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SubstantialFrivolity

I'm not even supposed to be here today

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joined 2022 September 04 22:41:30 UTC
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SubstantialFrivolity


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
I'm not even supposed to be here today

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 22:41:30 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 225


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
							
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Interesting point! I think that is a valid alternate way of looking at the situation. Not that it necessarily makes things right, but it's something to mull over.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If principles erode based on what others do, then they were never principles - simply what was convenient to do at the time. A principle is something you always uphold.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Just finished the Divine Comedy last night. It was alright. I'm not really a poetry guy and that was a ton of poetry, but I guess I'm glad to have read one of the most famous works of Western literature. Not sure what's next, I have a few books kicking around at home in my queue but I might pick up the newest Dresden book and preempt those others.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Everyone had gotten tired of them being good for so long...




That's what Patriots fans will tell you at any rate. The truth is more that they were perceived as unsportsmanlike and arrogant (which people don't like), and they were known to have cheated (which people like even less). It's not so much about them being good, as the character (or lack thereof) they had during that time. Now that Belichick and Brady are gone, I don't really think people care very much.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well... being a programmer doesn't get you high social status, except from other nerds. But yeah I agree that it's unjust in a cosmic sense that programmers get to do something they love which also pays very well. I look at someone like my sister, who works crappy factory jobs and gets paid 1/3 of what I do if that, and it seems to me that in a just world she would be getting paid what I do and vice versa. But that second part might come true at least... I guess we will see how it shakes out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If you really don't see LLMs adding any value, then you can just lie about using them quite easily.




Yeah perhaps. I'm not sure if I would want to lie but it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility either.




I just don't understand this mindset at all. There's a certain elegance in the craft for sure, but the value of the end-product is what's always been truly impressive to me.




I think it's legitimately hard to cross that gap of being wired differently. My reaction is actually pretty similar to yours (but in the opposite direction of course): it's hard for me to understand why someone would care about the end product instead of the process of making it. I have never found some kind of intrinsic value in the stuff I work on, so the perspective of "I can create things faster and that's the part I enjoy" is wildly different from mine. I can understand it in a detached intellectual way, but I can't truly get it. Just different personalities I know, but I sympathize with how foreign other perspectives can seem from oneself.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, one of the most depressing occurrences of my adulthood has been realizing that approximately nobody in America actually values freedom. Most of my countrymen seem to be authoritarian in their hearts, and the only question seems to be who/whom.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No reasonable, normal person in America would consider it a slur, in my experience. Only Karens who spend far too much time online.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is something I've been thinking about lately, and was actually thinking of doing a WW thread because it's depressing me. I do not believe that LLMs can adequately program, but ultimately it won't matter what I think. What will matter is what the industry at large thinks, and there's a decent chance that they will believe (rightly or wrongly) that everyone needs to use LLMs to be an effective engineer (and that's if they don't replace engineers entirely with LLMs). If that happens, then I'll just have to suck it up and use the bag of words, because I have bills to pay like anyone else.


But the thing which sucks is, I like doing my job. I get a great deal of joy from programming. It's an exhilarating exercise in solving interesting problems and watching them take shape. But using an LLM isn't that. It is basically delegating tasks to another person and then reviewing the work to make sure it's acceptable. But if I was happy doing that, I would've become a manager ages ago. I am an engineer because I like doing the work, not handing it off to someone else to do.


Like I said, I'll do what I have to do. I'm not going to kill myself or go homeless or something rather than suck it up and tolerate the LLM. But at that point my career will go from "one of the biggest sources of joy in my life" to "something I hate every second of", and that really, really sucks. Of course I won't be the first person to work a job he hates to get by, but it's one hell of an adjustment to have to swallow. Right now it hasn't come to pass yet, but it's a possibility, and I'm not sure how I will be able to adjust if it does come to pass.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean... it's hard to argue that you would be wrong with such a statement. :(


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I wonder if, as gamers get older, you would be able to have a TF2 (or similar game) server populated entirely by old people. That would also neatly solve the reaction time issue if you could pull it off. It's not a handicap if everyone is handicapped the same!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
As a data point: I wear casual pants (jeans) with the waist band down at my hip bone, and dress pants up around my belly button. I find the latter very uncomfortable (especially because I'm a fat fuck), but IMO it looks so much better when I'm wearing a suit if my pants are up higher.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Honestly even PVP can be done. Frankly, a lot of people online are bad (or were when I used to play). If you practice, you can probably be good enough to not be at the bottom of the pile even at 70. But you're not going to be top tier, it's true.


Another possible angle here is that there are shooters which are pretty slow paced, like Holdfast. It equalizes reaction time a lot when you can only fire one round every 30 seconds. Granted that's an outlier in how slow it is, but the point is that different shooters can have very different levels of twitch reflexes needed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You shouldn't believe a word that comes out of AI companies' mouths about how badass their models are. They would say that no matter how good or bad the models are, because they have a vested interest in you believing that they are good. These companies are fueled by hype first and foremost.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No, I wouldn't say that's the definition I operate from. I'm not sure exactly how I would phrase my definition of "woman" (as definitions are notoriously hard to nail down), but it more or less comes down to "an adult who was born with female reproductive organs". The adoption of gender norms you speak of is a proxy that I use to determine if someone is a woman (since one can't, after all, go checking everyone's pants to see what bits they have), but it is a proxy measurement only and not the actual definition I use.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
With respect, I don't really think this is a great post. There isn't some strong pro-trans orthodoxy among the posters in this forum; if anything, I think that the forum leans pretty anti-trans. And I agree with you that the situation you are discussing is a farce, but it doesn't seem like it actually is all that interesting as a discussion topic. It's crazy, but I'm not seeing the substance apart from "can you believe what those crazies are doing now?".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's a very wild take. The extended editions of LOTR are by far the better versions, as there is a lot of the book which only exists in those extra scenes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh trust me, I don't hand wash my wooden spoons. They go in the dishwasher with everything else. They're still going strong (honestly, people baby wooden spoons too much from what I've seen online), but even if they got ruined one of these days I'm not going to be upset. They were cheap as hell, so I'll just go buy another $20 pack of spoons that will last me for a decade or more.


I do have silicone spatulas and I agree they are excellent. My only complaint is that they have no rigidity at all so they don't pick stuff up or scrape particularly well. But I have other tools for that (including some metal and plastic utensils for the right situation).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you don't care about light weight, there is none. Personally I hated using my cast iron skillet because it was so damn heavy. But you said that doesn't bother you (and like you said it can be an asset because of the thermal mass), so carbon steel doesn't have anything to offer in that case IMO.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Have you tried carbon steel? I switched out my cast iron skillet for one of those and I wouldn't go back. It gets rip roaring hot and lasts forever like cast iron, and it's much easier to cook with because it's so much lighter (though admittedly that does mean it retains less heat). I highly recommend them to anyone who hasn't tried one, as to me they more or less are a straight upgrade from cast iron.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unironically, my wooden spoons. They cost me something like $10-20 for the 4 I have, and I've had them for something like 17 years now. They aren't flashy but I use them all the time and the cost per time is insanely low.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I understand. The Omnissiah's work is demanding, but rewarding. Just make sure to apply the sacred unguents so there's no chafing when you give out the handjobs!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Don't do it, man. That way leads to homelessness and giving out handjobs to people in exchange for a squad of space marines.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the distinction being made is curing individuals with a disease versus eradicating it from the population.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Not sure which site you're vaguebooking about...




It sounded like hacker news to me, but I imagine other places could have the same behavior.