I am Andrew Warshaver, Internationally Recognized Competitive Programmer, "The Kid Who Sold His Skills on Ebay," and the founder of The Direct Democracy Party USA. AMA

Whenever you create a new system, people will find ways to game the system. What ways have you thought that people could game a Liquid Democracy, and what things would you put in place to prevent them?

Wow, great question. I envision a future where the top delegates run on platforms of transparency. The tier of delegates below them would evaluate those proposals, and then promote the best ones.

We are a framework, for most things, we propose that the people solve the problem within said framework.

Warshaver is an awesome name. Can you tell about coding and what practical ways can an everyday Joe like myself use it?

Haha I get that all the time! =] Thanks Dad for the awesome name!

I think the most important thing is to get into coding at a younger age. It has been proven that learning a new language is easier before adolescence, I don't know why that hasn't been addressed as code is a different language.

It's not too easy to use coding in practical ways unless you are well versed. If we started at a younger age, people could use coding casually to automate various things in their life, solve math problems, etc

I would say if you want to get into coding, try and get through some courses on Khan Academy or the like, so you can get proficient, and then start taking on small projects that you think of in your spare time.

Here is an esoteric, and yet more concrete example:

The Morgul's Knife problem (10% increased crit chance with each in-hand until you crit).

If you play a moba, you are probably familiar with this mechanic. Basically every time you attack and miss the crit roll you stack extra X% critical chance, resetting on critical strike.

So there's the question of, how much average crit chance does this give? Is it better to get a +20% crit or the morgul's knife?

Firstly, I ran a simulation. This was fairly straightforward, ran quickly enough for large sets, that I could have walked away with all the data I needed. You could do this with pretty minimal programming knowledge.

But why stop there? Then I wrote a dynamic programming solution to the recursion related to E[x] = (x/100)E[x+10] + (1-x/100)E[x] . You might want to double check that math it was a while ago. It's somewhere on the GOME forums if you can find it.

So that solution gave me exact numbers, which was cool, and an improvement on the order of .001. (but a fun exercise!)

But why stop there? Once I realized that I could just solve the recursion formula, and plug x values in to an equation, I went ahead with that plan just to make sure my math was right. I couldn't really resist adding a third method to this be growing script.

Welcome to my world.

So what does it's average value actually turn out to be?

I would have to dig up the old forum post, but IIRC if you have 0 base you get something like 23% avg, and that scales back to somewhere around 7% as your base crit slides up to 50%.

Hi!!!

Btw, the name is actually derived from Warshauer -- aka person from Warsaw.

Here is a great example of using code to automate your life: Say there are a few blogs you like to follow, and would like to interact with every post related to a certain topic in a set way. You can script that up and poll for changes, and automate whatever interaction you'd like. This is a bit of a contrived example because interaction is mostly post-specific but you get where I'm going with this?

Would there be interest in me starting a blog to maintain transparency?

As I freshman computer science major who is interested in getting into competitive programming, where do you think a good starting point is? Should I just jump into the competitions and do a sort of "trial by fire"?

At CMU there was a club, which later turned into a class geared specifically for this. I would ask around and hopefully they are setup.

Good resources for learning are the USACO training grounds, topcoder, and projecteuler.

What types of high-frequency trading have you done? And have you considered the morality of doing this? I've considered getting into it, but it seems like some algorithms prey on the fact that someone is planning on buying stock, which bothers me. If there are more moral options, how does one with a background in computer science and (a very small amount) in finance begin studying this?

I worked specifically in infrastructure -- we provide an API to clients and they write algorithms within our framework (sound familiar?)

I have thought about the morality -- I personally think that HFT gets a bad rap due to a lot of misinformation. What most HFTers do is just basically market-making, this is an invaluable institution at exchanges and provides liquidity to consumers.

The real people doing shady things, are I think, some hedge funds. Gains like they have are suspicious and smell of insider information. But alot of those teams also have really smart guys working in predictive analysis, an extremely complex field and I wouldn't doubt that some of them have cracked it.

That said, part of the reason I left HFT was a desire to help improve the world. I could have stayed and been rich beyond what most people would imagine. But I could not live with myself if I had the opportunity to really change the world -- And I think I've finally the project with which to do so.

