Why you're christian
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entangledamplitude's recent activity
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~health
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Comment on Generation Gamble in ~tech
entangledamplitude LinkOne of my most interesting takeaways from the meme stonks saga has been to change my mental model of RobinHood from an investment portal/broker to a lootbox app driven primarily by user...One of my most interesting takeaways from the meme stonks saga has been to change my mental model of RobinHood from an investment portal/broker to a lootbox app driven primarily by user engagement. Subreddits seem to have coincidentally turned into the social layer to spice up the in-game experience.
Zooming out a bit, it’s crazy, how over the last decade, the mobile ecosystem has so thoroughly turned the smartphone into a Skinner box; every single app & feature together. And I’m stunned by the depth and thoroughness of the impact.
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Generation Gamble
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The NYT's partisan tale about COVID and the unvaccinated is rife with sloppy data analysis
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Comment on File not found: A generation that grew up with Google is forcing professors to rethink their lesson plans in ~comp
entangledamplitude Link ParentIt's funny to split hairs on something so trivial as file structure, but I think it's symptomatic of a deeper problem. It’s not just about adapting to the tools of the generation, but the shift...It's funny to split hairs on something so trivial as file structure, but I think it's symptomatic of a deeper problem. It’s not just about adapting to the tools of the generation, but the shift from “using a tool” mentality to “being serviced”.
Between Google Apps and the Apple ecosystem (Windows is also getting there), people are coddled into a kind of "learned helplessness" in problem solving -- where the only response to any problem is to pay a company to make the problem go away, or beg someone for help.
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Comment on The paradox of control in ~life
entangledamplitude Link ParentPart of the essential idea is that we don’t have the sagacity to just measure but not optimize (Goodhart’s law). All of those attempts at control are only weakly correlated with well-being. The...Part of the essential idea is that we don’t have the sagacity to just measure but not optimize (Goodhart’s law).
“We climb onto the scale: we should lose weight. We look into the mirror: we have to get rid of that pimple, those wrinkles. We take our blood pressure: it should be lower. We track our steps: we should walk more.” “We invariably encounter such things,” Rosa notes, “as a challenge to do better.”
All of those attempts at control are only weakly correlated with well-being. The only thing they have going for them is that they provide concrete directives for action, which are seductive when one operates with a “bias for action”.
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Comment on The paradox of control in ~life
entangledamplitude Link ParentQuite the contrary, the way I understand the thesis is that the more we try to control a phenomenon, the harder it becomes to actually get (more) useful information/understanding from it. In the...I suppose it’s true that when you fully understand a subject it becomes less interesting. But it seems like this argument assumes some sort of end of history, that there is little remaining to explore.
Quite the contrary, the way I understand the thesis is that the more we try to control a phenomenon, the harder it becomes to actually get (more) useful information/understanding from it. In the same spirit as: any metric that is managed ceases to be a good metric.
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The paradox of control
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Comment on What helps keep you off social media? in ~talk
entangledamplitude LinkThere was a period where I got a lot more reading done — the trick was to always carry around a book (or an e-reader) so whenever I had a few spare minutes, I’d read a bit. Purely as a corollary,...There was a period where I got a lot more reading done — the trick was to always carry around a book (or an e-reader) so whenever I had a few spare minutes, I’d read a bit. Purely as a corollary, my mindless scrolling decreased drastically.
Another good option is to hang out with people IRL and call each other out on excessive phone usage.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
entangledamplitude LinkA long time ago, chat apps actually were decentralized — with XMPP as the common protocol (I’m dating when I got on to the interwebz :-P) That still works btw, and I’m sure there’s a substantial...A long time ago, chat apps actually were decentralized — with XMPP as the common protocol (I’m dating when I got on to the interwebz :-P) That still works btw, and I’m sure there’s a substantial population using various apps/clients to chat over XMPP.
Google Talk was one the most popular clients, and it so happened that around the turn of the last decade everybody and their uncle got infatuated with “network effects” and “owning captive audiences” on their own walled platforms. So the web giants pivoted to lock down their communication platforms and social networks.
There does seem to be a small but strong push for more decentralized options like ActivityPub and Matrix. Time will tell how successful & widespread they become.
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Comment on New research shows a vast majority of cis people won't date trans people in ~lgbt
entangledamplitude (edited )Link ParentI have nothing specific to add regarding the trans question, but I just want to point out that people anyways self-select into dating pools by preferences based on race, ethnicity, religion, etc...I have nothing specific to add regarding the trans question, but I just want to point out that people anyways self-select into dating pools by preferences based on race, ethnicity, religion, etc (apart from looks, habits, interests, intelligence, income/wealth, etc of course). Almost never does anyone have realistic access to 50% of the population (even within the relevant age bands), especially if one is in a minority population on any one of those axes. I sympathize with the pain you felt, but the comparison feels like a bit of a naive straw man. Dating is complicated for anyone who’s not aggressively normal — and almost everyone feels the pain. C’est la vie.
