rosco's recent activity

  1. Comment on New job advice in ~life

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Thanks I will definitely go into this week with this mindset. I'm really happy I posted, these have been great answers.

    Thanks I will definitely go into this week with this mindset. I'm really happy I posted, these have been great answers.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on New job advice in ~life

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the advice. It's a very specific title and I'm not sure what the generic would be, Director of Wildfire Solutions and Partnerships, and broadly in the assessment and verification of...

    Thanks for the advice. It's a very specific title and I'm not sure what the generic would be, Director of Wildfire Solutions and Partnerships, and broadly in the assessment and verification of natural resources space. Specifically for power utilities. Lord help me if anyone there is on here as it's a very niche field.

    The position was made for me and it come with like 3 roles: 1. Leading partnerships with other companies in the space (read, competitors), 2. Defining strategy for the product rollout and GTM, and 3. being the interface between customers and product team (a la the guy from Office Space). I ran a company that developed a very similar product but got hit hard by funding changes with the Trump administration during his initial blitz. We closed shop and now I'm here.

    I think they just saw my experience and decided they wanted me for the expanding team in the American West, so they've kind of cobbled the holes in their current capacity together into this job. They literally made the job description after making me the offer, which was very weird.

    I'm meeting with our COO 3 times a week to make sure I'm getting where I need to be, but it's clear most folks aren't sure what to do with me and many have made moves to try and offload some of their workload onto me (expected, but trying to manage volume). I'm still one day in and mostly just trying to be the fly on the wall.

    3 votes

  3. New job advice

    ~life Ask (advice)
    I recently started a new job and have realized I'm not entirely sure what the scope of work is. I applied to a role that I was very well suited for and had a very clear objective. I went through...

    I recently started a new job and have realized I'm not entirely sure what the scope of work is. I applied to a role that I was very well suited for and had a very clear objective. I went through like 8 rounds of interviews for them to decide that the team I applied for was CET and I am PT, which likely wouldn't work. So they made me a position with a team on the US west coast, be it a very different one. The salary is still wild so I took it, particularly in this job market, but now I'm having a hard time sussing out what the extents of my position actually are.

    Has anyone been in this position before or have advice on how to narrow the scope of your work if it's a bit amorphous? Cheers!

    18 votes

  4. Comment on What do folks carry in their hiking/backpacking/camping first aid kits these days? in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Some of the best advice on the thread. Going with people and knowing where you are will avoid like 98% of problems turning from minor to catastrophic.

    I suppose if you experience a lot of anxiety, feeling like you're prepared might be more important. And honestly in that case you don't want a splint or clotting agents, you want satellite communication and hiking buddies.

    Some of the best advice on the thread. Going with people and knowing where you are will avoid like 98% of problems turning from minor to catastrophic.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on What do folks carry in their hiking/backpacking/camping first aid kits these days? in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link
    Some great info in the thread already, just adding on my own brief two cents. Like others have said, it's very trip dependent and I'd say person dependent. I have a shotty knee so I always take a...

    Some great info in the thread already, just adding on my own brief two cents. Like others have said, it's very trip dependent and I'd say person dependent. I have a shotty knee so I always take a brace or a wrap, even if I'm feel good, but that is explicitly a me problem. So otherwise...

    Backpacking -

    1. Basic first aid kit and an ability to use it. I was a lifeguard for years and got training on how to do everything from taking out a bee sting to safely stabilizing a head with a potential spinal injury. You don't need many things (gauze, bandaids, ace bandage, super glue, etc) but you should know how to use them. Take a course, they are cheap and fun!
    2. Satellite Communicator. If I'm going by myself I take a Garmin Inreach 2 and also bought an iPhone 15 specifically for the emergency satellite SOS feature. Garmin requires a subscription but $15 is well worth the peice of mind.
    3. Backcountry Insurance. The American Alpine Club has banging deals on backcountry insurance, for $100 a year it'll cover a heli evacuation. Again, good piece of mind if you're out kicking around on your own, and honestly just good to have in general if you spend a good deal of time outside. Plus they usually throw in a sweet shirt. I've never had to use mine but I've never regretted having it.
    4. Again if I'm alone I'll usually bring an extra ration of food. The weight sucks but it does mean a double dinner on the last night if I/we are safely back in spitting range of the trailhead.
    5. A good knife. You never know when you'll need a sharp blade to cut/extract/rip something. So beyond its uses in the kitchen, a solid pocket knife is a must. I love the CRKT Squid.
    3 votes

  6. Comment on Why is it so hard to get an ADHD diagnosis? How do you find a good psychologist? in ~health.mental

    rosco
    Link
    I had a very different experience in the US. I got a referral from my GP to see a psychiatrist for a diagnosis. They asked me like 5 questions and then started doling out prescriptions, it was...

