stevent's recent activity

  1. Comment on How America fell out of love with ice cream in ~food

    stevent
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    cries in lactose intolerance

    cries in lactose intolerance

    2 votes

  2. Comment on "Layered" music that builds throughout the song? in ~music

    stevent
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    Hard same for favorite album of all time. The downside is that when people ask “what do you listen to?” its tough to explain “you ever wanted to know what Cormac McCarthy sounds like as music?...

    Hard same for favorite album of all time. The downside is that when people ask “what do you listen to?” its tough to explain “you ever wanted to know what Cormac McCarthy sounds like as music? It’s that.”

    4 votes

  3. Comment on What are your experiences with leadership and ego? in ~talk

    stevent
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    Ohh, good question. My background was tech support to start out with, which probably fueled the distaste for bad management practices and began a long quest researching other KPIs that could be...

    Ohh, good question. My background was tech support to start out with, which probably fueled the distaste for bad management practices and began a long quest researching other KPIs that could be used, management styles, call center metrics, etc.

    I was pulled into a pilot program because they just needed a warm body in a seat and it turned out to be the Wild West of what we were allowed to do. I spent most of those days slowly changing expectations and quietly building connections with people who were sympathetic to the idea we could be something better than what we were. Several roles later and a lot more research into management and I landed where I am now, with both direct and indirect reports underneath.

    Looking back, I probably should have networked harder - conferences, white papers, etc. I’m happy with my team and the position I’m in now, but I would have liked to have a bigger network of sympathetic managers, especially during the great resignation. Workers had a lot more power and we could have gone farther with changing the landscape. Unionizing in tech is next to impossible and management is, understandably, excluded, but there was briefly a wave where if there had been enough of us, anyone with a direct report could have pushed for better working conditions overall despite the lack of unions. There’s gotta be a coalition of us managerial weirdos somewhere, right?

    Bitterest lesson was absolutely learning you can do everything possible to be the loudest voice in the room for your people and still lose. I’ve had to let go of good, kind people because despite pushing upwards for change, they themselves weren’t in a role that matched their skills or abilities.

    I’m man enough to admit I’ve cried at my desk after letting someone go who didn’t deserve it, and it was because that I made a bad hiring decision. Those moments radically changed my hiring approach and taught me the toughest lessons yet on accountability. My decisions absolutely impact the livelihoods of my people and it’s my responsibility to keep my people safe, starting with hiring for the right fit in a career move for them that lasts.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on What are your experiences with leadership and ego? in ~talk

    stevent
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    Oh, I’ve absolutely been fired before because I couldn’t reconcile what the asks were with the way it would impact my team. It’s a risk I’m willing to take, and one that my husband and I have...
    • Exemplary

    Oh, I’ve absolutely been fired before because I couldn’t reconcile what the asks were with the way it would impact my team. It’s a risk I’m willing to take, and one that my husband and I have built into the budget long term. Always have enough money in savings to fight and be financially prepared enough to lose.

    There is doublespeak that comes with it. Just no way around that fact these days. Much of it revolves around using corporate lingo to change goals or roadmaps in a way that positively impact the team, ie hardline stances on healthy deadlines, allocating budgets to hire the right and more people, changing OKRs to reflect on product improvement over useless productivity metrics. I’m a data guy by nature so I pull as much empirical evidence into the planning discussions as I can, run experiments with small groups of team members that shows a focus change makes positive impacts, use hackathons to build internal tools that make everyone’s lives easier, that kind of thing.

    I got lucky getting here because people above me believed me that I could run a team well, largely due to previously referenced near-delusional confidence. There are days where I sit in meetings and feel like I need a shower afterwards, sure, and days where budgets still get cut, where I deliver news of the grim reaper and lose good members of the team, where we don’t win. But it’s a long game I’m playing, so I stick with it. And, if needed, bring out the old “fuck you, fight me” when I need.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Sound enthusiasts - share your system in ~hobbies

    stevent
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    My setup is barebones, and I went the cheapest route with Edifier’s R1280T bookshelf speakers and an audio-technica LP120USB I got used. Eventually I’d like to grab a decent amp and upgrade to a...

