cjet79
Anarcho Capitalist on moral grounds
Libertarian Minarchist on economic grounds
User ID: 124
cjet79
8hr ago
I agree that there is no such thing as appeasement for the each the rich types. There are enough marxists that I've met in real life that seem to want CEOs and the wealthy lined up against a wall and shot. Their idea of "compromise" is to simply confiscate all their wealth and imprison them for the rest of their lives in some Siberian equivalent work encampment. These people were joyous to hear about the United Health Care CEO being gunned down in the street. They were also joyous to hear that it had made other CEOs worried for their lives.
The only people like this that I have seen mellow out got married, had kids, and held down a good solid career for a decade. Which obviously has nothing to do with the policies they espoused, but it was never about policies in the first place. Its gripes about their life situation disguised as a policy gripe. And just like you can't reason someone out of position they didn't reason themselves into, you can't appease a life situation gripe with their claimed policy solution.
cjet79
13hr ago
The spacex IPO has happened and made Elon Musk a Trillionaire.
There are probably hundreds of potential topics from this story, feel free to go off on your own tangents.
What I am interested in is that this is a company that is building real world things, and not fake internet shit. It feels like a lot of new wealth and investment in America comes from and is directed to the internet. I think one of the main reasons has been that large investors are generally play-it-safe followers. They see which companies are newly striking it rich: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Apple, etc. And they are happy to invest in copy-cats.
I'm hoping the spacex IPO has a similar effect. That investors start chasing new copy cats. But this time copy-cats of spacex rather than copy cats of facebook or google.
cjet79
2d ago
I'd be happy to do writeups of underwater hockey practices, which simply doesn't have enough players to get beyond rec league performance. Not sure if you genuinely interested, or just making a point.
cjet79
4d ago
given the model of infidelity as driven by availability.
My model of some cheating is that its an easy way for people to initiate a breakup. Especially for young people. It was done to me by two different girlfriends, and two other girlfriends didn't accept my reasons for breaking up with them. I had to just persistently say "its over", and looking back on those instances it would have been easier to just tell them I cheated on them to get them to hate me.
cjet79
4d ago
Getting caught cheating is the coward's method of initiating a breakup. Especially during teenage years and early 20's.
I had two girlfriends cheat on me during that time, both readily admitted it and then didn't seem too upset when I broke up with them.
Single instances of infidelity are almost impossible to catch, and prolonged affairs are almost impossible to hide. Hiding is so difficult because humans are gossips and great at sniffing out who's fucking whom. Even if the affected partner doesn't figure it out, someone in their ~50-200 person social circle is likely to catch on. Way more likely if the "homewrecker" is in an overlapping social circle.
Big obvious takeaway from survey is that cheating is a common experience. Which is relevant to the original discussion about why Mr Brightside was popular.
cjet79
5d ago
Finally over the awful ear infection I had last week.
It was either the worst or second worst sickness in my life. It was like a constant 6/10 pain with spikes up to an 8 or 9. Tylenol and Advil barely did anything. Or maybe they were the only things keeping me from an even worse experience.
It mentally wore me down and I broke. Was a whimpering mess for an hour, before I pulled myself together enough to go to the ER in the middle of the night.
cjet79
8d ago
Anyone have any theories on the song Mr Bright side by the killers? Specifically why it's been so popular for so long?
I like the song, it's good. I just don't know if I'd label it as one of the greatest songs of the last 50 years, which is what is implied by it's longevity in top song charts.
cjet79
12d ago
1st section: haha, take that nimbys 2nd section: ugh dont want to read 3rd section: a continuation? gonna skip 4th section: oh god canada has gone crazy.
actually maybe 4th section just sums it up in general
cjet79
12d ago
Your post confuses me. Which happens a lot in the bubbles of the internet. I don't really know what is going on cuz I barely follow anything closely enough.
My understanding is that this lawsuit was in part about the IRS targeting politically conservative groups. Which they were shown to have been doing back in the obama administration.
Why the stuff about cop beaters? I suppose that is in reference to people attacking cops during the Jan 6th thing. But I wasn't aware of many organizations that claim credit for that surviving until the modern day. I admit to not knowing the status of the proud boys. Though the FBI and CIA are still around and their funding is not linked to this, so that also doesn't make sense to me.
I think there is a very difficult political problem being pointed at here. Trump's involvement just muddies it all.
