Qwortech
5mo ago
Couple of minor responses:
social media has a lot of upsides and there could always be a counter cultural push back against the all encompassing sides of it.
Inequality growing is a contested issue and I don't know how strongly to feel about it. I live in a low CoL city in Canada and I have lots of friends with highschool or less who own homes and have families. I think the extremes make it to our attentions. That said, housing prices are controversially a big problem right now but it can be solved, and there's lots of mainstream attention pushing that direction.
AI may not devalue certain kinds of labour in the short/medium term. And there's always a chance of it ushering in so much productivity that material needs are much more abundant and cheap. It's cheaper and easier than ever to purchase low-risk index funds and at least get a piece of the productivity pie.
Online dating sucks but again, you only really hear the horror stories. I used it for the first time after a divorce and met a long term partner within 2 weeks. I did not optimize for the system, I was 100% honest and straightforward in my profile and got a minor number of matches but they seemed to be higher quality for me.
Politicians have always done this. It's easier to find out what's going on and discuss it meaningfully than it used to be. I'm cynical about this one though so I say focus on local politics and things you can actually affect.
Qwortech
5mo ago
I think in interest of actual usability, two scores could be used on a positive/neutral/negative scale: 'value' and 'agreement'. You could remove the neutral if you want since it's basically the default reading of a non-vote. So then you get +/- on value and agreement. Lots of times I can see value in posts that I disagree with and my usual habit has always been to prioritize that as the metric I use. Others prioritize agreement. Maybe you could separate them out. I have my doubts that it would work, but maybe.
Qwortech
7mo ago
You could do what Europe did to civilize. They killed off the bottom 1-2% of their population every year until those with the most violent tendencies had been eliminated.
I can't tell if this is trolling or just completely lacking in any empathy and interest in giving a serious response.
Qwortech
7mo ago
To be fair I'm getting more out of the responses. Without the catalyst get generate those responses where people do try fairly hard to elaborate their points to someone who disagrees with them, it's not nearly as interesting. The way he's shifting around and stuff is annoying but at least it's generating a conversation that a bystander can skim through and find good nuggets in.
Qwortech
7mo ago
Qwortech
7mo ago
I've been around since the /r/SSC culture war thread days. I'm probably more centrist that most here and I have really always appreciated the contrarians who participate in this space like Darwin used to. Since the move to /r/themotte and even more since the exodus here, unfortunately it does feel more and more like the spirit has shifted to dunking, probably partially because of the friction need to find this forum and setup an account rather than just popping by on your normal reddit account.
I have been reading this discussion and all of your posts in it though. I don't agree with everything you're saying but I do appreciate the fact that it forces the conversation into words so that I can read arguments and rebuttals. Please continue.
Does renovating a 1950's bungalow count? I've been working on this since January and living in the house since May. Full rewire, gutted the kitchen and bathroom down to the studs, built my own kitchen cabinets, installed a pantry over the basement stairs, hardwood floors refinished, repaired and painted every surface upstairs. With the exception of part of the wiring and refinishing the floors I've done everything myself with help from my father and a friend. I've learned so much. Electrical, cabinetry, flooring, mud and taping, working with old plaster (hauled out thousands of pounds of it), clever workarounds to avoid going into the vermiculite filled attic, plumbing, painting, demo work, landscaping, installing windows... It's so tedious and eats up all of my free time but I think it's something I'll appreciate in the long run.
Part of my wishes we'd just shelled out more money for a 'move in ready' home. It would have been much easier, waaaay less stress, and I would have had so much more free time. But I'm 'saving' tens of thousands of dollars, and all of this experience is invaluable. I wouldn't recommend it unless you know it will take twice as long and be twice as tedious as you expect.
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