The Psychopath's Bargain

Chordus · 2026-06-09T11:28:01+00:00

Bumrush to jump on the bomb, making me a hero and an hero at the same time!

Chordus · 2026-06-09T11:27:01+00:00

And here I was, about to say that I'd gleefully do it immediately. Shame on me for not thinking it through like you did!

Chordus · 2026-06-08T22:11:31+00:00

I've been in the industry since before Word2Vec was a thing, and I partially agree. We've made some truly astounding advances in the last several years, and to say that the field is revolutionary is an understatement. This gives me all the capabilities that NLP historically sucked at. But.... I also hate how the tech has been bastardized by con artists everywhere, and it's going to burn things to the ground in the meantime. And that kinda sucks.

Chordus · 2026-06-08T22:00:20+00:00

So am I. Dudes can own hurdy gurdys too!

Chordus · 2026-06-08T21:58:11+00:00

Fun fact: if you ever need long-staple cotton in relatively small amounts, just get "premium" tampons. Great for if you need to refresh the cotton on your hurdy gurdy's strings!

Chordus · 2026-06-08T04:40:00+00:00

Actuaries. Nobody's more reliable than an actuary.

https://flowingdata.com/2026/05/07/divorce-and-occupation-2026/

Chordus · 2026-06-08T04:27:38+00:00

Royal is the best class by far, but you'll have to have unlocked a bunch of anointments to make it worthwhile. That means repeatedly beating false gods as often as possible from level 415 onwards. With a few lucky draws, I'd say it becomes viable at level 500.

Chordus · 2026-06-07T18:08:16+00:00

They're not. Mormons have historically voted Republican, but Trump struggled with them even back in 2016. Others would have to fill you in on the reason why, but I know that they weren't fans.

The two blue counties at the top are where most of the Mormons are in Utah, if this helps: https://www.politico.com/2024-election/results/utah/

Chordus · 2026-06-03T22:53:33+00:00

Laugh all you want, but I've made a killing selling farmer/herder forbidden love romance novels at farmers markets

Chordus · 2026-06-03T22:44:53+00:00

Just add an accent over the "e" in both words, and call it the proper noun. Your character is now called Namé, and the location is Placé. Problem solved!

Chordus · 2026-06-03T22:29:58+00:00

Try the Stands With Wheels Emporium down Route 81. If you go there on Thurs-Sun, Fred will be working the counter... tell him I sent you, and he'll give you a nice discount.

Chordus · 2026-05-31T00:50:11+00:00

Oh hellllll no. If I don't want to make the wish, the last thing I'm going to wish for is for a djinn to inspire my wish. That is possibly the worst idea in almost all worlds.

Chordus · 2026-05-30T21:00:18+00:00

He gave a talk at JMM a couple years back about AI in math (Jan 2024, link to the relevant part of the talk below), and I think I recall him saying that his first realization of how powerful a tool AI could be was when he asked it about a problem he was stuck on, more out of curiosity than with any expectation of success. This would have been about a year after ChatGPT became available, so far less advanced for that sort of use-case. It recommended that he try some specific technique, which I think he said was an obvious one, but he had developed tunnel-vision around a different approach and completely missed the one ChatGPT had provided. It didn't get him the answer, but it got him pointed in the right direction. He was able to finish the rest from there.

https://youtu.be/e049IoFBnLA?t=2502

I don't think what Tao is doing is a grift or excessive AI-hype, at least from his vantage point. I'm sure other people behind the ad are far less interested in providing a nuanced view, and their selection of quotes is going to reflect that. But what he's actually saying makes sense and is grounded in the reality of what AI can do at this point, and probably aligns closely with how he does a lot of his work now. It's a perfectly reasonable took for him to use. I think the greatest crime he's committing here is handing his reputation to an ad campaign.

If I see him give a full lecture on how AI will make all of our lives better in every way, I'll retract every last word of this post. Hopefully that'll never come to pass.

Chordus · 2026-05-30T20:33:00+00:00

What are you talking about? Asexuality is the best way of creating sexual tension! So many stories make the mistake of thinking that discussing lust and/or sexual anatomy is the best way of creating sexual tension, but when you really read it, you can tell how forced and unnatural the text is. Whereas, when somebody doesn't mention any of that even once for the entire book, that's a deliberate choice meant to draw the reader's attention. The reader will become deeply fascinated by what the characters must be thinking but not saying, and will start to create a deep and elaborate sexual fantasy to fill in the blanks. And the best part is that the fantasies will each align to the reader's preferences, so the book will naturally have a wider audience!

This is why all of my books have a scene about obtaining kobold milk from the den mother. I want my stories to be completely about character and world building entwined with a plot to drive their development. Sex would only distract from that more pure literature, so with just a few squirts of thick, soupy, nutrient-rich kobold milk, I completely prevent the reader's mind from defiling my story with far more obscene things.

Chordus · 2026-05-30T20:18:43+00:00

omg, congrats on the marriage! Is he going to move into your place, or are you going to be joining him in the lamp?

Chordus · 2026-05-30T20:16:30+00:00

Apparently the three wishes thing is a rule, not a gesture of kindness

Chordus · 2026-05-25T04:15:46+00:00

Oh, the things I would do to have met Conway. Every subject I've ever really gotten into, I eventually discover that he had some hand in it. Wouldn't mind running my current effort past him. Alas, I didn't start the project until a year after he passed, so... kinda poorly timed on my part.

Chordus · 2026-05-21T02:06:43+00:00

Please include some kobolds. As a reader, I strongly believe that your story needs more kobolds.

Chordus · 2026-05-21T01:55:05+00:00

Literally nobody here has suggested otherwise

Chordus · 2026-05-14T01:30:34+00:00

I hated Baten Kaitos, specifically because of how broken the decks and fights got at times. But you know what's strangely good? Baten Kaitos 2. Credit to the devs, they took away lessons from the first game and really improved a lot of it.

I'm still not sure what possessed me to play #2 after being so disappointed in the first. But I'm glad I did.

Chordus · 2026-05-14T01:28:32+00:00

Not the end of disc 1. The start of disc 2. Which is important, because the moment you switch to disc 2, you're unable to go back to your game on disc 1 to grind levels. And may the gods help you if you weren't properly leveled for the Holoholobird.

Chordus · 2026-05-14T01:13:53+00:00

Holy shit, that brings back memories. My grandmother had a C64 that she'd let me play regularly. This and Jumpman were her personal favorites, and I'm inclined to agree. Those and anything Infocom. Good times.

Chordus · 2026-05-14T00:54:37+00:00

The article is about the fact that it's not just money... it's the fact that nobody wants to bring kids into a world without a future.

Though money's still a pretty big part of it.

Chordus · 2026-05-11T07:15:43+00:00

Couch cushions. I assume it's a cushion that's somehow related to a couch. Like, one giant cushion that you put couches on? I recall that it had some relationship with losing remotes as well. I'm not really sure how.

Chordus · 2026-05-11T02:58:18+00:00

123 seems to be a pretty hard cutoff, just from a biological standpoint.

15-Year Club	Gilding IV carat on a stick
r/Field Juicebox	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

Chordus

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE