Open Thread

Open Thread #366

Aaron "Sleazy" Elias

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.

62 thoughts on “Open Thread #366”

  1. Diversity is our biggest strength and $450m for a crashed plane is simply nothing. It pales in contrast to the benefits diversity brings:
    https://archive.ph/0mPIn

    Look at this:
    “The preponderance of the evidence revealed an ineffective and unhealthy culture, which directly contributed to the mishap,” he wrote. “Specifically, the [34th Bomb Squadron’s] overall lack of discipline, inadequate focus on basic airmanship skills, and failure to properly identify and mitigate risk, coupled with the [28th Operations Support Squadron’s] ineffective communication, inadequate program management, and lack of supervisory oversight, set conditions that allowed this mishap to occur by directly leading to the mishap’s cause and its three non-weather-related, substantially contributing factors.”

    Reply

    1. Vox Day has also observed the outsized impact of AI on leftist midwits such as regime propagandists, gaslighters, and word salad tossers. They would likely do well to replace Heels Up with an AI as well.

      I’ve seen a few articles purporting to show why AI can replace coders. All were fradulent (they deliberately tried to mislead you into thinking the AI was doing some kind of reasoning when it was just copy/pasting from a site like Stack Overflow).

      That said, I’ve found AI helpful. On the other hand, it’s only moderately more helpful than Google was 20 years ago when it actually worked. Back then it often seemed like Google could read my mind. Now it’s literally too stupid to find articles that contain exact phrases I specify – it just ignores them and decides I really meant something else. This is true even for technical and non-politicized subject matter. I presume this is a combination of the catastrophic decline in the Internet’s signal to noise ratio and Didn’t Earn It lunacy at Google.

  3. EDF 6 is finally out in the West. People are complaining about having to use an Epic account even after buying the game on Steam and there are the usual complains about bugs, but not the kind you kill in the game. Still, this game looks like a blast. I put it on my backlog/wishlist.

    Reply

  4. In light of the Olympics 2024 and the lgbtq opening ceremony propaganda… is any one of you guys still interested in professional sports? I stopped watching it mostly… and only follow one sport.

    Reply

    1. The only sport I ever really got into is MMA/Combat Sports,but these days,I don’t enjoy watching even that unless I personally know the combatants. (Intense sparring matches in the gym I used to train at can be quite eye catching. haha.) Grappling/BJJ can be quite fun when you’re doing it,but its absolutely awful as a spectator sport. haha.

      I have started taking interest in other physical activities other than just Martial Arts/Combat sports,but not because I want to watch those,but actually engage in the activity myself.

      Maybe its a good thing though that I never got into watching team sports. To me,that kind of past-time feels like you’re trying to live vicariously through someone else. Of course,I don’t wish to generalize all sports spectators like that as that would be no better than people assuming anime fans are pathetic basement dwellers,but there’s a probably non-insignificant portion of the sport spectating fanbase where that is the case,in the same sense that there are indeed some anime fans where they really do fit the neckbeard stereotype.

    3. Rollerblading is the first and foremost that came to mind that I wanted to try out…unfortunately,no nearby classes/groups where I live.

      I think I recall ranting here about how the way modern cities are built these days seem to discourage the pursuit of outdoor activities. Going back to biking was another idea that came to mind,but there’s sadly no nearby parks. The street here isn’t appealing either because of the excess traffic,the intense sun/heat and car exhaust air pollution.

      Today.we visited a gym that’s set up in a similar way (and even cheaper to boot) to the one I used to go to back when I was living with my grandpa. Has a weightroom where I should be able to do all my weight training,and has Muay Thai/BJJ sessions in another corner. I kinda have higher hopes for this one because when I asked,they told me they have a separate time for training beginners,a fundamentals class. I think I’ve also talked here before about the common problem of BJJ gyms not having a structured learning curriculum,so this looks like a green flag. I don’t have to buy a Gi either to join in.

      There’s another place not too far from where I live that offers swimming lessons…but its more expensive than the BJJ classes. which is quite surprising to me.

