might be able to work through them. So far, I have done a first-pass reading of Javascript Everywhere (on the whole, very good), and have the read the first few dozen pages of Web Development with Node & Express (so far, excellent).

***

Big talk:

***

If you want to make sense of this era, you can perhaps think of it as a conflict between the impulse to cruelty and the impulse to laziness. You can perhaps think of it as a sort of demented Miller Lite ad, where instead of shouting "Tastes Great! Less Filling!", the people instead shout "More Cruel! Less Lazy!".

So if the left-coalition is opposed to cruelty, and the right-coalition is opposed to laziness, how is it that the the right-coalition wound up with a leader like Trump? My guess is that Trump took the traditional conservative opposition to laziness, and enhanced it with the pleasure of shamelessness, and the pleasure of a double standard: the message is that laziness is not ok for the wrong sort of people, but it is maybe kind of ok for the right sort of people. There were apparently a lot a people in modern society looking for some relief from the prison of shame, and the prison of the golden rule, and that desire for relief from judgement perhaps led them to be more ok with the idea of Trump as president, than they perhaps should have been.

The people who can get us out of this, perhaps, are the people who can reject both cruelty and laziness. We must stop justifying our laziness on the grounds that at least we're not committing genocide, we must stop justifying our cruelty on the grounds that at least it gets us off the couch. Let me know if you manage it.

Lefty & Center-Lefty

[Jan 20, 2021]

CL: Congratulations, Lefty! Starting today, you will not have a government that wakes up each morning dreaming up new ways to mess with people's lives!

L: Well, that's something. So you're telling me that we will have a government that wakes up each morning dreaming up new ways to help with people's lives?

CL: . . .Yes! Yes! Why not? . . .Yes! We can do this, Lefty! We can do this!

L: Really? Are you sure?

CL: Yes! I won't abandon you, Lefty! I will not abandon you! I will never abandon you!

http://www.cswap.com/1990/Cadillac_Man/cap/en/25fps/a/01_17

[18 months later]

CL: Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into, Lefty! Why did you have to run your mouth about socialism?

L: When Sinema said that she doesn't care, she'll either surf or ski, and when Manchin said that he doesn't do contracts, but what you do have is his word, hadn't you watched the rest of that movie?

I do in fact think that there will be long term benefits from running the economy hot, and leaving the zero lower bound. But no question, in the short term, a lot of pain from the mixture of higher prices and asset deflation.

***

During the Clinton impeachment, Barney Frank said, "Clinton is deserving of fairness, but not of indignation." The same thing seems to me true of Democrats in general. A government run by Democrats will not hire staff who generate policies like enhanced interrogation, or family separation. But it will not necessarily be all that nimble in counter-acting the effects of those policies.

I liked Ta-Nehisi Coates's point that voting is like taking out the garbage. You perhaps shouldn't get a medal for it. Nevertheless, still a good thing to do.

 Among the fault lines of modern politics:

1. Whether to be a Knocker or a Booster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boosterism

2. Whether to speak truth to power, or to speak couth to power

3. Whether to hatao the garibi, or hatao the garib. (remove the poverty, or remove the poor)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibi_Hatao 

4. Whether to make your numbers by cost-cutting & consolidation, or to try to make your numbers by cleverness, or courage, or painstaking care.

The annoying thing about this era is that it often involves halfhearted attempts to do the right thing, followed by frantic, undignified backsliding. But perhaps that is true of any era. 

