4 ms·

It's not good humor though. This blog is in the "no man's land" of satire v. serious. Doesn't pick a lane and people get confused, but it's not funny, "bit the

It's not good humor though. This blog is in the "no man's land" of satire v. serious. Doesn't pick a lane and people get confused, but it's not funny, "bit the onion" confused.

jrflowers 11mo ago
I sent it to my friend that works in corporate accounting and she thought the post was hilarious, so I guess the intended audience is pretty narrow? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That aside, I don’t think that this post by a made up bond rating agency called the Flexible Standards Group that uses phrases like “unbothered by reality” “downgrade when the shit hits the fan” is particularly difficult to parse as being humor (or at the very least not an actual bond rating)
- caminante 11mo ago
  Look at all of the critical parsing here on HN of nonsensical premises, e.g., "we skipped model scenarios of default". It also has an eerie tinge of AI generated satire wrapping a real article. Can't have nice things anymore...
  - turtlesdown11 11mo ago
    > Can't have nice things anymore... That's right. The illiterate show up to shriek about things they don't understand.
pas 11mo ago
Poe's law applies, it's deadpan humor, finance Borat IMHO it is very well executed, pushes the right buttons, and ultimately raises the question of financial realism (if the market acts like it's true is it true? how far is it from something that you can use to pay your taxes with? and so on)
- caminante 11mo ago
  I don't get how this is pushing buttons that mainstream business outlets haven't openly ridiculed in non-opinion pieces. It's a satire blog that's confusing or misleading people (See top HN comments.) and not getting strong reactions. Poe's law is when someone's being sarcastic and they add a smirk emoji to avoid/seek -/+ votes. Feels different here.
  - fragmede 11mo ago
    Poe's law is when sarcasm is confused for something serious. Using /s to mark you're sarcasm as sarcasm is a cop out (which I reflexively downvote on).
    - caminante 11mo ago
      I'd offer that Poe's law is when you can't tell sarcasm or not [0] and it applies more to comments/reactions. I don't think the term really applies here, and I also despise the emoji copouts. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
  - pas 11mo ago
    There's probably an audience that doesn't read mainstream business outlets, but still has some adjacency to it through VC/startup/entrepreneurship circles. Is it confusing people though? Have you read the real one?
  - jrflowers 11mo ago
    > It's a satire blog that's confusing or misleading people (See top HN comments.) I think it’s equally possible that we have a blind-leading-the-blind situation here, ie one guy didn’t get the joke, posted a serious chat gpt summary, and some people assumed it was a serious article. Seeing as that was the top comment for a while, I’d bet that this discussion is a great example of how using LLMs to “understand” things can actually have the reverse effect.
    - 11mo ago

It's not good humor though. This blog is in the "no man's land" of satire v. serious. Doesn't pick a lane and people get confused, but it's not funny, "bit the onion" confused.

jrflowers 11mo ago

I sent it to my friend that works in corporate accounting and she thought the post was hilarious, so I guess the intended audience is pretty narrow? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That aside, I don’t think that this post by a made up bond rating agency called the Flexible Standards Group that uses phrases like “unbothered by reality” “downgrade when the shit hits the fan” is particularly difficult to parse as being humor (or at the very least not an actual bond rating)

caminante 11mo ago
Look at all of the critical parsing here on HN of nonsensical premises, e.g., "we skipped model scenarios of default". It also has an eerie tinge of AI generated satire wrapping a real article. Can't have nice things anymore...
- turtlesdown11 11mo ago
  > Can't have nice things anymore... That's right. The illiterate show up to shriek about things they don't understand.

pas 11mo ago

Poe's law applies, it's deadpan humor, finance Borat IMHO it is very well executed, pushes the right buttons, and ultimately raises the question of financial realism (if the market acts like it's true is it true? how far is it from something that you can use to pay your taxes with? and so on)

caminante 11mo ago
I don't get how this is pushing buttons that mainstream business outlets haven't openly ridiculed in non-opinion pieces. It's a satire blog that's confusing or misleading people (See top HN comments.) and not getting strong reactions. Poe's law is when someone's being sarcastic and they add a smirk emoji to avoid/seek -/+ votes. Feels different here.
- fragmede 11mo ago
  Poe's law is when sarcasm is confused for something serious. Using /s to mark you're sarcasm as sarcasm is a cop out (which I reflexively downvote on).
  - caminante 11mo ago
    I'd offer that Poe's law is when you can't tell sarcasm or not [0] and it applies more to comments/reactions. I don't think the term really applies here, and I also despise the emoji copouts. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- pas 11mo ago
  There's probably an audience that doesn't read mainstream business outlets, but still has some adjacency to it through VC/startup/entrepreneurship circles. Is it confusing people though? Have you read the real one?
- jrflowers 11mo ago
  > It's a satire blog that's confusing or misleading people (See top HN comments.) I think it’s equally possible that we have a blind-leading-the-blind situation here, ie one guy didn’t get the joke, posted a serious chat gpt summary, and some people assumed it was a serious article. Seeing as that was the top comment for a while, I’d bet that this discussion is a great example of how using LLMs to “understand” things can actually have the reverse effect.
  - 11mo ago