    I had a very different experience in the US. I got a referral from my GP to see a psychiatrist for a diagnosis. They asked me like 5 questions and then started doling out prescriptions, it was like a 5-10 minute appointment. I was hoping to have a more comprehensive assessment but at least I got to try out the drugs. I haven't been a fan of anything they have prescribed so far though, but it has been as easy as emailing them, saying this one doesn't work and describing the issues for them to pick another. The drugs themselves have been expensive as fuck though and that coupled with not finding success with the ones they prescribed led me to stop and go back to my old coping mechanisms.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Why I find woke criticism of veganism and effective altruism so outrageous in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I want to call out, I'm not trying to strawman for big ag and I'd love to see a huge reduction in the amount of animal agriculture and the type of animal agriculture, I'm just passing on what I've...

    I want to call out, I'm not trying to strawman for big ag and I'd love to see a huge reduction in the amount of animal agriculture and the type of animal agriculture, I'm just passing on what I've heard pretty consistently working in the ecology adjacent space for about a decade. I went back for a masters in Coastal Science and Policy and it was a continuous heated debate between a few of my cohort that were vegan and a few of the faculty who worked in marine protected areas. The faculty's argument was that vegetation based agriculture wasn't enough to meet human nutritional needs, but that with mariculture you could effectively remove the need for terrestrial animal agriculture. This is also info from 2018 so take that with a grain of salt.

    I'm all about reducing impact, and eating at lower trophic scales and so many of your points on terrestrial practices are on the nose. Even cattle that are reared on land that is not suitable for cropping - like sage grouse territory BLM land - are often sent to feed farms to fatten up for a year before slaughter (I worked on a project documenting their impact on the local sage grouse populations.) I in no way think animal ag is better than vegetation ag. But what I still haven't seen is a source that says you can meet the nutritional needs of our country or planet with just plants. I've just given it another cursory go and can't find a source that has data on that. Not asking for a lit review, but with your background if you know of literature that makes that claim I would be grateful if you'd be up for sharing it.

    I myself am like 99% vegetarian, I think we radically need to rethink our food systems and think animal based factory farming is horrible. I'm piping off the way I am because of how the article is framing the need for immediate shift in our food systems without thinking about the populations that would be effected by that and the weird focus on traditional practices as a hurdle to adopting vegan systems. As an ecologist I'm sure you're familiar with Social Ecological Systems, and this pretty much flys in the face of those principals. Absolutely no shade to you, I appreciate you adding nuance and info to the discussion. But there also seems to be a lot of requests for nuance and evidence in the discussion section for an article that had none.

    5 votes

  8. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Yeah, that is totally fair. It's weird how time it takes to separate signal from noise these day! Embarrassing on my front, thanks for calling it out!

    Yeah, that is totally fair. It's weird how time it takes to separate signal from noise these day! Embarrassing on my front, thanks for calling it out!

  9. Comment on Do you play knock-offs of celebrated indie games? in ~games

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Oof, you just hit me in my elementary school feels! Goldeneye forever!!!!

    Oof, you just hit me in my elementary school feels! Goldeneye forever!!!!

  10. Comment on Why I find woke criticism of veganism and effective altruism so outrageous in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    No OP, but there isn't comprehensive data on if vegan food systems could support earth population or even if that wouldn't come with it's own externalities like requiring more land conversion for...

    I'm not sure why (or even if) you think food deserts falsify the claim linked. If you do, you didn't provide any reason to think this is the case. If I'm reading the comment correctly, it seems like you felt the article was low effort and in turn your response was low effort, which if it were me would be a good reason to think that maybe I shouldn't have posted the reply.

    No OP, but there isn't comprehensive data on if vegan food systems could support earth population or even if that wouldn't come with it's own externalities like requiring more land conversion for agriculture. It's a big talking point within the mariculture community. I assume that kacey is pointing out that the author gave no evidence to back up their claims so they would only provide scant evidence to support theirs. I took it as food deserts show that vegan diets are currently inaccessible to large portions of the population so what happens to them during this mandated conversion?

