zenen's recent activity

  1. Comment on I'm Not a Robot in ~games

    zenen
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    I did it. I got my certificate, but at what cost? I had to take orders from a chess bot. I had to look up the schematics for the Empire State Building. I had to engage in good faith conversation...

    I did it. I got my certificate, but at what cost?

    I had to take orders from a chess bot. I had to look up the schematics for the Empire State Building. I had to engage in good faith conversation with a Language Learning Model

    I feel gross, I'm gonna go participate in the living world now

    3 votes

  2. Comment on What can I do with my old Pixel 3 phone in 2025? in ~tech

    zenen
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    well, my daily driver for about two years has been a flip phone so... I also have a Huawei for when I need a standard Android ecosystem, but it doesn't have an aux port and I have wired headphones.

    well, my daily driver for about two years has been a flip phone so...

    I also have a Huawei for when I need a standard Android ecosystem, but it doesn't have an aux port and I have wired headphones.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What can I do with my old Pixel 3 phone in 2025? in ~tech

    zenen
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    I use mine as an mp3 player pretty much. I bought a license for Poweramp years ago and it's been my go-to music app ever since.

    I use mine as an mp3 player pretty much. I bought a license for Poweramp years ago and it's been my go-to music app ever since.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Aesop Rock - Checkers (2025) in ~music

    zenen
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    Finally gave Black Hole Superette a listen. This is one of the first tracks on the album and my goodness... this guy seems to be a bottomless well of poetry and wordplay

    Finally gave Black Hole Superette a listen. This is one of the first tracks on the album and my goodness... this guy seems to be a bottomless well of poetry and wordplay

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Many lonely people would rather deal with a robot than interact with an actual human, according to research co-led by Newcastle University in ~health.mental

    zenen
    Link Parent
    I was suggesting that your presence as a socially conscious person is a gift to service workers - so long as you don't call them "fleshy" to their face, that one might not go over so smoothly :)

    I was suggesting that your presence as a socially conscious person is a gift to service workers - so long as you don't call them "fleshy" to their face, that one might not go over so smoothly :)

    4 votes

  7. Sliding scale payment systems

    ~talk Ask
    Wanted to start a conversation to see how this idea lands among the folks of this online community. I am a university-educated, full-stack web developer by vocation. I've put years into building...

    Wanted to start a conversation to see how this idea lands among the folks of this online community.

    I am a university-educated, full-stack web developer by vocation. I've put years into building an integrated understanding of the systems I use and I always opt to use the simplest tool for the job. As far as I know, my skillset is worth a lot of money.

    Part of my trouble is that having a set price for my work means that I would be biasing my services towards people who can afford them. I would much rather work for the type of person who can't afford to pay me - this is why I quit my job at a consulting firm.

    The best answer I've found is to ask for payment on a sliding scale. I think I would be comfortable asking for up to $100/hour, and going as low as $20 (approximate living wage where I am) unless someone legitimately cannot afford what I offer, in which case I can do the work for free if I feel like it.

    I would like to organize payment around various checkpoints & deliverables. That way, my client can choose how much to pay for a given task and then revisit payment based on performance and efficiency.

    What do you think, Tildeans? I bet y'all think I'm crazy and you're right. But would you hire me, if I was a real-life person in your community?

    13 votes

  8. Comment on Many lonely people would rather deal with a robot than interact with an actual human, according to research co-led by Newcastle University in ~health.mental

    zenen
    Link Parent
    I mean, most cashiers get treated as robots anyways. I think that any sort of kindness or acknowledgement of their humanity is well-received.

    I mean, most cashiers get treated as robots anyways. I think that any sort of kindness or acknowledgement of their humanity is well-received.

    12 votes

  9. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
    Link Parent
    I mean, I think it's fair to say that the some of the points were drawn out. However, the minute of WWE footage wasn't just to make the comparison with Kill Tony - it was to introduce the concept...

    I mean, I think it's fair to say that the some of the points were drawn out. However, the minute of WWE footage wasn't just to make the comparison with Kill Tony - it was to introduce the concept of kayfabe, which itself has broader implications than either of the subjects on their own. Within the context of the video, kayfabe is introduced as one of the pillars that upholds the hyperreality - i.e. people laughing at stuff that isn't funny to uphold an illusion of "comedy".

    That said, I think that this sort of media blends the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. I'm not sure if there's a word for this, but I think I express myself creatively in a similar way. Fiction is generally representative of reality through some abstractive lens. Non-fiction is usually required to have a sort of 1:1 correspondence with consensus reality. The narrator, in this case, does not have 1:1 correspondence with the author's voice. The narrator is a character in the sense that he refers to David Lucas as his "comedy guru" and Joe Rogan as the "comedy czar". These are not genuine representations of the human beings, but rather roles that they are playing within the video's narrative.

