zachweinersmith - Network

I've been reading a decent amount of history lately, and it's interesting the extent to which a lot of Trump's behavior feels...

I've been reading a decent amount of history lately, and it's interesting the extent to which a lot of Trump's behavior feels like a throwback to the colonial era. Not because of colonialism exactly, but just, going to a word that's less liberal international, more quid-pro-quo anarchy. Like if it's 1930, forcing a teetering Republic to give up mineral resources for protection probably doesn't feel so weird. It's just the business of the state.

OK, I'm setting up bridgy by request. Should eventually pop up under @zachweinersmith.bsky.social

OK, I'm setting up bridgy by request. Should eventually pop up under @zachweinersmith.bsky.social

Hey all, I have enjoyed mastodon but after a lot of thought I've decided to centralize my twitter-style stuff on bluesky:...

Hey all, I have enjoyed mastodon but after a lot of thought I've decided to centralize my twitter-style stuff on bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zachweinersmith.bsky.social

It seems to have the best combination of non-evil and user-friendly for the moment.

Like, history is big and rich! The only other reference I see regularly is some very vague notion that the Roman Empire was big and then...

Like, history is big and rich! The only other reference I see regularly is some very vague notion that the Roman Empire was big and then fell later.

Anyone else get unreasonably annoyed that literally everyone's point of reference for everything is WWII? Every authoritarian movement...

Anyone else get unreasonably annoyed that literally everyone's point of reference for everything is WWII? Every authoritarian movement is 1930s fascism, bad leaders are Hitler, the use of "concentration camps" for places where nobody is being killed, etc.

I find it especially irksome when I agree with the person making the argument!

What was the standard reference before WWII?

There's stuff like this with older Jewish kids of immigrants I've observed in my family, but it's hard to disentangle from older...

There's stuff like this with older Jewish kids of immigrants I've observed in my family, but it's hard to disentangle from older NY/New Jersey accents plus sprinkling Yiddish, and a hard-to-duplicate way of saying "oy." But I don't know that I've noticed specific consonant or vowel shifts like that.

So, I listen to several podcasts by people who are the children of Indian immigrants to the US, and I swear there's a very slight accent...

So, I listen to several podcasts by people who are the children of Indian immigrants to the US, and I swear there's a very slight accent feature, where the K sound is closer to a G. So, e.g collection is closer to gollection, or company is toward "gompany." Is this a thing? Possibly it's actually a California accent, since most of them are in the Bay Area, but I don't think I've heard it elsewhere.

In general, is there a study of kids-of-immigrants' linguistic features?

Put another way, if a person is born today, and the "slow" rate holds for 75 years, when they are 75, a single hour of labor is...

Put another way, if a person is born today, and the "slow" rate holds for 75 years, when they are 75, a single hour of labor is triple the output of when they were born.

Kinda mindblowing:So the slowdown in productivity growth from 2007-2019 refers to a growth rate of about 1.5% a year. From 1945-1973 it was...

Kinda mindblowing:

So the slowdown in productivity growth from 2007-2019 refers to a growth rate of about 1.5% a year. From 1945-1973 it was around 2.8%.

But like, 1.5% a year still means that in a single generation, an hour of work produces 45% more stuff! In 50 years it's more than double the stuff.

2.8% *is* much faster (double per generation) but still! By historical standards, 1.5% is zany fast.

For reasons I don't quite understand, A City on Mars did OK to good on sales in the first year, but in the second year is getting a...

For reasons I don't quite understand, A City on Mars did OK to good on sales in the first year, but in the second year is getting a resurgence in media? Theories:

1) Looked like a generic book, so people had to read it and THEN spread the word?
2) Media thought it had been done before
3) We won some prizes
4) Elon Musk suddenly a major political figure

In short, I'm surprised how often there are people who read into the book some kind of degrowth attitude? We literally say there's a...

In short, I'm surprised how often there are people who read into the book some kind of degrowth attitude? We literally say there's a cool revolution in space transit but more money should be spent on other problems, and that the geopolitics won't be simple. I get viscerally disliking that, but I don't know what people want us to do! Like, just not mention any problems?

One of the odd things with A City on Mars is how often we receive a version of "nothing in the book is wrong but I hate it because you...

One of the odd things with A City on Mars is how often we receive a version of "nothing in the book is wrong but I hate it because you didn't present everything as solvable."

Which is weird because of (a) the word hatred is surprisingly frequent, and (b) we literally outline a path forward at the end of the book.

Like we literally had a guy say it was unserious to claim reproduction might be hard, because all you need is to centrifuge the whole settlement.

Nice interview with us about A City on Mars, on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/21/science/mars-human-settlement-elon-musk/index.html

Nice interview with us about A City on Mars, on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/21/science/mars-human-settlement-elon-musk/index.html

Oh god, this is the sort of thing that keeps me from wanting to try French in...

Oh god, this is the sort of thing that keeps me from wanting to try French in France!

https://www.reddit.com/r/banalgens/comments/1gwf21i/kyle_24_ans_%C3%A9tudiant_am%C3%A9ricain_en_france/

It's funny, being in Switzerland made me realize it's probably the best country on Earth to learn French, Italian, English, or German, because *everyone* is struggling with some language, and you never know which combination you're about to encounter.

Assuming you're planning for the long-term, why do people recommend gold or real estate against inflation and not just index funds,...

Assuming you're planning for the long-term, why do people recommend gold or real estate against inflation and not just index funds, which should incorporate changes in the value of currency naturally?

Like, aren't commodities and real estate more prone to random shit happening?

I hadn't known much about de Gaulle and am finally reading a biography. Among the major non-evil leaders during WWII, he really seems...

I hadn't known much about de Gaulle and am finally reading a biography. Among the major non-evil leaders during WWII, he really seems like the one who is just certifiably bonkers. The right guy at the right time if you're France, but wow.

Hey I'm on NPR today, sounding especially attractive due to a cold that will not go away: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510351/short-wave

Hey I'm on NPR today, sounding especially attractive due to a cold that will not go away: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510351/short-wave

So, it seems like at a policy level the US basically accepted somewhat higher inflation than other developed countries in exchange for a...

So, it seems like at a policy level the US basically accepted somewhat higher inflation than other developed countries in exchange for a thriving economy. Successful according to most economists, but it may have cost the administration a second term. Do you agree, and how do you think it'll affect future decisions?

Or, likewise, suppose these were questions like "Inflation was been much worse under the current administration than the last," I...

Or, likewise, suppose these were questions like "Inflation was been much worse under the current administration than the last," I bet most of the Republicans would get it right, whether or not they had familiarity with the data.

Seeing this posted everywhere, but isn't this obviously a bad use of data? Like, you have a bunch of questions asking a highly polarized...

Seeing this posted everywhere, but isn't this obviously a bad use of data? Like, you have a bunch of questions asking a highly polarized public whether things are good currently on a variety of indicators. Surely the divorce from reality runs in the opposite direction once the administration flips, at least to some extent, no?