What is "the group" here? I am going to presume you would say "white people," to which I would say that nobody is "imposing" college attendance on white women, to which you will likely bring up DEI, to which I will bring up that DEI is used to juice black university attendance as well. Is "the group" simply "humanity"?

Context

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 12, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 20hr ago

Wrapped up The Worm Ouroboros. Overall liked it a lot, but not sure that I am interested in the spiritual sequels at this point.

Now on Dostoyevsky's The Gambler. I'm finding it useful to ask Claude about some of the historical context around the Polish-Russian wars. It's not key to the story but there's a few references to it that add a bit of depth. With LLMs it's like having a very knowledgeable friend on call who's read everything about everything and knows how they're related, so I no longer have an excuse to not bother figuring out the references.

It was a strange thing: I had plenty to think about, yet I was completely absorbed in analyzing the nature of my feelings for Polina. Truly, I had found it easier during those two weeks of absence than I did now, on the day of my return—even though, while traveling, I had pined like a madman, paced about frantically, and constantly seen her before me, even in my sleep. Once—it was in Switzerland—I fell asleep in the railway carriage and apparently started talking aloud to Polina, making all my fellow passengers laugh. And now, once again, I asked myself the question: do I love her? And once again I failed to answer it—or rather, I answered myself, for the hundredth time, that I hated her. Yes, I loathed her. There were moments—specifically, at the end of our conversations—when I would have given half my life to strangle her! I swear, if it had been possible to slowly plunge a sharp knife into her breast, I think I would have seized it with delight. And yet—I swear by everything holy—if, up on the Schlangenberg, at that fashionable lookout point, she had actually said to me, "Throw yourself down," I would have thrown myself down instantly, and with delight, too. I knew this. One way or another, the situation had to be resolved. She understood all this perfectly, and the thought that I was fully and clearly aware of her utter inaccessibility to me—of the impossibility of my fantasies ever coming true—that thought, I am certain, gave her immense pleasure; otherwise, how could she—cautious and intelligent as she was—have allowed such intimacy and frankness between us? It seemed to me that, all along, she had looked at me the way that ancient empress did when she began to undress in front of her slave, regarding him as less than human. Yes, many times she had regarded me as less than human...

Context

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 12, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

Isn't each lionfish only about a pound or two? Hard to imagine it would be economical for meat.

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

And yet she acknowledges that there's no advice she can give that will lead to a date except in the most indirect and stochastic manner. It's a flinch, she can't directly address this in the terms you want it addressed in.

All advice from feminists like this is very up front that there is no promise or guarantee. Compare to TRP advice - do this, this, and this, repeatedly again and again, and you'll almost certainly pull chicks unless you are totally hopeless in which case it's probably over for you.

-1

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

You are still thinking that the respondent is giving advice on how to get laid. She is doing no such thing. The advice is, basically, on how to become a decent human being, which does not constitute any obligation on the part of any woman. You are so moidbrained that you can't imagine that someone would respond to this letter with anything other than advice on getting laid, and the respondent is so foidbrained that she doesn't see why someone might expect that there ought to be an effective strategy for getting laid and/or getting married.

-4

Context

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 12, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

Has anyone managed to switch from "problem solving" mode to "problem setting?"

I've gotten pretty good at solving problems in my line of work, but I find that I end up hyper focused on particular parts of the whole and frequently lose perspective on the overall situation. I work with a lot of people much smarter than me, but it seems that their advantage over me doesn't come from being better at solving a problem that's in front of them but rather from coming up with new projects that significantly improve the overall situation. They seem to have a kind of big picture view that allows them to say "we're missing X" or "we should do X instead of Y" in a way that reframes the problem or picks up on something people were ignoring.

My default suspicion is that these people just have the stuff that I'm missing, but I'm curious if someone here has managed to reframe their thinking along these lines.

Context

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 12, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

I'm confident that low waisted jeans are going to make a raging comeback in the next couple of years.

You're about six years too late on this prediction.

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

I think you're conflating two things here.

Your version of the author's claim: "you should read women to get laid"

The author's claim: "being a decent human being is helpful, but not sufficient, to finding love. Since you have difficulty treating women as people, you should read women to become a decent human being"

There's no implication that reading Gloria Steinem is going to get you laid. The claim is that it will make you better off and maybe move the needle on falling in love:

So let’s talk about some stuff you can do differently to improve your life and your chances of meeting someone you’d like to be with.

What is the purpose of reading women specifically?

But I think it’s a good idea to make a deliberate year-long project of it at this time in your life, when you are trying to figure out how to relate to women better.

Does this guarantee results?

If you meet a woman, and you kind of like her, and you are looking for something to talk about, try asking her “What are you reading or watching lately? Can you recommend me something?” If you listen to her, and then go and read or watch that thing, she may or may not date you in the end, but you will get infinity coolness points because this behavior by men is sadly all too rare.

To put it simply - the (geek?) feminist perspective on this is something like "you should be a decent human being, but nobody owes you anything for that, but it might lead to something." If you do follow this playbook and expect it to lead to sex and get frustrated if it doesn't, you aren't actually a decent human being, you are a nice guy (this is a term of art).

-1

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026

sarker competency crisis actor 1d ago

I'm old enough to remember when the stock piece of advice feminists offered to sexually frustrated straight men was "be more feminist" and "of course women like nice guys – that's why you can't get laid, because you're not one" and so on.

I actually do not remember such a time. In fact, what I remember was closer to "oh, you are a nice guy? What, do you want a cookie? That's called being a decent human being, women don't owe you anything for that." Do you have an example of what you're saying?

-1

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026