I’ve had cases where I’ve moved the needle. Got someone to move from “I hate communism!!” to “I see where you’re coming from. Capitalism has problems, I admit”.

For some people, you need to let them feel heard and avoid being too antagonistic.

Some people are just trolls, though.

Generally speaking, snakes only attack when they feel threatened.

Well, a lot of conservatives feel threatened. The fear isn’t justified, but it’s real.

When I was a kid, I’d usually get As or B’s. This other kid told me whenever he got an A, he’d get $20 each. I said to my mom, “why don’t I get anything for my As?”

She said, “Because [other kid] is kind of stupid, so it’s a big deal when he gets one”

This was not a satisfying answer.

I also remember in late middle school, we were in the computer lab (I’m old) given a sort of free form assignment to do something for whatever book we’d read. I made a basic little game in BASIC (I’m still old). Some kid wrote the book title in WordArt. The teacher gushed over it, and I got a “that’s nice” for my fully operational game. Infuriating. Had a huge impact on my respect for authority and academic career, probably more than warranted.

My therapist tried to make me see the teacher’s point of view. Kyle was always fucking up and off task, so rewarding him when he’s not a fuckup for once must have felt like a big payoff. But I was always good, and she didn’t really understand what I was going on about, so she didn’t engage with it.

A large part of code review has been preventing people from doing stupid shit. AI is making stupid shit worse. It’s not defects, it’s “adding a whole micro service to get the user name from the ID, when the name is already in the metadata” or whatever that recent meme was.

Or that time a guy wrote a whole DSL instead of using the existing framework. Technically impressive, but adds a huge burden.

Many people simply do not seek a faster way of doing things.

Right. But if you’re a soulless manager, and you set faster timelines, you PIP and fire the people who don’t make it. They’ll use the tools or be replaced.

It’s the same as an AI mandate, except less stupid. (It can still be stupid if you set the timelines impossibly fast, but management is not known for being smart or informed)

I wouldn’t do this as me because I’m not a soulless manager.

If AI actually made people faster and more productive, they could simply set faster timelines and people would use the tools.

There are AI mandates because the people in leadership are stupid and dishonest. “Return to office” has the same shape. For many people working from home is healthier and more productive, and it’s better for the environment not to commute as much, but the emotional needs of leadership are primary.

It’s like the bullshit asymmetry principle. You can spend months working on a conservative, getting them to trust you, and nudge their world-view from “hateful” to “iffy”. Meanwhile, they half-watch fox news for an hour and are ready to put {out-group} into a death camp.

It sucks. It feels unfair. Why do we have to do all this work when they’re the fuckups?

I will continue to not buy EA products. Fuck 'em

Conservatives are often nice to people they know. The in-group. The problem is when it’s a scary other. So they’ll let Jose couch surf for a week while he sorts out his housing situation, because he’s a good guy down on his luck, but they’ll rage against Those People getting anything.

I’m sure that camera could accidentally be damaged or rendered non-functional.

We might be at an impasse. I just don’t think someone is entitled to a decade long lock down on their ideas. If you don’t want other people involved, don’t publish. Fan fiction has been part of human culture for like all of it. The idea that you can’t profit from it is comparably modern.

basically just harkens back to what i said back up there. what about an author that does great world building, their world never becomes popular or makes money, and then someone else 7 years later sees their world building and makes their own story within that world and makes all the money and fame from it while the original author gets nothing?

Tough? Like in your scenario the work is just wasted and no one reads it. That’s no better.

Many endeavors fail.

just don’t want to pay people who are profiting off someone else’s ideas but not compensating them for it.

That’s how humanity has worked for thousands of years. Disney didn’t write snow white. They made a new work based on it.

You gotta put the > before the text to make it a quote, not after.

tell that to a guy like george RR martin, or JK rowling, or whoever created dune that “okay, it’s been seven years. now everyone can make stuff in your own universe that you spent your entire time world building and can make money off your universe without your permission. you had 7 years, your time to make money on it is up. if someone can make a better story in your universe it’s theirs now for them to make profit on.”

I would be happy to tell these extremely rich people so. I don’t see this as a problem. That’s how human creativity worked for centuries.

my claim is that people wouldn’t create as much and it would encourage more spinoffs of existing ideas,

I just don’t think that’s true and I don’t think there’s a reason to believe it’s true. Go look at fan fiction. There’s whole thriving, rich, communities of it. Fascinating ideas and remixes. Almost all of it violates copyright. But it’s creative and people love it. Some of those authors go on to write their own original work. Why would you want to kill all of that?

I really don’t think it “fucks over” the author. They got their art out there. They inspired people. They can still sell copies. I don’t think they are entitled to a lengthy copyright.

The scenario where someone gets fucked over, in my mind, is they write something original and a megacorp scoops it up without payment or attribution. That’s something a short copyright could protect. So when some nobody writes a cool story or song, Disney can’t use their massive budget to capitalize on it without paying the author anything. That’s why I would accept a short copyright.

I’d rather break up megacorps and not have ultra-wealth, but that’s a separate topic.

You were saying people wouldn’t create without copyright. And yet, copyright didn’t exist for much of humanity. Therefore, copyright is not necessary for people to create. If it was, they wouldn’t have created all the stuff they did.

Slavery and other horrors are irrelevant

Edit:

do you think after george RR martin released his first book 7 years after that everyone else could make their own ASOIAF books, movies, tv shows, etc without having to get permission or compensate george in any way? i feel like this is shafting the creator

7 years is plenty of time to profit.

And they can still profit by creating new work, or selling people the authentic copy. People go see live music despite video existing. People buy designer bags despite bootlegs existing.

If anyone can write a spiderman comic, then the ones that are the best will presumably do the best.

would just lead to people creating constant spinoffs of other peoples creative ideas without an original thought of their own and without rewarding the original creator. there has to be some incentive to make something of your own, and right now that incentive is ownership and monetizing of that IP.

Counter argument: the entirety of human history where people created, without a system of copyright.

Furthermore, I would accept a short duration of copyright (perhaps 7 years) as a compromise. The current length is far too long.

Edit: and another thing! Disney! You think they made up Snow White?

Copyright is a very new concept compared to how long humanity has been telling stories. The idea that “oh no someone will make fan fiction!” is silly. That’s how shit was. People would take stories and change them. It’s not theft. It’s how you get Shakespeare.

Fuck em. Lots of free media out there. My local library has all sorts of stuff, and that’s not even considering what’s out on the high seas.

"Luxury” fashion is just a con to get stupid rich people to fork over their money.

One time I was on the subway and my friend motioned at a lady sitting with a handbag on her lap. Friend asked how much I thought that bag sold for. It was a pretty basic looking bag, maybe real leather, a zipper. I said maybe a few hundred. They were like no, it’s {some brand}, probably five figures.

Anyone who spends five figures on a bag that’s not like a magical bag of holding should immediately be sent to therapy and community service.

Fuck. Fuck all this AI slop.

Interesting. Bundles of this size are a little overwhelming for me- anyone want to call out what they think are the highlights of what’s included?

I’ve lived in both but I don’t remember anything distinctive about NJ pizza. The main thing about NY pizza for me is I can walk in, get a slice, and eat it on foot. Though I lived in the NJ suburbs, where “on foot” wasn’t really a thing.