***

While cleaning out my dad's study, a document describing his 2006 Kaiser health plan caught my eye:

```

Annual Out-of-Pocket Maximum

For one Member: $1500 per calendar year

For an entire Family Unit of two or more Members: $3000 per calendar year

Professional Services (Plan Provider office visits)

Primary and specialty care visits (includes routine and urgent care appointments): $15 per visit

Routine preventive physical exams: $15 per visit

Well-child preventive care visits (0-23 months): $5 per visit

Family planning visits:  $15 per visit

Scheduled prenatal care and first postpartum visit: $5 per visit

Voluntary termination of pregnancy: $15 per procedure

Eye exams: $15 per visit

Hearing tests: $15 per visit

Physical, occupational and speech therapy visits: $15 per visit

Outpatient Services

Outpatient surgery: $100 per procedure

Allergy injection visits: $3 per visit

Allergy testing visits: $15 per visit

Immunizations: No charge

X-rays and lab tests: No charge

Health education: $15 per individual visit, No charge for group visits

Hospitalization Services

Room and board, surgery, anesthesia, X-rays, lab tests, and drugs: $250 per admission

Emergency Health Coverage

Emergency Department visits: $100 per visit (does not apply if admitted directly to the hospital as an inpatient)

Ambulance Services

Ambulance Services: $50 per trip

Prescription Drug Coverage

Most covered outpatient items in accord with our drug formulary when obtained at Plan Pharmacies:

Generic items: $10 for a 100-day supply

Brand name items: $15 for a 100-day supply

Durable Medical Equipment

Most covered durable medical equipment for home use in accord with our DME formulary: 20% Coinsurance

Mental Health Services

Inpatient psychiatric care (up to 45 days per calendar year): $250 per admission

Outpatient visits:

Up to a total of 20 individual and group therapy visits per calendar year: $15 per individual therapy visits, $7 per group therapy visits

Up to 20 additional group therapy visits that meet Medical Group criteria in the same calendar year: $7 per group therapy visit

Note: Visit and day limits do not apply to serious emotional disturbances of children and severe mental illnesses as described in the Evidence of Coverage.

Chemical Dependency Services

Inpatient detoxification: $250 per admission

Outpatient individual therapy visits: $15 per visit

Outpatient group therapy visits: $5 per visit

Transitional residential recovery Services (up to 60 days per calendar year, not to exceed 120 days in any five-year period): $100 per admission

Home Health Services

Home health care (up to 100 two-hour visits per calendar year): No charge

Other

Skilled nursing facility care (up to 100 days per benefit period): No charge

All covered Services related to infertility treatment: 50% Coinsurance

Hospice care: no charge

```

A couple of things to note about the document:

1. It seems to me a good picture of what reasonably good, straight-forward, no-gimmicks health insurance looked like, circa 2006.

2. The numbers are refreshingly free of data science. You can tell that the numbers have not been chopped up and spit out by the machine-learning meat grinder, it's just a semi-benevolent HMO executive making up fairly arbitrary numbers off the top of their heads. I think it's fair to assume that the species of semi-benevolent HMO executive, always endangered, has gone extinct sometime in the last 15 years.

3. If single payer is too difficult, perhaps it's possible to start by setting an out-of-pocket ceiling for various categories of care. For example, an out of pocket ceiling for ambulance services of $500 or $1000 dollars per trip.

Next post: October 27, 2022

Little talk:

***

Absent Friends

My dad would have been glued to the TV for the Jan. 6 hearings, and the Watergate anniversary. "This is history!", he would have been saying. "This is history!"

It's perhaps appropriate to talk about some of my dad's political opinions:

1. My (highly imperfect) understanding of Sri Lankan politics is that the LTTE (which I do not support) agreed to a cease-fire with a moderate Sri Lankan government. Then a non-moderate government came into power, escalated tensions, with a fair amount of help from the LTTE, and eventually cancelled the cease-fire agreement. The military readiness of the LTTE had declined during the years of the cease-fire, and they were routed, with hard-to-forgive human rights abuses committed in the last stages of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullivaikkal_massacre

So I was complaining about the human rights abuses being committed by the Rajapaksa government. My dad heard out my complaints, and did not disagree with me, but, significantly, he refused to let the LTTE off the hook. "Why did they stop at a cease-fire?" "Why didn't they take the chance when there was a moderate government in power and negotiate a comprehensive peace?"

In hindsight, it's perhaps predictable that once Rajapaksa had acquired a taste for committing human rights abuses, he was not going to stop. By tolerating human rights abuses against Sri Lankan Tamils, the Sri Lankans, in the long run, were setting the stage for human rights abuses against Sri Lankan non-Tamils, and the weakening of Sri Lankan democracy.

2. I was complaining, again, about the relentless criticism of the "Nehru-Gandhi" legacy. A family member was defending the criticism, and pointing out that that they were only criticizing I. Gandhi, and not MK Gandhi. I was angry enough that I was not accepting this, and suggested that maybe the RSS was practicing dog whistle politics, holding secret meetings where they were saying, "Actually, when we say Nehru-Gandhi, we mean MK Gandhi! Godse forever!"

My dad did not really take a side, but told me a story about Nehru I had never heard before. It seems that after partition, India owed Pakistan some sterling, but Nehru had withheld payment, after the invasion of Kashmir. Gandhiji started a fast for communal harmony, but also in protest of the government not honoring its agreement. On the third day of the fast, Nehru gave in: the government agreed to pay the sterling owed to Pakistan.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/gandhi-s-last-and-greatest-fast/story-wpf0NL3LgsWUegv7uVTopL.html

It seems to me a story that illustrates the kind of things that political leaders often have to do to keep civilization going: they have to show the restraint to not extract every available form of leverage, to not exploit every available pressure point.