    9 votes

  11. Comment on Why I find woke criticism of veganism and effective altruism so outrageous in ~society

    rosco
    (edited )
    Link
    I've never read an article that was so in line with my opinion on effective altruism. Extreme, self righteous, uncompromising, with a level of zealotry usually reserved for the most ardent...

    I've never read an article that was so in line with my opinion on effective altruism. Extreme, self righteous, uncompromising, with a level of zealotry usually reserved for the most ardent evangelists. The choice to use a subjective opinion on the morality of veganism to justify effective altruism while going after native practices is just.... so on the nose. I'm imagining the author becoming fully erect to Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons, missing any modern commentary on its sexist and racist origins. The plea to rationality while presenting none. The article works hard to misrepresent arguments for traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous food ways, and the author seemingly can not view anything outside of their world view with anything other than extreme contempt. And by doing so he has completely lost the forest to the trees. To me, the tone of the article itself is a great caution against EA.

    The progressive critique of effective altruism is the same critique of all philanthropy, it leaves the fulfillment of the needs the general population to whims of the wealthy. As far as I can tell, the argument here is that EA has made large impacts towards a better future for hundreds of thousands of animals and any benefit should be applauded. That heaped with a metric fuckton of contempt for anyone who disagrees. So here in lies the rub: with EA communities the people with the money - in this case our faithful author - has full jurisdiction over what funding is spent on. Considering their extreme ideological bent, I would assume more pressing priorities for the general populace such as food security would be deprioritized in favor of mandated veganism. What progressive ideology calls for is support and benefit to all folks society, with priorities set by the collective. This runs headlong into the ethos of EA, where he with the funds knows best.
    I love articles like this because the mask has slipped, the extreme views have been surfaced, and it validates that altruism is not the goal - ideological supremacy is.

    Even on the vegan question we're into trolley problem territory. Are we optimizing for the health of the ecosystem or for maximum avoidance of deaths? If we're just trying to stop things from dying should we be culling species that are responsible for the most predation? They do that in japan with dolphins and whales, granted for the goal of increasing fish stocks for harvesting, not protecting, but if killing 100 dolphin saved 5000 tuna would it be worth it? Or are we optimizing for the overall health and fecundity of an ecosystem? In that case, traditional hunting practices can be beneficial to ecosystem health and population management.

    Progressive support of traditional practices is that they sustainably manage natural resources, particularly when compared to modern commercial practices. We have been part of the food chain for tens of thousands of years. With traditional harvesting practices we're into the question of removing an established predator from an ecosystem. So to me our author is not concerned about ecosystem or population health, it's just numbers saved. So our author has saved 100,000 chickens from the axe, amazing. Now where are you going to have 100,000 invasive birds, bred to be as vulnerable to predation as possible, live out their days bliss? I'd argue that purchasing a chicken farm, finishing the current "crop" of chickens for their intended purpose of food, and then converting half to vegetal produce and half restored to nature would be far more altruistic. But the nuance of navigating actually beneficial solutions doesn't jive with ideological extremism.

    17 votes

  12. Comment on 'Blue dot fever' claims Post Malone, Pussycat Dolls concerts. What's really behind it? in ~music

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I know some artists have the ability to set the pricing, but I was under the impression that most ticket sales for smaller bands go to the venue and ticket seller. The big payout for artists is...

    I know some artists have the ability to set the pricing, but I was under the impression that most ticket sales for smaller bands go to the venue and ticket seller. The big payout for artists is the merch stand. Is that not the case?

    I assumed that the monopoly and vertical integration of Ticketmaster was also a likely culprit of this huge spike. Is that not true?

    9 votes

  13. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    rosco
    Link
    It seems like this article is really dialing up the friction here and it kind of feels like that's the whole point of the article. "Wokeness" is this undefined, untethered thing that we can all...

    It seems like this article is really dialing up the friction here and it kind of feels like that's the whole point of the article. "Wokeness" is this undefined, untethered thing that we can all define by our own standards. For some it might be near to it's origin of being aware of structural violence. To others it seems like it's online bullying and purity tests. To the rest it seems like it comes down to pronouns.

    Maybe we can agree that we would like to talk about one of those topics: liberal purity tests, treatment of trans people in the USA, a rise in fascist ideology; and that it might be help us to understand more about our current moment. But it feels like lumping it into one article with a clickbait headline and a poorly defined subject has only had the intended effect of driving lots of engagement. Mostly in the form of rage at each other.

    12 votes

  14. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    rosco
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Huh, I might be mistaken. I thought I read a whole article on it. Let me see if I can find it and otherwise disregard. Edit: You're right, seems like it was more opportunistic than anything. I...

