I bought a fancy desktop PC recently so I’m not in the market. Otherwise I would consider it, but only if the desktop environment was usable for general computing. I believe it is, but I’m not sure if its version of Linux would be best for like software development.

Sometimes the word “Interesting” causes my brain to recall the character generation in Morrowind. The guy says something like ““Interesting. Now before I stamp these papers, make sure this information is correct.””

Conservatism, mostly.

Just remove all violent people first

Gop is like a clock where only the minute hand is stopped and the hour hand is flapping all over. Sometimes it’s kind of correct, but not for the bigger picture.

Communication aims at information exchange,

Metadata is data. Skipping small talk is exchanging less information.

I’ve had a couple cases where I didn’t change their mind on the spot, we at least reached a point of “I see what you’re saying and why you believe that” that was better than we started.

It’s just a lot of work, and is doomed if the other person isn’t present in good faith. But it’s nice when it happens. It helps to ask sincere questions, and try to clear up any assumptions you might not share.

I feel like there are a number of ways to close the “oh I don’t have any income. I just get a loan against my assets from the bank. That’s not income! You can’t tax that!” process that rich people use to have money without tax obligations.

I think a lot about the guy I worked with that said he was going to Palantir. We were like “but what if they have you doing awful things?” He was like, big shrug. He was always friendly to people in the office, but I guess that’s as far as it went.

They expect us to be mad about people getting vital health care?

Have you talked to a lot of tech workers? I feel like there’s a set of left wing ones, a larger set of libertarian types, and an even larger set of people who are shockingly ignorant of politics and history.

And the ultra rich would deserve to lose everything

A bag of chips at one of the local groceries is $7, and it’s smaller than it used to be.

Everything is more expensive and smaller.

If the private market can’t do it at a profit without cutting corners or stiffing labor, then don’t.

Probably get as many conservatives out of power as possible. Once they’re gone we can work on climate change, better electoral systems, removing the evils of capitalism, and so on.

One time in a game of DND the players were exploring a strange cave system, and found a strange thick goo collecting in a pool. Players being players, one of them decided to eat some.

It was, in my notes, some sort of celestial honey made by these extra planar insects that were causing some of the region’s problems. It was supposed to taste amazing, but with some drawbacks. I started to blank when trying to describe how good it was, and the phrase that came out was “it’s like… It’s like … it’s like seven pizzas!”

The player eating it, his eyes lit up and was like “AMAZING”

The other players were like “wat”

I think that adequately captured how delicious it is but also maybe you shouldn’t be eating it.

everybody immediately dismissed her self-defense position, and she was sentenced to 25 years in prison, where she will likely die.

This is surprising.

I could accept it matters more than 0, but it is pretty far down the list of issues given the state of the world.

I occasionally become insufferable and recommend people play other games, but people don’t really care. It’s like getting people off twitter.

The whole “it’s too expensive” thing is kind of nonsense. There are billionaires. We would get something for the money. It’s not like Zohran is proposing building a 500 solid gold statue of himself, or a ballroom that would only be used by a handful of people. Healthcare, buses, grocery stores, those all actually help people and will lead to more good stuff later.

People who stay healthy later go out to concerts and spend money, or whatever.

This is broadly true, but given the low level of rules mastery I’ve seen I say “shared understanding of the rules” is a generous description.

Still, like a national fast food chain sometimes you just want something familiar even if it’s not as good as other options. You know it’s not likely to be worse than your expectations

I pay in cash for a handful of things. Pizza from the corner shop. Tips for the bartenders at my local bars. Sometimes food from the smaller groceries.