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Fire in the Blood (2013 documentary)
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Comment on Tab viewer/organizer? in ~tech
entangledamplitude LinkI find OneTab to be convenient for such purposes. All tabs go into a list, then I can export and process the list (Eg: remove all lines with wikipedia) and re-import the list and open all tabs. If...I find OneTab to be convenient for such purposes. All tabs go into a list, then I can export and process the list (Eg: remove all lines with wikipedia) and re-import the list and open all tabs.
If you're a little more technically adept, TabFS is quite fantastic.
As for iOS, my solution so far is to transfer all iOS tabs to my laptop (through Firefox Sync) and then handle it the same way.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~health
entangledamplitude Link ParentFair enough, but that feels like a lost opportunity on their part :-)Fair enough, but that feels like a lost opportunity on their part :-)
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~science
entangledamplitude (edited )LinkSpeaking as someone who understands a good chunk of the technical details in “AI”, IMHO, the statement/article OP links to is a massive bait-and-switch. The first part makes it appear as if...Speaking as someone who understands a good chunk of the technical details in “AI”, IMHO, the statement/article OP links to is a massive bait-and-switch. The first part makes it appear as if computing powered AI is somehow going to be much better than humans. Rest assured that we are far from that right now. “AI” could have been used to think up moves in a game of Go, but to actually move the damn pieces reliably required a human!
The real worry, espoused in the second half of the article, is how we’re currently rushing to apply this stupid AI at scale — from moderating content online, to making decisions about credit, to automated facial recognition, to micromanaging human labor, etc — and how that stupid AI is most often subtly biased and optimizing for something different from what we really want to optimize for.
Layer on top of this a messed up system of incentives percolating through our economic system, and it sets up landscape of the problem. In fact, it might be argued that corporations/bureaucracies which run by processes are already an AI — only, they use humans as substrates, rather than silicon — and illustrate all the problems which we’re worried about with forecasted “runaway Al”. In that sense, Kahneman’s comments in the article are both underwhelming and also misdirected.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~health
entangledamplitude Link ParentWas this data/report ever released? I’d love to get an understanding of the healthcare facilities in different regions!Was this data/report ever released? I’d love to get an understanding of the healthcare facilities in different regions!
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Comment on Man against marketing in ~tech
entangledamplitude (edited )LinkBy making fungible that which was once not (eg: waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store couldn't have been used to respond to an email, or check a few tweets), technology that promotes...By making fungible that which was once not (eg: waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store couldn't have been used to respond to an email, or check a few tweets), technology that promotes "convenience" has the insidious tendency to absorb every nugget of human attention. Coupled with the business model where companies directly monetize the attention rather than any other part of the "transaction" (much older than modern smartphone technology), we've unwittingly set up a bad evolutionary race to the bottom. The heart of the problem is that the system is eroding every bit of "slack" in human attention and cognition -- kneecapping opportunities for the kind of silence and reflection necessary for deep awareness, creative realizations, etc.
PS: The Adam Curtis documentary The century of the self has an interesting take on the historical evolution of this drive towards ubiquitous marketing. I'd also like to hear about other treatises on the subject, and thoughts on how we might move out of it.
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Comment on FOSS and UX (twitter thread) in ~comp
entangledamplitude Link ParentYup -- While I personally really like the convenience of system level package management (like in linux), I'm quite okay with the VLC model, and leave it to people's tastes and market/consensus...Understood - so it's the software automatically choosing to install the update that bothers you, not an in-app "update/cancel" prompt à la VLC?
Yup -- While I personally really like the convenience of system level package management (like in linux), I'm quite okay with the VLC model, and leave it to people's tastes and market/consensus mechanisms to find a healthy equilibrium.
the reality that we would have a whole lot more botnets out there if Chrome didn't self-patch.
In such cases, I think security patches ought to be decoupled from feature/interface changes. But honestly, I don't have a great solution.
My meta concern is that so much of UX effort is focused on moving software to meet the users where they are, rather than helping people become generally better users of computing.
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Comment on FOSS and UX (twitter thread) in ~comp
entangledamplitude (edited )Link ParentMaybe the fact that the application interface can be updated to change the interface willy-nilly after the user has invested countless hours figuring out a way to use it? Or that the app can...Maybe the fact that the application interface can be updated to change the interface willy-nilly after the user has invested countless hours figuring out a way to use it? Or that the app can unilaterally change the terms of use and hold your data/experience hostage? Or that they might update at really inopportune moments?
Someday adjacent to your specific request (IIUC), but the “non violent communication” framework (many books & articles) comes highly recommended.