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I know several people who think Star Trek is a course in leadership and The West Wing is how politics works. Ever since Patrick Stewart died a bunch of outlets have been telling them that that's a good thing. It isn't.

The worst person that I have ever worked with knew nothing about leadership that wasn’t on Star Trek or in an episode of The West Wing. They even referred to the site as “their ship.”

Absolute, total, delusion.

Inspired to be better? Of course. Taught? God no.

If you’re finding that your leadership style, or really any part of your personality, is being lifted from an 80s/90s TV show, step back and reevaluate things.

pnpm is not the answer to the supply chain/postinstall problem. I moved off pnpm recently, for many reasons. Fortunately npm v12+ disables lifecycle scripts by default.

Steam forum post: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/0/5...

My version of this is: "This is the kind of mistake that we get to make once. How do we prevent it from happening again."

I usually do want the details, but I also want to communicate my expectations up top and unambiguously.

I started with a UI framework thinking I'd need it but over time I realized that I was using it exclusively for button theming and setting the default font. I was using vanilla CSS and vanilla JavaScript and after removing the framework my package sizes reflect that fact.

My family keeps sending me screenshots of AI generated arguments against building new data centers. Apparently we have too many and they don't understand where the demand is coming from. When I asked how many we'll need over the next 10 years the answer was simple, we'll need to build exactly "Oh, fuck off." data centers in the US over the next 10 years to meet expected demand. We should get on that.

I guess video games are a problem too. And social media. They wrote about it on their Facebook Group. The news one, the one where they repost TikToks of people pointing and nodding at another video where someone in a trucker hat is talking about a conspiracy theory, not the one where they talk about Candy Crush.

I don’t use AI. Nothing about these conversations makes sense.

Define "tech".

If you're talking about programmers working at non-tech companies? Maybe. If you're talking about people excited about technology, then no.

I lived in NYC for a decade. NYC is media and finance. And while I liked the people "in tech" that I met in NYC, the passion for the work just wasn't there enmasse.

Check your blood pressure regularly.

Every time I read about a drug reducing dementia risk or increasing longevity I look it up to see if it lowers blood pressure. Never fails.

Cialis does.

And when Gabe dies? “I trust company” is not convincing.

You could buy, sell, trade, loan, and backup games with the right regulation. Discs are irrelevant.

Sure. Until the first FromSoftware PS6 exclusive is released.

Child, six, seriously considering running away from home after parents refuse to serve dinner on dinosaur plate.

People realize that Steam doesn't use physical media, right? The real issue is the lack of consumer friendly regulation, not the medium.

After a few years of using Typescript, having to use type annotations and import basic language features like `abc` in Python feels like an absolute slog.

I use "War and Peace" for this.

I know. The Sony UBP-X700U is $330 and the Magnetar UDP 900 MK II is $3,300. So I got the Sony.

I saw my first Dolby Vision Blu-ray and immediately started a Blu-Ray collection. The Blu-ray player on the PS5 is fine, but a nice dedicated player from Sony blows it away.

I would pay for my favorite albums on Blu-ray too. I wish more artists released their entire discography on a really well produced Blu-ray. NIN would be perfect for this. So many Halos, so many videos, all in release order. A real release of Purest Feeling?

In Northern Virginia data centers are about 3% of land, but account for almost 50% of local property tax contributions.

I’ve made a few comments around this. I’m going to wind down my involvement in this thread.

I think current gen AI is junk. I don’t use it. I also don’t see mass job losses over it. Scapegoated? Yes. Actual mass unemployment? No.

Commercially, I typically see AI used in what amount to scams. And no, I don’t believe that anyone should be using it for therapy.

You don’t have time to glance at a diagram in a book but you have time to ask AI and go to Home Depot and do it yourself?

If you’re worried about job loss, pay the plumber.

You could argue that you still put money into the local economy by shopping locally. The money you saved by doing it yourself could be spent locally on dinner and ice cream. Money is fungible.

If you’re concerned about the impacts of AI you could start to mitigate them by choosing not to use AI yourself.

It’s been a few hours. I’ve said all I have to say under this post. I’m going to stop replying now.

We should have been building additional nuclear capacity for the past 50 years. The kinds of anti data center activism we’re seeing now was directed at nuclear back then.

It would take decades to build enough data centers to use 100% of the station’s capacity.

We can build capacity as we build consumers. It’s all about balance.

I also don’t believe that we’re going to be building all of the 1200 proposed data centers in the US.

What a bad idea AI therapy is and I don’t know too many people who are using AI art commercially. Translators, sure. But we’ve been using Google Translate for almost two decades now.

You didn’t need AI for your plumbing. My dad had a whole set of books on household chores that we used to fix everything.

I do more of the work around my house than most. I won’t touch tall trees to fuck with my breaker box. I do most of my own plumbing.

But, plumbers are fine. Most people don’t want to handle their own shit.

And create a lot more pollution while generating much, much less in property tax revenue.

Data centers do more than AI. And you won’t defeat AI by killing data center proposals. The technology will succeed or fail on its own. We’ll find out in about 5 years.

Remember how “everyone” said all trucks will be self-driving in 10 years… 15 years ago?

There are something like 1200 data center proposals cross the US. How many of those will actually be built? How many are being proposed by speculators with no experience building or operating data centers? I have a feeling the number that will actually be built is significantly less that 1200.

Again, I’m talking about my region. We have a nuclear generating station 16 miles from the proposed site of the data center. That station sells 80-85% of the power generated wholesale to other parts of the state and grids regionally.

Property taxes. Construction jobs. The land is unused and already had tax incentives. Remember, tax incentives don’t eliminate taxes, they just reduce them for a period of time to encourage development.

I’m only talking about my local area. I’m not defending the Colossus sites. I don’t live near them.

I’ve noticed that people conflate being anti data center with being anti AI.

I don’t have any faith in the current crop of gen AI. I think it’s junk. I don’t think it’s replacing humans in drives. I can barely get it to refactor Sass code into a mixin.

Even if the AI bubble pops the world isn’t going to need fewer data centers.

If a speculator wants to create a bunch of construction jobs, build a site in a region with the power, water, climate to do so responsibly, and give us a bunch of money in property taxes. I’m for it.

I don’t care if his company folds and he loses his shirt. Someone will operate the data center.

They can’t get back the money they injected into the community during construction.

Eat while there’s food.

I lived in Northern Virginia, data center capital of the US. It’s far from a “megastructure ghost town”. It’s nice. You should visit.

One stat that I read was that data centers comprised 3% of the total land in NOVA but accounted for almost 50% of property tax income.

Where did you get libertarian from? I EXPLICITLY stated that I was against powering data centers with the souls of orphans. Twice.

I like taxes. I like regulations. I dislike using the souls of orphans in industrial activities.

Not exactly card carrying libertarian material.

I thought it was funny.

I have zero faith in the current generation of gen AI. I think the claims are overblown and the odds of massive unemployment is near zero.

Even if the AI bubble pops, the world isn’t going to need fewer data centers. I don’t care if a data center developer/speculator loses their shirt. The data center will stand long after they fold and someone will operate it.

Build it here. Create the construction jobs. Collect the property taxes.

Eat while there’s food.