arkis22

bruh. cmon.

Network is absolutely incredible in how it stands the test of time and predicts our current news cycle (we're all still human!). It should be required viewing, especially for today's youngsters.

Of course another famous monologue would be Warren Beatty's to Finch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuBe93FMiJc

It's worth pointing out this quote: "One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused"

I'm not sure about the last part of people being happy, but what he's really talking about in hindsight is the index fund. Vanguard started the first SP500 index fund on December 31, 1975. Network came out in 1976.

Also worth noting that GK Chesterton also talked about something similar to an index fund, but it was an idea called distributism and was a direct challenge to socialism

so this isn't really about Dune, but there was an article in the economist this week: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/10/14/...

It made me think about the book of the new sun. you think its half man half monster creatures are unrealistic? give it a couple thousand years. good sci-fi really is prescient

I'm a rails man myself but I recently used AI to write a mvp for django and I simply didnt enjoy the code. the code with tests looked bad. is there a way to turn data into flexible tests besides every test being a method? the separation of migrations into different apps was annoying

am I doing something wrong?

youre assumming that the average person can use bloomberg profitably. thats absolutely not true. the average person gambles on crypto or polymarket

I think that steinbeck is probably the correct answer. the iliad and the odyssey are not just "action epics", they are parable-ish in what they communicate to readers (or listeners) of their society. For example, it's not a coincidence that odysseus sleeps around the aegean sea while penelope chases suitors off at home.

Twain is a pretty good second choice, but Steinbeck has a pretty good lock on parables of American aspirations and its society both good and bad.

Steinbeck also wrote "the pearl" and of course "of mice and men"

Discipline

Don't underestimate it. His net worth increased more from crypto in the past 2 years than it did in 30 years of being a new york real estate nepo baby, when his net worth basically treaded water

"BUT WHAT ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN!?"

what a bummer

Sure, but that's not really the point as long as we exist in a world where the ultimate responsibility rests on humans. The alternative is skynet

Based on existing corporate hierarchy it would probably be the board of directors. There would be some sort of collaboration service where managers/agents push up problems and solutions to the board and they vote yes or no

I would very much like it to be illegal for radio ads to have car horns and sirens as well

I used to proctor accounting exams. It's insane to me that people would just leave the room to students. At the very least they might have questions and then they ask the class instead of calling the proctor

one thing to also consider is that maybe the younger kids who are capable of buying houses may be getting their down payment from the bank of mom and dad. not good for people thinking things are fair

you might consider me an ass, but I think every dollar you put into crypto should be considered dead money. it is not protected by anything. you are gambling on nothing

I think theres a possibility that Zaslav prefers Netflix because if the government denies the merger he walks away with the breakup fee and can keep running WB as his own fiefdom

If you have done this I would suggest selling now because of possible anti-trust problems

*realign with China

Most of my early 30 year old friends are very pessimistic about the future. I am pessimistic but less so. I think (and hope) that the republic will still be standing. But what I see and expect is that Trump will spend his time doing performative actions. He is narcissistic and he conflates the deference he receives when flying around the world negotiating trade deals with deference to the US. The reality is that telling him he deserves the Nobel peace prize is easy pickings for politicians who don't want to tank their economies while they realign with Russia.

Ultimately I think where we end up after his second term is he leaves, he says he did a great job and his supporters believe him. But we have problems. And he has this fantastic blessing of controlling all 3 branches of government, which he is wasting by grabbing power and solving NONE of them. So really we just wasted 4 years. And where the world is right now it's probably the worst 4 years we could ever waste.

It is fascinating how there are two current opinions about Donald Trump and that one is that he is a serial liar and the other is that he tells it how it is. I'm sympathetic to the latter because he manages to talk without a filter, but the things he lies about are much more serious and much more obvious and much more dangerous. But it gets him very far because people seem to think that "owning the libs" is the success condition for domestic and foreign policy.

I agree though, the next 3 years are going to be him insisting things are great. China will probably try for Taiwan after he leaves and he'll just continue to say things like they wouldn't have done it if he was in office. And sure that's partly true, because why not just wait a year until he's gone, then China can really split the electorate on what we should do.

If ignorance is bliss, then I am miserable.

there are also many species on the ocean floor that do not get their energy from the sun, but from vents of heat from the earth. maybe they dont photosynthesise, they use heat instead

there is a lot of silly stuff in Dune, but my understanding is that the still suit recycles the body's water. It's not just that you pee in a tube, it absorbs the sweat and recycles that too

charlie kirk is not important enough to assassinate. jimmy kimmel is not important enough to cancel.

bummer.

the fact that the candidates are worse than sacks of potatoes is a separate fact from the enthusiasm that young people have for the socialist candidate. if it were normal they would do what young people normally do, which is to not vote.

You literally just described rent control.

That's kind of a joke right? it's a pilot program for 5 grocery stores? he wins votes off something that is something you admit is so inconsequential, while spending political capital to do it instead of other things? 2% margins baby

well dumber people are getting into politics because gerrymandering is getting worse. the case where politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around leads to worse overall outcomes because the seats are "safe" from the other party and competition. without competition quality falls

Great article in the economist today.

https://archive.is/sx6I2

which of the groups do you think read vs just swallow cable news?

rent control just limits supply. city owned grocery stores is a huge capital and organization outlay just to save 2% margin with a huge opportunity cost. at least he backed down from defunding the police. the socialist democratic organization he belongs to hasnt though

Mamdani was largely propelled by disillusionment of the young who then voted for him. They listen to the headline political message and they don't understand the underlying principles, his policies will not make them better off. But he'll try and fail, and then they'll just increasingly think the system is broken. If they read more they would understand that. It's the same thing that propelled Trump into office