papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on My polish costs nothing in ~tech
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Comment on My polish costs nothing in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentEven though in modern tools, translation and text generation follow the exact same pipeline, to me, they're still fundementally different tasks that, to me, even LLMs handle fundementally...Even though in modern tools, translation and text generation follow the exact same pipeline, to me, they're still fundementally different tasks that, to me, even LLMs handle fundementally differently.
For text generation, the goal is to replicate a convincing approximation of what a human being would write, given the prompt. For translation, the goal is to, as accurately as possible, move the exact ideas given from one language to another.
One of them is basically an exercise in trying to fool humans into thinking the writer is also human, the other one is an exercise in trying to fool the speakers of one language that a speaker of a different language speaks the same language as them.
The first one is much more blatant of a lie than the second, and requires way more outright fabricated bullshit. The second is being guided by the exact words and meaning behind them being given to them.
I don't know if LLMs go through different training pipelines between these tasks, but when I read AI translated text versus AI generated text, the former feels far more natural and human, and doesnt have that innate immediate offensive feeling that the latter does.
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Comment on How do you live simply/save money? What does your lifestyle look like? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI just pay for a debrid service and hook it up to stremio. I used to pay for an IPTV service for live tv also, but I don't actually care about live TV, only people who come visit me, so now I just...I just pay for a debrid service and hook it up to stremio.
I used to pay for an IPTV service for live tv also, but I don't actually care about live TV, only people who come visit me, so now I just kinda tell them... sorry I don't have TV. -
Comment on How do you live simply/save money? What does your lifestyle look like? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentIts a Ninja Luxe i got as a wedding gift. Its legitimately the nicest thing anyone has ever bought me. I used to have a manual espresso machine, and it made nice lattes and cappuccinos, but...Its a Ninja Luxe i got as a wedding gift. Its legitimately the nicest thing anyone has ever bought me.
I used to have a manual espresso machine, and it made nice lattes and cappuccinos, but grinding the beans, weighing it out, tamping it, so on and so forth was such an ordeal that I just never bothered doing it except on the weekends.
The machine I have now is much more automatic, and I can grind the beans, tamp it, and have a shot of espresso brewed in like a minute and a half. Its awesome. Its something I would have viewed as a frivolous extravagance if I was thinking about buying it for myself, but at the same time, its legitimately very useful and saves me a lot of time and money, which is why it was such a great gift.
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Comment on How do you live simply/save money? What does your lifestyle look like? in ~talk
papasquat LinkI pirate all media I consume. I don't care about the ethics of it, because the people who sell it to me don't either. If there's an individual creative person I've really enjoyed the output of, I...I pirate all media I consume. I don't care about the ethics of it, because the people who sell it to me don't either. If there's an individual creative person I've really enjoyed the output of, I support them financially more directly, either via patreon, or merch sales, or donation links they post. I'm not going to pay for monthly subscriptions to a service so I can watch one show, and I'm not going to pay Amazon an absolutely gargantuan price for hosting a 500kb text file for me.
I pay 5 bucks a month for my piracy infrastructure and that's it.
I got gifted a really nice espresso machine, and as a result, I never go out for coffee. The Starbucks markup is absolutely insane, and I can make better drinks at home, exactly to my preferences. Its also way quicker than even waiting in a line at a coffee shop.
I've mostly avoided lifestyle creep as I've earned more money.
I make over twice as much as I did 10 years ago, but I live in the same house, buy the same food, go on vacation the same amount, and with the same level of luxury, mostly haven't bought new clothing unless I have to, and most of my hobbies are still pretty inexpensive. I know a lot of people who bought fancy cars, boats, new houses, nice vacations and so on as they've made more money, and as a result, a lot of them are stressed about money a lot of the time, but I was living comfortably within my means 10 years ago, and I definitely am now too.
I watched my parents constantly freak out about money and losing our house and have these emotional breakdowns over credit card debt growing up, and I vowed never to go through the same thing, even if it mean living a poverty lifestyle.
Luckily I've done decently well for myself, but I still live a solidly middle class or lower lifestyle, because I never want to be in a situation where I don't know how I'm going to pay for my next meal or the electric bill. That peace of mind makes me far happier than a fancy new BMW or luxury vacation to some ritzy instagram island ever could.
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Comment on Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentThat's why the AI strategy makes no sense for any company except ones that run foundational models. If the "promise of AI" comes to fruition, then if you sell software as your primary business...That's why the AI strategy makes no sense for any company except ones that run foundational models.
If the "promise of AI" comes to fruition, then if you sell software as your primary business model, your days are numbered.
The only way that isn't true is if AI is massively over hyped and not actually useful for developing software, and this possibility is becoming less and less true by the month.
How is it then a viable business strategy to sell software based on the premise that AI is as powerful as it's being made out to be?
