Notices by Liam :fnord: (liamvhogan@aus.social), page 3

What’s emerged, in my adult lifetime, is the idea—across the political and cultural spectrum—that large groups of people cooperating together is a very difficult, maybe impossible, thing to achieve. You hear it in sad expressions about the past, nostalgia about things like the Apollo program. It’s an assumption so powerful people don’t even realise it’s there! It’s just this new totalising ideology of smallness of efforts.

That’s not to romanticise the 20thC. Being a salaryman or a Company Man might have been secure, but all reports were that it was boring as shit and often degrading, restrictive, and hypocritical, not to mention capital-p Patriarchal in every way that counted. We’re putting a higher value now on individual performance which is just another value. But to be a ‘hacker’ and to put social value on that hacking is a lonely way to be, for all of us.

The British custom of lining candidates up to hear the results in public, so that the loser has to eat shit in front of a crowd, and they all have to take Dark Lord Wheelie Bin or whatever seriously, is good and cool #ukpol

There are people who post their video to Dashcam Owners Australia even though they’re the ones driving terribly. Why do they do it? Is it some sense of shame? Boasting? Or some strange integrity?

I refuse to believe that the UK Telegraph has a military correspondent called Hamish de Bretton Gordon who has right wing views and supports conscription. This is a Mitchell and Webb bit. He’ll reveal himself as a Borat sketch. No fucking way is that real

Socialism is a form of liberalism and shares a deep 19thC history, philosophical outlook, and a set of basic moral standpoints about a person’s relationship with the State

[the crowd boos]

You know I’m right and so did the early socialists

I’ve said before that the most precious part of the Web are the pre-Facebook forums run by enthusiasts of specific domains (say, owners of a model of motorbike). There’ll be knowledge there from crusty old riders that means the difference between success and failure at doing what you want to do.

It’s exactly this kind of specific knowledge, like knowing the right steps and way to adjust the valve clearances on a bike, that is threatened by AI content mills, because an LLM doesn’t know if it’s 0.15mm or 15mm, and doesn’t care

Dapto Railway Station, last Saturday morning

People often ask me, how do I feel about working in the Bene Gesserit pain box factory, designing devices whose only purpose is to synthesise excruciating pain? Well I say I get to work on a product with best-in-field UX and an extraordinary recognition factor

🎺 :pickitup:

Why does a browser need AI. I don’t get the premise

No shitposting: any time you hear a boss or owner describe their organisation as ‘like a family’, drop your shit and run. Leave your mug, leave your desk photos, drop the swipe card and keys in the door lock. Just get out now.

@mike @Kels_316 I’ll just increment another dash in my password ‘8====D——-‘

The coyote in the road runner cartoons is a heroic figure; despite failure and grossly illiberal treatment by the dramatic rules of the series (the road runner is bound by no laws) he retains his identity and perseverance. The coyote makes his own decisions and accepts all the consequences, and is in control of his life in a universe hostile to him.

We must imagine the coyote happy.

My unpopular opinion is people who laud work from home arrangements because it increases the availability of free time don’t realise in a lot of cases they’ve displaced responsibility onto workers in offices

Another is that Neal Stephenson and Niall Ferguson are the same person

@zens she’s a precarious worker who’s essentially aware of the substitutability of her own labour, she has her job because she was there, it’s in the theme song

[alas, if you actually talk to a tradesperson, farmer, musician, about their working lives, the cruel truth becomes apparent]

Theory: most popular white-collar fantasies of changing one’s life, like taking up a trade, moving to a farm, playing music for a living etc. are simply transferred fantasies of being able to focus on only one task at any one time

It is Friday. Advance toward the sound of the #TGIF