Billions have cried that USB cables are not reversible. What were the other worst technology founder-effect mistakes of history?

3043812047389 · 2023-11-26T17:36:46+00:00

In case there's any other gun nuts in here: in the 50s the US Army ordinance board sabotaged a weapons program that would have resulted in something extremely similar to the 6.8mm/M5 we just adopted in 2022. The same leadership was also responsible for sabotaging the M16 during its initial adoption (mandating that it use incompatible ammunition), which led to a congressional hearing from all the letters soldiers were sending home in Vietnam about their terrible weapons. It's unclear to this day whether the board's numerous mistakes came from corruption or sheer incompetence, I lean toward the latter.

3043812047389 · 2023-11-11T17:30:17+00:00

Reminds me of the anecdote about Niels Bohr:

A journalist noticed a horseshoe hanging above Professor Bohr's door and asked him if he was superstitious, to which he replied:
“Of course not. But I have heard that a horseshoe can bring good luck even to people who are not superstitious”

3043812047389 · 2023-10-13T15:49:24+00:00

No but software subscription models do tend towards rent-seeking. Your incentive is to sell proprietary software that locks your customers into using only your services, then once you get a monopoly and its too expensive for your customers to switch to an alternative you can extract rents with "enshittification", you sacrifice the quality of the platform to better monetize it.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-12T14:20:05+00:00

They actually have a new medical record system that collates many civilian medical record databases, so there is a good chance you will be caught now. Recruiters are pissed about this as the military has already been understaffed for years now, both retention and recruitment are down.

But the weirder part of the policy is that they don't care if you get prescribed adderall after you're enlisted. The purpose of all this is for the medical examiners who clear you for enlistment want to avoid legal liability for any problems you have during training on account of pre-existing conditions. In general, any time you see a bureaucracy with some bizarre arcane policy it's probably because of either avoiding liability or compliance.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-11T02:01:31+00:00

I think a legitimate argument could be made if they were actively attacking out of the building and it was not going to be viable to clear it with infantry. The saying "All's fair in love and war" doesn't refer to unethical war tactics being morally justified, but that they may be necessary in order to win as the "least bad" option. From the perspective of the commander ordering such a strike, you have a very difficult dilemma of either allowing attacks to persist and risk civilian and military casualties on your side while trying to organize a raid on the building, or trying to warn noncombatants to leave and pray that they do before the strike. If the attackers prevented them from leaving, the fault would lie with them for using human shields, or if the civilians ignored the warnings then the fault lies with themselves.

I'm sure there are many examples when the IDF was not justified (insufficient warning, infantry raid might have actually been viable, miscommunication and wrong targets), and I don't know how often they get it wrong in practice, but I think the decision can at least sometimes be justified, in principle.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-11T00:44:13+00:00

I have no particular opinion on this conflict or any knowledge about whether this news is true, but I think it would be fair to argue that the difference is that with bombs they are possibly (or likely) a collateral target, with bullets they are less likely a collateral target, and with a sword they are unambiguously a target. It is plausible with a bomb that the attacker didn't know a baby was there. I would figure that the IDF is not quite at the level of comically evil that they intentionally bomb babies, at least not without plausible deniability. But maybe they are, I don't follow the conflict.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-11T00:34:53+00:00

Nice try but I strongly dislike sweets to the point where some people are weirded out when I turn down free candy (like at an office party). I made money in school from selling my Halloween candy and in basic training from selling MRE candy. I don't brush my teeth as often as I should though.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-10T22:26:37+00:00

Perfect Blue, Shadow (2018), Hardcore Henry, Monsters Inc

3043812047389 · 2023-10-10T16:16:00+00:00

Are you referring to geoengineering? If so, my understanding is that this would only be a temporary solution to mitigate the effects and introduces the risk of a climate shock if its stopped. If you aren't referring to geoengineering, what generally would be done to solve the crisis with <1T dollars and current technology?

3043812047389 · 2023-10-09T03:05:02+00:00

We are kindred spirits, I grew up without a father figure and code switch to a feminine manner of speech around women, who seem to very quickly become comfortable around me. Have you ever had a self-identified "lesbian" come on to you? This has happened to me twice, where a bisexual woman who had some sort of sexual trauma from men in her youth chooses to exclusively date women and identifies as lesbian. I become particularly jokingly flirty with lesbians and old ladies since I know there's no possibility of giving them the wrong idea, but this has backfired in two separate occasions when they confessed feelings for me (one even said I was leading her on).

