EgoEimi's recent activity
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Comment on Scientists now think that being overweight can protect your health in ~health
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Comment on US parents say Peppa Pig is giving their kids British accents in ~tv
EgoEimi Link ParentChildren’s shows on the internet terrify me. I remember growing up watching public access TV shows like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhoods. I think that those shows were made and curated with the interests...Children’s shows on the internet terrify me. I remember growing up watching public access TV shows like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhoods. I think that those shows were made and curated with the interests of children in mind.
The new generation of children shows seem mass-produced to farm ad money.
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Comment on Being healthy in ~health
EgoEimi (edited )Link ParentI think this is one worth bookmarking and sharing with people who stress out too much over their diet. As someone who’s very active (but nowhere near Olympic fit) and maintained a healthy body...I think this is one worth bookmarking and sharing with people who stress out too much over their diet.
As someone who’s very active (but nowhere near Olympic fit) and maintained a healthy body weight all my life and has almost perfect skin and virtually no health problems, my nutritional routine is pretty simple.
I do the following:
- eat when hungry
- …and not eat when not hungry. (Mindless boredom snacking.) I see people munch away on chips and salsa just because they’re within reach.
- eat a little slowly so stomach satiety response can catch up
- eat meals that have something starchy, something fatty, and something proteiny.
- eat diversely
- not eat too much of one thing
- eat some fiber to prolong satiety
- don’t eat too much sugar to avoid blood sugar spike
- …unless I’m working out and need that quick energy.
- drink plenty of water
- …and not drink too much beer/alcohol. I drink to get a light buzz, not to get drunk. The alcohol calorie savings really stack up.
- occasional big treats (slice of cake at end of week), frequent small treats (scoop of ice cream or a few blocks of chocolate after a weeknight dinner).
With the exception of genuine medical needs, most people make it way too complicated with juice cleanses and antioxidant regimens and whatnot.
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Comment on Fallout: London - Official reveal trailer in ~games
EgoEimi Link Parentme listening: ??? have a cup of ???? and her majesty been ???? and jack is on a ??? ??? ??? blarney oh ??? ??? ??? ??? radiationme listening: ??? have a cup of ???? and her majesty been ???? and jack is on a ??? ??? ??? blarney oh ??? ??? ??? ??? radiation
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Comment on Dune | Official main trailer in ~movies
EgoEimi Link ParentNot quite “yippee ki yay” indeed but violently naive in a very human way. Vague spoiler But the film showed the cool-headed intellectuals, the linguist and the physicist, ultimately prevailing...Not quite “yippee ki yay” indeed but violently naive in a very human way.
Vague spoiler
But the film showed the cool-headed intellectuals, the linguist and the physicist, ultimately prevailing over the hot-headed warriors. -
Comment on Dune | Official main trailer in ~movies
EgoEimi (edited )Link ParentI loved Villeneuve's treatment of Arrival. There was little over-the-top action or cheap violence. There weren't "yippee ki yay this is fucking MURICA we're gonna blow these aliens up"...But I can’t help but feel like people will be disappointed when they see the actual movie. This trailer makes it seem like a much more action packed movie than it will be. Dune is, at its heart, a story about political machinations and a political war between two factions.
I loved Villeneuve's treatment of Arrival. There was little over-the-top action or cheap violence. There weren't "yippee ki yay this is fucking MURICA we're gonna blow these aliens up" cowboy-hero-in-a-jet-fighter antics which I absolutely hate and roll my eyes at. Just a lot of time and space spent marveling at the incomprehensible alienness of the interstellar visitors.
I have high hopes that Dune will get a similarly thoughtful treatment.
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Comment on Dune | Official main trailer in ~movies
EgoEimi Link ParentPull out your wallets everyone, it’s time to vote with our money. I’m so excited. I’m definitely seeing this in the theaters.Pull out your wallets everyone, it’s time to vote with our money.
I’m so excited. I’m definitely seeing this in the theaters.
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Comment on 'Woke coke': Drug dealers marketing 'ethically sourced' cocaine in ~news
EgoEimi Link ParentI think that yours is an excellent articulation of the problem. Where can I learn more about this?I think that yours is an excellent articulation of the problem. Where can I learn more about this?
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Comment on 'Woke coke': Drug dealers marketing 'ethically sourced' cocaine in ~news
EgoEimi Link ParentI feel that it is more broadly a cultural-economic-societal problem. This isn't fact or anything: this is just what I've observed and interpreted. I tread in the gay techie world, and I see a lot...Drug addiction is a medical problem, not a criminal one.
I feel that it is more broadly a cultural-economic-societal problem. This isn't fact or anything: this is just what I've observed and interpreted. I tread in the gay techie world, and I see a lot of drug use and abuse.
These experiences have made me ponder about what is it about the way our society and our economy are structured such that it's so very difficult to find fulfillment and meaning, even for highly affluent gay men working in tech, such that people want drugs to escape the bleakness.
