Reincarnate - AMA (might as well)

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

2. Overhyped

What should we be gunning for insead?

3. A long time ago, I worked at a trading firm where I helped develop a bunch of the risk management features of the trading platform. There were tons of pieces to it and since it had to be extremely fast, it was a challenge.

Cool

4. There are countless things I don't understand/can't wrap my mind around. I'm no expert in math/science -- I just consider myself reasonably literate. A lot of the stuff from the experts at Math.stackexchange or MathOverflow or Physicsforums, etc... it's just gibberish to me. I'd say probability is by far the hardest mathematical subject to grasp fully, especially when it comes to setting up a hard problem correctly.

5. Nope -- I feel like making music would require years of practice to get good at, and I simply don't have the time/will. I feel like I'd be more inclined to just hire someone to make music for me (if I were to ever make a game, for instance) and just tell them the sort of music I'd want/what it should sound like/what sources would be good inspiration for particular sections/etc.

I picked it up pretty quickly, but I guess it depends on the person and I still have a fair way to go of course xd

8. Hard to answer this question. I would take after Steam's example and try to build a lot of the core functionality into a main app where you could participate in communities, play the games, download songs, etc. Getting people to go online and set up folder systems and look for bumper backs and troubleshoot theme issues via forums is tedious and timeconsuming. The rise of the console/mobile markets only puts more pressure on the need to keep things simple and easily accessible. Also, one of the main reasons I stopped using Stepmania is because *every damn song stepped nowadays is complete shit*. I don't give two squats about things like color theory or dumpstream flow or whatever. Of course, there are other major issues with the rhythm gaming industry at large but this answer is getting too long so I will stop here.

This is a good answer. Osu's model is pretty similar to this, btw

11. I would try to make teaching a more attractive industry that drew talent via higher compensation. In other words, I feel like being a teacher should be viewed as an honorable profession rather than "Oh, you're not ambitious enough to be a doctor/lawyer/businessman and now you make a crappy salary." There would be a much greater focus on simple reading and writing/basic mathematics/science and technology/applied problemsolving from the getgo (things that have shown to actually be effective), rather than trying to shoehorn everything into these nebulous programs that are just aimed at churning out higher scores on tests of questionable worth. It scares me when a 7th grader can barely put together a coherent sentence, or when their homework is nothing but an exercise in regurgitating facts/formulas that one could just look up online.

This is a good answer. It wasn't in the original question, but how would you go about doing this? e.g. putting in rules like 'if your students get better marks you get paid more' don't work for obvious reasons. Can you legislate culture or is a magic wand/extreme hype campaign the only way?

As for the legal system, I would abolish the death penalty entirely. I would also try to make the legal system more accessible to the average Joe by cutting back on things like filing fees/motions, which make it hard for many people to get justice. Stop throwing people in jail who don't belong there and look into rehabilitation programs instead. There are also countless laws that are ridiculous and need to be thrown out/altered. Honestly, there's way too many things to respond with here so I'll move on. Economics, I would restructure the way the government is run so that it's a rigorous meritocracy, of sorts. There are way too many science-denying, fact-dodging, snake-oil salesmen running things at the federal level, and this in turn causes all sorts of negative impacts that are systemic/global. Get people into office who know how to work together/get shit done/make decisions based on reality, and so much can be accomplished.

Good stuff

12. I know it's against the spirit of the question, but I'd never run for President. It would drive me insane. The system's too broken right now and someone like me couldn't win anyway.

Haha I do not blame you at all. "As President, I will legalize and legislate magic and ****ing miracles"

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Patashu

What should we be gunning for insead?

It's worth researching a variety of energy sources (wind, solar, hydro, biomass, nuclear, etc), to be clear. I just think that the whole thorium thing is overhyped (the pros are oversold, and the cons are understated). Going down the thorium route is p.much just a shitload of money/time spent on a venture with a ton of unknowns while moving from one common fuel to another. IMO, there are other energy alternatives with better NPV for the time being. It's still a good idea to research thorium and its energy applications otherwise, but in terms of pursuing it as a serious commercial contender... ehhhhhhhh. I don't see it as being realistic or economically sensible just yet.

Originally Posted by Patashu

This is a good answer. It wasn't in the original question, but how would you go about doing this? e.g. putting in rules like 'if your students get better marks you get paid more' don't work for obvious reasons. Can you legislate culture or is a magic wand/extreme hype campaign the only way?

Teachers have no control over a given student's home life, which ultimately impacts just about everything else. You could have the best pitcher in the world, but if the catcher cbf to actually reach for the ball or show up to the game at all, how can you fault the pitcher for that? Fixing that problem requires the magic wand.

Using test scores is simply not a good way to gauge teacher quality, nor is it effective in providing insight for improvement. A teacher's quality is something you can only really assess/critique/improve in a broader, holistic, multifaceted context.

[Choofers]

have you ever tried stepping something for stepmania

did I already ask that question

[Reincarnate]

idk

I never stepped much because getting the BPM's right throughout the song was a huge chore for me and I was never confident that I did it correctly, so I never really got past that point. I have a couple step patterns in my mind for certain songs but other than that, nothing.

[Shouka]

Have you considered going to grad school for computer science?

Do you enjoy living/working in Manhattan? What does a typical day at your job consist of? How long do you plan to stay in New York?

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Shouka

Have you considered going to grad school for computer science?

Nah, I am totally done with school -- undergrad loans are already big enough, and I am not convinced that I'd get much utility from a grad school CS degree. Besides, my undergrad was in finance stuff so that transition might look weird on paper. My undergrad experience kinda turned me off to academia, to be honest.

Originally Posted by Shouka

Do you enjoy living/working in Manhattan? What does a typical day at your job consist of? How long do you plan to stay in New York?

I'm torn on Manhattan. Everyone's always in a rush, and time is a rare commodity. You have to pretty much pencil everyone in for an hour here, a brunch there, etc. Despite living here for about 3 years now, I still haven't made many new friends. Most of the friends I've made have been through my girlfriend. I guess it's just lonely, for the most part.

NYC's great otherwise and has just about every kind of food you can imagine, but it's also really expensive to live here. It's also very crowded. The most likely move would be to NJ or something in the near future -- but it depends.

[Abstract Art]

What about your undergraduate experienced turned you off to academia in general?

I also noticed you mentioned studying finance. Do you work on Wall Street? And if so, what's that like?

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Abstract Art

What about your undergraduate experienced turned you off to academia in general?

I also noticed you mentioned studying finance. Do you work on Wall Street? And if so, what's that like?

In many ways it felt like a heartless bureaucracy that doesn't really care about you unless you have a lot of money. Professors always came across as too-busy-to-talk, and there were a lot of administrative problems as well. I didn't enjoy my college experience very much at all.

I actually don't work WS anymore. The work/people are fine, but it's not the sort of thing I want to do the rest of my life. I'm actually trying to make a transition into something CS-oriented but I don't know how that'll play out considering that my background is all business stuff. I'm more of a math/CS junkie at heart.

[dAnceguy117]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

I'm actually trying to make a transition into something CS-oriented but I don't know how that'll play out

you can do it. you know you can do it. just go all out.

what's your favorite BMR simfile?

[Reincarnate]

I like many for different reasons. Angelfalls, Ayla, A, G2, V, Pulse, Empathy, Colors, Sync, Nemesis, Era, After All, Gravity...

[HalfStep]

When will you stop being lazy and make that RPG you've been talking about for years?

[Reincarnate]

If I can find a good team somehow

[Pseudo Enigma]

what would your reaction be if you found out you misinformed somebody?
have you ever said something extremely stupid, if so, what?