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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2423 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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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.

Alternative lifestyle choices work great - for alternative people

Aww thanks bae.

From that post:

one would naively expect that successful actors, musicians etc. would be incentivised to discourage others from pursuing careers in their domain, or engage in rent-seeking behaviour like guilds and so on. But there may be an alternative dynamic at play, in which moderately talented actors, musicians etc. are savvy enough to know that flooding the market with talentless hacks will make the legitimately talented stand out all the more — tall poppies look all the taller when surrounded by short ones

Surely they are simply smart enough to know that:

  1. They are already established and can't easily be threatened by people only now beginning a career (similar to those advocating DEI).
  2. They know that their fans will respond much better to "we've all been there, keep plugging," than to "dude, sorry, chances are you can't do what I can do".

I think one would actually naively expect that most of them are not being Machiavellian about it and declare that "we've all been there, keep plugging" as a sincere opinion that is entirely decoupled from any awareness of their advantages and chances of success.

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