      Until I’m able to move from where I live right now,I’m kinda stuck with combat sports for cardio. I’ve got a family event to attend next week though,so I’ll only be able to sample it sometime after that. Really hoping that fundamentals BJJ class they offer meets expectations.

    1. Kamala is surely one of the least popular figures in the United States. Before Joe Brandon left the presidential race, nobody pretended otherwise but this does not fit the narrative anymore, so now we need to get brainwashed into thinking that the world loves her.

  6. To the devs here: anyone else getting drunk on AI?

    With the latest claude update I find I don’t even code all that much. I’ve become a prompt engineer, and have claude do the coding for me.

    Now I’m not the typical dev since I code for my own businesses, basically creating business apps for my own businesses… so I acknowledge maybe it’s not good enough “for real devs”, but the progress itself is mind boggling.

    Just 2 months ago I wouldn’t have used it for more than creating a utility here and there. Now I feed it like the backend module and which frontend modules will call it for what, tell it what I want to achieve, and with the “fragments” feature it gives me ready-made “copy and paste” final code for every file involved. Even 2 months ago this seemed like it be far off in the future.

    Reply

    1. It is a great source of information complementing books, courses and official documentation, but honestly I haven’t heard of anyone using it to generate production code in a professional context. I believe it can be a great way to generate boiler-plate code if you aren’t using a library or framework which handles that for you.

    2. I’m using it to produce code based on frameworks. It’s really nice. I think it’s just a matter of time before pros use it. Eventually most coding will be prompt engineering.

      To be fair, I think one of the reasons pros don’t use it is because of a bias. Nobody wants to be replaced by AI. So many pros will claim it’s not good until it literally kills their profession.

      My advantage is that I don’t code for a living, I only code so I don’t have to pay programmers to do it for me. So if an AI can replace me, that’s amazing. Whereas someone who codes as a career doesn’t want to be replaced by AI, whereas I do.

    3. I think that AI will be good enough for repetitive and relatively straightforward coding work, the kind you would give to an average intern or junior programmer. It is no secret that the tech industry is incredibly bloated, so you could get rid of probably about 1/3 of developers without any problems. This may be a better approach than trying to make such people more highly performant with AI. I am not being sarcastic. A lot of the problems in tech is excessive complexity, and the more people you have, the more teams and thus managers you have, and all these managers want to build their own little kingdom. If their topic is not substantial enough, they will find ways to make their work require more people. Adding a few more pointless microservices or nanoservices is a very popular strategy in this regard.

    4. Alek, are you familiar with modern IDEs? There are plenty of IDEs that highlight expected parameters, for instance. This is somewhat pedestrian but obviously also very straightforward work. Professionally, I hardly ever use StackOverflow, and in some of the niche languages I have worked in you would not even find a lot of content. Thus, I have a hard time seeing AI assistants scaling that wall. Of course, if you solve very straightforward problems, AI coding assistants may be quite useful. Even in that case, though, you could probably get as much done by just looking at language and library references. I fully understand that if you just want to knock out a website or an app that you prefer increased automation.

      I work with a few people who rely a lot on AI assistants for not just coding but also writing. These people do not leave a good impression on me. They seem to believe that writing well means producing one or more pages almost devoid of content, but presented in a particular format. I am not particularly bullish on AI. Certainly it is not going to level the playing field between the IQ95 and the IQ120 crowd. That being said, applications for visual arts are plenty and this is a field where AI is going to gain a serious foothold. The same is true for somewhat repetitive work with a low level of variance. It cannot easily be automated with basic algorithms as you could not define rules well enough manually, but an ANN should be able to learn how to do such tasks quite well.

    6. From my experience the quality of AI generated answers is very much dependent on the amount of online content. If you are looking to make generic stuff which is widely discussed in books, tutorials and StackOverflow, then AI is great. For non-generic stuff it is not so great because it doesn’t really have an ability to reason. You can see that for yourself by giving it logical puzzles or math problems that aren’t part of its training corpus. Supposedly, the reason why Claude is so much better at generating code is because it does aggressive web-scrapping, unlike some of its previous competitors.

