nomagicpill
User ID: 3578
nomagicpill
3mo ago
Admittedly, I was too entranced with the cinematography and thinking back on my forest to notice (or even think about) how the historical accuracy.
My take on the suffering piece is that sometimes suffering just happens for no good reason and it never gets better.
nomagicpill
3mo ago
Man, he really likes Colin Farrell and Emma Stone!
nomagicpill
3mo ago
So, what is everyone watching (films, shows, even YouTube if you think it counts)?
I've seen two movies recently:
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The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017): This is the second Lanthimos film I've seen after Bugonia and Dogtooth, the former of which I loved and the latter of which was meh. KSD felt like it was awkwardly edgy and vague, but I very well may have missed the point. The actors did an excellent job of making me feel uncomfortable throughout. 4.2/10 enjoyment, give me those hours of my life back.
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Train Dreams (2025): I've always enjoyed movies about everyday, simple lives (I don't have any others off the top of my head, but I know they exist). This one resonated with me because of a forest in my life, one that I half-seriously say I grew up in through mountain biking, trail running, airsoft battles, exploring, fort-building, and general elementary and teenage debauchery. 8.1/10 enjoyment, give me those years of my life back. I was a bit surprised everyone else's ratings were so high, though.
nomagicpill
3mo ago
I've seen a few examples of lawyers praising AI for its legal mind. What does it get wrong in your experience?
nomagicpill
3mo ago
I have a very long bookmark list and go through it in lieu of doomscrolling Twitter, Facebook, etc.
nomagicpill
3mo ago
The Linux quip was because of the post’s top comment saying the same thing :)
nomagicpill
3mo ago
I can't find any prediction markets for when the strike will end. Does anybody know of any? I'm surprised it lasted this long.
nomagicpill
3mo ago
Here's everything I read in January 2026, ordered from most to least interesting. I posted this on /r/slatestarcodex earlier, but figured the overlap between here and there is small enough that it would be of some value to post here as well.
- My Apartment Art Commission Process: jenn details how she captures her apartments in digital art form. It even includes an email template!
- "Everything's Expensive" is Negative Social Contagion: Justis argues that saying such things makes people think the economy is bad, resulting in "facially insane political choices". I'd be curious if there is any literature on this as a social contagion, i.e., even if prices aren't up that much, does saying "everything's expensive" lead to said political choices? Regardless, he's probably right that it's just better to leave it alone.
- Sand Hill Road: "notable for its concentration of venture capital firms.[2] The road has become a metonym for that industry; nearly every top Silicon Valley company has been the beneficiary of early funding from firms on Sand Hill Road." There are a shocking number of VC firms on this road!
- CIA taught Ukraine how to target Putin’s Achilles heel: "A CIA expert had identified a coupler device that is so difficult to replace that it could lead to a facility remaining shut for weeks."
- The McUltra: Riding 500 km around a McDonald's drivethru.
- Notes on Afghanistan: Matt Lakeman visits Afghanistan.
- Does Pentagon Pizza Theory Work?: RBA scrapes Twitter and backtests it against major military actions, finding that... well, Betteridge can answer that for you.
- Don't Get Sucked Into The Thoughtful Gesture Industrial Complex: CHH argues that we gotta stop upping the ante on gift-giving, else the reasonable people among us will be either forced in or unable to say no because it will make them look like assholes. I agree! What happened to simple gift giving? Why must everything be extravagant? If anything, we should be going the opposite way to save money!
- The Militia and the Mole: "A wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover, climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell his family or friends."
- The art of cold-emailing a billionaire
- Dating Roundup #9: Signals and Selection: "You're single because... [insert a bunch of reasons in a bulleted list format]".
- Third rail (politics): "a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable" to the extent that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically. The metaphor comes from the high-voltage third rail in some electric railway systems."
- US Data Incidence Calculator: Go see just how (un)realistic your standards are! Or compliment your partner on how they're literally 1 in a number.
