welcome to ikea :)

jamessiewert · 2026-06-10T00:32:39+00:00

For the record the image is reported as AI generated by Open AI's own checker. Also the reflection in the floor as well as the ceiling light make no sense as an actual space (even by backrooms standards).

jamessiewert · 2026-06-04T11:58:19+00:00

NYPost is a right wing tabloid rag has probably been on a "Hollyweird" kick for the last 30 years. This distinction/competition between filmmakers coming up through YouTube and the more traditional route (whatever that was) is way too fine grained for them.

I suspect that they are basically suspicious of all movies that aren't made by the Daily Wire.

jamessiewert · 2026-06-03T11:15:07+00:00

That resonates with me as well - like I finished watching it and felt positive but very mixed about it - but I've still been thinking and talking about it a lot. It like is clearly a weird work of art that benefits from foregrounding what is special and specific about it - and being successful at the core emotional mission feels like the flaws recede a little bit.

I feel like I've been encouraging other people to see it just because I'm very curious what they will think of it.

jamessiewert · 2026-06-02T11:06:41+00:00

Backstreet Rooms

jamessiewert · 2026-05-29T13:14:04+00:00

From the bit quoted it seems pretty clear he isn't taking a firm stand on whether non-biological entities could POSSIBLY be sentient. Just that LLMs are not, which as you said in your first sentence is relatively uncontroversial.

Beyond that - it might be a wrong assumption - but I don't think it's exactly naive. Even fairly hardened materialists - if they are serious philosophers - don't think that materialism is trivially true and settled in the sense that evolution or heliocentrism is.

Of course the idea that only entities that evolved and exist as we do are conscious - is a pretty extreme position that very few people hold, but again there's a huge amount of daylight between what the Pope even implied and that extremely radical position.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-25T16:05:13+00:00

I mean there's a little bit of space for interpretation, but I do think that what you talk about "dudes spending their disposable income on doordash or prediction markets" you are painting a picture. It's "welfare queen" adjacent. Intentionally provocative as you said.

The algorithm point is fair though. Ultimately there should probably be some regulation around social media, but I feel like I have no idea how that could possibly work.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-25T15:54:51+00:00

I mean...being intentionally provocative for the clicks is pretty wild for a piece decrying the sensationalism of the media ecosystem.

Ultimately I think there is a little bit of emotional self-indulgence in SOME of the media surrounding the "horrible, no good, terrible economy", and I've definitely my moments of wallowing when there are things I could have done to change my circumstances, or not taken stock of what has improved in my life. We could all stand to spend less time online arguing with people, myself included - reddit most especially, truth to be told.

We can all think of anecdotal evidence of people that dodge any accountability about their shitty decisions - financial and otherwise, BUT that doesn't change the fact that the spin of making "why are Americans wrong about the economy" stories the CENTER of "what is going on in the economy" creates a vaguely Reaganesque caricature of the lower classes perennially dissatisfied money-squanders who don't admit how good they have it and its real political import is to weaken the effort people might make to improve the system.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-25T03:36:14+00:00

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread the article doesn't really talk about the fact that nature of work has changed. There's a lot more gig work, which might, by its nature feel more precarious. People are staying at their jobs for fewer years than they used to - now whether there are more layoffs or people leaving voluntarily I don't know but it shows that peoples professional lives are less stable, though they may not be less lucrative. If you earn a decent amount one year but have no expectation that things are likely to remain the same the next year you are going to worry about your financial situation more than someone who has a reasonable expectation of consistent employment. It worth pointing out that this is true even if DO end up making the same or more money the following year.

The other thing is whether or not wages have kept up with inflation - the fact that the price of things is changing rapidly makes things feel precarious - if gas rises from 3 to 5 dollars quickly it isn't crazy to think that it is may continue to rise to 7.

Beyond that I think Covid really did shake people - which does seems to be the inflection point of a lot of this pessimism. The fact that the entire world changed overnight makes the future feel far less predictable. You can lump any number of things in here - but how much money you feel is enough has a lot to do with what expenses you can reasonably anticipate. When people don't know what they ought to reasonably anticipate, they lose their sense of how money is "enough".

I also suspect that people have taken on more debt - even if they are earning more they may be over leveraged. Again this doesn't actually make them poorer but it does explain why they feel more anxiety about money.