If you make an AI tool, like an AI code editor, or an AI harness, or an AI developer tool chain, you are selling a product that based on it's very own pitch, is worth only the amount of tokens you spent to build it. Why would any company pay you, and your "developers" who apparently don't write any code, instead of just paying anthropic and making their own version that they have full control over?
Either the technology isn't as useful as you're making it out to be, in which case, the AI tools around them aren't that useful either, or it is useful, and your AI tools are worthless because anyone can easily replicate them.
Its a losing strategy from a logical basis, but somehow, these companies are still gaining investment.
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Comment on Is it possible to not want to be happy? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI don't think people want to be happy all the time. I think that's a misread of what people with chronic depression are aiming for, and I hear it people make that criticism of "therapy culture" a...I don't think people want to be happy all the time. I think that's a misread of what people with chronic depression are aiming for, and I hear it people make that criticism of "therapy culture" a lot.
I think most people want to feel somewhat content. They don't want to have a smile on their face at all times, but they want to be able to look at their life as a whole and think "I'm doing ok. I'm going to be alright".
I covered this in a other comment, but I think a lot of the miscommunication is how ambiguous the concept of happiness is. It can mean what I described, but it can also mean ear to ear grins and ecstatic joy, like when you're a kid on Christmas morning and you get the exact toy you want.
I think most people recognize that not a realistic, or even a desirable emotion to have all, or even a lot of the time. If you've ever been around someone with bipolar, you can actually recognize it as quite scary and self destructive.
I think that more muted feeling of long term contentedness is an actual, realistic goal for most people though, and the feeling like that's so remote of a possibility to achieve for yourself is really the root of depression, and something that we should aim to eradicate as much as we can.
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Comment on Is it possible to not want to be happy? in ~talk
papasquat LinkI think "happiness" is much too clunky and imprecise of a term for something as complex as human emotion. It can cover such a broad spectrum of feelings like momentary joy, long term...I think "happiness" is much too clunky and imprecise of a term for something as complex as human emotion.
It can cover such a broad spectrum of feelings like momentary joy, long term contentedness, belonging, fulfillment, usefulness, restedness, acceptance of your own mortality, and so on.
Like, someone voluntarily fighting in the middle of a righteous war to defend their country isn't what most people would define as happy, exactly. They feel like they have a purpose though, and it's not like they'd rather not be fighting in that war, even if it meant a warm bed and some hot tea.
So yes, it's definitely possible to not want to be happy, because happiness can mean many different things or many things at once.
Happiness doesn't inheritely mean a goal either though. I think a tighter paradox would be something like "is it possible to not want to achieve your goals". Which I'd say, no, absolutely not, because goals are inherently something that you want to achieve. Happiness isn't though.
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Comment on Control the ideas, not the code in ~comp
papasquat LinkI don't mean for this to be rude or offensive, and I wouldn't normally point this out, except for the subject matter. This blog post is horribly written and very difficult to read from a grammar...I don't mean for this to be rude or offensive, and I wouldn't normally point this out, except for the subject matter.
This blog post is horribly written and very difficult to read from a grammar perspective. Its really disconcerting to see someone advocate so full-throatedly for a complete hands off vibe coding and code review setup if they don't even trust the technology enough to use it to proofread a blog post.
I get that the author isn't a native english speaker, but LLMs are explicitly good at translation. Its one of their main use cases, and understandability is one of the core metrics that they're trained on. I make a lot of allowances for people who don't natively speak the language, but not if you're an AI evangelist.
If you're not even using the thing to fix mistakes in your blog posts; you know, one of the few things that people almost universally agree that they're good at, it doesn't exactly lend a lot of weight to the central thesis of the post.
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Comment on Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party? in ~tech
papasquat LinkI'm seeing this in the enterprise space too. We've been extremely conservative with ai usage. We only have sanctioned licenses for about 20 of our thousands of users, we're very rigorous with what...I'm seeing this in the enterprise space too. We've been extremely conservative with ai usage. We only have sanctioned licenses for about 20 of our thousands of users, we're very rigorous with what we do and don't allow them to do, and we have regular communication and monitoring with them.
Even still, there's been a proliferation of hundreds of "agents". Most of them already forgotten and abandoned, but some of them becoming parts of business processes, and I have no doubt in my mind that as time goes on they'll become more and more critical to very important business processes. We have no good way of differentiating between the two, and no good long term plan for cleaning them up.
Its like the ever present shadow IT problem cranked up to 11 and injected with steroids. With traditional shadow IT, at least the outputs were generally deterministic. This stuff is a mess.
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Comment on Project Hail Mary - Discussion thread in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentSorry for the late comment, but I just saw this thread. I kind of agree with that criticism regarding spoilerRocky. One of the interesting things about the book is how different the eridian mind...Sorry for the late comment, but I just saw this thread.