- Do travel visa requirements impede tourist travel?: "Yes. Using a travel visa data set developed by Lawson and Lemke (2012) and travel flow data from the World Bank and the UN’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), we investigate the deterrent effect of travel visa requirements on travel flows. At the aggregate level, a one standard deviation more severe travel visa regime, as measured, is associated with a 30 % decrease in inbound travel. At the bilateral level, having a travel visa requirement on a particular country is associated with a 70 % reduction in inbound travel from that country. The gains associated with eliminating travel visas appear to be very large."
- Alternative lifestyle choices work great - for alternative people: Pretty self-explanatory title. Alt lifestyles only really work for people on the fringes, and chances are you're not one of them. Examples include polyamory, drugs, sex-positive feminism, psychotherapy, gender transition, following your dreams, amateur pornography, and being a Linux user.
- The Champagne Toasting Problem: niplav tries to figure out the best way to toast champagne in as few moves as possible.
- The Importance of Diversity: Hotz argues that open-source AGI is the only way to go, lest the big tech owners integrate their personal values and people don't like that. (Thanks to Daily Links for the link!)
- No joy in life can survive reductionism
- 2026 Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity Airline Water Study: "The 2026 Airline Water Study ranks 10 major and 11 regional airlines by the quality of water they provided onboard flights during a three-year study period (October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2025). Each airline was given a “Water Safety Score” (5.00 = highest rating, 0.00 = lowest) based on five weighted criteria, including violations per aircraft, Maximum Contaminant Level violations for E. coli, indicator-positive rates, public notices, and disinfecting and flushing frequency. A score of 3.5 or better indicates that the airline has relatively safe, clean water and earns a Grade A or B. ... Delta Air Lines and Frontier Airlines win the top spots with the safest water in the sky ... airlines with the worst score are American Airlines and JetBlue"
- Don't Sell Stock to Donate: Why donating a stock directly is superior to donating the proceeds of selling that stock. You guessed it: taxes!
- Learners will inherit the earth: Adapt to AI or get left in the dust.
- To be well-calibrated is to be punctual
- The Old Year, and The New: 2026: Joshua shares his goals for 2026 and plans to achieve them.
- Toys with the highest play-time and lowest clean-up-time
- Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of the AP3 Militia
- Bacha bazi: "a pederastic practice in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan, in which men exploit and enslave adolescent boys, sometimes for sexual abuse, and/or coerce them to cross-dress in attire traditionally only worn by women and girls and dance for entertainment."
- Cloak of Muhammad: "a relic hidden inside Kirka Sharif in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It is a cloak believed to have been worn by the Islamic prophet Muhammad during the Night Journey in 621 AD."
- "I Found My People!": Amanda argues for social bubbles.
- Reflections on Peru and Bolivia: Caplan talks about his South American travels, especially from an economic lens.
- Making Money on OnlyFans Is a Lot Harder Than You Think: They work a lot and competition is stiff.
- What do you think you're hiding?: Either post your Strava map or don't post at all.
- Weasel Heart-To-Heart: Weaseling in Beeminder is where you mark that you did something when you really didn't, which defeats the whole purpose! Chelsea discusses the slippery slope to weaseling and what can (and should!) be done to get out of that weasely hole.
- Raymond Allen Davis incident: CIA contractor (apparently Pakistan station chief) killed two men. A rescue car also killed a third man. Davis was taken into custody and the U.S. paid $2.5MM of diyah to the victims' families.
- Most successful entrepreneurship is unproductive
- Travis Kalanick: Founder and former CEO of Uber. Crazy work ethic and expectations for Uber staff during the initial startup phase. Some interesting tidbits: "Kalanick also made a point of undermining potential investments into competitor Lyft, poaching them for Uber." "Executives were known to expense strip club visits to corporate accounts, a practice jokingly referred to as "Tits on Travis"." "Kalanick's experiences with investors at Scour and Red Swoosh had made him wary of investors who might interfere with his control of Uber, so he ensured that the terms for these and future investments strongly favored himself and Uber. He strictly limited the amount of financial information investors could access, and the shares for new investors had a tenth of the voting power of the shares held by Kalanick, Camp, and Graves."
