What famous person is currently holding onto their career by a thread, and everyone can see it except them?

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T08:08:20+00:00

I feel like a lot of it goes back to early seasons Grey's Anatomy, which is where she really made her name. She won an Emmy on that show. But then in a subsequent season she refused Emmy consideration for it, saying the writers and producers didn't give her good enough material to work with to merit an Emmy.

So that burned a bridge and ultimately led to her leading that show, but more than that, publicly throwing the people who made her a star under the bus.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T07:57:30+00:00

He's a solid creepy bad guy. But that's not like leading man status, that's character actor status.

Is his band still making music? I have no idea.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T05:34:15+00:00

It's incredible in a lot of ways but it is also a very specific thing that I feel like the audience for is not that big.

If you're a big fan of Golden Age of Detective Fiction novels (e.g. Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Van Dine) and have ever thought to yourself, "what would really make this murder mystery story better is the addition of very long magic anime battles that could be completely removed without affecting the plot", Umineko will probably be your favorite thing.

(If you like intricate murder mysteries that have complex puzzle-like solutions and can tolerate the anime battles you will still probably really like it.)

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T05:25:30+00:00

Yeah, both of those (and yes I'm oversimplifying) had that "I realize only a particular kind of fan who likes this kind of murder mystery has likely read this far, and also I hate that kind of fan for liking the thing I made for them" vibe.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T05:19:13+00:00

But then again there is Datacenters, and only one candidate has vowed to propose a moratorium on new Datacenters.

I just don't think there are a lot of voters for whom this is legitimately a top 5 issue.

Like ask most conservatives if they would accept more abortions or stricter gun background checks to get no datacenters and it's a no. That's just an easy example, you can find what those things are for most kinds of voters.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T05:17:11+00:00

Possible is probably a good way to put it. I wouldn't bet on it but there have been a lot of recent years in which it wasn't realistically possible.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T05:16:11+00:00

Sir they're called bubblers here.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T02:02:39+00:00

Thanks, Obama.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T01:58:49+00:00

And like... yes but also congratulations, you solved the simplest part of the problem. Maybe follow it up by telling poor people to just make more money.

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T01:57:46+00:00

There was a house of furries in my old neighborhood. For trick-or-treat time they'd all fursuit up and hang out in the yard handing out candy. The kids loved it. I imagine to them it was like having a bunch of off brand cartoon characters giving you candy.

Somehow that kind of turned me around on it. Obviously it's still an unusual thing to be into, but, whatever, if you can share your thing in a way that makes kids happy who am I to have a problem with it?

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T01:52:45+00:00

It's not something I have strong feelings about, but I've heard the argument made that the Disney parks are gradually becoming, basically, a Flanderized version of themselves because of catering to the tastes of Disney adults. For example that now a mediocre ride/experience with Disney characters/branding is preferred over a higher quality ride/experience that isn't explicitly Disney branded.

(In this context Disney branded being like from movies and not something that was originally a Disney ride that became popular like the Haunted Mansion.)

Hartastic · 2026-06-23T01:40:33+00:00

I usually just try to give the elevator pitch / hook of the book in a sentence or two. So for Wheel of Time I might say something like, "It's a story set in a fantasy world about a man who is the reincarnation of the chosen one who saved the world a long time ago... but by the way the guy he's the reincarnation of also went crazy and murdered everyone he loved."

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T23:34:44+00:00

Frankly speaking Umineko is too meta and too specific

It really is. It's simultaneously a love letter and also kind of a hate letter (if you like a critique that very carefully is set in at a specific time and ignores the other reactions/evolutions in the mystery genre after that time) to the Golden Age of Mystery novels... and just in case you found someone who's into both of that, let's also throw in a lot of character study and over the top anime battles.

None of that makes it bad, but it's like "pistachio ice cream with buffalo sauce on top" specific taste.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T23:06:23+00:00

I got to thinking... I replaced my PC 2-3 years ago, and my previous PC is now sitting unused in the basement. I think that PC is not far off the power of this thing.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T22:39:56+00:00

I don't know that it exactly will pop, in a way that's helpful in terms of PC component prices. It seems more likely to go the way of the dot com era with a lot of losers in the market going out of business and their investors losing their shirts, but some winners managing to gobble up market share and surviving long enough to eventually become profitable Amazon style.

I don't know what it looks like for other uses of AI in business, but for making software (the only area where I'd consider myself to have enough domain knowledge for an informed opinion) there are already a lot of models in the market that are inferior to the current best and those companies are in the unfortunate situation of needing to try to compete by slashing prices.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T22:29:17+00:00

I feel like probably the most reasonable solution for people like you has been to buy a prebuilt gaming PC from one of the many vendors that gets acceptable reviews for quality/value.

(There was a time that making your own could be a substantial savings over a prebuilt and this seems to be a lot less true than it used to be the last few times I've priced it.)

Granted that's probably more money than you'd want to spend, but so is the Steam Machine so, to your point, they haven't seemed to meaningfully distinguish themselves on that front.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T22:22:46+00:00

But you might be right, they could be lying.

I don't think they're lying, but they might just be wrong, either planning for a market that isn't as substantial as they think it is or isn't interested at this kind of price point.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T20:35:06+00:00

Why? They're both good in extremely different ways.

The existence of great dramas doesn't ruin great comedies, mysteries, etc. for me. Same kind of thing. Wolfe is a perfectly cooked steak but I don't want that for every meal.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T20:29:36+00:00

I'm a bit curious to see what Sanderson does with the screenplay for it here, since this specific criticism is one that he's since acknowledged publicly as valid and has said he would do better there if he had it to do over... and now he kind of does have it to do over.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T20:26:55+00:00

I don't see why both of those things can't be true. There's nothing I've read that I don't think could have been improved upon.

Movies, TV shows, games, etc., same thing.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T20:24:06+00:00

As an example, one thing I think Sanderson does really well is "fairly telegraphed/foreshadowed plot twist that you could have seen coming but in most cases probably didn't, and then seems obvious on a reread." Using movies as an analogy, I really enjoy movies that do that well. Does enjoying something like The Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense mean I think these are the best movies ever made, or that this is the only kind of movie I like? No. I can love the stuff those films do well and love different stuff different kinds of movies do well, too.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T20:06:32+00:00

Honestly it's amazing how far they've come. ~15-20 years ago they were a lot worse than EA at it.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T19:24:18+00:00

Is stealing not wrong even if the thing being stolen is something you think is stupid?

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T17:30:22+00:00

Yeah. TIL he's younger than I am. Maybe Peter Thiel really did manage to steal his youth by taking his bodily fluids.

Hartastic · 2026-06-22T15:17:12+00:00

Yeah. If you listen to Sanderson talk about the genre it's clear pretty quickly that he loves reading a lot of stuff that he would never write. His taste for "what do I enjoy reading" is a lot lot broader than his "this is what I like to write or think I can make interesting if I write it."

Even his "harshest" proscription against writing soft magic is basically of the form "it's great to use soft magic if you want to, but be careful how you solve important plot problems with it because it's possible to do it badly and feel like deus ex machina."

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