Open Thread

Open Thread #155

The Open Thread is a place for open discussion among my readers. Post anything you feel like sharing! From now on, the Open Thread will no longer be monthly. Instead, there will be a new Open Thread whenever it is adequate. The stage is yours. Go ahead!

The latest Open Thread is made ‘sticky’ to improve access.

Please consider throwing a few coins into the tip jar, and buy my books! They are great. Your support is greatly appreciated.

57 thoughts on “Open Thread #155

  1. I made the claim that within one or two generations, we may be unable to maintain our infrastructure, if current trends of white replacement continue. As it turns out, this is already happening. Here is the CEO of Colonial Pipeline admitting that they have nobody on staff who is able to manually their pipelines:
    https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/09/ceo-colonial-pipeline-joseph-blount-retired-employees/
    As a consequence, they had to set up computers and, presumably, “control units” for interfacing with their equipment. Now, extrapolate this in the future and nobody will be able to maintain this system. First, the code is based on the knowledge of the now-retired workers. This knowledge is now gone. Second, computer hardware and software does not last forever. Given that this company fell victim to a ransomware hack, you can assume that they use shitty Windows as an operating system. Sooner or later, their software will no longer run. Sure, they can keep their old computers but they will break down at some point. Then, they may find out that their code cannot be executed on the latest hardware and/or software, and the source code may no longer compile because their third-party libraries are out of date or the compiler in the year 2050 may no longer support code that was written half a century ago.

    None of this is as much of an exaggeration as you may think. For instance, most companies nowadays readily use third-party libraries because they are driven by short-term thinking. This will invariably lead to problems as time progresses. The fact that many of those libraries are bloated is the least of those issues. Another is that this approach fosters a culture of “glue coding” where nobody knows what is really happening in their code anymore, and because people treat libraries as black boxes, they can’t dig into that code in order to fix some issue or tweak a few settings either.

    I would be very surprised if we didn’t see big cracks in our global IT infrastructure within 10 to 15 years. I would argue that this is already well-underway, given the high number of hacks in recent months. Just from my occasional reading of gaming news, I learned about hacks affecting Nintendo and Capcom. Yesterday, some $600m were siphoned off a crypto exchange. Today, Accenture, one of the “big four” accounting companies revealed that they got hacked. None of this comes out of nowhere.

    1. Thanks for this. I don’t fully understand this stuff, so I might not be using the right terms, but assuming this is all correct and comes to pass, how close to the base layer will it make sense to learn if an up-and-coming coder is to make effective use of their time? Machine learning? C?

    2. Machine Learning is currently being commodified. People just use third-party libraries from scikit-learn and other ML suites. This kind of work is increasingly being done by people who do not understand the underlying mathematics.

      If you really want to get into coding, I’d recommend you make an effort to properly study data structures and algorithms. It would be good to not just grind problems on a site like LeetCode but instead study fundamentals first. Once you have those down, those coding problems will be a lot easier.

      With regards to self-teaching, I think you’d be off for a very good start with Haskell and C (you can even call C code from Haskell). Racket is also a good first language, but there don’t seem to be any companies that use it. There is a freely available textbook, which I can recommend: https://htdp.org. The only problem is that it is quite long-winded, so there is the risk that you will disengage because everything is so drawn out. What is most missing today is a good fundamental understanding of computer science. There is a glut of “bootcamp programmers” who essentially get trained to pass entry-level interviews, similar to teaching-to-the-test, which has become very popular in the US due to the prevalence of standardized tests like the SAT. Similarly, a lot of graduates only go into CS to make a living. It is rare to find someone who really spent time on trying to understand how computers work.

    3. I’ve got a handle on javascript already. Would there be any issue with learning data structures and algorithms with javascript? think a friend recommended me a course awhile ago about data structures and algorithms that was taught in javascript

    4. Using JavaScript for learning D&A would work, too. However, due to being untyped, you may make this harder for yourself. It’s also not enjoyable to detect type errors only at runtime, in my opinion. It may be worth it to pick up Go for this purpose, which is a good alternative to C.