      I don’t see this kind of AI ever replacing developers as Word2Vec in my view can’t fully capture human cognition. But theory aside, what I find promising is the idea that smaller companies will be able to buy pre-trained LLMs and then further specialize them in their own business processes. Daniel Miessler has written about this idea in more depth.

      Training AI is very resource-intensive, but hosting the trained model locally and calibrating it for your own use case / business process by providing a detailed context (basically talking with the AI) before querying or asking to generate code could become a big thing in business. My company will be moving towards this goal in the next year, so hopefully I’ll get to see how the AI performs when it actually gets calibrated for a particular use.

    7. Another consideration when going full AI code generation route (although I’m surprised you can do this at all, you must be really good at writing prompts) is that at some point money will enter the picture, and as AI is notorious for ‘hallucinations’, you will probably want to audit your code. When devs write code there is usually a software architect who ensures that certain guidelines and conventions are followed, but with AI you might end up with a mishmash that could be a nightmare to ensure that it works correctly.

    8. This is an excellent point. Right now, the focus is on improving the productivity of individual developers but it is not at all clear, if this even works, whether this approach can scale. In the visual arts, for instance, we see that there is still an art director who oversees the produced work and ensures consistency of vision. The number of concept artists, though, is going down and those that remain make heavy use of AI.

    10. @Cheeky – Claude (3.5) is better for that as well. Depending on how you write the prompts it can either give really solid advice, or start acting like a feminist and gaslighting you.

      You have to experiment to find out how to construct the prompts to get the first, instead of the latter. I experimented a lot, but I wouldn’t have the time to write out an entire guide here. If you experiment a bit, you’ll find out as well.

    11. @Skeptick = Yes, I’ve become exceptionally profficient at engineering prompts. It’s an entire skillset on its own. You learn what you need to feed it and how.

      For example I attach the diagrams of how the system (backend works), the vision behind the entire system, what I’m trying to achieve, and how it would affect other systems in the app (etc etc). My prompts are basically pages long… they’re not short prompts. Plus attaching a bunch of files with code for additional context).

      Imagine like you’re trying to get a new engineer on the team up to speed and explaining everything they need to know about how you do things, and how you did things so far, and where they fit in, etc etc…

    13. @Alek- also I have something of interest to me I’d love to hear your (and Sleazys) opinions on/ dissection of.
      I’ll post below not to highjack this thread.

  7. Any of you guys have experience with a career change? Got out of a desk job finance gig (FP&A) 3 years ago due to burnout and depression. Tough transition and hard to let go of a 15 year career and quals ..but now working 2 part time, hands-on but lower level jobs and feel like a new man tbh.
    And almost earning the same as previously now.

    I recall a post here discussing “do what you love” vs. “learn various marketable skills”( or some such) I’d tend to agree w the latter now.

    Be interested to hear any stories or pointers to an existing thread. Thanks CJ.

    Reply

  8. Can you guys recommend some escort services and red light districts in Europe. I am planning a trip there to remove my V-card.

    Reply

    2. If you’re willing to go to a red light district, an FKK brothel is a good alternative to that. Red light districts have pick pockets and scammers, while FKK brothels are safe environments where you can relax. There are such brothels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These establishments are completely legal. They have different price ranges with the cheapest ones offering 30 minutes of sex for 30 Euro and the nicer ones 100 Euro for 30 minutes. You can always pay for additional time if you feel too rushed with just 30 minutes.

      Since it’s to lose your virginity I recommend going to one of the nicer ones. For example Sharks or Mainhattan in Frankfurt. In Berlin there is Artemis which is said to be not quite as good as the Frankfurt clubs but still perfectly servicable. If money is no issue you should go to Club Globe in Zürich, which by all accounts is the finest club of this type, there it’s 150 Euro / 30 minutes.