Hi! I'm a 15 year old girl who is obsessed with computers. (When I was 13 I rebuilt my schools website). I have 3 questions for you...

1) Do you know of hackerspaces? 2) What is your life like right know? 3) Do you listen to Upvoted? (If so you should be on it!)

Hackerspaces.. I have heard of, but never really partook. Cool concept though.

Although I am not a fan of the whole open floor plan trend. Especially for engineering, we need extreme quiet and uninterrupted focus to work efficiently. So many companies have been getting rid of that in the name of 'collaboration.'

My life right now, I have been living with family for the last few months while developing this proposal to save money. Edit: Also, I am running crazy hours because we are getting so much engagement from people! Like 28on/7off or so.

Never heard of upvoted -- I use reddit alot though I will check it out!

That is so great to hear! I love to see young people getting engaged with computers, especially girls. Our incoming class at CMU had 12 Davids, and only 9 girls.

I definitely subscribe to the philosophy that somewhere in our society, for whatever reason, women are pushed away from STEM. I'd love to know what the current atmosphere is like, has it improved, is it fully equitable now..?

Thank you so much for responding! STEM is by far male oriented. But, getting girls into STEM is one of my passions. My webpage class last year had 18 students...2 girls. I do everything I can to encourage girls to figure out why there picture on Instagram is on Instagram! Thank you so much again for replying!

Sounds like we still have a lot of work to do on that front. Glad to see you are working on it!

Thanks! Have you heard of GESTEM?

Just googled -- absolutely support the mission.

I meant to ask you, do you have any insight on why women are discouraged from STEM? Is it the schools/teachers? TV programs? Cultural expectation?

I think there are very few role models for girls to look up to and say "I wanna be like her when I grow up!" Also, I think girls are kind of put down when the wanna do it. It's hard to program or build things. Culturally girls are supposed to do the easy things. Also, sorry I didn't respond my computer broke :/. Thanks for talking to me though!

Hah no worries my chrome book crapped out a couple days ago so I know how that goes.

What do you think of big bang theory? Are they helping to spark the debate regarding women in stem?

I love the show because I can fit my friends in it so well. I think since they introduced Bernadette, Amy, and Raj's girlfriend Emily it has helped. They all are in fields of science yet Sheldon still makes fun of biology, geology and engineering. I think that kinda puts people off. I mean the jobs I want are either webpage developer, Quantum physicist, special effects artist, or a geologist/paleontologist. I think the show still encourages that STEM is cool. You can be geek and badass at the same time.

Yea.. they are kinda brutal on some of the more established fields. However, I think they are trying to push what they believe (and I agree with) are in fact the most important areas of discussion today.

We need to get the further in to space, further into biotech, and further into nanotech.

Don't forget to check out the latest on /r/directdemocracyparty

Can I ask why you are interested in talking to me? I'm not trying to be rude just most people aren't that interested in having a conversation with me

First off, I'd like to point out how sad that is, and I'd like to point out that points to the core of what is wrong with the current institution. But I understand your hesitation because everyone is so disillusioned with involvement.

We intend to wake people up using rhetoric. This has been successful. That next thing I was asked for was a concrete, step-by-step plan. That is coming out in just a few hours.

We intend to show that collective governance is viable by running our internal organization using collective governance.

This requires a fairly lengthy education process, but once we've converted someone, we can teach you how to convert everyone -- that's what we are revealing tonight in our public meeting. The agenda for this meeting was completely set by feedback!!! We are demonstrating the power of collective governance in action.

Because our platform is not ideological it is strictly technical, we can moderate to non-partisan debate and have some actual constructive discourse.

I hope you have some time to catch up on the rest of our literature and join us tonight.

okay...I don't really understand this.

And that's ok! This is the beauty of Collective Governance in action. Take a read through the literature and join us for the reveal where I will lay it all out in Black and White.

Or don't -- that is your right -- you can opt out of the stickier discussion and delegate to us.

How do you plan on addressing the singularity?

With gauged optimism and hopefully some productive discourse surrounding the issue of potentially hostile AI.

And don't forget to use isolated labs to prevent a grey goo catastrophe.

If the current voting system were restricted to online votes only, do you know what the effect would be on voter turnout? Would certain demographics become over/underrepresented?