    1. I don’t know if it more surprising that Vox had been using Blogspot all this time or that his blog has been taken down. I don’t follow him, so I’m more puzzled that his blog hadn’t been taken down sooner, given that it was on Blogspot. I know that Google has more or less abandoned Blogspot so maybe it just took some time until they told an intern to run the shadowban-racists script.

      I left Blogspot half a decade ago because it is owned by Google. This was an easy decision to make after I had signed up for AdWords (or was it AdSense?) and I received one email after another telling me about the various articles on my blog that we blacklisted for advertising due to the language they use. It felt as if 95% of my articles got flagged, there were so many emails that it made me laugh in the end. It was dozens a day for dozens of days. From this I deduced that there is no way this is going to end well for my blog, so I bailed.

      Yes, we are all pro-vaxxers here. I want a “needle in everyone’s arm”, just like that homosexual (transgender?) influencer the White House — change this racist name finally, ffs! — used for a recent campaign:
      https://nypost.com/2021/08/10/tiktok-star-parades-around-white-house-to-boost-vaccines/

    2. That “man” looks like a total f—ing degenerate. Do they seriously believe that putting him on is going to get more people to get vaccinated? 🙂

    3. I think this clip reveals a lot more about the inner working of the White House than the powers that be are able to imagine. In my view, they live in a total cloud cuckoo land with little connection to reality. The backlash will be glorious.

    4. I bet if you asked him twice in a row what his name is, you’d get a different answer each time.

    5. Hahaha, wouldn’t surprise me, man! Or maybe they finally got him to settle on “Joe 30330.” 🙂

    1. I wouldn’t stay in a major city if I were stateside. However, i’m currently in a major city in Vietnam. I’m skeptical that i’ll be forcibly vaccinated here, since I’m not a citizen of this country.

      There haven’t been any rumors of forced vaccination in this country either.

  2. Do some of you remember the MGTOW creator “huMAN”? He’s still around, and has gotten quite big, with some videos having tens of thousands of views. I listened to a few of his recent videos the other day and was quite surprised by how much he has changed. In his most recent video he basically drops the J pill, dog-whistling for five minutes straight on how the leaders of society have corrupted women:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaDnG96iWhU
    (WordPress, tell me why this video does not get embedded!)

    I also listened to bits of his most recent stream, linked below, and was quite amazed by how aggressive he sounded when deriding PC corporate culture. I chuckled when he said that normies only speak in memes. This is not noteworthy in itself, but it did not fit my perception of him, seeing that he used to strike a much different tone, bordering on being milquetoast even.

    1. Oh, I haven’t listened to him in quite while. It seems to me that many people are getting fed up with the course of society and simply ‘dropping out’ isn’t good enough anymore. Mostly because going your own way and minding your own business is becoming less and less feasible even. We used to be able to travel to exotic lands and bang pros if we wanted, but now everything has degraded down to perpetual lockdowns, mask wearing, never ending poisonous injections being on the table etc. They’re overextending their hand and more people are reacting, I believe.

  3. The Covid narrative is slipping into comedy territory. Check this out:

    Last month, the WHO chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, called the mix and match strategy a “dangerous trend”, saying: “We are in a bit of a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as ‘mix-and-match’.” But earlier today, the UK government adviser Prof Danny Altmann said “a bit of mix and match for the boosters is always going to be a good idea” for maximising the chances of getting a good immune response.

    Fuck the data! We’ll just mix-and-match a bunch of experimental vaxxes because it’s totally impossible for this to go wrong in any way, you science-denying anti-semitic pedo-hating racist bigot!
    https://dailystormer.su/mix-and-match-priests-of-the-science-now-officially-recommending-mixing-different-vaccines-together/

    1. I’m not a vax expert by any means but were previous vaccines effective for 10+ years?

      Now for this vax, you need at least two doses minimum. I guess if they injected both at once you’d die instantly? But if this vaccine is sooooo next gen, new tech, etc…then I find it odd that it is only effective against the first variant and somehow a booster shot of the same vax is now effective against the delta variant?

      It seems like they people are making shit up as they go but it feels like they know exactly what they are doing but acting in this way to create mass confusion to the point when people are fed up and just submit.