I kind of agree with that criticism regardingspoiler
Rocky. One of the interesting things about the book is how different the eridian mind is from the human mind. Eridians didn't have computers, because they never needed to invent them. Rocky could do extremely complicated mental math without any issue, and had eidetic memory, as did all eridians, and viewed grace as sort of an idiot for not having the same abilities. He was amazed by the laptops grace had, but more as a novelty than anything. He didn't need a translation program to understand grace. Hearing the english equivalent for an eridian word a single time was all he needed to understand english. At the same time, they had huge blind spots due to their evolutionary environment, such as having no idea what ionizing radiation is. In the book, Rocky was so critical to grace being successful that humanity would be entirely doomed without the eridians. Rocky basically does the majority of the work. Grace just mostly fills in the blanks of eridian scientific understanding. Eridian engineering and materials science is the real star of the book though. In the movie, you just sort of get the idea that grace could have figured the whole thing out alone, and he just decided to help Rocky. </discussion> -
Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
papasquat Link ParentThere's this red light on a road in front of my house that I run literally every day. It's a red arrow, and it takes absolutely forever to change, like 8+ minutes per cycle. The road frequently...There's this red light on a road in front of my house that I run literally every day. It's a red arrow, and it takes absolutely forever to change, like 8+ minutes per cycle. The road frequently has no one coming for miles, and I can see at least a mile in both directions. It's not even that I'm always in a rush, but the idea of wasting up to 8 minutes per day of my precious life doing nothing solely because of the whims of the electronic circuit in the traffic signal, programmed by someone who really didn't think about, and likely didn't give a fuck about its timing just strikes me as cosmically unjust. So I look both ways, and run it every afternoon.
I've realized that one of the biggest difference in cultures are between cultures who would generally approve of that move, and cultures that absolutely would not. In the US, most people are perfectly fine that I do that. In much of the middle east, it would be baffling that anyone would ever even consider stopping at the light. In Japan though? Unthinkable.
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Comment on China is dealing with its own manosphere in ~life.men
papasquat Link ParentWhy would a country intentionally want to lose 30 million people? There are a lot of uncaring leaders out there, but I can think of any in all of history that intentionally started a war solely to...Why would a country intentionally want to lose 30 million people? There are a lot of uncaring leaders out there, but I can think of any in all of history that intentionally started a war solely to reduce their own native population. It sucks that China's own policies and cultural biases led to too many men, but it's not actually a serious problem for them, much less that starting a war solely for them to die in it would ever make sense as a strategy.
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Comment on US Federal Communications Commission approves test of space mirror to light night sky despite outcry in ~space
papasquat Link ParentMassively dangerous in that game, and in real life too. Realistically, we don't even need to do this. Plenty of solar energy hits the ground on earth, and there's plenty of space to put them....Massively dangerous in that game, and in real life too.
Realistically, we don't even need to do this. Plenty of solar energy hits the ground on earth, and there's plenty of space to put them. People just like doing dumb sci fi shit to do dumb sci fi shit instead of investing that money into proven ideas that work.
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Comment on There is no reason to buy another PlayStation or Xbox in ~games
papasquat Link ParentIts nostalgia. I have a lot of games I really loved as a kid. Doom, quake, tribes, StarCraft. They were a nightmare to even get running, and tedious to play. For the time, they were amazing and...Its nostalgia. I have a lot of games I really loved as a kid. Doom, quake, tribes, StarCraft.
They were a nightmare to even get running, and tedious to play. For the time, they were amazing and completely mind blowing, but people older than me had a similar experience with Mario Bros, or Space Invaders, or Pong. People younger than me had similar experiences with Minecraft or Fortnite. As those kids grow up, they'll lament that games aren't as good anymore.
I just don't have the time or will to sink 200+ hours into exploring every nook and cranny into a game anymore. I have better things to do with my time. I've also played probably thousands of games at this point in my life, and it's very difficult for anything to feel novel or interesting anymore.
That wasn't the case when I was 10 years old playing through Doom. It was exciting, new, and I had all the time in the world to devote to that game.
There are kids doing the same thing now with some game I've never even heard of which will be considered iconic in a decade or two. Its just the way things go.
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Comment on Obsidian Entertainment reportedly lays off a quarter of staff, cancels multiple projects, and begins work on new Fallout game in ~games
papasquat Link ParentI mean, Fallout 4 was set in Boston. Massachusetts isn't the coldest state in the US, but it's certainly up there, right alongside New York.I mean, Fallout 4 was set in Boston. Massachusetts isn't the coldest state in the US, but it's certainly up there, right alongside New York.
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Comment on Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows in ~tv
papasquat Link ParentHonestly? I don't agree. A lot of people had a huge problem with the Sopranos because the ending was basically the sentence fragment you just posted. At that point though, so much had happened in...Honestly? I don't agree. A lot of people had a huge problem with the Sopranos because the ending was basically the sentence fragment you just posted.
