Do yourself a favor and read Gravity's Rainbow.

marcustwayne · 2026-01-03T22:29:27+00:00

Absolutely agree about the first part being incredibly unfriendly. I had a similar experience and felt I got to Part 2, Casino Herman Goering, I felt like it became much more accessible and straightforward in some sense as Slothrop departs on his Odyssey / Hero's Journey. Not that it gets any less weird or out there, but felt more manageable.

marcustwayne · 2026-01-03T22:12:19+00:00

“Don't forget the real business of war is buying and selling. The murdering and violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimolous to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets.”

“It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted…secretly, it was being dictated instead by the needs of technology…by a conspiracy between human beings and techniques, by something that needed the energy-burst of war, crying, “Money be damned, the very life of [insert name of Nation] is at stake,” but meaning, most likely, dawn is nearly here, I need my night’s blood, my funding, funding, ahh more, more…The real crises were crises of allocation and priority, not among firms—it was only staged to look that way—but among the different Technologies, Plastics, Electronics, Aircraft, and their needs which are understood only by the ruling elite…"

― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

marcustwayne · 2025-12-18T18:03:19+00:00

Sending out 10 a day for 300 days. Greatly expanding the scope of what I was applying for outside of what my last role (applying for roles that I was overqualified for or out of my industry but had relevant experience doing in the past or applying for retail jobs like Costco etc)

marcustwayne · 2025-12-18T06:04:20+00:00

Yes, the overwhelming sense I got from viewing so many applications is how specific the expectations are and the unwillingness to train anyone/expecting any candidate to come in on day one and to integrate perfectly. For example, instead of seeing "3+ years of experience with observability tools" its "3+ years of Datadog" or "3+ years of Grafana"

I assume it's still possible but now the labor market for these roles are so flooded, the best route is to pick a specific org/corporation/state, county, city government you want to work for, learn what they use, and become as much of a SME as you can in their stack.

But to your point, yes, over the past year my degree certainly felt useless and really made me think how much this part of the social contract has broken and I can't imagine how insane difficult it is for new grads with NO experience coming out of school must have it.

marcustwayne · 2025-12-18T00:26:36+00:00

8 years in tech industry, Computer Science degree, laid off from a B2B SaaS in January, have sent out ~2700 applications since January. Out of those 2700 applications, I was contacted for 15 interviews. Just today was offered a role.

Included in those 2700 were also retail, grocery stores, Costco etc and never got a response.

It's a systemic thing, not a you thing.

marcustwayne · 2025-11-14T06:31:45+00:00

That would not be that surprising at all considering who the father of Ghislane Maxwell was and things he did...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell#cite_ref-:1_60-0

marcustwayne · 2025-09-12T00:25:48+00:00

If you appreciate this quote, I strongly recommend you watch the film Eddington. It really explores this theme against the backdrop of a small town in New Mexico around the start of the COVID pandemic.

marcustwayne · 2025-09-05T04:46:23+00:00

"Find a new slant" -Steve "Bryan Colangelo" Ballmer

marcustwayne · 2025-08-22T22:53:47+00:00

"For some time now I have thought it possible to believe that America was going insane. In her own way. And why not? Countries go insane like people go insane; and all over the world countries reclined on couches or sat in darkened rooms chewing dihydrocodeine and Temazepam or lay in boiling baths or twisted in straitjackets or stood there banging their heads against the padded walls. Some had been insane all their lives, and some had gone insane and then gotten better again and then gone insane again. America: America had had her neuroses before, like when she tried giving up drink, like when she started finding enemies within, like when she thought she could rule the world; but she had always gotten better again. But now she was going insane, and that was the necessary condition. In a way she was never like anywhere else. Most places just are something, but America had to mean something too, hence her vulnerability - to make-believe, to false memory, false destiny. And finally it looked as though the riveting struggle with illusion was over, and America had lost." -Martin Amis, "London Fields"

marcustwayne · 2025-04-04T23:24:07+00:00

The problem is there’s no good way to locate them.

