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Cash Cows

ageofinvention.xyz

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Re: Cash Cows

#11

Post by eszed »

ITB wrote: post #4
Avicebron wrote: post #3

> "caught the improving mentality, or attitude — the one thing all inventors, both then and now, have in common — which had him viewing everything around him in terms of its capacity for betterment." As much as I resonate with this sentiment personally, I've recently been reading the works of Byung-Chul Han, specifically "The Burnout Society", which has made me really think about how this mentality can be pretty insi…

I find this article incredibly inspiring, and my interpretation is that the main character was fulfilled by these accomplishments. The person interpreting the journal uses the word “obsessed”, not as a direct observation, but to put it in contemporary terms. But we have no evidence this person was burnt out. My observation is that many people in HN seem burnt out, and are resorting to pointing out reasons, not just f…

I think burn out has a lot to do with incentives. When I'm working on a project in which I have a direct interest (intrinsic or financial), or from which I derive a direct benefit (personal, financial, or even intangible), I can work long, long hours without burning out. I'll get tired, and sometimes have to take a break to re-kindle my enthusiasm, but that feels different than burn out.

When, by contrast, I'm working (perhaps against my recommendation) on something (perhaps useless) assigned to me (perhaps sub-optimally) for the (perhaps hypothetical) benefit of (perhaps faceless) others, where my motivation is entirely negative - do this, or maybe lose my job - well... Then I feel burnt out before I even start.

Re: Cash Cows

#12

Post by constantly »

haltist wrote: post #10
ta988 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution for microplastics and most polutants is not a sigle technology. It is the 3Rs: Reduce - Reuse - Recycle For some polutants like PFAS the reuse and recycle may be impossible for now. We could at best React them or Restrain them. And yes technology CAN play a role in solving some aspects but I still believe that the first step is really to reduce. Taking again the problem of PFAS they are the typical "solu…

You are probably unfamiliar with my account. I am working on an absurdist art project based on capitalism and techno-optimism but I appreciate your comment. Sarcasm and irony are hard to detect with just text.

It’s absurd to think that any given person should be familiar with any other persons account or mannerisms/schtick on this website. Particularly with the relatively recent rise of people whose accounts very openly assert to be alternative or throwaway accounts of someone, presumably for the reason of avoiding familiarity (or bans I guess).

Re: Cash Cows

#13

Post by andrewmutz »

ITB wrote: post #4
Avicebron wrote: post #3

> "caught the improving mentality, or attitude — the one thing all inventors, both then and now, have in common — which had him viewing everything around him in terms of its capacity for betterment." As much as I resonate with this sentiment personally, I've recently been reading the works of Byung-Chul Han, specifically "The Burnout Society", which has made me really think about how this mentality can be pretty insi…

I find this article incredibly inspiring, and my interpretation is that the main character was fulfilled by these accomplishments. The person interpreting the journal uses the word “obsessed”, not as a direct observation, but to put it in contemporary terms. But we have no evidence this person was burnt out. My observation is that many people in HN seem burnt out, and are resorting to pointing out reasons, not just f…

> My observation is that many people in HN seem burnt out, and are resorting to pointing out reasons, not just for their own burn out, but for that of society’s as a whole.

Not just HN. There is a significant correlation between social media use and job burnout

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7710858/

Re: Cash Cows

#14

Post by haltist »

constantly wrote: post #12
haltist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are probably unfamiliar with my account. I am working on an absurdist art project based on capitalism and techno-optimism but I appreciate your comment. Sarcasm and irony are hard to detect with just text.

It’s absurd to think that any given person should be familiar with any other persons account or mannerisms/schtick on this website. Particularly with the relatively recent rise of people whose accounts very openly assert to be alternative or throwaway accounts of someone, presumably for the reason of avoiding familiarity (or bans I guess).

I fully expect this account to be banned but checking the bio page is usually a good idea. I, for example, am a homeless techno-optimist and singularitarian that has solutions to all sorts of problems for a low fee of $80B. My solutions involve AI so that's why they're so expensive. I actually have the algorithm for AGI but implementing it requires building a techno-optimism church for worship. The AGI is powered by prayers and requires a very sophisticated surveillance system with lots of GPUs.

Re: Cash Cows

#15

Post by mritchie712 »

hristov wrote: post #6

Despite the optimistic tone this is rather depressing reading. This is the beginning of the industrial farming trend that has made all meat products rather tasteless.

I kept thinking each "improvements" is likely making the animal miserable. e.g. making the cow extremely top heavy couldn't have been comfortable.

