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ActuallyATleilaxuGhola

Axolotl Tank Class of '21

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joined 2022 September 08 09:59:22 UTC 

				
User ID: 1012


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Axolotl Tank Class of '21

				
				
				

				

					1 follower  

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					joined 2022 September 08 09:59:22 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1012


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You and me both, man.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That was always strange to me.  Who are the real Masters if Slave Morality is strong enough to subdue Master Morality?  It reminds me of the JQ paradox, that Jews are simultaneously weak, cowardly, dissolute, and pathetic, and also somehow powerful, full of chutzpah, fanatical, and fearsome.  Does Nietzsche ever address why Master Morality is not naturally dominant since it's apparently so awesome and life-affirming?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I find 4chan shitposting to still be much more creative than Reddit's, so I don't always mind sifting through the crap to find the insightful stuff.


Something about Reddit shitposting always struck me as mostly inauthentic.  4channers (especially before 2016, now less so) seemed to mostly be the "geeks" from the infamous "mops, geeks, and sociopaths" article.  They make geeky, often obescene jokes and memes that show true understanding of the subculture and are often original.


Reddit is where the "mops" often go because they can be accepted without having to become as knowledgeable and committed as the geeks while still getting to enjoy the cool stuff the geeks make (see: all the memes about the lifecycle of memes: 4chan -> Reddit -> Funnyjunk/9gag etc.).  Then "sociopaths" show up and become mods and rule with an iron fist; opposition to hate speech is often a convenient excuse to exercise arbitrary power.


I hope 4chan sticks around in some form, because in a lot of ways it reminds me of the "old" (late 90s/early 2000s) internet more than anywhere else.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 31, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"You are Normie: 30-50th percentile"


Score: -7.56


I've never felt so proud to be lumped in with the normies.  I'm guessing it's because I'm not a science nerd, I don't read navel gazing inside baseball EA blogs, and I'm a socialcon.  I might have scored differently had different questions been asked.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is almost certainly true.  In my experience, they compare their WEIRD acquaintances with WEIRD-mindcolonized non-Westerners and conclude that because everyone cares about Ukraine and climate change and reads and agrees with the NYT, regardless of nationality or race, we must all be the same on the inside.  Next time you talk to someone who has "lived in China" or "worked in Tokyo for 5 years" consider that they may have never left their foreigner bubble or, even if they have, they spent time around non-Westerners who were Western-educated and, importantly, were the kind of people who preferred to hang around with Western foreigners.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe I'm sheltered but I think it's hard to find people who'd be okay with spending all day sticking splinters under defenseless, terrified prisoners' nails or whatever.  It takes a morally deformed person to do that day in day out and enjoy it.  I suppose if you have a large enough group of people you'll always find some one like that, but pre modern people didn't always have such large groups.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I had never heard of HBD before showing up at the SSC sub in my lurking days, and it was the very poor quality of the opposition there that first clued me in that the advocates must be on to something.




This was my exact experience as well.  I subconsciously held that evolution stopped at the neck but ones the arguments and evidence were laid out the idea seemed to me completely absurd.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think there are more potential gains than you imply.  I can run a 7.5 minute mile and I feel pretty good.  Running a 6 minute mile would probably make me feel even better, psychologically of course for achieving a goal, but also just in my daily fitness.  It won't be as huge as the difference between 9 minutes and 7.5 minutes, but it will certainly be abig improvement.


I suppose what I'm trying to say is that returns do diminish, but never to the point where shaving another minute off my mile would equivalent to finally painting the entire map in Europa Universalis while playing as the Knights of Saint John. The fitness gains would still provide way more benefit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 4, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks, done.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 7, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


when they have tasted success, you teach, adding "why" to "how" and praising their results




Can you elaborate on this?  Do you mean that instead of "Please do task X which includes items A, B, C, and D" you say something like "Please do task X so that we can accelerate our progress on task Y?"


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 7, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks, this is helpful.


Delegation is almost done, I think.  I'll be fully out of IC tasks by next week, and from then on I'll only be working on low-priority tech work to keep my skills sharp (my boss encourages this).


I'm taking copious notes during 1:1 because I am indeed bad with kids' names and birthdays.  But more importantly I want to be able get into their heads as you describe and motivate them by findng cool career building opportunities and stimulating work for them.


What's your strategy for feedback?  I'm thinking of asking for written feedback quarterly in the vein of "What are two things I could be doing differently to better serve you and the team?" but also asking for opinions on individual during our weekly 1:1s.


Direct communication of deadlines and task assignments is something I'm not too worried about since I've never really felt guilty or awkward about it.  I've personally always liked terse, direct managers because it keeps the interaction short so that I can go back to what I was doing.  I think it also helps to know your people so that you can triage work to people who will enjoy it and anticipate pushback from people who might not.   Any potential pitfalls I might be missing due to my inexperience, though?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 22, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Been trying since middle school, I'm just a shitty typist.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 22, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


using the CLI on PDF files




That might actually help quite a bit.  Thanks, I'll check this out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
PM me if you think we'd be ideologically aligned.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think that the foundation of your post is okay but that some of your examples are weak.


I kind of agree with your veganism example.  I want to lose weight, but I really like eating what the rest of my family eats and mixing fancy cocktails at home.  I was conflicted about this for a while (How can I say I want to lose weight when I keep doing stuff counter to that goal?) but finally admitted to myself that no, I don't really want to lose weight if it means discipline in eating/drinking.  But unlike your example, I decided to stop claiming that I wanted to lose weight rather than persist in self-contradiction.  Why do most people persist?  I think a lot of it boils down to social signalling.  Being an unapologetic fat slob is seen as disgusting and low status, while being a fat slob who is "trying to make a change" is seen as slightly more sympathetic.  So for some people it might be worth enduring the cognitive dissonance in order to raise their own social status.


