1)Workers get more productive thanks to AI.

2)Higher worker productivity translates into lower prices.

3)Most importantly, consumer demand needs to explode in reaction to lower prices. And we're finding out in real-time that the demand is inelastic.

Around 1900, 40% of American workers worked in agriculture. Today, it's < 2%.

Which is similar to what we see with coding: The increase in demand has not exploded enough to offset the job-killing of each farmer being able to produce more food.

The same thing it's always been: The military-industrial complex.

> MAGA was sure it was backroom democrats.

It's not that hard to distinguish "them", just look at how fast the mainstream media threw Biden under the bus over Afghanistan withdrawal.

1)POTUS orders the withdrawal.

2)Generals botch the withdrawal on purpose.

3)Mainstream media (left and right) eviscerates the POTUS. This sends a strong message to this POTUS, as well as any subsequent Presidents: "Don't mess with the profits of the complex or else."

This was the tipping point for me when I realized that the deep state is not a just a bogeyman conjured up by the right wingers. Should you cross the complex, it will just as easily come for you even if you're a Democrat that's been in politics for 50 years.

Finally, the Atlantic is as establishment as it gets. No matter which party is in power, their editorial board serves the ruling class, of which almost nobody on HN is a part of.

Whether their interests align with yours or not you can ascertain just by looking at approval ratings of the US Congress.

Ben Horowitz recalled asking Zuck what his engineer onboarding process was when the latter complained to him about how it took them very long to make changes to code. He basically didn't have any.

[0] He holds the title of Chief Engineer at SpaceX.

Go ahead, try to delete the useless Microsoft Edge browser if you're not in a select few EU countries.

In my experience, you can't do it cleanly. Asking LLMs will tell you the following:

1)Modify a certain registry key to enable deletion. Which I did, but the only thing that accomplished is un-gray the delete button in the Control Panel. Once you press it nothing happens.

2)Windows will eventually reinstall Edge. So you're basically screwed.

B) makes things worse in several ways, but primarily by stifling innovation. Only large incumbents will have no trouble paying for the measures required to ensure compliance.

There's also the cost of enforcement, which will likely have to be borne by the taxpayers. I don't think this is a good thing to spend money on.

C) cannot be enforced, and any good faith attempts will cost more than the damage from harm they're supposed to prevent.

It's in a business' best interest to maximize demand for its products. Which is mostly fine for society, country, and the world by large if you're selling paper cups.

However, if you want to sell more weapons you are interested in lobbying for events that increase the consumption of weapons, in other words: wars.

See the problem yet?

It's not "people". One half of all people grows up playing contact sports or at least have some form of rough-and-tumble with their homies in schoolyards. This half also knows that you can get punched if things get too rowdy.

The other does not. Almost all of the entitled road blockers are in this category.

When Glitch failed in 2012, founder Stewart Butterfield offered to return the remaining $6 million to investors. Ben Horowitz instead encouraged Butterfield to pivot and build out the internal communication tool the team had developed for themselves, which eventually became Slack.

I saw an interview (don't have the link at hand unfortunately) where Horowitz said he didn't much care for the $6M as he had already been set at that point moneywise, and essentially wanted to gamble on an off chance Slack succeeds.

Horowitz continued to support the company through its rapid growth and eventual direct public offering (DPO) in 2019.

As was foretold in the Tyler Cowen's eponymous 2013 book "Average Is Over".

In it he argued that the modern economy will undergo a permanent shift where "average" performance no longer guarantees a stable, middle-class life.

He predicted that the economy will split into two distinct classes: a high-earning elite (roughly 10–15% of the population) who thrive by collaborating with technology, and a larger group (85–90%) facing stagnant wages and fewer opportunities.

AI summary of the other key points of that book:

The "Man + Machine" Advantage: Success will belong to those who can effectively use smart machines. Cowen uses Freestyle Chess (teams of humans and computers) as an analogy, noting that human intuition combined with machine processing power consistently outperforms either working alone.

The Power of Conscientiousness: In a world of abundant information, the scarcest and most valuable traits will be self-motivation, discipline, and the ability to focus. Hyper-Meritocracy: Advanced data and machine intelligence make it easier for employers to measure an individual's exact economic value. This leads to extreme salary inequality as top performers are identified and rewarded more precisely.

A New Social Contract: Cowen predicts a future where individuals must be more self-reliant. He suggests society will move toward lower-cost living models for the non-elite, featuring cheaper housing and "bread and circuses" in the form of low-cost digital entertainment and online education.

EDIT: Notice how we're basically already here: Netflix is cheap, YT is free, Khan Academy and MIT OCW is free, Coursera/Udemy/etc. are cheap.

Stagnant vs. Dynamic Sectors: The economic divide is worsened by "low accountability" sectors like education and healthcare, where productivity is hard to measure and costs continue to rise, unlike tech-driven sectors that see rapid gains.

I've also had it succeed in attempts to identify some non-trivial bugs that spanned multiple modules.

I've asked Gemini. Interestingly, they were offered over 2x as much territory in exchange for 1.5% of their land. Curiously, Wikipedia doesn't mention that in the Winter War article.

They lost 10-11% after WW2. Which deal was better?

"every male still needs to spend one year of their life"

Not 1 year. Gemini says it's 6-12 months, and several European countries not bordering the big bad fit that criteria.

Who exactly is after Austria, which has conscription, but has been neutral since basically the entire cold war?

Or the famously neutral Switzerland?

"No, it hasn’t."

Top Export Partners (2019)

The total value of Finnish goods exports in 2019 was approximately $72.84 billion.

1. Germany: $10.44 billion (14.33% share)

2. Sweden: $7.47 billion (10.26% share)

3. United States: $5.20 billion (7.14% share)

4. Netherlands: $4.34 billion (5.95% share)

5. Russia: $4.02 billion (5.51% share)

6. China: $3.84 billion (5.28% share)

Top Import Partners (2019)

1. Germany: $11.42 billion (15.49% share)

2. Russia: $10.01 billion (13.57% share)

3. Sweden: $8.16 billion (11.06% share)

4. China: $5.49 billion (7.45% share)

5. Netherlands: $3.29 billion (4.46% share)

6. United States: $2.48 billion (3.37% share)

Nominal GDP per Capita in 2019 (2019 US dollars):

United States: $65,281

Finland: $48,629

Germany: $46,793

Yep, didn't work out well at all.

Partially, yes. I know a scientist in one of Denver's clinics specializing in reproductive health.

They do not allow more than 25 descendants per man per country, and do not allow more than 100 globally. Yes, they do export the material to many countries, including developed ones, such as the UK.

The law about inheriting frozen material from a deceased partner is also widely outdated in many jurisdictions around the globe. In many countries even the legal wife cannot inherit it without active consent, which cannot be given posthumously for obvious reasons.

What would be the equivalent of B5 in a fantasy? A floating sky island? A neutral world in a multiverse? Both have been done, but I've never heard of one actually being the centerpiece and the namesake of a series. There's also the issue of "porting" B4 into such a setting.

Having a series of "prototype" worlds or prototype floating islands would likely make the series overly contrived.

In its own FAQs[0], the CIA previously noted that many third-party companies that once provided free data now require expensive subscriptions or restrict use via licensing. These likely made it increasingly difficult to maintain the Factbook’s rigorous standards for comprehensive global data.

Ensuring the accuracy of thousands of data points for 258 international entities required a "monstrous workload" of vetting and reviewing by highly trained officers. Given the "do more with less" mandate, this is the result.

[0]https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/faqs/

This ending seems fitting for the world where artificially manufacturing consent is rampant.

As Nietzsche once said: "There are no facts, only interpretations"