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6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#181

Post by randomdata »

dgb23 wrote: post #130
randomdata wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that suggest that the working-class is collapsing rather than the-middle class?

Most of the so called middle class are just well paid members of the working class. Small business owners and others who get much of their income via ownership rather than wages/salaries are often indirectly but strongly dependent on the salaries of the working class to stay competitive. So really most people are in the same boat when it comes to these things. It just manifests differently.

You are right that those who start off being well paid in the working-class tend to buy capital with the differential in pay, and thus move into the middle-class upon doing so. But, as such, still realize the gains on the capital side, so the decline on the wage side is not the whole picture for them.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#182

Post by roenxi »

mdhb wrote: post #176
roenxi wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about work. There are people who enjoy their work, but they are rather rare. Work is a "huge and meaningful chunk" of our lives, but frankly it'd be a better world if it wasn't.

You sure seemed to be talking about your spare time a moment ago.

The part where I said "Free to do whatever you like. If you want to sit around playing musical instruments in your spare time nothing is stopping you."? I was clarifying that I wasn't talking about leisure time.

And how do you think that attitude is limiting anyone? It seems fairly open to me.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#183

Post by wnc3141 »

randomdata wrote: post #48
wnc3141 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A great many of our problems (in much of the developed world to varying extent) stem from just this. Below: a chart of "share of gross national income from wages", read this as "Labor Share of Income." https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W270RE1A156NBEA

Doesn't that suggest that the working-class is collapsing rather than the-middle class?

I don't think necessarily, it just describes of the national productivity, how much of that produce is allocated toward labor rather than capital. (wealth generated through assets vs. wages)

The middle class owning more assets than working class sure is better off. But both derive most of their income through wages rather than assets.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#184

Post by Arainach »

williamtrask wrote: post #40
Arainach wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belief in a higher power is not a substitute for finding goodness in what you do. I agree - with rose tinted glasses, there was a period that lasted all the way to shortly after the release of the iPhone where it was reasonable to be (and much of society was) excited about the possibilities of technology. Those times are dead. Financial engineering and the monetization of every piece of user data, ever flat surface,…

> Belief in a higher power is not a substitute for finding goodness in what you do. But it can be, namely because it’s one path to finding motivation to do good. Not saying it ends up there for everyone, but it certainly can be for some.

Belief in a higher power won't make you feel better about lying to boost stock prices. If your higher or is supportive of lying without feeling bad, find a new one.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#185

Post by [deleted] »

wnc3141 wrote: post #183
randomdata wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that suggest that the working-class is collapsing rather than the-middle class?

I don't think necessarily, it just describes of the national productivity, how much of that produce is allocated toward labor rather than capital. (wealth generated through assets vs. wages) The middle class owning more assets than working class sure is better off. But both derive most of their income through wages rather than assets.

[deleted]

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#186

Post by cm11 »

meheleventyone wrote: post #129
cm11 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My takeaway was that it said more about the author (and those preaching it) than about AI. 1. The obvious thing is that technology (and various things we’ve called AI over time) actually has given laundry robots and dish washing robots. Her follow up tweet said of course she knows and that she's joking, but the joke/criticism relies on those things not existing. I kinda think she just forgot, as we all do, as we take…

The way to read it is “I want AI to automate the drudgery of life, not remove the joy from it”. The specifics are inserted because it makes it more pithy and relatable.

That was the gist I got too, but the relatable-ness felt undermined by the pithiness and the specifics. It resonated though, which is why I felt it said something about where people are at.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#187

Post by [deleted] »

wnc3141 wrote: post #183
randomdata wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that suggest that the working-class is collapsing rather than the-middle class?

I don't think necessarily, it just describes of the national productivity, how much of that produce is allocated toward labor rather than capital. (wealth generated through assets vs. wages) The middle class owning more assets than working class sure is better off. But both derive most of their income through wages rather than assets.

[deleted]

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#188

Post by mostlysimilar »

vinyl7 wrote: post #174
fragmede wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t be a techno-optimist anymore. You can't? Just yesterday, Waymo opened their self-driving taxi service to the general public in San Francisco. We now have self driving cars. You draw a stick figure and the computer draws the rest of the fucking owl. I have an AI that I talk to on my phone and I tell it about my life's bullshit and it guides me through it. It helps me with my writing and my programming. Rob…

That just means that most humans are now obsolete and the government and corporations have no need to keep us around

Corporations should be the focus of your ire, not government. To the extent that government is making your life worse it's because of capture by the corporations / ultra wealthy. Taking back control of government is the only tool we have against them.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#189

Post by benzible »

bzzzt wrote: post #126
flohofwoe wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then Was there? I remember the 90s as an intermittent software dark age we had to crawl out for the next decade until things started to improve around 2010. The unbearable OOP hype, turds like CORBA and Itanium, UML, "Enterprise scale" software development with Java, the first big VR hype cycle, the worst of the desktop operating systems won (Windows), and I…

And yet here we are with energy wasting crypto scams, AI 'innovation' which is just an app sending a line of text to ChatGPT, a simple video call needing 2Gb of memory (Teams), lots of developers bundling functionality they want instead of what their users want and don't get me started about all the JavaScript ecosystems. It seems to take more time than ever just to get a nice app off the ground since we keep reinven…

The author of the post is "@daojoan.eth"... personally, not who I would choose to lead the charge against "tech BS".

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#190

Post by CleaveIt2Beaver »

herewulf wrote: post #69
cen4 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well people have discovered you can make cash irrespective of the quality of tech you pump out. Two routes have been discovered and milked to high heaven - Financial engineering - this is where if you accumulate more capital and faster than the next guy you win. Add to that globalization ie arbitrage on interest rates/tax rates/forex/labor cost/rent/real estate/govt regulation in generating capital. Demand engineerin…

I don't disagree but I think it's sad to see the word "engineering" used in this context. What you describe I would call highly optimized bullshit artistry. Maybe the watering down of the term started with "social engineering". Engineers build things that do things and/or are built to last.

But then you're just changing who gets disparaged from a technical expert to an emotional one. If you're offended by the term engineering, may I suggest scheming? I think that would better convey the nefarious aspect of the term.
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