It’s standard practice on the internet when talking about building PCs to mention Micro Center. Either “it’s cheaper if you have a microcenter nearby” or “this same bundle is $50 cheaper at micro center”.
The real decline started after Edward Snowden and all the information that came out about the NSA. It really sparked distrust in the government. Trying to get people to respond to surveys was already hard, why would those general people believe the Census Bureau is actually keeping their data safe? Doesn’t matter when it comes to laws and the constitution, if you work for an Agency. You are the government. Response rates keep going down, now we have attacks from the President on statistics about the economy. I’m a little cynical and I just assume they will continue to shrink the statistical agencies and make the statistics more useless (which is what this recent policy change does), and they will shift to the private industry. Even though the private industry cannot do the work in the Field that the government does.
I actually didn’t say that aren’t that useful. I would argue that I don’t think the payoff is worth the cost. The areas investing unholy amounts of money and passing it among the largest companies are seeing plenty of cash, me and in general the public will only experience the squeeze when the huge profits aren’t realized to offset the immeasurable amount of money “invested”.
I have no doubt there are similar stories to yours or to a lesser extent. And while I’m glad you have gotten some relief, what price are we paying as a society? I’m not just talking about the environmental impact alone, what about the societal impact? Social media has not been around too long but it seems to be a net negative for society. I’m sure there are plenty of anecdotes to the contrary, but the studies are showing more and more of the detrimental impact to kids/teens. The stories and testimonies of how it was engineered to be addictive. Yet we’ve mostly moved on and allowed money more social media to get owned (and now traditional media) and controlled by the rich. But your statement is right, I doubt I’ll get swayed easily. Anecdotes and proclamations work when thinking short term. But taking the long view or looking at recent history I don’t see a positive. We have the hype being brought to us by the people that gave us the dot com bubble, crypto and NFTs. But hey, go fast, break things and never ever think about if what you are doing is really beneficial to society (after us, they are not us.)
Solid read especially for someone not in this field. While everything I’ve learned about LLMs has been pretty interesting, all I can say for sure is that I’m more and more skeptical about wide scale adoption. Consumers are being pushed almost to the level of coercion to utilize LLMs. Especially in the case of the government, who in most cases will get a free pass for a year to help build that addiction before the real bill comes due. I’m sure people will object to LLMs being considered statistical bullshit generators, but I cant stop seeing that they just generate bullshit. Bullshit can be believable, sometimes bullshit is truthful. But the public is generally accepting that LLMs churn out truth, and they trust them blindly. I truly don’t see the upside, and the argument being pushed by the dealers is that we need to keep using. The real breakthrough is around the corner. It’s my believe that the tech bros are the new robber barons, they’ve moved on from crypto and NFTs and found something that is pretty impressive but a far cry from the GenAI that wish for. I just feel that technology was supposed to free us and also connect us, but instead it’s all things addictive and consuming.
There are certainly some news outlets that operate like propoganda. I mean Fox comes to mind, if you ever watch you’ll notice they carefully craft their statements and rarely talk about facts, mostly feelings. News is at its core a business, and they know they get eyes on things by scaring people or talking about things that seem shocking at face value. NYT and other outlets that do long form articles (Wired) have invaluable information. But we live in a world where most people (especially perpetually online people) just browse the headlines and take what they want from it. We’ve lost nuance, and because of that in the US one party is using that to their advantage.
I’m in the same boat. My Boox Go 10.3 is collecting dust. I used it for a while, but I just find it easier to flip back through paper notes as opposed to tapping or swiping through files. I don’t want to connect to work WiFi either on it. So now I’ve found pens I enjoy writing with and decent notebooks with paper I like and it’s great. I actually spend time journaling on paper. But I do have both a Boox Palma for reading and also a Kobo Clara.
In college I always took notes in class then I would rewrite them and at the same time organize them. In my study groups people would always copy my re-written notes. There was certainly something there aiding in learning, more than just sending a document of notes and just reading it.
That’s been my personal experience. Spend plenty of time looking at all kind of options to optimize my ir my teams workflow. Then just fallback on pen and paper or some very simple excel spreadsheet. Something thinking about being more productive makes you feel productive.
I have memories of going to the library in the 90s to read MacWorld. Then learning that if I did a few clicks and maybe keystrokes you may unlock something with the processor. I can’t totally recall what it would unlock but it was for the Apple IIci and it’s 33mhz processor.
You have to demonize the government in order to come in and start trashing the place. Obviously there is going to be some waste to trim. But instead they came in, asked zero questions and started arbitrarily cutting contracts and jobs. In the end all the cuts will just make the government dysfunctional and cost us more than it did before.
I regret spending the money on the long range Model 3. It’s something I charge every day because I can at home. Sure I could charge it once a week for my commute, but I just charge it up to 80%. I would love this Slate as my commuter car. I miss my Ford Ranger with a manual transmission. Hopefully this thing has an efficient motor.
Reminds me of a book I just read, The Lifespan of a Fact. Solid read going into fact checking versus telling a story and figuring out where the line should be. Definitely entertaining.
I’ve had a Palma 2 for a few months now. Looks like I have around 30 hours reading on it so far. Literally on use it as a reading device. Sadly it’s less frowned upon to look at a device other than reading a paper book. So I bring it to work, instead of using my phone, take a quick break and read. Very pocketable which is the selling point for me. Had a good experience with Boox so far, also have a Boox Go 10.3 which is great to read on or take notes with.
Sadly as the author stated, it may not matter. But even Tim Cook is giving a million to Trump’s fund. The President is going to the highest bidder, but who cares because big tech will profit right?
I know some cars have the blinking when you are applying sudden pressure to the brakes. To alert people behind them they may be stopping quickly. People use their hazards in some states for the same reason.
You’ve nailed it. I miss my Audi with headlights that moved when I turned the wheel. That alone would fix a lot of the issues of being blinded when coming around a curve. A lot of US pickup trucks just have lights across the whole front end, and if you drive a car it’s just illuminating the whole inside of your car and every mirror.
Just tried to check it out. First boot it crashed, killed app and tried again and now it won’t open. I’ll try and reinstall and do over. iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18.1
Quick edit- I did exactly that and now it works fine. First boot up before seemed like it got stuck when asking for permission to use the camera.