Gaashk
9mo ago
Being able to have sex with someone is absolutely not the same thing as being able to marry them and use their resources. This seems like it should be blindingly obvious.
To the extent that she marries a homeless man, they're in the same situation, maybe he'll physically defend her if someone threatens her, but that's about it. "You can just get married" [to a person who's likely even worse off than yourself, and might beat you] is not much of a consolation prize.
Gaashk
2d ago
This is not a small scale question...
The small answer is to apply state force to the defectors regardless of any sympathy inducing specifics. Crush them into dust under the massive boot of Leviathan instead of shaming others for complaining about them. Let some people starve to death. Reinstate an earnest belief in hell. The question of why that's not possible is large.
Caleb Hammer interviews people (in a fairly obnoxious and click-baity style) in significant loan and credit card debt, breaks down their finances, and tries to get them on a budget with a varying amount of success. The most common factor of the guests he has on his show is eating out- for most of his guests, almost 33% of most of their monthly income is eating out at various establishments and other spending that does not significantly increase their quality of life.
Well at least this involves individual choice, not massive government bureaucracy. There are probably people who do in fact spend a lot of money eating out. There seem to be a surprising number of rather pricy restaurants, even in not terribly well off towns, so I suppose people are going there. It's doubtless more entertaining to find and talk to those people than the ones who are in debt because of health problems, or because they want to live in a big city, and are paying 60% of their income in rent. It would be quite the downer to have to tell someone to move to a much cheaper, duller city far away, choose a small apartment near public transportation, sell their car, and get rid of their pet.
Gaashk
1mo ago
I found a business casual shirt that fit me well in my closet, and I was able to find the exact same brand/size on Amazon.
Yeah, that sounds like a good use case for Amazon.
I've become accustomed to clothing offerings being incredibly unstable, hence the buying within half an hour of launch behavior. I once bought a dress with some kind of rayon crinkle fabric (what my mother's generation would call "broomstick") that has held up really well, and was my daughter's comfort item for most of a year. I searched to see if I could buy a similar fabric for her, or another dress in that fabric, but I've never seen it again. The same brand and line offered a new broomstick series in the fall, but the fabric was completely different.
My husband and I have found pretty good hiking clothing, and especially footwear at https://www.sierra.com. It's somewhat discount, and has a bunch of brands that I hadn't heard of but have held up fairly well. Also a fan of Duluth Trading Company -- they aren't that cheap, but everything I've gotten there has held up very well. I got a jacket on sale that fits over three other layers without being especially bulky, keeps the wind and snow out, and has lasted six years so far with no signs of giving out. Also a plaid shirt that has a little microfiber strip sewn in for lens cleaning purposes, which has been helpful, which doesn't seem like it will ever wear out. But it does look very upper Midwest hiker.
Gaashk
3mo ago
They do this, it's called student teaching.
Some states do let people start teaching before earning their degree, and some do allow the degree to be from a much cheaper community college. My daughter's pre-K teacher just sent a letter home about this, asking to include activities with the kids in her (regional college) coursework. I am unworried, it is pre-K, I can teach her to read and count myself if it comes to that.
Anyway, it's true, but not any more true than for at least half of jobs currently requiring a college degree. An admin assistant doesn't really need to study... whatever it is that the median low level administrator studied in college, yet here we are.
Huh. I am a woman, working primarily with women, and don't recall ever hearing any comments like that. I have heard people ascribe poor managerial tactics partly to the manager in question being a woman, and that a man wouldn't do that/get away with that. Also some comments about why the (mostly female managers) are not very good around "well of course it's hard to fill that role, with a lot of responsibility and not much more pay. I certainly wouldn't take the position." Different worlds, and all that, I suppose.
I've also lived a while in several native communities, and only experienced that attitude from a smattering of sullen teenagers. Shrug
In general, I would say, the healthier/less oppressed feeling women are generally at least as involved in their family and religious responsibilities as their job, and think of it as "a job," a way to make money for their other interests and responsibilities, not some kind of Career, Vocation, or Quest. The healthier Native American folks are invested both in multi generational family stuff, and heritage art/food/language projects. A kid out on some tundra who likes smoking fish, hunting moose, making stuff out of fur, and singing at church is... fine. As fine as pretty much anyone.
Gaashk
4mo ago
Do you ever feel like there are just... too many men on this planet?