It's a story that reflects well on Gandhiji, of course, but it also seems to me to reflect well on Nehru, that he allowed the little pip-squeak of a saint to get within earshot, to get a hearing, and to change the policy. You don't necessarily want your political leader to be a saint, but you do want a political leader capable of listening to and learning from the saints.

I'm not sure what my dad thought exactly about the rise of the BJP. He was not outraged about it, in the way that I was, or some of my cousins were. He was perhaps bemused by it. And he at least made clear that Nehru, despite many flaws, was nevertheless a great man, worthy of some respect and veneration.

3. My dad told me about a very strange theory, that he attributed to Omar Bradley, that the ideal general is intelligent, and capable, but slightly lazy. Because of the intelligence, and the capability, the general would do the things that were necessary. Because of the laziness, the general would not do the things that were unnecessary, or impossible. My dad not really believe the theory. I doubt Omar Bradley did, either. But it is perhaps worth thinking about the dangers of a hard-working general trying to achieve the impossible, or the unnecessary.

It seems to me a theory that is genuinely politically incorrect, as opposed to the reactionary pseudo-political incorrectness that we have been so awash in for the last thirty years:

 https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/4F10.html

      Bart: Sharing is a bunch of bull, too.  And helping others.  And
            what's all this crap I've been hearing about tolerance?
     Homer: Hmm.  Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to
            subscribe to your newsletter.  

4. The recent election that my dad probably enjoyed the most was the 2020 democratic primary. I particularly remember a debate between my dad, playing the role of the venerable old-timer, and my cousin, playing the role of left-leaning millennial.

My dad: These unrealistic socialist ideas! They are unrealistic!

My cousin: Biden is trash!

I was perhaps a bit off to the side, playing the role of gen-x voice of reason.

Me: Warren is good! Bernie is good! Biden is not trash!

Eventually, my dad's gleeful dunking on socialism got to me, and I was forced to hit, not below the belt, but closer to the belt than I was comfortable. I was forced to remind the venerable old-timer about the time when we had gone to the east coast for Swami Dayananda's 80th birthday, and my dad had slipped and fallen on a New Jersey train platform. He had tried to be stoic, he had tried to walk it off, but eventually he decided to get it checked out. And when he decided to get it checked out, he did not shop around for the best deal, but went to the most reassuring, imposing, medical center-y Medical Center he could find:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_Medical_Center_(Edison,_New_Jersey)

We waited for a good long while in the waiting room, then my dad went in, and we waited for a good longer while, while they conducted tests. While we were waiting I got a good look at a ground-level, policy-taker's view of the system, as opposed to a high level, policy-maker's view:

There was a patient, I think maybe in a wheelchair, holding his arm. He would say, "Ow." Then he would wait a while, perhaps 15-30 seconds, and say "Ow" again. He wasn't screaming it. But he was saying it loud enough to disturb the peace. I think there was some sort of mind game being played between him and the emergency room admitting clerk. The patient perhaps felt that the admitting clerk wasn't giving him high enough priority, and was making him wait too long. He did not feel strongly enough about it to scream and holler and escalate the situation. But he did feel strongly enough about it to keep saying "Ow", every minute, on the minute. The admitting clerk seemed to have developed a thick hide in the course of doing his job, and never gave any evidence that he had heard a single Ow. 

Eventually my dad got a clean bill of health, and we went back to my cousin's home, where we were staying while in New Jersey.

The point of all this is that a couple of months later, JFK Medical Center sent a bill for. . .a lot. Like, a whole lot. I don't remember exactly how much, but it was perhaps a bit more than $10,000 dollars. Kaiser eventually paid an arm and a leg, and my dad paid the rest.

As I said, I was forced to bring up this not all that painful experience in my dad's life in order to best him in a political debate. I reminded my dad of this incident. I reminded him that the medical bill was quite a bit. Then I conducted a thought experiment: Suppose the medical bill had been more? Suppose the bill had been $20,000? Or $30,000? Or $40,000? Or $50,000?

The venerable old-timer grunted irritably. In the context, the grunt meant, roughly, "Your thought experiment is invalid. That wouldn't happen. They wouldn't do something like that."

At which point I had my opening: "Really? Why not? Why wouldn't they? Who's going to stop 'em?"

At which further point my cousin recognized the opening, and joined in on the tag team: "Not Joe Biden!"

***

Notes on technical reading II

zeroth pass: Skimming, scanning, surveying. No thought of rigor, no presh. Your yoke is easy, your burden is light. Be quick.

first pass: A reasonably careful and thorough reading. Some thought of rigor, some presh. Don't hurry.

second pass: Working through examples (if any). 

