You can be a member of a labor union without that union being recognized as your exclusive bargaining representative for a certain employer (or whatever unit).
There is a great deal of orientalism --- it is genuinely unthinkable to a lot of American tech dullards that the Chinese could be better at anything requiring what they think of as "intelligence." Aren't they Communist? Backward? Don't they eat weird stuff at wet markets?
It reminds me, in an encouraging way, of the way that German military planners regarded the Soviet Union in the lead-up to Operation Barbarossa. The Slavs are an obviously inferior race; their Bolshevism dooms them; we have the will to power; we will succeed. Even now, when you ask questions like what you ask of that era, the answers you get are genuinely not better than "yes, this should have been obvious at the time if you were not completely blinded by ethnic and especially ideological prejudice."
> And yes, ChatGPT is kinda like an addictive drug here. If someone "can't work without ChatGPT anymore", they're addicted and have lost the ability to work on their own as a result.
Come on, you can’t mean this in any kind of robust way. I can’t get my job done without a computer; am I an “addict” who has “lost the ability to work on my own?” Every tool tends to engender dependence, roughly in proportion to how much easier it makes the life of the user. That’s not a bad thing.
Totally understand. With any luck, you and I have played two sides of a dialogue that’ll be read by someone else, for whom it might be quite useful. For that I thank you.
It’s not the cues that get you. That is an idea promoted largely by treatment centers and the rehab industry, who need to be able to plausibly claim they are teaching their customers how to avoid relapse. I’m a recovered alcoholic and I can assure you, my “cue” for drinking was being alive and awake at the same time.
Your reaction is a sane and normal one: you remember a good time, and you have some inkling to recreate it. Certainly. And to most people that makes sense. But alcoholics are different from most people, and their understanding that is an essential first step to recovery.
For reasons of personal history, stimulant medications like Adderall are a hard no for me. I am curious, though, about non-stimulant options like atomoxetine, if anyone has views.
I started reading DF when I was a college student, probably in 2002 or 2003. I listened to every iteration of The Talk Show that I can remember --- both runs with your former host, and the current edition from the very first episode. When I moved to Los Angeles and had no friends and felt lonely as hell all the time, I used to put on the keyboard episode of The Talk Show to give me something pleasant to fall asleep to.
But John, your cheerleading for Israel's genocide --- man. Way before the election of the current cheerleader-in-chief for that effort, you were ahead of the game.
You said that students who protested this genocide should be expelled from college (you've got a friend in the White House now, John!):
> These students should be expelled from college, not placated.
And, most sickening of all, you cheered the indiscriminate pager attack that maimed children, which your friend in the White House has now got a golden pager memorializing:
> This whole operation sounds like it would make for a great movie.
I could go on, but the effect was heartbreaking. My old friend, the voice in my little Pasadena apartment all those years ago, clapping for the maiming of children and howling for the expulsion of students who disagree with him? Who was this guy? Who is this guy? Had I read him wrong the whole time? Had I changed --- would I have loved those blown-up Lebanese kids back in 2002, and now I'd gone soft? I don't know. But if I'd visited DF for the first time in 2003 and found content calling for the expulsion of Iraq War protesters, I don't think I'd have made a second visit.
At the end, there's one of the craziest Venn diagrams I've seen in a while. The diagram asserts that --- by definition --- you aren't good at your "mission," the world does not need your "profession," you can't be paid for your "passion," and you can't love your "vocation." Grim!
You sound like you satisfy at least one of the two usual criteria for addiction in the sense 12-step programs use the term. If you ever want someone to show you a program that might help you recover, just reply with your contact info and I’d be happy to help
Thank you. I was typing out a comment like this in frustrated response to a different remark elsewhere in the thread (“calories in, calories out!”) but stopped. I’m glad I did because you put what I was going to say much better than I would have. Also I learned the word “stoicimetric,” so thanks for that.
This made me curious and I started doing research on other problematic name collisions. Did you know that Valve’s game distribution service has a name that’s already widely used in the scientific community for the gaseous form of heated water? It looks like steam has been around for several centuries at least so Valve really ought to have known better.
Anyway, if you’re interested, I’m putting together a long investigation on whether Microsoft’s flagship operating system is in collision with a very common term used in the construction and glass industry. Hope to have it done soon
I don't know enough about the economics of freight shipping to have an opinion on whether airships make economic sense for that. But for passenger travel, I can imagine a high-end market for the wealthy. Don't think "cruise ships" — think "yachts."