A very funny and enlightening talk that you should most definitely watch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a88U...

Why is everything so generically ugly these days. An approximation of an aesthetic that doesn't quite get there. Slop Era.

My weird belief is intimacy of in-person familiarity is going to make a resurgence. The falsity of textual chat and his adjuncts will fall and society will change to something unmistakable. It will be modeled after dates of yore. Not because it's wholly ideal, but because it's proven and fervent.

My judgement is this: You can’t automate your way out of the responsibility for knowing and understanding how the world works

I find myself using ChatGPT even if I don't want to because if I'm trying to refresh my mind on something I can only describe in vague terms, Google searches are hopelessly useless (and usually trying to sell me something).

ChatGPT is a great way to always have an expert on hand, and not get into opinionated discussions while trying to get an answer - but you know what, I like the people I have opinionated discussions with...

there's a hidden Madisonian lemma that if you design institutions, and funnel prestige and power through them, you can shape the holders of offices toward the end of sustaining the institutions they serve. and like, whoops, fuck.

there’s an implicit agreement across the political spectrum that violence is more effective at achieving political aims than nonviolence and so the only debate is when it’s morally acceptable to do. this does not seem obviously correct to me.

Berkeley has a registry that tracks rents in all apartments built before 1995. For years rents shot up but since the housing boom of 2017 new leases have flatlined at $2,200 (not inflation adjusted) even as inflation, population & incomes skyrocketted
www.berkeleyside.org/2025/05/01/b...

Posit: The better you get at something, the wider the circle of people with skills and information useful to you gets.
Because you can teach better, ask better, and direct better.

Idle thought: "Facilitation" is a trigger word for me because it masks getting paid for things that groups of capable people can do on their own.

I think people should know about Meute, a Hamburg brass techno marching band. The video below might be the best representation of the effect it has in bringing people together.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuoc...