Senate passes tax reform bill

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: Aazadan

Good engineers don't make bad assumptions like that.

How would you know?

TheRedneck

Sorry, been ill and forgot about this thread. Dental emergency (and no dental coverage) with an infected tooth so... that's been fun.

I would know because I'm half decent at what I do. I'm not the best but I'm good enough to graduate from one of the best schools in the world for this particular major.

Anyways, you've been getting more and more hostile in your replies so I want to apologize if I've come across as rude to you. I'm an elitist and an ivory tower type, I don't hide that aspect of my personality at all. It stems from the fact that while I fall far short of it more often than not (especially when I post late at night), I'm still a perfectionist. Many people (including you, I believe) just want to be part of the common rabble, live their life, and be average. That line of thinking is utterly incomprehensible to me. To me, life isn't about oneself, it's about raising the bar for everyone else. This is the root cause of our disagreement, it's just a fundamental difference of opinion in our outlooks on the world.

a reply to: Aazadan

Anyways, you've been getting more and more hostile in your replies so I want to apologize if I've come across as rude to you. I'm an elitist and an ivory tower type, I don't hide that aspect of my personality at all. It stems from the fact that while I fall far short of it more often than not (especially when I post late at night), I'm still a perfectionist. Many people (including you, I believe) just want to be part of the common rabble, live their life, and be average. That line of thinking is utterly incomprehensible to me. To me, life isn't about oneself, it's about raising the bar for everyone else. This is the root cause of our disagreement, it's just a fundamental difference of opinion in our outlooks on the world.

Any hostility is a reflection.

I am good at what I do as well... better than most, if I do say so myself. However, unlike you my intent is not to somehow elevate myself, but to elevate others. Why? Because I want more stimulating conversation, more reasoned opinions to consider, and more reassurance that the world can change for the better. I cannot, and simply put, will not try to, do all that on my own.

An elitist places themselves above others. That's what makes them an elitist. Doing so means they cannot learn from others, for to do so would violate their world view of being better than others. Elitists typically accomplish little more than the creation of misery, because their closed-minded attitude towards others does not allow them to broaden their horizons.

I am a realist. I know what I am capable of and what my talents are, and I respect others for their talents. I look down on no one (except those who would look down on others). I choose to raise the standard of humanity by helping others to achieve more than they think they can, by building them up instead of tearing them down, and by spreading hope that they, too, can make a difference. You degrade others, diminish their sense of self-worth, and tear their hopes and dreams down because that is the only way you can cling to that false belief that you are somehow better than them.

You, sir, are no engineer. You claim to be, but you have no concept of how to apply principles to reality. You have proven that over and over again in this very thread. You may be decent at programming, but I seriously doubt you could perform outside your limited area of expertise. I can learn OOP; as a matter of fact, I am learning OOP at this very moment. I can also program an embedded microprocessor in either C or assembly; I do this all the time. I can not only comprehend physics, but I have the basic knowledge to challenge present thought and develop theories to advance knowledge.

You can sit in a cubicle and do as you are told.

There are many things I cannot do: I am a poor machinist. I can design a part, but making it can take me an inordinate amount of time and could even take multiple tries. I know others who are excellent machinists, and thus I send all my work to them. I appreciate their contribution and their talents. I am a lousy welder; I can run a bead, sometimes, a little, if it's easy. I know welders who can weld anything, and they do almost all my welding. I appreciate their ability. I am a very, very, VERY poor cook; I would likely starve if others dd not assist me in that respect. I appreciate the fact they can take raw food and turn it edible.

I consider myself better than no one, and I consider no one better than myself. We all have varied talents and abilities; when we work together, we become greater than ourselves and can accomplish great things.

You consider yourself better than others. You are not. The very fact you do so makes me look on you with a certain amount of, let's be honest, disgust. I cannot help you, or anyone with such an attitude. If you choose to call that hostility, so be it. I call it reality.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
An elitist places themselves above others. That's what makes them an elitist. Doing so means they cannot learn from others, for to do so would violate their world view of being better than others. Elitists typically accomplish little more than the creation of misery, because their closed-minded attitude towards others does not allow them to broaden their horizons.

Not true at all. I can learn plenty from others. There's a handful of things I consider myself good at, a handful I'm ok at, and a lot I'm bad at. There's also things I actively work to get better at. For example, I've been getting really into cooking lately. Not only would being a chef be a job I would enjoy (though it's doubtful I'll go down that career path), but it has useful utility in day to day life, and knowing it actively improves my quality of life. Right now I'm a pretty bad cook (though I'm an excellent baker... go figure), but I get better each day. Every meal I make tastes just a little bit better than the previous one.

I am a realist. I know what I am capable of and what my talents are, and I respect others for their talents. I look down on no one (except those who would look down on others). I choose to raise the standard of humanity by helping others to achieve more than they think they can, by building them up instead of tearing them down, and by spreading hope that they, too, can make a difference. You degrade others, diminish their sense of self-worth, and tear their hopes and dreams down because that is the only way you can cling to that false belief that you are somehow better than them.

