Worst V

For sure, social media and smartphones have absolutely destroyed women’s mental health and their ability to operate in society. It’s caused bad things in men certainly, but in women it’s been utterly devastating.

Not sure what to do about it, but it’s allowed all too many women to become the very worst versions of themselves 24/7.

Crash

Amanda is right. Those jobs are gone forever. The economy is going to look very different in a year or two (mega-crashed).

Fielded

One of the reasons is I am not worried about competition at my level is I have an extremely diverse skill stack, am an expert in 7+ areas, and there is no competition coming up behind me. There is even less now, actually, because AI is hollowing out junior-level roles so the competition that was on the way will never emerge. And at the moment, AI can only do about 5% of my role (and even that, poorly).

Destroying the junior to senior pipeline is terrible overall and clownish, but means no one will be taking my job. There simply will be no one left who could do it.

Philo So

I was reading a philosophy book from the 1920s fairly recently. There were (untranslated) phrases in Ancient Greek, Latin, French and German. I could read all but the Ancient Greek of course, but that many languages is gonna be a big lift for nearly all modern people.

Fewer people were literate then, but the standards certainly were much higher.

Drive To

I think this is substantially true. Urbanists have no idea how much fun and freeing driving can be in rural areas. I used to love driving from Lake City out to the river, for instance.

About freedom, a larger point: both the left and right right are substantially anti-freedom, in their own ways. The left’s version of this wish to control is to attempt to take away things like cars, the ability to live where one pleases, the modern conveniences of life and other related degrowther baloney. They just dress it up in “good” reasons like “preventing climate change” and “saving the environment.” Whether any of their nonsense would do any of that is irrelevant. It just has to seem plausible enough to grant them control over you.

Both sides wish for this dominance, and both sides ram it in however they can.

Soc Acc

I didn’t realize until entirely too late in life that the common women’s plaint, “Every man wants to sleep with me! They always bother me!” wasn’t a real thing, but a humblebrag.

It’s a socially-acceptable way of saying, “I’m very hot and desirable. Look at how gorgeous I am!”

Of course, women do get bothered in public by men. That certainly happens sometimes. But the reality is that the majority of women are just average and most men have better things to do than even think about that woman (or any woman) for a single second.

It’s a manufactured reality to praise one’s self while appearing to be beset by problems. Thus, it’s quite clever in its way.

Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures. A pilot program in six states will use a tactic employed by private insurers that has been heavily criticized for delaying and denying medical care.

Rick Beato is Right to Rant About Music Copyright Strikes.

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A24โ€™s Empire of Auteurs.

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Humans are being hired to make AI slop look less sloppy.

Old-School Artillery Survives and Thrives in the Drone Age.