CanofWorms
2d ago
What is your graduate degree in if you don't mind me asking?
CanofWorms
2d ago
Awesome. Appreciate the rec. I'll check it out.
CanofWorms
4d ago
Grid storage may not be economical without subsidies, but a ton of it is nevertheless being built in California and Texas.
CanofWorms
4d ago
Interesting take. As a person who could also be described as clinically depressed and neurotic, I actually don't mind this part of his personality leaking into his writing. I don't mind depression or neuroticism leaking into anyone's writing so long as the writing is still entertaining or amusing. It's when you have the dull self-pitying storytelling that I get impatient and bored.
CanofWorms
6d ago
Have you ever read A Supposedly Fun Thing I'd Never Do Again? It's vintage David Foster Wallace and is quite good.
https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf
CanofWorms
11d ago
Not that I know of, but I thought there was a lot more overlap between the Motte and Astral Codex Ten than there is. I don't read much of Scott's stuff myself, but he seems to have a much larger following than The Motte does.
CanofWorms
11d ago
I don’t have answers to most of your questions, but it’s possible he did not have a car and couldn’t use the drive thru. My guess for why he still had the gun/silencer was he wanted to keep them as a trophy. Either way, very stupid move on what was otherwise a nearly flawless assassination.
CanofWorms
13d ago
I went to an in-person ACX meetup for the first time today. I didn't find it too awkward and actually really enjoyed the conversation. I was surprised that many of the attendees had either never heard of The Motte or only had a very passing familiarity with it.
CanofWorms
21d ago
What’s an eight sleep mattress?
CanofWorms
29d ago
Go on Spotify and look up beginning singing lessons and practice them in the car. 20 minutes a day and I promise you, you will see improvement.
Next step up is taking a singing class. You can usually find a 8 week program for around $300-400 and it’s a fun way to get out of the house and sing with a group.
Good luck.
CanofWorms
1mo ago
It’s not reconcilable with what happened in 2020. And that is because there was no election fraud. Those who believe there was have been duped.
CanofWorms
1mo ago
Seems like the polls were way off in Florida. Nate Silver had Republicans up by 5 - 6%, and it looks like they're going to win it by 13 points.
CanofWorms
1mo ago
Andromeda Strain is pretty boring. Crichton was just starting to figure out how to write novels with that one.
CanofWorms
2mo ago
Wish I would have read your edit. I'm not going back through that again.
CanofWorms
2mo ago
I read all of your posts on this site; I must admit I experience a bit of schadenfreude when reading your woe-is-me posts. But I'm not completely cruel. Reading your posts about living in Thailand made me feel very excited and happy for you. It sounded like you were having the time of your life over there. You put too much pressure on yourself to be successful. You hold yourself to this ideal of what you think you should be and as an outside observer it just seems so exhausting. My advice is to strongly consider going back to Thailand. Go back and continue to explore the social connections you made. Take a year; hell, take six months. It's not the end of the world or the end of your career to do it. And you might find that what you think really matters now doesn't actually matter all that much. You're a young guy, you have plenty of time to be miserable. Go back to Thailand and embrace that experience of feeling good that you so clearly had.
I know that you won't listen to this advice. But really, take a second and think about it.
CanofWorms
2mo ago
I don't know why a person would do this, but if he used his credit card to pull cash, that would be considered a "cash advance" which comes with its own set of fees and high interest rates. Only a truly desperate (or stupid) person would choose this option.
CanofWorms
3mo ago
I can’t speak authoritatively on the subject, but it seems like corruption in Haiti was simply unmatched anywhere else. That, coupled with the fact that Haiti was essentially a pariah nation from the time of the revolution (1800) until after the Civil War AND the incredible level of sovereign debt they agreed to, left Haiti an incomparably poor country.
Here is a good, quick podcast on the history of Haiti since the revolution. I recommend listening to the entire series, but this is a good, quick recap:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/4-19-the-history-of-haiti/id703889772?i=1000367035057
CanofWorms
3mo ago
I just switched over to Firefox from Google Chrome. I agree that Chrome has gotten significantly worse, particularly the amount of ads on Google searches and YouTube. YouTube started becoming completely non-functional, so I decided it was time to switch over. I installed Firefox and downloaded uBlock right away. Now I don't experience any sponsored results when using Google search or YouTube. It's glorious. Firefox was also really easy to transfer over passwords and bookmarks so it was a fairly seamless transition. The more challenging part is that Firefox doesn't work as well for iOS, so I'm still using Chrome on my iPhone for now.
CanofWorms
3mo ago
Nixonland. This one is gonna take me a while.
I also just subscribed to Harpers, I’m enjoying it.
CanofWorms
3mo ago
I think the difference between Tucker Carlson on Crossfire and Jon Stewart on Comedy Central is that CNN claimed (not sure they claim this anymore) to be a nonpartisan news source. The people who watched CNN watched it thinking that they were watching the news (a lively/inflamed version of the news, but the news nonetheless). Meanwhile, those who watched The Daily Show knew they were watching a comedy program. He makes this very point during his appearance on Crossfire.
Things are probably different now. I don’t think anyone turns on FoxNews, MSNBC, or CNN thinking they are getting nonpartisan unadulterated news.
CanofWorms
4mo ago
Good for you on re-learning the piano. I've found it difficult staying disciplined enough to practice 30 minutes to an hour everyday, which realistically is what is required to learn an instrument. I dabble in the piano from time to time as an adult, but man...learning an instrument is just so damn hard. As I get closer to middle-age, I'm much more impressed that I used to be by those who can play any instrument.
CanofWorms
4mo ago
Does anyone have any experience subscribing to a private Plex server to get access to movies or shows? I’ve been messing around with IPTV over the last few weeks, but I think a private Plex server will suit my needs better.
CanofWorms
4mo ago
I really enjoyed this book. Ron Chernow is my second favorite biographer after Robert Caro. The main thing that I recall from this book is how Rockefeller's dad was a con artist and John D spent his whole life trying to run away from that fact.
CanofWorms
4mo ago
I used to be (and still am to a large extent) a frequent drinker. But at this stage in my life, I really don't want to drink on weekdays and only sparingly on weekends. I still get shitfaced every two to three weeks, but the hangovers are so unpleasant that I have been a lot more selective on when and how much I will drink.
What has helped me reduce my alcohol intake is kratom. I take 2 to 4 grams of kratom every night; it gets me slightly high and euphoric enough where alcohol seems pointless. The upside is I do not drink or smoke weed during the workweek. The downside is that I am probably low-key addicted to kratom. I don't necessarily see this as a problem, as I have been taking the same dose for two years without feeling the need to increase or take it more frequently.
Both of my parents have problems with alcohol, my father especially. He is in his mid 60s and has about 8-10 drinks per night, every night. Somehow he still manages to wake up in the morning, walk three miles, and keep his house in order (he is retired). It is an astonishing level of functioning alcoholism. I have my own inclinations to drink, but the hangovers largely keep me away. However, I do need something to elevate my mood and kratom has been a great substitute.
Cool. I can’t feel jealous of your salary now because computer science and machine learning is something I would never be able to do!
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