    My setup is barebones, and I went the cheapest route with Edifier’s R1280T bookshelf speakers and an audio-technica LP120USB I got used. Eventually I’d like to grab a decent amp and upgrade to a pair of Klipsch RP-8000F, but today is not that day with the budget.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on "Layered" music that builds throughout the song? in ~music

    stevent
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    I don’t see Max Richter listed here yet, but I’d recommend him. He’s contemporary classical and you’ll potentially recognize him from soundtracks he’s contributed to or from him showing up on...

    I don’t see Max Richter listed here yet, but I’d recommend him. He’s contemporary classical and you’ll potentially recognize him from soundtracks he’s contributed to or from him showing up on Spotify sleep playlists.

    Memoryhouse is my favorite album by him, specifically would recommend the track November to fit the category you’re looking for.

    5 votes

  7. Comment on "Layered" music that builds throughout the song? in ~music

    stevent
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    GYBE! My favorite band! I have nothing of value to add here, just excited to see them listed because I agree with ya. Mladic by them is top tier for this category.

    GYBE! My favorite band! I have nothing of value to add here, just excited to see them listed because I agree with ya.

    Mladic by them is top tier for this category.

    5 votes

  8. Comment on What are your experiences with leadership and ego? in ~talk

    stevent
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    Dude in a leadership position in corporate here. I come from a dirty kid background, think the ruffians with the dog and the pack on the side of the exit types. I forced my way into management...

    Dude in a leadership position in corporate here. I come from a dirty kid background, think the ruffians with the dog and the pack on the side of the exit types. I forced my way into management after hitting my enough point with boots-on-necks and ended up working my way up the ladder. That was many moons ago, I’m now old and housed, but it’s context for my thoughts here.

    I can’t speak from a political leadership experience, but from a corporate role, my ethos has been to steer the ship towards treating employees with kindness, leniency, and respect. There are days where I have to remind myself that I can’t just rest on my laurels and it’s my job to use my powers to actually force change for the better. That goal alone requires ego, or at least near-delusional confidence because it goes against most managerial practices.

    I think it’s important to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy egos though. Ego, for me at least, means I’m smart enough, capable enough, and forceful enough to make waves in an industry that says otherwise. I think that kind of confidence can be a force for altruism, but it requires a lot of self-reflection without navel gazing, and mindfulness to regulate it.

    It’s easy to use standard leadership practices that follow the train, coach, PIP, and fire pipeline that we’re all used to, and that route is the fastest path to upward mobility. But, if you’re feeling spicy and the spark hits, there’s definitely gratification in bucking HR and exec decisions that aren’t helpful or kind to your people, and the ego still gets a boost along the way.

    I don’t know if that helps since it’s 100% anecdotal, but figured I’d throw in my two cents.

    22 votes

  9. Comment on Artists you love, and are surprised are not more popular than they are? in ~music

    stevent
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    Gonna recommend a few regional artists I’ve found that are on par with some of the bigger artists in the country/alt country/folk/singer-songwriter world these days. Full disclosure, my husband is...

    Gonna recommend a few regional artists I’ve found that are on par with some of the bigger artists in the country/alt country/folk/singer-songwriter world these days. Full disclosure, my husband is in the industry so I’m hella biased. Also biased because I’m an old punk and like punk influences in my country music.

    Jon Charles Dwyer I’d recommend for fans of Willi Carlisle, Joe Pug, or generally the new sad-vibe slower folk music coming out. Lyrics are A+++, 10/10, would purchase from seller again.

    Max Lane is hella obscure, new to the scene, but has a voice like a damn deep angel. If you’re into John Moreland, go have a listen. It’s not on Spotify, but if you find his cover of Ray LaMontagne’s Trouble or hear it live, brace yourself.