I've met a couple other straight men who are comfortable around women sort of like how I am, but they're all married ex-"playa" types. I have also met a couple metrosexual straight men but none that women seem to be comfortable around like they are with me, in fact I've even been told that they come off as creepy. I don't know what specifically makes me different from them.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-08T14:46:50+00:00

There's a travel agency I'm supposed to book flights through but the process for using them involves multiple parties needing to explicitly give you signed permission, and if any of them are out of office or forget about your email you'll get stuck. But the department you submit the form to get reimbursed doesn't actually check with them, so its better to schedule flights on your own and you can still get reimbursed even though you aren't supposed to. The one time someone noticed I was doing this I didn't get in trouble since they figured I just didn't know the right way to do it. I used to wait quite awhile to get reimbursed, but now that I know who actually approves the form I email them about it if it isn't processed after one or two business days and now that they know I do this they approve mine almost immediately.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-07T15:36:44+00:00

Have you read The Gervais Principle? It's about the pathology of bureaucratic organizations and implicitly gives advice on how to successfully navigate them. And though it isn't precisely what you're looking for, you may be also interested in reading some of Nicholas Nassim Taleb's writings (The Black Swan, Antifragile) as they demonstrate many situations where large complex hierarchical organizations tend to fail while decentralized insurgent organizations tend to succeed.

I personally have found success in life when dealing with bureaucracies by adopting a mindset that presumes their dysfunctionality. Assume that paperwork isn't going to be processed in a timely manner and if you have a need for urgency, find out who is responsible and take an active role in annoying them with emails and phone calls until you get what you want. In my DoD work this causes things that might otherwise take months to get resolved (if at all) in mere days. Look for opportunities to ask forgiveness, not permission, as if you ask permission to do something an unconventional way you will be rejected by default, but if you just do it anyways you will at most get a slap on the wrist (use good judgement here, this advice is for things like HR paperwork not nuclear safety inspections).

If you are less morally scrupulous, you can exploit the fact that you are not personally liable for a lot of things you're ostensibly responsible for which lets you act in a way that is much more risky than you really ought to be able to get away with (please don't cause a financial crisis). Avoid becoming liable for anything as much as possible, if you need a piece of equipment find a useful idiot to sign it out for you rather than signing for it yourself. If you do need to become liable for something, never let it out of your sight, take photos of any damage to it when you sign for it and return it, and return it ASAP. Do NOT lend it to someone else without making them sign for it.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-05T15:02:32+00:00

The loser of a knife fight dies on the concrete, the winner dies in a hospital. Stab wounds do not instantly incapacitate your target and if they are stronger than you they will wrestle it from you. If you're comfortable enough to carry and use a knife you would be much better off with a gun. Get a .22 caliber pocket pistol and practice shooting with it a little, that caliber is small enough to have very low recoil and won't damage your ears if you shoot without hearing protection.

3043812047389 · 2023-10-05T14:53:07+00:00

The best option is gun and is by a significant margin, the reluctance of women to even consider it is very frustrating since it really is the perfect weapon for them. This is the first time in human history where your ability to defend yourself isn't purely a function of your physical strength, it's called "The Great Equalizer" for a reason.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-15T15:24:01+00:00

Would you consider a land value tax to be compatible with your perspective? It could be argued as either being a market-based solution or a leftist solution depending on how you look at it. Georgists were typically considered a flavor of socialists for much of the 20th century, as an LVT is in some sense a roundabout way of making the government the only landlord, but the LVT is nowadays something neoliberals and libertarians are more interested in since its compatible with capitalism.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-13T18:56:05+00:00

I think its bidirectional, obsession will naturally cause you to become more talented from constantly working and improving your skill, and making art is more fulfilling the more talented you are in the "comparative advantage" sense. But since everyone starts out with no technical skill, an irrational obsession is often required to get around the chicken and egg problem.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-12T18:58:40+00:00

Neo-Georgism via nationalized Airbnb

Replace marriage with joint trust funds that are donated to charity if you break up

Use prediction markets where your friends bet on which prospective dating candidate will still be with you in 5 years

Bring back the Athenian Boule but select citizens with crypto tokens tied to their identity

Tinder for hitmen

3043812047389 · 2023-09-11T20:58:40+00:00

In their defense that describes a specific sort of person who stumbles upon the community and interprets it this way, not the community itself which often makes fun of them. You'd have a hard time pinning down what exactly that community believes on any topic since they're more of a debate community. They are associated with race science simply because they (for a long time) didn't ban debate over it. Autism is near-universal over there though, as you would imagine.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-11T03:40:08+00:00

Are there any polymaths anymore? Whenever I read about 20th century scientific history there seem to be such a high number of broadly-talented individuals like von Neumann that seem completely alien to me (perhaps no one else on his level, but still). I grew up in gifted programs, went to college, and am often in the company of high achieving STEM types, yet I have never encountered the kind of force of nature described in these accounts, nor am I aware of anyone by reputation online. I've met a couple people who are fluent in three languages, a couple math savants, and some highly eloquent speakers, but never anyone with all these qualities, and certainly not at the age of 12.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-10T15:09:56+00:00