We don't have all the answers yet. But our intention is to start in the most techno-centric, innovative districts in the country. We believe that there, we can achieve (for very low cost) a 100% reach to our constituency through outreach & education programs, mall installations, and public libraries. Start small, learn, refine, and expand.

We have no intention of moving into a district that is technically not ready for this -- we think that would be disenfranchising and against the principles of the Constitution.

Do you get a lot of pussy?

Not particularly, I'm more of a serial monogamist.

hahahaha, question of the day!

And definitely not nearly as much as my buddy josh here.

How did you get into high frequency trading? Can you describe your role?

I am a CS major currently in undergrad who is interested in finance post graduation. I've always loved following the markets and am currently trading equities and ETFs using algorithms I've coded myself.

I was recruited by a head-hunter from New York randomly based on my competitive programming background. I worked on an engineering team of 3-4, in an infrastructure firm. We provided an api to algorithmic traders that had turn around of 10-30μs.

My primary roles were help desk (this is not your ordinary help desk), and engineering the back end, back office, risk compliance, reporting, automation of processes, among other things.

I'd recommend looking in to a Computational Finance minor, if possible -- a number of relevant theories will be studied in such a track. If not, make sure to get as many finance classes under your belt as possible. You want to be familiar with options, futures, etc at the very least.

I am a huge fan of ETFs -- particularly an assortment of double-long ETFs is basically provably optimal (assuming the perfect information hypothesis, which we all know is not true in practice)

What happens when an elected DDP representative does not vote towards what his majority has voted?

That is a great question. First there's public shame -- they promised publicly to do something, as your politician, and then didn't. There is no wiggle room to claim they 'thought they knew better.' I think my colleague Jeff has some specific thoughts to add to this as well.

Hi, couple of questions:

1. Should the United States continue convergence efforts of GAAP with IFRS?

2. Should Section 1231 Assets be treated as regular capital gains and the Section 291 and similar treatments be taken away?

3. Should the IRS start accepting different type of depreciation schedules or only one?

These questions might be out of your subject matter, but there is a point here. These questions are extremeley unique, difficult and calculated. I would never want an average person answering these questions because they wouldnt know how to answer them.

Why would you want the average joe who does not even know what a Section 1231 asset to be make a decision on it?

You are right -- those questions are well out of my area of expertise. Jeff has a number of specific thoughts on the legislation drafting process after we are successful, but the high level is that top delegates will get to participate in legislation drafting, and in cases where they do not have the expertise, perhaps they will vote on experts to bring in to the panel, or public forum.

I will ping Jeff to see if he wants to add on -- he's also more up on tax code than I am.

you still dont get my point, once the legislation has been drafted

why allow individuals who have no idea what its about to vote on it.

In a liquid democracy, every individual does not vote on every issue. Did you have a chance to watch the video? It's a lot more clear visually.

We're describing it as an online, highly-adaptable democratic republic with proportional representation.

Might be off topic but what was your strategy for solving the rubix cube?

Here's an interesting anecdote about my first blindfold solve.

Some background: Most people use specialize algorithms to blindfold solve. These algos basically cut the whole process into 4 sets, and each of the algos does not interfere with the other 3 sets. I wasn't anywhere near here yet.

Me and Jeff found a video of someone online doing it. And we made a bet, basically a race to see who could do it first. What I ended up doing was something like a trace-through method. I would study the cube, figure out the steps needed for step 1, and then mentally solidify them in my brain. It is important to activate your muscle memory during this process but crucially you are not allowed to actually turn the cube.

Then for step 2 , I'd find the pieces needed, and then trace each one through a hypothetical path of the step1 solution. Then, I'd remember where those pieces hypothetically end up, I would figure out how to solve step2, and then commit to memory.

The next X steps are basically repeat, with the important distinction that with each step the trace-through becomes painfully longer.

So here I am making progress -- getting to lvl 4, lvl 5 pretty consistently.

I finally decide to go for it. After approximately 2 hours of studying that specific cube layout, I close my eyes and dive in. The turns are second nature -- I have been entering them in long term storage over the past 2 hours. All I can really do at this point is pray.

When I finally gain the courage to open my eyes, the mistake is glaringly obvious. I forgot to rotate the final layer a quarter turn. It was a victory in spirit only.

