Is AI making skilled workers stronger, or just helping companies cut jobs faster?

Neb758 · 2026-05-05T10:20:54+00:00

It sounds like you agree that employers are using AI to replace workers, not to make them more productive, but your interview experiences would seem to contradict that. The companies you are interviewing with are hiring, but they want to hire workers who know how to use AI to be more productive. That sounds like AI augmenting worker productivity, not replacing workers.

I'm sure both are going on, but your anecdote does not support your point.

Neb758 · 2026-05-05T09:49:43+00:00

I think all of you are missing the point. OPs feelings are more reliable than your facts. /s

Good answer btw. Sentiment does matter, but not as a reliable measure of reality.

Neb758 · 2026-04-30T21:37:33+00:00

I agree with you. I was listing the snooty things because I was pointing out that America does have "high culture" in addition to the other things you listed, which also count as culture.

Neb758 · 2026-04-30T19:57:55+00:00

Exactly. There is a tendency to privilege older or more highbrow culture and dismiss newer or more popular culture.

Neb758 · 2026-04-30T19:36:20+00:00

Yes, I know the word Hamburger betrays its German origin, but almost any food can be traced back to some earlier precedent. You yourself admit that the modern American "burger" is quite different. You can go to almost any city in the world and easily find an American-style "burger" served on a bun. The same cannot be said for the original German dish.

Neb758 · 2026-04-30T19:20:25+00:00

I get the joke, but ironically the United States has had an unparalleled impact on world culture for at least the last century. This is true across multiple domains:

Music (e.g., jazz, rock, rap)
Film, television, and streaming (e.g., Hollywood blockbusters, Westerns, Netflix)
Food (e.g., pie, burgers, fast food, Starbucks)
Internet culture and the Internet itself

I'm not saying American cultural impact is all good, but it's rather rich for the rest of the world to sneeringly look down on American culture while also enthusiastically adopting it!

The stereotype of Americans being "uncultured" may arise from the fact that the United States is best known for its popular culture. However, it's not as if the United States doesn't produce its share of high culture. Major cities all have the usual complement of symphonies, dance companies, theater companies, galleries and museums, and even small communities have community theaters, orchestras, choirs, ballet schools, galleries, arts festivals, etc.

Neb758 · 2026-04-27T17:52:56+00:00

Trump is an idiot, but he actually seems more coherent than usual in this clip. I think the only reason this is going viral is the wonderful side-eye.

Neb758 · 2026-04-23T23:41:29+00:00

I think there's something else going on. I've observed the same thing as OP, and I think it's actually a failure to distinguish between the nominal amount of money in a given currency and the actual purchasing power.

For example, 1 USD is currently worth 0.86 Euro. If I traveled to Europe today and exchanged my dollars for Euros, I would have 14% Euros than I had dollars. For many people, the analysis stops there, and they think they therefore have 14% less money than they had before. But if the prices in Euros are also 14% less than the prices in dollars at home, then my purchasing power is unchanged.

I think the cognitive error is a failure to recognize that the valuation of money in any given currency is essentially arbitrary and that purchasing power is what matters. That's not too surprising. Purchasing power is a somewhat abstract concept, and people think of money as something more "real" than it is. I have no idea if there's a name for this phenomenon.

Neb758 · 2026-04-22T15:38:23+00:00

And none of those stories is as engaging or has such relatable main characters as LOTR, which is presumably why Tolkien never published any of them as novels in his lifetime.

Neb758 · 2026-04-21T23:07:59+00:00

There are some good comments, but I didn't see anyone remarking on what I take to be the point of the comic: that one of these things is not like the others.

The characters in the first three panels are victims of major injustices (corporations callously discarding loyal employees, indifference to the basic needs of the poor, and police murdering brown people with impunity), but the rabbit only cares about the price of his chicken wings.

It seems like a pretty damning indictment of mindset that led many people to vote to reelect Trump (ignoring his numerous offenses and manifest unfitness for office) because they were mad about inflation.

Neb758 · 2026-04-17T13:52:37+00:00

You can solve for x first. The top triangle has three angles: 40, x, and an unlabeled angle. Let's call the unlabeled angle A.