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Comment on 'Woke coke': Drug dealers marketing 'ethically sourced' cocaine in ~news
EgoEimi Link ParentI feel a little weird for admitting this, but "woke coke" is something that is totally targeted at people like me. I've never done cocaine. It's something I want to do on rare occasions. However,...I feel a little weird for admitting this, but "woke coke" is something that is totally targeted at people like me.
I've never done cocaine. It's something I want to do on rare occasions. However, I am totally restrained by my knowledge that modern production and distribution of cocaine fuels a lot of human suffering.
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Comment on Learning math / mathematical reasoning as an adult in ~talk
EgoEimi LinkI know that this thread is a little old — but perhaps some of us could start a study group. I think that one of the most important success factors offered by a good school environment is peer...I know that this thread is a little old — but perhaps some of us could start a study group. I think that one of the most important success factors offered by a good school environment is peer support (and pressure).
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Comment on The one thing I wish someone had told me about physical activity in ~talk
EgoEimi Link ParentI want to add on that inline skating is an adjacent and very accessible sport. All one needs is a safe area of smooth pavement. And nearly all inline skaters I know switch between ice and inline...I want to add on that inline skating is an adjacent and very accessible sport. All one needs is a safe area of smooth pavement. And nearly all inline skaters I know switch between ice and inline skating as the seasons change.
I started last summer during the pandemic and fell down the rabbit hole 🕳. I got absorbed into the Dutch skating scene and met lots of new friends who helped mentor me into becoming a relatively advanced skater.
Finding sport friends is important, I’ve found. It’s a self-reinforcing loop. Without sport friends, it’s easy to feel discouraged and lost — and give up. But with sport friends, one looks forward to sporting and is immersed in the scene, and in that way meets even more sport friends — and so the cycle goes.
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Comment on Thinking about the societal problem "stack" in ~talk
EgoEimi Link ParentWhile that's true, I think these result from problems that are more fundamental to American society. I'm interested in why misinformation, gaslighting, etc. work so well in our societies: our...While that's true, I think these result from problems that are more fundamental to American society.
I'm interested in why misinformation, gaslighting, etc. work so well in our societies: our human flaws that manifest flaws at greater levels/scopes.
I like to imagine a hypothetical alien species that can communicate telepathically with unlimited information brain-bandwidth, without dishonesty, and has long enough lifespans and patience to carefully debate out everything it ever wants to. Totally outlandish, I know. But with these fundamental traits that are so radically different from ours, I imagine their political processes to be so different.
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Thinking about the societal problem "stack"
This past year and a half I've been in a strange sort of depression over the dysfunction of human society, especially in how nations around the world have collectively dealt (or failed to deal)...
This past year and a half I've been in a strange sort of depression over the dysfunction of human society, especially in how nations around the world have collectively dealt (or failed to deal) with the coronavirus.
I'm trying to get myself out of this funk. I'm normally a doer, not a sit-on-my-butt-er. I'm trying to think about the nature of human problems, see the problem space along different dimensions, and find high-leverage points for solutions. Trying to outline the problem "stack" so to speak.
This is a lot of paper napkin thinking from me. There are going to be a lot of naive thoughts here. But I'd like to have an open conversation, so we can stumble on some new interesting insights, rediscover what others already have, and not get too bogged down in "well, ackchyually..." nitty-gritty details.
The pandemic is a relatively 'easy' problem — at least if you compare it to the threat of an incoming extinction-level asteroid, a wandering black hole, or a dying sun, which would require technical solutions impossibly beyond our current capabilities. In those scenarios, we can only pray and party. But for the pandemic, we had the political tools: Taiwan showed us how a combined approach of strict border controls with hotel quarantining (no kindly asking people to maybe please quarantine — travelers will quarantine), wearing masks everywhere, extensive contact tracing, and cross-governmental data-sharing, can successful contain the virus. Now we have technological tools: a myriad of vaccines.
Yet...
- It's been nearly a year and a half. A concerted global effort could have ended the crisis within a month or two early on, right? Granted, this would entail giving up our human rights for a short while — but that seems way better than dragging it for so long. Instead we watched as we tried to carry on as normal as possible and the virus spread like wildfire.
- A third of U.S. adults are unvaccinated despite being eligible and there being plenty of vaccines to go around (in the US at least).
- Significant numbers of people believe wacky stuff: COVID isn't real, masks don't do anything, and so on.
From what I observe: nearly all human problems are policy problems. The human race has sufficient material and technological resources to solve most problems. Underlying those policy problems are coordination problems — coordinating people on the facts, solutions, and implementations.
