disqard

You're right, as long as software is concerned, and customers being left without service is a non-issue.

Though if you do that with hardware, you might irreversibly break/short a component -- so you unplug, then figure out you actually needed that part, but plugging it back in now won't get the system working again.

I think "running a country" has more hardware-like characteristics than a pure software system.

Thank you for that mental image of the flowers still standing :D

> Unless their goal is to destroy the USA

I have indeed heard this, even in his first term -- that people were so fed up of politics-as-usual, that they decided to "send a wrecking ball into the White House".

After having seen the damage that wrecking ball did the first time around... to send it back must mean that these folks really want to demolish the very ground they're standing on.

If that is the goal, then what happened to "profile before you optimize"?

As an analogy, what's happening feels like this:

* Somebody (let's call them "X") has embarked upon a mission to de-bloat the ancient-but-working family desktop PC. * X's first actions appear to be to desolder various things from the motherboard, while the computer is on. * Anyone who sees what X is doing, is somewhere on a spectrum between "scratching their head" <----> "wow, they're trying their best to destroy the PC".

To those defending this particular way of "fixing" things, would you yourself replace a large, working legacy software system in this manner?

I think the word you're looking for is "immaturity".

It is not exclusively found in young people, as one can plainly see with the plutocrats in charge today.

FWIW, even when it is justified in a software context, we understand that there will be a (usually large) business cost.

When implementing this in a political context, there's no way to skim over the fact that there will be a huge human cost. But here we are anyway.

They can operate this demolition op from the safety of their bunkers in NZ.

All they need is a way to send messages to their "useful idiot" new college grad minions.

True, instigating a global collapse might eventually get to them, but AFAICT, they just want to personally profit from US dysfunction. Plus, it seems like the rest of the world will simply bypass the US and say "you're not dependable any more, so we're just gonna pretend you don't exist". Ostracism (of the US) seems more likely than the entire world destabilizing.

Obviously

> But today we advanced a bit and demand that our justice is a bit more just.

Like you, I used to believe this. Recent events have me re-examining my assumptions.

I think you're discounting how easy it would be for them to say "it's all Biden's fault", and lots of people will eat it up.

As they say, "quantity has it's own quality". Thus, once you're in the "three comma club", your money not only insulates you from the legal consequences of what would be considered "wrongdoing", it also spawns a gravity-distortion field that can bend the entire system to your will. The laws effectively won't apply to you, and what normally counts as "check and balances" become moot.

Thank you for articulating this!

We're all susceptible to this "it won't affect me, because <insert-reason-here>" kind of thinking. Dimensions like "level of education", wealth, etc. don't really factor into it.

Exhibit A: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79zxjj0j55o

excerpt below (Gabriela is an undocumented immigrant):

Some, like Gabriela, believe it won't impact them at all.

"I'm not scared at all, actually," she said. "That's for criminals to worry about. I pay taxes, and I work."

"In any case, I'm undocumented," she added. "[So] how would they even know about me?"

Thank you for mentioning McLuhan, and for sharing that personal anecdote.

The process of engaging with the Real World, is a constant choice. With the busy lives we lead, it is much easier to operate in "default mode", as David Foster Wallace put it (in his "what is water?" commencement speech at Kenyon College).

Not defending or opposing the thesis of the essay, but this person's blog has (roughly) one post every day... it makes one wonder how much thought and editing goes into writing at that pace.

Most serious writing I've seen is released at a slower cadence. A large volume of content makes me equate its source with the 24/7 news cycle -- more is better, keep pressing the viewer/reader's buttons (outrage, moral indignation, etc.) to keep 'em coming back.

"Adult pacifier"

You are right, and you made me sadder. Have an upboat.

A lot of our society depends on good-faith participation and restraint when wielding power.

Yes, I agree with the picture you're painting here, but it befuddles me where all these grifters think they'll go?

They'll have to live in bunkers for the rest of their lives.

Imagine that you're one of them, and you want to go watch a game (or a T. Swift concert) -- so you hop on your private jet and go to the stadium/arena. If you happen to be caught on-camera and your face is up there, on the Jumbotron, every single person there is gonna boo you. That's what your life will be like. What's the point?

This is the wise, pragmatic answer indeed!

Find the Middle Path.

Neither extreme is correct.

Doing the absolute bare minimum to not get PIP'ed is corrosive to your own soul.

Going "above and beyond" when you might get laid off tomorrow, is naive and opening yourself up for exploitation.

If somebody hasn't been following this, it's one person's passion project, and it doesn't aim to compete with Google/Bing/DDG.

It's more of a way to find interesting things on the "small web".

Please keep that in mind when you check this out.

(I'm not the creator)

I did check it out just now.

Login required.

During signup, one must check a box stating "I swear lifelong allegiance to the state of Israel"??

...and, if you append a question mark to the end of your query, you get a one-shot LLM answer (currently powered by Claude).

Try Anthropic's Claude -- just as good, and free (thus far) of the sort of shenanigans one sees with "Open"AI

> But surely there is something that needs to be changed from what came out of the black box before you feel comfortable attaching your name to it. If you don’t, I think that’s slop-y.

I chuckled at that :)

It was already on the "sous-vide" setting for the past few years, now it's been set to "broil" overnight.

TIL, thank you!

This is a hilarious idea! :D

No idea how well it might actually play out, but you made my day by putting this bit of whimsy out on the Internet.

Thank You For Making And Sharing!!

I love your concrete examples!

Thanks for sharing the pointer to your wasm engine. Is that part of a course you teach, or something born out of an auto-didactic pursuit?

I read your entire comment, and it echoed much of my experience in academia.

Thank you for taking the time to write this!

I'm using a Garmin Forerunner 55 -- it has a 2-week battery life, and is great for regular running.

s/men/edgy twelve-year old boys/g

I like that you used the word "uneducated" -- many of these folks probably happen to be literate, which implies nothing about cognitive abilities.