metaphorm

trends that began years ago have been intensifying recently

why is the sidebar on the left half the width of the page? I can hardly read the main content crammed into the right half.

I don't think its hyperbole. This is deeply concerning. We're entering a new era of authoritarianism.

I think the product is exactly what the users want, actually, though it seems to generally result in a toxic shithole of all-against-all.

I think the business model problem is a direct consequence of the product succeeding at being what it is. That's not really a very good environment for "brand engagement" or whatever kind of consumerist brainslug implantation program they think they might use it for.

A radical redesign of the product could probably make it a better advertising platform. The question they're facing I think is really that they are being pulled in two directions: increase (or at least retain) the number of users on the platform pulling opposite make the platform more appealing to advertisers and people who have discretionary income.

They could hire me as a consultant maybe and I would instruct them that being the world's greatest engine for social strife is not an admirable product design goal.

because last time they tried that it didn't even work?

my ancestors? no, I'm sorry, I'm quite sure my ancestors were living in shtetls in Eastern Europe and had nothing whatever to do with the Atlantic Slave Trade.

"white" as a category is just as non-sensical as "black" as a category. these are very course labels for phenotypes and say very little about a person's ancestry or heritage. When I meet a black person today, in New York City where I live, I don't know if they are the descendant of American slaves or if they are a 1st gen immigrant from Nigeria. The only sensible thing to do is treat people as individuals and judge them by their own actions.

what makes you think we pay to receive calls? there are different service plans but the vast majority of them are either flat-fee unlimited calling, or they bill you to make calls (prepaid minutes, for example).

he's a right wing libertarian and has been involved in some controversies. when someone says right wing extremist I think of the neo-Nazi's in Charlottesville, not some blogger with anti-authoritarian views.

remember I was speaking in Damore's hypothetical voice. The program is typically called "unconscious bias awareness training" as well as "diversity training". But yes, he was sent to a training program that irritated him.

Please don't criticize my portrayal of someone else's impressions of those programs as if that was my own opinion. You are free to watch Damore himself speak about that in the several taped interviews he has given since being fired.

Stefan Molyneux and Jordan Peterson are just right-of-center. They aren't hate groups or extremists. Peterson in particular is emphatically reasonable and moderate, if a bit disagreeable.

I think his motivation was much closer to "I feel irritated because I was just forced to attend a feminist indoctrination program and I want to let management know I disagree with this kind of thing". And then he proceeded to make his request obliquely, by attempting to couch it as a scientific debate, when really it was a cultural one.

the unbelievable irony of a a fake letter dressing down someone for "motivated reasoning" by explicitly using motivated reasoning.

this seems off, based on my observed and experienced reality. the incredible lack of empathy for the neuro-diverse is one of the most shocking failures of the diversity movement.

I'm so so so so so so glad I left academia before getting to this point. Every single person I met in a doctoral program was as unhappy as I've ever seen any person who is not otherwise dealing with some serious shit (deaths in the family, chronic disease, addiction, etc.).

these ships can't use the Suez canal in peace-time under the currently negotiated treaties. if they really truly must go through the canal, who's gonna stop them?

I think it's more like learning to express yourself in a different style, rather than learning an entirely different language.

The style we are accustomed to allows for an interlocutor with significant ability to fill in the gaps in what you've said or written. To read appropriate context and subtext into your words and interpret them meaningfully despite ambiguity.

The style we must learn when programming is to remove all possible ambiguity and subtext, and explicitly provide a context (arguments, scope, closure, environment, etc.) for evaluation.

When we learn a new language we learn new vocabulary and alternate syntax but we still express ourself in the same style. When we learn a new style we must unlearn and relearn all of our assumptions about how language is interpreted. That's what learning programming is like.

there's a far greater diversity of Libertarian thought than you seem to be assuming, and ultra laissez-faire capitalist ideology is a very very narrow slice of it that I think is a position discussed loudly by undergrads and dismissed quietly by everyone else.

The reason this form of wealth distribution is favored by many Libertarians is that it far more free of encumbrances and complexities than any other form of redistribution you might think of. It's not means-tested, everyone gets it, so that avoids the moral hazard of treating the wealthy differently than the poor. It's not restricted in what you can do with the money, so that avoids the moral hazard of picking winners and losers in the marketplace by government fiat. It's not linked to unenforceable nanny state monitoring of people's behavior, so that avoids the moral hazard of intrusive bureaucrats monitoring your spending habits.

It is a policy that can aim to provide significant humanitarian improvements in people's lives while avoiding many of traditional pitfalls of government policies intended to provide humanitarian relief.

UBI isn't a lefty idea at all actually. It's probably most popular with right-leaning Libertarians.

it's a lot. most restaurants will deliver for free (if you're in their radius, and order above a minimum $ threshold) and you can optionally tip the driver a buck or two if you feel like it. $5 is a lot considering the competitors costs (basically $0).

because that is nearly a synonym for sharding?

or did you mean just use a large capacity RAID setup? that will probably work fine for a lot of situations but it can expensive and introduce more latency for certain types of operations (but that might not matter, depends on context).

I used to work in the real estate tech industry. The vast majority of companies in that space view brokerages as their primary revenue source and develop software designed to give brokers more structural advantages to extract middle-man profits from renters and buyers. Zillow is the largest and most successful RE tech co to pursue that business model but they aren't alone.

Redfin is attempting a different business model that is in many ways hostile to brokerages. This is political stuff, basically. Changes to the relationship between landlords/sellers, brokers, and renters/buyers will have very large scale economic consequences and also likely result in long term changes to the way neighborhoods are constituted and populated.

thanks for linking that. yes indeed Liberalism (capital L) is the best technology yet invented for preventing civil war, which is otherwise the more-or-less inevitable outcome of tribal politics.

the most important methodology of Liberalism is the cultural norm and moral importance of unfettered freedom of speech, expression, and association. The moral and normative importance of free speech cannot be understated. Losing this as a norm has eviscerated the left leaving them as noxious authoritarians sliding down the slope to Mao-ism.

I believe that "tribeless" politics is the only kind that can actually yield effective solutions, and that the tribal manifestions of political behavior are primarily focused on dividing into in-group/out-group and enriching the in-group while punishing the out-group.

I choose to remain tribeless.

This is the chilliest I've yet felt the chilling effect.

I would imagine that they know exactly what they are doing and feel very conflicted about it, but they're weighing their options in the prevailing political climate and choose the least bad one. It's still very very bad though.

we have laws that govern employment and we don't have laws that govern friendship. these two relationships are not morally or legally equivalent.

the 1st amendment of the constitution is a prohibition of the federal government enacting a law that limits freedom of religion, expression, or association.

freedom of speech is a far more general moral principle and social norm. we ought not conflate the two and there is much more utility in discussing the more general case of freedom of speech and not the narrower more legalistic case of the 1st amendment.

> Are art history programs different

I think everything in the humanities is substantially different than anything in STEM

this makes me feel ridiculously vindicated for dropping out of my PhD track in philosophy and starting over in Computer Science

the only right way to answer that question involves a 10000 word history of the politics of the MTA, the finances of NY state and NY city, bankruptcies, budget shortfalls, political corruption and misdirection, very messy labor union politics, and the complexities of running a giant subway system 24/7 in a region that suffers significant damage every year from hurricanes and ice storms.