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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • I read a book about startup stuff at the request of the CEO of my old company. Some of it was at least superficially interesting, but one part stood out as haunting. It casually mentioned how a “founder” at Zoom was trying to get money, and the investors thought it was a stupid idea. It was a “solved problem” that already had big players in the space. But they were personally friends with the guy, so they gave him a few hundred million dollars.

    That’s not something to be proud of. Nepotism and bro-driven-investment isn’t the ideal.

    But these rich assholes pretend they’re such visionaries. Gatekeepers of the future. Fuck them. Fuck them all. The climate is a disaster and they’re pouring billions into “Cats in the metaverse”? Crimes against humanity.





  • The most important thing for people, and by people I mean all of us at times, is in-group belonging. None of us are immune to that. We look to our peers for cues on how to behave and what to believe.

    Some people consider like scientists and experts in-group, and trust them. Some don’t.

    This need for in-group cohesion is more important than facts and figures. It’s more important than the text of some book.

    So when all your friends and family are saying that Christianity means one thing, it’s unlikely you’re going to disagree.





  • I think it depends on how often they’re coming up with dubious takes, and how often there are repeats.

    Like if you have to explain that gay people are just trying to live life, and that’s fixing misinformation they got as a youth, fine. Good, even. But if you have that talk and then have to have to again a month later because they “forgot” or picked up more bad ideas? Concerning.

    Friend of a friend was always getting talks to patch up his dicey world view, but then he’d go back to the same YouTube or shitty friends and come back two weeks later with a fresh batch of bad ideas. Really have to get to the root of the problem



  • I kind of hope that will have the bonus effect of making the ownership class ease up on return-to-office. Sure, have your executive meeting in-person. Oh shit, someone flew a drone in and it exploded, shooting nails everywhere and killing half the c-suite? Shit. Anyway. We’ll be working from home until at least they clear the blood out of the carpets.

    (Though realistically, they’d make workers go in physically while being remote themselves. But maybe someone will bomb their house. No mercy for the ultra-rich.)