Absolutely! Or put another way, they're irrational and usually dysfunctional individuals. Selling drugs is not lucrative. Most dealers earn less than minimum wage. If they were rational and well informed, they'd just get a job. In order to resist a momentary impulse and consider the consequences that may fall tomorrow, you need to be in a good place mentally. I grew up in shitty neighborhoods, first in rural poverty and then later on the South Side of Chicago in the ghetto. I met a lot of criminals and people who were criminal adjacent: a handful in gangs and a lot in the drug trade

I've personally never met or heard of a rational, functional criminal. They usually grew up in shitty environments and have obvious underlying disorders ranging from a history of severe abuse and PTSD to bipolar disorder, ADHD, and others.

They typically in a very bad state and very desperate. You can make the penalty a slap on the wrist or execution. It will make little difference in their momentary decision.

FWIW, I'm not even opposed to the death penalty. I just am realistic about its benefits. Having been a victim of violent crime enough times myself, I have little issue with knowing the will never be able to attack others the way they attacked me. In general, I prefer reforming wasteful drug laws and prefer rehabilitation...but some can't be rehabbed. They need to be taken out of circulation: whether it's locking them up or execution, they're a severe danger to innocent people on the streets. But I am realistic in knowing that future criminals won't be scared by the severity of the penalty.

Everything you said sounds true. I believe it. I think you're fully right I just haven't seen it. Surely if there are 200 AI slop games, at least one would be popular, interesting, or possibly even good? Where's the breakout hit from a studio that leveraged AI to have a small team create something wonderful? (more a criticism of the state of AI than your original point, admittedly)

Has anyone ever looked at iTunes and said "yeah, that was one hell of an app?" xcode? Precisely which app in the Apple ecosystem can you look at and say "yeah, this is the best in the industry?" Maybe their pro tools, like Final Cut Pro? I don't know...I don't use them. But for the stuff I do? Yeah, their software has always been shit...from iTunes 20 years ago to Notes and Reminders today. I don't know anyone who uses xcode by choice. The few times I've tried, I was amazed at how slow and clunky it is. They don't even have a decent text editor. Things like continuity and iPhone mirroring are awesome in theory, but hampered by the fact that they only work some of the time.

I generally like the Apple Ecosystem for it's cohesiveness. I love Apple hardware. But software?...It ranges from "good enough" to "jeez, are you even trying?"

Surveys have repeatedly ranked them as the host hated company in America. Comcast is the most despisable company I know of. I'm not just talking their insane lobbying efforts to kill net neutrality or their general mediocrity or weird forays into buying media companies instead of focusing on doing their job.

I expect them to be overpriced and under featured. However, like a legacy airline, I also expect them to have their shit together and be reliable. I expect them to deliver what they offer. I may not like the features or the cost, but I expect that once I accept that I am getting less and paying more...they will take care of me and do what they say they will do...like when you fly American Airlines.

I expect them to be like Apple. I don't like many things about the Apple ecosystem, but once you accept the cost and accept that you need to do things their way and not the way you want to do things...it's generally a decent experience. Most of Apple's software, for example, sucks and lacks in basic features....but once I make peace with that, it's quite handy...shit works...it does what they say it does...I do things their way and everything is fine...even if I am overpaying and missing features I want. Comcast is the worst of all worlds...overpriced, underfeatured, chaotic, and unreliable....

...why?...because there's no other fucking alternative in my city. There's one startup which has an even worse reputation. No one else will service my area with broadband...and thus Comcast is getting millions of dollars from my city alone because we all NEED bandwidth for our jobs and they can do as they please without worry about losing customers. Their woes must be from elsewhere.

My bill ended up getting to be $300 a month...It started at 100 8 years ago when I signed up for my plan...OK, that's my fault...I let them raise prices without taking action and I procrastinated...I take half the blame there. OK, so when I got off my ass and took action, I discovered I was on a legacy plan and that's why they were charging me so much...OK...I've dealt with big businesses before....not my first rodeo. Why they're the shittiest company?...because even when I do what I'm supposed to, they're incompetent.

