I'm always shocked at how much investors "believe in" a stock, as if it's been there for them – through thick and thin. Stocks are not our friends or our leaders, they are just odds for placing our bets.

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
-Nietzsche

— Wayne Himelsein (@WayneHimelsein) August 27, 2020

Yep. I don’t trade on convictions. I don’t believe in a damn thing in the market. I own Facebook stock, and have made ~25% on it in a month, and I’d happily eliminate Facebook from the planet if I had the power.

Here’s what emotions I feel about the stock market: none. That is why I make money. “Believing” in a stock is how you screw yourself. I’m thankful so many of you do it! Then I get your money. But still. Why?

I was raised with every man in my life-grandpas, uncles, dad…carrying jack knives in their pockets. They would often pull them out to help open things, especially packages on birthdays or Christmas. https://t.co/bPYVFquKyA

— Kimberly Stover is voting for Biden/Harris (@realkimstover) August 27, 2020

I have carried a pocketknife every day of my life, very nearly, since I was eight years old. There is nothing that could stop me doing this, even at the risk of jail time. If you don’t care about keeping it unmarred, such a generally useful tool.

One thing I was very wrong about: I never thought web browsing on a smartphone would ever become common, as it was and still is such a terrible experience.

I really underestimated how well propaganda works, and how readily people will tolerate ubiquitous surveillance. All that for the promise of fake convenience. Glad I didn’t make any monetary bets on that, as I would’ve lost big.

But it has taught me that how technology works doesn’t actually matter much. Something can be a wholly terrible experience, and with enough propaganda and profit involved, the pigs will line up at the trough of their own accord. Sad to realize, but it has since helped me in the market, so at least some minor good came of it (for me).

Smoke on the Wind: the Aerosol Spread of Covid-19.

We should have been assuming this long ago as part of the precautionary principle and based on knowledge of how many other viruses spread. It’s beyond bananas to follow the scientific convention of waiting until all the evidence is gathered in cases like this.

By then, it’s Too. Fucking. Late.

That expert-led methodology really secrewed us over this time, as it will for anything similar — and I include climate change in that. We should’ve been acting like SARS-Cov-2 was aerosol-spread from the jump, but we’ve fetishized the cult of certitude and science so much we can’t act in sensible ways until “all the evidence is in.”

Again, then it’s Too. Goddamn. Late.

Had a dream where I was talking with someone about this tall blonde woman who had severe facial scarring. When I say “severe,” I mean a huge gash down the right side of her face, right eye missing, with that deep gouge running all the way down to the edge of her mouth.

I felt intense empathy and love for her, and it was like I knew her…but in the future? And someone (I don’t know who) said, “Don’t you feel bad for her?”

I said, “Bad? Maybe. But I want to know her. Someone with something like that, you know they have some story to tell and are probably more interesting than most. Anyway, I think she looks awesome. Sure, rather it not have happened, but life happens. I think she looks proud and beautiful.”

Strange feeling…like I knew and loved someone in the future.

Tall blonde woman with the scars, what universe are you in? Are you my future assistant galactic overlord?

I've used this account regularly for over 5 years with real thoughtful effort. A month ago, I started posting to a NSFW twitter account… and today that account passed this one in follower count.
The moral of the story: boobs just win

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) August 26, 2020

Maybe I should start putting boob pictures in all my posts?

Nah, I don’t care. I have about the number of readers I want. Attracting more would be bad. I intentionally write a few inflammatory posts every month designed to drive people away when the readership gets too high.

why do people get worked up over infinite jest? I honestly don't understand. it has a rep as a giant exploding pulsing head brain book but it's… actually very straightforward and easy to read and quite simple and earnest in sentiment?

— alice maz (@alicemazzy) August 25, 2020

I don’t know. I didn’t care for that book. It was mediocre. DFW was a good essayist but a bad novelist. I think it’s because Infinite Jest is one of those books that makes dumb people feel smart. Or at least the intellectually incurious.

Read Neal Stephenon’s Anathem instead. Starts slow, but is a better book that is trying to do many of the same things, though it is vastly different in most ways.

I have spent two months trying to diagnose a networking issue affecting one of my machines. During that period, I haven't looked closely to DNS… It was DNS.

— Jaana Dogan (@rakyll) August 25, 2020

90% of the time, it’s DNS. The other 10% of the time, it’s also DNS.