RNG's recent activity

  1. Comment on I think I've failed the United States in ~society

    RNG
    Link Parent
    By the way, the reason I believe this and spent my time living this way was in part by being convinced by a specific person.

    By the way, the reason I believe this and spent my time living this way was in part by being convinced by a specific person.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on I think I've failed the United States in ~society

    RNG
    Link Parent
    I totally agree with your comment; I think micro issues affect macro ones. However, I don't think we should think of the micro as a means towards the macro end; we should be comfortable tackling...

    I totally agree with your comment; I think micro issues affect macro ones.

    However, I don't think we should think of the micro as a means towards the macro end; we should be comfortable tackling the micro for the value in and of itself. I can't stave off climate change anymore than I can stop the eventual heat death of the universe, but I can make my community a better place, if only in a small way for a small amount of time. I call my mom not to prevent radicalization, but just for the value of making her happy if even for a day. We should avoid looking at the local through the lens of the national, and value it for its own sake.

    (NOTE: I know you aren't saying that's why you should call your mom, but I do want to object to those who view local politics or something as merely a means of affecting national politics or as a microcosm of the macro. These types of folks are not who you want running the show.)

    8 votes

  3. Comment on I think I've failed the United States in ~society

    RNG
    Link Parent
    Totally agree, local politics probably bares far more on your day-to-day life than national politics. One additional point I wanna through out there is that you can probably sway far more people's...

    Totally agree, local politics probably bares far more on your day-to-day life than national politics.

    One additional point I wanna through out there is that you can probably sway far more people's votes for local elections than national ones. While you can spend hundreds of hours debating Trump supporters unsuccessfully, being aware and convincing family and friends to care about specific local issues is quite easy. Folks usually have no opinions one way or the other and are open to hearing you out.

    7 votes

  4. Comment on I think I've failed the United States in ~society

    RNG
    Link
    Don't worry about letting America down. Worry about letting your city, family, and friends down. There's little you can meaningfully do aside from voting to affect macro level issues. You probably...

    Don't worry about letting America down. Worry about letting your city, family, and friends down.

    There's little you can meaningfully do aside from voting to affect macro level issues. You probably can't move the needle on these.

    But you can move the needle on the micro level. You can leave the lives of people around you slightly better than they were the day before. You can make your mom's day by calling her and telling her you love her. You can volunteer at local nonprofits, or engage in making people's lives better through local politics.

    People are so hyperfocused on making the slightest bit of change on macro issues that they often thoroughly miss out on the opportunity to change lives and make the world a better place in the ways they are actually able to.

    51 votes

  5. Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech

    RNG
    Link Parent
    *sigh* so since I didn't spell it out, let's make it Roughly As Bad Geopolitical Things™ I think most people intuitively care about moral consistency.

    There’s two oversimplifications there. One is that the nuance in what “bad geopolitical things” is lost. There are degrees to things.

    *sigh* so since I didn't spell it out, let's make it Roughly As Bad Geopolitical Things™

    Sure, maybe America in this hypothetical also does bad things. But that doesn’t change the fact that not supporting Russian companies is aligned with your ethical standpoint, and something is better than nothing

    I think most people intuitively care about moral consistency.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech

    RNG
    Link Parent
    ? I thought the point was pretty clear, but to state it plainly: If it is wrong to purchase from a company who does business with a company in a country that does Bad Geopolitical Things™, then it...

    I think this is a far reaching false equivalence.

    ?

    I don’t think that was the point you were trying to make, but I also don’t think you were actually curious if Bret would boycott American companies.

    I thought the point was pretty clear, but to state it plainly:

    If it is wrong to purchase from a company who does business with a company in a country that does Bad Geopolitical Things™, then it seems like it is wrong not only to purchase from American companies, but to purchase from any company that does business with an American company, should America do the Bad Geopolitical Things™.

    12 votes

  7. Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech

    RNG
    Link Parent
    If Trump does terrible geopolitical things during his time as president, would you extend this discrimination to American companies?

    If Trump does terrible geopolitical things during his time as president, would you extend this discrimination to American companies?

    5 votes

  8. Comment on Question: Pedicure pricing differences in ~life.women

    RNG
    Link Parent
    This is the most plausible explanation of what's going on imo. It also communicates to potentially insecure men that, yes, pedis are for men and we don't think you are weird for wanting one.

    The "men's" services probably assume you don't want colored polish.

    This is the most plausible explanation of what's going on imo. It also communicates to potentially insecure men that, yes, pedis are for men and we don't think you are weird for wanting one.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on Japanese workers in their twenties turn to resignation agencies in ~life

    RNG
    Link Parent
    What I was meaning to say is that the consequences are social. I'd imagine failing to show up to do the job you were hired for is more shameful than resigning from it.

    What I was meaning to say is that the consequences are social. I'd imagine failing to show up to do the job you were hired for is more shameful than resigning from it.