I want to see people reach their potential. Most people need help in order to do so. No ones maximum potential is being a store clerk.

You, sir, are no engineer. You claim to be, but you have no concept of how to apply principles to reality.

You could give me the title of software engineer I guess. It's a different type from what you are. I don't think of myself as an engineer, I don't really think of myself with any specific title to be honest. I just find problems and solve them.

I can learn OOP; as a matter of fact, I am learning OOP at this very moment. I can also program an embedded microprocessor in either C or assembly; I do this all the time.

I would hope so, OOP is not a hard concept. It's easier than data structures or algorithms. My focus tends to be on areas like graph theory, trees, and code efficiency. For some examples of the types of things I do, it would be building a graph that sequences and blends animations together, which can be traversed to make an object behave dynamically. Such as disassembling a machine where there's a general order of operations but individual pieces can be removed in different orders. Or another example would be having a user look at an object and ensuring the object is in front of the user, the user is in front of the object, and both are within a certain angle/distance of each other without using trigonometry as that will wreck your frame rate.

You can sit in a cubicle and do as you are told.

Actually, I have mostly free reign over whatever I do. I'm given general project guidelines and can implement it in any way I choose.

I consider myself better than no one, and I consider no one better than myself. We all have varied talents and abilities; when we work together, we become greater than ourselves and can accomplish great things.

I consider everyone better than me, the fact that I've learned something is proof that it holds no value, because it means everyone else can learn it too. Thus, other people have the potential for everything I bring to the table, plus whatever they bring. While I don't have that. I realize that this perception is skewed and not at all in line with reality, but it's still how I feel about things.

The end result, is that I tend to have high expectations of others, and expect perfection from myself. I usually fall short of my standards.

a reply to: Aazadan

I'm an elitist and an ivory tower type

I consider everyone better than me

No, I think you're confused.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
No, I think you're confused.

Not at all, I think I should be better than most others, because I place much higher demands on myself. It's a failure that I'm not.

a reply to: Aazadan

A wanna-be elitist. Now I've heard it all.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

I suppose that's one way of putting it.

a reply to: TheRedneck

I should expand on that. I honestly believe I fail at everything I've ever tried. As I said, I put extremely high standards on myself. I'll give a couple examples.
1. Some months ago I was reevaluating the system my department was using to program animations, and I made some improvements to the process (I just talked about this a couple posts up). My improvements took the development time from 2 people and 4 months to 1 person and 3 weeks. That's a nearly 94% reduction in development time, which of course translates to money saved. My boss was extremely happy with this, my coworkers liked it too because I made their lives much easier... I viewed it as a failure because it took me months on the job to identify and recognize this when I should have been able to do so from the moment I was hired.

2. As I mentioned above, I've been suffering from really bad dental pain for the past few days. The cause is an infection in a tooth. I don't believe in taking medicine, because I don't agree with hiding from the realities of the world, and medicine that changes that outlook interferes in that. However, the pain was so unbearable that I had to actually get some rather strong painkillers from the dentist. Now granted, the pain was extremely bad (I blacked out from it once, and was totally incapacitated for days... no eating, no sleeping, no nothing) but if my willpower was as strong as I think it should be , I would have continued to work through the pain rather than dull my senses. As a result, I can't even live up to my own ideals, I simply changed and ignored them when it was convenient.

These are two examples of how I believe I'm a failure, however... I come from a family that doesn't fail (at least on my dads side). So I feel an obligation to live up to high expectations. Maybe I'll get there one day.

This tax reform bill may have some serious consequences if human nature and greed are allowed to prevail.
For example, tax deferral would mean less available funds for new military hardware.

On the other hand it could be a boon for charities this year, World Wildlife Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
The Polar bears have been earmarked for extinction and Trump would build condo's on their glaciers if it would boost GDP.

www.cnn.com...

www.cnn.com...

originally posted by: socratess
www.cnn.com...

So the summary is: Corporate rate drops, no meaningful change to individual rates, ACA mandate repealed.

a reply to: Aazadan

The individual mandate is the most hated part of ACA and the heart of ACA. That repeal would lead ACA to fail.

originally posted by: ragnagork
a reply to: Aazadan

The individual mandate is the most hated part of ACA and the heart of ACA. That repeal would lead ACA to fail.

Repealing the mandate just moves us closer to single payer. In the short term though it will kick a lot of people off of insurance, and result in many untreated medical conditions as no one will be able to afford care.

a reply to: Aazadan

Single payer don't work. Look at Russia and Canada. The service is unbearable.

Senate passed tax bill 51 to 48.

House passed the bill 224 to 201.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: socratess
www.cnn.com...

So the summary is: Corporate rate drops, no meaningful change to individual rates, ACA mandate repealed.

It is if you watch a propaganda channel run by the DNC.