papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
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Comment on The cost of safetyism - what we lost when we stopped letting kids leave the front yard in ~life
papasquat Link ParentI'm about a decade older than you, and my childhood was similar. My sister on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Every single waking minute was filled with lacrosse, band practice, color...I'm about a decade older than you, and my childhood was similar. My sister on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Every single waking minute was filled with lacrosse, band practice, color guard, ice skating, math... stuff. She was extremely anxious as a kid, and kind of as an adult. She always worried from the moment she could, and started preparing for college in elementary school.
I was the absolute polar opposite, and spent all my time hanging out with my friends, messing with my computer, my car, or whatever else I could get my hands on. It's the old nature vs nurture argument I suppose, but I can honestly say my sister and I were raised almost the exact same way, she just had this natural tendency to need to feel busy and productive at all times, and I never have.
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Comment on The cost of safetyism - what we lost when we stopped letting kids leave the front yard in ~life
papasquat Link ParentI think a lot of that is just growing up. Looking back, I did a lot of things when I was a kid or teenager or young adult that I would never do now. It's not because I was fearless back then, it's...I think a lot of that is just growing up. Looking back, I did a lot of things when I was a kid or teenager or young adult that I would never do now. It's not because I was fearless back then, it's just that I hadn't gotten hurt as much as I have as an adult, so I didn't really know what to be afraid of. Basically I wasn't brave, I was just stupid.
I've broken bones, gotten stung, bitten and scratched by many different types of animals, had bad lacerations and stitches, gotten into auto accidents, been lit on fire, and so on, so I know firsthand how much all of those things absolutely suck and that showing off for my friends isn't actually worth any of them.
I'm still brave if the risk is worth it, but it turns out that few things really are.
I remember the pivotal moment when I realized that I was just kind of doing dumb things instead of "living in the moment" or whatever. A bunch of people I knew in the military took a trip to this river where we all floated down in inner tubes. We came to a bank and hung out for a bit. These friends of mine found this tree, and were doing backflips off of it into the water. This was an industrial area, and the river wasn't that big, so god knew what was lurking down there. They all waved me up to jump off this tree, and a year before I would have done it without hesitation. This time, I was like "nah... I'm just gonna not do that actually". Lo and behold, the next person that jumped in slashed his calf on an old rusty barrel a few feet under the surface that everyone else managed to avoid.
That was the moment when I stopped and thought "huh maybe I'm not a pussy for not doing idiotic, risky things. Maybe I'm just growing up".
I still do dumb, dangerous stuff occasionally, I'm just a lot more informed of what can actually go wrong as a middle aged man, so I can more intelligently choose when being stupid is worth it. I think that happens with most people as they get older.
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Comment on Ferrari unveils its first all-electric car, the four-door Luce in ~transport
papasquat LinkIs there some reason why as soon a company puts an electric power train into a car, they suddenly are afflicted by a disease that forces them to redesign that car to look like a cute bar of soap?...Is there some reason why as soon a company puts an electric power train into a car, they suddenly are afflicted by a disease that forces them to redesign that car to look like a cute bar of soap?
Why cant' EV manufacturers just make cars that look like normal cars, but are electric?
I'm convinced that's what gave Tesla such a massive sales advantage when the whole EV thing kicked off; model S looked like a car, not a shitty tech gadget.
Ferrari has been making some of the most elegant, incredible looking land vehicles ever built for almost a hundred years, have been dominating the track with extreme performance hybrid F1 cars for a decade, and for their first EV, they somehow managed to crap out something that looks like a forgettable computer mouse. I don't get it. Just make a car, guys.
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Comment on Ferrari unveils its first all-electric car, the four-door Luce in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentImagine your friend says "hey I'll swing by later and show you my new Ferrari", then he pulls up in that? I don't think I could stop myself from laughingImagine your friend says "hey I'll swing by later and show you my new Ferrari", then he pulls up in that?
I don't think I could stop myself from laughing
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Comment on The cost of safetyism - what we lost when we stopped letting kids leave the front yard in ~life
papasquat Link ParentI have the exact same experience. I spent my childhood walking to school, lighting things on fire, getting into fights, and finding random hills to sled down, all entirely on my own or with my...This really resonates with me. I grew up unafraid of most things, alongside friends who largely shared the same mentality. We spent our weekends doing all your typical teenage boy things that can (and sometimes/often do) result in bodily harm, all in the name of goofing around, having fun, and growing up. It wasn't until I met my now wife that I had my first real exposure to someone who lives with chronic anxiety and worry, and it's been a journey of learning for me how "the logic of an anxious brain works
I have the exact same experience. I spent my childhood walking to school, lighting things on fire, getting into fights, and finding random hills to sled down, all entirely on my own or with my friends. My parents were generally not involved in my play time, and I liked it that way.
