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Nobody cares

grantslatton.com

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Re: Nobody cares

#691

There must be a name for this bias. "Everyone else's stuff sucks but the reason my stuff sucks is because someone is keeping me from doing good work" Other people are always the problem. It's like the anecdote that most people think they are better than average drivers. "L.A. has bad drivers, but not me. The quality of everyone's output is down, but not mine." Ask an engineer why their code is bad and they blame past…

Illusory superiority - "a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their abilities compared to others"

We have really developed an entire culture in the US around illusory superiority. It seems like the average person in 2025 thinks they are above average in basically everything.

I think this is a big reason why sports betting has taken off the way it has in the US. Every sports fan basically thinks they are way above average in their understanding of sports.

Re: Nobody cares

#692
post #425

Its ironic, because this dude doesn't seem to care enough to even the slightest bit of research to understand why any of these problems he highlights are the way they are, and lazily attributes everything to OTHER people not caring. LEDs last longer, are more energy efficient, and also reduce light pollution because they are more directional[1]. Took me 30 seconds to google. There are enormous design standards for de…

LEDs last longer, but cities took the savings to add even more blue light, so the lifetime doesn’t matter.

The light pollution has absolutely increased because of the amount of LEDs that have been installed. This is well documented.

Also, the sodium line spectrum is easy to filter out for astronomy, broad spectrum blue LEDs add light pollution there.

Re: Nobody cares

#693
post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF? What about pedestrians? Are they walking in full darkness? This seems to be totally oriented to cars. I find American cities incredibly dark by night. Walking around feels too dark and unpleasant.

> WTF? What about pedestrians? Are they walking in full darkness? During a normal night, you get used to the darkness surprisingly fast, and if there even a slight sliver of moonlight, your eyes will within seconds adjust and let you see things again without trouble. At least that's my experience growing up in the dark countryside in Sweden and seemingly retaining this as an adult, YMMV.

> During a normal night, you get used to the darkness surprisingly fast,

Then a car drives past and your sight instantly adjusts to that, but takes several minutes to adjust back. Then you're stuck in subjective total darkness for a while.

Or, if you're in an area with mixed lighting (e.g. you walk past a house that incidentally lights part of the street) then your eyes can never adjust and you have to walk through pools of total darkness. I know this experience from rare situations where a few streetlights go out in a row, and it's not as easy as you just portrayed it.

> At least that's my experience growing up in the dark countryside in Sweden

That's fair enough IMO. I don't think it's feasible or helpful to plaster every centimetre of every rural road in street lighting. But the comment we're replying to suggested removing them in cities "outside of ... active center areas". That's a different matter.

Re: Nobody cares

#694
> I've met a few people that work for municipal governments. Not politicians, just career bureaucrats deep in the system. I ask them what their favorite part of the job is. They all say "stability" or "job security" as their #1. It takes 18 months to get the city to permit your shed? They. Do. Not. Care.

This is dumb. Of course people enjoy job stability. It's irrational to draw a line from "I value being able to feed my family" to "I do not care about actually doing my job".

And beyond that, does the author actually know why it takes 18 months to get a permit? Does it actually take that long? Or is he doing a stand-up bit, and that's just a line that's designed to elicit the 2 seconds of laughter from the audience as a punchline?

> But I've come to accept that I just don't have the disposition to fight all the time. I'm not a fighter. I care a lot and I just want to live in a place where other people care.

So the author cares, but is sufficiently burned out that he's done caring. I wonder what he'd answer when he finds his magical Japan-like community - presumably one with stability - and is asked what his favorite part of living there is.

Re: Nobody cares

#695
post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s possible to install warm colored LEDs with very little blue light output though. You get all those benefits without giving up the more-suitable-for-night sodium light spectral benefits.

In the netherlands I have seen green street lights with motion sensors. Only on smaller streets and pedestrian paths, though.

That sounds cool.

Re: Nobody cares

#696
post #674
post #425

Its ironic, because this dude doesn't seem to care enough to even the slightest bit of research to understand why any of these problems he highlights are the way they are, and lazily attributes everything to OTHER people not caring. LEDs last longer, are more energy efficient, and also reduce light pollution because they are more directional[1]. Took me 30 seconds to google. There are enormous design standards for de…

I would even argue that the current design of the bike line is better than the one suggested by the author. It forces the biker to slow down and reduces the collision risks with others in the line. It is selfish to think only about the biker coming from the hill. The biker that thinks it is okay to drive 20mph in that situation.

You can accomplish both with the right design.

Re: Nobody cares

#697
post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV as you get older and lose that superpower.

What range/years are you specifically referring to? It seemingly is as good as ever, and I'm 32 now. I'm guessing that would start being around 40s, when the general eye-sight starts to decline?

Yep, right around your mid-40’s in my experience. Friends have said it started the day they woke up on their 40th birthday.

Re: Nobody cares

#698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

anedcote but i've been using leds for 8 years+ now and there's big variance in such behavior between manufacturers.

Three led lights in my flat went within 3 months after I moved in. But some time ago I had an incandescent bulb that lived for years. With bulb it depends on how/how often you power cycle. A good way to extend its life is to not power cycle it and to underpower it. Dimming a bulb also saves electricity and easier on the eyes. With LED it is up to manufacturer. People say LEDs are cheaper but those leds are exactly th…

We essentially have a lifetime supply of LEDs because we label each one with the date and refund from Amazon when they don’t last the full warranty, which none of them do.

People assumed that LEDs would last forever because the crystals essentially do, but the encasement and all of the heat issues you have to deal with for the electronics makes that pointless.

Re: Nobody cares

#700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everybody followed their hearts deepest passions, we’d all be starving.

I do see your point. But that is why what the article describes is an inevitable problem. Edit: I also do think that if I didn't do my job, nobody would be starving, and I am greatly overcompensated for it. Doctors, nurses, teachers, farmers... all of those jobs that are wildly more important for society to function are way less paid than my job fixing bugs in a corporate website, which is a fundamental flaw in the s…

But your work may contribute to a product that helps a doctor, nurse or teacher do their job.

Even if it does not directly do that, maybe your fellow workers use the income they get from the company existence to raise their kid who becomes a doctor, nurse, etc.

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