jon io retweeted
I had this realization recently as well.
Our meritocratic and delocalized society mixed with social media that makes it easy to stay connected with every friend you've ever had is psychologically brutal. The losers have to watch the winners live the good life, and the winners feel guilty seeing their friends struggle.
We also don't live in a village where everyone has their nose in everyone's business, so it's not easy to accurately compare everyone's virtues and vices to judge outcomes. Social media means we only see the outcomes, not the inputs.
Past generations lost touch with childhood friends, and the cruelty of the sorting hat we're all subjected to didn't feel as bad. They made new friends in their earned, adult socio-economic class.
jon io retweeted
Yes, but it probably wasn't really caused by the one child policy.
South Korea and Taiwan have equally devastating crises, despite never having such a policy.
That's probably more terrifying, because it might mean Confucian culture itself is incompatible with modernity.
jon io retweeted
The Chinese will look at you with a straight face and say “we think in centuries” as they plunge into a demographic crisis caused by one-child policy
When I was reporting for 60 Minutes in China, I was told by people I met that they regard America as inferior, specifically because they say the U.S. does not understand how to play the long game. They said with disdain: “We think in terms of centuries - Americans can only think in terms of minutes.”
jon io retweeted
Ryobi is becoming the Toyota of tools.
Hit sufficient economies of scale by getting a loyal low/mid end of the market, and eventually that scale improves the quality and reliability.
A billionaire can't buy a better iPhone, because it is the scale that imbues quality.
jon io retweeted
AGI: "What did you want from me? I sent you two boats and a helicopter." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabl…
jon io retweeted
I wonder how much a modern library that manages stacks without any ordering, but every book has an nfc chip with location tracked in a database, like Amazon wearhouses store goods, would reduce costs.
Hell, just contract book management to Amazon and turn the physical libraries into better third places with a small holds pickup with same day delivery.
Use the freed space to add some extra amenities like a cafe, more work tables, board game playing, maybe even some wellness offerings, and you'd probably drastically increase utilization.
jon io retweeted
A theoretical North American union, or even a full North/South Americas Union, similar to the EU is fundamentally impossible because of how dominant the US is on every metric.
Canada and Mexico have a combined GDP of $4 trillion, less than California alone and 15% the US total $27 trillion. All of Latin America has a combined GDP of $7 trillion.
Any semblance that the US as a unit can be a co-equal partner and answerable to even a union of every other American country combined, is delusion. If we tried this, respect for other country's wishes or objections would exist if and only if the US wanted to listen.
Conversely, no country in the EU has even a simple majority of power. Every one of them is subject to being overruled if a sufficient coalition of other states object.
The only way such a union of equal partners could work in practice is a) absorption into the US as new states, or b) elimination of the the US as a union, freeing states to operate as independent, sovereign entities.
jon io retweeted
Canada's oil and gas pipelines almost exclusively go through the US. Even Ontario and Quebec need to re-import oil and gas from the US.
If there really was a huge economic conflict, controlling Canadian exports would be trivial. In the extreme case, there's literally 2 major naval choke points that would cut off almost all of their remaining exports and imports.
Europe already buys from Norway and the Arab states, but they're increasingly competing with China's growing demand.
Germany as it is now is strategically stuck between either the US or Russia. Pick your poison.
Or maybe turn your nuclear back on.
jon io retweeted
Trump really isn't dumb to want this, even if his push is offensive.
This country would be the most powerful, resource self sufficient, strategically secure place to ever exist in the history of humankind.
And it already mostly speaks the same language and culture.
The world is in a constant state of holding its breath hoping the core Anglosphere doesn't unionize and federalize.
This would be an unassailable global power of unprecedented linguistic and cultural unity over a truly gargantuan landmass that is still largely underpopulated. No other superpower has ever had this potential, lurking dominance.
The US being so asymmetrically dominant is probably the main reason it doesn't happen, because the only realistic path is for commonwealth states to finally join us Yanks in saying No Kings and join the American Union with our democratically elected head of state.
CANZUK combined has only 25% the GDP and 40% the population of the US. That would be the 3rd most powerful state globally, but still in the same league as Germany alone and a far cry from the American and Chinese superpowers.
Part of me hopes this doesn't happen. It's hard to imagine how damaging the psychological effect would be on the rest of the world, or maybe that would serve as a strong impetus for the rest of the world to figure out how to unite.
jon io retweeted
California alone has about the same population and 2x the GDP as all of Canada.
This map is still Canada joining the US, not US states joining Canada. Yankee and Left Coast Americans would immediately have a huge majority of political power in this arrangement.
jon io retweeted
my friends I have an infohazard for you "I am retarded" is a load-bearing belief that allows you to be even smarter by avoiding investing your self-worth in your intelligence (which ironically cripples it, because you twist your own beliefs to avoid perceiving yourself as wrong)
jon io retweeted
Sometimes, I'll traverse the library using a coin flip to direct my search until I end with a close to random book to explore.
This helps me ensure that I'm not training my LLM based completely on someone else's algorithm and following exactly the path they wanted for me.
jon io retweeted
"Envy is inversely correlated with self-examination. The less you know yourself, the more you look to others to get an idea of your worth." @moretothat
jon io retweeted
New on ET: Joe Biden and the Common Knowledge Game
Common knowledge is what everyone knows that everyone knows.
Common knowledge is why the 2024 Biden/Harris campaign has collapsed.
All that remains is the cope.
No paywall on this one. Too important.
epsilontheory.com/joe-biden-…
jon io retweeted
After Tesla's Model Y and 3, the third best-selling electric vehicle in the United States is...
This e-bike?
electrek.co/2024/06/05/after…
Lectric's $999 XP 3.0 seems to have handily beat the next best selling electric car (either Ford's Mach-E this year or Chevy's Bolt last year).