My wife grew up more similar to how the article described, not allowed to leave the house alone, in an area where doing anything required being driven there, isolated in the house with her sibling.
I'm wondering if there's a correlation there.
To this day, I don't really worry about a whole lot. Where she worries about danger or failure, I generally just accept that things will work out in the end. She overthinks a lot of interactions, but I just consider what I need to do and go do it, or just skip the consideration part and just go with my gut.
We're looking at having children soon, and it makes me consider whether that bit of anxious tendency that she has is genetic in some way, or if it's a result of how she grew up versus how I did.
I do think there are some advantages to being careful and wary, but I think overall, I'd much rather have our kids avoid the constant stress I see it put her through.
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Comment on There's a hundred illegal erections in the hills behind my parents' house in ~hobbies
papasquat LinkI love this post. I learned something new and interesting I wouldn't have known about otherwise. That guy sounds like a real prick. I'm American, and I'm not so sure about other countries, but the...I love this post. I learned something new and interesting I wouldn't have known about otherwise.
That guy sounds like a real prick.
I'm American, and I'm not so sure about other countries, but the US has an absolute shit ton of laws. Most of them, you're defacto allowed to break as long as you know what you're doing. Things like drinking in public can be done as long as you have a paper bag and you're doing it in the right place. You can speed, as long as you know what the customary amount of speeding is appropriate in the area you're in and the road youre on. You can pee in public, as long as you know what's an appropriate pee spot.
Generally, you can break most laws here, as long as it's not too visible and it doesn't bother anyone. If I had to put a number on it, I probably break at least 10 laws a day. There's a red light I run literally every afternoon because it's stupid and is a massive waste of time.
I'd say anyone who goes out of their way to get people in trouble that are breaking laws that don't actually hurt anyone is a massive asshole. The cops think they're assholes, the judges that prosecute the cases think they're assholes, the general public think they're assholes, and especially the people getting in trouble think they're assholes.
It's too bad these tramps can't organize and get those laws changed so that this asshole doesn't have a leg to stand on, but I get that political organization takes a whole lot of time and effort, and visibility is probably the last thing a community like that wants anyway.
It's also interesting that you framed gatekeeping as a good thing in some situations. I agree with you there, especially related to hobbies. I think that's sort of an unpopular idea nowadays, but I've seen enough to understand why you say it. Communities with high barriers to entry are much more effective to police internally than ones without them. I've also noticed that as things I'm interested in become more accessible over time, the average participants passion for them lessens, and bad behavior increases.
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Comment on Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentHonestly... Yeah, I mostly agree, but on the other hand, there are two key points here that may tip the scales. One, from every statistic I've seen, waymos are safer drivers than people by a...Honestly... Yeah, I mostly agree, but on the other hand, there are two key points here that may tip the scales. One, from every statistic I've seen, waymos are safer drivers than people by a decent margin. Two, it's virtually impossible to test and design for every potential scenario in the real world. You can get incrementally closer, but as you approach perfect, the time and cost involved goes up exponentially, approaching infinity.
Usually, what happens in these situations is that the problems happen, the issue is worked around (like suspending service), and the problem is then fixed fleet wide. Then the next thing pops up.
In the mean time, people taking safer robo taxis means fewer people are taking less safe human driven cars.
Obviously it's within Googles best interest to get these things out as fast as possible and starting to make money, but we as a society (represented by regulators) also need to balance the cost of slightly buggier self driving cars being in the road with the cost of more way buggier human driven cars being on the road.
Waiting until they're perfect isn't an optimal solution, because that would mean no self driving cars ever.
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Comment on Why airlines are always going bankrupt in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentBut they don't charge so much for airfare. Airfare is massively cheaper now versus before deregulation. That's basically the entire reason it sucks now. Airlines used to compete on service and...He was complaining about how they've all gone to shit after deregulation, yet still charge so much for airfare.
But they don't charge so much for airfare. Airfare is massively cheaper now versus before deregulation. That's basically the entire reason it sucks now.
Airlines used to compete on service and comfort, because they weren't allowed to compete on the one thing customers actually care about; price. Now they compete on price, and pretty much price alone. As a result, flying sucks now. It is however, far cheaper than it was in the 70s.
