BrenBarn

12 ms·

301.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
> You're taxing theoretical value that may or may not actually exist. If it's real enough to, say, use it as collateral for a loan, it's real enough to tax. > penalises attempting growth There is a lot of growth going o
302.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
This sounded cool up until the part where they said "instead use this other AI we built that we say is more trustworthy". There's a growing part of me that really wants a massive security/safety disaster that's clea
303.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
That's true, although "progressive taxes" can be construed more broadly. Taxes on unrealized capital gains would be a start.
304.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
> If you take a principled stance and refuse to participate in the many small-scale acts of corruption the society runs on, you'll have a harder life. I think increasingly this describes how things work in the US, if we broaden our
305.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
> I think that Google gives the average person exactly the results they want. There is some truth in this, but to me it's similar to saying that a drug dealer gives their customers exactly what they want. People "want" th
306.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
It boggles me that anyone is able to get used to phone screens as a serious device for consumption of just about anything, let alone creation (e.g., typing).
307.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
Curious if you have a sense of how long this has been going on. My perception is that various sorts of rudeness and inconsiderateness have been on the rise for a while, but really jumped post-COVID. Some of it is minor but just suggests to
308.
by BrenBarn 7mo ago
Another problem that could be largely solved by shattering Amazon into itty bitty pieces.
309.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
At this point the US government is a national security threat (to itself).
310.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
This is not specific to publishing. The diagram tells the story: it's consolidation. Consolidation is bad. Giant companies are bad. In publishing as in other domains.
311.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
Amen to that. Larger companies should face more requirements than small ones. And if they can't meet them, great! That just means they can't be large. Companies should be smaller on average than they currently are.
312.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
Another thing is that part of my liking for the UI of that time is connected with the fact that it was consistent across all apps. Like you could set the font and color for a menu bar and every app would have that. This era of web apps dr
313.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
> I think Windows 95/2000 and the contemporary MacOS (including the then future MacOS X) have the best UI in everything I used in my 30+ years of tech life. Agreed. I do wonder how much of it is personal, in that that UI hit at a c
314.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
My recollection is discussing banned books from the perspective of "people have done and still do this elsewhere in the US, but we don't do it here".
315.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
They make some good brandy too!
316.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
Do you think that it is meaningful to think about things being good or evil in a manner that is separate from what is "safe" or "prosperous"? If someone points a gun at you and demands all your money, the safe thing is
317.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
> Commented [1]: what if pee pee was poo poo Rarely do I read something that starts off with such promise!
318.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
On the one hand, this is good to see. On the other hand, like basically every such thing, it's too late and way, way, too little. It is pointless to try to chip away at Amazon by saying "oh you did this, oh you did that, oh you
319.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
> If left unchecked, this could make running the platform financially unviable. Sounds great to me!
320.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
I think a bigger mistake is just allowing Amazon (and Walmart) to even exist at their current size. There simply shouldn't be any sellers that large, or any marketplace operators that large.
321.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
I think you're confusing a walkable city with a nonwalkable city in which people are forced to walk anyway. As other commenters mentioned, in many ways making a city more walkable benefits the groups you describe.
322.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
> I live in an area that has a lot of walkable and bikeable things nearby. There are a lot of people who drive anyway. The less warm and fuzzy part of this urban-design approach is that it can't just be about making things easier to
323.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
> Why wasn't this there from the get go? Even better, why was the AI feature ever added in the first place?
324.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
The reason that those questions are asked, though, is that the answer to the actual question is obvious, so a human will start to wonder if it's some kind of trick.
325.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
What you describe is still a problem with the institutions, because it is ultimately the institutions that provide the incentives (in the form of jobs). You're right that they're using bad metrics, but it is the institutions who
326.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
Elsevier is certainly evil, but I would say the root issue is the practices of the institutions where these "authors" are employed. This kind of thing is academic misconduct and should result in them losing their jobs.
327.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
$30,000 still seems low. I'd say they should be ten or a hundred times that. And yes, disbarment should be considered too.
328.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
I agree that distance is not a great metric. The maximum travel distance on a smartphone screen is already tiny. I'd say the best metric is accuracy or lack of amibiguity, something like average confidence level that any given swipe
329.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
AI or no AI, every company this big needs to be broken up into tiny pieces.
330.
by BrenBarn 8mo ago
A stopped clock is right twice a day. Let's not let this decision distract us from the fact that the supreme court is a complete charade, all day, every day. It is a corrupt and meaningless institution and has been for at least 10 ye

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