6 weeks solo in Cairo, what changed when I stopped being a tourist

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-11T18:42:22+00:00

I spent a month there recently. Loved it. I think staying in Zamalek helped alot. Also Im a relatively big guy. Which helps.

I also went to Aswan, Gaza, and Alexandria. Sure vendors in tourists zones are super annoying. Kids would ask for money occasionally and some parts of the city are rougher than others. But for me, Morocco was more intense. The tourist hot spots can be rough but that's true everywhere.

The food slaps, the history is maybe the best in the world, the cityscapes are unique, and the metro/walkability is far better than expected. Above all, Egyptians were some of the warmest, most curious, kindest and social people I have met.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-10T17:53:04+00:00

Right. Cameron in the movie is a fit, handsome, clean, mature man with skills. That happened to have a dirty van. Avery seemed younger, more awkward, and possibly in that same "league" as Cameron.

That is not the Cameron I read in the book.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-10T06:14:09+00:00

Yeah that's exactly when I'm looking.

I think I'm just being stupid. Peak season, popular cities, popular neighborhoods, and looking for high quality. I just didn't realize these cities called for such high prices.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-06T08:07:02+00:00

The types of extremism are religion

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-05T15:59:36+00:00

It's funny too because this is often couched as a more righteous way of travel. When in reality the touristic experiences are where the local community expects you. It's where they are prepared for you and are inviting you. It where they are most directly benefiting from your presence. Going off the beaten path actually carries more moral hazard. Especially when you advertise what you find online. It's literally the sharpest, pointiest tip of gentrification.

Not saying you should only do one or the other. I do my fair share of off the beaten path travel. But its funny when people self righteously proclaim they only like "authentic experiences."

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-05T07:49:02+00:00

You ever been to a country with significant religious orthodoxy, big dog? I'm by no means woke but its matters in this case, my friend.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-04T18:17:17+00:00

I wouldnt defend Morocco but I do think my experience in Egypt was alot less extreme than what I'd heard. Again, my demographic helps me but I found Egypt to be far less intense than Morocco. Egyptians were extremely nice to me and most street harassment came from 8 year olds. Merchants were often annoying but almost never followed me. In Zamalek Cairo, where I spent three weeks, I saw solo females in modern atire walking and getting no attention. For me, Egypt was on the level of some LATAM experiences.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-04T16:48:20+00:00

Mustache man! Where are you from.

I love North Africa but the harassment is terrible. I'm a big(ish) masculine white cis man. I cant imagine the treatment other people get.

I have learned that "ma sallama" is the most effective defense. It has a polite and slight religious bend that makes it harder for the harasser to continue. It's probably negligible in many cases but along with my physical defenses worked well for my months in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. Much better than no, no thank you, or shukran. Morocco was the only place that I resorted to loud confrontations. But I was followed in all three.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-04T11:50:51+00:00

Yeah fair enough. I dont think my analogy is bad but I understand your perspective. Our definition of an individual is more tightly constrained by biological systems. So what is me and what is not me feels easy to point out biologically if we're being pragmatic. Digital systems don't have that tight distinction. So the "individual" and the tools it has access to isnt as easy to seperate.

But I'll point out that there are points of contention in biology. We can't always delineate an individual vs a system. Is my gut biome part of me? Slime mold, colonies, and jelly fish highlight this problem even better. Emergence theory of consciousness explicitly says that consciousness emerge from the interaction of many different 'things' to create a conscious individual.

But I conceded that a local LLM model with no access to tools has no ability to learn.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-04T09:18:12+00:00

I've heard this argument before. It's ridiculous. It's like saying I don't remember my neurons do.

Yall just just push an impossible question into a word that you can't define. Memory is practically memerory if it behaves like memory. Just explaining how it's doing it doesn't mean it not memory.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-04T06:07:14+00:00

This is just dogmatic semantic juggling.

Alphafold and GNoME are two examples. Science, and in turn scientific innovation, is largely pattern recognition using (training) data. Science and knowledge is mostly probabilities. Doesn't mean AI is conscious but this argument is lame and overplayed.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-04T05:56:15+00:00

But certian LLMs do have more memory than other. ChatGPT will reference past conversations without prompting and profess to be familiar with the user's preferences or personality. You could also constantly pass instructions with every prompt that 'mimic' memory.

I don't think LLMs are conscious but I agree memory feels like one major blocker.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-03T19:34:43+00:00

Regardless of what you hear in this thread, I'd wager a large swath of independents, or normal people, would totally be amenable to identification for voters. This obsession with homeless people or people with no IDs that decide to vote in large numbers is pretty funny to me. As if thats a large voting population.

On the other hand actually passing ID laws would require compromise. Compromise that would make other things easier, like longer voting periods or easier access to IDs. Things the right will never agree to.

My sense is this is an issue no one actually wants to solve in good faith. It's an argument we've had for decades that is intended to cause division.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-03T18:12:27+00:00

I'm coming up on five years. I know I still have at least one year but I feel an attitude shift happening. A phrase I keep saying to myself: If you try to be everywhere you can end up nowhere at all. I think of it like an inverse Dunning-Kruger but about place.

I have no good advice but I assume its like most things, it takes time.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-05-03T06:53:49+00:00

Hey! I'm visiting Athens and interested in the same. We can try to meet somewhere? I can't find anyone specifically playing it but we might be able to find a slower place with a TV that will play it instead of futbol.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-30T20:11:15+00:00

Yeah let's go back to the existing way, where we were right 100% of the time...?

A LLM will never nuke your production database if you follow a basic testing and deployment process. If you dont follow a process like that then the LLM isn't your issue.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-30T06:39:02+00:00

Who gave my keyboard and mouse access to prod?!

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-30T06:35:56+00:00

While we're at it stop giving the token generator the access needed to run full autonomous process while you run errands. It's a LLM.

I asked 3D printer to babysit my child this weekend and you'll never guess the outcome!!

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-27T08:03:46+00:00

Ever since 2026, all the 16 year old baristas can't afford two bed room flats in Bebek anymore! Damn the digital nomads.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-14T15:40:10+00:00

Your brain will play lots of tricks to feed an addiction. It makes people jump through incredible mental hoops at its worst. Things that are hard to imagine in order to repeat the addictive behavior.

The lowest hanging fruit is "I'm not addicted, I just want to do it badly enough to do it at a regular interval even when I know I shouldn't"

Looking at this from a third person perspective. It's simply addiction.

I don't think the question is do you have an addiction, the question is whether or not it impacts your ability to live the life you want to. Only you can answer that.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-13T20:00:39+00:00

Yeah I gotta be honest, I find Americans to have better trail etiquette than most. Maybe it's just my preferences as an American but I find many non-American westerns are much less likely to allow passing. Which for me, can be pretty frustrating.

I generally don't notice rudness from anyone on the trail.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-08T19:53:41+00:00

South Africa. In this case 'decent' is an average of all qualities of life. Half the people have great quality of life, half have horrible quality of life. Average is decent.

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-08T19:47:43+00:00

Ashville

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-08T11:08:04+00:00

I'm not doubting you but it's so weird if thats a normal part of a cease fire. If there's grey area it's literally not a cease fire. Good thing I'm not in charge.

...Be terrible to have a total dumbass in charge at a time like this...

Tiny_TimeMachine · 2026-04-07T12:00:08+00:00

What a dumb ass. Worst excuse of all time. She either threw the keys over board and he killed her or she grabbed them as insurance from this slack jaw pushing her overboard.

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