stu2b50's recent activity
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Comment on When $1.4 billion isn’t enough: ‘Avatar’ sequels under the microscope as Disney weighs franchise’s future in ~movies
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Comment on Intelligent people are better judges of the intelligence of others in ~science
stu2b50 LinkThis sounds like the setup for a riddle. There are 100 people in a room. You know that intelligent people are better judges of the intelligence of other people. You do not know by how much they...This sounds like the setup for a riddle.
There are 100 people in a room. You know that intelligent people are better judges of the intelligence of other people. You do not know by how much they are better judges, just that intelligence is monotonically correlated with better intelligence judgement. You do not know how intelligent anyone in the room is. You are allowed to ask a person to judge another person’s intelligence but cannot ask them general questions.
What is a way you can create an ordered list of the people in the room by intelligence?
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Comment on When $1.4 billion isn’t enough: ‘Avatar’ sequels under the microscope as Disney weighs franchise’s future in ~movies
stu2b50 (edited )Link ParentA billion dollars is absolutely enough for them, and if every avatar movie was guaranteed to make $1.4b that would be fine. The issue is that, like everyone else, they can notice that avatar’s box...But honestly the thing I hate the most about this situation is the headline issue; even a billion dollars isn’t enough for them.
A billion dollars is absolutely enough for them, and if every avatar movie was guaranteed to make $1.4b that would be fine. The issue is that, like everyone else, they can notice that avatar’s box office numbers are on an exponential decline if you plot it.
The risk is that it goes the way of many, many other series, like Jurassic Park going from one of the most influential movies of its era to being dinoslop.
I think it’s ironic that people complain about how movie studios keep releasing sequels that eventually degrade into being crap no one cares about because they want more incremental revenue from the franchise, and in this case Disney is trying to be more cautious about the exact same thing and is getting heat about it.
Does Avatar need 5 movies? Can it really support 5 movies?
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Comment on Software job openings surge this year, defying AI fears in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentThere's a fundamental asymmetry to job number news which makes it difficult to correlate those kind of things to the actual +/- counts. When Amazon has a 10k layoff, that's news. When Cisco has...Oracle and Amazon both have had 10k+ person layoffs this year already
There's a fundamental asymmetry to job number news which makes it difficult to correlate those kind of things to the actual +/- counts.
When Amazon has a 10k layoff, that's news.
When Cisco has hired an additional 2k people this quarter and the last 3 quarters, that's not news.
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Comment on Software job openings surge this year, defying AI fears in ~tech
stu2b50 LinkFeels like this is the case, I’ve been asked to do a lot more interviews (from the interviewer side), and I know a lot of people who’ve gotten jobs or swapped jobs in the industry. I don’t think...Feels like this is the case, I’ve been asked to do a lot more interviews (from the interviewer side), and I know a lot of people who’ve gotten jobs or swapped jobs in the industry.
I don’t think “AI” has really changed all that much, the swings in hiring mainly correlate to overall macro conditions more than anything, as usual.
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Software job openings surge this year, defying AI fears
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
stu2b50 Link ParentIt's also an element of, this is what happens when you don't put any explicit effort in socialization at work. By default, no one is going to talk to you. That's just how it is. In a work-context,...It's also an element of, this is what happens when you don't put any explicit effort in socialization at work. By default, no one is going to talk to you. That's just how it is.
In a work-context, if you're not actively trying to foster relationships, of course the only reason people talk to you is to ask you to do things. You're at work.
It's absolutely possible to make real friends at work, but you can't just exist. You'd need to connect with a coworker, talk about things other than work, and continue building that relationship. The key point when you actually have a friend is when you can meet up with someone after work, and have an entire conversation where you never mention work. At that point, it's a friend, and not just someone you get along with at work.
And it's also OK to never do that, it's still valuable to have "people you get along with at work" since you have to be with them for ~8ish hours a day anyway. But you can't expect people to form deeper relationships for no reason.