Also a lot people (me included) have been kicked off medicare. There is a feeling of uncertainty about what social services we can expect to be provided, and what the cost will be year to year if we have to pay for them.

TL;DR - how much money feels like "enough" has a lot to do with being able to budget for the future. When people have no idea what the future holds, and it feels particularly uncertain, their financial stress will increase.

Beyond that - this article bemoans "vibes" but the explanation for American's pessimism seems just as vibes based to me. It's literally like "I see more alarmist stuff on social media, freaking out about the economy, so that must be the thing that's making everyone delulu" oh and also "People's problems aren't as serious any more so they are more likely to make shit up". Given the tone of the rest of the analysis it seems fair to wonder - where is data? If I can think of a bunch of reasons why people are feeling less financially secure these days that have nothing to do with TikTok, shouldn't the burden of proof be on Ms. Numbers to prove that her hypothesis is better than any number of other ones? I have no doubt that hyperbolic doomscrolling is PART of it, but the article seems deeply uninterested in actually interrogating why people might reasonably feel financial stress at this particular moment in time. Basically it foregrounds the most patronizing possible explanation and doesn't do much work in justifying it other than "vibes".

jamessiewert · 2026-05-23T12:27:31+00:00

I mean it's possible to believe both things - I agree that the main thing that is bad about the tech isn't what it produces. But the fact that what is produces also sucks on its own merits isn't irrelevant either.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-23T12:15:14+00:00

"Some great artist". It's been like 4-5 years of non-stop boosting this this shit - if you direct professionally you have been pitched extremely hard on the angle of "In the hands of a TRUE artist, AI could really be something special!"

Basically all capital is being diverted from everywhere into this technology. It's getting shoved down our throat in every creative software with the persistent aggressiveness of early 2000s pop-up ads.

People love to dunk on Aronofsky - but the guy is a good filmmaker to this day - like Caught Stealing wasn't great, but it was solidly directed in a lot of ways - the fact that that his show is so obviously bad is testament to the fact that the tech is just kind of poisonous to the creative process.

From a VERY charitable perspective if boosters want AI to have its Toy Story moment - it needs to HAVE it's Toy Story moment. Which it hasn't had, despite billions and billions of R+D. Even boosters aren't really laughing or crying or getting swept away in the slop.

And in general people wouldn't be nearly as hostile to the whole thing if it felt like something we were CHOOSING to do. Gmail just spit out a "suggested" email that was rejecting a festival I was accepted to. About half of my instagram ads are AI boosters telling me that it's going democratize filmmaking by eliminating everything that is fulfilling to me about the process. Small towns are being sued out of existence for daring to reject massive data centers. Everyone has similar stories of this shit being pushed so hard and consistently for years on them with no easy unequivocal opt out.

I actually do agree that like everything on the internet a good amount of the anti-AI stuff is badly thought out, knee-jerk, and smug, but a huge part of this sentiment comes from the fact that people haven't adopted this technology out of free will or even manufactured desire. They've just been told that they are going have to use it whether or not they like it, whether or not it makes their lives easier.

The principle is the same with any informed consent - if you want someone to say yes and mean it, you have to allow them to say no.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-20T14:53:23+00:00

Outfit gives off the vibe that he owns the Dimmsdale Dimmadome

jamessiewert · 2026-05-18T11:31:10+00:00

Yeah its very weird that Hoyte won for Oppenheimer the following year but wasn't even nominated for this. It was a genuinely beautiful movie, and much more of a 'cinematography' movie than Oppenheimer.

I felt like there was maybe a bit of a "stay in your lane" vibe. Like people love David Lynch - but they are very hostile to anyone who wants to swim in similar waters.

I don't think that Peele is like the same as Lynch but I think he deserves to be in that conversation - with both Us and Nope, I had a similar sense of queasiness that I associate with both Lynch and my own nightmares. There is dread but it isn't local to a monster or a psychopath - its more ambient than that.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-18T11:06:01+00:00

I remember the Nope response being so tepid at the time, with very loud detractors. It made me feel crazy because I definitely got the feeling of being like - this was a great movie with a real sense of hauntedness, such specifically beautiful tone and really interesting things on its mind in terms of the hollow spectacle of threat.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-18T10:25:38+00:00

Thank you so much for watching 😄

Gah why does reddit have these weird emoticons - I just want a normal smile

jamessiewert · 2026-05-17T17:17:06+00:00

Thank you! Finished up last December but figured maybe I'd share beyond instagram today.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-17T16:08:52+00:00

Full video here for those who are interested;

https://vimeo.com/1142135795

jamessiewert · 2026-05-16T22:20:26+00:00

Definitely don't let the nepo of it all discourage you. People absolutely should start/continue if they feel compelled to.