- Human problems
- ... are policy problems
- ... are coordination problems
So the human race has a bunch of solutions, institutions, and tools to help with the coordination problem:
- the UN and other intergovernmental bodies like the WHO to coordinate at the international level
- National institutions to coordinate
- Newspapers to spread information and generate consensus
But as we well know, these coordination solutions have problems. Now I'm thinking what are the coordination sub-problems.
- Incentive problems / The Game: Broadly in game theory speak, some players are incentivized to not cooperate, even if at the detriment of everyone. This seems to me to be the crux of the coordination problem.
- Culture problems: This is a whole nest of problems.
- Cultural norms around equity. I think that this is a big one. It's been shown that different societies have different norms and ideas about what's fair and equal. The norms often develop around economic realities. Forager societies favor egalitarian distribution over meritocratic distribution as high cooperation is required between members: unequal distribution threatens relationships and cooperation. Perhaps our merit-based norms may need to shift from a pre-industrial era where people more or less produced what they consumed — to a new era of automation and robotics, where a relative few produce most everything.
- Cultural norms around consumption and transmission of information. This stems from our education culture. Media consumption in our societies — western and non-western alike — is passive. Socratic seminars are rare in schools: pupils receive lessons passively from their teachers. Most people aren't educated or trained on how to have open discussions or on how to avoid rhetorical fallacies.
- Education problems: there is only so much information can do if people don't know how to process information.
- Mentioned above cultural norms around how we consume and transmit information.
- Statistical thinking. The abuse and misuse of stats in popular discourse.
Among others.
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Comment on Bill Cosby freed as court overturns his sex assault conviction in ~news
EgoEimi LinkHe’s out doing a victory lap, spinning to the press his release as proof of his innocence. I can’t stomach the smugness.He’s out doing a victory lap, spinning to the press his release as proof of his innocence.
I can’t stomach the smugness.
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Comment on What's something you wish made a comeback? in ~talk
EgoEimi Link ParentI like Amsterdam's radial layout. It's both modern and medieval, grid and not-grid. Its main avenues were legible for navigation, but it also had winding alleys and side roads that were lovely for...I like Amsterdam's radial layout. It's both modern and medieval, grid and not-grid. Its main avenues were legible for navigation, but it also had winding alleys and side roads that were lovely for exploration.
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Comment on Have you felt or do you still feel the optimism of the Internet / Web 2.0 in the early 2000s and 2010s? in ~tech
EgoEimi LinkI was born in 1992. I started using the internet in the early 2000s. I was raised in a family of computer programmers, so I had access to computers at a young age. I remember the excitement and...I was born in 1992. I started using the internet in the early 2000s. I was raised in a family of computer programmers, so I had access to computers at a young age.
I remember the excitement and optimism. People thought that the internet was going to empower people to organize themselves politically and against oppressive governments and corporate interests. That the internet was uncensorable. That the internet would allow people to access Truth. The future was so bright.
That all turned out so wrong. It turned out that the nature of the internet made it perfect for government and corporate control. The vastness and distributed-ness of the physical world actually made centralization difficult. But the internet, while outwardly vast, was perfect for centralization.
The physical world is porous with many 'nodes'. Not even McDonalds can place a restaurant on every street corner. There's plenty of room and niches for resistance, alternatives.
The internet, while seemingly vast, actually flows through relatively few nodes that can be captured by governments and corporations. Winner takes all effects are strongest. The nature of the physical world makes its domination resource-intensive. But the nature of the internet makes it easy for the well-resourced to scale hyper-fast and outcompete and crush the not-so-well-resourced.
Everywhere walls and moats are being erected by product manager types. Interoperability is used parasitically: it's granted when it's favorable for growing one's user base, and cut off when the host is no longer useful. Everything lives in proprietary formats in the cloud, gated.
I'm a designer. What makes me happy is designing and building quality software that is morally positive or at least morally neutral. But I get discouraged about striking out on my own to try to build something new — the threat of a giant stomping on my creation looms, especially in the minds of others.
There's a cultural imperative in the tech world to build fast, grow fast, and cash out. But what if I want to grow slowly, genuinely care about users, and... not cash out? I'd love to be — in 20 years — reading and responding to user emails or meeting up with users over coffee to listen to them. I don't want to build a garden only to sell it off and let it rot under someone else's exploitative stewardship. What if I want to carefully cultivate?
But it doesn't seem possible in this eat-or-be-eaten world.
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Have you felt or do you still feel the optimism of the Internet / Web 2.0 in the early 2000s and 2010s?
Title is the question. It's left open for your interpretation. It'd be interesting to see people's different interpretations and reasons.
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Comment on Microsoft announces Windows 11, with a new design, Start menu, and more in ~tech
EgoEimi LinkFirst, as a designer myself I recognize that the task of modernizing Windows is an uber monumental challenge that I do not envy. I salute the Microsoft designers, PMs, and engineers. There are a...First, as a designer myself I recognize that the task of modernizing Windows is an uber monumental challenge that I do not envy. I salute the Microsoft designers, PMs, and engineers.