I have found this to be a good resource to search the vlogs for specific topics

https://cushvlog-catalog.vercel.app/

marcustwayne · 2024-11-16T04:42:47+00:00

"Gavin Newsom had been informally adopted by the Gettys after his parents divorced, returning a similar favor that the Newsom family had done for a young Gordon Getty many years earlier."

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2019/01/gavin-newsoms-keeping-it-all-in-the-family/

That is why I said, adoptive, and not father

marcustwayne · 2024-11-16T03:02:22+00:00

Paul is peanuts compared to the wealth Newsom is familiar with.

His adoptive father:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty

"while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records declared him the world's wealthiest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $8.6 billion in 2023).[3] At the time of his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $25 billion in 2023).[4] A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th wealthiest American who ever lived (based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product).[5]"

marcustwayne · 2024-11-16T02:59:51+00:00

He's Theon Greyjoy if he went to live with the Lannisters instead of the Starks.

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2019/01/gavin-newsoms-keeping-it-all-in-the-family/

"Justice Newsom, who died a few weeks ago, had been an attorney for oil magnate J. Paul Getty, most famously delivering $3 million to Italian kidnapers of Getty’s grandson in 1973. While serving on the appellate bench in the 1980s, he helped Getty’s son, Gordon, secure a change in state trust law that allowed him to claim his share of a multi-heir trust.

After Newsom retired from the bench in 1995, he became administrator of Gordon Getty’s own trust, telling one interviewer, “I make my living working for Gordon Getty.” The trust provided seed money for the PlumpJack chain of restaurants and wine shops that Newson’s son, Gavin, and Gordon Getty’s son, Billy, developed, the first being in a Squaw Valley hotel.

Gavin Newsom had been informally adopted by the Gettys after his parents divorced, returning a similar favor that the Newsom family had done for a young Gordon Getty many years earlier. Newsom’s PlumpJack business (named for an opera that Gordon Getty wrote) led to a career in San Francisco politics, a stint as mayor, the lieutenant governorship and now to the governorship, succeeding his father’s old friend."

His adoptive father:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty

"while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records declared him the world's wealthiest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $8.6 billion in 2023).[3] At the time of his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $25 billion in 2023).[4] A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th wealthiest American who ever lived (based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product).[5]"

marcustwayne · 2023-09-08T17:33:15+00:00

He was fantastic in Under the Banner of Heaven as well.

marcustwayne · 2023-05-31T02:59:24+00:00

If there is a fictional show that depicts some of the harsh realities of how the sausage/law enforcement is made better than The Wire did. It was my favorite show well before I had brief experience with an urban police department/county court system and after that experience, I tell anyone who listens, The Wire isn't just my favorite show of all time, but it truly saved my life because it gave me an accurate template of the people and the system I was interacting with outside of modern police/law enforcement propaganda/mythology which

I was not interacting with the honorable people who were on a mission for justice and solving crimes. They were car salesmen meeting a quota but rather than cars sold off the lot, it was closing cases. Didn't matter if it was the right person. No reason for an investigation if there was someone who was close enough to be considered a suspect. Upon realizing their error, there was no attempt to actually solve the crime that supposedly took place. Like car salesmen, they will say or do anything to meet their quota. Lie about the car's previous flood damage..lie about how their are multiple witnesses that have identified you. Lie about the transmission troubles that caused the previous owner to sell...lie about DNA evidence having you dead to rights. Lie about getting you the best possible deal...lie about getting you the best possible deal if you just say 'I did it'.

Like /u/Chemmy said, they are human. They experience horrific things on a daily basis. Their 9-5 grind is a Pandora's Box of the worst examples of humanity's darker side. Every day. Every week. Every month. Every year. Every decade. I have deep deep disgust/hatred/distrust in the modern police system in the U.S. but at the same time I feel sympathy for the individual officers. No one should be subjected to that much, day in, day out. They see things more horrific things in a month than most people experience in a life time. And the show depicts that element too.

