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sarker

competency crisis actor

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joined 2022 September 05 16:50:08 UTC

Suddenly I cannot remember the color of your eyes

Or the things we said as we stood together for the last time


				
User ID: 636


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
sarker


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
competency crisis actor

				
				
				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 16:50:08 UTC
				


				
					

					
Suddenly I cannot remember the color of your eyes


Or the things we said as we stood together for the last time



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 636


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"I wasn't really going to do it even though I was literally about to draw" is an even more convenient rationalization.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It would be much easier for her to say "I wasn't really going to do it" than to admit that she really was about to do it. I think the criterion of embarrassment should motivate us to believe her.


This is the opposite of the gym example - joining a gym is desirable and thus people say they will even if they won't, murdering innocents is not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There's twenty thousand years of human literature out there. Believe it or not, the ancestors even had literature that wasn't highbrow... The point I'm trying to make is that there's plenty of good books that aren't difficult (surely that should be clear from the examples I gave). It's not clear to me that reading slop helps read good books any more than watching tiktoks helps you enjoy movies.




People can just go directly to reading good books unless they are a literal child who needs to start with "Jack and Jill went up the hill," although to be honest Hemingway is not much harder than that. They have my permission to skip the slop and just read something worth reading.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't have an opinion on most of this, but you did mention one detail that I happen to know a thing or two about.




On July 18th, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Huawei has demonstrated their Atlas 950 SuperPoD, boasting of the largest scale-up domain




This is false. Ironwood offers 42.5 ExaFLOPS while Atlas 950 offers 8 ExaFLOPS. Ironwood has been in production since 2025, so it isn't even cutting edge in terms of domestic capabilities at this point.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Murati was a product manager, not a project manager. Project managers are, as a rule, dummies; I'd say less than a tenth are any good and the rest are ZMP at best and they frequently become project managers right out of college.


That said, I've had classmates at my state school become product managers at FAANG right out of college as well so I don't think that that's as rare as you make it out to be either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It’s not like they were stopped - they just didn’t do it.




She was actually basically ready to open fire when a mall shooting stole her thunder and she decided against it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Minsky and Epstein were in communication with each other before the transformer paper was published.




That would follow from Minsky dying before the paper was published, unless the Epstein files were of an entirely different communication medium.




I'm not sure what the thrust of your argument is? Is it that any discussion of AI before 2017 is irrelevant?




The thrust is that minsky and Bach are nobodies, irrelevant to where things stand today; Minsky didn't even believe that you can just train AI massive amounts of data to build intelligence until his death. The only relevant AI researcher listed is Yud, everyone else is a literally who. Does one guy count as over representation? You be the judge.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


First, Epstein really was balls-deep in AI research. Marvin Minsky was in direct communication with Epstein. Joscha Bach was in direct communication with Epstein. Elon Musk was in direct communication with Epstein. Eliezar Yudkowsky was in direct communication with Epstein. Noam Chomsky was in direct communication with Epstein. Overall, Epstein's emails are a who's-who of AI research. A brief, non-rigorous analysis of the files suggests that AI researchers are over represented in the files after 2011, both in frequency and in message length.




Wait, are they?  Minsky and Bach are basically totally irrelevant. In fact, Minsky died before the transformer paper was even published. Musk and Chomsky are not even AI researchers. Of the people you listed, only Yudkowsky is even associated with rationalism or EA, and he's really not much of an AI researcher either.


It would seem the demand for rationalist EA AI researchers in the Epstein files outstrips the supply.




Artificial super intelligence, if correctly formed, presents infinite utility. If that is true, then literally anything can be justified if it moves the future toward that end.




This is especially amusing in the context of Eliezer "Bomb the Datacenters" Yudkowsky being the only rationalist listed.




Utilitarianism is easy to hack. Ignoring second order effects




I'm a little baffled that you claim the guys famous for autistically writing out detailed models to make predictions ignore second order effects. I'm not trying to get in an argument over whether the models are good, but the point is they certainly don't ignore second order effects and it's quite easy to slot them into a utilitarian framework.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Endless fucking of a  race of beings with bug heads for no reason isn't doing it for you?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe I've clearly outlined how I believe the skill and taste of reading is typically developed in my previous comments.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Eternal digital on call, to the extent it exists, is a phenomenon of perhaps the past 15 years.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks, this guy is literally from the University of Sound so I think this is promising.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've taken a few drum lessons so I have some prior sheet music experience. Does that count?


I think I can tell two notes apart, but to be honest I don't think I have a good grasp of what a "note" even is.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
OWID has a longer time series. A few countries show a postwar bump (the US included), but the overall trend since the late 19th century is one of decline.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
SROs are a casualty of zoning and other housing regulations.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Related: any introductions to the basics of music theory that people can recommend that are understandable by regards?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I've read a lot, but I haven't read a single book of on that list, and so I'm curious if you have read them, and not for a school assignment, but pleasure out of your own free time.




