rosco's recent activity

  1. Comment on Revisiting Instagram, and promptly leaving it again in ~tech

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. On my desktop, adblock plus, just following those artists. Do we know if ad block actually stops facebook from collecting on ads?

    Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. On my desktop, adblock plus, just following those artists.

    Do we know if ad block actually stops facebook from collecting on ads?

  2. Comment on Revisiting Instagram, and promptly leaving it again in ~tech

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I know, I'm just not sure how else to check out the artists in question's work. They don't post anywhere else.

    I know, I'm just not sure how else to check out the artists in question's work. They don't post anywhere else.

  3. Comment on Revisiting Instagram, and promptly leaving it again in ~tech

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Forgive the ignorance, but does using Instafel still support Meta financially if it removes the adds completely? I'm hoping not to support them so this would be a big win if not.

    Instafel

    Forgive the ignorance, but does using Instafel still support Meta financially if it removes the adds completely? I'm hoping not to support them so this would be a big win if not.

  4. Comment on Revisiting Instagram, and promptly leaving it again in ~tech

    rosco
    Link
    I have an old, dusty instagram from way back when that I have recently begun reusing to check out the work from artists that I like. I'm starting to get into linocut printmaking and it's just hard...

    I have an old, dusty instagram from way back when that I have recently begun reusing to check out the work from artists that I like. I'm starting to get into linocut printmaking and it's just hard to get examples of work outside of things like Instagram and Etsy. Etsy is great for searching particular topics, but on Instagram artists will show parts of the process. I'm doing a weekly art class, but supplementing with the instagram stuff has been really helpful. Buuuuut, I don't want to support Meta.

    Does anyone know a way of finding this kind of content without instagram or any sneaky ways to see the posts from the artists I like without supporting Meta financially?

    2 votes

  5. Comment on You are a better writer than AI (yes, YOU!) in ~creative

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I totally understand the feeling, I feel the same when I come across an email or article written by one. Like, really, you couldn't just write - "Sweet, look forward to chatting with you on...

    I totally understand the feeling, I feel the same when I come across an email or article written by one. Like, really, you couldn't just write - "Sweet, look forward to chatting with you on friday. Be sure copy Monica so she knows what is happening too."

    For the documents I'm referring to, I initially wrote all of them. As a team we decided that they weren't so useful as to eat up weeks of my time, for the most part the team just didn't need the really in depth explanation for why decisions were being made. So then we shifted to outlines of what needed to happen and when, what were the blockers/co-dependencies, and resource needs. Which was fine but ended up with a lot of interpretation as to why and lead to miscommunications in how things should be done. So we ended up with more meeting time to walk through them which also wasn't helpful. We kept trying to find the goldilocks zone and ended up trying out GPT. I fed it our overarching planning docs, the outlines, and any relevant information directing the work (customer feedback, parallel development plans, etc) and with enough feedback ended up creating a pretty decent document. Most discussions stay within our morning standup now and the time it takes to make them has seemingly been less. After typing this all out, maybe I won't rock the boat. What's the saying "don't try to make a happy baby happier"?

  6. Comment on You are a better writer than AI (yes, YOU!) in ~creative

    rosco
    Link Parent
    It's funny all the replies I've received are making me question the quality of the LLM generated documents I've been using. I've followed up with a few direct reports to make sure I'm not just...

    It's funny all the replies I've received are making me question the quality of the LLM generated documents I've been using. I've followed up with a few direct reports to make sure I'm not just sending them useless material (it always ends up reading well to me after a few iterations) and so far everyone's been happy with it. They all know my process since we're pretty transparent about our workflows but I'm still nervous now. I think next week I'll write 2, one by myself and on with GPT and give them an apples to apples comparison and then have a quick checkin to see what is more beneficial to them: the quality improvement of my spending my time on those (if any) vs using my time elsewhere to pick up slack. It'll also be nice to see what the actual time difference as well.

  7. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    A number of our federal grants got flagged and frozen in February for an emphasis on diversity. We build tools to assess ecological biodiversity, it was the only reference for diversity in any...

