The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XLII

[MaryKB]

Dunning-Kruger rears its head yet again.

I realized recently that mansplaining is basically the greatest example of the dunning-kruger effect in action.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I realized recently that mansplaining is basically the greatest example of the dunning-kruger effect in action.

I had a dream last week in which I was kind of mansplaining judo to Kayla Harrison, a 6th-degree blackbelt and 2-time Olympic gold medalist. No idea what that was about.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I realized recently that mansplaining is basically the greatest example of the dunning-kruger effect in action.

"Let me help you with that Mary. But first, because of your delicate condition, you might want to sit down to listen."
[Uncrosses legs and leans forward into the conversation]
"The three best ways to understand the meaning of the dunning-kruger effect are ...."

 

[Farm Boy]

I realized recently that mansplaining is basically the greatest example of the dunning-kruger effect in action.

Heheh. Yeah. Attitude goes a long way with the insecure. On a high point, I've learned that calling people with authority liars, when they lie to your face, is a path of more pain than I would have tolerated as a younger man. I don't have the patience to be otherwise as an older one, tho.

Life is fun!

 

[warpus]

What are the dangers/implications of becoming a guarantor for a friend's loan? Here's a list I put together, is it accurate?

- My credit rating will be impacted as soon as I sign the document
- If the friend stops making payments, my credit will be impacted even more and I will have to make the payments instead
- The total value of the loan will essentially be viewed as a loan that I took out, impacting how much I can borrow in the future

Am I missing anything? Am I misinformed about this? Is it generally a bad idea to do this sort of thing? Usually parents and relatives seem to be the ones who do this.. Seems riskier if you're doing it for a friend.

Any input welcome

 

[MaryKB]

What are the dangers/implications of becoming a guarantor for a friend's loan? Here's a list I put together, is it accurate?

- My credit rating will be impacted as soon as I sign the document
- If the friend stops making payments, my credit will be impacted even more and I will have to make the payments instead
- The total value of the loan will essentially be viewed as a loan that I took out, impacting how much I can borrow in the future

Am I missing anything? Am I misinformed about this? Is it generally a bad idea to do this sort of thing? Usually parents and relatives seem to be the ones who do this.. Seems riskier if you're doing it for a friend.

Any input welcome

Your credit rating shouldn't be immediately affected. You're not a coborrower or cosigner, and you'll inherit the loan only if your friend defaults. Unlike with cosigners, the creditor can only go after the guarantor after they've exhausted all efforts to collect.

My main recommendation for you to think about is that your friend needs you as a guarantor because their lender has determined they are likely to not pay their loan. How confident in this person are you really?

Mostly cosigners or guarantors are parents helping children get started with their first loans or rentals. Doing so for a "friend" with bad credit is generally not a very good idea. If you do so, go in with the expectation that you will be paying this loan but getting nothing in return.

 

[warpus]

Doing so for a "friend" with bad credit is generally not a very good idea. If you do so, go in with the expectation that you will be paying this loan but getting nothing in return.

Yeah, I just finished writing to my friend and explaining why I'm turning this down. I wanted more information on what the exact risks were before I did that, so I could put together some sort of a diplomatic response. It seems that there are some differences in what the exact fallout could be depending on where you live.. so I ended up not being very specific in my email, but cited some of these concerns a bit more generally.

To clarify some contradictory information I found online.. My mortgage gets refinanced every 5 years, or whatever that process is called.. If I go into that process with an extra loan that I'm guaranteeing, does that affect what interest rates I can get for the next 5 years?

 

[Cutlass]

Yeah, I just finished writing to my friend and explaining why I'm turning this down. I wanted more information on what the exact risks were before I did that, so I could put together some sort of a diplomatic response. It seems that there are some differences in what the exact fallout could be depending on where you live.. so I ended up not being very specific in my email, but cited some of these concerns a bit more generally.

To clarify some contradictory information I found online.. My mortgage gets refinanced every 5 years, or whatever that process is called.. If I go into that process with an extra loan that I'm guaranteeing, does that affect what interest rates I can get for the next 5 years?

