EgoEimi's recent activity
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
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Comment on A review of Alpha School in ~life
EgoEimi Link Parentand spend the extra time doing fun stuff, like doing sports, going on field trips, and having adventures with their classmates. And why is there this assumption the one-size-fits-most public...and spend the extra time doing fun stuff, like doing sports, going on field trips, and having adventures with their classmates.
And why is there this assumption the one-size-fits-most public school model is the most perfect thing ever, and all it needs is simply more money and parental involvement? That model evolved from a need to train a literate industrial workforce, assimilate immigrants, compete with the Soviets to win the Cold War, and in recent decades shovel kids into college with the (until recently) unquestioned assumption that college is the most perfect, natural life path ever, en masse.
We should salute efforts to experiment with alternative models that might better nurture the individual.
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
EgoEimi Link ParentI'm pretty sure the average non-Westerner would take an extra 10+ years of life, steady food, electricity, safe plumbing, basic medicine, motorized transportation, and a magical device that lets...I'm pretty sure the average non-Westerner would take an extra 10+ years of life, steady food, electricity, safe plumbing, basic medicine, motorized transportation, and a magical device that lets them contact anyone and access all human knowledge over there being fewer Bill Gates in the world.
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Comment on People with a very good memory: does that make it harder to forgive? in ~talk
EgoEimi LinkI have a very good memory and, yes, am prone to holding grudges. Back in my school days, I used to crush spelling bees, geography bees, you name it bees. And then in uni I excelled in my history...I have a very good memory and, yes, am prone to holding grudges. Back in my school days, I used to crush spelling bees, geography bees, you name it bees. And then in uni I excelled in my history classes and was a favorite of my history professors (and got glowing recommendations from them) because I had excellent recall of events, places, and names and could effortlessly weave them together.
I live very much inside my head, thinking about the future and the past. But I'm never present in the moment.
In contrast, my ex had a very poor memory and lived in the 'now'. At first it was endearing how they could be so present in the moment. But eventually it became a point of great friction: they were impulsive and would do things without thinking about consequences or how it'd make me feel. Then they'd forget that it ever happened, but I would remember everything with great clarity, and it made me tear my hair out because we could never share an understanding of reality.
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
EgoEimi Link ParentDoes rising global inequality really matter if the wealth and welfare baseline is rapidly rising? The average modern South Korean is 7 inches taller than the average Korean a century ago. That...Does rising global inequality really matter if the wealth and welfare baseline is rapidly rising?
The average modern South Korean is 7 inches taller than the average Korean a century ago. That speaks to the astounding deprivation and undernourishment that Koreans historically experienced.
Since the 90s, an average Asian person now lives a decade longer; the average African, a decade and a half!
Also since the 90s, global extreme poverty (living on less than $3/day) has fallen from 43% to 10%: we lifted 33% or one-third of all humans from extreme poverty.
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
EgoEimi Link ParentThe big coffee and cocoa producers like Vietnam, Columbia, and the Ivory Coast have developed rapidly into middle-income countries. The Ivory Coast is considered lower-middle income, but for years...The luxury the rich world has is predicated upon attaining resources from the poor ones at slavery prices. Otherwise, everyone who lives in the very rare chocolate and coffee producing regions would live like gods.
The big coffee and cocoa producers like Vietnam, Columbia, and the Ivory Coast have developed rapidly into middle-income countries. The Ivory Coast is considered lower-middle income, but for years its gdp has grown at 6–7% annually. These countries were extremely poor a generation or two ago.
The anti-globalization movement of the early 2000's has been ideologically defeated: global trade has massively accelerated the development of non-western countries and built a global middle class of billions.
Environmental degradation, on the other hand, is a different, sad story. But economically, the world is unfathomably wealthier than it was 20 years ago.
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Comment on OpenAI says hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users may show signs of manic or psychotic crisis every week in ~health.mental
EgoEimi LinkIs this high or low? These figures need to be grounded. The CDC estimates that 4~5% of Americans experienced suicidal ideation in any given year. What percentage of them show explicit indicators...In a given week, OpenAI estimated that around 0.07 percent of active ChatGPT users show “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania” and 0.15 percent “have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.”