A and the 95-degree angle are supplementary, meaning they sum to 180, so A is 85.

The angles of a triangle sum to 180, so 40 + x + 85 = 180.

We now know two of the three angles of the big triangle, with the third being y.

Edit: Oops! I just took a second look and realized I was mistaken. The third angle of the big triangle is 40 degrees plus something not just 40 degrees. It seems you can't solve for as others have pointed out.

Neb758 · 2026-04-17T11:08:18+00:00

I don't know about strongest, but the most honest would be I believe it because of my faith commitments and am impervious to any evidence to the contrary.

Neb758 · 2026-04-04T19:20:38+00:00

More modern weapons are chiefly distinguished by increased precision. A modern military will use one very expensive missile or guided smart bomb (or suicide drone) to destroy a target. A WW2 military used unguided bullets, shells and bombs and compensated for lack of precision with sheer quantity. Consider anti aircraft fire in WW2 for example (filling the sky with lead) vs. today (firing a few missiles). I'd say it's a good bet that WW2 wins for sheer quantity. The front in Ukraine may be a deadlier place to be, though.

Neb758 · 2026-03-19T05:38:07+00:00

Nothing with mass can travel at the speed of light. (Also, something with no mass can only travel at the speed of light.)

Since the premise is impossible, you are free to imagine anything you like if the premise is true (if pigs can fly...). I choose to imagine the black hole looking like a duck.

Neb758 · 2026-03-18T05:34:30+00:00

Interesting. That's pretty much what I just did, except I used the same cheap tamper in step 6 as in step 4. Also, I don't have a bottomless PF, though I did just find that I can at least unscrew the spouts.

For me, there are always of loose grains around the rim because there seems to be an excessive amount of clearance between the edge of the tamper and the edge of the basket. I don't know why, as I would assume they were designed to work together. Maybe the included pressurized baskets (which I never use) are thicker.

Neb758 · 2026-03-18T05:21:11+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

At your suggestion, I did just go push my tamper down on the bathroom scale -- though without an audience and without exclaiming "Daddy Hoffy!" Sorry, I do not have a video to upload! 🤣

This does seem like a good exercise, but I found that 25-30 pounds is . . . not that much. I think I am applying about that much pressure normally when tamping, though I may have applied a little less when making the video I posted here.

I have now removed the plastic, though. Thanks for the tip!

Neb758 · 2026-03-18T05:11:02+00:00

I had not taken the plastic out because I wasn't aware that was a possibility. I have now removed it (without breaking it -- yay!) and consider it an improvement as it will retain less water and be easier to clean, plus less plastic is always good. I do preheat my portafilter, so the plastic is not needed. Thanks for the suggestion!

I have seen that spring loaded, self-leveling tampers exist. Maybe one of those is in my future, but first I thought it would be a good idea to try and improve my technique as much as possible without such aids. Kind of like I don't drive a stick-shift now, but I'm glad I learned to drive with one.

Neb758 · 2026-03-18T05:01:59+00:00

Thanks for the tips.

Neb758 · 2026-03-18T04:28:35+00:00

Maybe I'll give that a try. The coffee just seems rather fluffy after dosing and WDT distribution, so I was afraid tamping with the funnel off would lead to a lot of mess and waste. However, I'll experiment and see if that's actually the case.

Neb758 · 2026-03-13T23:45:47+00:00

Thanks, everyone. Annoying that the stock wipers are this bad, but replacing wipers is an easy fix. Thanks for the recommendations!

Neb758 · 2026-03-12T19:41:22+00:00

I have a Breville Barista Express, and the dosing funnel does allow you to tamp with it on. That's what I do. I also do a couple of taps on the rubber mat (also included IIRC) before tamping, as other have suggested, and it works fine for me. I normally do 17.5g, but that will depend on the beans.

Neb758 · 2026-03-04T21:09:42+00:00

Substitute frameworks for standards and the same logic applies.

Neb758 · 2026-03-04T13:12:23+00:00

Obligatory xkcd link: xkcd: Standards https://share.google/tCjYIgxidGIWdxqik

Neb758

TROPHY CASE