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WhiningCoil

Ghost of Quokka's Future

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joined 2022 September 04 23:24:47 UTC
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WhiningCoil


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Ghost of Quokka's Future

				
				
				

				

					6 followers  

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					joined 2022 September 04 23:24:47 UTC
				


				
					

					
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's in a taxable account.  Every time I consider selling, the question I have to ask myself is "Is where ever else I'd put the money worth the 15% haircut?"  Basically I'm looking for an upside over Nvidia of at least 15%.


The answer continues to be "no".  It was "no" when it doubled, it was "no" when it 10x'ed, it was no then it crossed $200/share and I'd 50x'ed.  If it ever hits $400/share and I've 100x'ed it will pobably still be "no".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
AMD also doesn't care about the desktop.  For a time it looked like Intel might make an effort, but the rumors are consistently that they've killed that line of products.


Nobody is coming to save us.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I donno man.  I took to coding like a fish to water.  And "coding" is really like, a half dozen skills put together.  It's knowing the language you want to code in.  It's knowing the ecosystem of libraries that probably do most of the work for you.  It's having some knowledge, if imperfect, of what's probably going on under the hood with respect to threads, memory, disk access, garbage collection, etc.  It's knowing how not to code yourself into a dead end, or unfuck yourself if you find yourself there.


It actually reminds me how woodworking isn't just cutting and assembly wood.  It's making a design, picking out planks, milling to s4s, factoring in wood movement, sanding, finishing.  The part most people think of as "woodworking" might actually be 5% of the task.  It's the exciting part most youtube woodworkers focus on.  But it's still probably the smallest part of the job.


And I went to school to learn how to code.  I'm not sure I'd recommend that mid career.  Maybe take some online classes.  Open source can be intimidating, but I think contributing to it did more than anything to grow my skills and increase my confidence.  Diving into a foreign, mature code base and learning how they do things is also a huge part of the job.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
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and outside data center construction, the economy has been more or less flat for about six quarters now.




If you can't beat them join them.


I was watching a Gamers Nexus video ranting about Nvidia abandoning the PC market.  He was enraged, and I felt his rage.  I like PCs too!  I'd like to enjoy building a new one again, with brand new screaming fast parts I'm excited to take for a spin.


Alas, the angrier Steve gets, the more money Nvidia makes, and I've certainly enjoyed my 5000% gains and my new dividend that's over 20% of my initial investment yearly.  When your cost basis is $4, a $1 yearly dividend feels insane.  I know that's not how you do the math, but it's still wild to think about.


So I'm talking to my wife about that, and how it feels a little wrong to be doing so well off of a company that is acting so against my principles and interest.  But damnit, I've got bills to pay, and I'm not gonna be the only chump not getting my bag.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You should read until the end of my post.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was trying to google whatever happened to that guy who ran down a Christmas parade.  I remembered almost no details about it.  Not the name, location, etc.  Google's LLM was adamant that no black man had ever done anything like that, and explicitly said only white people had.  It was only displaying search results about Charlottesville, and how the guy who did it got what was coming to him.  I was trying to put together a rebuttal to a post last week or two on the Charlottesville Unite the Right incident.  I think Google somehow knew that, because all the LLM summaries were preemptive rebuttals to the information I was attempting to find.


It made me highly skeptical of the narrative being pushed by the OP's "exhaustive" research.  Especially when my own search attempts were so heavily guard railed to keep me on narrative.


I fucking hate this brave new world.


I did eventually find the information, and now for whatever reason it comes up readily.  It was Darrell Brooks and he attacked a Waukesha Christmas Parade.  He got the book thrown at him.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
By that definition the America I grew up in has been genocided.


Which I do actually believe, but I'd appreciate if an ounce of worry for Ukraine was spared for the remnants of my peoples.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
So funny story.  I've finally been pressed into using AI at work.  I work on a closed network, but they run an LLM locally, so I basically use it the same way I use google these days, since all search engines have turned into LLMs.  It's good enough when I have a quick question about syntax I've forgotten, or an API I can't access the documentation for.  I still refuse on principle to have it write any code for me though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I had more or less the exact same impression of the final season of Stranger Things.  I get people who were too turned off by it's obvious inferior quality to immerse themselves in the 40 minute farewell to these kids we watched grow up.  But damnit, I was still a sucker for it.  Especially Dustin.  I think he was the only "child" actor who was still even trying.  Finn Wolfhard sure as shit wasn't.


I'm not sure what 90's nostalgia looks like.  I'm not sure they ever really went away.  We still have all the same video game genres, more or less frozen in time from the 90's minus how they've been mutated into live services or mobile games.  Virtually every IP from the 90's has been rebooted.  Honestly the 90's might have been the last time the nation had a more or less common culture before the internet killed it, and so in many ways it remains hovering over us like a ghost.  Not entirely relevant anymore, but never entirely displaced either.