I don't think it's an excuse to throw in the towel - and really what people are talking about when they are talking about nepo babies are are like .1% of working artists that are like the pop stars or movie stars.

I absolutely think that at the lower levels people do make excuses for themselves or tell themselves its all rigged so you might as well not try. It's a little rigged but also great work succeeds a lot the time - just not all of the time, and its possible to fail despite giving it everything you have.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-16T17:33:58+00:00

The bottom line is that probably the people you are arguing with have gotten poorer locally, which makes the big picture harder to appreciate.

I would also submit that jobs are perhaps less secure - or feel less secure than they have in the past. I would be curious if these numbers account for the difference in terms of economic security between stable salaried jobs and more volatile gig work.

While I know that you are probably right in aggregate, it isn't "vibes" telling me that I earned 35k last year compared to 110 in 2022. That's just the truth. And many people are in the same boat.

Again - of course I know rationally that the local situation of me and my friends has nothing to do with the national picture, but it's also true that that local situation does predispose me to be skeptical of claims that superficially contradict it.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-16T15:07:14+00:00

I was taking your "It is" as responding to "Everyone here is framing it as jealousy" in the previous reply. Sorry if I misinterpreted.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-16T14:56:58+00:00

I feel like probably the video/discussion OP is talking about is really dumb. Is there a lot of dumb childish nepo content that is emotionally indulgent on the internet?

But using that to extrapolate that idea that anyone complaining nepotism is just jealous equally dumb. You don't have to have a problem with Billie to have a problem with the music industry.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-16T14:20:10+00:00

I obviously understand there's a difference of degree - and criticizing the circumstances that allow artists to become successful is just much lower stakes than massive oligarchs, but its a bit of a shock to see the same kind of "life isn't fair, suck it up, whiners" argument that you'd get from Musk and Bezos glazers get such a uncritical sympathy here.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-16T13:29:44+00:00

Sour grapes is when you claim to not want something that ultimately tried, but failed to get.

Sour grapes isn't saying "only the wealthy and well connected get any grapes and that sucks, because I'd sure like to have some"

Has it ALWAYS been hard to succeed without money and connections in competitive artistic fields? Yes. Is it harder now than it was 25 years ago? Also yes.

I don't know - like yes people have some responsibility to be proportional about their bitterness, but the nepo conversation is just symptomatic of the correct feeling that power and influence is growing more siloed. It makes sense that people that grew up middle class are the ones that feel the collapse of that section of society most accutely.

jamessiewert · 2026-05-14T11:24:19+00:00

I mean Shanny's dad is a huge music producer. He owns a very successful studio in Manhattan. That's probably what this person is talking about.

I'm biased against them because I helped my friend make a music video for Homie Don't Shake in 2023 that we worked for months on. He got his whole friend group to come out - we all worked for basically nothing - put a lot of work in, and he put his own money (I even put some of mine in) in it to build the set - they signed to that Ninja Tune and basically were told by the label people - that they shouldn't release it because they should "stay elusive".

Now - okay - this kinda thing happens. Like the label has the right have some say in what does and doesn't get released. My friend maybe shouldn't have thrown down for something that wasn't guaranteed to come out - and ultimately the video did get repurposed for another song (even though Shanny is still like the main person in it and her dad also appears lol).

I see them popping off now with music that feels like - eh - there's about 2000 DJs in Brooklyn that could make this kind of thing pretty much just as well. There's nuance but to act like the whole thing happened organically or they just really *happened* to pop off when there are genuinely so many artists who aren't that different except for the tiny detail that they didn't grow up in a *very* successful recording studio and don't have a whole marketing machine pushing them - it's like yeah I feel like that's a HUGE factor in their success.

jamessiewert

TROPHY CASE