My personal belief is that if anyone who wants you to believe people are purely selfish and not "generally pro social with caveats" is trying to sell you a less kind society.

and the takeaway everyone took is not "we need a unified response" but "Americans are SOOO dumb and SELFISH" which seems to me like the best way to repeat the COVID response

So, yeah, hundo percent agree with ya on the WWII esque push.

You can't use that willingness indefinitely, as people's rush "back to normal" showed. But, like, we coulda done it.

1 million dead Americans was a choice by Trump.

What fucked it is that the ask wasn't unified. The top was throwing out contradictory information, the business class was shitting themselves, and the right wing grift-o-sphere was running.

And we didn't have a WWII-esque push to make it possible for poor people to not go to work.

COVID showed that, broadly speaking, people were ready to rise to the occasion. The US never really had a lock down, but we still kinda did.

Largely because the ask was being implemented at city level and we'd see one city do something and follow.

One of the funny things I've learned from organizing is that "having a specific ask" for people can be incredibly motivating.

Synthesis is wild because, like...actual synthesis CAN be a great ending, it just can't be done in under 15 seconds by a glowing green explosion. It has to be done over years of labor, and talking to people

man, if only there was some kind of way of showing lots of things through ending slides...

Honestly, it's a strong pick for a favorite.

i legit would not be able to handle this like meeting multiple publishers going oh yeah valve are just like this sometimes you know how it is, lemme call them - and still not getting a normal response from a human being

Exactly!

And we really get some of the loudest hints of this in A Civil Campaign when he basically solves the crisis.

I do love that Bujold even built in the mechanism for him to have the idea: he opened the fridge to throw his ringing com link in there and sees the groats.

Like, even Bujold knows "He needs some spark of inspiration."

Exactly.

Ivan out here going "seduction is actually hard, and to do it well, you have to actually understand women." And the funniest running bit of the whole book series is that he actually does.

Lastly, it's also so funny how Byerly is like, "how hard could it be to convince a woman back to your place?"

Meanwhile Ivan is like "my flirt game is based on taking lots of shots knowing only 1/10 is gonna land, also are you insane? You go to HER place on a first date or a neutral place."

"Ivan You Idiot" vs. the reality of Ivan Vorpatrel, Spread Sheet king.