I woke up early the next day determined to finally slay the beast. I took a walk outside in the cold morning air, read for a few chapters, and then settled in. I must have sat in the traditional meditation pose basically unmoving for 2 hours straight. This time, sweet victory! That was a good day.

I eventually learned some of the techniques that are in-vogue, that allow you to do it actually quickly, but I found it much too exhausting to commit massive amounts of data to memory like that to keep it up. And it didn't have the same.. beautiful elegance.

That is not off-topic, its an AMA after all! I first learned using a layer method. When I got online I found lar5 and been using it ever since. I'm working currently on look-ahead and the complete 5+6 algorithm index, but that is proving to be a somewhat herculean task.

Funny story, when I was at governor's school for IT I taught ~5 people how to cube. They each taught another 5, and by the end of the summer half the class was cubing!

One of my passions is teaching, and in many ways I consider this current effort to be an education crusade regarding Liquid Democracy.

That is very interesting. So when interning the information technology career what would you personally recommend for an over all qualification also get? I am hoping to work soon in this profession but the amount of items you can get are massive. Should I focus on the things that might help with an overall technological or decide on in a specialized field? An my last question would you recommend at least vein somewhat proficient in a programming language and if so which one in particular regarding server databases?

I would say the most important language out there right now is Python. If you're careful, you can achieve 90% the speeds of C, you can do almost anything, and the syntax is very expressive and succinct (lambdas ftw).

That said, programming languages come in and out of fashion so quickly, it is better to be familiar with the principles. The two main principles are sequential, and functional. Python actually manages to combine those quite elegantly and I believe for this reason it has risen to such prevalence.

And a shoutout to SML/NJ for being my favorite programming language of all time!

Whats your opinion of Javascript(node backend) instead of python?

It seems to me that the main feature here is that programmers need not learn another language if they are already working on the front-end.

This seems counter-productive to me, a good programmer should know any number of languages, and should be on the lookout for innovations thereof. Perhaps one would grow as a developer if they learned Python. That said, I understand the impulse to attract the large crowd of people that know js from the front end and are ready to tackle the back-end.

Personally I am not a huge fan of js syntax, not to mention I have flashbacks over dealing with js inconcistencies between ie6, ff, emerging chrome at the time.. which obviously has no bearing on node.js but has just soured the whole experience for me.

Regarding server databases, basically its all SQL and variants there-of. I'd probably start with postgres or mysql.

If anyone out there is active in the wiki community, could you please get us added to this list. Thanks!

how did you get into/ what kind of work did you do for google?

I basically just applied to the internship program during soph year. That is the year we made it to the ACM ICPC so I had that fresh on the resume.

I worked on the google checkout team, which was actually really exciting, because it was the summer they were launching. So they set up a little system that cha-chinged every time a transaction came through for the first few days. It was just cool to be part of the excitement even if we were just interns.

They had an incredible working environment.. I firmly believe that humans are not built to stare at screens all day, and it is incredibly healthy both for your eyes and your mind to engage with physical objects often.

Maybe retina displays will change that. But until then, we need more break rooms in offices, with physical games like ping pong, pool, and foosball.

Read any interesting books lately?

So many. Recently I finished Life's Ratchet, The Lean Startup, The Smartest Kids in the World, The Dispossessed, and I am getting into the 3rd volume of The New Sun saga right now.

Why do you play Smite with a controller? Do you feel it is the most efficient input method, or are you just more familiar with it?

I have RSI from years of playing starcraft, minesweeper, and counter-strike. The only way I am able to game these days is with a pad because its more ergonomic.

I also played a TON of Guardians of Middle Earth, the first(?) controller MOBA and thats how I really got into the genre. I was top5 on the PSN ladderboard for a while. I was unable to follow Dota and LoL due to the RSI, and actually -- I think controller suits the format alot better. If you've played the new diablo with a controller (or FORCED), you would understand how fluid and natural that sort of control is.

Furthermore, since Smite has skill-shot in-hands and body blocking, the targetting mechanic is less twitchy. I do still have trouble with vertical targetting sometimes, which I am getting better at I think, but I could see how that would be more precise with a mouse. I have trouble with gods like Ullr because of this.

