@akkartik i think your prescriptions have to be guided by ones (conditional) prescriptions. i’d not see a doctor who’d prescribe a drug she wouldn’t predict would meet a risk-benefit threshold. 1/
@akkartik being the change you want to see in the world is great, but not immune. lots of time there’s limited harm / cost / risk in it, so even if your predictions are pessimistic, a small chance of contributing to a virtuous network effect is worth it. especially if there’s a community that might make the same calculation. what complicates social choices is social outcomes are very difficult to predict, and small initiatives unpredictably yield avalanches! 2/
@akkartik so i’m definitely kind of with you in practice. i devote much of my time to enterprises i’m predictively pessimistic about that are actually very costly to me. but it’s precisely because i predict the predictiveness of my pessimism is limited that renders the practice quasi-justifiable! (it strikes me as quite analogous to to the famous irrational overconfidence of entrepreneurs.) /fin
@akkartik dog bites man.
years from now, where you least expect it, there will be sightings of dark brandon.
politicians draw the lesson being dickish is the superpower but it only works for a very special kind of dick.
“it was a lie,” he quietly admitted to himself, “but at least it was an honest lie.”
“you say you are an honest man, but *have* you read the terms and conditions?”
Via @chrisp, a quote from Grover Cleveland, the last guy to win two non-consecutive terms as President:
“the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil.“
they call it x because it’s all of our ex.
the murderer is scandalized.
“do you see? do you see? do you see what i am up against? *they mean to hang me!*”
“it is i, it is me, who is the true victim here.”
hypocrisy is a mark of status, as consistency is only enforced on those of low status.
It breaks my heart when my kid is sick.
“The selection of Gaetz just rips the mask off. With it, Trump is trolling not just his defeated opponents but many of his craven establishment supporters. It’s like Caligula trying to make his horse a consul.” #MichelleGoldberg https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/opinion/i-cant-wait-for-matt-gaetzs-confirmation-hearings.html
a parasitic worm that infects the brain, drives its host to take over his nation’s public health service, then drops larvae into the raw milk the population is now forced to imbibe.
the twitter files was pretty lame, but i am looking forward to the x files.
“(You may notice that straightforward ideas like ‘fire everyone in Democratic Party leadership positions automatically after a national election loss’ do not appear to be on the table.)” #HamiltonNolan https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/so-what-does-that-mean-in-practice ht @costrike
the only qualification is the favor of the king.
as long as there still is a Department of Education, shouldn't it be a creationist?
plutocrats are only wealthy because we collectively enforce the existence of their wealth. they should think about that more. so should we.
@light there may have been a hint of sarcasm in that remark.
“Il Douche” is kind of an amazing nickname, from @charvaka
second time as farce, but it isn’t funny. https://hivemind.plus/@charvaka/113482843333712282