      The way it works is that these clubs are spa clubs for male customers only. You pay an entry fee which will be about 100 Euro and then you get a bathrobe and can spend the whole day and night there enjoying the spa facilities and a buffet which is served around lunch and in the evening. There is also a lounge/bar area where the prostitutes are, either naked or wearing lingerie. This allows you to see which women you find attractive and you can strike up a conversation with them. If you like their vibe you can agree to go a room with her and have sex. The rooms have beds with sheets which are changed by cleaning staff after every session. At most clubs you pay the prostitute afterwards, so she can’t get away with tricking you or anything.

      Paid sex without a condom is officially illegal in Germany, both for vaginal and oral intercourse, but unofficially many prostitutes offer blowjob without condom for an extra fee and some offer vaginal sex without condom also. But if you are interested in this you must ask the prostitute discretely so the rest of the staff can’t hear it, otherwise she might get in trouble with the club manager.

      After you have had sex, you can take a shower and relax in the spa for a while until you feel horny again. Then you go to the bar/lounge again and pick another girl. Most guys spend several hour at the club for each visit and have sex with 3-4 women during that time. Of course if you really like a woman you can be with her several times.

      Sundays tend to have a calmer atmosphere than Friday nights and Saturdays. Weekday afternoons are also calm and though there are fewer women working then you will still have several to choose from. Most of the prostitutes in FKK brothels are from Eastern Europe but there are often some from Southern Europe or Latin America, so you may have the opportunity to sample many types of beauties.

    3. Amsterdam used to be good but has gone to shit these days from my readings.
      Germany should still have some big RLD’s as per Burt’s post above. Hamburg’s Reeperbahn I’ve heard a lot about,
      You are in Vietnam – why not just go to Pattaya Thailand aka ‘sex city’? Or Phuket’s Bangla Road , there are Russian hookers working there I have read. Won’t be as cheap as Euro hookers tho. $200 a go here in Australia very nice ladies 😀
      I like the Java girls in Bali . Gorgeous and 2 for $200 1 hour. Happy days!

    4. You are in Vietnam – why not just go to Pattaya Thailand aka ‘sex city’?

      Because Thailand has the highest HIV population. I am not sure about their regulations, but I don’t expect Thai whores to go through tests like in Europe.

    6. Zurich has suddenly become a travel destination for me now 🙂 sounds great 👍
      QCV – Aus may be an option for u if you haven’t fixed plans. Flight time is HCM to Sydney is 9hrs vs say Germany 12hrs.
      Let me know I’ll give u a quick run down.

    7. Hmmm did not know that. I’ll take your word for it. I’ve been with many there (protected of course) never had an issue I know of.
      The only time I picked something up was in HMC actually funnily enough, when the condom broke. Caused by broken A/C in my hotel room and the profuse sweating going on.it was worth it tho.. a night to remember! 😀

    8. But for sure 100% there are Russian hookers working in Phuket Thailand now if ur seeking a white woman. The Russians run a few flash niteclubs on the sex strip. I’d bet the girls are quite gorgeous too.

  9. Woman responds to the Southport stabbing rampage and resulting riots.

    “Chloe Laws
    @Chloegracelaws
    23h
    Male violence against girls and women is the problem. It’s an endemic. And how do these men respond to that? With more violence. With racism and bigotry. They do not care about the girls who were murdered.”

    Liberalism is a suicide cult for people who are literally too stupid to live or don’t want to (and don’t want anyone else to).

    Reply

    1. It’s amazing to consider how many Europeans have died fighting Islam, over how many centuries, from Lepanto and Poitiers to Acre and Tyre, only to have their descendents, like this genius, surrender utterly, without a shot fired, in barely one generation.