I actually have to be really picky with my god set. My best gods are Isis, Ymir, and Baka because they don't have much depth targetting and Isis has depth-on-trigger, so that suits me fine.

I actually just finished 62 masteries last week! Now I am ready to get back into ranked. I've started getting into Osiris, Thanatos, and Hel recently. They all work very well with a Controller.

HiRez has a number of changes to make if they want this to succeed on the console. 1 -- We need a turn around mechanic, so i can do a quick 180. This is a huge disadvantage. 2 -- Some global ults are unplayable, like Rama, Thor, and Ao. The field of targetting is too wide to have a decent sensitivity. I propose a split sensitivity, where left stick is for major motion and right stick is for tracking. I think that would work really well.

Add me in game!

Also, Bellonna looks epic and i can't wait to get a free moment to try her out!

I've had an idea to change education, specifically how its organized in the college level for a while. I even proved its usefulness by using Google drive and a few other apps together personally. I have taken a logic course and learned the basics of programming but it will be years before I could achieve any relevance.

Do you have any tips to attracting the right engineers?

I love that you are trying to improve education. Teaching is a passion of mine -- I was TA for 7/8 semesters at CMU. I just read The Smartest Kids in the World by Ripley, where she examines what works in other countries and what doesn't. Incredibly eye-opening read.

Attracting engineers is notoriously difficult -- the good ones are pitched a dozen or so app ideas every month. I would definitely avoid saying "I even proved its usefulness by using Google drive and a few other apps together personally," because to me, that sounds extremely vague, it makes me think your idea is not that innovative, and I know you cannot prove that statement mathematically.

That said, learning to code yourself will go a long way to gaining an engineer's respect. It will help you design and evaluate your proposal for feasibility, and you can even get started on a proof of concept demo by yourself.

Keep at it, I am living proof that you can turn an idea can turn into something real!

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely continue to advance my learning.

Yea me and a friend won some contests about a year ago pitching the idea but I quickly realized why most start ups succeed, and it is not because of start up money but engineers with passion. So even with the money we got for our learning management system, it was very hard to get that vision up without the passion.

That's a shame -- but it shows you are headed in a good direction if someone shelled out cash! Keep on trying, and remember the start-up mantra: Learn, Refine, Iterate (and Pivot as needed).

What drove you, on a personal level, to undertake this project?

Great question! But its also a tricky question. I think the idea first came to me when doing some Algorithms work. I realized that the way Congress is structured is similar to a tree (data structure). But it is rigid -- there is no adaptive tiering and the individual leaf nodes were some 700k strong (thats just in the House, btw). It quickly became clear to me that we could use technology to self-organize in a decentralized manner. Further we can provide the option of Direct Democracy for overriding on any specific issues.

From there, the idea evolved, from discussions with my close circle of friends. They proposed concerns - I proposed solutions. By now we have seen almost every concern raised. But we are always on the lookout for more! That is the great thing about this particular forum, it is allowing us to get even deeper into the issues at hand.

We've learned quite a few things already!

I just realized I didn't really answer your question! As for drive.. I think I have always identified with the mantra to 'Leave the world a better place than you came in to it.' I have always kept my ear to the ground, so to speak, on possibilities to do so. Once I had one in my sights I could not let go.

Can you ELI5 Liquid Democracy?

I can try, but the best thing is to watch the video.

Think about broccoli -- at the very top are thousands of buds - and each bud represents a person. As you travel down the stalk, some of these buds join together in clusters, and so on with other clusters. At the very bottom all you have is one large stalk -- this is consensus. Discussion travels from the buds at the top to the stalk at the bottom.

A big difference here is that Liquid Democracy is highly-adaptable. Once broccoli grows it cannot rearrange, but our system allows for self-organizing (and intelligent discourse at every level).

I'd like to give this another shot, now that I've been mulling it for a little while. It is basically reddit for democracy -- and I'm not just pandering here.

When you upvote something, you are showing your support for it - That is similar to the delegation. When reddit decides to show you something, it relies primarily on %yes/%no. That is the tally system.

Now imagine you can self-organize, in a decentralized manner, into local groups. Subs are similar to the grouping structure -- that is where people with common interests come together to have focused debate.