I find, when working through examples, I am sorting them into three kinds: Snippets, samples, and sample files. Snippets are short bits of code, not necessarily meant to be run through the cpu. Samples are longer bits of code, which can and perhaps should be run through the cpu. Sample files are examples large enough to be in their own individual files or projects.

third pass: Working through review questions (if any) 

fourth pass: Working through exercises (if any)

last pass: Reflection, review, re-reading. Synopsis, summary, notes, highlights, commentary.

Current books in the pile for nth-pass working: Introducing Python, Javascript: The Definitive Guide.

Current books in the pile for first-pass reading:  PHP and MySQL Web Development, Practical SQL: A Beginner's Guide To Storytelling With Data.

***

On First Reading Flanagan's Javascript

Chapter 15 in the latest edition of Flanagan's Javascript is a bit of a monster, where Flanagan covers all of client-side Javascript in a single super-chapter. (Chapters 1-14 are core Javascript, common to client and server. Chapter 16 is server-side. And chapter  17 is Javascript extensions) Perhaps for that reason, it's useful as an upper bound for how long it should take to read a chapter.

It took me 7 days, reading as as much as I could each day. The chapter is 165 pages, about 300-400 words a page, I think.

So my maximum reading rate for technical reading is on the order of 20-25 pages a day, around 8000-10000 words a day.

What should be my minimum reading rate? I think on the order of 2-8 pages a day, around 1000-3000 words a day.

What should be my average reading rate? I think on the order of 5-15 pages a day, around 2000-6000 words a day.

So the minimum amount of time I require for a first-pass reading of the chapter is one week, seven days, 25 pages a day.

The maximum amount of time I perhaps should require is five weeks, 35 days, 5 pages a day.

And a reasonable amount of time, neither min nor max, is perhaps three weeks, 8 pages a day.

It's perhaps interesting to think about what would happen if I had unrealistic expectations about how long reading the chapter should take. What if I though I should be able to read the chapter in 2 or 3 days, rather than 2 or 3 weeks?

In that case, it seems to me, I would wind up falsifying the metrics. I would tell myself I had done the reading, when in fact I hadn't.

***

My current reading plan:

1. HTML, CSS, jQuery

2. C, Python, Javascript

3. PostgreSQL, PHP, MySQL

4. Go, Angular, React

5. Node, Express, NoSQL

6. C++, Java, Lisp

7. Computer organization, hardware/software interface, assembly

I think I can finish the first four steps in the next few months after the next few months. The outlook after that is hazier.

 ***

Big talk:

***

Perhaps the highlight of Ben Carson's campaign: "You know, neurosurgeons tend not to be racist. Because we know that it's our brain that makes us who we are. And we know that everybody's brain is the same color."

***

I am afraid my opinion on what the Democrats should say and do is that they should say things they think are true and do things they think are important.

My opinion on reasonable priorities, apart from war and crime:

1. Climate change / energy transition / energy and transportation costs

2. Child-care / day-care / Pre-K / after-school care

3.  Housing and out of pocket health care costs

4. Good government, the idea of having a trusted point of contact, who you can call and ask for help if you are having issues with government systems, or medical systems, or criminal justice systems, or financial systems.

One of my favorite essays is Neal Stephenson's "In the Beginning was the Command Line". In it he makes the point that when a poor country system breaks down, it breaks down in a simple, transparent way. But when a rich country system breaks down, it breaks down in a way that turns you into a conspiracy theorist:

 http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/in_the_beginning_was_the_command_line/

We like plain dealings and straightforward transactions in America. If you go to Egypt and, say, take a taxi somewhere, you become a part of the taxi driver's life; he refuses to take your money because it would demean your friendship, he follows you around town, and weeps hot tears when you get in some other guy's taxi. You end up meeting his kids at some point, and have to devote all sort of ingenuity to finding some way to compensate him without insulting his honor. It is exhausting. Sometimes you just want a simple Manhattan-style taxi ride.

But in order to have an American-style setup, where you can just go out and hail a taxi and be on your way, there must exist a whole hidden apparatus of medallions, inspectors, commissions, and so forth--which is fine as long as taxis are cheap and you can always get one. When the system fails to work in some way, it is mysterious and infuriating and turns otherwise reasonable people into conspiracy theorists. But when the Egyptian system breaks down, it breaks down transparently. You can't get a taxi, but your driver's nephew will show up, on foot, to explain the problem and apologize.

***

Next post: July 22, 2022

Little talk:

***

Brain Injury of a System Architect

My dad died, November 27, 2021. It's pretty shattering. But we are grateful that he made it to 80 years, 8 months. The two qualities of his that I admire most are his fighting spirit, and his mental strength. I don't know where my dad's ability to compartmentalize came from. No one else in my family has it, or had it. But it seems to me a somewhat rare and valuable gift.