    8 votes

  10. Comment on Japanese workers in their twenties turn to resignation agencies in ~life

    RNG
    Link Parent
    I'd imagine failing to show up to your job is more disrespectful than merely quitting.

    I'd imagine failing to show up to your job is more disrespectful than merely quitting.

    5 votes

  11. Comment on OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are struggling to build more advanced AI in ~tech

    RNG
    Link Parent
    Yeah, totally agree, however I'm more responding to how folks here and HN have interpreted these findings; namely as an indicator that we are approaching some fundamental technical limit with LLMs.

    Yeah, totally agree, however I'm more responding to how folks here and HN have interpreted these findings; namely as an indicator that we are approaching some fundamental technical limit with LLMs.

    4 votes

  12. Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news

    RNG
    Link Parent
    Well, that's the opposition party. If every ruling party in every European country 3x-ed their investment, that would just break even from US's financial withdrawal.

    Well, that's the opposition party. If every ruling party in every European country 3x-ed their investment, that would just break even from US's financial withdrawal.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are struggling to build more advanced AI in ~tech

    RNG
    Link
    So advanced LLMs have been around for what, two years now? It feels premature to think we are hitting some fundamental limit with these models. And there have been recent, meaningful upgrades....

    So advanced LLMs have been around for what, two years now? It feels premature to think we are hitting some fundamental limit with these models. And there have been recent, meaningful upgrades.

    Llama 3 is far better than Llama 2. GPT-4.o is leaps and bounds above the performance of GPT-4. We probably won't see the level of improvement we saw in late 2022, but this technology is still progressing very quickly in the grand scheme of things.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on How Bluesky, the rival of Elon Musk’s X, is seizing the moment in ~tech

    RNG
    Link Parent
    Do you have any recommendations for these interests: Philosophy (analytic, religion, mind, knowledge, etc) Binary analysis Pokemon Homebrewing Motorcycling General interest stuff I don't believe...

    Do you have any recommendations for these interests:

    • Philosophy (analytic, religion, mind, knowledge, etc)
    • Binary analysis
    • Pokemon
    • Homebrewing
    • Motorcycling
    • General interest stuff

    I don't believe in getting political news or information from a short-form text site.

    7 votes

  15. Comment on How Bluesky, the rival of Elon Musk’s X, is seizing the moment in ~tech

    RNG
    Link
    Bluesky seems to be just liberal Twitter. I cannot find the non-political stuff I like on Bluesky.

    Bluesky seems to be just liberal Twitter. I cannot find the non-political stuff I like on Bluesky.

    10 votes

  16. Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news

    RNG
    Link Parent
    It's hard to imagine whatever is sent will be enough to stave off Russia for an indeterminate amount of time (say, four years?) I haven't seen any meaningful evidence that suggests this will...

    What makes you think Biden won't leave a January surprise and dump a bunch of funding and capacity before he out?

    It's hard to imagine whatever is sent will be enough to stave off Russia for an indeterminate amount of time (say, four years?)

    Whats stopping Europe from rising in place of the US' fall and becoming the predominant hegemonic power and arbiter of all this?

    I haven't seen any meaningful evidence that suggests this will happen. I suppose it's possible, but I have no reason to think Europe will suddenly start spending 3x what they are now on Ukrainian aid.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news

    RNG
    Link Parent
    Ukraine would have been long lost without US support. And I've been hearing that the Russian economy is about to collapse for three years now, and it's yet to happen. Even with Russia's bad...

    Ukraine would have been long lost without US support. And I've been hearing that the Russian economy is about to collapse for three years now, and it's yet to happen. Even with Russia's bad economy and truly massive assistance from the US, Ukraine is still losing ground. When US aid dries up, it's hard to fathom how this would not change the game in the war.

    15 votes

  18. Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news

    RNG
    Link
    The finish line is in sight for Russia; if they can keep up the offensive for just a few more months, Ukraine's offensive capability will eventually collapse. Considering the war has gone on for...

    The finish line is in sight for Russia; if they can keep up the offensive for just a few more months, Ukraine's offensive capability will eventually collapse. Considering the war has gone on for two years, this seems like an easily achievable goal.

    7 votes

  19. Comment on Elections: ultimately, it’s going to be okay in ~society

    RNG
    Link Parent
    Honestly, we need to be rid of it. It gums up getting things done in government and grinds lawmaking to a halt. We may not like the fact that the government will function under Republicans, but...

    Honestly, we need to be rid of it. It gums up getting things done in government and grinds lawmaking to a halt. We may not like the fact that the government will function under Republicans, but I'd rather it function under both rather than under neither.

    17 votes

  20. Comment on The Vatican’s anime mascot is now an AI porn sensation in ~tech

    RNG
    Link Parent
    It's also like, how is this even news? This has famously been done with essentially all animated characters on the internet.

    Taking "cute innocent female character" and sticking it in the lazy AI porn converter is in bad taste

    It's also like, how is this even news? This has famously been done with essentially all animated characters on the internet.

    23 votes