I respect Moxie a lot and it greatly diminishes my opinion of him that he agreed to be part of this. I hope he got paid a lot for this, and that he’s plowing the money back into something worthwhile.
[dead]
What the fuck happened to nerds
101–110 of 118 posts
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read the article, but the attributes which OP views as negative are just the general traits of hypercompetitive people. The only way to win is by hook or by crook - that is what you learn in hypercompetitive environments. Edit: Can't reply > Yours is the kind of attitude that has ruined the industry If you can't compete you will be made redundant. Honestly, in some aspects that is what I appreciate about the Chines…
Yours is the kind of attitude that has ruined the industry. Congrats.
The industry is doing better than ever. We have commercial space flight and AI.
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#103It's always a good read when someone discusses what has gone wrong with the tech industry, and the author's comments about the past match with my recollections.
What happened to tech is straightforward, though: the iOS App Store in 2008. The subsequent 'gold rush' was a pivotal moment where Wall Street types (including college students) went into tech. There actually was a great article (Wired? WSJ?) I read about the phenomenon from circa 2010, as the shift was underway, but I've never been able to relocate it since.
It's not 'what happened to nerds' so much as 'what happened to tech that subordinated the nerd to the finance people' and the answer is 'the easy money'
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where the self-identifier of "nerd" as "I don't care that I don't know how to make people like me" is given precedence over "I care more about esoteric knowledge than about how to make people like me"
> Where the self-identifier of "nerd" as "I don't care that I don't know how to make people like me" is given precedence over "I care more about esoteric knowledge than about how to make people like me" I no longer really give a rat's ass whether people like me anymore, because a lifetime of being bullied over nothing more than my choice of hobby/career has taught me that I'm just gonna be widely hated for simply enj…
As long as the "learning" part is more pleasure than the sensation of not caring about other human beings, I think you're solid, man.
The problem with the nerd-kings-tycoons of today, is that the idea of being feudal lords makes them think about electronic slave collars, rather than about good governance, complex systems, or even just being a badass king. The apartness becomes the goal, rather than being merely a by-product of academic focus living through a regressing world that apparently wants to be lit only by fire.
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#105[dead]
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#106What happened was the set of available moves and rewards has incrementally changed. What has not changed is that nerds are humans, and humans are terrible at resisting increases in status, power, wealth, etc. If the glorified nerds of the past had been offered the same roads to status and power, they would have taken them. This reminds me of the way people think of the olden days when stuff was made of real wood and…
'Real techies don’t worry about forced eugenics. I learned this from a real techie in the cafeteria of a software company. The project team is having lunch and discussing how long it would take to wipe out a disease inherited recessively on the X chromosome. First come calculations of inheritance probabilities. Given a population of a given size, one of the engineers arrives at a wipe-out date. Immediately another suggests that the date could be moved forward by various manipulations of the inheritance patterns. For example, he says, there could be an education campaign. The six team members then fall over one another with further suggestions. They start with rewards to discourage carriers from breeding. Immediately they move to fines for those who reproduce the disease. Then they go for what they call “more effective” measures: Jail for breeding. Induced abortion. Forced sterilization. Now they’re hot. The calculations are flying. Years and years fall from the final doom-date of the disease. Finally, they get to the ultimate solution. “It’s straightforward,” someone says. “Just kill every carrier.” Everyone responds to this last suggestion with great enthusiasm. One generation and—bang—the disease is gone. Quietly, I say, “You know, that’s what the Nazis did.” They all look at me in disgust. It’s the look boys give a girl who has interrupted a burping contest. One says, “This is something my wife would say.” When he says “wife,” there is no love, warmth, or goodness in it. In this engineer’s mouth, “wife” means wet diapers and dirty dishes. It means someone angry with you for losing track of time and missing dinner. Someone sentimental. In his mind (for the moment), “wife” signifies all programming-party-pooping, illogical things in the universe. Still, I persist. “It started as just an idea for the Nazis, too, you know.” The engineer makes a reply that sounds like a retch. “This is how I know you’re not a real techie,” he says.'
Ellen Ullman, Life in Code
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#107Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are currently multiple trivial ways for a layman to block all YouTube ads.
Clearly the original comment is from a mercenary nerd who has not heard of DNS blocking of ads.
If we go this route, they are just going to embed the ads into the video itself. Clearly the solution is to create an alternative to Youtube. This war is not going to bode well to either side.
Re: What the fuck happened to nerds
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clearly the original comment is from a mercenary nerd who has not heard of DNS blocking of ads.
If we go this route, they are just going to embed the ads into the video itself. Clearly the solution is to create an alternative to Youtube. This war is not going to bode well to either side.
> just going to embed the ads into the video itself.
This has already happened, and a counter measure for this first iteration has already been developed - SponserBlock: https://smarttubenext.com/sponsorblock/
Next up, embedded floating ads over the watchable desired content.