663400+ entries in 0.472s
jurov: ;;later
tell mircea_popescu ever considered dial-in access
to mpex? decommissioned hardware should be cheap and it'd work internationally (9600 baud would suffice)
artifexd: Also, I'm a little intoxicated. "Welcome
to Ecuador" says
the family, with alcohol.
artifexd: I don't understand
this “burning bitcoin" concept. Bitcoin are destined
to be one of
the most valuable commodities
that have ever existed. Burning
them is just dumb. Plain and simple. Dumb.
mircea_popescu: didn';t he make a sikrit forum where he derps with
tortilla and some glbse bagholders ?
nubbins`: i'd wondered what happened
to goat, seems he's banned from
the forums
assbot: imgur:
the simple image sharer
thickasthieves: you create one country and you
think you can do anything for a few hundred years
mircea_popescu: it starts with
the us itself pretending
to be part of
the western world, while leading africa in rapes,
teenage pregnancy, incarceration, functional illiteracy and
the like
mircea_popescu: <decimation>
this functions as a natural safety value which relieves people from pretending
they are something
that
they are not << whole fucking contemporary us is built upon people pretending
they are everyithing
they're not.
decimation: whereas banning physical gold
transaction is possible, at least within
the "officially recognized" banking and exchange entities
decimation: one answer I came up with: banning bitcoin is banning information
transfer, which seems
to be beyond
the power of
the state
decimation: but it's better
than shoving every kid into college
decimation: it's
true
that no filter is going
to be perfect
decimation: this functions as a natural safety value which relieves people from pretending
they are something
that
they are not
decimation: I admire
the german system for
this reason;
take a
test around middle school
to really determine if you are capable of
the university path
decimation: at my university I found
these
types "lecturing" freshman psychology, hoping
to "earn" a phd in social science
decimation: yeah
the problem is more
the marginal boy
that mircea points out
mircea_popescu: spends all
the
time it should spend
training
them so
they stop sucking
training
them
to believe
they are just fine and
this is what one does and should do.
mircea_popescu: decimation now imagine what happens
to a society
that
takes all
the natural victims of
this phenomenon, kids aged 15-20, and a) preaches
to
the girls
they should be more like
the boys, ie, stupid in
this particular manner and b)
decimation: there's also
the dunning-kruger effect,
the unskilled strongly
tend
to
think
that
they are skilled
Pierre_Rochard: Right. Hmm. Going
to sleep on
this one now. I like
the heuristic. I’ll be doing log reading
this weekend with
that in mind
Pierre_Rochard: would it be fair
to say “pretending” =
taking on a challenge
that you don’t have
the skills for, and “a
thing” =
taking on a challenge you have
the skills for?
assbot: File:Challenge vs skill.svg - Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
mircea_popescu: so, yeah. she can be a
thing if she wants. she doesn't, even if she may be
too stupid
to realise
this.
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform
they could have
thrown her out, np. just...
mircea_popescu: there for all eternity,
to confront generations of bright
teenagers
that'll
take about five minutes
to figure out she's a furniture, and maybe not
torture her for it. maybe.
☟︎☟︎ mircea_popescu: so,
this poor unfortunate soul found herself living her parent's dream : an assistant professor! at
the prestigious ubb no less!
☟︎☟︎☟︎☟︎☟︎ mircea_popescu: all
the kids
that were any good left, generally
the country. just about now, an elderly lady with a full professorship was looking for an assistant.
mircea_popescu: nobody flunked her, because you don't flunk well behaved girls. and so... she made it
through. parents beamingly proud.
mircea_popescu: she came. for four years,
that poor unfortunate soul sat
there, dreading
the moment anyone asked anything. because she knew she couldn't cope. just smart enough
to smart.
mircea_popescu: now among
this dozen,
there was a mentally retarded girl. she wasn't badly
touched, maybe 80 or so. definitely enough
to
take care of herself. definitely not enough for high level math. her parents however were i dun recall what academic country gentry, and so
they insisted she go.
