crabkin (u/crabkin) - Readit News

crabkin commented on Cormac McCarthy's personal library smithsonianmag.com/arts-c... · Posted by u/bigflern

phendrenad2 · 3 months ago

I have a theory that everyone has a different level of detachment vs self-insertion when consuming a fictional narrative. Those more self-insertive probably shouldn't read his books.

crabkin · 3 months ago

Don't really think so. I love Pynchon and there's not really a character I'm latching onto when I read that. McCarthy and Pynchon both fetishize a sort of violence. I find McCarthy's writing going there many times for shock value or aesthetic reasons and it makes me take him less seriously. Other people have mentioned Tarantino and I think that is apt.

crabkin commented on Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted nytimes.com/live/2023/11/... · Posted by u/donohoe

belter · 2 years ago

Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty and got 150 years in federal prison. Sam Bankman-Fried was smug until the end, both with the Judge and the Jury, but the fraud is 1/6 smaller. I say 15 to 20 years.

crabkin · 2 years ago

There's some video Shkreli going over how federal sentencing guidelines are. He is going to get close life.

crabkin commented on Autism and responding to authority (2019) neuroclastic.com/autism-a... · Posted by u/verisimi

tristor · 2 years ago

As an autistic person, my problem with authority figures throughout my life has always been that authority figures were generally incompetent for the role they were fulfilling and they behaved in arbitrary and capricious way. Ironically, my best relationships in my childhood were always with adults who were competent authorities in their particular field, and I had zero issues whatsoever following their instruction, but I was labeled as "oppositional defiant" and "having a problem with authority" because most of the authorities in the school system and elsewhere were low IQ petty tyrants.

At no point have I ever felt that authority or hierarchy or rules are meaningless, in fact I revel in the clarity of well-written and reasoned rule sets and often wished for some clearly documented guidelines of behavior in many situations. I appreciate when authority originates from competence, and I am brutally introspective about my own areas of competence or lack there-of, and immediately submit and cede control if I encounter someone significantly more competent than myself in the situation of the moment. The problem has always been that authority is mostly exercised for authority's sake, to stroke the ego of petty tyrants who are incompetent and mean.

crabkin · 2 years ago

Idk if I'm autistic or not, so apart from that I feel like I could have written this.

crabkin commented on The Banality of Genius: Notes on Peter Jackson's Get Back (2022) ian-leslie.com/p/the-bana... · Posted by u/wallflower

2bitencryption · 2 years ago

The story you're thinking of is about Brian Wilson, the creative force behind the Beach Boys and one of the only real artists of the time who could arguably be considered a peer of The Beatles.

Personally I've never seen a really strong source for that story, only anecdotes. I think it's an oversimplification to say "Strawberry Fields" made Brian Wilson insane. Instead, he was in a mental decline already. The pressure of "Brian Wilson is a genius" was getting to him:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wilson_is_a_genius

There's a similar story with stronger sources, though. If you want to know about Brian's state of mind around that time, listen to his song Heroes and Villains. Basically, Brian worked on this song like it was his magnum opus, trying to reach the level of Sgt. Pepper. Quoting from Wikipedia (sue me):

> For Wilson, the single's failure came to serve as a pivotal point in his psychological decline, and he adopted the song title as a term for his auditory hallucinations.

> In the September/October 1967 issue of Crawdaddy!, journalist and magazine founder Paul Williams wrote that the song "originally had a chorus of dogs barking, cropped when Brian heard Sergeant Pepper, and was in many ways - the bicycle rider - a far different song."[39]

> Wilson held onto the final mix of the song for about a month. On the evening of July 11, 1967, he was told by his astrologer (a woman named Genevelyn) that the time was right for the record to be heard by the public. Without informing Capitol, Wilson called his bandmates and, accompanied by producer Terry Melcher, traveled by limo to personally deliver a vinyl cut of the record to KHJ Radio.[72] According to Melcher, as Wilson excitedly offered the record for radio play, the DJ refused, citing program directing protocols.[77][78] Melcher recalled: "Brian almost fainted! It was all over. He'd been holding onto the record [and] had astrologers figuring out the correct moment. It really killed him. Finally they played it, but only after a few calls to the program director or someone, who screamed, 'Put it on, you idiot!' But the damage to Brian had already been done."[79]

And this is all the tip of the iceberg. To have an even better understanding, you'd need to listen to the Smile! sessions, and the eventual 2004 "completed" recording of Smile!.