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Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp
stu2b50 (edited )LinkThey are? Those all exist. Personally I’m of the opposite opinion. The current suite of LLM tooling allows me to do the fun part - designing and thinking of systems - and skip the boring minutia....Why aren't agents focused on handling the mundane tasks instead? Tell me if I've just introduced a security vulnerability or a runtime bug. Generate realistic test data and give me info on what the likely output would be. Tell me that the algorithm I just wrote is O(n^2).
They are? Those all exist.
Personally I’m of the opposite opinion. The current suite of LLM tooling allows me to do the fun part - designing and thinking of systems - and skip the boring minutia.
The fun part of programming is analyzing a problem realizing, oh, this is a perfect opportunity for a bloom filter, or, I should represent this as a finite state machine, or, this can be formatted as a monad.
What’s not fun is mucking around with dagger or autovalue or writing out boilerplate value classes or figuring out which of 7 different mocking libraries is used conventionally.
You still do the former, you don’t have to do the latter.
One fun thing Claude and like have unlocked is that I’m back to writing code in vim. I essentially just bang out code, without worrying about syntax errors in moment, since Claude can fix those afterwards. I can also do things like add a comment and tell Claude to do some common boilerplate (for instance, error propagation in go, or telling it to catch all checked exceptions, log the exception and throw a wrapper exception). It’s fun, and nice to not have to deal with bulky IDEs.
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
stu2b50 Link ParentI mean, you should try to meet people in contexts where "competence" doesn't really apply. The article is mainly talking about work contexts; ultimately, work should not be your entire social...I mean, you should try to meet people in contexts where "competence" doesn't really apply. The article is mainly talking about work contexts; ultimately, work should not be your entire social life. Work has inherent hierarchies, and it'll always be difficult to break past that (that's part of why drinking culture is a big part of many countries, since you can break past that with the power of alcohol).
Like if you're hanging out with your mates at the pub, what does "competence" mean? Who can drink the most? There's no goal, you're just hanging out, so inherently there is no need to be the "dependable" one.
I thought being smart, calm, and capable would make it easier to connect
It's actually the opposite in many ways. Research has shown that people feel a closer affinity to someone when they do a favor for the other person, rather than the other person doing them a favor. Scammers, spies, and other professional social engineers have long used this to their advantage.
All that is to say, if you are actively trying to build rapport with someone, it's more effective to ask them for help for something they can do than to help them.
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Comment on Used electric vehicles are a bargain right now in ~transport
stu2b50 Link ParentIt’s both. Regenerative breaking doesn’t use the brake pads, it runs the electric motors in reverse essentially. The braking force is applied by the electromagnetic resistance caused by lenz’s...It’s both. Regenerative breaking doesn’t use the brake pads, it runs the electric motors in reverse essentially. The braking force is applied by the electromagnetic resistance caused by lenz’s law.
Of course, you can’t only use regenerative braking, so there will be wear on the mechanical breaks. But it is less.
It’s similar to engine braking in manual cars, but more effective at slower speeds (which arguably comes up much more in start and stop urban traffic).
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
stu2b50 Link ParentI feel like the root issue is that people (in America) don't value equal, adult friendships. This is what happens when your entire social circle is work + family. People depend on you at work,...I feel like the root issue is that people (in America) don't value equal, adult friendships. This is what happens when your entire social circle is work + family. People depend on you at work, your family depends on you at home.
It doesn't have to be this way, you don't have to move out to the middle of nowhere suburbs so you can have a backyard the size of Wales for your kids to frolick in.
It feels like in America there's this accepted wisdom that as you grow older, your life will revolve entirely around your family and kids and that's the expected and only path, which just isn't true. You can have kids, and you can have friends that you hang out with outside of work, and it is usually much easier to do when you don't live in the middle of nowhere.
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Comment on What if AI just makes us work harder? in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentThe difference is the what and why. Stalin did things to consolidate and grow his power. He made prison camps in order to kill two birds with one stones: get rid of dissidents and free labor for...The difference is the what and why. Stalin did things to consolidate and grow his power. He made prison camps in order to kill two birds with one stones: get rid of dissidents and free labor for economic development. He engineered a famine in Ukraine to punish the area and maintain exports needed to get foreign currency also required for economic development.