    Severed Fingers is great time live, and, like Jon Charles Dwyer, has punk roots. That bleeds into their vibe more than Dwyer, but folk punk ain’t the right descriptor here. Tough to associate with a specific sound, but likely The Hill Country Devil fans would have a good time.

    Austin Lucas is less obscure than the last two, but same vibe. Most popular track is Alone in Memphis if you want to croon and wallow, but their covers of Against Me! switch it up into country punks doing country punk things. They’ve toured with Moreland and Pug, fans of Tim Barry are likely down for a listen.

  10. Comment on OpenAI: Introducing Superalignment in ~tech

    stevent
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    Though I partially disagree, I can see where you’re coming from here. I’m in a field that has overlap in AI alignment - ethical and responsible tech. Many of the folks in the field work in Trust &...

    Though I partially disagree, I can see where you’re coming from here. I’m in a field that has overlap in AI alignment - ethical and responsible tech. Many of the folks in the field work in Trust & Safety (community moderation, CSAM removal, threat identification, fraud, etc) so a chunk of the alignment discussion around “ideals” is because of collaboration with each other.

    I think the phrasing around “human-like” and “human values” is easily digestible, but a misnomer. A better way to phrase it would be creating parameters for prosocial behavior, otherwise described as actions that contribute rather than damage, or actions that are beneficial to others (or mutually beneficial). At the end of the day, it’s how do we avoid going the way of Microsoft’s 4chan-esque pro-hitler AI from a few years ago or the way of a far-future apocalyptic singularity science fiction.

    BUT, the thing I’m more interested in, and something you might be getting at with a self-contained experiment is what happens if AI superintelligence (ASI) has agency? Or autonomy? What behaviors would develop without sociotechnological blindness and bias and is building a model without that interference even possible if their dataset and parameters begins with the human experience?

    Because AI lacks the ability to biologically feel or experience emotion in the way we do, the consequences are higher - the concept of “punishment” or consequences if an AI behaves in way contradictory prosocial behavior hasn’t been fleshed out yet. More importantly, to me personally, is if we determine what defines consciousness also applies to ASI. Effectively we will have created artificial life, and with that, the ethical implications of AI rights becomes the most important question in the room.

    So before we get to ASI and agency, I think we need to define the basic hierarchy of needs AI will have, starting with hardware requirements, software maintenance, moving up to dataset accessibility, responsible usage, and finally communication and ai-to-ai or ai-to-human connection.

    I don’t have answers, most of us don’t, but the ethical and moral implications of what’s to come are on the horizon. We’ll have a reckoning unless this path changes or the limits of sentience are determined to end before ASI. You’re asking the big questions that many of us are staring down the road at. Keep asking questions!

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Is anyone here interested in talking about volcanoes? in ~science

    stevent
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    Yeah! It’s a neat little road-trip flyby for sure. My inner 8 year old was psyched to see a real life volcano and then spend the next several hours reading up on dormant volcanoes on the east coast.

    Yeah! It’s a neat little road-trip flyby for sure. My inner 8 year old was psyched to see a real life volcano and then spend the next several hours reading up on dormant volcanoes on the east coast.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Is anyone here interested in talking about volcanoes? in ~science

    stevent
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    Yes! Though I am not a geologist nor have I ever seen an active one. I did get a chance to drive by Mole Hill in Virginia and was real excited, despite it just being, well, a hill.

    Yes! Though I am not a geologist nor have I ever seen an active one. I did get a chance to drive by Mole Hill in Virginia and was real excited, despite it just being, well, a hill.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on 20,000 Tildidgeridoos! in ~tildes

    stevent
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    Exactly same here. Super grateful. It feels like ye olde internet again 🥲

    Exactly same here. Super grateful. It feels like ye olde internet again 🥲

    23 votes