- Ryan Graves (businessman): Former CEO of Uber. Runs a family office called Saltwater.
- Total Knee Replacement Surgical Video: GORE WARNING.
- You Will Not Have a Flat Floor: You can shim all you want and it still won't be flat.
- Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit
- Mamdani Demotes NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch
- Yasslighting: "A pun based off the term gaslighting when a person or group of persons (typically a comment section) blatantly lie to gas up an ugly person trying to pull off a look they shouldn't with "yasss queen slay girl boss" energy. Typically this will be skinny girls telling fat girls they look amazing in skintight revealing outfits complimenting their "confidence" so that they can look better in comparison or handmaidens and trans people telling other trans people how awesome and feminine they look in anime outfits they got off wish or masculine they look while still in makeup, jewelry, and neon hair dye."
- Clipboard Normalization: Jeff standardizes his computer's clipboard with a handy homemade app that gets the style he wants.
- JANE STREET GROUP, LLC, v. MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC, DOUGLAS SCHADEWALD, and DANIEL SPOTTISWOOD
- How I rebooted my social life: Turns out if you invite people to stuff (and are an interesting person and have food/drink), people will probably come!
- 2025’s Biggest Vibe Shift: "Decorum is dead."
- Dushanbe Flagpole: 165 meters (541 feet) tall with a 700 kg flag!
- Wilderness Responsibility and Obligation to Others
- Chris Arnade
- The meaning of, and in, McDonald's: America's default community center.
- Please remember how strange this all is.: Toby talks about how complex and advanced our society is, and when you stop to think about it for a second, it's actually pretty freaking crazy. Flying pieces of metal traveling at 600 mph. Evolution. Our consciousness. Creating machine gods.
- "The first two weeks are the hardest": my first digital declutter
- Steinholding (sport): Hold a one-liter beer stein straight in front of you for as long as possible. This is a great party game, especially when a bunch of shit-talking, competitive guys are there.
- Mirwais Azizi: Afghanistan's richest man.
- Ah, f*ck. My friend travels like Anthony Bourdain.
- inside the hot girl economy: Living life as an attractive women in some of the top U.S. cities—NYC, Miami, etc.
- Supplement Stack of a Gold Medalist Rower (Part I): Plus a look at his typical day while both working and training for the Olympics. Supplements include creatine and sodium bicarb.
- "Why are you always so into chess?": Chess is equalizing, competitive, and cognitively beneficial.
- modern day social etiquette you should live & die by: Pretty basic stuff, but sometimes the basics serve as good reminders.
- 10 reasons why you should (definitely) use TikTok: TikTok is pretty bad and the reasons listed here are pretty fair. That being said, the challenges I've seen on there can look pretty fun!
- I Deleted My Second Brain
- Typing quickly saves a ton of time: Strong agree, and this type of cost-benefit analysis should be done more often. The same CBA can be done for removing typing and other small, short, adds-up-quickly tasks, like typing an email signature, sorting emails, texting, etc. Automate all of it!
- Journaling doesn't have to be aesthetic to be effective
- Bashi-bazouk: "'one whose head is turned, damaged head, crazy-head', roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army primarily enlisted Albanians and sometimes Circassians as bashi-bazouks,[1] but recruits came from all ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire, including slaves from Europe or Africa.[2] Bashi-bazouks had a reputation for being undisciplined and brutal, notorious for looting and preying on civilians as a result of a lack of regulation and of the expectation that they would support themselves off the land."
- Gregory Bovino: "American law enforcement officer who has served as a senior official in the United States Border Patrol since 2019."
- Was I Married to a Stranger?
- EXCLUSIVE: Federal Lab in Montana Reports Potential Theft, Loss, or Release of Dangerous Biological Agent
- Sacramento US attorney fired after questioning immigration raid speaks out
- Happiness Is a Chore
- 7 takeaways from Jack Smith’s congressional testimony: Smith built his case around Trump’s allies; Smith hadn’t made his final charging decisions; Lawmakers failed to knock Smith off his game; Smith forcefully rejected any hint of political bias; Smith didn’t pursue ‘uncooperative’ witnesses; Smith defends pursuit of lawmakers’ phone records; House GOP revel in Smith comments on Cassidy Hutchinson.
