Yeah, I really do wonder when the government and rest of the people start to seriously consider if it is worth it dropping $50 billion on places like SoCal and South Florida every few years or so. At some point you need to do the math and ask hard questions about whether it is worth it, and the answer damn well may be no.

I gotta say I'm feeling a little bit better about the election results. They've made it clear they don't intend to do a single thing they talked about, and that it is, was, and always will be 100% about money. So I don't think we really need to worry about WWIII, Gilead, mass deportations and arrests etc, because that would disrupt business and make the billionaires slightly - ever so slightly - less billionairish.

That's ol' Slippin Jimmy for you, ever hear about that time in Chicago with the sunroof? Good stuff

I guess I take issue with the fact that you can't realistically opt out. Maybe if you are a wilderness survivalist type then maybe you can go do a Thoreau or Davy Crocket or whatever and just build a log cabin in the woods somewhere. But that's very rare these days, and society is moving forward so fast that tens of millions of people are being left behind because they lack the technical skills to thrive in a modern economy, and the survival skills to thrive in an old school agrarian economy. When that many people are left behind, it becomes a major social problem that'll come home to roost eventually.

I agree and accept your judgment. I'm not optimistic about the future of this country; at this point my only hope is that we don't take the rest of the world down with us.

I'm moving to Southeast Asia to grow my business. Right now, I’m making $30-50k gross revenue before expenses; solid, but not enough to live comfortably in the West. So I’m heading to Kuala Lumpur, a city I love, where the cost of living is super affordable. I’ll work a bit, enjoy tons of free time, explore the region, lower my stress, and live much better overall. Sure, I could take a $200k job in NY/LA/SF, but after taxes, rent, and everything else, what’s the point? Freedom isn’t just about fuck you money or revenue streams, it’s about being geographically neutral and choosing the best places on the planet for quality of life and value.

Serious answer: an astonishing, alarming chunk of the american population believes the reason why there are social problems, things like school shootings et al, is because there isn't enough religion. They truly believe that MORE religion is the answer. It's disgusting and intellectually offensive, and I'll fight to the death against anyone trying to force me to adhere to their superstitious dogma (praise be, under his eye). So you should be aware that's the ideology.

People often make the argument that churches do a lot of community service and charity work. Why, then, do you need to include the fairy tale nonsense of mystical deities? We can totally have organized groups of volunteers that do nice things for people, WITHOUT the mythological element involved.

All I took away from this is that there are lots of different variations of the stupid shit that stupid humans believe.

This is the natural result of decades of sustained exponential growth. At roughly 10%/yr, markets will double every 7-8 years. That's three doubling times in about 25 years, or 2^3 which is 8x. And that's how you get a house that was like $100k-$200k in the year 2000 to turn into a house for like $800k-$1.2m in 2024. It's only going to get worse.

ChatGPT is basically like a really good intern, and I use it heavily that way. I run literally every email through it and say "respond to so and so, say xyz" and then maybe a little refining, copy paste, done.

The other day, my boss sent me an excel file with a shitload of data in it that he wanted me to analyze some such way. I just copy pasted it into gpt and asked it, and it spit out the correct response. Then my boss asked me to do something else that required a bit of excel finagling that I didn't really know how to do, so i asked gpt, and it told me the formula, which worked immediately first try.

So basically it helps me accomplish tasks in seconds that previously would've taken hours. If anything, I think markets are currently undervalued, because remarkably, fucking NONE of my colleagues or friends are using it at all yet. Once there's widespread adoption, which will pretty much have to happen if anyone wants to stay competitive once it gains more traction, look out...

I'm sure he was a swell guy, a lot of fun at barbecues, dog lover and good with kids yada yada. Plenty of awful folks in history are like that. I hear Hitler was a fun guy who liked dogs and kids too.

..well not ALL kids but still

Michael Collins has him beat though because he got to do it alone in blissful silence, with nobody around to ask him if he's working hard or hardly working.

I did a few game theory simulations in college and they were always real interesting. In one of them for example, it was a multiplayer game, with multiple interactions. I think it was to simulate global trade basically: you could cooperate with as many players as you want and each time you cooperate you both get a point. If you defect then you get two and they get none. However, all the players could see what the other players are doing, so if you defected they would know and probably would play (trade) with you. The best way to win was to form as many connections as possible and fully cooperate the whole time.

I formed maybe like 20-30 connections with other players and didn't defect. Each point was worth a few cents or something. So I walked out with a check for like $20-$50 or something. Many players walked out with nothing because they cheated too many people too many times and nobody wanted to trade with them.

Therefore, clearly, the best economic policy is protectionism, tariffs, trade wars, and fucking over both allies and enemies, right? Right?!?

By far the smartest show ever written and it's not even close!

Gaming is going to be at the bottom of the list, there, saved you a few minutes of googling.

As we have learned over the last few years, laws are only as strong as their enforcement mechanism. If the institutions responsible for upholding the law fail to do that, or even enable violating the law even more, then the law is useless.

That's basically my only hope. Incompetence, bickering, infighting, and just generally falling apart from within their own hate machine as these kinds of ideologies tend to do.

We are past this though. I remember screaming this into the air at the radio listening to Jack Speer on NPR in 2016. He was going on and on about the awful things Trump was saying and how we shouldn't be hearing this. I screamed then why the fuck do you keep repeating it Jack, why?!? I blame the media 100% for his election in 2016, all that free publicity. 2024 though...I really don't have any answers...

Well thank goodness the US just elected a person and party that are totally dedicated to climate change mitigation! And our political process in general is well oiled and poised for real meaningful change! And the American people all acknowledge the existence of the problem and in no way deny it, and are all united in fighting the clear and present danger it poises!