    2. Deus,

      Why would you die if you got two shots at once? 😀 It’s just not going to be effective. This is pretty standard for vaccines. Most vaccines need to be given in multiple shots spread out over a period of time.

      In regards to the variants, one dose is effective against the variants as well, but the efficacy rate is lower than against the standard virus. The second shot increases efficacy against both the standard and variants.

      The reason it feels confusing is because most people aren’t exactly well-educated on the topic of vaccines, but it’s not really anything unusual.

    3. Karl, the vaxx is not a vaccine. Technically, it is “gene therapy”. Yes, this term is used in the literature. In Germany, Big Pharma lobbied to broaden the definition of a vaccine to include gene therapies.

    4. Problem is that by the looks of things the virus will remain in circulation indefinitely and new strains will continue to emerge. I’m not keen on getting a booster shot every 6 months.

    5. Skeptics say that what is labelled Covid has been around for ages. Only because we began looking for something with the deficient PCR test did we come across it. Also, you can bet that there will be boosters. If Big Pharma has its way, you’ll get one every three months, and at some point probably every month.

  4. After reading Aaron’s book on meditation I started going down the rabbit hole a little.

    I’m sure I’m not the only one here but my thoughts in my head seems to be very antagonistic almost like a parasite trying to hold me back. I’ve read that some people through mediation have “killed” their ego/ these negative thoughts. I wonder if anyone here who is experienced in meditation has experienced this?

    Also if anyone has any insight on how to release emotional trauma? I’ve come to the conclusion that it appears a lot of my problems today stem from past childhood trauma. Problem is I can’t remember most of my childhood at all….

    1. Ive achieved something similar without meditation. I did a lot of Sedona and “The Work”, and some huna I believe.

    2. Just to be clear, meditation is the best. Just saying I believe it’s achievable since I got to a similar point even without meditation, so with meditation it should be more than doable.

    3. “Ive achieved something similar without meditation. I did a lot of Sedona and “The Work”, and some huna I believe.”

      What are “sedona”, “the work” and “huna”? Are they drugs or physical therapy?

    1. I’ve decided that if the time comes I’ll claim a religious/philosophical exemption and provide documentation I have saved for my reasons. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try counterfeiting a vax card. If that doesn’t work then I’ll probably be seen as a fraud and I don’t know what could mean in terms of disciplinary action, but I’ll just continue to show up to work as scheduled, clock in and work my shift until they can me. From there I suppose I could attempt to find some job in my field in another state, though I have no idea what that scenario will look like unless it arises.

    2. I just realized that the vax cards have the CDC seal in them and forging one is possibly a felony, so I guess that option is probably too risky.

    3. This is interesting. It is not unlikely that those cards were not issued by the CDC itself, in which case you could freely copy them. Assuming that those are legitimate documents, it would only be fair that copying them should be a felony, sending you right to the slammer, whereas destroying billions in property in mostly peaceful protest is protected speech and above the law.

  5. Demented Joe Biden, the most popular man in the universe, has announced that the U.S. has fully vaccinated 350 million people:
    https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1423671216741699590
    I’m curious how “fact checkers” are going to spin this. Then again, mathematics is racist, so it does not matter that the U.S. has only a little over 300 million people of which maybe half have gotten vaxxed.

    1. “the U.S. has only a little over 300 million people of which maybe half have gotten vaxxed.”
      I cracked up when I read this.

  6. @Sleazy

    “Nobody is forcing you to read about the dangers of the vaxx or white replacement.”
    This was posted in Open Thread 154

    I just have a devilish thought, playing a devil advocate, as this: “Now that white race is totally erased from their living habit, isn’t it advantageous for us yellow to take their place. After all, their extinction leaves a vacuum in which we Asians can thrive.”

    But then I immediately remember the lesson drawn from the Mongol invasion of China. The Song dynasty (a Chinese dynasty) took advantage of the downfall of the Liao (a foreign dynasty on Chinese soild) and Jin (the same as the Liao) to finish them by allying with the Mongols. The result was they were exterminated themselves by their “allies”.

    Thus I think the Jews would do the same to us Asians. After all, they view every goyim to be sub-humans and unworthy of sharing living space with them. They would in turn try to eliminate us anyway.