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Comment on Why airlines are always going bankrupt in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentThat basically is what business class is. It's roughly around 2x the cost for domestic flights, maybe 3-4x the cost for international. Definitely not 10x though, unless you're talking about some...That basically is what business class is. It's roughly around 2x the cost for domestic flights, maybe 3-4x the cost for international. Definitely not 10x though, unless you're talking about some super premium outlandish first class Emirates fare with a psuedo flying hotel room or something.
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Comment on Project Glasswing: An initial update in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI don't know if I technically agree, but I get the feeling that the cost would be so ridiculously expensive that functionally, I do. The amount of experts in a field is largely a function of how...I don't know if I technically agree, but I get the feeling that the cost would be so ridiculously expensive that functionally, I do.
The amount of experts in a field is largely a function of how in demand the field is. There are a limited number of people with the aptitude to do this kind of work in the world (ie; smart people), and Cybersecurity is a pretty hot field, but it's not the hottest field there is, and exploit development is a tiny, little baby sliver of it. So you have maybe 10,000 or so people that do it day to day as their legitimate full time job right now. Many, many more of those people that are smart enough to be vulnerability researchers ended up becoming doctors or software developers or investment bankers or whatever, because there's a lot of economic incentives to do those things.
If there were massive economic incentives for vulnerability research, like every software company had hundreds of full time positions just to find vulnerabilities in their code, I have no doubt that we'd have way more experts, and we could get performance that far exceeds mythos.
That's really not feasible though. A lot of people have talked about the token costs of LLMs, especially the fancy frontier ones, and they are astronomical. Paying people to use their meat processors is virtually always going to be more expensive though. I don't see how manual code review could possibly compete on a cost basis if these models truly are close to the performance of experts (massive, gigantic "if" there).
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Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentYeah, I mean I agree with you, it's not good that human nature is this way, but I don't think we've come up with a satisfactory way to quell that hunger that seems inherit in not just human...Yeah, I mean I agree with you, it's not good that human nature is this way, but I don't think we've come up with a satisfactory way to quell that hunger that seems inherit in not just human nature, but the nature of all living things.
The innate tendency is to want to expand, grow, gather and so on. If it wasn't individual capitalists doing it at large scale, it would be a group of people empowered by a state to do it.
I don't know how you solve that problem, and get everyone on earth to collectively go "you know what, we have enough. There's no need for me to earn more money, or have a nicer house, or more land, or better computers, I'm good where I'm at".
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Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentI'd be willing to bet quite a lot that she would. Musicians in general don't commonly do it to make money. It obviously seems like it would be pretty awesome to make millions of dollars to be a...Would she still be making music if it made her 100k a year?
I'd be willing to bet quite a lot that she would. Musicians in general don't commonly do it to make money. It obviously seems like it would be pretty awesome to make millions of dollars to be a rock or pop star, but it takes so much work, and the chances of success are so ridiculously small, that if you wanted to just make a lot of money, there are literally thousands of jobs that you'd be better off trying to do it.
Musician is one of the worst fields you could pick if you're solely motivated by making a lot of money.
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Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentStandard of living is a notoriously difficult thing to measure. By some metrics like childhood mortality, or average calorie intake, or literacy, we're so much better off than we were 200 years...The standard of living for people (at least in richer countries) has improved dramatically over the same time period, but I would argue that it's not nearly at the same pace as the levels of wealth generated would indicate.
Standard of living is a notoriously difficult thing to measure. By some metrics like childhood mortality, or average calorie intake, or literacy, we're so much better off than we were 200 years ago that it's almost unbelievable. On the other hand, we work less than back then, but not that much less. We live longer, but not drastically longer if you discount childhood mortality.
On the other hand, there are subjective things like... Having access to all of humanity's collective scientific knowledge available to you 24/7 in your pocket via a device that most people can afford with a days wages. The same device can be used to instantly communicate with anyone in the world who also has one at your whim, and not only communicate, but see them via high definition video.
That's pretty amazing when you take a step back and think about it, at least subjectively.
Does it translate to quality of life though? I don't know. I'd say yes, but how do you even measure that?
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Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentWell, I think the answer to that lies mostly within the innate human capacity for endless desire. I'm not convinced that there's an economic system that exists which can successfully temper that...Well, I think the answer to that lies mostly within the innate human capacity for endless desire. I'm not convinced that there's an economic system that exists which can successfully temper that impulse. No matter how easy people's lives are, they'll want them to be easier. No matter how safe they are, they'll want to be safer, and most importantly, no matter how much stuff people have, there's always just ooooooone more thing they want that would make their lives perfect.
Without some radical, intentional vulcan esque social movement that regularly suppresses this urge, or some sort of weird brain modification that everyone gets, people will always want a better paying job. The only way for everyone to get that is for the economy to grow.