So I follow their directions and go onto the portal, it errors out with software errors...pretty fucking amateur. I'm horrified...do they not hire QA? OK, so I get on the phone...

It took 2h for the woman to get me on their most popular plan. I had to get transferred like 10x. OK...so hopefully that's all over with. FWIW, my previous plan was one of their advertised stock plans on their website....no customization or anything fancy...their basic upgraded cable package because my wife likes HBO and Showtime...and we signed up before streaming was the norm.

OK, so my service is out on and off for the next 2 days....FUCK COMCAST...but mistakes happen, especially when transitioning....

Well, my bandwidth is 1/4 of what I paid for. THEIR speedtest says it's fine. Google's router-based one says "BULLSHIT". So they're conning customers...and my actual bandwith was also 5x higher before I switched to the 1GB plan. I'm literally using the same hardware. I contact customer service assuming it's a misconfiguration...they give the same bullshit line about their test saying it works.

Additionally, they don't offer mesh routing...just some extenders that I don't know if they work. It's hard to find any info on them. They're ancient AF and most reviews say they don't work. I'd be quite tempted to go with a Comcast solution than having a Google solution plugged into a Comcast router....if it worked decently throughout my house....but perhaps that's stupid because their support is largely garbage.

Comcast is a legacy business that is extremely overpriced. I kind of expect that, but I expect semi-competent support...I only get AI chat bots and support agents that don't speak English....who can't solve simple problems.

Like most Comcast customers, I am eager to jump ship. I can't take risks with new startups because I rely on broadband to do my job. However, once a credible player comes into my neighborhood, I'm abandoning them.

In 2021, I had a choice of a PS5 and XBox...and I chose XBox. I chose it because of the Games Pass...a dream come true at $10/month and Sony's offering sucked bad. Now it look like Sony's offering is really decent. I desperately wish Nintendo had a games pass. There's no way I am buying $70 games I'll play for a week and my kids will play for a day. But that aside, I chose wrong.

The games pass started out awesome and cheap. Now it's expensive and has changed little since I got it. Even MS's top games are now put behind the $30/month tier. I didn't mind it when it was EA's and the cost was $15....I'm an adult and know EA wants their cut and $15 wasn't terrible. PS5 now has the portal, which, if it had better WiFi, would be a dream for me, as well as VR. There are also small details, like how PS5 uses real hard drives and the XBox requires expensive proprietary ones that stick out of your console (which I hate because I like to travel with mine)

MS Gave me hope when they announced the XBox ROG Ally...holy shit!...a nintendo switch equivalent that works with the Games Pass? I bought one right away. Fortunately, I bought it from a store that accepts returns because that device was DOGSHIT!!!!! The XBox has a smooth experience, like most consoles. The XBox Ally was a windows computer and a science experiment. It SOMETIMES worked in a dock. It sometimes loaded a game without stalling. Simple, basic old-fashioned games, like Silksong worked smoothly...sometimes....if the device was plugged in. It was always stalling and lagging. In the first week, was unbootable. I had installed 2 games and just let it patch itself and I had to do a hard reset. After the 3rd hard reset, I returned it. It was DOGSHIT. Expensive, unreliable, convoluted, and SHIT SHIT SHIT performance. I couldn't play simple games, let alone complex 3D ones without issues.

XBox is great in theory. I love it as a basic console. I still love what they are doing...in theory. However, nothing has changed since 2020...or really even since they released the Games Pass for the XBox One

They are rumored to do more collabs like the ROG Ally and let partners create hardware. I'd love an XBox Series X in a Nintendo Switch form factor and will pay top dollar for it. The ROG Ally was close, but Windows is a terrible OS overall and really shitty for a gaming device. Yeah, it can run games, but it's update system breaks the device and requires you to go into windows mode and the background processes make games stall all the time. But if they actually get the proper XBox experience on a handheld or tablet, it would be awesome.