No. But sometimes I feel like there are too many men who don't know or want to know how to build or maintain anything, who sit around complaining on the internet about ugly houses and poorly maintained infrastructure.
Gaashk
4d ago
The other famous case recently was teachers in NYC schools. They proved that the test was fine to one judge and then lost on appeal and had to shell out $2 billion.
What was their test like?
It seems trivially obvious that a high school math teacher should have to pass a math test slightly higher than whatever they'll be teaching. Or that a bank employee should be able to do whatever kind of math they might use for their job.
It seems unlikely that the extra friction and expense of requiring kindergarten teachers who can pass even Algebra II is worth it, as long as they're literate, patient, enforce social norms, and willing to stick with the phonics and counting curriculum. I vaguely remember having to pass an algebra test as an adult, some years after taking the course, in order to continue teaching a subject that involved no algebra at all, but a lot of enforcement of social norms and some design stuff. It seemed a little silly, and I do think I would have been pretty pissed if I had failed and needed to both re-learn algebra and pay a fee to re-take the test.
Gaashk
4mo ago
No, I meant a literal house. With their hands.
Not in San Francisco or London or somewhere else where it's impossible, obviously.
There's someone within a mile of me who has been working on house building, and it's quite charming, and also quite cheap. I could add a little house on my property if I had skills (my lein holder has kind of encouraged this a bit when they made the loan). Permission asking is minimal.
Gaashk
1mo ago
The standards aren't super high for posting yourself. Just write a bit about why you find it interesting and a question, more or less. I'd prefer a short but new post to another wall of text.
Gaashk
11mo ago
How old are you? How old are the women you're interested in? What are they like? What path do you want the relationship to follow? Do you mostly want a girlfriend, or a wife? Would you consider having children in the next 5 years or so?
I mostly know more socially conservative women who want marriage or breakup within maybe a year of dating, and sex is not on the table until some commitment threshold has been crossed, much farther along the relationship than the first or second date. They are not on dating apps -- dating apps have a reputation of leading to pressure for sex sooner than they prefer, and difficulty establishing commitment. They meet potential husbands through hobby or religious in-person activities.
Sample size of 1: I (a woman) personally dislike branded clothing, including t-shirts with shows or hobbies or words of any kind, unless they're about half an inch high. But who knows, maybe you'll bond over your favorite band or something, this is not general advice.
If you have trouble with intense dates where you're just eating and staring at each other, consider some more active dates. I enjoyed walks in nature (interesting nature, with waterfalls), visiting places of historical interest, and moderate effort bar hopping, following happy hours around. It's creepy to be too intense about expressing interest, but it's fun to be invited to do something interesting with the message that the man wants to do it with you, in particular.
Gaashk
6d ago
I don't, it's very hard to learn, and I am not much good at languages. I learned enough to do things like go shopping, hire a cab, or give an extremely basic toast.
It wasn't too bad -- most communities have at least a couple of English speakers, and will go find them. Most older people know some Russian, and younger people know some English. We were part of a government volunteer program specifically to provide English speakers for people to practice with. The latter goal had mixed success in my case, since I'm more introverted than ideal for the role. I went to a lot of occasions where I just didn't know what anyone was saying most of the time, but didn't really mind it.
Gaashk
15d ago
I got involved in an argument on the Nextdoor platform with someone who's working on opening a cannabis and dog gift shop in our very small local shopping area, that currently only has three things in it, despite the nearest town (6 min drive) already having about 8 dispensaries. Mostly, I want an ordinance saying they can't have giant green flags in an otherwise beige setting, huge leaves on their signs, and other attention grabbing street side signage. My opinions aren't very strong on the substance itself, other than I tried it a couple of times and it did nothing for me. I don't care for getting drunk, either, but drink a cocktail occasionally for the aesthetic presentation.
Gaashk
25d ago
I don't trust Western institutions to report on this issue fairly
...Well I'm not going to find original Romanian records.
The main personal stories I've heard from Romania in that era were through Orthodox priests talking to other priests and more visible Christians who had lived there, and the enforcement of atheism sounded pretty brutal, so my baseline is "enforcement of preferred state outcomes was pretty brutal."
I think the correct posture here is one of epistemic humility. The birth rate went up. This was due to state policy. Everything else is mostly noise.
To the extent that you're simply observing a fact, and not making any policy proposals, I suppose. And the USSR did make it through WWII intact and modernize significantly under Stalin. No judgement. Everything else is mostly noise.