But who knows, maybe people who came of age in the 80's felt the same way.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Consider for a moment that Jury's aren't random samplings.  And these juries were probably specifically selected for being push overs and afraid to be "mean".  Best way to get an acquittal is to put people on the jury utterly incapable of dealing out even just punishment if it hurts a feeling.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is there any belief by any serious thinker that this is a war of genocide?


Ukraine gets to choose between being Russia's puppet state and being used as a buffer between it and NATO, or being NATOs puppet state and filled with Africans.  Such is the fate of minor nations.  There will almost certainly be more Ukrainians in three generations under Russian dominion than NATO.  Unless you stretch the definition of Ukrainian to mean anyone on Ukranian soil, but then what was the point of keeping Russians out if you can just change the meaning of words and suddenly everyone is Ukranian?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If I'm in an MMA match, and I'm put in an armbar, and I don't tap, did the guy I'm fighting break my arm, or did I make him break my arm?


What if NATO is on the sidelines yelling at me that I can still win this thing?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Generally I make all the decisions, in so far as spending/saving is a decision.  Lately it hasn't felt like much a decision, with multiple random and unpredictable 4 figure bills falling out of the fucking sky each month this year.  Mostly been treading water month to month through major mechanical, home and health related bills.


That said, the savings are generally "my" savings in that I've allocated and managed them.  I've managed some of my wife's money from before we were married, or come up with plans about what she should do with it aside from leaving it in a savings account forever.  But she's hyper risk averse, so it's unlikely to ever move.  At least I got her to move it from a 0.01% "savings" account to a "high yield" account 10 years ago.  Even that nearly gave her a panic attack.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Yet the most central part of ensuring the continued existence of a sovereign Swedish state, i.e. the creation of a new generation of Swedes, is apparently not even a moral, let alone a legal, duty on the part of the citizen? Everyone is expected to die fighting the Russians, but it's wholly acceptable to make choices whose aggregate consequences ends with Sweden going the way of the Dodo? That old Goldfinger-line pops into my head. "You expect me to have children?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" Really, what is the point of this gung-ho never-surrender sentiment, and for that matter all the increases in defence spending in Europe, if we're just going to allow death to conquer us all from within? There are ideas here which should be connected, yet they seem to lie strewn all about in disorder in a way that's both frustrating and disheartening to see.




So I was listening to Gad Saad on Joe Rogan recently, not really haven't heard about anything he's done since probably 2018 or so.  And he's laying out his thesis about a parasitic idea.  This thing you see that causes such a strong emotional reaction, it overrides your entire brain and even your survival instinct, and your priorities, even your identity, is replaced.  And by example, he brings up Queers for Palestine.  Joe, seemingly entirely missing the point, just rebuts "Yeah, but what if they've seen the images coming out of Gaza that are so upsetting, they feel irresistibly compelled to be angry about it and protest it?"  With much sympathy for this perspective.  Yes Joe, that is precisely the "parasitic idea" infection vector being described, thank you for participating.  And he goes on missing the point for another 90 minutes or so.


But I digress.  Everything about this national behavior sounds like a country hijacked by a civilization scale parasite.  The country possesses zero survival instinct, even to propagate itself into another generation.  And yet it happily throws it's blood and treasure away on... what exactly?  Ukraine also committing suicide, but faster?  Giving all the land to Africans faster?  It's absolutely baffling.


It's a shame one way or another billions will die before either the parasite wins, or the parasite is exterminated with gigadeaths of collateral damage.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks for the archive.


Reading the article as best I can, I tune out with the emote:fact ratio skews over 75%, it sounds like she's observing what happens when something deeply personal to you becomes a meme and the normies flood in and start LARPing, because yes, somehow, someway, Orthodox Christianity has become a meme.  When my wife and I were searching for a parish, and deciding what type of Christian we wanted to become, we witnessed some of this.  There was this weird, redpill, manosphere, Orthobro social media vertical that kept peeking out of the algorithm in a way we didn't see with other varieties.  We saw clips of popular Orthodox priests trying to split the difference between welcoming these brain rotted, too online individuals into the faith, but also begging them to leave that shit at the door and forget everything they read or saw online.


As much as I want to dunk on another entitled woman who wants to modernity for she but not for thee... she's probably not bullshitting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think I have about $3000 ish in a safe.  But sometimes it gets dipped into and not replenished when we are too lazy to hit an atm.


That said, the safe also has about $20k in gold though.  Didn't mean to, but 6 oz appreciated in value a lot the last 10 years.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Were I to try to hook up with random women, it would be exhausting, inefficient, and likely disgusting.  But I think you underestimate the world Gigachad lives in.  Imagine a world where you can ask very nearly any woman, assuming they don't offer first, to suck you dick and they just do.  No foreplay, no buttering them up, no having to pretend to be someone you aren't.  For reasons you fail to appreciate, you have something they want, and they are of the belief that if they suck your dick good enough, or empty your balls aggressively enough, you'll give it to them.  And the line of women leaping at the chance to try to fuck you until you love them, no matter how much shit you give them back, is inexhaustible.