    Huh, I might be mistaken. I thought I read a whole article on it. Let me see if I can find it and otherwise disregard.

    Edit:
    You're right, seems like it was more opportunistic than anything. I found the following that in Joshua Green's book Devil's Bargain, Bannon is quoted saying

    "These guys, these rootless white males, had monster power... You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump."

    He hired Milo Yiannopoulos specifically to cultivate the Gamergate demographic, with Breitbart Tech launching in October 2015 as a dedicated pipeline for converting gaming culture resentment into conservative political identity.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

  16. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Hasn't it been proven at this point that much of the anti-SJW and Gamergate was a coordinated effort to bring angry young men into the alt-right fold?

    Hasn't it been proven at this point that much of the anti-SJW and Gamergate was a coordinated effort to bring angry young men into the alt-right fold?

    7 votes

  17. Comment on Do you play knock-offs of celebrated indie games? in ~games

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Totally! Like Perfect Dark vs Bond being the first instance I ran into this issue. Usually I'm fine with mechanics being taken and broadened. I'm not sure why the Dredge knockoff is bugging me so...

    Totally! Like Perfect Dark vs Bond being the first instance I ran into this issue. Usually I'm fine with mechanics being taken and broadened.

    I'm not sure why the Dredge knockoff is bugging me so much. It just seems like a money grab I guess, that they took the game - art style, mechanics, tone, hell everything - and released a new one. Like it might as well be Dredge 2. It just seems frustrating that the developers took such a long time figuring out what worked, creating a narrative and recognizable art style, and these folks just grabbed it and ran.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" (gifted link) in ~humanities

    rosco
    Link Parent
    That's hilarious, I'd never heard it! I'll have to share it round

    That's hilarious, I'd never heard it! I'll have to share it round

    2 votes

  19. Do you play knock-offs of celebrated indie games?

    ~games Ask
    I've been getting more suggested game trailers on youtube and have been surprised by the number of "knock off" games. I've seen three different versions of Dregde (a game I absolutely adore) and a...

    I've been getting more suggested game trailers on youtube and have been surprised by the number of "knock off" games. I've seen three different versions of Dregde (a game I absolutely adore) and a number that seem to be mimicking Hollow Knight. I don't even mean just like fishing or rogue like games, I mean like full on knock-offs.

    I get the niche they fill, but I'm kind of curious about the ethics of it. Like, I would love to play more dredge but it doesn't appear more is on the way. But I also don't really want to support a company that is just completely ripping off everything from mechanics to art. Like this game seemingly took the actual artwork from Dredge. As a developer I think I'd be pretty pissed.

    Is this really common and I'm just learning about it now? Is it the video game equivalent of Atlantic Rim? Where do people stand on playing these kind of knock off games?

    21 votes

  20. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" (gifted link) in ~humanities

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Sure! The route we swim passes a pupping beach that is frequented by harbor seals in the spring/summer. The adults are usually very wary or slightly aggressive towards swimmers, but the pups are...

    Sure! The route we swim passes a pupping beach that is frequented by harbor seals in the spring/summer. The adults are usually very wary or slightly aggressive towards swimmers, but the pups are super curious. They swim with us for miles! Just bobbing and weaving across the sea floor below us (maybe 10-20 feet) and come up now and then for a closer inspection when they think we're not looking. We've had some really fun encounters with them.

    This day was absolutely wild though. Usually it's just the pups that check us out, but they'll usually turn at the mouth of the cove as it's a heavily trafficked tourist beach. On this particular morning however two pups followed us all the way in and swam circles around us for about 5 minutes. My wife had met me at the water - she'll sometimes take a dip and we'd walk home together - and so she got to experience too! So we're all just standing in like waist deep water in shock when the mother harbor seals swim into the cove. They didn't come close and their presence ended the pups fun, but the whole experience was just unbelievable. Like, I don't think my wife would have believed me had she not shown up. It was awesome! Doubly so that it was Beltane!

    It's not uncommon for us to have really interesting experiences with wildlife while we're out there and it makes me think that before we heavily de-wilded the planet, these kinds of experiences would have been much more common place. Like you can feel the curiosity and get some insight into what the baby seals are thinking when they check you out. You can understand the communication between the moms and their pups. Hell, even the fish seem to have little personalities. I think we're so detached from nature that it's easy to diminish shintoism or Dine spiritual practices as anthropomorphic. But there really is a whole universe out there that folks are missing out on!

    3 votes