Is this high or low? These figures need to be grounded. The CDC estimates that 4~5% of Americans experienced suicidal ideation in any given year. What percentage of them show explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent? I'm not sure.
I remember when there was so much controversy over worker suicides at Foxconn: "wake, up people are killing themselves to make your iPhones!" But critics overlooked the fact that 18 suicides in a workforce of almost a million people yields a suicide rate that was actually much lower than both China's and the global suicide rate, both rural and urban. The reality was that for many poor, uneducated migrant workers, work life at Foxconn — above average pay, free meals, and free accommodations — was much better than anything they had back in the countryside or than what they could find the cities, so they were generally pretty happy about the work — even though it appears undesirable to affluent westerners.
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Comment on How do you volunteer your time? in ~talk
EgoEimi LinkWhen I have free time, I like to volunteer with elderly folks or the homeless but only in roles where my time is primarily spent getting to know people, building connection, and helping people...When I have free time, I like to volunteer with elderly folks or the homeless but only in roles where my time is primarily spent getting to know people, building connection, and helping people forgotten by society feel more connected and less lonely.
But I think it's inefficient to donate pure labor. If you're a working professional, you should just make money doing what you're good at and donate that money to allow the org hire workers who are good at what they do. It's just more efficient that way. Unless you find the labor fun — I've volunteered with parks to do various landscaping work but really only as fun physical exercise. I did Habitat for Humanity for a short while but then I wised up and realized it was a waste of time, and that they should just let real professionals build houses.
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Comment on US kills three in second strike on alleged drug boats in the Pacific in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentI'm in favor of the US instigating regime change, even though I think its past interventions in Latin America were wrong. Venezuela is unique in that its current government is deeply unpopular but...I'm in favor of the US instigating regime change, even though I think its past interventions in Latin America were wrong. Venezuela is unique in that its current government is deeply unpopular but only exists through violent oppression of its people, and there is a wildly popular competent opposition that is already democratically legitimated and ready to take over but is forcibly suppressed by the regime.
The Irish Potato Famine caused Ireland's population to drop 20–25%, and Venezuela's population has declined by 25+% from people fleeing its current regime. The situation is very bad. But military pressure by Trump could be the breeze to finally topple over the Venezuelan regime's house of cards and set up a velvet revolution, one with minimal bloodshed. If anything, this path probably saves many more lives than any other path (like an internal revolution).
I think it doesn't matter if Trump is doing it for the good of the Venezuelan people or not. I think he, in wanting to cater to his political base, is accidentally doing a good thing.
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Comment on The majority AI view in ~comp
EgoEimi Link ParentWhat would be unearned privilege, and what would be earned privilege?What would be unearned privilege, and what would be earned privilege?
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Comment on Amazon ordered to pay $20K after British Columbia customer says package never arrived in ~tech
EgoEimi LinkThat is a lot. I've had zero non-deliveries over 10+ years of heavily using Amazon in various cities, states, and countries, including both very safe ones and ones that had a lot of crime. Having...According to CPBC, Amazon told the regulator that it denied the refund because of suspicions of “return abuse.” The company alleged the customer had claimed refunds for three previous orders in the past year, each time claiming non-delivery.
That is a lot. I've had zero non-deliveries over 10+ years of heavily using Amazon in various cities, states, and countries, including both very safe ones and ones that had a lot of crime. Having four non-deliveries (the three previous + the one in question) in one year is pretty suspicious.
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Comment on The majority AI view in ~comp
EgoEimi LinkThat's an unsubstantiated statement. Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Sundar Pichai are all liberal. Sam and Dario have publicly stated that there is/will be an AI inequality problem that needs to be...But instead, we end up with the worst, most anti-social approaches because the platforms that have introduced "AI" to the public imagination are run by authoritarian extremists with deeply destructive agendas.