    What plans do you think the Jews would do to us Asians, or Hispanics or Africans once whites were finally destroyed?

    1. Well you have varying levels of traditionalism and orthodoxy within the Jewish people, which works to their advantage.

      One family may expressly forbid their children from marrying a non-Jew. Another may not carry about traditional values, but cares very deeply about money and is hyper-opportunistic. That family may in fact encourage their children to pair off with Chinese people if they are wealthy and on the ascent to power.

      I expect to see a rise in Japa (portmanteau of Jew and Hapa) children as time goes on.

      As long as the Jews have an ethnostate, they will be able to pursue this multi-pronged approach while still maintaining their DNA. And yes, they will of course stab everyone in the back.

    2. Eh, most Jews don’t believe gentiles are subhuman or anything of the kind.

      Personally I don’t believe in the “grand Jewish conspiracy” notions at all. But even if they were true, you can be confident that the vast majority of Jews are not part of them, and indeed don’t even know about them.

      If they were true, it’d be interesting to see the interaction between Jews and Chinese. When you look at it the two tend to function very similarly when they move to other countries, and with similar results.

      Moving into same-race “ghettos,” marrying mostly within the group, starting their own businesses and hiring mainly from their own group for important positions, becoming successful and wealthy, facing hatred (and sometimes outbreaks of violence) against them from locals who believe they are getting too much power, and so on. 🙂

    3. @ Karl Marx

      The difference between the Chinese and Jewish communities is that the Chinese, at the moment, happen not to be over represented in positions of authority in white countries while simultaneously working to pass legislation that threatens the longevity of the native population’s genetic survival. Last time I checked, the Chinese don’t own most banks and media outlets in the US either. You don’t have to believe in a conspiracy to look and see objectively why they’re wanted out, this desire is not born out of a vacuum.

  7. Here is another sign of IQs dropping: Amazon put in a joke in the TOS of their game engine, writing the following:

    42.10. Acceptable Use; Safety-Critical Systems. Your use of the Lumberyard Materials must comply with the AWS Acceptable Use Policy. The Lumberyard Materials are not intended for use with life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat. However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.

    https://gameruprising.to/index.php?threads/lol-amazon-webs-services-aws-lumberyard-sdk-terms-of-service.26558/#post-508688

    This may seem funny to the autists who wrote this, but it is a sign of a corrupt culture. At a previous employer, for instance, I raised a stink because there were “jokes” in the developer documentation that made it ambiguous. Worse, the documentation was written in poor English, so it was not at all clear what was going on. There were also many instances where the intended meaning was different from what the text actually said, but that was a problem throughout the entire documentation. I would have liked to slap the morons responsible for this from one wall to the next. Sadly, their manager was of the same ilk. Allowing jokes in serious technical documentation reveals poor judgment. Poor English grammar use is different because the people responsible normally don’t understand English well enough to write it well, otherwise they’d do so. Still, in this case you need a proper proof-reader.

    1. I found a site, via your forum, that provides good instructions and advices on how to improve your social skills, including your conversational skills. It was written by a person who is autistic or who has Asperger.

      I would not post the link here since I have not asked you for permission.

      I would be very interested in reading writings of people who have some forms of autism, since I am one among them.

    2. Oh, now you agree with my armchair diagnosis that you are on the autism spectrum. What changed? Feel free to post that link.

    3. I’ve actually agreed with your assessment (still with some lingering doubts) in this Open Thread 153.

      Let me quote myself:

      “The recent revelation of Yarara did indeed make me doubt if I am autistic, because obviously now you have to be careful with psychiatrists, whose fields are far from being rigorous.”

      https://blog.aaronsleazy.com/index.php/2021/08/04/sticky-open-thread-153/

      So. In the past, I had suspected that I had autism. Then I believed in the diagnosis of my psychiatrists. 2 of them said I didn’t have autism. So I took comfort in their assessments. Then Yarara pointed out that psychiatrists weren’t that reliable. Then I took that as a sign that I should not believe in the diagnosis of psychiatrists.