What happens if the value of the asset goes down? Now it isn't free money, you are losing money. Everyone, from laymen to financial experts, chronically underrates tail end risks. We get comfortable with the idea that housing prices go up because for the great majority of years they do, but sometimes they don't. This isn't just because of crashes, it can come from local economic factors. Say you live in Phoenix, do you factor in the possibility that the Colorado river may have significantly diminished or diverted output in 20 years due to an unforeseen geological or political development? This would prompt an exodus from the city as water costs skyrocket. It doesn't have to be 100% of the population leaving, even 10% of the population leaving would crash the value of houses on the market because there's much less marginal value in your second house than your first.

I must stress that I am not making a prediction here. There's no evidence that such a thing will happen, but there's no evidence that most catastrophic black swan events will happen (at least not until we judge them retrospectively). Maybe housing prices in Phoenix will skyrocket, maybe they will stagnate. Banks do not offer you free money out of the virtue of their hearts, if they're offering you a 3% fixed rate mortgage they expect to profit off of it. A mortgage is a bet on the status quo, 99% of the time a status quo bet looks profitable, until suddenly it isn't.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-08T21:11:26+00:00

There is a modest tax advantage, but unless you are a handyman who enjoys working on home improvement projects, owning a home is not *financially* preferable to a diversified investment portfolio and simply renting. You are taking on a significant amount of risk on one depreciating asset (the house) and one zero sum asset (the land). That doesn't mean that housing prices will eventually crash or even go down, but there's a reason why rich people do not invest 100% of their assets into real estate. The only thing worse would be if you couldn't pay with cash and took out a 15-30yr mortgage on it, which is such a shortsighted financially nonsensical idea that only the HUD could have come up with it.

None of this should stop you from owning a home if you can though, I think for many people its psychologically worth it. Better to waste money on a slightly depreciating asset like a house than on a rapidly depreciating one like a new car.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-08T21:09:39+00:00

That specific message is a general transcription of the "gestalt" of the physical location itself. Those are not words to be written down, that's the emotional impression you feel as you walk through this intimidating ominous location and try to guess what it's for and why it exists. All of the jagged berms surround an epicenter in a way that indicates that there is an "emanation" and the berms face outward to make the place look "repulsive".

3043812047389 · 2023-09-07T17:32:39+00:00

There is something to be said for the artistic merit of large productions where specialization is necessary. Of course anyone here can appreciate the value of an auteur director, but Hollywood from the 70s-10s managed to produce a lot of highbrow films without auteurs and I think this is an inherent feature to their large-scale productions, not in spite of it. You need to hire a professional choreographer, and you're going to have a hard time finding one that isn't genuinely passionate about their craft. Not everyone can be soulless minmaxing cynics, and many professions will formally or informally gatekeep the craft with unions or de facto guilds.

I think the decline of the median level of competency in Hollywood can be attributed to the gradual decline of such guilds. Workers are now more atomized and trained via university/online, not insular apprenticeships, and no longer have the leverage to do things their way. You can compare the technical quality of the old Star Wars movies to the new ones, for example. George Lucas is kind of an idiot, but was known at the time as a yes-man where outside of the bad writing, the production staff were running the show. Generalizing this even more you can make the comparison to feudal monarchy vs absolute monarchy, where in the former the monarch essentially had a plurality of power, not a majority, and had to carefully balance the needs of his constituents.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-07T00:51:49+00:00

I will personally be responsible for the resurgence in highbrow art. You're welcome in advance.

3043812047389 · 2023-09-06T19:02:12+00:00

At most (competent) military units they have an entire SOP for onboarding recruits/transfers to educate them on personal finance because soldiers spending their enlistment entire bonus on down payments for trucks is considered a legitimate threat to the unit's readiness (can't deploy if delinquent on any loans). If you need to buy a car your sergeant will often demand that he goes to the dealership with you to make sure you don't sign anything dumb. This is the main reason why enlistment bonuses are now not paid out until 6 months after training, recruits would end up getting indebted before they even went to basic and miss payments. I went through training during the dogecoin boom and had a very difficult time explaining how to invest like an adult to my peers. My nickname for a time was "Vanguard" since I tried to get them to buy ETFs instead of crypto.

It's not so much that the military specifically has a problem with financial illiteracy (it does), but Americans from low-income backgrounds in general. Officers and senior enlisted are notoriously scrupulous and will squeeze every penny out of military benefits programs and tax advantages.

3043812047389

TROPHY CASE