Your group then elects a number of spokespeople -- People that you intrinsically trust to not betray you, because they are tight-knit. Your elected delegates go on to discuss the issues with other elected delegates, and so forth as needed.

To top it all off, if there are any specific issues you disagree with your delegate about, you can personally vote on that issue directly.

Reddit has revolutionized rational discourse on the web. Isn't it time we do the same thing with Congress?

Where's Hazem?

When is Hazem coming back!? He's missing the launch party!

Does the video auto play for anyone else if you expand the text post from the top level? Does anyone know a good way to prevent that?

Apologies for the inconvenience, apparently this is a known issue with RES.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Enhancement/comments/23w6v3/how_do_i_stop_res_from_auto_opening_youtube_videos/

How are you liking FRF-KTK-KTK draft? Better or worse than triple KTK and by what margin?

I am actually not up on the current set. Which makes me pretty sad, but I was really into the last set. I basically went twice a week until I finally won the draft with a red & white deck that featured 3 of those red hoplites and alot of instant buffs. And two of those 3/2 unblockables for finishing. But I haven't really had the time to go lately, been so busy with this proposal!

That said, I generally find that the proper final form of a set is generally the funnest to play, allows for the most interaction between the mechanics and what not. But the earlier drafts are of course invaluable to introduce the new mechanics.

What is a good coding book for thr layman?

Not sure I have a great answer to that. But I would recommend starting with something in Python.

As a 30 year old medical school dropout with no background in cs but looking for a career change, would you recommned going back to undergrad for comp sci?

It depends, do you like Math, Calculus, and Engineering? Programming is very much just these things but more in depth. I wouldn't recommend it if you didn't really enjoy those.

Thanks for the reply!

I was always good in math and calculus (760 satm, all 5s in APs, all As in math up to calc 2) but my last math course was calc 2. I have no engineering background. I really do enjoy math and problem solving. Im intimidated though given most ppl it aeems started coding in their youth.

Assuming I did really enjoy them, would you recommend going back to school? Or self teaching (while working pt time jobs) and attempting to gain some sort of certification? Also do you think my age would be a deterrent to employers?

Calc 2 is relatively far along, but the lack of engineering background could be troubling. That is a key thing that, I believe, needs to be established before/during adolescence to really excel.

That said, anyone can learn -- don't let that discourage you! But it's like learning a new language after adolescense -- studies have shown that you don't think in that language, you are constantly translating.

I always think furthering one's education is incredibly valuable, especially if you have clear goals at the end. Certification I am not sure how valuable that really is, I am not that familiar with them.

I dno, there is somewhat of a younger bias and if you are going to add reschooling you would be hitting the game late. But, if you showed that you really got into it, competitions, research, whatever you want to do -- people will respect your passion and help you find something.

No worries. I've obliged myself to reply to everyone, at least until we hit front page, so please get more people over here asking more questions, especially if they have concerns with the proposal.

I'd like to stress we are really trying to get a dialog going around this issue, and I think it just requires a bit of education to get people behind it.

You can try to sell it as Congressional Infrastructure. Infrastructure has been in all the press lately -- and this is the most fundamental infrastructure work that we can work on.

If we succeed in educating people, we can acheive a Fluid Majority and the other infrastructure issues will be able to discussed more rationally.

I think you replied to the wrong comment boss!

Uhoh I can't even find where that one was supposed to go :9

I'm just going to leave the comment here cause I think it's important but apologies to whichever reply I missed.

Hey Drew, I need to post this as a question, what do you think about a constitutional amendments?

As in, could we / should we achieve liquid democracy through one?

Well.. obviously there is no way Congress will pass that unless we control Congress. And it would be disenfranchising to push this on all 50 states if some places are not ready for it yet.

The only way we could really pass an amendment would be if we basically control Congress. And if we control Congress, we wouldn't necessarily need to.

I do think that it's an interesting thing to think about, but it is so far away and we have so much learning to do between here and there that I think we should basically play it by air - let the constituency debate and vote on such a proposal when the time comes.

Why not target local elections first? The grass roots.

That's exactly the plan. We haven't yet decided how large a district to start with state, local, (nat'l house is the dream).. We are leaving that up to the people to show us where the most interest is and how much interest there is.