Government controlled by Party A has done things to wrong Party B. The judiciary is supposed to be an independent entity that steps in and arbitrates these disputes.
What exactly is supposed to happen if Party B does not realize they have been intentionally wronged until they control the government?
If they sue the government its just Party B suing the government they control. Of course they win. That is what happened in this case.
Options:
A. Nothing happens. B. Punish rule breakers. C. Reward victims.
I am heavily in favor of option B, but no one in power is in favor of that option. The people in power in party A that carried out the harm have a set of preferences like A > C > B. The people in party B that have been wronged have a set of preferences that generally looks like C > B > A.
Rewarding the victims is a good compromise option. Because the people that suffer are taxpayers, and who gives a shit about taxpayers? Republican politicians is apparently a fair answer for any who opposed this payout. Had the roles been reversed would democrats have done the same? I'm sure we will find out. (if we haven't already from some buried issue or court case that has been ignored for a few decades)
cjet79
13d ago
Back in 2013 I got the chance to meet Peter thiel at a students for liberty conference. He was fielding questions from students at the bar.
I basically asked him where he'd move or where he thinks the next good "liberty" place is. He insisted the USA was the best.
A decade is both a short and long time. Plenty of time for an individual to change their mind or their views to shift. But not very long for a country to go into the shitter. And not very long to verify that a newly successful country is going to stay successful. People seem to forget that Soviet Union had a few decades of apparent success. A single leader can make for a few great years, maybe even a decades worth of great years. But the systems, institutions, and culture of a country are slow to change on such timescales.
I think in this case the US has gotten worse, and Argentina has gotten better, but what has changed the most is not the US or Argentina, but Peter Thiel. It's the boring answer, but still the correct one.
cjet79
14d ago
Felt righteous at the time I wrote my post, but felt like a fool soon afterwards when the original story turned out to be kinda fake. Though I think the quoted bit is still true. At least it held up to some verification. Would like to know if it is false as well. Because I should know better than to trust feelings of righteous Indignation.
cjet79
16d ago
The city areas always felt pretty busy and active. But under the paint there isn't a whole lot to do most of the time.
I liked getting fast vehicles and driving them in the desert areas at full speed. Some of the country vistas looked pretty awesome.
I've never personally liked cities, so they bothered me with some of their gritty realism.
cjet79
17d ago
My life has felt similar. Was at a highschool that wasn't anything super special. But had enough well off kids that I was solidly in the middle of the top classes. Got into a large state school, but was in the honors program there. So again it was just me sitting in the middle of the top class. Got into the workforce and it felt similar. Was at a good tech company with smart people but I was still only in the middle.
Feels the same around here. If there is a group of people that belong in the top tenth percentile of users here I'd place myself in it. But I'm only in like the middle among that top 10th percentile.
One time I remember truly feeling dumb was playing a board game with Robin Hanson and another Econ professor at Bryan Caplan's house. Robin and I were new to the game, the other econ professor was not. There was a recognizable meta to the card game that I partly pieced together after having played it. Robin Hanson asked enough questions at the beginning that I realized afterwards he was piecing together the meta just based on the rules. I got slaughtered in the game basically playing according to the rules but without a useful strategy. Hanson and the other professor nearly tied, with Hanson losing out just barely. I only give myself partial credit for understanding the meta cuz of Hanson's questions, and some of his comments afterwards led me to 'get it'.
cjet79
17d ago
It grew into a game without as many bugs. I feel mixed recommending the game too strongly despite having a few dozen hours in it.
The main story didn't hook me too strongly. Its one of those main storylines where the more you progress down the storyline the worse things get for the protagonist. If you like the protagonist you don't want to torture them. If you don't like the protagonist you just feel disconnected from the whole thing. I started with liking the protagonist but ended up more on the side of not liking them.
The side missions and exploration was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed infiltration/theft missions which offered a variety of solutions. Either quiet hacking stealth mode, guns blazing mode, stealth killing, stealth knockouts, or just running in and out. Or some blend of all the options.
cjet79
23d ago
I haven't encountered it. I've tried changing my writing by removing extra crap. Having shorter writing probably helps.
cjet79
23d ago
Never bothered me, but ya this game does have that kind of camera. Except when steering the ship. The forward mast thingy gets in the way.
Getting snuck up on isn't a thing. There is an on screen indicator when you have an enemy's attention. And the camera is zoomed out enough in melee that you always have enough reaction time between enemy on screen and enemy attacking.
