It does seem like it's time to stop letting this "industry" profit off the misfortune of its customers. Making all of these a public service instead of private industry makes sense at this point.
The profit margins on insurance are usually pretty slim. Insurance companies are generally not well differentiated from one another, so they have few avenues to compete other than on price. A state-run insurance plan also has to operate at a profit/surplus or else it will have to be subsidized by the taxpayers. The effect is the same either way.
Margins being slim doesn't mean much as long as insurance companies see continuing operations as profitable. I'd like to see this model stress tested until more insurance companies pull out. This would cause reductions in the housing market from the increased insurance prices and subsequent mortgage reduction, and would lead to more compartmentalized insurance prices and risk approximations between high and low-risk homes.
Either that or a barrage of government policies which will make things worse for everyone and continue the US economy's descent into the death spiral.
Slim from a percentage of total premiums but substantial when looking at the absolute dollar amount of profits. It's all relative to the size of the pie.
Also, when margins are slim, a major event (like a series of wildfires in one of the biggest cities in the US) can wipe out those profits. A responsible insurer can withstand one bad year. But if those major events start happening with more frequency, then one bad year becomes a series of bad years. Reinsurance premiums for the insurer go up, meaning that taking on risk is more expensive, and they’ll eventually have to decide between raising their own premiums to unsustainable levels or pulling out of risky markets.
This is a really good read. It talks about all kinds of systems which become their own entity. Nobody likes them. They make things worse for everybody. But somehow we get trapped in these downward spirals and there’s seemingly no way out.
Each person has their own strengths, but a worthwhile team member should be able to meet minimum requirements of readability and comments. This can be enforced through team agreements and peer review.
Your second point is really the crux of business in a lot of ways. The balance of quality versus quantity. Cost versus value. Long-term versus short term gains. I’m sure there are situations where ruthlessly prioritizing short term profit through low cost code is indeed the optimal solution. For those of us who love to craft high-quality code, the trick is finding the companies where it is understood and agreed that long-term value from high-quality code is worth the upfront investment and, more importantly, where they have the cash to make that investment.
>I’m sure there are situations where ruthlessly prioritizing short term profit through low cost code is indeed the optimal solution
This is mostly how large publicly traded corps work, unless they are ran by programmers that want great applications or are required by law, they tend to write a lot of crap.
It’s listed on that page as a synonym for toil or drudgery. So basically a chore is a fag. It seems like the definition you mention is likely the origin of today’s gay pejorative.
I’m looking forward to being able to craft a movie by directing ML tools to create dialog, characters and everything else. It will be a powerful storytelling tool.
I work in VFX and am also looking forward to AI-whole movies! I remember realising that full audio with video was coming, soon after the current AI-boom started.. and wondering whether 'traditional' digital VFX will still be a thing for long.. I think it will for a while, even with AI in the mix. VFX companies can have ML departments as well (like we do where I work!)
I’ve never been able to stomach Azure (as much as I like Microsoft’s tools) because it lacks anything like AWS IAM. Without it having actual, pragmatic security let alone simple, cost effective audit documentation seems like so much more of a headache.
Likewise, I think it seems insane to them that we don’t automatically form a mental picture of everything we think about! Did you see the apple test linked in a comment? Time I’ve seen the test and I am a four not totally aphantasic but close.
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