      Just a few days ago, I went to see another psychiatrist and I told her that there were children who had autism in my family. I asked her if I had autism and she said you should have Asperger. But then I told her my attention span was not that long, while Asperger children usually have a much longer focus ability. Then I asked her where could I see a psychiatrist who specializes in autism, and she just said “I will direct you to the therapist”.

      I am ok with the fact that I may be autistic, but Alek Novy uses it to insult me and Ubermensch. It is strange because he revealed somewhere that he is also has Asperger or autistic.

    4. I am ok with the fact that I may be autistic, but Alek Novy uses it to insult me and Ubermensch. It is strange because he revealed somewhere that he is also has Asperger or autistic.

      I am attacking you two for your behaviour, where you completely miss all context and nuance and refuse to learn basic human communication skills.

      That’s called autistic in common parlance because you’re more likely to act that way if you’re predisposed to it. But you don’t have to act that way, that’s the point.

      If it was something you couldn’t change, well so be it. But you can.

      And yes, I rank on the border between neurotypical and asperger. Again, that’s just how your brain is naturally predisposed. It doesn’t mean you have to suck at human communication. Just that you have to work harder.

    5. I agree with AlekNovy completely. I would stray away from either “relief” that you don’t have autism AND taking on autism as some part of your identity. You just need to work at it.

      I suspected i was an aspie, then i realized that most of what got called aspergers was just rooted in abject horror/trauma i’d experienced.

      Better to not internalize autism as an identity if healing and effort can drastically improve your situation.

    6. On the subject of autism and odd behavior, I admit that learning to get laid was something I had to focus on a lot in terms of a behavioral approach. Which is why PUA fucked me over for a long time because it made me an even more awkward person when instead it would have been much better to have had a big brother like Aaron telling me to lift and focus on my self essentially. I’ve made a lot of conscious effort to be more sociable and that includes trying out different things and observing in real time what works for other people and adapting it.

    7. Btw, I don’t think my issue was ever being on the spectrum or anything though I suppose that could be the case in part. I’m torn between how much of my earlier weirdness was environmental and genetic. I’m still probably considered quite odd by most people today, it’s just that I can communicate better and pick up on cues more. I’d rather spend the majority of my time alone recording music, gaming, reading, dicking around on the internet etc. I generally feel no excitement at the prospect of going to a party or concert, for example. I keep enough people around to not feel lonely and that’s it.

    8. I’d rather spend the majority of my time alone recording music, gaming, reading, dicking around on the internet etc. I generally feel no excitement at the prospect of going to a party or concert, for example. I keep enough people around to not feel lonely and that’s it.

      Tests qualify this as autistic though. But that was my point.

      I did a bunch of tests yesterday, just to compare, and it was quite interesting, but not surprising. I found there are two types of tests.

      – Those who ask you about your proclivities
      – Those who ask about your real-world results/skills

      The first type asks questions like do you prefer to work on things on your own, rather than in a group? Would you choose staying alone rather than deal with people… stuff like that. And if I take those tests, I’m still in aspie territory, and my answers are the same as they would have been 20 years ago.

      But if I take the second type of test… I’m well into neurotypical territory. Those tests asks questions about the real world results and skills you have. Things like “I find it hard to make friends”, “I don’t know how to do small talk”, “I can’t infer what a person means from their face alone”… stuff like that. My answers today are different than my answers 20 years ago.

      So I’d say the first type of test measures if you were born with an aspie brain. And the second type of test tries to find out if you “act aspie”. It’s just a predisposition, and you can learn these things as skills.

    9. Thanks for the reply, Alek. That’s interesting. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if I was considered on the spectrum or anything. In fact, I’d probably be more surprised if I wasn’t. For the longest time I just thought I was a serious introvert. However, one thing that’s changed for me in recent years is wanting to gravitate more towards a creative vs destructive mindset if that makes sense. Like, I could see myself wanting to collaborate with groups of people if we were building toward something beautiful and harmonious. However, most people I meet just want to mindlessly consume. I’m not against consumption per se, but I can have some good beer and a steak dinner without having breaking the bank every weekend to do so. Also, most people I’ve come across are legitimately not trustworthy enough to have over all the time and to reveal a lot of information to.

  8. I am going through this as a fun exercise on logics. I haven’t had time to read Formal Logic: A Philosophical Approach so I am still a blind student when it comes to logic.

