Mainly this I think: www.npr.org/2025/01/17/g...

if someone is 'setting up a new data centre' I suppose you need to ask if they're going to just provide a building for Google to run servers in, or if they _are_ Google in which case they are also setting up a new region of their cloud

there's a fair bit of technical engineering stuff but nothing too proprietary or difficult in setting up the actual physical facility. On the other hand running the cloud infrastructure that sits *in* most data centres (virtual servers, routing of data, optimising storage etc) is much harder

They gave him leave to refile and amend it! That’s like basically you’ve won already

I download all the kindle samples of books I might want to read, and maybe one day I’ll finish everything else and they’ll show up first on the list again

Taking on a task I don’t need to do just so I can add it to the todo list, do it and cross it off.

And also complicated by the fact that aggregate statistics might not be true of subgroups. But you are certainly right that a simple equation of poverty = racism is far from true.

A common poll finding is that people don’t really know what the economy is like or how it’s doing. Much more about perception than reality. (eg in the leadup to US elections, most people thought unemployment was high even though they themselves had a good job). So it’s hard to draw these conclusions

That’s true. I think Dan’s point about despair is probably more relevant than a simple economic equation. And maybe we just need to outvote the 8% and that’s that. But somehow the 8% managed to affect the rest of our politics enough to win the Brexit ref, so ignoring them may not be enough.

I don’t necessarily disagree with you on this point about liberal democracy, by the way. But if the “economic anxiety” hypothesis has anything to it, which is an open question in my view, it isn’t disproved by Richard Tice being wealthy

No I don’t really believe that the Telegraph or Richard Tice do hold these views, in any way that matters. I believe it matters why a few million people in the country hold those views (which could be because they listen to Richard Tice; or because of other cultural, personal or economic causes).

Clearly the dynamic pushing Richard Tice, or the Telegraph, to be more extreme is not the same as the one that directly influences a Reform voter or Telegraph reader. These figureheads exist to funnel/reflect/amplify the feelings of others, not to have meaningful opinions of their own.

And are generally much more productive. The main good thing about small firms is that they occasionalally become big firms!

There is also no binary racist/not racist distinction (maybe this is even true of fascist/not fascist). No point trying to get into whether a whole crowd either is or isn’t racists, whatever answer you end up on will miss the deeper points and the levers of change

You remind me of the UK state’s fetish for signing long-term contracts for public services with private providers to avoid taking debt onto its balance sheet, then having to pay the private companies’ (much higher) finance costs/risk premiums instead of financing it themselves.

Like tariffs

I wondered that too. Perhaps the modelling doesn’t indicate any big returns from reforming it (as annoying as it is). Possibly it is encouraging additional pensions contributions as an unintended side effect, and we need to keep anything that compensates for our weak pension savings rate!

they have a great 4-lecture mini-course about local systems on algebraic variables. highly recommended that you attend. will cure depression, life changing