Many people operate primarily on the emotional level. That’s a polite way of saying they’re stupid. Idiots. Like a child who’d rather have 4 shiny pennies than one tiny dime.

If we’re not going to round them up (which, give me the infinity gauntlet and…) then we need to appeal to their idiot emotions. Find something they consider in-group, and frame whatever reasonable policy they’re opposing so their benefits are foregrounded.

I kind of intensely dislike that whole… natural language wrapper thing. It adds at least one whole extra layer to maintain for no real benefit. No one non technical is going to read it. If they were some magic competent person, they could just read regular doc strings.

VC funding.

Also why are you so invested in defending capitalists?

The owner also gets a wage and benefits while the process is running.

And much of the time, they’re spending VC money. Minimal personal risk.

And even so, that doesn’t justify the owner keeping almost all of the proceeds. I don’t care if they put their life savings into it. Labor built it.

There are probably a lot of representatives I wouldn’t recognize, even if I know their name and deal.

But on the flipside, it’s hard for me to stay concentrated while at home.

While I believe that is true for you, I don’t believe it justifies the lost time, health, and environmental damage of mandating in-office for everyone.

The office is super distracting for many people.

The laid off workers also suffer the loss, typically.

Furthermore, I don’t think “he gambled” compellingly makes this system fair or good.

Oh, I read your thing backwards then.

I can’t imagine wanting to go into the office on the regular. The commute. The lost time (can math out to like a 20% pay cut, if you spend two hours a day traveling + getting ready). The sickness. The lack of control over environment (temperature, sound).

Can’t relate to it. And I’m a very social person that likes interacting with people.

Every day I’m a little surprised there’s no news story of some workers beating their “no, you have to come into the office” manager to death. They’ve got means, motive, and opportunity, and it’s extra funny because if they’d been allowed to work at home they wouldn’t have at least two of those.

But really we’re ruled by the worst of us. Cowards and fools.

Maybe unionizing is safer than hitting the decision makers with an office chair while screaming “you made this possible” until they can’t even cry anymore.

I would have assumed it was professional.

I probably wouldn’t pick it up because “stern guy with demon behind him” seems kind of well trod and not my taste at the moment.

Working from home doesn’t appeal to the emotional needs of fragile managers.

I wonder about this a lot, too!

Some cursory searching shows a variety of causes. Maybe from a young age they were repeatedly taught that being wrong made them bad and stupid and unworthy of love, and that’s deeply wound around their subconscious now.

It’d be just sad if it wasn’t causing incalculable harm to society.

Some people have such a fragile ego, such brittle self-esteem, such a weak “psychological constitution,” that admitting they made a mistake or that they were wrong is fundamentally too threatening for their egos to tolerate. Accepting they were wrong, absorbing that reality, would be so psychologically shattering that their defense mechanisms do something remarkable to avoid doing so—they literally distort their perception of reality to make it (reality) less threatening. Their defense mechanisms protect their fragile ego by changing the very facts in their mind, so they are no longer wrong or culpable.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201811/why-some-people-will-never-admit-that-theyre-wrong

:shrug:

Keep track of your spending. Find simple and cheap things you like. There’s hours of entertainment at the free public library. There’s free meetups all over.

I had a friend that ordered food delivery for every meal. That’s like $25k/year on food, in $35 chunks. Don’t do that. Don’t aspire to that.

Use thrift stores, buy nothing groups, freecycle, yard sales etc. I got most of the furniture for my first apartment for $230 (inflation adjusted) when I first moved out. Couch, table, chairs, dresser. The couch didn’t survive the next move, but everything else is solid.

You can probably salvage an old computer by putting Linux on it rather than shelling out for a new one. I saved my friend a lot of money reviving their ancient laptop like that.

Some people have this idea that spending money frivolously or conspicuously is cool. They’re assholes and fools.

Keep in touch with friends. Most of my jobs I got because I knew someone. The job process is broken, run by idiots and slop machines.

If living with your parents isn’t driving you crazy, don’t worry about it. Save the money.

I don’t think Thiel is compatible with freedom, nor democracy. If he died we’d all be better off.

Most people don’t like when their ego is threatened. They’ll make up any excuse to protect their flimsy sense of self worth.

It’s easier to just go “I guess I was wrong” but most people are emotionally fucking cowards.

That’s one of the core injustices of capitalism.

Rich person says “Build a thing”

Workers design, research, and build the thing.

Rich person keeps the profits.

Almost everywhere I’ve applied or know people at is frothing at the mouth for AI. Interestingly, I met a guy last weekend that works for a big video game studio you’ve heard of, and he was like “everyone here hates AI. Management on down”. So that was nice to hear.

. He’s not allowed to say, “It’s not.” Only positive feedback. They need to justify its continued use, so he needs to find benefits to report to the higher-ups.

Those higher-ups should not be in charge.

This feels like the emperor’s new clothes, except no one listens to the children pointing out the folly.

No. Don’t think I was even invited to any.

I’m not close to anyone from high school. I haven’t talked to anyone from that era in years. I wasn’t my best self back then, and I don’t really want to relive it.

Rice and beans. Fast. Easy. Cheap. Throw in whatever random spices and seasonings speak to me. Done. Really. Go crazy with what you put in it. Mustard. Yogurt. Hot sauce. No one’s going to know.