- Cassidy Hutchinson: "a former White House aide who served as assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the first Trump administration. Hutchinson testified at the June 28, 2022, public hearings of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack about President Donald Trump's alleged conduct and that of his senior aides and political allies before and during the January 6 United States Capitol attack."
- Jack Smith deposition
- Billy Graham rule: "a code of conduct among male evangelical Protestant leaders, in which they avoid spending time alone with women to whom they are not married. It is adopted as a display of integrity, a means of avoiding sexual temptation, to avoid any appearance of doing something considered morally objectionable, as well as for avoiding accusations of sexual harassment or assault."
- The Permanent Emergency: Scott describes life with two mischevious toddlers.
- Slippage (finance)
- Jeremy Hammond: Activist and computer hacker.
- Crocker's Rules: "other people are allowed to optimize their messages for information, not for being nice to you. Crocker's Rules means that you have accepted full responsibility for the operation of your own mind - if you're offended, it's your fault."
- Ilya Sutskever’s OpenAI equity could be worth $100 billion, court records reveal
- Messages between Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Brad Lightcap immediately following Sam's OpenAI ousting
- Jared Birchall: Elon Musk's adviser, fixer, and family office manager.
- County pays $600,000 to pentesters it arrested for assessing courthouse security
- Did photos of the 1917 Miracle of the Sun at Fatima prove the sun was at an impossible place in the sky?: Georgia does some pretty great analysis to find that Betteridge's Law strikes again!
- 23 lessons you will learn living in a very snowy place (Thanks to Daily Links for the link!)* Patrick J. Schiltz: "American lawyer and jurist serving since 2022 as the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota."
- Shiber v. Centerview Partners LLC, No. 1:2021cv03649 - Document 139 (S.D.N.Y. 2025): A woman sues an investment bank for not accommodating her disability of needing 8 hours of a sleep a night.
- ICE Unloads: Klippenstein receives negative complaints about recent events from current ICE officers.
- Stratfor: Intelligence publishing company for businesses interested in geopolitical risk.
- Double Down (sandwich): Sandwich with "two pieces of fried chicken fillet, as opposed to bread, containing bacon, cheese, and a sauce."
nomagicpill
3mo ago
Thanks for the clarification. I've read about five court opinions in my lifetime, so not very familiar with the standard structure.
nomagicpill
3mo ago
Isn’t Biery making the legal argument of “administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster”, i.e., the Fourth Amendment? Your claim of “exactly 0 legal arguments” seems exaggerated.
I ran the opinion through AI (Claude), and while it agrees that it’s heavy on rhetoric, it also said the 4A argument is strong.
Also, small typo in your appeals sentence: it should be “you’re”, as in “you are”, not “your” (possessive).
Also also, you may enjoy this joke: What's the difference between God and a federal judge? God doesn't think he's a federal judge!
nomagicpill
4mo ago
I'm looking for advice in terms of experience, literature, etc on switching careers due to an unsustainable lack of work-life balance (WLB) in my current job.
Overview and background of my current job:
- Role: I work as an engineer at a cutthroat manufacturing company and am responsible for multiple machines' performances and operability, i.e., if they aren't working properly then I'm responsible for fixing it. The industry and factory I'm at are notoriously difficult for WLB (which can be seen by the amount of divorcees, overweight, and unhappy people).
- Hours: I'm technically on call 24/7/365 except when on PTO and generally answer a text or call on weekends. Sometimes things are bad and I work 70-hour weeks, other times things are good and I only work 40-hour weeks.
- Stress: I get stressed easily because some problems are not easily solvable and there are very few people at the company who can help. It's basically just me, three technicians spread across the week, and another engineer at a different site who have the expertise and knowledge. I'm often on edge scared that something will break or my week or weekend free time will be ruined because of work. My romantic relationship is strained because of the recent craziness in my job.