That's an unsubstantiated statement. Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Sundar Pichai are all liberal. Sam and Dario have publicly stated that there is/will be an AI inequality problem that needs to be solved through UBI and/or some socioeconomic reform; Sam himself spent $100m+ in cash on a UBI experiment. Only Elon Musk is an authoritarian extremist, but his Grok AI isn't a big player.
I'm optimistic about AI. It's creating a lot of economic value. It's not a normal technology because it's targeting a human domain—information synthesis—that has been untouched by other technologies, which have targeted information retrieval or, in the past, manual labor automation/augmentation. In parallel, there are rapid advancements in robotics. I find the future quite bright — if we choose it to be.
It's really on voters to choose leaders to harness this promethean fire for society's benefit. Unfortunately, the right lacks brains, while the left lacks imagination.
We can build AI that isn't centralized under the control of a handful of giant companies.
People are building that. Lots of folks and companies are working on alternative models and hardware for local or on-device compute.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
EgoEimi LinkThere's a cultural vibe that non-profit work is inherently morally superior over for-profit work. I think both have important roles to play, especially with non-profits producing cultural output....There's a cultural vibe that non-profit work is inherently morally superior over for-profit work.
I think both have important roles to play, especially with non-profits producing cultural output. But I think 2 things:
- It's morally good to efficiently produce something that someone else values and then they pay you for it. And you should reasonably minimize negative externalities.
- It's very difficult to produce something purely positive for society with zero negative externalities, but I consider it a big win to produce something that is largely a net positive.
- It's not inherently noble to devalue your own time, labor, and talent.
I know folks who have a mindset that things should be purely positive so they'll block anything that's net-positive if there's any amount of negative. And I know folks who work in non-profits who have produced little or sub-optimally for society, almost always buoyed by public funding that could've been more efficiently allocated elsewhere — morally a net negative, imo. I know someone who's an architect for non-profit housing, but is it really good that their organization provides housing at 50% higher per-unit production cost than for-profit housing? Just to have a non-profit label?
I've seen a bunch of non-profit grocery stores fail because they were started by non-profit-minded folks who somehow thought for-profit grocery stores were evil and exploitative and they could do better, but it turns out that running a grocery store is actually really difficult and the profit margins are razor thin and it takes real skill — and they didn't have the business or operational skills to compete and fulfill their mission, as their prices end being higher than for-profit stores due to lack of sales volume, and poor inventory turnover and management. Imagine that.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
EgoEimi Link Parent"Self-congratulatory" is the EU's middle name. I find that on the ground level, Americans are actually much, much more tolerant, inclusive, and curious about people of other races and cultures...."Self-congratulatory" is the EU's middle name.
I find that on the ground level, Americans are actually much, much more tolerant, inclusive, and curious about people of other races and cultures.
European leaders talk a good game about inclusion, but everyday European people are quite insular.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
EgoEimi Link ParentHolidays should be more evenly distributed. And we should have one in January to look forward, instead of having this depressing post-Christmas ecstasy comedown we currently have.Holidays should be more evenly distributed. And we should have one in January to look forward, instead of having this depressing post-Christmas ecstasy comedown we currently have.
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Comment on Spotify, the world's biggest music streaming service, has announced it is working with major labels on using artificial intelligence in a "responsible" way in ~music
EgoEimi Link ParentThere has been experimental non-AI adaptive music but they were fairly crude. Just imagine one continuous techno track that gets all drum-and-bass as you're sprinting, but then you slow down to a...There has been experimental non-AI adaptive music but they were fairly crude. Just imagine one continuous techno track that gets all drum-and-bass as you're sprinting, but then you slow down to a jog to cool down then the track mellows out with Brian Eno-esque ambient vibes.
As I think more about it, the history of art has been of avant garde artists pushing the boundary of art with new technology and getting pushed back on for making not real or bad art, but then their art eventually becomes the new old guard. So folks writing off AI art as not real art are joining a long tradition of art reactionism.
Eventually the cycle will begin anew with AI artists pushing back against future neural link art: "art is meant to be seen, touched, and heard with our biological senses! Not directly interfaced with our visual and auditory cortices!!" And so on and so forth.