    A number of our federal grants got flagged and frozen in February for an emphasis on diversity. We build tools to assess ecological biodiversity, it was the only reference for diversity in any part of the grant. We needed to submit an entire justification for it to be unfrozen and the whole process took about 2 months to workout, not fun when payroll is coming up and you draw down funds by accrual. Ironically, the frozen grants had an absolute bevy of discussions around the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and yet that didn't even get a peep. We were kind of shocked. I still wonder if they just made it as unpleasant as possible as a way to deter anything resembling DEI in future proposal. It seems to have worked.

    7 votes

  8. Comment on Calvin Jones' retirement announcement in ~transport

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Wow, what a legend. He's been with me through so many fixes and rebuilds. I literally just rebuilt my old Surly and he was with me, chatting in the background, through so many of the components....

    Wow, what a legend. He's been with me through so many fixes and rebuilds. I literally just rebuilt my old Surly and he was with me, chatting in the background, through so many of the components. Like no matter how many times I wrap my bars I always have him in the background just for a little reassurance. He'll be missed!

    4 votes

  9. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    To be honest I've taken the day and come back to these comments. With some space, they don't hit as bad as my initial read. I'm coming in with a lot of baggage and feels on this topic specifically...

    To be honest I've taken the day and come back to these comments. With some space, they don't hit as bad as my initial read. I'm coming in with a lot of baggage and feels on this topic specifically and when I've heard these arguments in person before they don't come from a place of best intent or objectivity. I'm bring that to this discussion. It still reads as insulting to me, but that may be from my own lived experience. I'll cool my jets.

    8 votes

  10. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I just replied to another comment and I'm going to reuse some of it here. I hear you, I don't know your friend and I can only make assumptions about how you're conveying it. He is part of an...
    • Exemplary

    I just replied to another comment and I'm going to reuse some of it here.

    I hear you, I don't know your friend and I can only make assumptions about how you're conveying it. He is part of an organization that accepts funds from the US and is likely acting as a representative a US soft power initiative. As part of that there are expectations, in the same way where if I was deployed on a USAid project I would be expected to follow whatever guidelines there were from the host country. In Pakistan it was no physical contact with participating women - not creepy stuff, I'm talking about handshakes and the like. That's weird for me, and something I would disagree with morally if a woman requested one, but when I was in country I wouldn't even think about breaking those rules. Same goes for making religious commentary in any of the very religious countries I worked in. Same goes for refusing to eat meat for meetings or rituals, something that was a requirement for vegetarians at our organization to do if they wanted to join certain projects.

    I'm having a hard time understanding why sensitivity training would be such an issue. What I described above are expected social behaviors, something akin to sensitivity training. And as I called out before, for it to be "the antithesis to the very core of his motivation to do this line of work" that's such a hard line for something that is already expect and now just codified along with a shitty webinar. Don't dismiss views. Don't make racist comments. It may not be scientific, but it's the expected protocol. Same with how I need to learn about the reimbursement program or indirect vs direct billing. Not all trainings are scientific, I would argue very few are. They just convey agency standards. If he is acting as a representative by leading or supporting a US soft power initiative, then way he behaves reflects on the how the US will be perceived.

    Now obviously there are some times where it is helpful to brake the rules. The bring whiskey and cigarettes to grease the wheels when you're with local partners. Pay for the operators of a potentially adversarial country in cash not check. And like your friend I can do that because I'm not USAid. But they can't and there is the expectation that I'm not either. Even if it makes things work better. A bit of wink wink nudge nudge, you know? But to expect all the employees to understand why or accept that breaking the rules is helpful would be wild.

    So to me, if he's working with USAid, and getting paid by USAid, it's weird to have a tantrum about this specific training. It may be a cultural bubble, but if US culture has shifted and part of getting a rewarded proposal means you have to play ball, just the same as if I want to win an RFP from the Chinese government I need to agree to their cultural standards. I did that as part of a Spanish NGO and I'll say the cultural expectations for that project were more stringent. Your right, I don't know your friend, maybe he's great but it's such a weird hill to die on. And a big jump to being a policy that is damaging to USAid.

