Kinda to glad I was able to move up my plans to build a new PC right when I heard we actually went through with the tariff plan.

It’s kinda a two sided coin though. If you don’t pay attention to her, she will likely get by doing even more unhinged things with fewer repercussions than she has now.

I feel like I missed part of the article where it said that the current administration was planning on distributing this medal. What I read was more along the lines of them saying that the current administration is potentially implementing some pronatalist policies and the it describes one policy promoted by a pronatalist group, but nothing about the current administration planning on implementing that specific policy.

Not saying any of this is good and I tend to mentally gloss over parts of text that I read, I’m just earnestly missing where it says that specific policy is one that is being looked into and I would appreciate someone pointing it out to me.

I would say that we can’t really quantify morality on a time scale that large. I may be confusing terms here but the specifics of what is and isn’t considered moral will vary wildly between different groups of people and different time periods.

Even if you break morality down to the concept of “don’t cause unnecessary suffering” leaves a lot of room for different interpretation.

AI is a tool, Ashish is 100% correct in that it may do some things for developers but ultimately still needs to be reviewed by people who know what they’re doing. This is closer to the change from punch cards to writing code directly on a computer than making software developers obsolete.

Honestly, I just ask if they can solve FizzBuzz. It shows me how they approach problems, how they communicate their process, and that they know basic programming concepts. The rest of the interview just kinda tells me if I’d get along with them as a person. Most other things, good and bad, only show up over time.

Then again, I work with software that isn’t exceptionally complex.

I wonder how biology plays into this. I never noticed a huge shift in hangover intensity. Yeah they got a little worse in my 30s but nothing as debilitating as what I’ve been lead to believe would happen.

I’m up to four or five. Honestly, we should keep track and see who gets the high score

Part of me is wanting to put that new PC build I just started saving for on a credit card instead.

Real leftist use Arch, obviously.

That’s a good idea, I do use Obsidian for TTRPG notes

I understand sentiment after seeing how a lot of tech companies are. The other side of it is this: Developers still have bills to pay. FOSS projects are great, especially if they’re done by a small team and have a supportive community, but there are only a limited number of developers who have a combination of knowledge, skill, free time, and financial capability to truly dedicate themselves to FOSS projects.

If I could support myself by coding for FOSS projects, I would probably try (hell I just might not be aware of opportunities for this) but that isn’t the reality in front of me.

The Black Hole is a fantastic movie (at least if memory serves, it’s been awhile) that nobody seems to have heard of.

I’ve tried to get into Mastodon, but always struggled to get into it. This is just me making assumptions here but I feel like the lack of centralization hurts something like Mastodon. Having to pick an instance, then sign up, and the kind of wrap your head around Federation limits adoption and I feel the limited user base hurts Twitter-clones more than other kinds of social media.

Which means twice the savings when you unexpectedly lay them both off!

They’ll see the sales of the Charger tank and will conclude that people just don’t want muscle cars, which is sad because in the next few years I was thinking about getting one.

Oh well, what can you do.

Healthcare shouldn’t be political currency. Healthcare care is an inherently political issue, as each government has to determine the best strategy for them, but like many things in the US politicians see it as just another talking point and something that actually impacts people. This leads to policy being made by people who aren’t knowledgeable about healthcare for people who have strong about healthcare but often aren’t impacted by these policies and don’t have a strong understanding of the topic.

While it would still be a horrible thing to have happen, I’m starting to think that having a bunch of LLMs run/control the government wouldn’t necessarily be worse than what we have now (at least in the US).

How did you manage that? I’ve been worried about moving out of state for this reason (not that I have immediate plans, but I’ve thought about it).

So you’re partially right, what you say about meditation helping and restructuring the brain is true and it can help. However, it isn’t an end all be all cure for everyone.

When talking about ADHD, I usually make sure we agree on the definition. Here when I reference ADHD I’m not just talking about the symptoms (inattentiveness, hyperactivity, executive functioning, impuls control, etc), I also mean that these symptoms exist in a person in such a way that it makes their life significantly harder. So, things like struggling or being unable to hold down a job, maintain friendships, and/or live independently.

ADHD does present differently in different people (often broadly categorized into Predominantly Inattentive Type, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, and Combined Type) as well as affecting people with different intensities. This, to the best of my understanding, also means that different strategies for coping with ADHD have differing levels of effectiveness. While some may benefit immensely from meditation, others will need to make other lifestyle changes or will absolutely need medication to handle their symptoms. Usually a combination of different techniques are required to be able to effectively function with ADHD. What techniques work may change over time as well, as our bodies change.

The reason why stimulants or other medications prescribed so often is that they are consistently and broadly effective with helping people manage their ADHD symptoms. It’s best to treat meds as a starting point, something that can keep you going while you determine if non-medication base solutions work for you and start to implement them in your life (if they exist, for some they don’t). Unfortunately, many people don’t have access to proper therapy to get that far. They might be able to get a diagnosis and prescription, but don’t have the ability to continue to get the help they need in further exploring solutions.

While I’m glad meditation works for you, it is a wonderful tool, ADHD (and mental health in general) is complex and cannot be ‘fixed’ for everyone in a reliable, repeatable way.

I do not understand the reason for swearing being considered bad.

I do not understand why replacement words are better.

If it were the specific sounds being made that are wrong, replacement words would make sense. However, since other languages have no prohibition on these words and may have words that sound the same/similar to swear words in another language.

If the meaning behind the words was the ‘bad’ part, then replacing those word with other words that express the same idea would be just as wrong.

Who determines which words are bad? If it’s a cultural thing I guess it makes sense but a person is fickle and groups of them even more so. I still don’t understand why a group would prohibit specific words but not their meanings (barring superstition, like in the case of the origin of word “bear”). If it were a deity of some kind, it makes me return to the question why specific words in specific languages but not the meaning and intent behind those words.