Re: Cash Cows

#16

Post by sanderjd »

eszed wrote: post #11
ITB wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this article incredibly inspiring, and my interpretation is that the main character was fulfilled by these accomplishments. The person interpreting the journal uses the word “obsessed”, not as a direct observation, but to put it in contemporary terms. But we have no evidence this person was burnt out. My observation is that many people in HN seem burnt out, and are resorting to pointing out reasons, not just f…

I think burn out has a lot to do with incentives. When I'm working on a project in which I have a direct interest (intrinsic or financial), or from which I derive a direct benefit (personal, financial, or even intangible), I can work long, long hours without burning out. I'll get tired, and sometimes have to take a break to re-kindle my enthusiasm, but that feels different than burn out. When, by contrast, I'm workin…

Yep, self-determination is a really really big deal.

But figuring out how to incentivize people to self-determine their way into doing 100% of the things an organization needs to do is a real trick! Some work that still needs to be done just isn't great.

The typical approach is to use a combination of money and "skin in the game" (ownership) to cover those cases. And I think that's essentially the right approach, but this simply won't work for everyone.

And the thing is that it's super tough to separate out less fulfilling work into a distinct job role that can be more highly compensated and done by people who find that more motivating.

I think the best I've seen it work is for managers, who people already expect to be more financially compensated, to fill in these kinds of cracks. If there's something their team needs to do that just isn't getting done without them directing one of their reports to do it, can they do it themselves instead? (And maybe while they're doing it, they can be thinking about whether there is a way someone could build a tool to make it trivial to do the next time it comes up, and then they can probably get their team more excited about building that tool.)

Re: Cash Cows

#17

Post by crazygringo »

hristov wrote: post #6

Despite the optimistic tone this is rather depressing reading. This is the beginning of the industrial farming trend that has made all meat products rather tasteless.

No, the reason many meat products are "rather tasteless" is due to the low-fat movement of the 1970's, when animals started being bred for more muscle and less fat -- particularly chickens (absurdly large chicken breasts) and pigs (pork chops used to be fatty and marbled like a ribeye, now they're dry and flavorless).

You can still get a fantastically flavorful pork chop anywhere in Japan, for example, where they didn't adopt the low-fat pig breeds. Chicken is far juicier as well. It's still just as industrialized, though.

Meat in the wild is generally gamier, which isn't what most people usually mean when they say more flavorful -- gamy flavors can be off-puttingly strong to a lot of people. I personally love those flavors occasionally, but not as an everyday thing. (Sometimes the "flavor" doesn't leave your breath/body for hours/days, it's so strong.)

Re: Cash Cows

#18

Post by vkou »

ITB wrote: post #4
Avicebron wrote: post #3

> "caught the improving mentality, or attitude — the one thing all inventors, both then and now, have in common — which had him viewing everything around him in terms of its capacity for betterment." As much as I resonate with this sentiment personally, I've recently been reading the works of Byung-Chul Han, specifically "The Burnout Society", which has made me really think about how this mentality can be pretty insi…

I find this article incredibly inspiring, and my interpretation is that the main character was fulfilled by these accomplishments. The person interpreting the journal uses the word “obsessed”, not as a direct observation, but to put it in contemporary terms. But we have no evidence this person was burnt out. My observation is that many people in HN seem burnt out, and are resorting to pointing out reasons, not just f…

Capitalism 'just' creates strong incentives for participation in zero-sum, or negative-sum games, without any in-system ability to check it. It 'just' creates strong incentives and imperatives for consolidation of wealth and power. It 'just' trends towards winners winning more.

Under it, a dollar is a dollar, regardless of whether earning it improved the world, left it about the same, or made it worse. Unless you make your dollars have colour[1], it falls into the traps described above.

Fortunately, all capitalist societies, to some extent, assign their dollars colour, through the process called 'regulation'. Unfortunately, the process through which it is produced is called politics, for which we have no good solutions for, and a slew of bad ones.

[1] https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23

Re: Cash Cows

#19

Post by golergka »

hristov wrote: post #6

Despite the optimistic tone this is rather depressing reading. This is the beginning of the industrial farming trend that has made all meat products rather tasteless.

Industrial farming is how humanity managed to avoid its constant companion — hunger. I would rather eat tasteless meat everyday than use bodies of my diseased children to feed surviving ones.

Re: Cash Cows

#20

Post by AlbertCory »

crazygringo wrote: post #17
hristov wrote: post #6

Despite the optimistic tone this is rather depressing reading. This is the beginning of the industrial farming trend that has made all meat products rather tasteless.

No, the reason many meat products are "rather tasteless" is due to the low-fat movement of the 1970's, when animals started being bred for more muscle and less fat -- particularly chickens (absurdly large chicken breasts) and pigs (pork chops used to be fatty and marbled like a ribeye, now they're dry and flavorless). You can still get a fantastically flavorful pork chop anywhere in Japan, for example, where they did…

Interesting, thanks. Speaking of "gamy": I found the halal market near me actually sells mutton, in sandwiches, kebabs, etc. I never saw it in the meat case so I didn't think they had it. Gotta try that.
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