It could. Canadian law is different from American law. So no one here is likely an expert. But it could be very expensive to you to tie your credit to that of another person. And should generally only be done if it is someone very close to you, like family close. Or possibly a business partner, where you have a reasonable expectation of making a profit if they are successful.

 

[warpus]

to tie your credit to that of another person.

That is a great way of framing it. A good way to explain how something like that affects all my finances even if the borrower makes all their payments on time

 

[Quintillus]

What are the dangers/implications of becoming a guarantor for a friend's loan? Here's a list I put together, is it accurate?

- My credit rating will be impacted as soon as I sign the document
- If the friend stops making payments, my credit will be impacted even more and I will have to make the payments instead
- The total value of the loan will essentially be viewed as a loan that I took out, impacting how much I can borrow in the future

Am I missing anything? Am I misinformed about this? Is it generally a bad idea to do this sort of thing? Usually parents and relatives seem to be the ones who do this.. Seems riskier if you're doing it for a friend.

Any input welcome

Mary covered the financial aspect better than I ever could. But there's one additional danger you should consider - the impact on your friendship if you become the guarantor and they aren't able to repay the loan for whatever reason.

I have a friend who no longer speaks with one of his family members because he lent that family member a significant amount of money, with the understanding he would be paid back, and they subsequently failed to pay him back. If it's an amount of money that you care about, there is a risk of a similar situation occurring. Even if it's a small enough amount that it wouldn't cause a major financial impact to you to have to repay it, it could cause stresses in the friendship if it appears that the friend could have repayed it by taking some other actions, but didn't.

There likely will be some short-term disappointment if you decline to be your friend's guarantor, but the downside risk is likely much greater if you do become the guarantor. Depending on the situation, perhaps the upside is greater as well - perhaps things will go well and they'll be eternally thankful for you agreeing to the the guarantor - but I think it would be a mistake to look only at the financial downsides and not also consider the potential social downsides.

 

[Samson]

What are the dangers/implications of becoming a guarantor for a friend's loan? Here's a list I put together, is it accurate?

- My credit rating will be impacted as soon as I sign the document
- If the friend stops making payments, my credit will be impacted even more and I will have to make the payments instead
- The total value of the loan will essentially be viewed as a loan that I took out, impacting how much I can borrow in the future

Am I missing anything? Am I misinformed about this? Is it generally a bad idea to do this sort of thing? Usually parents and relatives seem to be the ones who do this.. Seems riskier if you're doing it for a friend.

Any input welcome

It means both you and your friend owe the money.

It is recommended, on places like money stack exchange, that rather than guarantee a loan you should just lend them the money. If you are not comfortable doing that, you should not guarantee a loan.

 

[Samson]

Why do ratings agencies choose such weird names for the classes?

It seems to me like the sort of decisions a child would make, like "How can we make it like B, but more so? Lets just say B lots of times". One obvious choice would be the description column, so instead of saying "‍Fitch has downgraded Russia to C" and then having to explain what C means, they could just say "‍Fitch thinks Russia is likely to default". If they actually knew what they were doing they would put numbers on the categories, like "We have a posterior probability of greater than 50% chance of a default", but economists really do not like to make verifiable claims for some reason

 

[Farm Boy]

It's warp sciencey. There are algorithms and stuff you can't see, but we know-know. Pink-things investors trust us, yes-yes!

 

[GinandTonic]

I guess for the reason UK degrees have 1st Class. 2:1, 2:2 and 3rd Class. If the majority of graduates have the same class of degree it stops being a useful distinction. Without redrawing the whole rather decentralised system an institution can distinguish between which of the majority of graduates with a Second have a "good pass".

I would guess one institution wanted to be more granular within an existing A, B, C framework, and it caught on.