Unfortunately for them, Valve seems to have gotten the memo and their new Steam offerings for this year seem quite exciting, especially if they release a more powerful steamdeck. So I may get what I've always wanted...the XBox experience with the travel-friendly nintendo form factor...but it seems more likely I'll get it from a Steam device than an XBox one unless they really step up their game.

That time window is when all of big tech was expanding. Where they are historically is not relevant. Interest rates went up, companies laid off people.

I do believe they colluded given who all the major players announced the layoff in a very short timespan, making me think it was in the works and they were sitting on it until the right moment. However, many have acknowledged this publicly and most analysts point that to a major factor.

With low interest rates, sloppy investments are a great tool. With higher rates, you need to run your company more like a serious business.

So the temptation is to blame the economy, consumer habits, AI or Trump. They have an impact, for sure, but I think the bigger factor is interest rates. Borrowing isn't as cheap as it used to be, so big tech can't be as fun as it used be. Big Tech companies used to operate like childish nerd daycares...bright colors, toys everywhere...crazy perks, etc.

That was just the visible effects. The other effect is staff bloat and that layoffs were a bummer...so what happens to your nerds when they get old and can't keep up and decide they don't want to write code anymore? Well, they go to management. I worked at a place where you were expected to code for 3-5 years and then move to management...I had like 10 layers between me and the CEO. I only knew what about 3 of them did. The org chart was insanely complex and no one could tell me what those guys in the middle were doing. When you're competing for geniuses...if Google is laying off people regularly, they'll just go to Facebook, Netflix, or some upstart. That's been one of many reasons why top talent preferred younger companies to older ones like Microsoft.

So from 2003 to 2023, we had about 20 years where layoffs were taboo. Cruft accumulated. Companies went from nimble and innovative to bureaucratic. Take Google...they had so many awesome projects 20-15 years ago. They still have GREAT projects, which they never bother to update...for example Google Fiber or their WiFi routers...which I love, but they seem to get no love....same for their web services. I don't know for sure if that's from organizational cruft, but it would be logical to assume it is.

All those great engineers from 20 years ago who did amazing things....but now, they have kids, aren't motivated to work more than they have to and have learned the organization well enough not to get fired with cause...now they're middle managers...barely adding value, attending meetings, putting on a show, etc. This wasn't a huge issue. Interest rates were low, so you could just create a job for them and barely care if they were really providing enough value to justify their hefty salary.

But now..borrowing is expensive. Layoffs are not taboo. It's time to run your company like a real business, not a daycare for tech enthusiasts.

Let's pretend Big Tech isn't evil and isn't incompetent....I know, it's a stretch...but let's pretend Sundar Pichai hires you to run Google right...

What would you do? Organizational streamlining. You want to retain your engineers. You want to only keep managers that actually provide value. My company removed 2 intermediate managers...EXTREMELY well paid directors that only managed like 2 directors...who seemed to run everything. No one I know had any clue what those 2 did.

Now going back to AI. Having used AI since it was commercially available, it's not going to replace your engineering staff...if you know what you're doing. Yeah...my UI skills are 20 years old. I am clueless on modern frameworks. I can vibe code you a new angular app...but...how badly do you want to put something in production I don't fully understand? Are you willing to risk an outage?...a data leak? When I used AI to generate Java, a language I know well, well...it compiles about 50% of the time. Giving it the simplest problems, it solves them slightly over half the time. The solutions?...almost always dated and poorly written. Yeah, it works...but it's convoluted and basic. I am not confident it's actually saving me time. It might be. However, I spend so much time fixing their shit and confirming it actually works that I could have usually written it faster if I just did it without their help. Everyone working with LLMs knows this.

However, if your job is to summarize meetings?...to answer questions for executives?...well I can see those AI tools doing a pretty decent job. AI can be an excellent tool to act as a buffer...allowing executives to ask questions in depth before speaking to a human being.

