• 10 Posts
  • 58 Comments
Joined 11 months ago
cake
Cake day: February 15th, 2025

help-circle


  • No question that banning guns reduces all of those things. In Germany it also made it easier to round up Jews, homosexuals and other undesirables in the middle of the last century. I don’t think that human nature has changed since then. Is civilian gun ownership the only thing preventing similar behavior in the US? Or is it irrelevant as I infer that you believe? I don’t think that there is a definitive answer.

    There is merit in many of the different points of view on the subject. Unfortunately, most arguments around gun ownership and bans are fear-based. That makes rational discussion very difficult. It also makes it easy to demonize people who don’t agree with you.






  • That is an interesting and I think very valid point.

    Many people here in the US have absorbed decades of messaging from various war on drugs campaigns that imply anything not manufactured by a drug company his toxic. There’s also been a lot of messaging that self-medicating is only for losers. I think there is a large grain of truth around the concept of self-medicating, but the stigma attached to mental health issues makes it difficult for a lot of people to seek out the help they need.







  • Atomoxitine for the past few years. Recently I have tried modafinil to supplement it. It’s like a lightweight version of stimulants. I find that I don’t need a normal 100 mg dose for it to work. 50 mg is enough, and I think even 25 mg it has a noticeable effect.

    I am experimenting with Adderall on one or two days per week, then modafinil for 2-3 more, with atomoxitine everyday. (I basically supplement my strattera Monday through thursday, and occasionally on a Friday to make work easier.) This seems like a really useful combination to me so far, and with this dosing schedule, it seems like it will take a very long time for me to build up a tolerance, if I ever do.

    I love my prescriber. He knows that I am fairly cautious about medications, so he is willing to prescribe different things over time to see what works best.




  • I’m pretty similar. I’m probably more generous with upvotes. I’ll also downvote:

    • any link without a description
    • YouTube links
    • Twitter reposts (that’s usually on reddit, though)

    I have to force myself not to downvote anything with anime. I have a visceral dislike for anime, probably a result of the shitty afternoon TV cartoon lineup in the 70s.

    I block a LOT of accounts. Anything that looks like ragebait or just arguing in bad faith.


  • I think a lot of the crunch in the labor market for programmers is “monkey see monkey do” thinking at the big tech companies. It might even be somewhat calculated, though I hesitate to call something a conspiracy when it could simply be due to stupidity on the part of senior management.

    Large tech companies tend to have a lot of flexibility and their total headcount because they have a wide variety of departments and tasks that they can set aside for an extended period before it causes any problems. Those problems will eventually catch up with them, though, as will a code base written by somebody who doesn’t understand what they’re trying to accomplish.

    So I think the pendulum is going to swing back to a labor crunch at some point. My guess is at least another 6 months before we see any hint of that, though. I don’t think it will be as bad as it was before the advent of LLMs, though. They really are a productivity enhancing tool, particularly for software developers who know what they’re doing.






  • The premium version has gotten a LOT better in recent months. I just fed it,

    “you can’t soothe a tree” meaning

    And it replied with: This phrase is not a standard idiom with a widely recognized meaning. Its interpretation depends on the context in which it is used. Literally, it means you cannot comfort or calm a tree in the way you would a sentient being, as trees do not possess emotions or consciousness that can be “soothed”. Metaphorically, it likely means:

    • Some entities (problems, situations, perhaps even certain people) are unresponsive to attempts at emotional comfort or calming.
    • Trying to apply emotional solutions or appeals to things that are inherently non-emotional or unchangeable is futile.
    • It could describe someone who is extremely stoic, impassive, or emotionally unavailable. The specific meaning depends heavily on the situation where the phrase was encountered.