    I came across this claim, which can be succinctly summarized as follows:

    All advanced English students will pass the IELTS (English proficiency test for foreigners) with high scores. (1)

    But not all those who pass IELTS with high scores are advanced English students. (2)

    I try to interpret this by using Venn diagram.

    Let X be the set of all advanced English readers, x be an individual advanced English reader
    It is tautological that all x∈X
    Let Y be the set of all those who pass IELTS with high scores, y be a single individual who passes IELTS with high scores
    It is tautological that all y∈Y

    Claim (1) means all x∈X AND all x∈Y
    Claim (2) means NOT all y∈X AND all y∈Y

    Claim number (1) implies that X is a subset of Y (according to wiki definition of a subset)

    But I am not sure if claim number (2) implies X is a proper subset of Y, that is X is completely contains in Y, I think it is true.

    So my conclusion is the set of all advanced learners who pass IELTS with high scores (X) is a proper subset of the set of all students who pass IELTS with high scores (Y).

    If you draw Venn diagram, then the set (X) will be a circle (or oval) that lies completely inside the set (Y).

    1. Your description seems to be a bit more complicated than it needs to be. First, you have the superset Y, i.e. all students who pass the IELTS with high scores. Then you have the X, which is a subset of Y, i.e. all advanced learners. I think that X can only be an improper subset in the degenerate case (yes, this is a term in mathematics) where Y / X = 0, i.e. subtracting X from Y yields the empty set, but not in general because your second statement seems to strongly imply that Y / X is not the empty set.

      Also, I get the impression that your terminology is a bit shaky. A set is an “improper subset” if it contains all elements of the superset. In contrast a “proper subset” only contains elements of the superset, but not all of them.

    2. Thank you for your suggestions and simplification. I would go back and review terminologies in set theory.

      I find that apart from mastering formal logic, you also need to be able to understand and correctly reduce complicated sentences in natural language to statements that contain purely logical symbols. This is somewhat similar to solving simple word problems in classical algebra.

      I am always surprised at how you and Alek Novy were able to keep track of your opponents’ long arguments and effectively counterattack them.

    3. “but not in general because your second statement seems to strongly imply that Y / X is not the empty set.”
      Oh yes, this is because there are possibly more subsets in Y than just X. This is what I was thinking. Thank you for pointing it out.

    4. All those other subsets are not relevant to the problem, however. Don’t make those problems more difficult! You’ll likely only end up confusing yourself.

    5. “I think that X can only be an improper subset in the degenerate case (yes, this is a term in mathematics) where Y / X = 0, i.e. subtracting X from Y yields the empty set, but not in general because your second statement seems to strongly imply that Y / X is not the empty set.”

      I have looked into the definition of improper and proper subsets.

      “An improper subset is defined as a subset which contains all the elements present in the other subset.”

      This is equivalent to Y/X={empty}

      “But in proper subsets, if X is a subset of Y, if and only if every element of set X should be present in set Y, but there is one or more than elements of set Y is not present in set X.”

      This is equivalent to Y/X={not empty}

      https://byjus.com/maths/subsets/

      So what I mean is B is a proper subset of A, and A is a superset of B.

    6. Those definitions are a bit sloppy. The first definition uses “other subset” instead of “superset” or, perhaps better, speaking of two sets. The second definition is long-winded. I’d define it along the lines of the following: X is a subset of Y if every x in X is also in Y. If X and Y have the same size, then X is an improper subset.

      I think that it would be helpful to add a note on the empty set in the second definition, i.e. the set containing the empty set is a subset of every superset. Textbooks often omit such statements for stupid gotcha! exercises. Plenty of academic teachers are also fond of not properly teaching the material and then trying to trip up their students in exams.

    7. “Plenty of academic teachers are also fond of not properly teaching the material and then trying to trip up their students in exams.”
      That’s how most Vietnamese high school teachers make a living. They sloppily teach the materials, then create an exam that contains contents that they gloss over or don’t teach at all. To pass exam, you have to come to their houses to do “extracurricular” (used here with sarcasm) activities.

Leave a Reply to Aaron "Sleazy" Elias Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.