Can you share the theme you are using ? I want to check if it can be deployed on github pages. Thanks.
Why I still blog after 15 years
211–220 of 230 posts
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When you compare modern first world to 60 years ago, people's lives have significantly improved. I disagree that most people's lives have "significantly improved" compared with the 1960s. We have more things, but I don't think that our lives are that much better, or even better at all. In the 1950s and 60s most families could get by with a one income household -- try that today. Even medically - on the one hand our…
>I disagree that most people's lives have "significantly improved" compared with the 1960s. Obviously, you're only looking inside the US. People's lives in the US haven't improved by that much because the US has been squandering its advantages for the last several decades. Outside the US, especially in developing nations, people's lives are far, far better than their parents' and grandparents'. >In the 1950s and 60s…
Yes, all fair points. I was of course referring to the US.
But comparing Europe today with the 60s isn't a fair comparison considering the entire continent was devastated -- physically and economically -- during WW2 and it was a long road to rebuilding. Same with Japan.
> especially in developing nations
That much I agree with, but the original post was talking about developed countries (US/Europe/Japan primarily)
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think your comment kinda provides the reason why the term “content” is used; there are so many verticals out there that its just easiest to say “I’m a content creator.” From there, if the audience remains captive, you can explain that you make videos about sewing sweaters with embedded controllers for cats. Also, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty conflicted on the term. I just like to believe people are using it in go…
You are not a gadget. Your life is not a vertical.
Sometimes I wish I was a gadget, then my life would be soo much easier.
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
The promise of capitalism is to improve people's circumstances and thus make them happy. The promise of buddhism is to make people happy regardless of circumstances.
And the promise of communism is to make everyone equally miserable. I was born in USSR and still remember 5-hour queues for rotting cabbage, thanks.
The promise of communism is that the worker owns the means of production, the worker, not the goverment. If the goverment owns your means of production, it's just a corpo disguissed as a country.
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#215With all the AI generated content, we will be having AI models using AI generated text on the internet. Blogs from people who are hopefully not using AI to generate text might be the only valid source of truth in a near future
I more worry about AI hoovering up my hard work and that makes me think about the honesty of my beliefs about why I write. In my hobby domain, authors were traditionally very protective of obscure sources, it was all about getting the book published, becoming recognized authority. There would be a sense of pride in having an expensive limited-run book. They were/are gate-keepers extraordinaire. I kind of hate that ho…
> I more worry about AI hoovering up my hard work... I still appreciate some recognition and am not writing to feed a machine.
I don't get this focus on so-called AI. Google and other bot farms have been hoovering up hard work wholesale for decades, even intercepting clicks and credit via things like AMP
If people give up writing, then only bots will be writers. Damn the technology and keep posting
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is a common misconception of the comparison between "capitalism" and other forms of economic distribution. It's not capitalism that equates everything to dollars, it is how the universe works. This was the beauty of Karl Marx's thinking. He postulated that the best way to measure value is in the amount of human labor that goes into the output. However, once you have a medium to equate the value of a new…
> This was the beauty of Karl Marx's thinking. He postulated that the best way to measure value is in the amount of human labor that goes into the output. This is indeed the most beautiful insight of Karl Marx that I ever read. This predicts perfectly why all socialist/communist economies collapse. They value inefficiency. The more work is needed to build a product, the more valuable it is --- according to Marx. That…
You're assuming socialist/communist economies must, for some reason, be run exactly the same as capitalist economies. Of course if you're trying to mix both it will collapse.
The point of Marx isn't that we should create markets where the value is decided by the amount of labor. The point of Marx is that if Labor creates value, then Labor should be in charge. The problem being that Labor is hard, so the end goal cannot be to maximize Labor (or value), contrary to your implied way of thinking were the most value must be created.
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. It’s like fast food, but for your brain.
Fast food should not be consumed.
Fast food isn’t inherently bad.
What most consumers want doesn’t align with what is healthy to eat. You could get water and a decent salad from chick-fil-a, but when nobody buys the health options they eventually get taken off the menu.
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#218If your blog provider supports it, adding a “Open a Random Post” button on your blog makes the experience much more fulfilling in the long term, as you (and others) can revisit different posts from different eras. Websites don’t have physical form that readers can navigate, so we can take advantage of that by adding serendipity manually.
First time I heard someone asking for that. But I do indeed have that for my own blog and love it: https://www.splitbrain.org/ And if you're into random blog post, be sure to check out my project https://indieblog.page/
I got one too: https://edstrom.dev
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think both of these things are true: * It's more accessible to be an influencer today than a pop star 20 years ago * Becoming an influencer is a lot like being a lottery winner. Bands on the radio had massive audiences. A decent Youtuber is getting 10k views on their video, which is a much smaller piece of the pie than any band that aired on the radio in the early 2000s. But for every Youtuber with 10k views there'…
Conversely, there's far, far more "decent Youtubers" with 10k views now than there were bands on the radio 30 years ago. Only a very lucky few bands ever got airtime like that. 10k-view Youtubers are common.
Indeed and that's what I think is motivating so many people to become "content creators". And I don't know if that's a bad thing. If you're getting 10k views you have a comfy community around you and you're at the least making side income money. That's plenty to complement a not very demanding day job. Being a member of these comfy communities is fun, it's like being in a much smaller version of HN.
Re: Why I still blog after 15 years
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This was the beauty of Karl Marx's thinking. He postulated that the best way to measure value is in the amount of human labor that goes into the output. This is indeed the most beautiful insight of Karl Marx that I ever read. This predicts perfectly why all socialist/communist economies collapse. They value inefficiency. The more work is needed to build a product, the more valuable it is --- according to Marx. That…
You're assuming socialist/communist economies must, for some reason, be run exactly the same as capitalist economies. Of course if you're trying to mix both it will collapse. The point of Marx isn't that we should create markets where the value is decided by the amount of labor. The point of Marx is that if Labor creates value, then Labor should be in charge. The problem being that Labor is hard, so the end goal cann…
If maximizing value is not the goal, then why should Marxism redefine value in a counter-intuitive way?
Btw, "Labor" cannot be in charge, outside the UK at least, because Labor is an abstract concept. In Marxist societies people are in charge that pretend to have the laborers best interest in their hearts. But as they "Some are more equal than others."