Some of them I've read for school, but I've read other works by the same authors for pleasure (e.g. A Farewell to Arms). I take it you concede the point that RR is not easier to read than many actually good works of literature?




My and @GBRK's point I think is that more people should try to read, even if it's slop, just because reading is something that should have more people doing.




You both equivocate between this and the claim that reading slop will read to not reading slop. Here's you, not long ago:




Once you get used to reading, once you can read a few chapters a week, and do that for a while you'll be able to start reading other things too.




Please pick a lane. If your claim is that reading slop will get people interested in reading slop - I don't have a stance except that I don't actually care about people reading slop for the sake of reading. Time spent at words on a page (or, realistically, a screen) is not something I think people should optimize.




Every single book you mention could be put into a literary fiction which is read by a minority of the minority who reads in the first place.




I wasn't aware that royal road is nonfiction.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The story is not impossible, but it also doesn't match what evidence we have. See also more data.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I doubt this story given the overall decline in yearly hours worked. Perhaps there's some (significantly sized) subgroup where the trend is different, but I'd want to see some evidence of it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You are basically just restating your premise. Surely you can't expect anyone who disagrees with you to be convinced by this?


Based on your writing, I am going to assume that you are a zoomer. Have you considered the possibility that your literary tastes have developed not because you read a ton of garbage but because you became an adult over the course of the time period in question?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I quite simply reject the premise. Simple syntax wasn't invented on royal road.


The Old Man and the Sea:




He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.




Of Mice and Men




A FEW MILES south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close
to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm
too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the
sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river
the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan
mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees -
willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower
leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores
with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over
the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep
and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs
among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in
the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks
of ’coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and
with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.




The Metamorphosis:




One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.




Slaughterhouse Five:




All  this  happened,  more  or  less.  The  war  parts,  anyway,  are  pretty  much  true.  One  guy  I
knew  really  was  shot  in  Dresden  for  taking  a  teapot  that  wasn’t  his.  Another  guy  I  knew
really  did  threaten  to  have  his  personal  enemies  killed  by  hired  gunmen  after  the  war.




The Lord of the Flies:




The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and
began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his
school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him
and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar
smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily
among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and
yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by
another.




I could, in fact, go on.




That's why I do think more people should be given slop to read.




Indeed, it's a wonder that anybody learned to read before royal road became a thing. In fact, the correlation between the existence of royal road and the apparent masculine reading crisis is surely just spurious, we just need to get more people to read slop and then they will surely stop reading slop.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I will admit up front that if you are genuinely illiterate, or close to it, you can probably get mileage out of reading any text at all. Beyond that, yes, that is the crux and I will concede if it turns out that people with normal reading abilities benefit in a measurable way from reading slop.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


any sort of reading is going to practice the reading comprehension skills that not only directly lead to more educational/professional attainment but also make reading genuinely good books more accessible and therefore more likely to influence them.




What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.




There's a reason kids start with Dick and Jane before Pride and Prejudice




Yes, because they are children. I was hoping that I already addressed this line of reasoning in the previous comment.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


you remain convinced that I'm trying to prove that reading the classics is totally ineffective at getting people to read, when in point of fact I'm merely saying that while that may work for some people, the fact that it hasn't worked for everyone suggests that we should try and adapt a different tactic.




It's not really this that I'm convinced of. It's more like, I don't really think that reading is valuable in itself unless you are reading something worth reading. I also don't think that reading the classics has been tried and found wanting; mostly I think it hasn't been tried at all by "nonreaders". I also don't think that the tactic of reading garbage is likely to lead to appreciation of actually good literature - I expect it will merely increase appreciation of garbage.




I literally never suggested that?




Sure. I'm responding to the Eragon example you brought up. My argument works against reading slop just as well.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Why are you making a moral argument instead of addressing my mechanical one?




I am wondering if we are even having the same conversation. Are my messages getting through? Is there some corruption in the database?




I do not believe that you can learn to expand what you like by reading more of what you already like.






I absolutely loved Eragon as a kindergartener. Was it the absolute peak of literary achievement? Absolutely not. But it hadn't been for books like Eragon, I never would have been interested in reading books like the Dragonriders of Pern, or from there Foundation and I, Robot, or from there Anathem and Void*Star.




You enjoyed Eragon not because you were a kindergarten-level reader but because you were a child. If you are already not a child, or not a kindergartner, there is no point in starting with children's literature to cultivate an enjoyment of reading: you should just read actually good books.