Gaashk
27d ago
So sorry for posting. What was I even thinking?
I'll respond down there.
I was thinking something similar. Here's what I'd propose. Drug companies can't sell drugs to Americans at a price more than 5x what they sell to Germans. For the same reason, I'd like to propose a 10 strikes and you're out law for career criminals. Pruning the most egregious misconduct can create a lot of value at relatively little cost.
That sounds plausible enough, I'd probably vote for either if they were options.
Gaashk
27d ago
I feel like the standards have increased to the point where people are afraid to post
looks at three previous top level posts Two deserved to get pruned, and two top level posts in an hour is a bit dodgy.
I do kind of miss the bare links thread, since I mostly get my news from here, though I realize that's my own fault.
So why is the United States paying for > 100% of global pharma research? And how can we fix the glitch?
I would potentially be open to a regulation that companies can't sell drugs to Americans at a higher cost than they sell them to Germans, though there's probably some reason why that wouldn't work. Even in America, it'll be worth having in the long run, so I wouldn't want to discourage the process entirely.
Gaashk
1mo ago
I struggled for years partly because traditional art education is all crap and not at all geared towards people who naturally think analytically. Now that I'm learning how to take apart drawings the same way I take apart programs I'm starting to see a lot of progress and I'm way more confident in my ability to keep going.
That's interesting. I teach art, and admittedly have basically nothing to offer the kids who want to learn anime styles. Even the illustration markers make me twitchy (I hate so much that I can't guess how long they'll last, as an expensive drawing supply I have to ration between hundreds of children). I remember an interaction back when I was taking drawing as a teen too, between the teacher and a student who really wanted to draw anime, which was basically "I'm not teaching that, do you want to learn what I am teaching?" And she kind of did learn it, but seemed grumpy and not like she was heading the direction she wanted.
Do you have any examples of instructional materials that worked well for you?
Gaashk
3mo ago
I hadn’t seen that before, thanks. Its looking promising but imperfect so far, like Youtube auto captions.
Gaashk
3mo ago
Possibly so, there’s nothing to say even a more functional democracy than ours currently is needs to optimize entirely for economics.
Gaashk
8mo ago
We're wondering if we should try to have a third child or not. Currently we have two daughters, 4 and 1.5, and I'm 36. If we were going to try, it had better be soon. Several of my mid-thirties friends are currently pregnant with a third baby, and some others have already had three or four. I feel worried about getting pregnant, but there might be something wrong with the baby, since I'm getting older?
Gaashk
9mo ago
Teacher's certificates are already not required to teach in private schools, or charter schools in some states. In some states, it's quite easy to get a teaching certificate -- people with a BA can attend night school while teaching full time (and the classes aren't all that hard). Difficult while raising young kids, but otherwise not too bad.
These states do not have better test scores. These states still have teacher shortages.
It's fine with me to let people with a Bachelor's in something, anything, teach in their area of competence. The teaching programs I've participated in were not particularly grounded in reality. But this is extremely unlikely to make things significantly better, because the cushy jobs for smart slackers (which is to say, the jobs where the main job is communicating information, rather than "community building and classroom management") already have adequate teachers. And that community building and classroom management is not particularly about intelligence. It's basically orthogonal to academic ability.
Gaashk
9mo ago
One of my friends was asked to help develop parts of a national curriculum and tells me that teachers are pretty stupid, allergic to nuance and don't even follow the curriculum that much. Not all teachers and so on... But it was like there was some vast Power that was inserting errors of fact, errors of punctuation, errors of logic into the curriculum, that my friend was swimming against the tide. Endless anecdotes of frustration at incompetence.
My impression is that your friend, while plausibly smarter than the teachers in question, is actually a net negative for the system.
Given the facts on the ground (teachers as a class are intellectually average), one would most want to leverage that averageness by having them learn to teach one thing, and then they keep teaching that one thing over and over again, and don't change it without a really good reason.
This is actually pretty satisfying for average intelligence people when it works. For a while, I worked at Starbucks. There are a lot of really short, satisfying interactions. A person wants a desert latte. The barista makes the desert latte exactly as instructed. The person gets exactly what they expect. Everyone is happy (most of the time), or perhaps eventually realizes that the drinks are silly, but doesn't blame the barista, they probably made it in keeping with the recipe. There were also some other positions that were scripted, but basically fine. Things got bad when we had a lot of down time, everyone was bored and someone would suggest deep cleaning something without proper training. This is a reasonable job for average and slightly below average intelligence people.