Mao honest to god believed that collective farming would be an economic boon for the country. He actually believed that the cultural revolution wouldn't horrifically damage the country's infrastracture by putting all the people with skills to work in agriculture. He honestly believed that people with no training could farm well.
It does also go back to "absolute power corrupts absolutely", one of the fundamental issues with any kind of centrally planned economy. Whether a committee or an individual, if any number of fallible humans try to manage the economic output of millions of people, they will not only fail but they will become corrupt, without question.
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Comment on What if AI just makes us work harder? in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentWhile no doubt part of it, you can tell from the differences between what Mao did and what Stalin did, or even how the modern CCP operates, to see how Mao was huffing his own paint. Stalin...While no doubt part of it, you can tell from the differences between what Mao did and what Stalin did, or even how the modern CCP operates, to see how Mao was huffing his own paint.
Stalin manufactured a famine in Ukraine in order to crush dissent as well as maintain exports for foreign cash reserves. Mao manufactured a famine in China because of collective farming programs + the cultural revolution... for literally zero beneficial reasons.
He didn't face serious dissent, the famine was across his main power base even, he wasn't exporting the food people just sucked ass at collective farming and the food never was produced.
Mao was more disastrous than even Stalin because he did seem believe in what he peddled, and that cause numerous foot-gunning without even a purpose.
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Comment on What if AI just makes us work harder? in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentLike a quarter of my genealogy was extinguished by said communist movement with no interference from anyone else, just self inflicted stupidity.We had an entire communist movement trying to ensure that our labor was properly compensated and every single person with any amount of power collectively squashed that shit
Like a quarter of my genealogy was extinguished by said communist movement with no interference from anyone else, just self inflicted stupidity.
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Comment on What’s something you’re putting up with? in ~talk
stu2b50 Link ParentLuggage scans begin with the 1974 ICAO security standards and became strengthened after the Air India Flight 182 bombing in 1985 and the Pam Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988. Not only did that far...But tsa stole Christmas gifts out of my luggage before I learned not to trust the security of checked baggage.
Luggage scans begin with the 1974 ICAO security standards and became strengthened after the Air India Flight 182 bombing in 1985 and the Pam Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988.
Not only did that far predate 9/11, but those were both non-US flights. If it wasn't TSA, it would be the private airport security stealing your christmas gifts.
The war on terror was political, airport security is not. There is no universe where we have no airport security. The only question is whether you'd rather have the US government run it, or private companies (which is what we had before 9/11).
I don't particularly see privatization as being a benefit in this case? Would you prefer it be privatized?
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Comment on What’s something you’re putting up with? in ~talk
stu2b50 Link ParentMost of what we recognize as airport security either predated or postdated 9/11. The X-Rays of baggage and metal detectors were introduced in 1974 by ICAO due to the aforementioned spree of plane...Most of what we recognize as airport security either predated or postdated 9/11. The X-Rays of baggage and metal detectors were introduced in 1974 by ICAO due to the aforementioned spree of plane hijackings in the 1960s, some of which turned into mass casualty events. This is where the idea of airport security started to become standardized and common place across the world, and is most definitely before 2001.
And to that end, airplane hijacking counts plummeted almost one every other week to a mode of zero per year. Most of the hijackings and bombing attempts were not criminal masterminds, but just mentally ill people with an opportunity. For example, in 1955, one of the first mass casualty events involved a man, Jack Graham, who put a bomb in his mother's suitcase in order to collect her life insurance payout, killing 44 passengers.
What happened after 9/11 in the US specifically is that the federal government centralized airport security into a federal agency - previously, airports handled security on their own (SFO still does this, as they have a special exception from the TSA).
