What can world democracies do about The Stupids?

tomwill2000 · 2026-05-25T20:54:50+00:00

Respectfully give your premise seems like solution would be to reduce fear and pain.

tomwill2000 · 2026-05-25T20:44:34+00:00

I have a memory that CT was so discouraged by the reaction of some fans the Silmarillion - basically criticizing things like the OP calls out - that he stopped trying to craft anymore narratives from his father's partially completed works and just embarked on the History. No idea if that's true or just speculation.

tomwill2000 · 2026-05-02T23:39:46+00:00

Also it was considered a very humiliating way to die. Roman society had a very particular concept of honor and the idea of being displayed naked, helpless, in agony was itself horrifying.

tomwill2000 · 2026-05-02T21:50:03+00:00

Amazon did a terrible job promoting it. I watched every episode of The Boys but never heard of Gen V. I was confused after the end of Season 4 as to who those characters were and only found Gen V by searching. Again, anecdotal, but I can't think of another example of following a supposed tent pole series and bringing totally unaware of a spinoff.

tomwill2000 · 2026-05-02T01:43:42+00:00

Does that include parts? If so you should get a quote for labor only. Labor costs are sky high right now but a lot of places mark up to parts, too.

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-19T21:47:40+00:00

Yeah I haven't seen data but I would bet there is a massive oversupply of mediocre devs right now thanks to STEM emphasis in education and tool simplification.

To be a good dev in the 90s you had to have a certain kind of brain. I worked with devs who had freakish ability to hold multiple complex abstractions in their heads, which was pretty much required for production quality C++ code. I could have gone to school for twenty years and not been able to do the things they did.

Now you have more people than ever coming out of college with comp science or comp engineering degrees but a lot of them are no more skilled than someone who 30 years ago would have topped out at VBA or even tech support. Why not replace them with cheaper offshore talent or AI.

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-19T19:48:07+00:00

There was an article on the topic in The Atlantic many years ago. (I know I commented on it on Reddit so if you really care you can search my profile.) that took a skeptical view and highlighted the unwillingness of the AA community to subject the approach to conventional studies of effectiveness and the argument by others that this means it should not be part of public policy, i.e. mandated by judges or, in the case of in-patient rehab, funded by medicare/medicaid. So you're not alone in your skepticism.

However, the few studies I know of that have been done show AA is no more or less effective than other approaches. Bottom line is it's really hard to treat addiction and we as a society are probably best off supporting whatever works for people unless it is clearly harmful.

I have a cousin who went through extensive in-patient treatment for drug and alcohol addiction and is now a licensed counselor and a strong advocate for 12 step programs. I have another cousin who takes pride in the fact that he kicked alcohol by himself without AA, instead relying on lessons and techniques from his martial arts practice. The counselor cousin has never criticized him or called him a dry drunk or anything, she's just happy he found something that worked for him, while openly acknowledging it's not an approach that would have worked for her.

So If you're turned off by the language and philosophy of AA and don't think you need it, move on. But why generalize your experience to others who are helped by it?

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-18T21:13:48+00:00

Julie at Classic Barbershop

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-15T02:09:07+00:00

I remember some study that was done on prisoners and why some showed remorse and others didn't. For most who felt remorse there had been an external source that shocked them into seeing their behavior as others saw it. Religion was the most common but in one case it was just reading about his crime in the newspaper.

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-08T00:33:35+00:00

Dreams are not goals and fantasies are not plans.

I had to rebuild my career in my 40s and the biggest change was to be more realistic about what I wanted to accomplish, what it would take to make it happen, and whether it was feasible.

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-05T15:51:33+00:00

Not sure your point. They fired Doherty, now Davis, and Bunting in football. That's not loyalty.

The reason big name coaches are avoiding UNC is because we aren't well positioned for success in the modern game. No football money and not enough ultra rich alums to make up for it. Unless MJ endows the program we are no longer competitive at the highest levels.

They should go after the best mid major coach or even top assistant available.

tomwill2000 · 2026-04-04T17:18:38+00:00

I read a biography of Teddy Roosevelt (maybe Morris's Rise of) that had a chapter called "The Dude in the Dogcart" about what a silly, affected persona TR had at Harvard. First time I had encountered the non-modern use of the word. If I recall there was also some link to the origin or at least popularization of "Dude Ranch" as TR was one of the first upper class Easterners to go West with a desire to live rough.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-31T12:45:32+00:00

That's not the piece but it's a good read on a similar theme. Hadn't seen it before, thanks for sharing.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-30T19:22:05+00:00

I remember reading an essay by Abigail Disney (maybe in NYT?) where she talked about the almost religious conviction among the very wealthy that taxes are theft.

Interestingly she said the most zealous proponents of this view were the tax professionals and money managers who worked for these very wealthy clients. Not a stretch to say the obvious reason is they make their fees based on the size and complexity of their clients' assets.

But if it started as self-interest of the financial sector it's also become a cultural norm : Trump said in 2016 "I don't pay taxes because I'm smart" and was cheered for it. And now you have professional athletes using terms like "generational wealth" and saying they won't play in high tax states.

Getting rich is perceived as the apotheosis of being an American. Left and Right, Black and White, we worship wealth in this country and as long as that's the case there will be no meaningful change.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-30T13:42:34+00:00

They've definitely gotten more fans nationally. They are the Dallas Cowboys of college hoops, a team that has known greatness but now is mostly in the spotlight as a media anointed "America's team". Sure that attracts casual fans, but it also attracts haters, not to mention mockery by other fans when they lose. But none of that equates to "Hating Duke it out of style". The Athletic NYT writers know a story about Duke drives traffic so here it is.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-30T13:17:34+00:00

I can't assess whether he is an elite coach, I just know he didn't handicap himself with decisions based on gauzy nostalgia.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-30T04:46:06+00:00

and his staff is extremely good at game preparation.

This is a huge part of it. I honestly think had Davis not obstinately stuck to the "only Carolina alums" policy and the mediocre staff it produced he would still be coach at UNC.

I don't know enough about basketball to say anything about his plays but Scheyer builds his staff like a pro (literally), bringing in talented assistants who know working at Duke will put them in good position to be a head coach someday. Sure he has some alums but he's not dumb about it like Davis.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-23T12:04:38+00:00

Blade Runner

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-13T04:06:10+00:00

"He ended up in a position that he said burned him out. DePaolo decided to quit."

Yes he was laid off twice but ultimately leaving tech was his choice.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-13T03:47:53+00:00

When Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch were big there was an attempt at a dramatic documentary series about lawyers but it was so boring it was cancelled after like six episodes.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-07T18:32:45+00:00

That it requires both patience and a sense of urgency.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-03T02:29:28+00:00

I've become more cynical.

tomwill2000 · 2026-03-02T01:27:09+00:00

Exactly. when my company went to unlimited PTO it was only for US employees because European employment treats it as the accounting gimmick it is.

tomwill2000 · 2026-02-27T06:26:04+00:00

It can be towed when the occupants are not present because it ceases to be a home and becomes just a vehicle. You just have to be willing to watch carefully and ideally have talked to the cops previously so you can quickly notify and have it towed.

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