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Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentThere's kind of a fallacy there. The economy isn't a zero sum game, because wealth truly can be created out of nothing. A dollar is simply a representation of productive capacity. You can take...There's kind of a fallacy there. The economy isn't a zero sum game, because wealth truly can be created out of nothing. A dollar is simply a representation of productive capacity. You can take those representations of productive capacity from other people, or, you can create new productive capacity where none existed before, via new technology, or efficiency gains, or just some new, better way of getting something that other people deem valuable done.
That's more or less what inflation represents; more productive capacity coming into existence (as long as its at a reasonable rate). Like, a bar of soap in 1900 cost about $0.25. People were getting paid about $400 a year on average, so that translates to having to give an hours worth of your pay for a single bar of soap.
Soap costs maybe $1 a bar now, but people get paid way more than $400 a year. On average, Americans can afford 37 bars of soap for an hour of work now.
Obviously that a single example, but it's like that pretty much across the board for any good that isn't primarily limited by it's physical existence (like land). People in western countries are just way, way wealthier overall than they were 100+ years ago.
That's largely because of new wealth being created by technology, efficiency, and so on. So it's not exactly correct to say that every dollar a billionaire has made is one less dollar in everyone else's pocket. There is a good deal of that going on obviously, but some portion of that wealth is just new money that didn't exist before.
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Comment on What movies become better by having a bus suddenly come out of no where and hit someone? in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentIt would be pretty damn good. It would probably ruin Peter Venkman as a character though. He's a lazy, perverted, dishonest creep, but he's also pretty lovable despite all of those flaws, so it...It would be pretty damn good. It would probably ruin Peter Venkman as a character though.
He's a lazy, perverted, dishonest creep, but he's also pretty lovable despite all of those flaws, so it kind of tips him over into a character most people like. He's straight up a pretty shitty guy, but he's just a touch under the line. The problem is that with all of the flaws he has, one more slight feather of immorality turns him into a straight up villain. Having him be a stone cold psychopath would make you never want to root for him again.
It would be funny though.
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Comment on Grief and guilt in ~life.pets
papasquat LinkI had to put down my dog earlier this year also. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I've only cried a handful of times as an adult, and that was the most visceral, brutal sobbing I've...I had to put down my dog earlier this year also. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I've only cried a handful of times as an adult, and that was the most visceral, brutal sobbing I've ever experienced. I was sad as I knew it was coming up, but I didn't expect to be so overwhelmed by sadness and grief in the moment when the vet actually did it and his eyes closed.
He was my best friend and was with me for some of the hardest struggles I had. Just like your dog, he was the best behaved dog I've ever owned, ever even interacted with. He never annoyed me or frustrated me, he was just such a good boy and he had such a unique personality.
It took me a while before I was functional, a few weeks I'd guess. I still always think about him though. I think I'm going to miss him for the rest of my life in some way. Every so often I come home and expect him to be there, but then remember that he isn't and won't ever be, and it leaves me with this hollow feeling inside.
Everyone says it gets better with time, and it really does, but I don't know that it ever goes away. In my experience with grief, there will always be that little dog shaped hole in your heart that will feel like its missing, unfortunately.
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Comment on Donald Trump’s deal to drop suit against US Internal Revenue Service creates $1.8b ‘anti-weaponization fund’ in ~society
papasquat LinkWhat I don't get is where the threat of success in this lawsuit even came from. In order to settle, the defendant usually has to be slightly concerned about the possibility of losing the suit, and...What I don't get is where the threat of success in this lawsuit even came from. In order to settle, the defendant usually has to be slightly concerned about the possibility of losing the suit, and if this was a true adversarial process, I would think that it would have been dismissed with prejudice because of a complete lack of damages.
Like, yeah, his tax returns got leaked, so what? He was elected president twice and has gotten richer based on his presidency than anything he's done in his entire life. What negative effect, exactly, has he suffered because those returns were made public?
If anything, it gave him yet another political boogeyman which helped his political career.
I have no doubt that an even slightly competent lawyer would be successful making that argument, but that would require that lawyer to actually want to win the case, and it's quite obvious that the IRS just wants to help Trump continue to rob all of us as much as possible.
It's really shocking that this kind of thing is allowed to happen in the US now.
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Comment on Square peg in a round hole: airpower against mobile targets and missiles in ~society
papasquat Link ParentNah, I just screwed up because I'm bad at typing on phones. I meant the reverse, good catch!Nah, I just screwed up because I'm bad at typing on phones. I meant the reverse, good catch!
Wait... I don't understand why the numbers you listed are asthetically pleasing