istewart

joined 2 months ago
[–] istewart@awful.systems 8 points 3 weeks ago

Facebook platforms are likely to follow the same trajectory as Fox News, and perhaps Zuckerberg can see that. The main site is obviously full of bullshit and practically useless for its original purpose, and it's also increasingly abandoned by core demographics because it doesn't have enough of their preferred flavor of bullshit. I've known MAGA guys who make a game out of creating secondary accounts to avoid Facebook jail. That sort of pathological use case is surely driving somebody's OKR numbers, someplace in the company. After that game stops being fun, some of these people will either decamp for other platforms or (gasp, shock, horror) give up on social media entirely!

Instagram has almost completely subsumed the "my favorite celebrity might reply back to me" appeal that Twitter used to have, although TikTok is also stealing a lot of that. If they lose that shine, Zuckerberg's in real trouble.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 27 points 3 weeks ago

"Leaking rationalist-evidence-bits" is an unexpectedly top-tier euphemism for the aftermath of digesting Wendy's chili

[–] istewart@awful.systems 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

why do we want people who can't deliver viable technology raising more kids?

why should we assume that they would be any better at the kid-raising than the technology?

[–] istewart@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago
[–] istewart@awful.systems 25 points 3 weeks ago

How interesting, a volcel who only thinks he’s an incel. Many such cases

[–] istewart@awful.systems 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

LinkedIn cold-emailed me this morning to suggest that I follow Vivek Ramaswamy, who lists his job title as "Founder at Vivek Ramaswamy"

[–] istewart@awful.systems 16 points 3 weeks ago

Two of the major donors pushing to recall the mayor of Oakland, CA are cryptocurrency "executives."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/27/billionaires-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-recall

Over the summer, Jesse Pollak, a cryptocurrency investor and executive at Coinbase, launched Abundant Oakland, an advocacy organization that funds “moderate” candidates running in Oakland races. The organization is explicitly linked to similarly named entities in San Francisco and Santa Monica.

Abundant Oakland has a related political action committee, Vibrant Oakland, which, campaign filings show, has received donations from Pollak ($115,000), the Oakland police officers association ($50,000), cryptocurrency executive Konstantin Richter ($60,000), the northern California carpenters regional council ($150,000) and a Pac controlled by Piedmont landlord Chris Moore ($100,000).

[–] istewart@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, this is the "emperor has no clothes" reality that I keep bringing up with my friends who are still invested in the bubble (emotionally if not financially). The genAI/LLM tech stack defies the entire decades-long cost curve and investment thesis for computer technology. Up through the smartphone era, you bought in because you could get more utility for lower cost. What's being pushed now is higher-cost for dubious utility gains; it's just that some vendors are eating losses to hide the costs. (And of course the externalities get swept under the rug.)

[–] istewart@awful.systems 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe not super amazing, he probably avoids/firewalls out most of these people because they'd constantly be hitting him up for money

[–] istewart@awful.systems 14 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

It's slowly dawned on me over the last few years that one of the biggest reasons why I find the endless reams of Tolkien/D&D-ripoff fantasy fiction distasteful is because its popularity enables guys like this to smuggle racism into broader discourse. If your entertainment already has you primed to think in a racialized framework, it's going to take you that much longer to cotton onto what this dingleberry and his buddies are actually pushing.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 11 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

what do we pay this dang guy for, anyway

[–] istewart@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

It's somewhat orthogonal to most subjects discussed here, but the eventual WBD bankruptcy auction is going to be a prime source of lols

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