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Comment on Spotify, the world's biggest music streaming service, has announced it is working with major labels on using artificial intelligence in a "responsible" way in ~music
EgoEimi Link ParentPioneers are always pushing the boundaries of music, and there are music conservatives decrying those efforts because they cannot fathom that music could be made without 'real' X or Y. I think the...Pioneers are always pushing the boundaries of music, and there are music conservatives decrying those efforts because they cannot fathom that music could be made without 'real' X or Y.
I think the AI future of music is going to be exciting. Sure, there'll be plenty of crap, but there always has been plenty of artistic crap. But some people are going to create some super interesting musical experiences that weren't possible before.
- AI-adaptive songs that you can sing with, and they'll transform around your singing
- Songs that respond to time of day and environment
- Workout music that adapts its rhythm, intensity, everything to your workout, heart rate, effort, etc.
- Interesting new unearthly sounds that only AI could generate
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Comment on An AI that turns any book into a text adventure game in ~books
EgoEimi Link ParentIt's legal to write very bad fan fiction and distribute it... non-commercially. I think this is similar. It's basically generating interactive fan fiction, and so long as the website doesn't...it's almost more of an issue where authors aren't going to want their works associated with poor AI generated responses.
It's legal to write very bad fan fiction and distribute it... non-commercially. I think this is similar.
It's basically generating interactive fan fiction, and so long as the website doesn't charge for it it'd be a similar case to free fanfic.
It's telling to me that people making sites like this never have authors jumping up and down to share their books, even ones who are pro-fanfiction
Eh, in my experience many, if not most, authors hate fan fiction—seeing it as a desecration of their art—and aren't jumping to endorse non-AI fan fiction websites either. But fan fic authors are free to write as they please so long as they aren't profiting.
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Comment on ‘Tron: Ares’ stumbles with $33.5 million debut in ~movies
EgoEimi LinkI loved the first Tron so I've been interested in a sequel. I'm also busy. I've seen some ads for Tron: Ares, but I don't understand what it's about. They appear to be in the real world, but...I loved the first Tron so I've been interested in a sequel. I'm also busy. I've seen some ads for Tron: Ares, but I don't understand what it's about. They appear to be in the real world, but there's a guy and a chick and a love story? What's going on?
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Comment on Tech companies are finding out everything is political in ~tech
EgoEimi Link ParentTech isn't monolithic. When you look at Twitter, you're mostly seeing entrepreneurial upstarts who of course want to weaken incumbents they're trying to unseat. The incumbents aren't...Tech isn't monolithic. When you look at Twitter, you're mostly seeing entrepreneurial upstarts who of course want to weaken incumbents they're trying to unseat. The incumbents aren't techno-libertarian but are pro-regulation because it creates barriers to entry.
Ok, right off the bat: local corner stores have local/geographic monopoly power, which is one type of monopoly, but it is not absolute.
The corner store charges a premium: you the shopper can spend 10 minutes and buy a box of pasta for $4 vs. spending 20–60 minutes on a longer trip to a big grocery store where you can buy a box of pasta for $2. The former makes sense if you only need a few things, but if you need to do a whole grocery run, the latter makes more sense.
But if the corner store were to charge, say, $100 for the pasta, it wouldn't be worth the time you save, and, pasta being a substitutable good, you don't have to have pasta, so you'd switch to something else, like rice.
But the local corner store is not making $3+ off a box of pasta. Mainstream grocery store operating profit margins are around 1–5%, while small independent stores' are around 5–10%.
The local corner store has a small sales volume, low inventory turnover, and relatively high operational costs, so it must charge a premium. Costco, for example, manages to achieve cheap prices through high sales volume (and outsized purchasing power), high inventory turnover, and relatively low operational costs (they let customers grab goods directly off shipping pallets, reducing the need to pay staff to manually stock shelves).
I think Mamdani is a good person, but he fundamentally doesn't understand why food prices are the way they are.