asciilifeform: decimation: iirc they recently abandoned the very concept of 'p-value' in its entirety.
asciilifeform: prestige farms draw narcissists, 'news at 11.'
asciilifeform: what -does- concentrate at mit, and this was a pervasive-enough problem even in the golden days, as attested to by old hands - is concentration of braggarts and showmen
asciilifeform: mats: what i know is that i encountered the single largest number of talented folks with skills in weaponizing exploits at MIT << i find it peculiar that anyone would expect to encounter any concentration of such folks in the flesh, for the most part anywhere
asciilifeform: how to take out sentry in any way that doesn't count as 'hand' ?☟︎
asciilifeform: this applies to mit, usg, rome, whoever.
asciilifeform: whaack: ultimately 'you are what you pretend to be, so choose carefully what to pretend to be'
asciilifeform: mats: man appears to fight mainly by swinging midgets like hammer
asciilifeform: most folks in any large organization whatsoever are chaff.
asciilifeform: when i say 'meta-nsa' - again it does not meant that every bipedal amoebal 'success organism' drawing pay there is a brilliant master
asciilifeform: (palantir holds the title for best nameable candidate for meta-nsa. in that they are known to produce the tools which actually work, and - not being part of civil service hierarchy - are free to actually pay programmers something like real money)
asciilifeform: mats: i know more than a few grads that have gone on to accept offers with outfits like Palantir. << i imagine you know what takes place there.
asciilifeform: not just at university level, either.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: he's been introduced to not ever knowing chemistry. << a more or less complete description of most american 'education' on most-any subject today.
asciilifeform: mats: linked shortly below in one of the linked log threads
asciilifeform: to envision a 'wave of the future' that includes c and unix - entirely other.☟︎☟︎
asciilifeform: trimming down a unixlike to run therealbitcoin and other traditional proggies that we're stuck with - is one thing
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu:asciilifeform you gotta have a look at http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=11-04-2015#1097382 << gabriel_laddel has good summaries of things, but i must confess that i am not particularly interested in 'lispy unix' as i consider it coprophagic pizza.☝︎
asciilifeform: what kind of respect does either 'top student' deserve ?☟︎
asciilifeform: suppose you meet a chemist who enthusiastically studied and 'succeeded' - top marks! - under elena ceausescu.
asciilifeform: folks who went there - either of these or any other top academies of usg - by all rights ought to pretend to have spent their youth in jail or army.
asciilifeform: and wish to see it demolished, the earth - salted, the inhabitants - lowered into pederasty
asciilifeform: but i presently believe that it is the -duty- of any literate man of science today to despise mit and everything it now stands for, just as, e.g., an honest historian or anthropologist must despise harvard.☟︎
asciilifeform: see how much his picture overlapped with mine.
asciilifeform: and yes i wanted to probe ben_vulpes before saying all of this.
asciilifeform: virtually 100% envirowhinerism, 'solutions' for the turd world, or 'accomplishments' of the Officially Sad
asciilifeform: to anyone who does not immediately apprehend the reason for my position, i invite a look into the 'mit press' catalogues for the last decade or so.
asciilifeform: to continue with mit thread: and to answer whaack's question: yes being associated with modern mit (vs 1980s and prior) is a serious strike against you. especially if you 'succeed' there. or, heaven help you, employed therein
asciilifeform: if this satisfies you, why are you even bothering with crypto
asciilifeform: williamdunne: keybase and friends (usg in the broadest possible sense) can read your mail and sign as you.
asciilifeform: williamdunne: we don't want invite to coprophagic restaurant either...
asciilifeform: ^ see his article on why he allowed his iconic 'structure and interpretation of computer programming' course to get the axe.
asciilifeform tries to recall mircea_popescu's post re: how modern notion of 'chain of command' applied to medieval structures is simplistic; remembers that www is down
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i had an eerily 'sovok' experience the other day. went to a shop that sold, among other items, wooden planks. needed one sawed to fit in car. waited for whole hour, while clerk after clerk inquired, where, where is the one and only man authorized to use saw (kept under lock and key)
asciilifeform: 'nah, we're out of meat. fish is what they lack at the fish monger's.'
asciilifeform: where - not everyone now remembers, but - believe or not, there were also courts and jurists.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: we - or at least i - knew that you're fond of courtroom challenge. but i can't help but also remember the various folk who tried this in ussr.