☟︎☟︎ mircea_popescu: then
the ministry decided it won't ok a 18 student class. so
they
took a dozen
the kids
that had fallen
through 3 normal classes, and had not found an alternative hs in
the dozen or so
top highschools around. and put
them in.
mircea_popescu: so, when i went
to hs,
they made
this special "suprareal" class. (in romanian, "real" means you do math, otherwise it's a chick hs doing languages, or a prole hs doing "skills").
they made
the entrance so fucking hard
tho
that only about 18 kids out of
the entire region made it.
the remainder "fell
through"
to 3 normal "real" classes at
this elite hs.
mircea_popescu: let me
tell you a story, it'll perfectly well illustrate what i mean.
mircea_popescu: the objection here is
that she's working hard, not smart.
mircea_popescu: Pierre_Rochard
the objection here isn't on
the lines of business. she looks like she could raise a million dollars on
the vegas strip np
Pierre_Rochard: at what point would you say she is a
thing? If she is able
to do enough work
to raise money for her new organization, is
that not a successful business?
thickasthieves: i
think it's where
the wife wants
to end up, deciding which nonprofits get pools of money
mircea_popescu: otherwise, she's a ridiculous
teenager, putting online a forum about "how
to score chix"
mircea_popescu: Pierre_Rochard no. she positions herself as she were, she pretends
to be.
Pierre_Rochard: fair enough, so
the conclusion is
that boring is a successful businessperson?
thickasthieves: wife met with a state senator
today asking her
to be on
the board of a nonprofit
that gives public school
teachers funds for stuff
the school won't pay for
Pierre_Rochard: well yes,
the socialite buys social capital, I would call
them a successful socialite, I wouldn’t normally call
them a successful businessperson.
they would find it offensive
to compare
their activities
to commercial ones
mircea_popescu: the only measure of success is, "is
this species still extant or meanwhile extinguished"
Pierre_Rochard: no, because you are buying an intangible “capital” good called goodwill / brand awareness / customer education.
This capital depreciates over
time
mircea_popescu: the socialite uses up money
to make whatever
the fuck you'd call it.
mircea_popescu: maybe we're disagreeing on
the point where you cut
the space of externalities ideologically and pretend like it ain't so.
Pierre_Rochard: we are disagreeing on semantics
then, because
to me spending:investing::consumption:business
mircea_popescu: so if i spend capital
to buy advertising im a bad businessman ?
mircea_popescu: or in romanian, "cistigi, pagubesti, negustor
te numesti"
mircea_popescu: if she's spending her own money
to buy something, who are you
to know better ? as long as she can keep doing it she's a businessman just like you.
mircea_popescu: all economy is pouring fluid from one vessel
to
the next.
Pierre_Rochard: the more money
they raise,
the more capital
they consume
Pierre_Rochard: they consume capital, I’ve always
thought of “business success” as creating capital
Pierre_Rochard: I wouldn’t describe
the wealthy heiress who is very busy organizing charity galas
to be a “business success” - however much she’s “doing
things”. Her business is structurally running a loss
mircea_popescu: you can also know
things, and you can also fuck really well.
that just about covers human experience.
mircea_popescu: Pierre_Rochard but business is doing
things, no other definition really works.
thickasthieves: <+mircea_popescu> course from what i hear
they've been skimping on
the catering. // what, dollars grow on
trees?
Pierre_Rochard: mircea_popescu I
think
that widens
the definition of “business” a bit much. being
the accountant
that I am, I always look at
that net income line. perhaps
to my detriment
mircea_popescu: course from what i hear
they've been skimping on
the catering.
mircea_popescu: and whcd is just a little pork,
take all
these famished kids and serve
them a proper meal once a year is
the idea.
mircea_popescu: if you're validated for your peers for what you do,
that's business success.
Pierre_Rochard: WHCD stands for White House Correspondents Dinner, where journalists go
to pretend like
they’re doing shit
☟︎ Pierre_Rochard: Yes, well it doesn’t seem
to be business success
that she’s after. Naturally, she’s interested in social validation from her in-group of fellow bitcoiners