Stealth on your part is also not a thing. Which is probably consider 'good' but I guess that's a more controversial opinion than some of my other "good" items.
cjet79
23d ago
Never heard of that term, but the camera has been fine in my experience. Camera control via the mouse. Movement with WASD
cjet79
23d ago
I've been playing Windrose. It's a pirate game. It's closer to a survival game like Conan exiles than it is to other pirate games like Black Flag.
The good
- The base building in the game has a well working quick build mode. Usually I find it a chore to build bases in survival games but this turned it into enjoyable again.
- Combat against same level enemies feels good. There is an element of danger and some amount of basic tactics you need to adhere to or you will get wrecked.
- Sailing on the seas feels cool, the waves are big as hell out in the ocean. Its not a flat expanse of water. The waves add a challenge to the naval combat, where if you don't aim well your shot will hit the wave blocking enemy ships or pass over them as they ride a dip into the waves.
- Story has a pirates of the Caribbean vibe going. With some weird magic creating the undead.
The bad
- The combat is entirely gated by your character and gear level. You can fight maybe one or two levels up, but more is usually a slow suicide fighting a few levels down is just easy. This applies to ground combat and ship combat.
- The map is totally blank until it is explored. And finding all the tiny islands is annoying.
- The combat system works much better on open land. On ship boarding actions you can get screwed over randomly. The safe/optimal strategy is to take pot shots at the enemy from your own ship and let your own boarders slowly whittle them down. But that strategy is boring and takes a while.
- The fast travel system has artificial limitations. Limited number of locations you can setup and a limit on where you can place them.
cjet79
27d ago
The government has been defendants in Keepseagle v. Vilsack or Cobell v. Salazar.
I get what you are saying this looks like and is obvious corruption. I don't disagree!
I would be happy and thrilled for a rule to exist that prevents this sort of thing. Or at least for the rules that should prevent it to be strictly enforced.
Trump banned this practice via an agency directive in 2017 and the Biden administration overturned that ban.
This second trump admin approach might be much more successful in actually banning the practice.
cjet79
27d ago
There is, but the government has also been defendants like in Keepseagle v. Vilsack or Cobell v. Salazar.
I get not knowing about those cases, I had to refind their names after learning about them a long time ago. But I've been telling you that such cases exist. I'm not making shit up to be difficult or play the "both sides" game.
It's a good norm to have to not let the government settle out into a third party slush fund. But the norm is long dead at this point.
cjet79
27d ago
I don't know what to tell you, this has been happening for at least a decade.
Volkswagen "Diesel gate" settlement. The bank of America and Citi group settlement.
It's common enough that in 2017 Trump 1 banned the practice of having government settlements give money to third party NGOs that were not victims or parties of the original case.
I don't have to imagine it being abused for causes I don't like (I don't even like this cause.) Because it has already been abused repeatedly.
I just get frustrated when I see some story that is basically "Democrats outraged that trump is flagrantly violating a norm that they have been quietly violating for a decade".
It's not that I'm happy with Trump violating the norm, I just see it as already dead.
It honestly doesn't seem like internet companies have good moat options anymore. A platform moat exists for all the current platforms. Creating a new platform moat usually means you need to take space from some of the existing platform. Alphabet seems to attempt to make a new platform every time they get a chance. They suck at it and abandon the ones that fail pretty quickly, but it is guaranteed minimum competition. Anything social media related is likely to be bought up by facebook. Anything shopping related is likely to be bought up by amazon (or at least have them move in on your space). Chat and video platforms both had to compete with microsoft. AIs have zero moat, with people happy to switch between them and use whichever is cheapest or best. They almost have an anti-moat, because quite a few AIs degrade in quality as the context window increases. Since the business model is tokens, consumers are better off spreading their token usage as far and wide as possible.
If AI gets better at helping programming projects, then the cost to copy other successful software platforms goes down. Which further decreases the moat software related incumbents.
And don't forget real world things can have moats too! North America has at least two moats that aren't going away anytime soon, the Atlantic and Pacific. There have been lots of court battles over Trump's tariffs, but they might become part of the republican platform in the future. That might only stop foreign competitors, but there is a real difficulty in spinning up brand new manufacturing areas. A much higher difficulty then spinning up a new internet business company.
More options
Context Copy link