Your Muslim example I disagree with.  As others have pointed out, "Islam the religion/belief system" and people who profess Islam" are two different things.  I have a strong dislike for Islam, bordering on hatred.  In my own supernatural headcanon, "Jibril"  if he existed was probably Satan or a demon who created Islam as a twisted mockery of Christianity in order to lure away Christians, as a malignant tumor eating away at the mystical body of Christ (the community of faithful Christians).  BUT I have a Muslim coworker that I like and quite relate to since we are both practicing theists and parents (rare in a Silicon Valley tech co).  As far as I can tell, his Islamic beliefs really just keep him humble, encourage him to take care of his wife and son, and prevent him from eating pork.  Nothing objectionable there, so no contradiction with my distate for Islam.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Duly noted.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for November 23, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Conversation skills and general people skills are the most important.  You can turn a intelligent and curious sales person into a sales engineer, but it seems nearly impossible to teach a highly intelligent and skilled engineer people skills.


Straight up sales experience is great, if you have it.  Also, I'd play up times where you advocated for something within your company or with a client.  Bonus points if you can quantify the impact of your efforts.  More bonus points if you can describe successfully navigating a complex problem with a customer or another team -- what was the problem and how did you scope it? Who were the stakeholders and how did you identify them?  Did you define clear success/fail criteria to asses the results of your work on the problem?  How do you handle customer objections?   Are you good at asking questions to discover what the customer really needs (because often customers have misidentified their own problems)?  Any stories you can share that answer these questions will help you.


For the technical side, you'll just have to target companies whose product seems "crammable," for lack of a better word.  This depends on your technical chops. You have a CS degree, so I'm assuming you can probably figure things out on your own and teach yourself, if so there are a lot of companies available to yoy.  Sign up for a free trial of their software, play around with it, read the docs, see if it's something you can learn or whether you're in way over your head (but tbh you'll feel like you're in a little over your head no matter what -- that's normal).  Make sure you do the obvious stuff like reading the site's main homepage, the "About Us" page, etc.  You'd be surprised how many people show up  to interviews poorly informed about the company and/or the product.


I'd also at least skim "Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer's Handbook". It's no-nonsense and not as dry as it sounds. It will give you a good idea of the sorts of problems and questions that SEs have and give you an idea of whether it's something you want to do or not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for November 23, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One option you might not have considered is technical sales.  You could leverage your CS degree and your ability to deal with/manage people here.  I'm a sales engineer about your age and make enough to send my three kids to private school if I wanted to.  I'm a mediocre programmer and have an irrelevant bachelor's degree.  I understand enough of the tech and can program enough to build demos and tools for customers, but that's about it.


If you've got people skills, you could try to work as an junior sales engineer (or regular engineer) somewhere and then quickly climb the ladder or jump ship to a better paying sales engineering role.  Good sales engineers are really hard to find since it's kind of a weird skillset.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think that's a reasonable explanation. Thank you.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I understand. The point I perhaps failed to make is that the point of diminishing returns for exercise is quite high IMO, especially relative to the amount of effort people put into keeping fit.  Put another way, very very few people are at the point where they wouldn't benefit from getting fitter, including people who exercise regularly.  I think you hit "completing a stamp collection" levels of marginal return when you're, say, trying to shave 5% off your half marathon time or whatever (probably before then, but I'm just trying to illustrate the point).


Edit:  I reread my post and I see that I didn't acknowledge that there is eventually a point of diminishing returns.  Oops.  I agree with you on that point.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 11, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think I have other little things like this, but if I can't do them they just annoy me slightly.  They're not compulsive, fortunately.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 11, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It makes me slightly irritated if they're not facing the right direction just on principle.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree that his white trash manner is extra inflammatory to the PMC, but I thinking you're only 80% of the way to explaining their hatred.  The final bit is that people like him aren't supposed to win. They're supposed to lose, they're relics of a backwards evil bygone era.  If people like him win, it could undo all the salami-slicing, Nudges™, and demoralization works that has been wrought upon the plebs.  They'll stop seeing the Glorious Technocratic Bugpod Future as an inevitability and maybe even stop feeling powerless, and then maybe they'll even finally try to do something about it all.  And so Trump can't be allowed to get away with it, he has to be dealt with like Winston, and the old Party Members -- not martyred, but degraded, hounded, dragged through the mud, abused until he's a shell of his former self, so that everyone else can see that this is what happens to people who oppose Progress, even very rich well connected people who get elected to the most powerful office in the world.  Any wealthy conservative considering a future presidential run will now be keenly aware of what happens if he should step outside the controlled opposition pen and will doubtless think twice.


Edit: Re-reading this, it sounds like I'm accusing my outgroup of being part of a vast conspiracy and bent on ruthlessly crushing an enemy for defying their power, but I'm not.  Rather they're unwittingly part of an SSC-style prospiracy.  The people who feel this way don't consciously think they're channeling O'Brien, they think they're Standing Up for Democratic Norms or whatever rationalization works for them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Care to speak plainly?  The rhetorical questions are getting tired.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oops, good catch, my wording was completely wrong. I meant that if two black men abused and killed a white child, I wouldn't be surprised for them to get away with a relatively light sentence.