    To my calling out the part why we're getting an influx of "progressive" employees, I'm explaining why those people tend to be the most visible fucking up. I worked as boots on the ground for a decade. I know the archetype your are referring to, and it's called being green. I whole heartedly agree that it's important to be objective when in country and follow protocol that's been in place - or at least leave it the fuck alone until you understand why people have decide to do it that way. Top down fixes rarely work and it's absolutely a real thing when people come out and start wagging fingers in completely unhelpful ways. I have no argument that it doesn't happen. A whole spectrum of folks do it. In my experience it happened with the most junior, overeager people. I posted the part about attracting "progressive" candidates because that is who often take those positions - because the pay and expectations are wild unless you have a real hunger for it. I don't do it anymore because I burnt out. But I'm saying that seeing an influx of "progressive" folks, making up a larger percentage because of a changing economic landscape, who are also the newest additions to a team is going to skew someones perspective. The youngest need to fail on a few of their projects before they become capable and understand why things happen the way the do. It'll sound stupid, but checkout the new recruits in Band of Brothers, it's true in any industry/deployment where there isn't really a way to learn without doing. But to then turn around and blame that on progressive policy or sensitivity training?

    You're getting plenty of upvotes, so maybe I'm a minority here, and I'll ease off of my commentary of your friend. Considering the work he did, I'm sure we'd have lots to laugh about and commiserate on. It's a weird thing to work on projects like that, and because of that I'm pretty defensive of the folks at USAid. There aren't many people who I feel like would get that period of my life and because of it I feel a real kinship with them. Broadly they do great work, like you call out, and also catch what I would describe an unfair amount of flack.

    16 votes

  11. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I agree progressive policy can cause damage. My issue isn't with that. Read how things are written, they are just mean. If I wrote "a bunch of cousin fucking conservative retards" I'd probably...

    I agree progressive policy can cause damage. My issue isn't with that. Read how things are written, they are just mean. If I wrote "a bunch of cousin fucking conservative retards" I'd probably rustle a few feathers. Otherwise I don't really disagree with anything you said.

    I worked as boots on the ground for a decade. I know the archetype your are both referring to, and it's called being green. I whole heartedly agree that it's important to be objective when in country and follow protocol that's been in place - or at least leave it the fuck alone until you understand why people have decide to do it that way. Top down fixes rarely work and it's absolutely a real thing when people come out and start wagging fingers in completely unhelpful ways. I have no argument that it doesn't happen. A whole spectrum of folks do it. In my experience it happened with the most junior, overeager people. I posted the part about attracting "progressive" candidates because that is who often take those positions - because the pay and expectations are wild unless you have a real hunger for it. I don't do it anymore because I burnt out. But I'm saying that seeing an influx of "progressive" folks, making up a larger percentage because of a changing economic landscape, who are also the newest additions to a team is going to skew someones perspective. The youngest need to fail on a few of their projects before they become capable and understand why things happen the way the do. It'll sound stupid, but checkout the new recruits in Band of Brothers, it's true in any industry/deployment where there isn't really a way to learn without doing. But to then turn around and blame that on progressive policy or sensitivity training?

    Addressing people's concerns, especially those who have been bit before, is SO important to putting them at ease. Attacking them for criticism/concern does much the opposite.

    You just described sensitivity training.

    8 votes

  12. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I think we're actually aligned on what we're hoping for. And this is a great example of why "defund the police" is a bad umbrella. I don't want to cut overall headcount for people addressing...

    I think we're actually aligned on what we're hoping for. And this is a great example of why "defund the police" is a bad umbrella.

    I don't want to cut overall headcount for people addressing issues in a municipality and I don't want less funding for that issue. I want less headcount and funding strictly for policing: people walking around with guns looking for crime. Right now, where I live at least, our police force pays reeeeally well. It's not an issue of compensation, rather of culture.

    I also don't think they are poorly trained (in that they don't get it), I think they are just trained poorly (in that we pay out the nose for horrible training practices). My cousin became a cop in 2017. He was eager to tell me about how he was trained. What do you do when there are 2 on 1? You shoot them. What do you do when a perp grabs your tazer? You shoot them. What do you do if you're being approached from behind? You shoot them. What the fuck. He had shot and killed 2 people within like 4 years. We train our cops, just to react violently.

