agonmon

5 ms·

1.
by agonmon 1y ago
I fear that the same people that exhibit this kind of anxiety or trauma that led to social isolation, will inevitably talk to sycophantic chatbots, rather than get the help they desperately need. Though I certainly would not trust a model
2.
by agonmon 2y ago
I suppose this might seem obvious if you have not talked to many mothers.
3.
by agonmon 2y ago
Because it shows up in the baby's meconium... That doesn't even get into the second order effects such as mothers then having trouble lactating/nursing. And beyond that, we should probably question why, statistically, the
4.
by agonmon 3y ago
It says something terrible about the current zeitgeist that these books are as popular as they are. I look forward to a day when the top scifi is unabashed optimism about humanity's future.
5.
by agonmon 3y ago
I loved all of Seveneves, and hate Three Body Problem. The biggest difference in theme being, optimism that humanity can overcome any obstacle and flourish. If you want more in that vein, see: Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson Project Hail Mar
6.
by agonmon 3y ago
We're moderately frugal (eat organic food, paid activities for the kids, live in CA), and our kids are on track to cost us each about 80k before university. That's less than a year salary for most HN readers. Our friends that try
7.
by agonmon 3y ago
I'm mostly imagining a dysgenic future similar to Idiocracy; but really, it's more of an emotional appeal than an actual argument.
8.
by agonmon 3y ago
In case anyone is using this to decide on having kids: 1. Babysitting is categorically different from taking care of your own kids. Ask any mother that babysat previously. 2. It doesn't take 250k to raise your child. That is referring
9.
by agonmon 3y ago
I have many smart, empathetic friends in tech who are not having kids. Meanwhile my redneck neighbor has 5. It seems to me that all of the conscientious people who look out for the greater good and environment, are leaving the gene pool. Th
10.
by agonmon 3y ago
1. The people that don't want kids, cannot accurately model what it is like having kids. Your brain and hormonal output changes after a birth. 2. Children aren't that expensive unless the parents are playing status games (e.g. act
11.
by agonmon 3y ago
I appreciate their sacrifice, though I'm afraid that in most cases it is dysgenic. It's going to be intense for our descendents in a couple generations when the gene pool is only left with high fecundity actors. The real resource
12.
by agonmon 3y ago
The author also has a long running web fiction about AI taking over the world. It is hilarious and provides a deep insight into modern religious cults.
13.
by agonmon 4y ago
Better to make mistakes of ambition than of sloth.
14.
by agonmon 4y ago
If you ever want to stop wallowing in misanthropic nihilism, I recommend reading books like "More From Less" - Mcafee which shows that capitalism does in fact reduce/moderate consumption. Next look at "Speed and Scale&qu
15.
by agonmon 4y ago
Computer vision for satellite imagery. LLMs might be good for harassing oil companies.
16.
by agonmon 4y ago
I'm guessing this is referring to US cities, where it feels too dangerous/stressful to raise kids. Cities in Europe, like Amsterdam, have a completely different experience.
17.
by agonmon 4y ago
That seems to be the trend. It makes sense, people who choose a laziness born of pessimism are probably not virile enough to raise children. Surprised to see this kind of thinking here though; if you are an engineer who is good at solving
18.
by agonmon 5y ago
Yes. If you care about the surrounding people's health.
19.
by agonmon 5y ago
Physics and statistical arguments about the medical harms of pollution. But if that is too much to dig into, consider the incentives in play, and who has more to gain from spreading disinformation.
20.
by agonmon 5y ago
"People talk about innovation a whole lot, but what they are usually looking for is cheap wins and novelty." This rings true from being at a Fortune 100 going through "digital transformation". So much jabber about "
21.
by agonmon 5y ago
I've never seen or heard of a technical manager with an MBA... I've seen plenty of technical people, with an aptitude for it, move into management and pick up the ropes, so I'm skeptical that an MBA provides anything but a ne
22.
by agonmon 5y ago
Sure, they just spent $150k, and they want to get a ROI for themselves and their friends from the program.
23.
by agonmon 5y ago
"Management consultants are no longer relevant". But seriously, I encountered MCs at an old-school Fortune-100 recently, and they seemed painfully incompetent at anything software and machine learning related. I had many meetings
24.
by agonmon 5y ago
This is a theme in Taleb's work. He would say that only suckers choose the MBA in this hypothetical, since the MBA (and their network) is optimizing for projecting an image of competence, whereas the non-MBA actually had to have compet
25.
by agonmon 5y ago
What "real problems" are these? Speaking from the side of software Product Management it is far, far harder to make a pitch deck into a solution. Orders of magnitude more brainpower, effort, discipline. Easiest thing to do is sell
26.
by agonmon 5y ago
Global Industrial output per capita reaches a peak around 2008, followed by a rapid decline Global Food per capita reaches a peak around 2020, followed by a rapid decline Global Services per capita reaches a peak around 2020, follo
27.
by agonmon 5y ago
Don't dump it back then. Should be easy to regulate, each liter of water produced should have a certain number of grams of salt to account for. Personally I would like to see that salt turned into structures: https://gizmodo
28.
by agonmon 5y ago
In the Bay Area the train and bus system is a crammed, stressful experience where you have to worry about being robbed, harassed, or being annoyed by loud music, homeless _smells_, or inebriated people trying to smoke in a packed car. Regar
29.
by agonmon 6y ago
"[...] Need somewhere around 50 acres' worth of trees, planted in tropical areas, to absorb the typical emissions produced by an average American in her lifetime. Multiply that by the population of the U.S. and you get 25 million
30.
by agonmon 7y ago
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nzsHQzsvwLw6g4pyE/review-sel...

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