It would be very reasonable to teach a slightly below average intelligence person who's generally responsible and decent with kids how to, for instance, teach 7 year olds phonics. There are several curricula, they mostly seem just fine, she could become an expert in teaching 7 year olds phonics according to some specific just fine curriculum curriculum. It's satisfying seeing a kid go from not connecting letters to sounds, to connecting letters to sounds. The kids feels good about it, the teacher feels good about it, they get a good performance review, perhaps they get a pay raise.
I have a degree in teaching in my specific subject area. They taught us the subject area. They taught us... who to write essays about John Dewy, and some formats one could use to write lesson plans, if anyone ever asks, which they don't... Well, they taught us our subject matter, anyway. But they did not actually teach us very much about teaching our subject matter to kids, and the standards change every couple of years anyway, so I just kind of make stuff up that seems kind of like a watered down version of what I learned about the subject, and keep tinkering with it when it doesn't work.
This is absurd.
Personally, I kind of like designing curriculum, so I don't mind that I'm just making everything up myself. But also, that's absurd. Maybe I'm making up complete nonsense -- someone who doesn't know my content area comes in to check once a year, to see if it looks like I'm teaching something that seems kind of reasonable (actually, to make sure there isn't too much chaos). Why is each teacher making their own Philosophy of Education? I like philosophy, and it was still a waste of my time, because the constraints are pretty tight, so we're really going for optimization more than creativity.
If the problem is that teachers aren't that bright, then they should learn A Curriculum, for something pretty constrained, and learn to teach it well. It will be fine if all seven year olds just learn to behave appropriately, and to connect sounds to letters really strongly, and then the rest of the time is enrichment or something. All the smart sneering people tinkering with the curriculum every year, so that all the average intelligence teachers are trying to learn it as they teach every year is a significant part of the problem.
This is, ultimately, my problem with the review as well. Two hour essays on shiny new conceptualizations instead of "here are ten great stories to read to an eight year old, including the best adaptation." Everyone already wants to tell the kids stories. That is not where the weakness lies at all, even a little bit.
Gaashk
9mo ago
Is there any good Christian music (rock, folk, country) out there? I hear songs here and there, but a lot of it isn’t very good.
What's some music you like in general?
There's lots of great old folk in the "Wayfaring Stranger" camp. Lots of God-haunted classic country.
Not in those genres, but very American feel -- I had this on repeat through a long Utah road trip: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WQIbsm8VVLg
Despite some well eared mockery of Devil Music, the church ladies of a couple generations back may have been right that rock does not mesh so well with Christianity, and it's really hard to get true Christian rock that isn't kind of stupid. I listen to Christian pop anyway, out of nostalgia (Gungor, Andrew Peterson, "Build a Boat" by Colton Dixon "Kyrie Eleison" by Citizens...), but will not vouch for any of it being good
Of course they do. Their own home, mostly.
Yeah, I was homeschooled in a conservative community, so I have a lot of experience with not understanding references. It isn't really that big a deal? Or, rather, we get to choose which references we get vs not, based on how we spend our time. I now understand a lot of culture war references from spending time here. Bravo, me. Very rich.
Lol. Your daughter is smart at math. Congratulations. But don't belittle the majority with passing dismissive remarks.
And you feel very self-satisfied about this. It bolsters your self image as a very good and cultured person, who deserves a good life and family and job. You start a Substack. It is a nice hobby. You belong to a very pleasant book club. Is it a better hobby than joining a sports team? How would one know?
Or you go to a Great Books college and engage in a perpetual book club for several years, then work at a grocery store for a while to be near your community, then teach for a bit, notice that algebra is not easy for everyone, marry and raise children, spend time at the park with the children, unschool them while feeling a bit lonely. Are still a nice person to have in the book club, but can't come for a decade or so, on account of the children.
This is all fine. I've lived like this, and have no problem with it. But it's unclear that one child seeks out Dostoyevsky and another basketball primarily on account of education or conscious choices, vs personality and proclivities.
Are you basing this on actual people you know? If so, how old are they? I come from a "read Les Miserables in second grade" kind of family, and it's fine. I have nothing against it. But am not sure it's important, based on the fact that I spend my free time on Internet forums, full of rich references and people complaining about Moloch (a multi-level reference!) eating everything.
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