    So I think what a police officer is needs to change. And funding is one of the few tools we have to do that. Give part of the funding to other groups - not called police because they are literally not policing - who reduce crime without the use of violence. Check out what they have implemented in Baltimore. There are some really cool programs that they come out of all the defund mess and are doing good work.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I'd love if that was true, but most of these are reading like blaming progressive politics for damage to "good institutions". Which has mirrored the general sentiment towards progressive policy...

    I'd love if that was true, but most of these are reading like blaming progressive politics for damage to "good institutions". Which has mirrored the general sentiment towards progressive policy from general population and mainstream media forever, but it's sad to see here.

    13 votes

  14. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I'd say this is representative of any issue that becomes a "hot topic" that then ends up fading out of the collective visibility or favor. It's not like the issue didn't go away, we're just not...

    emblematic of the broader issue of people moving on from the George Floyd controversy without having really made significant changes in response.

    I'd say this is representative of any issue that becomes a "hot topic" that then ends up fading out of the collective visibility or favor. It's not like the issue didn't go away, we're just not funding it anymore. The same can be said for climate change. It's not that climate change ended in 2024, but the funding levels domestically plummeted so most of the organizations that were working on "solutions" have disappeared. The exception is where sunk cost is too high for investors, where legacy groups maintain (TNC, Gordon Betty Moore, etc), or where companies hit profitability through other markets (i.e. Planet Labs).

    Federal spending will always lead the market, because many things only work if there are "free" funds to pay for the initial R&D and cover non-profitable initiatives (as not every good thing makes money).

    The order in which federal funding was focused post 2020 was as follows:
    Identity and DEI: 2020-2022
    Jobs training and infrastructure: 2021-2023
    Climate change research and solutions: 2022-2024
    Defense and Military: 2024-current

    If you want to make real change it takes big dollars. Kendi was no different and it is a bummer that his work wasn't just cut, but reversed.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I mean, if you had to have a contracting license or equivalent (delivery, group transportation, etc) to purchase a "commercial vehicle" we wouldn't be having this conversation. There is a huge...

    I mean, if you had to have a contracting license or equivalent (delivery, group transportation, etc) to purchase a "commercial vehicle" we wouldn't be having this conversation. There is a huge loophole in that any truck* is not subject to those laws. You could also just change it so that you need a regulated commercial license to purchase a CAFE noncompliant vehicle. It's a frustrating but relatively straitforward policy change. We're regulating like it's the 80s.

    *SUV, compactSUV, HUV, Van, Minivan, etc...

  16. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I think the broader issue is that there are an array of perspectives within any movement. Like you said, some genuinely want to abolish the police - particularly the earliest, most vocal parts of...

    I think the broader issue is that there are an array of perspectives within any movement. Like you said, some genuinely want to abolish the police - particularly the earliest, most vocal parts of the BLM movement. And it trickles down from there with varying degrees of "radical". Largely it's been an unhelpful umbrella for how do we reimagine the way in which policing and duties that fall to cops is enacted and structured. You're right.

    I think most people would agree that the police have gone too far and we've provided them with too much funding, so they stand under the "defund the police" umbrella with everyone else, with all their little caveats, because who else it taking up that issue? I'm under that little, annoying umbrella too with my own little grab bag of hopes: requirements for individual police insurance, external review of incidents of violent behavior with agencies that are not incentivized to turn a blind eye, transitioning of funds into programs like the Baltimore's Safe Streets, and a reduction in the militarization of our forces (and the budget that allows them to do so).

    Reactionary politics never work, which is why Minneapolis ended up how it did. But aren't many folks taking up the fight to change policing. Like Mayor Brandon Scott isn't out there chanting "defund the police", but I'll bet good money he's working with those who are. And they are seeing really, really good results. If you have a better umbrella than "defund the police" I'm all here for it. For now, I'm under there with my little bag of caveats.

    6 votes

  17. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I'm having a hard time squaring your story with my own experience with USAid. I worked on and supported USAid project from 2010-2019. Similar to your friend, I didn't work for USAid, rather a...
    • Exemplary

    I'm having a hard time squaring your story with my own experience with USAid.

