I will never buy an eBook when I can get an actual used copy of the same book in mid to great condition for a tenth or a twentieth of the price of the eBook, both from Amazon. eReaders may have gained acceptance (I have a Kindle and a Sony eReader) but they're not "better" than real books, at least, certainly not better enough to justify paying fixed prices w/ no opportunity for second hand sale (esp. for non-reference materials).

With almost any popular, still-under-copyright book, this is what the pricing looks like on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-Book/dp/0...

Paperback: 8.79 dollars. Kindle: 7.99 dollars. Used: 1 cent. Used via Amazon Prime: 3.98

To save NINETY CENTS you get an arguably inferior copy that you cannot resell, pass on, share, touch, or truly experience. No, thank you. And don't forget that your Kindle cost a hundred dollars - you'll need to buy a hundred and eleven such books before you're actually "saving" money.

You are attempting to make the logical fallacy of arguing from authority. Hacker news is smart enough to see through this.

The only data I've cited is TIMSS data which is published and presumably peer reviewed. It's true that Tino Sanandaji PhD (note: he graduated, not that it matters) pointed this data in a blog post. So what? It's the same data you cite.

The data says the groups of people with top math performance worldwide (circa 2007) are:

    1) Taiwan 598
    2) South Korea 597
    3) Singapore 593
    4) Asian Americans 582
    5) Hong Kong 572 

From this data, how do you conclude that American schools underperform?

I'm not asking if you speak Chinese or whether "hundreds upon hundreds" of your Chinese buddies agree with you. That is irrelevant to the topic at hand.

I'm asking you for a logical argument, based on data (in particular the data that you cited), that concludes American schools underperform. Any such argument needs to control for the quality of students, since student test scores are obviously a function of both the school and the students.

If you believe the dead tree books you hint have such an argument, please tell me which book and which pages.

Or feel free to continue making logical fallacies. I'm not really posting for the purpose of arguing with you, I don't expect to learn anything from that. I'm just trying to make sure others reading your posts are not misled by vague assertions that hundreds of unnamed authorities might agree with Chinese speakers like you.

P.S. To make myself appear smart, while providing absolutely no facts, I'll cite dead trees also:

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-Book/dp/0...

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Diary-Call-Girl-Belle/dp/044654...

Some more irrelevant facts: I have a PhD, I lived in Asia, I often have sex with Asian women, and I'm a good cook.