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Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

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Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#471
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It ended on (a) a yet more unbelievable note than everything up until that point, and (b) noting that lots of money changed hands that day, but that all the financial details are ancillary to the story, which is what was important. I don't know if I'd say "edgy", so much as a hacker — and there have been hackers in all generations, eg https://books.google.ch/books?id=V3ByEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA575&lpg=P...

He's showing off (or lying) that he's so rich they he can throw away $7500 as a joke because he's already committed to giving his daughter $10M+.

He didn't throw away $7500. He gave his daughter $7500, which left him out $7500 due to tax reasons.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#472
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When everyone comes from the same background and/or culture there is a shared understanding. Mix two different cultures and you have less shared background mix in 100 and you have little. It's not a race issue when this is experienced in Africa/Japan/Sweden/Finland. Calling new idea to you racist is racist. Most of the times the word racist is used it is used incorrectly and often in a racist way.

It's not a new idea to me. It's an idea I've encountered many times, often propping up arguments of various kinds against pluralistic societies - which is an argument implicit in the comment above. Those arguments lead directly to ideas around ethnonationalism and segregating societies by cultural background, which is a direct analog for ethnicity. There's a straight line between that argument - which again, almost a…

Interesting. So you don't actually argue that it's untrue.

You just argue that people shouldn't acknowledge it because doing so would lead to policies you think would be immoral.

I'm just not sure that this anti-truth stance is tenable or really worth it. What if we can acknowledge the facts and then... handle them in a non-evil way?

Or perhaps even use that knowledge to head off terrible outcomes that might otherwise happen? E.g. Lebanon-style ethnic civil wars.

I generally think that knowing the truth is useful and equips you to do good things. You just need a non-childish moral system to integrate it (too easy to feel moral if you just wish away the hard facts of the universe).

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#473

As a Canadian, somehow I didn't know the U.S still used $2 bills

You will almost never come across them unless someone goes out of their way to obtain them like Woz.

Outside of one rare occurrence where I received change in golden dollars and $2 bills, the only time I've seen $2 bills was when my father would buy them to tip with.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#474
post #140
post #3

> [The Secret Service agent] asked my for some picture ID. I have some fake photo ID's that a friend made for me years before, when we could make realistic photo ID's from our computers. Almost nobody else could do this because printers weren't good enough. But I had an expensive early generation dye sublimation printer and made some fake ID's for fun. I had one favorite fake ID that I'd used for almost every airplan…

> It probably amounted to a real crime. I'm not a lawyer, I have no idea how criminal law in the USA works, but why would this be a crime? He didn't fake a Department of Defence ID, he created an ID for a fictional Department of Defiance, it may look similar, it may appear as a "real" ID because it's not just a piece of paper, but it's about as real an ID as a gym membership card.

Additionally impeding an investigation by wasting time is a crime.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#475
post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you overall, but that "serve their country" line makes me cringe every time. The military's operations are vast and numerous, but also politically-motivated and, at times, disgustingly utilitarian. Obviously, no grunt should bear that burden, but I feel better served by the post office.

It is cringe worthy, but when you get orders for a multi-year posting far away from friends and family, it really does feel like servitude. It was -30 outside this morning. My car hates me for bringing it here.

Sorry to be blunt, but you chose that life. There are vast numbers of people serving their country economically (albeit perhaps indirectly) in uncomfortable circumstances and they all deserve respect.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#476
post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> normal people who are just trying to do their job… When it's the Secret Service, that's not "normal people", and their job is to figuratively or literally stomp anyone who doesn't sufficiently respect the immensely powerful people they insulate. Portraying them as regular Joe victim here is nonsense.

Counterpoint: Their job is to protect with the highest professionalism, indeed with their life, a democratically-elected person whose opinions and actions they may personally disagree with or even resent. It is a very honorable position if you ask me.

I don't agree with that framing, but we can agree that they are acting as a projection of the power and privilege of the person they are protecting, and that in acting on that person's behalf, they remove perceived but unlikely potential threats that the average citizen would have to simply tolerate. Even if they're just plain folks in private life, their profession is an expression of power and privilege.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#477
post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> normal people who are just trying to do their job… When it's the Secret Service, that's not "normal people", and their job is to figuratively or literally stomp anyone who doesn't sufficiently respect the immensely powerful people they insulate. Portraying them as regular Joe victim here is nonsense.

Counterpoint: Their job is to protect with the highest professionalism, indeed with their life, a democratically-elected person whose opinions and actions they may personally disagree with or even resent. It is a very honorable position if you ask me.

This just sounds like "thin blue line" rhetoric to me. They are still in a position of power, even over a millionaire.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#480
> I carry large sheets, folded in my pocket, and sometimes pull out scissors and cut a few off to pay for something in a store. It's just for comedy, as the $2 bills cost nearly $3 each when purchased on sheets.

> When he said that they don't make bills like this I asked "They don't?" as though I thought it was quite normal to have sheets. My answer was also so emotionless as to confuse him about me, and to make me seem even more evasive. This, again, I do for a comedic effect.

Is it just me, or does the man simply not understand what comedy is?

I enjoy a good joke as much as the next guy. That said, if you are routinely paying for items at the register by cutting bills off of a sheet with scissors and handing the police a fake ID when asked for identification, you’re basically asking for trouble. And you’re almost certainly going to waste a lot of people’s valuable time.

Generally speaking, I do really like Woz as a person. But in this particular instance, he does kind of come across as a big pain in the ass.

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