On the last night my dad was alive, the last thing my mother said to him was a Tamil phrase which means, roughly, "I am going. I will come back." It seems to me at once an everyday, matter of fact phrase, and at the same time a statement of deep theological hope: I am going. I will come back.

***

notes on technical reading

zeroth pass: skimming, scanning, surveying

first pass: reading

second pass: working through examples (if any)

third pass: working through review questions (if any)

fourth pass: working through exercises (if any)

last pass: reflection, review, synopsis, summary, notes, highlights, commentary.

two books on the top of the pile, one for first-pass reading, one for nth-pass working.

current books on the top of my pile: 1) Introducing Python (working) 2) Javascript: The Definitive Guide (reading)

tentative opinion on the right speed for first-pass reading:

absolute max: 2 chapters in 1 day

absolute min: 1 chapter in 8 days 

comfortable min: 1 chapter in 4 days

comfortable max: 1 chapter in 1 day

golden mean: between one-third and two-thirds of a chapter a day

On days when I try to get through as much reading as possible, this seems to be the pattern:

1. Start reading in the middle of a chapter, and finish that chapter.

2. Start another chapter, and with some difficulty, finish it.

3. Start a third chapter.

4. At some point during the third chapter, my brain will reliably turn to mush.

Hence, the opinion: absolute max: 2 chapters in 1 day.

My opinions on the right speed for first-pass reading are related to my opinions on the right amount of cardio to do on the treadmill or elliptical.

treadmill:

absolute max: 16 km in 1 day 

absolute min: 1 km in 1 day

comfortable min: 2-3 km in 1 day 

comfortable max: 8-10 km in 1 day

golden mean: 4-6 km in 1 day

elliptical:

absolute min: 12 minutes in 1 day

comfortable min: 24 to 36 minutes in 1 day

comfortable max: 96 to 120 minutes in 1 day

absolute max: 192 minutes in 1 day

golden mean: 48 to 72 minutes in 1 day

It is not news to me that I have often attempted to read too much, the mental equivalent of the alka-seltzer ad. It is perhaps news to me that I have often attempted to read too quickly. In hindsight, it seems obvious that trying to read a difficult chapter in one hour will be hellish; trying to read it in one day will be unpleasant; but if you have the patience to give yourself two or four or eight days, the reading will be at the very least not hellish, and perhaps even positively pleasant.

One of my dad's favorite movie lines is from Patton, written, if you believe the lamestream media, by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North: "I don't like to pay for the same real estate twice."

By trying to read too quickly, and not being willing to throttle my technical reading rate to a much more deliberate speed, I have perhaps wound up paying for the same real estate, not just twice, but dozens of times.

Oh well. Let's hope the view from the heights makes it all worth it.

***

Big talk:

***

James Sinegal: The Camel (in the eye of the needle)

So how did James Sinegal do it? How did he manage to stay so normal, despite being so rich?

***

The eye popping inflation numbers seem to have dented policymakers confidence, which seems to me unfortunate, and unwarranted.

The plan was to run the economy hot, until 2019 levels of employment and output had been recovered. If the vaccines had ended the pandemic, it might have been the right policy. But the vaccines did not end the pandemic. So at some point over the past two years, it has become clear that some of the covid-induced changes to the economy have become permanent, and 2019 is never coming back. This is a bitter pill to swallow, and one of the side-effects of that pill is that increased demand resulted in higher prices, instead of more output. A non-ideal income. But the policy to attempt to recover 2019 levels of employment and output was the right one, in my opinion.

Throttling demand might be a legitimate response to that inflation. But supply-side interventions also seem to me legitimate. And moral-suasion also seems to me legitimate. If John F Kennedy could call out corporate greed, why can't Elizabeth Warren?

It is appropriate for progressives to ask policymakers not to fire the disinflation gun until they have seen the whites of inflation's eyes. If the policymakers respond that at this point, we are not only seeing the whites of inflation's eyes, but are at this very moment tasting an inflation knuckle sandwich, that seems reasonable to me.

***

Like the husband who should not apologize until he knows what he is apologizing for, it seems to me the Biden administration should not cancel student loan debt until they know why they are doing it. (hint: it's not because people with student loan debt are greedy and unreasonable)

One policy that might make sense is to shift from a debt-based system to an equity-based system (For example, offer $30,000 of student loan debt relief for every 1% of future earnings). But it needs to be done in a way that minimizes hassle, and in a way that accepts that some of the money is not going to be repaid, which Obama-era policies did not do.

***

Next post: June 22, 2022