I can see a large business like Amazon cutting several layers of white collar workers with AIs that can know all your docs and your outputs and your Jira tickets, etc....that can read repos and give you insights on progress, etc. So instead of holding 4h of meetings, you can spend 30 min asking an AI questions and condense that 4h meeting into a 1h confirm and summarize session.

I hope in 5-10 years, we won't be laughing at that price and wishing phones were that cheap...especially with AI-induced chip shortages. OK, a fragile novelty gimmick phone is really fucking expensive...cool...I'll save my money and buy something else. However, the history of phones is that shockingly high prices end up being kinda normal with a few versions.

You clearly got "the message" from your Right Wing talking point channels as you're faithfully repeating them for reasons that don't seem relevant. Politics don't matter in entertainment. Nearly every genre of entertainment is insanely Right Wing. The entire genre of action, western and most of sci fi and horror. John Wick might as well be an ad for the NRA and everyone, including Democratic voters, loves it...same with borderlands and every shooter. You literally go around collecting guns all day. The entire theme of those is forget about society...only you and your gun can save the day....fuck others...they're all NPCs. You need to get your guns and be the hero.

Entertainment is entertaining or it isn't, regardless of politics. Make the communist manifesto funny or entertaining and conservatives will enjoy it.

Wokeness is a word your kind made up. No one you describe as woke identifies as woke. It's just a pejorative you apply to people you don't like when they point out the mistakes in your logic and world view.

The only question is if you were entertained...if you weren't, then it doesn't matter if it was woke, anti-woke, or whatever your idiotic world view was. They don't need to change their politics. They just need to figure out how to be entertaining...and yeah, awkwardly inserted politics are rarely entertaining...but it's the awkwardness, not their worldview.

You "should" be right, but this is the regional tech/biotech hub and close to world-famous universities, so demand is far too high above supply for people for it to matter...so buyers don't care. You want to be able to bike or walk to your job at Google/Facebook? You'll tolerate the 3 abandoned buildings at this busy intersection. House prices keep going up. They even did so during the financial crash of 08...just slightly slower than before. The whole area is cursed. The NICE and popular stalwarts of the area are even going out of business after COVID...let alone the blue collar ones or overlooked ones. Nothing is replacing them.

The value of the area for homes exceeds any business value. This was made worse by the pandemic

We already had a trend of local businesses shrinking due to online activity. Why go to retail when you can order on Amazon.com for cheaper? So interesting or specialty stores?...long gone...even for things you can't buy online very well, like my local specialty hardwood lumber store. Chain pharmacies are going out of business. For awhile we had a ton of mobile phone stores and check cashing spots (we used to be a ghetto)...and those are gone. Then it was boutique fitness places...so many crossfit/pilates gyms, going after young childless professionals in the area....about 80% of them are gone. It's not just about prices. People are more anti-social today. They eat out less. They go out to bars less. Even most of our liquor stores closed (mostly because my state has stupid laws regarding giving liquor licenses to major corporations, so all place are shitty overpriced ghetto liquor stores that smell of mildew and failure)

For awhile, all those failed businesses were getting replaced with dispensaries because my state legalized weed long ago. You'd think they'd have a chance because assholes in the area like to get high in public...including children's playgrounds during the day for some unknown reason...and you can't mail order weed. However, those are all closing down because no one wants to spend $15 for a joint from one of 2 places...someone with investor money who makes it look like an Apple Store...or the shitty small business with a door that barely closes, rotting floor boards, and total dank environment, basically a shitty dorm-room drug dealer decor + hygiene...only with upscale prices....which used to be a typical area liquor store...because addicts needing a fix aren't picky.

I think this is a case where capitalism has some very severe downsides. Your choices are either let the free market do as it will and ensure that it's nearly impossible for businesses in your neighborhood to survive....or step in an subsidize rents so you can have a corner coffee shop or cafe or any kind of bar...or even a decent restaurant. So long as buyers are willing to overpay for their homes in that area...businesses have no chance...at least any business you actually want around you.