 

[The_J]

It seems to me like the sort of decisions a child would make, like "How can we make it like B, but more so? Lets just say B lots of times". One obvious choice would be the description column, so instead of saying "‍Fitch has downgraded Russia to C" and then having to explain what C means, they could just say "‍Fitch thinks Russia is likely to default". If they actually knew what they were doing they would put numbers on the categories, like "We have a posterior probability of greater than 50% chance of a default", but economists really do not like to make verifiable claims for some reason

Bad planing.
They probably started with A, B, C, and then wanted to have somewhat backwards compatibility when they needed more categories.
At least that's my best guess.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I was reading about Disney's "Galactic Starcruiser", a hotel that mimics a big spaceship from the Star Wars films, complete with actors in costumes and makeup, and events and stuff to do. Let's not talk about the price. But I got to thinking, "What other pop-culture things would make for a fun immersive vacation?" Star Trek was the one that jumped to mind right away. Spend a long weekend aboard a Starfleet cruiser, with a port-of-call stop at a station. In fact, the era could be changed every year. One year, you're aboard a Constitution-class ship, circa TOS, with a stop at Deep Space Station K7. The next, you're aboard a Galaxy-class ship, and you visit Deep Space 9. Hard to pull of a "holodeck" irl, I suppose. I suppose Hogwarts would be another obvious choice?

 

[MaryKB]

Hogwarts is already at Universal Studios. Star Trek would be nice, but who seriously would want anything other than the Enterprise D? It's the only one that's comfortable for families.

 

[Takhisis]

I was reading about Disney's "Galactic Starcruiser", a hotel that mimics a big spaceship from the Star Wars films, complete with actors in costumes and makeup, and events and stuff to do. Let's not talk about the price. But I got to thinking, "What other pop-culture things would make for a fun immersive vacation?" Star Trek was the one that jumped to mind right away. Spend a long weekend aboard a Starfleet cruiser, with a port-of-call stop at a station. In fact, the era could be changed every year. One year, you're aboard a Constitution-class ship, circa TOS, with a stop at Deep Space Station K7. The next, you're aboard a Galaxy-class ship, and you visit Deep Space 9. Hard to pull of a "holodeck" irl, I suppose. I suppose Hogwarts would be another obvious choice?

Actually Castle covered that, sort-of, with an episode that took place at a sci-fi con where there was an ‘experience’ of crewing a ship that had featured in a short-lived space action series.

 

[warpus]

I was reading about Disney's "Galactic Starcruiser", a hotel that mimics a big spaceship from the Star Wars films, complete with actors in costumes and makeup, and events and stuff to do. Let's not talk about the price. But I got to thinking, "What other pop-culture things would make for a fun immersive vacation?" Star Trek was the one that jumped to mind right away. Spend a long weekend aboard a Starfleet cruiser, with a port-of-call stop at a station. In fact, the era could be changed every year. One year, you're aboard a Constitution-class ship, circa TOS, with a stop at Deep Space Station K7. The next, you're aboard a Galaxy-class ship, and you visit Deep Space 9. Hard to pull of a "holodeck" irl, I suppose. I suppose Hogwarts would be another obvious choice?

How about a Dark Mirror vacation? That could be interesting.. but you might end up going crazy when it's all said and done.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Hogwarts is already at Universal Studios. Star Trek would be nice, but who seriously would want anything other than the Enterprise D? It's the only one that's comfortable for families.

I do think the TNG/DS9/Voyager era is the one that would work the best. Some people would like the retro aesthetic of TOS, but I don't know anybody who really likes Enterprise or Discovery. Personally, I hate the design aesthetic of J.J. Abrams' movie reboot of the original Enterprise. I think the Discovery is pretty ugly, too. I think the Enterprise-D and DS9 have a good variety of locations and characters. I think a lot of the iconic Star Trek tech would be challenging to reproduce, transporters and holodecks and whatnot. Computers that respond to voice commands could be done, although you'd have to have a lot of "Command-level authorization is required to access that function"-style non-responses for all the weird [crap] people would try to do. On DS9, you could have Garak's shop and Quark's bar, with Norm - er, I mean, Morn - sitting there and not saying anything. The big windows on the promenade could be enormous tv screens, and you could see all kinds of ships coming and going, and occasionally you'd get to see the Wormhole open. For superfans, the captain of the Starfleet ship and the Bajoran Kai on DS9 could do real weddings.

Actually Castle covered that, sort-of, with an episode that took place at a sci-fi con where there was an ‘experience’ of crewing a ship that had featured in a short-lived space action series.

I don't remember that episode, but I loved that show, so there's a good chance I saw it when it aired. Was the short-lived series at the sci-fi con a 'space Western' featuring a crew of lovable rogues and misfits?