I quit Facebook in 2016. I got banned from Reddit last year. Both turned out to be big wins.

I lost 160 pounds over several years. I am looking forward to not dying as soon.

I am working on changing my gender. I am no longer hormonally inclined to use fear and anger to control my actions.

That doesn’t sound so sinister.

This post bears the marks of manufactured outrage. Not required; we have plenty of real outrage.

Zuckerberg described his job as “Professional Defendant”

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

I used to work for a clickbait factory, so I’m familiar with the hallmarks.

Business Insider articles are generally trash content. They choose provocative headlines and hot-button issues to boost engagement, but once you’re on the site, there’s not actually that much to engage with.

I almost clicked the link until I saw the domain name.

See, the problem with this is there’s no objective standard for validating whether somebody is telling the truth or not. So we can impose conventions that say you must tag something as being generated in a certain way, but that doesn’t mean that people are going to actually be forthcoming with the community.

This is a problem that we’re going to have to deal with not just when we’re talking about our self hosted builds, but almost anything that is mediated through a screen. So, if we can figure it out for here, I’d suggest that we tell everybody shortly thereafter; about it because it‘ll solve a lot of problems, in a lot of different places.

Bonus points if whatever we come up with can actually be self hosted.

This is an old, old, old chestnut. This was making the rounds in 2013. Delightful.

Solid question.

She’s gonna get a share of the lease revenue on that, right?

…right?

I’m sorry it sucks.

It seems like there’s a dividing line between newer techs and senior techs that determines the difficulty in getting new gigs. I don’t know where it is but I crossed it at some point in the last 10 years.

Each time I’m done with a job I’m sure there will be some kind of horrible gauntlet to get the next engagement, but it stopped happening. Maybe I just made a lucky connection but it keeps happening. I think they just want candidates who have seen some shit.

I guess the point is that eventually you’ll have done something that gives you the right gray in the ponytail. Keep at it.

It’s only a baby and has not yet discovered most of its body exists in 12-dimensional manifold space

AI, actual intelligence

You know, a year ago people in charge were all, like nooo we’re not going to fire people and pocket the payroll savings

When did we cross the line where everybody stopped lying? I mean, our vaunted business leaders dropping the bullshit is welcome, even if its bad news… but the interesting bit is in the collective, unconscious decision to just own up to this as the likeliest future.

Apply cold water to burn

I have so many questions

The feeling of constant acceleration is valid. It will only get more intense in the coming years, so consider this your practice round.

In spite of the marginal results a lot of current LLMs can deliver, they are making a difference in some areas of work. I’m a data engineer and working with an agent over the last few months has been a revelation. You have to wrangle it just so, but with an adequate context well-defined, you can plow through months of tedious due-diligence and fine-tuning in days.

I wouldn’t trust it for medical advice… yet… but the time will come when it stops being “ai” and becomes like autofocus or voice transcription or shopping cart suggestions, just another tool. Something else will take on that mantle, and be a different, even more disconcerting mixed bag.

There was a book that came out about 20 years ago by Ray Kurzweil, named The Singularity is Near that discussed this phenomenon in detail, and so far has been prophetic. It will help you understand what’s happening and what’s coming next.

Welcome. I too disagreed with the wrong people on Reddit and can no longer participate there.

Yeah presently Lemmy is not Reddit-scale. But, it also is not Reddit-moderated, or Reddit-algorithmed. I find I can sign into Lemmy, do a bit of scrolling and commentary to scratch my itch, and get on with my day. No dynamic selection designed to retain my engagement through emotional manipulation, a far lower population of malicious bots and actors, and generally more thoughtful discussion.

Quality beats quantity. Federated social breaks the toxic monoculture. Distributed media like this is able to support a broader diversity of people. In the end, this is the future.

In the states, though, solar is woke and gay, and thus doesn’t get any financial help(currently). Farmers that live hand-to-mouth in the old model, getting drip-fed agri-subsidies, don’t have a way to soften the blow of the capex needed to push through the expense barrier, even though the other side is cleaner and more profitable.

Homeboy might be more credible without that fucked-up haircut. Seriously, are you that disconnected from the world of normal people that you can look in the mirror with that ‘do, consider it critically, and say, “yeah, that’s just what I’m going for"