4grams

My career has been in building infrastructure for internet services. I got into this line of work because I felt like it was democratizing knowledge and bringing people together. The way it’s instead gone, I regret being part of it, and I wish I would have gone into another line of work.

It sucks because it’s beginning to feel like a life wasted. I got in early, my career pre-dates the 1st .com crash. My first browser was Mosaic, then shortly became Netscape with the big pulsating “N” animation.

I LOVED the early internet. I loved the personal sites, webrings, IRC and newsgroups. I remember the first time I spoke with someone on the other side of the world (hello to my Canberra friend, it’s me, your midwestern buddy). I felt part of something that was new and exciting and fun.

Then ads came and it’s just gone to shit ever since. To the point where I now hate being online, all my shit is selfhosted and I barely interact with anything besides lemmy and mastodon (they still feel like the actual internet).

I used to be slightly disappointed my kids didn’t turn out as nerdy as me. Now I am just thrilled that I was able to be a cautionary tale for them.

Come on, this is the perfect reply. Well done.

That looks like my play through of a fallout game. For some reason it amuses me to no end to make a random, huge pile of found alcohol, in game.

I’m humbled by this man doing it in real life.

Well said, I had the exact same thought experience, and I am at the exact same conclusion.

I know expensive, shitty healthcare in the USA is a stereotype, but in my experience it’s also largely true

I had a brain injury from a bicycle accident. The fact that my health has bounced back, but my finances likely never will, tells me everything I need to know about our system. One injury, and I now have a lifetime of bills to pay off. I guess it makes sense in some sick way, I do owe them my life, but man, they don’t let me forget (even if my broken brain tries).

There’s more to it than that but of course that is a large part of it. We live in a society that prefers to reward a confident idiot to a pensive expert; essentially we reward dunning krueger.

When exactly did society decide to give the dumbest people on earth, all the money?

I don’t know why people think rules still apply. They might say something but they came out 9-0 against him and he still claims a unanimous victory and the courts, media and American public all just shrug.

Unfortunately much of this country has developed a vaccine for this apparently.

lol, couldn’t even keep the dumbest people on earth on board. starting to smell popcorn.

That story is immediately what came to mind.

Precisely!

I fucking booked it from a job after about 2 months because in every fucking meeting the CTO would wax on about how great it would be once we were all replaced by robots and AI. This fucker who clawed his way into his C level position though merit, and hard work, and the same last name as the owner, and all he could do to inspire the team was tell us about how a 91 year old who lost his job to AI was saying how he would be fine. I mean, if he can find a way to be happy, we all can!

You have a lovely ass and we do not deserve to bask in its glory.

At least fart in our direction…

Why is nobody sending him a series of strongly worded questions!?!

I think I’ll go get some tacos for lunch and mull this one over…

Almost got me with this one. I’ve heard the same argument deployed unironically from some of my own family…

I really do appreciate the words and the sentiment. I would normally agree but right now my faith is still shattered. I think there are good and amazing people, who have done magical and wonderful things. I just think that small and petty tyrants are more common and more indicative of humanity as a whole. That the righteous have to look up from underneath the bootheel of those who deserve to be crushed under one themselves. Instead, those type get to run the show, and obviously always have.

This weekend has been bad mentally. I hope I can find some optimism again. I’m just so tired of expecting the worst and being proven right.

Without a doubt this is the worst part. It was an immediate and irreversible swing from being an optimist who believes in the good of people to the complete opposite. I now believe humanity is fundamentally flawed and will destroy itself.

Watched too much Star Trek as a kid I guess.