I am just trying to understand what you're saying before having an opinion. So I have a coffee shop that brings in $1000 a day with materials cost of 1/3 of my revenue. Whether I'm paying a mortgage or rent, what difference does it make in my viability when property values double? The issue here is rent increase. If you had rent stability for small businesses, little changes. All ownership does is prevent the rent increase and make you liable for property tax increase....plus whatever you make when you retire and sell....but that benefit doesn't impact your business viability.

It seems like the answer is to subsidize stable rents for desired businesses.

I live in the most rapidly gentrified neighborhood in my city. ALL retail fails here quickly. Shitty landlords, especially small ones, raise rents to insane levels, so every business has closed. The few that reopen get more pretentious each round and it's a vicious cycle.

Few want to spend $40 for a slightly above average lunch in a residential neighborhood. The restaurant goes out of business because it wasn't profitable. The rent increases. Now the only people who can afford it is some young fool who thinks the answer is to make an even more slightly above average $50 lunch....as well as hope people who can afford a home in a very expensive neighborhood have the free time and desire to eat locally and spend a ton for dinner and drinks there at night.

What the pandemic has highlighted is that young fools and daters spend tons of money on overpriced booze and meals. People that have their shit together tend to be good with money and not spend $200 for a bottle of wine without a special occasion....which is what keeps fancy restaurants afloat. But the number of people who want to go to a residential neighborhood that used to be a crime-ridden ghetto 20 years ago for a splurge celebration meal is pretty small...typically too small to keep up enough staff to present the pretentious fancy restaurant experience. Why go to the former ghetto when you can go downtown where things have been fancy and pretentious for over a century?...vs the place your uncle's grade school friend got shot in back in the 90s

Sorry if this is too socialist for people, but if you want small businesses and reasonable prices in places with rapidly expanding property values, landlords can't charge full market rates for small businesses. You can charge residents whatever the market will pay. If you do so with businesses, you'll see what I see in my neighborhood...all the small businesses, coffee shops, ALL retail will disappear. In fact, in my area, nearly half of all commercial space is vacant....my favorite bakery closed down 15 years ago and has been vacant since...it's a busy corner and the landlord is greedy and holding out, hoping to get $50/sq-ft. Most of the community is clamoring for a vacancy tax because things are so out of hand.

Whatever you think the solution is, prior methods have failed....and beware. With current real estate and market trends, if it hasn't happened in your neighborhood, it will. Seattle, SF, Brooklyn aren't anomalies...they're just the tip of the spear. The same shit happens in the suburbs and most of the country...it just happens first in the rapidly expanding areas.

This is meant to stop rich and middle class kids, especially in blue states, from 3D printing a gun and killing someone when they forget to take their meds. Criminals know how to get a real gun...and for the poor or people in red states, there are ton of guns around the house, almost always improperly secured....because a lot of gun nuts are too big of assholes to secure their firearms properly: trigger locks make you look like a pussy and if it's locked in steel cabinet, no one will know how big of a man you are with your John-Wick-style arsenal.

Also, having known many criminals in my youth, including a handful from the South Side of Chicago, none of them would dare 3D print a gun. The point of a gun is entirely cosmetic...they never fire it and most are SHIT shots because going to a gun range and working on your aim costs money. The point is to scare people from fucking with you.

This is designed to stop kids from good homes from doing something stupid. It doesn't even need to work all that well. This is like a bike lock. Anyone who knows their way around Home Depot can easily break a bike lock. I was shocked and horrified when I found out how easy it is to do when my wife locked her rarely used bike in our garage and lost the key. The point of a bike lock is not to stop a dedicated thief, but to stop casual or uninformed thieves or just make it inconvenient enough to not be worth the risk.

I don't think any law to stop you 3D printed is meant to be 100% effective or even taken that seriously. It's meant to be a barrier to entry for a 16yo in the suburbs, not the last guy who mugged you.