- Support/help: I don't get much support from my boss or other engineers. We have a new hire in the group who I was hoping would take over some of my machines, but my boss is positioning him elsewhere despite me making it clear that I'm burnt out and overwhelmed.
- Pay: My salary is $100k with a yearly bonus of 10-20%, dependent on company performance
- Fulfillment: I am very fulfilled with my job when the stress is low. I get a lot of autonomy, work on cutting edge tech and interesting projects, and work with very smart people.
Questions for my fellow Mottizens:
- General thoughts on my situation and career?
- Have you ever taken a large pay cut for better WLB? Was it worth it?
- Is working fully remote worth it? I enjoy traveling and remote work seems extremely attractive for visiting family and friends in other cities on a regular basis.
- The job market appears to be atrocious right now. While I would definitely wait to quit my current role until I had an offer secured, would it be better to weather out the storm in case of layoffs happening soon after I joined another company?
nomagicpill
7mo ago
Thanks. I've started making new connections on LinkedIn in preparation haha.
Cost cutting definitely seems to be the reason, which sucks to hear/see when everyone is on track to get our max bonus payout this year.
nomagicpill
7mo ago
Cost savings seems to be the biggest one. Our 2Q demand was higher than expected but that appears to be because of tariffs, so Q3 and Q4 will likely be tough (in comparison to Q2 and YoY). They've also started pushing AI onto us in hopes of making everyone more efficient.
nomagicpill
7mo ago
Noted. I'm definitely worried about getting drowned out in the noise of said swipers. I'll read up on the "application algos" and see what I can do to help get past them. Thanks!
nomagicpill
7mo ago
This is a great idea. Thanks!
I should clarify that I'm not a developer, but an equipment and process engineer in a semiconductor fab, so tech-y but not "tech" in the traditional sense. Regardless, thanks for the kind words.
nomagicpill
7mo ago
Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably start adding people on LinkedIn this week in preparation.
And yeah it is! I was very young during the GFC and confused why people were freaking out about losing their jobs—isn't that a good thing? You get to stay at home all day and relax! Now I understand. I can only imagine what it's like to get laid off while having a family to support.
nomagicpill
7mo ago
I would like advice in case I am laid off this week. My tech company is likely laying off a substantial part of its workforce on Wednesday—rumors are between 10-30% of certain divisions, including mine. While I suspect I am safe because of my relatively low pay and young age, I want to be prepared in case I am affected. I have six months of living expenses in my bank account, not counting unemployment benefits.
My plan if I am laid off (in rough order):
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File for unemployment benefits
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Re-evaluate my rough budget and cut out any optional expenses (basically left with rent, food, internet, etc)
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Update my LinkedIn, including responding to various recruiters messages that have been sitting in my inbox
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Update my resume
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Start applying for jobs like it's my job. Market appears to be brutal. Any strategies for bypassing automated screenings or similar?
Thoughts? Additions? General advice?
What are the hard lines in your life and the default actions you'll take if they're crossed?
I've concluded that there are many situations in which "hard" lines will be moved back when crossed unless they're pre-defined. This is similar, but not identical, to normalization of deviance. For example, a person should probably figure out what level of domestic abuse will cause them to leave? Yelling? Pinching? Full-on punching? Of course, you shouldn't blindly take the action, but it should be the default unless you get convinced otherwise.
Some ideas I have, not all of which I necessarily believe in or will abide by (line --> action; in no particular order):
Partner cheats on you --> break up
Raise of <X% at work --> start new job search
Work more than X hours or Y weekends in given time period --> start new job search
Make more than $X/year --> donate $Y/year to charity
Government violates X right --> protest against or flee the country
Achieve $X net worth --> retire
Health scare (heart attack, etc) or issue (weight > X, LDL > Y, etc) --> change lifestyle (diet, exercise, hobbies, job, etc)
$X loan to friend not repaid by friend --> end relationship with friend
More options
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