wisty

7 ms·

61.
by wisty 5mo ago
A 3rd culture - the "security though obscurity" culture where some random little library might be a potential weak link, but will anyone really bother to hack it? Not as worrysome in a philosophical way (since it's not a seri
62.
by wisty 6mo ago
Every political group has bad faith actors who care more about winning the argument than the truth. And worse faith actors who are just there to trash talk people. Just look at the red button / blue button argument (where the vitriol i
63.
by wisty 6mo ago
As a teacher, I feel this is wrong. A lot of students fail by trying too hard to understand. They listen in class, then read the text and notes you posted, then watch a Youtube explaination, then ask Chat, then ask you questions ... anythin
64.
by wisty 6mo ago
3 and a half ways AI takes jobs: 1. By making workers unnecessary (largely hypothetical right now?) 2. By companies spending big on AI, but it didn't pay off yet so they need to cut back on something else. 3. AI is a good excuse for la
65.
by wisty 6mo ago
So this is the argument that there's a path dependence in how peaceful a civilisation is. I think whatisalthist argued this as well - that Christianity (with largely pacifist founders) did a lot to moderate Rome, and then the Catholic
66.
by wisty 6mo ago
Anyone read Goliath's Curse? The author (Kemp) is extremely opposed to the more Pinker-ish idea that humans in their natural consition led lives that were nasty, short, and brutal; dismissing this sort of thing as overblown. Kemp had t
67.
by wisty 6mo ago
Ok so bad intel or a similar mistake? > They would have had live video feed from drones, and images sent from the first tomahawk missile for target confirmation. Yhey knew exactly what they were targeting and hitting. You sure? IIRC it w
68.
by wisty 6mo ago
60% of the US workforce is professionals. There's more office jobs than just web dev.
69.
by wisty 6mo ago
So you think there was a conspiracy to target a school? Who do you think did it? Why? What was their goal? I think either an intelligence failure, or a mistake or a miss is more likely. Maybe missiles don't always hit where they were m
70.
by wisty 6mo ago
I think the holdiays are offset by the nature of the job - even the lasiest teachers actually have to show up and work, they don't just type "camera issue" in a WFH meeting then watch Netflix (or do something just as pointles
71.
by wisty 6mo ago
Not hugely so. Teaching isn't paid megabucks but that's partly because it's a market for lemons - it's hard to tell a good one from a bad one (and people don't even agree in what it means to be educated, are facts o
72.
by wisty 7mo ago
Yeah, they gum up cellular workings. Kind of like how macro plastics will gum up turtle stomaches. I have seen zero evidence that they are bad in very small quantities, but the dose can make the poison and they are out there in increasingly
73.
by wisty 7mo ago
Do you know of any preppers who buy guns and rations but don't have a plan for water? OK steelmanning you, certainly a lot of them are way more interested in gun collecting and making beef jerky than other aspects.
74.
by wisty 7mo ago
“Parliamentary supremacy means that Parliament can legislate for all persons and all places. If it enacts that smoking in the streets of Paris is an offence, then it is an offence.”(Ivor Jennings) It is also accepted that enforcement can b
75.
by wisty 7mo ago
I can imagine a nation state behaving badly in 2026 ...
76.
by wisty 7mo ago
Jupyterlite - a lot of jupyter trial versions use it.
77.
by wisty 7mo ago
Millenials are the "stereotypical manchild who hates his parents because he's too much like them" generation. (I'm a millenial too)
78.
by wisty 7mo ago
Phones are like alchohol or fentynal. I might dabble a bit but if I see a loved one constantly zonked out on the couch I worry.
79.
by wisty 7mo ago
The far left and neoliberals are united on this. Whether it's by malice, self interest or incompetence (or a combination), they end up discriminating against the lower classes. Neoliberals and the far left, when forced to work in the
80.
by wisty 7mo ago
Ok sow how about "much cheaper"?
81.
by wisty 7mo ago
"Don't worry about money" is something a lot of companies do. They can just try to create value first, then look for profits later (albeit often though "enshitification"). This bias towards creating value makes them
82.
by wisty 7mo ago
Yes I too have seen the 2022 Perun video where an Australian Youtuber gives a lesson on Russian linguisics, but I'm not certain he's right. English also has more than one words for lies - lies, falsehoods, fibs, bs, prevarication.
83.
by wisty 8mo ago
The actor playing Data in Star Trek has a personality, but can give a neutral sounding answer to a question.
84.
by wisty 8mo ago
AI syncophancy isn't just polite or even obsequious language, it's also "yes man" responses. Do you want me to track down some research that shows people think information is more likely to be correct of they agree with
85.
by wisty 8mo ago
IMO it's not just intelligence. I think it's related to syncophancy. LLM are trained to not question the basic assumptions being made. They are horrible at telling you that you are solving the wrong problem, and I think this is a
86.
by wisty 8mo ago
The nightmare scenario - they "know", but are trained to make us feel clever by humouring our most bone headed requests. Guard rails might be a little better, but it's still an arms race, and the silicon-based ghost in the ma
87.
by wisty 8mo ago
It's far from the only example https://killedbygoogle.com/
88.
by wisty 9mo ago
So 6000 people cited a paper, and either didn’t properly read it (IMO that's academic dishonesty) or weren't able to determine that the methdology was infeasible. No real surprise. I'm pretty sure most academics spend little
89.
by wisty 9mo ago
There's bqsically IMO two types of ads - marketing and sales. Marketing ads are signalling, brand recognition, etc. You want the cool earbuds that everyone knows. You want to buy them from a big, reputable company with good r&d. Sa
90.
by wisty 9mo ago
> Feeling like I need just-one-more new device to inspire me with its defaults or constrain me with its limits - is the limiting constraint I finally realized was holding me back. That's true in so many fields.

More ›