Closing the books on another year. It has been … an experience.

I find that most recently I have not been kicking around totally new ideas so much as refining old ones, and along the way figuring out how to do things on my own as it doesn’t help much to ask for help, anyway. Ask how to make a paper airplane, and you’ll get suggestions on why you should use balsa wood instead, quizzed on why you want to build such a thing in the first place, and a link to commercial aircraft builder, where you can purchase a much sturdier plane made of steel & aluminum – “if you have the budget”. And no one (usefully) answers your original question. I have labeled this phenomenon ”participation envy”, people feeling compelled to jump on a thread no matter how tangential their reply. That is not everyone, of course, but enough that when I post, it is on the more low traffic areas of the forum. I’m getting a better quality of reply that way.

In the econ/poli area, I have decided to leave talking about it to the guys who do it full-time, like this little gem by Rich Benson

(http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/benson032907.html) that includes:

"If mankind's machines produce more with less labor each year, why shouldn't the dollar I make this year buy more next year?" Shouldn't this increase in productivity flow through to the wage earner and saver?

Besides, far more people are interested in “Who is the true daddy of the dead skank’s baby?”, and other stupidities. It’s a national tragedy these people are allowed to vote and/or breed. “Greatest nation”, sailing on historical momentum, never mind an agriculture & manufacturing base. We can have an economy based on ironing each others shirts, lawn care, and paper pushing. Wait, paper pushing has been outsourced to India. An economy based entirely on “services & information” has never been successfully done before, but Goldilocks says, “This time, it’s different.” Rubbish. I’ll stick to my numbers for now, far less aggravation.

I know some people are feeling discouraged by the lack of feedback they’re getting on their ideas/theories. Just remember, in lottery, real estate, stocks, and other forms of gambling, the majority is always wrong. This can be lonely work. If you are correct, everyone will “love” you soon enough and you will have to hand out clocks, and if you are wrong, you will be no worse off than anyone else. Besides, if everyone is using your system, you’re running the risk that “adjustments” will be made to the (so-called) RNG. Remember the CA Derby game a while back?    

On the coding front, I’m looking for a way to organize the snippets I’ve developed - those little sheet formatting and data handling tricks. The dozen-or-so people here who actually write code should know what I’m talking about. I’ll still kick around ideas/code with those few folks… in the background.

On to year three.