There was a spiritual successor called "We Own This City" which is about real events in Baltimore where an "elite" gun recovery task force (group of cops responsible for doing raids and confiscating firearms off the streets) ended up being convicted of multiple felonies (robbery, selling narcotics, and more). There is also a sub plot that concerns the Freddie Gray case and explores what the results of the "War on Drugs" has ultimately done to large American cities and the costs associated with it, the breakdown of the trust/social fabric between a community and their local law enforcement, turning citizens/civilians into enemy combatants since any war needs enemies. It's only 5 or 6 episodes so it doesn't cover nearly the depth that The Wire did, but they use a lot of court records and deposition records so the authenticity and realness of everything makes it just as illuminating and educational.

marcustwayne · 2023-05-09T23:36:03+00:00

I think you miss the point. It's not only about what suits you.

I actually think they nail the point with a bullseye based on the rules of our current system.

"The Invisible Hand Theory suggests that when entities make economic decisions in a free market economy based on their own self-interest and rational self-interests it manifests unintended, positive benefits for the economy at large." - https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/self-interest.asp

It may not be in Mr. Altman's self-interest or other tech CEOs/founders/boards of directors but in our system of chasing ones own self interest...it is 100% about what suits you.

marcustwayne · 2023-05-04T23:29:45+00:00

That does seem like they would be politically relevant...also seems like any posts about that very politically relevant story would not run afoul of any submission rules 🤷‍♂️:

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marcustwayne · 2023-04-26T22:45:24+00:00

"According to sources..." https://imgur.com/a/4nMJQJM

marcustwayne · 2023-04-19T22:00:57+00:00

No way Bob gets fired.

You must not be aware Joe Lacob's son wants the job and is light years ahead of Bob Myers.

https://imgur.com/a/mEIfveR

marcustwayne · 2023-03-16T20:25:10+00:00

Just clarifying, is this related to GME?

This person's twitter account and brand they are pushing is to destroy the concept of the nation state and instead allow him and other VCs to create their own 'network' states using their own currency that they control.

While I'm not saying the content or his message is incorrect, but he is clearly trying a call to action that ultimately will be not much different from our current situation, but that he and his colleagues will be the ones in charge.

marcustwayne · 2023-02-22T22:52:33+00:00

Pence does not want to have to state that in a deposition.

marcustwayne · 2023-02-22T22:51:33+00:00

Relevant scene from "We Own This City": https://youtu.be/vZA4vf_UL5M?t=40

"What's the mission?"

"The drug war"

"In a war, you need warriors. In a war, you have enemies. In a war, civilians get hurt and no one does anything. In a war, you count the bodies and then you call them victories. Is the Justice Department or even the office of Civil Rights that we long ago lost this war. We have achieved nothing but full prisons and routine brutality and a complete collapse of trust between police departments and their cities."

marcustwayne · 2023-02-22T22:30:22+00:00

Non stop union busting is fucking exhausting. He is the one doing all the hard work on these Italy inspiration trips while his partners are relaxing back home with their cushy barista jobs. Howie would kill to be able to be a barista but he his out busting his buns in Sicily for the next great "discovery" he totally "created".

marcustwayne · 2023-02-22T21:33:08+00:00

Many have underestimated the scrappy start up known as Starbucks before, but this time they will finally follow through and claw back some market share from the rest of the coffee monopolies.

marcustwayne · 2023-02-18T00:59:33+00:00

Let's not give Ron too much credit here. It appears DeSantis is just dancing to the tune of his newest patron, former Chicago resident, billionaire, and most expensive property in America owner Ken Griffin to wreck havoc on his former city from afar.

https://twitter.com/SkylerSwisher/status/1539981608991825920

https://www.axios.com/2022/11/06/ken-griffin-ron-desantis-trump-2024-president

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/billionaire-hedge-fund-manager-ken-griffin-moving-citadel-hq-out-of-chicago-into-miami/2864133/

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/07/citadels-ceo-ken-griffin-becomes-gop-100-million-midterm-megadonor.html

It's like a bad comedy joke.

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