ashtonkem

8 ms·

31.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
4. Tesla was able to make EVs profitably thanks to government policy designed to incentivize exactly that outcome. If Tesla didn’t exist, some other company would’ve filled that role.
32.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
> Who in this thread said "we wouldn't have EVs without Musk"? I was attempting to paraphrase a common sentiment, and should have been more clear about that. It’s pretty easy to find people stating a varient of this idea i
33.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
What a wildly uncharitable interpretation of my post. “Dead-end”? Come now. All I see in this “we wouldn’t have EVs without Musk!” discussion is a rehash of the old “great man of history” theory, something that’s generally been discredited
34.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
It’s kind of like how some actors really only get into “method acting” when it allows for them to behave like assholes on set. The idea that one must be a jerk to do “great things” is a self serving lie by rich and powerful people who want
35.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
All I see with Tesla is how government policy can successfully change markets. Tesla exists not because of Musk’s genius[0], but because of tax credits and carbon offset credits that allowed Tesla to be profitable early. Without Musk, someo
36.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Praise for Elon tends to diminish the closer you get to him. He’s kind of notorious for being a bad boss; impulsive, poor temperament, and petty. Even if you like his achievements, chances are you would very much not enjoy having him as a b
37.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
It’s worth pointing out that the SEC is extremely image conscious. They count on their reputation as the hammer of god himself to keep traders in line. Elon repeatedly snubbing them is going to tempt them to pull out all the stops.
38.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
> This was almost certainly done by a lawyer working on his behalf. This is like saying that you can’t be responsible for tax dodging because your accountant filed on your behalf. > This strikes me as a technicality of paperwork that
39.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Wording and branding is not a trivial concern if mass adoption is a goal.
40.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
You see a similar thing with fantasy television being interpreted as evidence towards non-fantastical elements of medieval life, when they really represent our modern feelings towards the past more than anything else.
41.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
In fact, most of the arguments by GP were also used by those defending now illegal labor practices, including child labor.
42.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
I ran my second hand Dell computer from work for about half a decade, it cost $75 when I bought it from work after a merger. The CPU finally called it quits, and I parted it out for a profit.
43.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
I’ve been saying for years that laptops come with rather severe tradeoffs for features that most users do not need.
44.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
That and desktop cooling tends to be lightyears ahead of laptop cooling; you can thrash a desktop for a long time before hitting a thermal limit, unlike most laptops.
45.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Partially true. You're right that they don't spring up unannounced, but there is something distressingly feudal about a property contract by (probably long dead) founders binding future owners in perpetuity without any possibility
46.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
> In suburbia they also manage commons, but also impose rules on what you can do with your house and on your land. Not all HOAs have infrastructure to maintain. I know a few people in neighborhoods with HOAs that don't have private
47.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Indeed. Not getting a HOA was a hard requirement for us. The fascinating thing about HOAs is that they’re all done under the guise that they “improve property values”, but I’ve never seen any evidence that this works. From my geographic loc
48.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
If we’re talking about California, “mob rule”[0] isn’t the right framing. This isn’t a majority of citizens suppressing the rights of people to build on their own property, it’s a minority using asymmetric political involvement to get their
49.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
And then of course they’ll suggest that “something” must be done about the homelessness crisis, and things get worse still.
50.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Because its hard to find existing construction that’s 1. In the right location. 2. Dense enough. 3. Cheap enough. 4. In good condition and zoned properly. The last bullet point is the real kicker. It’s very tempting to point at older real e
51.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
I bet he has it turned off.
52.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Searches for tools and sporting items have become completely useless now. Even when Google does return an actual result, it’s mostly SEO spam.
53.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
> Younger folks today are the unlucky beneficiary of years of wage stagnation and home price inflation Yes, and the pandemic brought a brief moment of dignity (but not safety) to the low paid service workers who make our society operate.
54.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
> No one is stopping you thinking, or saying, whatever you want at any time. They literally arrested and prosecuted someone for an off color joke. This is as straightforward a case of “them” stopping you from saying what ever you want at
55.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
And in classic English fashion, they’ll start picking random Scots to make an example of, and make the problem worse still.
56.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
I’m having a hard time seeing that work for them. Amazon’s tactics here fundamentally depend on there being an effectively inexhaustible pool of talent elsewhere that can be used to threaten any given store that considers unionizing, combin
57.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
For me it’s less about them not caring about third party brands, and more about them not caring about protecting their customers from scams and fakes.
58.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
I thought this was the second, not the third.
59.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
You can handle it locally, I do. The only feature that doesn’t work with it off is automatic firmware updates. You can still update firmware, you just have to download and upload it manually. It doesn’t even nag about setting up a cloud acc
60.
by ashtonkem 5y ago
Time for congress to make some anti-SLAPP laws; it seems to me as a non lawyer that this is a SLAPP that they forum shopped for. Especially since they dont seem to have pleaded anything that would surmount the “actual malice” requirement fo

More ›