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Put me in the Nietzsche camp: stoicism is self-tyranny. It's a denial of feeling disguised as overcoming it.

Ok, I definitely don't agree with this. It's so reductive as to be absurd. It almost reads as rooted in personal resentment.

I agree. Despite ending on a note of self-improvement, I wasn't really convinced that the author has any self-awareness to speak of. For example:

> When you argue with someone, you think you’re debating an idea. Often you’re not. You’re challenging their sense of self.

Oh, they're going to acknowledge that there are emotional reasons for their addiction to arguing.

> So I’ve drawn a line. I only discuss pros and cons with smart people

Oh, never mind.

I have both a Windows and a Mac. What triggers me isn't people insulting Apple products, but immature, gaming-forum ass, console warring. People need to grow up.

Are you sure this is a permanent fact about you and not something that would change if it became habitual?

I mean, I have no way of knowing if it's the former or the latter. But I've been noticing recently when people treat their traits as changeable and when they treat them as core to their being. I don't really have any faith that, in most cases, one can differentiate the two as much as one thinks one can.

And of course there's Death of Stalin where everybody just uses either their own accent or they're Jason Isaacs who went for over the top Yorkshire.

I love creative accent work in movies. I recently watched Pride and Prejudice, and Donald Sutherland clearly isn't doing an English accent but it works somehow.

Actually, it's a finance bro named Jean-Christophe.

I don't know why people are so confused about where the Romans are. There is a guy named Harun Osman Osmanoğlu and he's the current Caesar of Rome. It's pretty simple.

Not in the underrated movie The Eagle! In that one, the soldier from the world's dominant global empire has an American accent, and the actual Briton slave has a British accent.

If I believe the concept to be rotten to its core, why would I care that this particular study got some detail wrong. That's like saying, "Oh, you are wrong that INTJs are like XYZ, according to the original MBTI test, they are like ZYX."

Actually, there is something to the comparison between the political compass and the MBTI.

The political compass is terrible, full stop. It is a meme in the classic sense. It has colonized some people's view on what politics in direct proportion to how stupid it is (stupid is simple and simple is viral).

Doesn't surprise me at all. He's really a character actor who happens to look like he does. Similar to Dan Stevens, who coincidentally, has some great Agatha Christie audiobooks. He does all the voices.

You just have to build a habit. Nothing happens unless it becomes habitual.

Of course, that "just" is doing a lot. I'm saying it's doable, not that it's easy.

Maybe I'm being defensive, but the problem with this chart is it assume a binary of good dev/bad dev; AI makes the bad dev worse and the good dev better.

However, I think I once was a pretty good dev, and AI use is slowly turning me into a slop cannon. The temptation to use AI in place of real understanding is too strong.

I'm sure you'll say I was always dead weight, but I just want you to consider the possibility that AI might erode the capacity for good devs to handle discomfort, turning them into bad devs.

But this post is about SUVs and somehow the biggest thread is about the danger of ebikes and scooters. It sure does make you think...

No one likes us, I don't know why We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try...

(Just mixing my Randy Newman metaphors for fun. I could have also thrown in a few words in defense of our country)

This one rings until it's about to go to voicemail, and then all of a sudden a fake dial tone starts and an AI agent picks up. I've only encountered this type for small business owners, like dentist offices and lawyers. But it doesn't seem like there is a way to reach the actual person. I could be wrong though.

There are less than zero theres there. This comment is negative there. It's not even here. It's nowhere.

Uh, click the root button on your comment.

Same thing happened to me at my dentist! Infuriating!

I suspect someone is selling these to dentists in particular. Dentists have cash to burn on these kinds of solutions, I guess.

Have you encountered those voicemail AI customer service representatives? Those can't route you anywhere so you're stuck talking to a robot.

I was just trying to schedule my daughter's dentist appointment and had to spend 10 minutes talking to an AI when I could have found a time that worked in 30 seconds with a human. And at the end of the whole process, she got my daughter's name wrong. It was demoralizing.

I think the point of the Rogen quote is that there's no real way to win. This is not cope by the not mega-rich and famous. It's an inevitable result of wanting universal acclaim.

You're supposed to write an additional message inside the card...

An interview I recently read with Seth Rogen was very illuminating (from the NY Times):

"You know how every once in a while you read one sentence and it snaps your whole perspective into place? I remember reading that book “Going Clear,” about Scientology, and there was one sentence about how if famous people aren’t treated in a certain way, it makes them think they’re not as talented as they wish they were. Like, if I go to a restaurant and I have to wait 20 minutes for a table instead of them just seating me right away, am I not as talented as I thought I was? If someone has a nicer hotel room than me on the press tour, does that mean I’m not as good an actor as I thought I was? I think that’s how a lot of famous people interpret how they’re treated."

I think the same applies to Musk. The money is a proxy for how much everybody thinks he is a special genius. Anything in his life that makes him feel less special requires more validation that he is, and money is the easiest validation he is able to acquire.

I got the joke.

Science fiction has melted people's minds.

Both terms are overloaded, because neither has been used with any consistency. Like the long forgotten trekkie/trekker divide, it was a way for some people to feel superior to other people, but the lines were never clear.

The mistake comes with the very first arrow. You don't have to believe in "science" to be a nerd. You have to be passionate about technology. And that's a very different thing.

Most of the scientists I know can spend years of their life pursuing a hypothesis that turns out to be wrong, shrug their shoulders, and dive back into it. Technologists are all about output. If it's not outputting, you have to give up and seek a different avenue. Scientists (except the very famous and successful ones) tend to be humble and curious. Technologists less so.

It's the argument from misanthropy again!

AI is seen as unique innovation, but in terms of the real purpose it serves, it is the logical extension of something like Doordash. "I don't like people. I don't even want to call one on the phone to order a pizza. Make me a tool that lets me avoid that, please."

Let me pose an alternative narrative. Rather than interacting with humans being intrinsically unpleasant (though for some people it is far more unpleasant than others), the technology is lowering your threshold for discomfort, step by step.

I really enjoyed Jordan Mechner's graphic memoir Replay. It's a multi-generational family history and personal reflection interwoven together.