Then, some of the most famous or infamous TSA screening procedures happened after 9/11. Liquids and shoes, for instance, were introduced after a 2006 attempted hijacking on a British Airlines plane (so, not even a US plane).
So, it's ultimately historically inaccurate to see it as a switch that got flipped in 2001. Airport security was already standard by then, and the idea of a secure zone was standard as of the end of the 1970s. What happened in 2001 is mainly standardization and government centralization, in the US.
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Comment on Balcony solar is spreading across the US in ~enviro
stu2b50 Link ParentThis is addressed in the article. The laws going through state legislatures allowing for balcony solar also address HOA concernsThis is addressed in the article. The laws going through state legislatures allowing for balcony solar also address HOA concerns
Both of those obstacles are beginning to crumble, with Illinois providing the latest example. The state legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 3104, a proposal to remove the state’s existing pre-authorization requirement and replace it with a simple form notifying the utility company of the installation. The bill would also prohibit any other fees or installation expenses, and it would prevent property owners and homeowner associations from raising unreasonable obstacles of their own.
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Comment on What’s something you’re putting up with? in ~talk
stu2b50 Link ParentIs that not already the case? At every airport I’ve been to, there’s been lounge space, sitting areas, restaurants and shops outside of the secure zone. Usually moreso than inside the secure zone....Is that not already the case? At every airport I’ve been to, there’s been lounge space, sitting areas, restaurants and shops outside of the secure zone. Usually moreso than inside the secure zone.
Life before 9 11 was a lot more comfortable and pleasant.
The obsession over 9/11 good and bad feels like America-centrism. The move to having secure zones in airports and security checks to enter them predate 9/11 and was a global phenomena as everyone in the world realized we needed some basic prevention for the thousand ton flying machines.
If 9/11 never happened and the US was deleted from the map by God herself, you would still have to go through security in the big 26.
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Comment on What’s something you’re putting up with? in ~talk
stu2b50 Link ParentThere is no such thing as a lock that cannot be broken into, not to mention that the usual way plane jackings go is that they take the passengers hostage. Why would it be more than enough? It’s...There is no such thing as a lock that cannot be broken into, not to mention that the usual way plane jackings go is that they take the passengers hostage.
Why would it be more than enough? It’s not enough in literally every country on the planet. It’s not considered enough in Switzerland nor Sweden nor Denmark nor Turkey nor Japan nor Taiwan nor China nor Bolivia.
I want to meet my loved ones at the gate again.
This seems like an extremely low amount of gain for people’s lives at stake. Especially if it’s “meet” and not leave, it’s not like you go through security when you leave the airport, that’s like an extra 15 minutes to leave the secure zone of the airport.
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Comment on 'Banal and hollow': Why the quaint paintings of Thomas Kinkade divided the US in ~arts
stu2b50 LinkIn terms of the critical reaction to Kinkade’s work, it feels like an echo of the current hubbub over AI, which one of the article interviewees noted as well And to be frank, I don’t really like...In terms of the critical reaction to Kinkade’s work, it feels like an echo of the current hubbub over AI, which one of the article interviewees noted as well
Today we would think they had been produced by AI, designed as if by algorithm to a certain formula – Charlotte Mullins
And to be frank, I don’t really like Kinkade’s painting. His composition is often weak, and there is little explorative use of edges or shapes.
That painting with the rotunda next to a river and a path is like particularly atrocious in its shape design and composition. It’s exactly the kind of thing AI would get wrong.
As an example of something different, here’s a landscape by Krenz Cushart that really plays with the shapes much more, in a way that goes beyond reality but not into postmodern abstraction:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QWw4B
All that being said, I would never begrudge someone who liked one of Kinkade’s paintings. Is what it is. What looks good to you looks good to you. There is a degree of huffing your own paint that came with the critical reaction to Kinkade’s work at the time.
The billion dollars was revenue, not profit. The movie + advertising is going to be in the 500-600m range.
They’re not thinking out loud? They’re thinking internally and we get bits and pieces from 3rd degree of separation hearsay which may or may not be real to begin with.