    I worked on and supported USAid project from 2010-2019. Similar to your friend, I didn't work for USAid, rather a third party that fulfilled RFPs. While there was a high level of bureaucracy, it was never more than when we worked with the National Science Foundation, The Department of Defense, or The National Park Service. I do want to validate there were many, many stupid boxes you needed to check to meet the requirements to receive funds; one of which was sensitivity training. We had to keep our current, it was frustrating. But so were a whole slough of other ones including data security, expenditure processing, reporting protocols, etc. If you are a semi-functioning human almost any of the mandatory federal trainings are an exercise in depression. I assume these were in place because something catastrophic happened and this was the response of that fiasco. Data was lost, someone embezzled funds, someone was sexually assaulted. That this training was a bridge too far for your friend, and not any of the other, feels telling. Not that he was a harasser or anything, but that this is "woke" ideology because it focuses on what is acceptable behavior. My dad often says "he's oldschool because he is old" and I think this applies here. The training is annoying, but to say this is "the antithesis to the very core of his motivation to do this line of work" is..odd?

    Also, the description of the younger cohort of USAid folks seems ungenerous at best. Many of those positions are not particularly well paying, and they often require passion to make up the gap. Sometimes that feels like "progressive activist types", but often it's who will accept working 60-70 hours a week for $60k a year. Someone where impact of work matters more than paycheck. But never in my whole time working there would I say that it made the working experience worse, other than sometimes there was an expectation that I would be as responsive as them. People were great at figuring out how to make the most with as little resources as possible. There was a high degree of professionalism and rapid support when I was working in the field. Their project also tended to have longer sustained impact than similar ones we'd do in partnership with big corporates (Google, Adobe, Trimble) or NGOs. I'm talking a decade of impact vs a year.

    And all of that got dismantled because it was painted as woke and wasteful. It's hard not to read the heavy slant that you've wrote this with. That I'm supposed to be sympathetic to his lived experience (life under dysfunctional communism) but then not to the lived experience of the people he worked with. To read the context of his issues and see "no-bullshit" as anything other than cantankerous and hard to work with. His experience is really subjective. I hear he had a bad time by the end of his career, when his beliefs were no longer mainstream, and that's a bummer. But to use that as an example of how "progressivism has gone too far" and just skewer the younger generations that work at USAid, I couldn't disagree more.

    29 votes

  18. Comment on I am kinda curious about the demographics of Tildes in ~talk

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I'm a little too privacy minded to share much on here, but this thread piqued my curiosity because it's interesting to see how much of a diverse base we have. I sometimes feel like I'm chatting...

    I'm a little too privacy minded to share much on here, but this thread piqued my curiosity because it's interesting to see how much of a diverse base we have.

    I sometimes feel like I'm chatting with a diverse, global cohort of people with expertise in everything from geopolitical law to interpretive dance. Other times it feels like I'm sitting in the waiting room of the most stereotypical tech startup in the silicon valley. The answers are kind of validating that feeling - some diversity but mostly late 20s-early 40s in tech.

    9 votes

  19. Comment on What's the coolest thrift store find you've ever scored? in ~talk

    rosco
    Link Parent
    This is awesome! I hadn't seen this! According to this the map is 54-57, so I will have to double check our assumptions. Thanks for sharing!

    This is awesome! I hadn't seen this! According to this the map is 54-57, so I will have to double check our assumptions. Thanks for sharing!

    1 vote

  20. Comment on You are a better writer than AI (yes, YOU!) in ~creative

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Sorry, I don't mean that is good in the "this is a pleasure to read" sense, but a "this has synthesized a lot of info quickly" sense. I use it for work and it's very good at synthesizing documents...

    Sorry, I don't mean that is good in the "this is a pleasure to read" sense, but a "this has synthesized a lot of info quickly" sense. I use it for work and it's very good at synthesizing documents and generating reports. Like I'll feed a technical write up and a skeleton work plan and it can help generate a year long development roadmap. I could likely write something better if you gave me a week, but using GPT I can churn one out in about 30 minutes with a few read throughs and fixes. Before GPT I would not have had a week to write it, so people would just have to deal with my skeleton outline and ask a ton of questions. GPTs writing is not enjoyable or pleasurable, it's just good at reducing busywork.

    So I may have been wrong in how I framed it. Better in that it can synthesize info, be it with human checks. But not better in any sense of pleasure or prose.

    12 votes