Obsidian
1yr ago
I'm strongly against this kind of artificial legibility. It can enable newcomers to perform acquaintance of the community far beyond where they're at.
Keep things hidden in plain sight lest you scrap the pipeline.
Obsidian
1yr ago
Yes, the concept of passing is contradictory with many other trans related concepts but it's often not seen because the whole of the trans movement is half dozen totally incompatible frameworks glued together while every tries their best to ignore the seams.
Either this is self-evident, in which case why post it? Or it's not, and you ought to unfold.
Obsidian
1yr ago
Definitely one of the most important posts to have come out of old Motte.
Obsidian
11mo ago
I've been circling this idea of a "government bank account", for allocating resources to government services in an equitable way.
The idea goes, just because services are government-administered doesn't mean they aren't subject to scarcity. And the disconnect between user and payer means that people use services with no regard to cost, and providers operate with no regard to quality. If only we could subject this to market dynamics!
The libertarian runs with this and says that all services should be paid for in cash (and removed from the aegis of the government, for good measure). But then people are shut out of public life, compounding inequality and misery over generational time scales.
If we're not going to entirely jettison the idea of a welfare state (which I would rather not; alle Menschen werden Brüdern and what not), then I would suggest a second currency, one which accrues regardless of work or merit, and which legally cannot be traded away.
This puts to the people some interesting questions. Would you rather go to work via the toll road, or heat your home hotter? Would you rather cash a welfare check, or receive end-of-life care?^1
The parallels to the Chinese social credit system are elucidating: whereas they've turned their whole society into a prolonged exam (they love taking exams), I'm proposing an exercise in private property x inalienable rights.
This also opens up more palatable avenues wrt congestion pricing, private/public competition, etc. Probably does interesting things to the meta of democracy but I haven't thought that part through.
^1 Yes, we Québécois receive electricity and healthcare as government services. To be frank, I don't know why you'd do it any other way.
Obsidian
6mo ago
I can't parse half of the stuff in this comment but I'd love to hear you go on at length about it. Have you thought of going on The Bailey?
Obsidian
1yr ago
I never thought I'd say this - and this is 100% earnest - but the main thing this place suffers from is insufficient bullying.
Obsidian
3mo ago
Read The World Beyond Your Head. Might get you out of your rut, might, not, either way it's interesting thought on the topic of discipline, motivation and flourishing.
Obsidian
1yr ago
I have no answer for you but I feel like plugging that Unsong has such a scene.
Great book, edited wrong. It evens out.
Obsidian
1yr ago
"Articulated and defended clearly" is much easier when working from a shared base of facts, OR when outsiderness is evident.
Obsidian
1yr ago
There isn't some Platonic ideal of a Mottian which one can possess or not.
I think as a community we should refuse to welcome anyone who hasn't read 100,000 words on SSC, but that's just me. It's not about seniority, it's about (in venerable internet lingo) LURKING MOAR.
Obsidian
1yr ago
I'm not worried about enabling trolls, I'm worried about enabling larpers. There are a number of them on the site already, but as of right now they're not too hard to pick out from the crowd.
Obsidian
1yr ago
It comes down to relative power. If you can make a weapon that lets any idiot (or, eventually, no idiot) destroy a main battle tank unassisted, then you don't need to worry very much about military training when facing tanks. Repeat mutatis mutandis for infantry, planes, drones, etc.
My take is that the West - including Turkey - is providing weapons to Ukraine that are decisively superior to what Russia is fielding.
Obsidian
11mo ago
Because then you're back to giving people money and selling government services, with everything that implies (inequality, disproportionately privileging people with low time preference, etc)
Obsidian
11mo ago
It is paternalistic and egalitarian.
Obsidian
1yr ago
You have to go balls to the wall. 5k runs and vinyasa yoga really do it for me, as do actual sports.
Obsidian
1yr ago
learn sheet music notation or just play songs until it sounds right
These are just variants on "whole word instruction for music". Take the Gary Karpinski pill, start with takadimi and scale degree syllables/movable-do solmization. Absolute cheat code for music, much in the way that phonics is the cheat code for the written word.
Obsidian
1yr ago
I think something important is lost when someone picks up the signifiers but not the signified. Signals get muddled. I'm just advocating for high-context culture.
Obsidian
1yr ago
It's too involved of a relationship.
That pattern sounds dangerous, both in this specific instance and in the more general case.
You can definitely take "trust but verify" too far, especially with friends and romantic partners (rather than professional associates).
I think high-tech weaponry has fundamentally reshaped warfare, though the final word isn't written on this.
"unbounded supply of Javelins, Stingers and Bayraktars" is the new "reserve of fresh, high-morale troops". Maybe.
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