At that point though, so much had happened in the series that there's no satisfying conclusion. It was just a glimpse into the life of mobsters dealing with modern problems. There's no resolution there. The mobsters keep doing mobster stuff, they still have problems that are unresolved, and they keep causing problems for other people. It wasn't one story, it was dozens, all packaged as a glimpse into the lives of these characters.
Its kind of the central thesis of the show, the cycle of temptation, crime and justification grinds forward just as it always has.
It ended because that's where it ended, not because there was some grand narrative to be wrapped up. The glimpse into the lives of mobsters just ended, because it has to end at some point.
In a way, it's a really honest ending, and the way that most long running series probably should end. These are long running dramas with hundreds of little twists, grey morality, and character shifts. They're not tight hour and a half stories with a clear beginning, climax, and end like Star Wars or something.
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Comment on Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows in ~tv
papasquat Link ParentIts difficult, and sometimes impossible to write a satisfying ending if you don't already have it in mind from the beginning. The longer a series runs for, the less likelyhood there is for the...Its difficult, and sometimes impossible to write a satisfying ending if you don't already have it in mind from the beginning. The longer a series runs for, the less likelyhood there is for the author to have a cohesive idea for an end. You need to build up more and more story threads as a series goes on for it to remain interesting, which becomes debt you have to pay back in the form of a resolution. If you don't manage it, that debt constantly grows, and will become increasingly difficult to deal with.
If a book series or tv show has more than 5 or so entries/series, it's best to just make mental peace with the fact that it probably won't resolve in a satisfying way. The point of a story isn't the endjng though. Its the whole ride. People have become way too focused on the endings of tv shows recently in my opinion. If you enjoy the show, keep watching it, but you shouldn't keep watching a show you don't enjoy in the hopes of a big payoff, because the longer the show goes, and the more convoluted the plot is, the less likelyhood there is that that's ever going to happen.
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Comment on Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows in ~tv
papasquat Link ParentI've heard this opinion before, and it's just weird to me. It seems like people are just watching a show for its conclusion. I've enjoyed lots of shows despite terrible endings, or bad final...I've heard this opinion before, and it's just weird to me. It seems like people are just watching a show for its conclusion. I've enjoyed lots of shows despite terrible endings, or bad final seasons, and am glad I watched the shows despite the bad season.
I've seen The Wire all the way through 3 times, but I've never been able to make it through the final season because it's terrible. Its still one of my favorite shows. Same goes for Battlestar Galactica.
I really loved the first season of severance, but the second season sucked. I'm still glad I watched it though.
Shows rarely start with any idea of how they're going to conclude anyway, why cut yourself off from otherwise good shows that may or may not end well?
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Comment on Modern, abstract art makes me angry in ~arts
papasquat Link ParentAll of that stuff, the FOMO and momentum is historical context though. There are dramatic stories behind the Mona Lisa, thefts, conspiracies, etc. it all adds to its allure. Its context is why...All of that stuff, the FOMO and momentum is historical context though. There are dramatic stories behind the Mona Lisa, thefts, conspiracies, etc. it all adds to its allure.
Its context is why it's such a famous piece of art. The only difference is that it's one of the few pieces of art where the general public is aware of that context, instead of just people in the art world.
Ehhh... I don't think I agree. If the premise was that what consulting firms sell is information and experience, then yeah, I'd 1000% agree with you. They're finished. Almost all of what they do is draw upon a huge internal library of pretty standard info, customize it a bit, and deliver it as a product to a customer. The bigger customers get a bit of actual analysis and teams of people to do more in depth customization along with more white glove treatment, but it's mostly the same thing.
That's not actually the value proposition of management consulting firms though. If it was, they probably would have already been replaced by Google.
What they're really selling is authority. Its a arrow in an executive's quiver. If an executive wants to do something big, they need to convince someone of it. If it's a director, they need to convince the COO and CFO. If it's another C level, they need to convince the CEO. If it's the CEO, they need to convince the board.
They can't do that effectively without hard data and numbers. They go to a consulting firm because they almost always already have a conclusion in mind. The firms job is basically to justify that conclusion. If they can't justify it, the executive either gets a second opinion of someone who does, just does it live and conveniently leaves out the consultants report, or if they're lawful good, just drops the idea and comes up with another idea that doesn't suck.
The value that the firm brings isn't the actual info though, it's being able to go to the board saying "McKinsey said this was a good idea". That's why the big three are the big three. Everyone knows their name, and most people trust them. That name is their entire value proposition, and is the reason why they get six figures to put together some boilerplate PDFs.
Even if an AI tool gave you the exact same content, it would be worthless, because a CEO going to a board with an idea and defending it with "chatGPT said this was a good idea" would be laughed out of the room.
I don't see that changing any time soon (unfortunately)