Uncategorized

  • Politics,  Uncategorized

    Thoughts on the 2024 election

    Thought 1 – an Opportunity for thinker status

    There were four basic outcomes to the election to wit

    • Trump wins Electoral vote – wins Popular vote
    • Trump wins Electoral vote – loses Popular vote
    • Harris wins Electoral vote – wins Popular vote
    • Harris wins Electoral vote – loses Popular vote

    I would greatly upgrade my opinion of any thinker who published essays on how each particular outcome happened the day before the election. The current Monday morning quarterbacking is getting a little silly.

    Thought 2 – Legibility

    It seems that with the current wealth of data available on the country at large and demographic groups in particular, the electorate is actually getting less legible, particularly the not as online parts of the electorate. This advantages a more instinctive, intuitive style of politics, i.e. Trump. The side that relies more on quantitative data will be further away from the voter’s concerns than the side that goes with their gut.

    Comments Off on Thoughts on the 2024 election
  • BigThink,  Culture,  Subcultures,  Uncategorized

    Some Recent Recalibrations

    Thought One
    The rabidly political have continued their incremental improvements in dominating the political discussion space and have made the political discussion space somehow even worse than it was. However, the non-rabidly political have made great strides in separating themselves from the rabidly political, either by splitting off from existing groups or improvements in changing subjects and avoiding topics. That sounds very trivial, but in my very anecdotal experience the non rabidly political have undergone some major social skill upgrades. It’s halfway to real life hellbanning.

    Thought Two
    The very online (producing and consuming) and the not very online will be the main political divide in the coming years. I was thinking about (for no obvious reason) Cal Newport (Deep Work) and James Scott (Seeing Like a State). Newport and Scott make interesting points about identity creation and maintenance, albeit from different angles. In my formulations, the various points converge with the notion that identity creation is hard, time consuming, and bends towards coherence and legibility. The online identity will become much more monotonic due to the greater amount of standardized influences. The not very online will maintain much more nuanced and varied identities.

    Pair that with thought one above and the very online will become very visible and legible to the not very online and the not very online will become confusing then invisible to the very online.

    Comments Off on Some Recent Recalibrations
  • Uncategorized

    Lifestyle update -carrots

    Starting on March 20, 2024 I started eating carrots and am stopping drinking protein shakes – we’ll see if my general health trends improve.

    Just a record of change.

    Comments Off on Lifestyle update -carrots