      Michael Crichton also pointed to this one back in 1995, in “The Lost World”:

      “Because complex animals can evolve their behavior rapidly. Changes can occur very quickly. Human beings are transforming the planet, and nobody knows whether it’s a dangerous development or not. So these behavioral processes can happen faster than we usually think evolution occurs. In ten thousand years human beings have gone from hunting to farming to cities to cyberspace. Behavior is screaming forward, and it might be nonadaptive. Nobody knows. Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species. … Because it means the end of innovation. This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. … Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London: there’s a McDonald’s on one corner, a Benetton on another, a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there’s less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity—our most necessary resource? That’s disappearing faster than trees. But we haven’t figured that out, so now we’re planning to put five billion people together in cyberspace. And it’ll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time. Global uniformity. … And believe me, it’ll be fast. If you map complex systems on a fitness landscape, you find the behavior can move so fast that fitness can drop precipitously. It doesn’t require asteroids or diseases or anything else. It’s just behavior that suddenly emerges, and turns out to be fatal to the creatures that do it.”

    2. from Lepanto and Poitiers to Acre and Tyre

      Poitiers? It was a smashing victory for the English against the French in the what is now called the Hundred Years war. It has nothing to do with the wars against Islam. If you mean the battle of Poitiers between Charlemagne and the Umayyads then it was the earliest of the conflicts listed by you.

      Your chronology is off too. Acre (1291), don’t know when did Tyre fall, but Lepanto should be over 200-300 years after the extinction of the last crusade kingdoms.

    3. Yeah I was referring to Poitiers in 732, and I did throw those out in random order.

      In other news:

      “J.K. Rowling
      Aug 1
      Could any picture [Imane Khelif smirking at a sobbing Angela Carini] sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”

      So men beating the shit out of women in women’s sports is actually a plot by the men’s rights movement, who knew? But I guess it should come as no surprise, since transgender lunacy has always been pushed hardest by cishet Christian Nationalist white male Trump voters, over the bitter protests of women and liberals.

      In reality, of course, the feminists did Satan’s work and now he’s throwing them off the back of the sled for the wolves, as he does with all his servants.

    1. I’ve had a good experience, although that is not much of a sample size. I don’t see many good alternatives, unless you are established in your career.

    2. Viable alternatives are personal contacts. This even works at the start of your career. In technical fields, for instance, it is not that uncommon that companies send representatives to recruit at university and hold informal interviews. This can be an excellent way to getting your first job. In larger cities, it is also worth going to job fairs. Your thesis advisor or a professor who considers you a good student may also be able to facilitate contacts. Later in your career, as you rightly state, your “network” may help but I would not overestimate this.

    3. Whether LinkedIn or, in parts of Europe, Xing are worth your while depends on the field you work in. If you are in government or government-aligned positions, then you can likely do without. In tech it is heavily used. I have gotten jobs via LinkedIn, after recruiters had reached out to me. For what it is worth, though, the best jobs I have had I did not get via LinkedIn.

  12. @Alek – re above for your opinion/ dissection

    There’s this OG old school ‘game’ guy Brent Smith , whose approach to women is very MG imo. In fact I’d say almost moreso than Sleazys.

    YT search -‘Cliffs List’ channel & Brent Smith – Attract Hotter Women interview.

    It’s 1 hour long (!) but Just watch the first 15 mins and then jump to about 24 mins in re guys making things more complicated.

    Solid gold this interview for me 👌

    Reply

    1. These are names I have not heard in a long time. I bumped into Brent Smith in person in the United States at a fancy event at a hotel. He was introduced to me, but I was not there as “Aaron Sleazy”. I found his niche interesting but I could not really tell if it works. He focused high-net-worth individuals, but these people should not need that much help, with the exception of geeks who somehow lucked into a lot of money. People who are self-made normally already have character traits women find very attractive, such as assertiveness and some degree of risk-taking, which is very positive if it leads to a lot of money.

    2. Thanks for taking an interest sleazy !
      No shit ..thats interesting you’ve met the guy in person.

      Re his niche and wether it works,

      Watching his old YT channel videos a few yrs back, his students/ clients did look like cashed up geek types to me, as you predicted.

      He’s a very witty and dominant guy so I’d imagine he can teach them social skills & bantering well …but ultimately not how to be as tall and good looking and alpha as he is.

      Still, I like his philosophy on it all.
      And his old YT videos crack me up he’s a sharp guy.
      He does a great video on texting that’s super -minimal it’s very relevant to me currently with online dating. I’ll post it later if it’s still around. Very funny.

