davidw

20 ms·

421.
by davidw 1y ago
Good point. Looks like it's just more corruption and a way to exert leverage on companies.
422.
by davidw 1y ago
Also: whatever you think of this issue, it's very much r/LeopardsAteMyFace in terms of some of the big tech companies cozying up to the administration.
423.
by davidw 1y ago
Why thank you! That's kind of you to write. I'm from the US, but lived in Europe for quite a while, and my kids have dual citizenship. I think that people moving to places where they are better off is a good thing.
424.
by davidw 1y ago
As always, so much zero-sum thinking in all these discussions. Often, the person may not have been as productive, happy, or well compensated in their own country. Also, over time, some of those people make money in the US and take that, the
425.
by davidw 1y ago
The technology itself isn't threatening. The fact that it's currently concentrated in the hands of a very few large US corporations is what's ... less than stellar from my point of view.
426.
by davidw 1y ago
You're correct about AI seeming to be "where it's at" right now, but I'm really not thrilled with the corporate concentration that seems to be the natural result of requiring massive amounts of computing power. Pe
427.
by davidw 1y ago
It is super bleak: yeah, as a software person, you can think about what it would take to afford a home. As a teacher or many other professions? Forget about it. You need to either marry someone with a more lucrative career, or move somewher
428.
by davidw 1y ago
Yes of course there have always been people who clock in and clock out and don't have a ton of passion for what they do. I don't begrudge that, but personally I need some of the curiosity and joy in hacking on stuff. And I enjoy t
429.
by davidw 1y ago
Oh, I am so here for "housing theory of everything" comments! That is, in my other comment on this post, precisely my "interest in local politics". Working on fixing our housing shortage has felt extremely meaningful to
430.
by davidw 1y ago
This speaks to me, but I'm also reflective enough to wonder about whether I'm just observing from a different place in life than I was in the 1990ies when all this stuff started happening. I was young and didn't have many res
431.
by davidw 1y ago
Seems relevant: https://ruby.social/@getajobmike/115231677684734669 I'm just reposting it though. I haven't followed any of this myself.
432.
by davidw 1y ago
When entire labs are shut down, work halted, experiments frozen, people move on because they need to eat, this is absolutely going to cause irreparable harm to those specific people and programs, as well as science in the United States. (Ed
433.
by davidw 1y ago
The 'media machines' are pretty much all owned by oligarch allies of the administration. I agree about not getting too hand-wavy, but it's tough... the trajectory is pretty bad even if we're not all the way down it so fa
434.
by davidw 1y ago
One way you avoid that is you start sounding the alarm bells early.
435.
by davidw 1y ago
Sure - a good freeway is actually a lot more predictable in most circumstances than city driving, so as a problem to solve it's likely a little bit less complicated. What I wonder about is what it feels like as a passenger. I wonder
436.
by davidw 1y ago
I wonder how that'd feel. I took a Waymo in SF last fall and I was pretty impressed. But it was also slow city speeds. I wonder if it feels different going at freeway speeds with "no one" at the wheel.
437.
by davidw 1y ago
I think in this case you're actually advocating for "the devil" - that man is not using his money or voice for a better society, to put it mildly. I mean just a few days ago, we got "the left is the party of murder"
438.
by davidw 1y ago
> If they actually reach AGI they will be rich enough. Maybe they can solve world happiness or hunger instead? That's what normal people might consider doing if they had a lot of money. The kind of people who actually seem to get re
439.
by davidw 1y ago
I think they're talking about a matter of blocks, not hours of transportation.
440.
by davidw 1y ago
This bill barely passed (they got a majority +1, which they needed to pass) so a further reaching bill might have been difficult to sell. The LA area in particular, has some really bad elected officials in terms of housing.
441.
by davidw 1y ago
Oddly enough, it's Spokane that is lapping everyone on a lot of these reforms. They're just doing one thing after another without making a big deal out of it.
442.
by davidw 1y ago
Oregon - thanks to governor Tina Kotek - pushed those reforms further this year: https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/07/29/gov-kotek-sign... I got to play a small part in that, going to Salem to say my pi
443.
by davidw 1y ago
Single stair reform is something that helps in terms of making more family sized units (aka 'homes'). I saw the author of this book give a talk earlier this year and found his point of view pretty convincing: https://is
444.
by davidw 1y ago
It has been really amazing to see this finally come to fruition. This has been years in the making, and is real progress in starting to fix California's massive housing shortage. I know a number of the people involved in this work and
445.
by davidw 1y ago
The NYT has some pretty serious problems of its own, although they're subtler in nature. This study of circular journalism at that paper was pretty eye-opening: https://css.seas.upenn.edu/new-york-times-a-case-study-in-
446.
by davidw 1y ago
> what to do with the time that is given us. Doomscrolling, mostly.
447.
by davidw 1y ago
There are a lot of places with crappy job markets and plenty of cars. I'm thinking of southern Italy for instance. At least they put the city on the map for something positive. Better than being just another anonymous place with poor j
448.
by davidw 1y ago
Yes, I for one am thoroughly tired of living in interesting times.
449.
by davidw 1y ago
Does it include the bit about white South Africans?
450.
by davidw 1y ago
I'm feeling quite wary of the fact that if it's a real productivity booster, it's all in the hands of one company. Perhaps some of the others will be able to compete with it, but: still all big corporations.

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