There are a lot of things on the interface side that I love and hate about this update.
Love:
- Mostly little visual refinements here and there.
- A biggie: visual differentiation and area demarcation of frame and frame depths within application windows, through the use of borders, foreground/midground/background colors, shadows, and translucency. In Windows 10, different frames are very difficult to see when not in motion. Everything in Windows 10 just... mushes together in one big quadrilateral blob. Right now, the grey Tildes footer literally appears solidly conjoined with my grey taskbar. Many things visually bleed into other things without visual demarcation of area and borders. It's not always immediately clear where one things ends and another begins. My visual cortex hurts from trying to cognitively group and categorize on-screen elements.
- A biggie: the window snapping appears very well done. The user is offered six layout configurations that cover most layout needs. The way the user is presented with window choices also appears well-implemened.
- Subtle rounded corners. The ubiquity of hard corners in Windows 8 and 10 gave the OS a very harsh look.
- New settings looks significantly better.
- Windows' continued transition away from flat icons to 2.5D icons, and incremental improvement on system icons (at the least ones I saw). I think that the old/current system icons look bad; horrible when enlarged. I also find that many old/existing system icons are inadequate in communicating their meaning, like Multitasking (looks like a blind curtain with a pull cord), New Tab (looks like checker cookies), Devices (looks like some weird DJ turntable with an early 2000s swivel-out keyboard), Time & Language (waaay too much going on, icons should be conceptually succinct), VPN (looks like ovaries), Screen Snip (looks like a vasectomy operation), Speech Microphone (looks like a rectangular popsicle bar, not a microphone)... I could go on all day, heh.
Hate:
- Centered taskbar. I know the traditional left-aligned taskbar is available. But the centered option is super awkward as it leaves the left taskbar area visually empty and interactively useless despite that area being incredibly valuable real estate. Wasted opportunity.
- Oversized notifications still around. In Windows 10 on my Surface Pro a notification can take up between 1/8 to 1/6 of vertical real estate. Seems that Windows 11 doesn't really change this.
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Comment on MacKenzie Scott, citing wealth gap, donates $2.7 billion in ~finance
EgoEimi Link ParentOn this part, I have a different perspective that’s mixed capitalist-socialist: It doesn’t matter if they did the commensurate hard work or not. They acquired the money by producing outsized...That money didn't come from their "hard work," it came from the workers. This is taking 60 billion dollars from all the employees that work at amazon, then giving 8 billion to a charity.
On this part, I have a different perspective that’s mixed capitalist-socialist:
- It doesn’t matter if they did the commensurate hard work or not.
- They acquired the money by producing outsized economic value. (I hesitate to say “earn” because there’s a cultural assignment of exertion to economic output <-> money therefore deserved, and I think that assignment is irrelevant.)
- But they shouldn’t get to keep vast majority of the money, which should be redistributed in a fair manner.
On (1), exertion is not a measure of output/value. I think it’s very possible for one human being to create 200,000 times more economic value than another human being, while the two be equal in human dignity. More on this in point 3.
On (2), I think not enough cultural credit is given to the astronomical value in conceiving and implementing enterprises and tooks that produce opportunities for others to create value or orchestrating people to create value effectively. The vast majority of people do not create significant innovations. This is fine. Economic value is important, but there are other equally important things in life, like culture, family, and society.
We do not produce in value in a vacuum. We rely not only on technological and social infrastructure but also on political, financial, and organizational/business infrastructure.
That being said, (3) Mackenzie Scott and her class should not get to keep most of their wealth. Even if we ever to reach a state where we had universal healthcare and education and housing. Extreme wealth inequality is inherently bad for society. It splits it into a dual society. It harms social cohesion by creating insurmountable social distance from the top of society to the bottom of society. Without social cohesion, how can we have a healthy culture and democracy that isn’t all consumed by deprivation and feelings of envy, inadequacy, pity, and superiority? It deprives oxygen to feelings of fraternity, sorority, kinship, equanimity, empathy, and solidarity — which I believe are the bases of human dignity in a society.
I remember repatriating to the US after living abroad for several years in Europe, where many people are overweight but not obese.
My first stop was O'Hare Airport in Chicago.
I remember Americans being overweight. But the first-hand experience of seeing so many people struggling to walk unassisted (nearly teetering and toddling) was... very shocking.
Granted, I saw some people who were very physically built and are outliers to the BMI system. But the majority of heavy people I saw were clearly obese.
The idea that an unintuitive excess of body fat could be healthy in certain aspects... sounds plausible to me. But I worry that people will interpret this research as a validation of obesity.
In America we badly need to redesign our way of life — our urban environments, diets, work lifestyles, etc. — to reduce obesity. It would greatly improve not only objective metrics like life expectancy and healthcare cost burden but also general quality of life.