You basically have to imagine the default female experience of having too many available options coming at them from every direction, except most men treat it like the dream life it is instead of somehow still finding something to complain about.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
All reading about all this dysfunction does is make me wonder why anyone participates at all.  Where is the Indian Bill Gates or Steve Jobs who sees money on the table, drops out, and changes the world?


But that just takes us right back to the big obvious question.  If India has so many great engineers, doctors, scientist, etc, why can't they achieve great things in India?  Why do they need to come here with all the externalities they bring with them?


What you are describing is not an education system, it's a system for fleeing the country and/or other Indians.  Because for whatever reason, nothing can be achieved in India.  So everyone with any sense at all has one goal, get out by any means necessary.  The rest will sort itself out later.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sorry for the late reply.  Been busy, but circling back to this has been on my todo list.


I mentioned Scott Adams because before LLMs were even a thing, his world view was basically that people don't think at all.  They are hypnotized by language.  They think in words, and those words can be used to completely hijack their consciousness, hypnotizing them.  In his world view, people were only barely capable of a defense against this at best.  And even at people's best, because our entire world model is often built on language, it ends up with all sorts of terrible pathways being laid down that are horribly wrong because of words and how lossy an abstraction they can be.  Choose the right name for something, and even with firsthand experience telling them otherwise, people will walk away believing the opposite of reality.


All the shortcomings of human cognition that Scott Adams pioneered broad public awareness of pre-LLMs sound a whole awful lot like all the ways LLMs are shit these days.  I never really followed up much with Scott Adams the last few years of his life.  I don't know if he ever chased down this avenue too, but I hope he did.


I'll be deeply curious if LLMs can be trained to be better next token predictors than the humans that deny they are in the first place.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I invested in Intel over a span from 2021 to 2024 with the thesis that Pat Gelsinger would turn them around, and also that some powers that be would realize we shouldn't keep all our chip fabricating eggs in one basket off the coast of China.  I ate shit on that thesis for 5 long years of continuously losing money.


I'm up 300% of of today.


And this is why I go long and don't fuck with contracts.


Also, I doubt it's going to stick, so now I'm considering my exits.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Objectively, humans are next token predictors.  Watch a child trying to negotiate another cookie, or a man trying to get laid.  Watch any politician, or their media mouthpieces.  Go back and read what Scott Adams said about master persuaders and hallucinations.


I know we like to think we're rational beings with the scientific method.  But that might account for like, 0.00001% of human cognition or less.  And I'm curious how often LLMs might stumble on a deep scientific truth with pure dumb luck and token matching.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I finished my protracted play through of StarCraft 2.  Took me a few months of on again off again play.


The Terran campaign I played on normal, and it was easy to the point of being tedious and boring.  I definitely feel like some pussification happened in the difficulty, and "hard" became normal, normal became easy, and easy became "This is mathematically impossible to lose unless you are a game journalist".


The Zerg campaign I played entirely on hard, and that felt about right.


The Protoss campaign I started on hard, but towards the end I caved and had to switch to normal.  They just throw too many high level units at you when all you start off with are zealots and stalkers.  Also too many obnoxious defense missions where it feels like Protoss are just too squishy on defense.  I forget which mission it was that finally broke me and caused me to switch to normal, but it was some defense mission where your allies start off covering your east, west and south entrances, and you get repeatedly hammered from all three directions.


Then I played the epilogue on normal, because I'd already switched, and also the Nova mini campaign.  They felt alright on normal.  At least not tediously boring like the Terran campaign on normal.


All in all, it was alright I guess.  I had to obsessively watch every dialog because I can't help myself.  Which really slowed things down because the game feels like 50% dialog and 50% gameplay.  The story beats of "Cure Kerrigan of her Zerg infestation, then re-Zerg her, then she saves the universe" was as dumb as it always was.  Especially with that being the penultimate climax of the Terran campaign, and then completely undone halfway through the Zerg campaign.  It reminds me of all those show runners that end season 1 on this show altering cliff hanger/climax, and then completely chicken out and backtrack in the first episode of season 2.  Like in Santa Clarita Diet when the first season builds up towards Drew Barrymore turning into a feral zombie, and then in the first 30 minutes of the next season they cure her and go a completely different direction with the story.


It also got pretty tedious how every campaign is some weird neoliberal fanfiction about all these different peoples coming together in a melting pot where all their differences actually make them strong enough to defeat the big bad.  In every single campaign.  I don't remember StarCraft 1 being remotely that obnoxious and one note.  Oh well.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nobody can agree on all cause excess mortality statistics, and whether its a signal, noise, or potential causes.  We already lived this.


Thanos snap people turn to dust or everyone pretends nothing happened.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I also enjoyed season 4.  Season 5 was lazy slop.  But it was at least better than the last season of Game of Thrones and didn't entirely and retroactively ruin the show for me.  Its a low bar to clear, but many shows fail it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How do you even know the button did anything then?  That's just the normal end we all get.