    I'm thoroughly impressed by the video, but it definitely seems to be polarizing content. The same things that I do like about it are going to be things that other people dislike about it - and that's what makes it art, in my book.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
    Link Parent
    Yea, the idea that Joe Rogan lives in a hyperreality of his own construction is a pretty key part of the whole video. It's extended into the idea of how cults form and disconnect people from...

    Yea, the idea that Joe Rogan lives in a hyperreality of his own construction is a pretty key part of the whole video. It's extended into the idea of how cults form and disconnect people from baseline, consensus reality. He also refers to Camus' idea of "philosophical suicide" for how people are affected by being forced to uphold this hyperreality when it conflicts with their own belief systems.

    I really want to read The Myth of Sisyphus now

    3 votes

  11. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
    Link Parent
    if you're shocked at some people's reactions, refer to: this segment here it's cerebral stuff, you know. a lot of people don't have the stamina to stay up all night thankin' about what the funny...

    if you're shocked at some people's reactions, refer to: this segment here

    it's cerebral stuff, you know. a lot of people don't have the stamina to stay up all night thankin' about what the funny man is saying

    1 vote

  12. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
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    I think sardonic might be a better term than satirical. Anyways, the information about Rogan was kind of secondary to me versus the information about the people he associates with. I'm generally...

    I think sardonic might be a better term than satirical. Anyways, the information about Rogan was kind of secondary to me versus the information about the people he associates with. I'm generally out of the loop on this stuff, though - didn't know who Peter Thiel was before watching.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
    Link Parent
    I think that if you want a representation of the real meat of what the author is hinting at beneath the veil of "comedy", this video works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprk-HxrHfw Same person,...

    I think that if you want a representation of the real meat of what the author is hinting at beneath the veil of "comedy", this video works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprk-HxrHfw

    Same person, much shorter video - nothing funny about this one. I would argue that what he does has a lot of artistic merit and calling it "pretentious" or "childish" is a way to dismiss it out of hand without engaging with the art authentically.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
    Link Parent
    I liked both the delivery and content of the essay's main points. The delivery was tongue-in-cheek and relatively easy to digest. The central argument was built up intentionally, with each piece...

    I liked both the delivery and content of the essay's main points.

    The delivery was tongue-in-cheek and relatively easy to digest. The central argument was built up intentionally, with each piece being well-introduced and applicable towards the thesis (e.g. the animal instinct to say "I gotta get outta here", as then applied to contemporary culture where the main place to escape to is hyperreality).

    The content was compelling, informed by philosophical arguments that gave me inspiration for further reading. He references The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus, which is something I've heard of but haven't read. The concept of "faith as philosophical suicide" was a really interesting one that inspired me to actually track down that book and read it. Likewise with Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation.

    The thesis itself was something that I'm going to ponder for a while. It's not really about Joe Rogan so much as the role that he plays in the 'alt-right' / 'manosphere' cultures that seem to be moving social progress backwards. He makes a really fascinating tie-in between Palantir as a software company and the idea from Lord of the Rings, and references some compelling ideas from They Live and Videodrome to build a cohesive image of how and why the mainstream internet is the way it is today.

    All this, and I got a couple giggles in along the way. It was a good reminder for me to check out of the online world and make sure I'm continuing to ground in baseline reality, rather than doing a 'philosophical sui' and choosing to build my worldview around somebody else's hyperreal construction.

    13 votes

  15. Comment on How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult in ~humanities

    zenen
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    Highly entertaining deep-dive into the background and sociopolitical impact of Joe Rogan as a cult leader.

    Highly entertaining deep-dive into the background and sociopolitical impact of Joe Rogan as a cult leader.

    9 votes

  17. Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp

    zenen
    Link Parent
    I think that the biggest counterpoint I have to this is that open source operating systems are still written in C. If you want to dig into the internals of the machine you're working on, you'll...

    I think that the biggest counterpoint I have to this is that open source operating systems are still written in C. If you want to dig into the internals of the machine you're working on, you'll need to understand the language it's written in. You can write a kernel in another language (see RedoxOS) but I think it's unlikely that it would have the staying power of something like Linux or OpenBSD. If we lose the capacity to maintain these projects, it is a tall mountain to climb starting from any other foundation. Maybe it will happen one day, but I think that we are collectively better off working with what is already available.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp

    zenen
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    This was a hugely detailed answer and I'm really grateful for it. Thanks! I didn't realize that M1 was operating on ARM but I've been working with RPis long enough to appreciate how...

    This was a hugely detailed answer and I'm really grateful for it. Thanks! I didn't realize that M1 was operating on ARM but I've been working with RPis long enough to appreciate how energy-efficient they are.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp

    zenen
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    Do you think it's reasonable to teach the multi-threaded approach without building up an understanding based on a single-threaded approach?

    Do you think it's reasonable to teach the multi-threaded approach without building up an understanding based on a single-threaded approach?

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp

    zenen
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    it's functions all the way down bro

    it's functions all the way down bro

    3 votes