      His method/ philosophy must be how chads/ players interact with women I’m assuming (?)
      I’ve known a few good looking player guys like this, they defs play that game. It’s great to watch them in action.

    5. Your post was automatically approved. Perhaps the spam filter needed a bit of time.

    6. @Cheeky

      The principles he teaches are great, he’s just probably the number one worst teacher on planet earth. I literally cannot think of anyone who’s worse at teaching than he is.

      Again, the principles,philosophy, effing amazing. I think it would revolutionize the world if guys adopted it. But they certainly won’t if they learn it from him, because he’s so bad at explaining things in a digestible/understandable way, or giving practical ways to implement it.

      The guys who teach “social circle game” explain it much better. So I’d suggest people watch stuff from those people first, then circle back to Brent, and it will make more sense “Oh, that’s what he was trying to explain”.

    7. @Alek- really ?
      I thought he was prob the best of the old school pickupstuff. I like his catchphrases eg “the more you tell them, the more you repel them”
      I find little tips easier to digest and meditate on personally. That is quite true that maxim. Especially when messaging/texting.

      “ Indifference is the difference that makes the difference” is also good.
      It’s easier for me to remember little maxims like that rather than big chunks of books/ courses.

      Who do you recommend for SS tips?

    8. Maxims are fine as reminders, AFTER you understand something. However, if you don’t get why it works, or how it applies practically, the maxims are useless. And all he does is repeat stuff without explaining it, or how it works (in practical terms)

    9. I tried to edit that but ran out of time.
      I agree his ‘teaching’ via his courses is shit,
      Those courses/podcasts are definitely packed full of affirmations and visualisations etc (manifest the Pussy!) he lays it on thick, That’s all unnecessary filler claptrap.
      These interviews are good for me tho re the power dynamics and his banter. He’s a witty guy.

    11. Alek – yeah I see what you mean re the Maxims now. They are very ‘Meta’. Would not be useful for an inexperienced guy.

      I’m older with a fair bit of experience. And back out in the jungle a year now after a LTR.he’s perfect for me, to remind me of the dynamics and get my head straight about the interactions with chicks now. I’m rusty AF.

      Ps I would have to vote Tyler & Co as the worst actually. They were deliberately tying guys brains in knots. And creating Real Social Retardation haha

    12. Btw Sleazy/ Alek – when are you guys gonna do an audio course? U know about the learning pyramid right ? Books 10% retention. audio visual 20% etc ..cmon ! Then the “infield” videos after that haha.

      Scotty F. Had the best “infield” I ever did see. (On the old GLL channel) Smooth operator that fella. They’re still on Vimeo I think.
      But I digress.. as always 😀

    13. Another thing i wanted to bring up re pickup was Voice , I brought it up before.
      Brent has a great voice. Lots of command and snap qualities in it,
      From my coaching with Sleazy I confirmed my suspicions re his voice also. Very baritone and has that German(?) commanding quality to it.
      Ja , wirklich – das ist gut for dem hoezens 😀
      Scotty has it too,
      There’s aggression and sexuality just in the voice tonality / register/timbre aside from the words. With a voice like that a guy can talk about the weather and chicks get wet. For realz.

      A lil seducer friend of mine had it in spades that brassy/commanding/ sleazy tone (w a Brazilian accent). He could make chicks do all sorts of slutty dancing monkey stuff for him when we went out to lounge bars.. I’d never seen anything like it tbh v impressive.

      I guess it’s a high T signal. chicks really respond to a great voice like that.

      There was a blind study done “ sound of voice predicts sexual behaviour” which correlates the above also. You are no doubts aware of.

      Not sure of any decent method or course to inject this into my own voice tho. Acting lessons maybe.

    15. Thanks Burt. I perused a few but couldn’t gather much. I’ll have another look. His old ones doing street pickup with black chicks are on Vimeo still. They had subtitles. He’s very smooth on the street 👌
      Is there anyone else legit out there still operating that does infield video btw?

Leave a 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.