Russia has never been shy about nuclear and doesn't give a shit about their people, especially their long-term health. You're saying the same protestors spooked the Soviet Union?...Putin's Russia? What about China? Korea? Japan? You're saying ony the USA could engineer such stuff? I am ready to believe we're the best in the world, but we're far from the only technological superpower. Korea and Japan could easily pick up where we left off.

Cheap power is like the promise of generative AI. If Generative AI could code as well as Zuckerberg, Huang, Altman, and Beinhoff SWEAR it can...we wouldn't be talking about what AI "could" do and see a market overwhelmed by companies writing robocoders to unfathomable riches and technological progress.

Technological progress is impeded by one of 3 things: Either it can't be done....or we don't want to...or we didn't even think of doing it. With both AI and cheap electricity, we know what to do, we definitely want to do it and are willing to invest....we simply don't know how to make it happen. We know about nuclear technology. We DEFINITELY want it to succeed. Most governments are happy to dump money into research between the hope of cheap power and being insulated from the petroleum sector to side effects like isotope refinement to built nuclear weapons.

Few things advance civilizations faster than cheap electricity....from datacenters to factories to simply smelting and fertilizer factories. Make the electricity cheap and plentiful and it doesn't take a genius to turn it into a fortune.

Let's focus on cost alone. Let's put on our sociopath hats. Russia and China do not give a shit about the long term health of their population. If SMR were as good as promised, the debate wouldn't be "Hey, you libtard NIMBYs say you want green energy, but won't give nuclear a chance because you're dumb hippies who don't understand science."

The debate would be "China and Russia can produce nuclear electricity for 40% (or whatever the number ends up being) CHEAPER than the US can for natural gas."

It's simple logic. If the only thing stopping us from cheap electricity, which is the gateway to MANY forms of immense prosperity, was our culture or our legal system...one of the nearly 200 other nations would see the error of our ways and prosper.

According to Google, there's one research one in operation in Russia and a few coming online in China later this year. Let's see their costs. If I am wrong and the OP is right, this will bring about a green revolution, which will be glorious for those who feel it's safe. If what I've read is true...that nuclear is pretty safe, but also FUCKING EXPENSIVE even if you barely care about safety....then more the status quo. It will be a specialty niche application, overshadowed by far cheaper natural gas power plants...as well as solar, which keeps dropping in cost.

My money is that for sunny regions, the future is solar during the day and gas at night....not SMR.

Oooh, the libtards and pussies in government using "safety regulations" to keep you from cheap power? Well...why if your assertion was true, rugged, sensible MANLY governments elsewhere would be adopting this technology to cheap power glory. We're one of 195 sovereign nations, so who has made this work? You just repeated the old bullshit Republican/Libertarian line of how gov is the evil standing in the way of progress....classic scam tactic. Trust me, bro...change all your laws and safety regulations and THEN it'll be profitable.

It's like my addict nephew...I just need $500 to pay my imponding fee so I can get my car to go to the job interview, which I will get, so I can then pay you back and stop asking for money. I swear I'm clean and sober now!

SMR have one job...provide power at a competitive cost. Most aren't concerned with safety. We know those things aren't coming to our neighborhood anytime soon. It will be built in Texas or the Deep South first near some empty plot of land where they want to build an bullshit AI datacenter.

The problem remains that it's expensive. It's all about cost. SMR folks can't produce power cheap enough to be worth the investment.

You're telling me Russia doesn't want cheap power? They care about their NIMBYs too much? Same with China? All of Europe? Latin America? the rest of Asia? The Middle East? There are countless authoritarian governments that don't care about the safety of their people. Cheap power attracts LOTS of money from datacenters or just general industry. Make electricity too cheap to meter and you'll make unfathomable riches.

So if your statement was true, surely one of the other nearly 200 nations would have seen the error of our ways to extremely cheap and safe power.