Stu Chuang Matthews @fourmajor@qoto.org

ugh

Reddit is shit because the people running it are turning into fascists. I turned to kbin, and I'm not sure how much longer I will stay there, on account of there's very few people there and the server I joined is riddled with 500 errors.

Rui is carrying LeBron.

I'm not saying the AI doomers are wrong. I am saying that I find their arguments unconvincing and maybe the AI doomers need new spokespeople.

I listened to a couple hours of Fridman's interview of Yudkowsky and it seemed that his argument was mostly "it's self evident."

I listened to Hinton on the MIT Technology Review and it seemed that his argument was "the AI will be like a parent and we will be like the two year old child."

We need some better arguments, and especially some concrete examples. I feel like we dealt with this exact problem with those warning of climate change's impacts for decades. Namely a lack of relatable scenarios.

I'm finally starting to come around to the idea that, since language rules are not set in stone and are, in fact, set by how the usage evolves over time, "I" can be used as an object when it is part of a list of nouns. For instance:
"The waiter offered dessert to Brian and I, and we both accepted."

Whereas, I would say, "The waiter offered dessert to me and Brian, and we both accepted."

I find myself getting annoyed multiple times per day at the former example which in my mind is wrong. But I need to get over this, and realize that this is just how people speak, and therefore that's an acceptable way to speak.

This is good. A long way to go until the finish line, though. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/business/economy/california-reparations.html

Listened to this Hard Fork podcast about Blue Sky, where they talked about Twitter alternatives and federated social networks and managed to not utter the word "Mastodon" even once. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/podcasts/hard-fork-bluesky-ai-jobs.html

They also seemed to have a difficult time keeping the concepts of client and server straight. SMDH

The NBA's eight-second rule has me perpetually anxious when watching a game.

I think lines are an underappreciated form of suffering, that people are far too willing to endure, and other people are far too willing to inflict. Aside from properly staffing facilities to reduce line wait time, we can also implement rather simplistic methods to ease their pain. Things like waiting with a number rather than standing in line, or having a phone hold system call you back rather than making you wait with terrible music.

Taiwan is simply more civilized in some respects.

Roasting coffee is a quite unpleasant smell.

If I started my own (tech) company one day, which I probably won't, but you never know, here's a few radical ideas I think I might implement:
1. Company is not allowed to grow to more than 30 employees/contractors.
2. Company has a $0 marketing budget.
3. There are no dedicated sales people.
4. As part of (3), this necessitates everyone having a "backup" role that is not closely related to their primary role. This helps reduce the bus factor, helps people have a more holistic understanding of the business, and allows for vacation and sickness to not overwhelm part of the company.
5. Everyone takes periodic turns in support and operations, even for just a few hours per month.
6. Radical compassionate accountability.

Great article talking about the positive transformation coming to the world over the next 25 years. https://bigthink.com/progress/the-great-progression-peter-leyden/

When I retire one day one of my main hobbies will be cooking extravagant meals for my family and also hosting lots of dinner parties.

Any Mastodon experts know why when I search https://qoto.org/web/search for https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan it shows up empty?

Right into my veins. One of my favorite players of all time, John Wall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAC-1BSY3vQ

February: the month of waiting

I like it when the first thing my audiobook says to me is a threat of prison before they get to the story.