Personally, I think Brian was a genius (well, is; he's still alive, though not looking too good these days, sadly). But unlike The Beatles, who were four friends with an unbelievably tight bond (even after their breakup), Brian had no one else in the Beach Boys who could match him. And I think it was a weight on his shoulders, and that combined with the drug use (and likely a stroke at some point, which is obvious if you ever hear him speak post ~1968) brought his downfall.

crabkin · 2 years ago

to be fair Dennis and Carl could put out some amazing work, like the Carl produced all i wanna do or dennis penned Forever. But I don't think it negates your point just wanted to add to it.

crabkin commented on Engineers should focus on writing yieldcode.blog/post/why-e... · Posted by u/skwee357

MisterBastahrd · 2 years ago

If you want to get ahead, writing will not get you very far. I'm not saying that the skill isn't important, but it's down toward the middle of the list in terms of importance. Most managers are average to terrible writers. And yet at the same time, they invariably tend to be better than average verbal communicators, because being able to connect on a social level is vastly more important than being able to connect through prose. You don't have to trust me on this, just look at how political elections are won. Candidates don't submit long articles to the press that support their positions, they get up on a stage and attempt to connect with crowds on an emotional level. It's no different in business. Senior management wants to have managers who can verbally motivate their employees with a short chat and a pat on the back instead of some essay.

crabkin · 2 years ago

I'd be pretty surprised if good verbal communicators aren't usually good writers. I think politicians persuade people not by the clarity, conciseness, or coherence of their speech, but by the substance of their speech. If communication itself could be abstracted from the substance of what is communicated, then it wouldn't be true I think to attribute the success of certain politicians to their ability to communicate so much as their ability to choose what to communicate.

A writer has to be interesting though, every piece of writing we consider well written has a quality of gripping the mind. I'd argue then, that politicians though they may not be in the habit of writing long academic style treatises or "interesting" articles, perhaps it can be argued in the past they largely did, still if they are in part elected on the basis of their speech, must possess the same ability in writing.

If you don't believe me then how is it that Trump's tweets are works of art, "I have never seen a think person drinking Diet Coke,"The Coca Cola company is not happy with me--that's okay, I'll still keep drinking that garbage.", etc... Crude, in bad taste, whatever you say. Another example is Obama, who honestly has a gift for writing in the conventional sense.

crabkin commented on Neglected Wittgensteinian critique of the computer model of the mind twitter.com/FeserEdward/s... · Posted by u/danielam

munchler · 3 years ago

> The book’s core argument is that an artificial intelligence that could equal or exceed human intelligence—sometimes called artificial general intelligence (AGI)—is for mathematical reasons impossible.

Mathematically impossible? Really? I wonder how much of this book has already been disproved by the existence of GPT-4. (One of the chapter titles is "Why machines will not master human language". LOL.)

crabkin · 3 years ago

GPT-4 can answer test questions, but could it have come up with what Einstein published in 1905 if it had all the information about the world up to say, 1902?

crabkin commented on MusicGen: Simple and controllable music generation ai.honu.io/papers/musicge... · Posted by u/famouswaffles

Folcon · 3 years ago

Personally I think you underestimate access, I've on several occasions while developing small games wanted to collaborate with someone who has a musical bent to put something together.

The problem I feel is that I have an expectation of being able to front the cost of engaging someone to work on a project with me.

Working out navigating a working relationship on a smaller project seems fraught with issues.

I'm rarely inclined to spend dozens of hours listening to soundcloud when I have other things to work on.

I mean yes people create interesting music, perhaps it's a search problem? Knowing someone creates the kinds of music I'm interested in would help. But as someone making things, I'm trying to find someone who I can collaborate with who has an overlapping interest in what I make. Solving for that is not straightforward.

I've had much more luck with graphical art than music.

So yes, even though these systems are fundamentally worse, I can at least "collaborate" with them on producing something. Going from zero to one can be enough.

crabkin · 3 years ago

Music is abstract. When we talk about visual art we can almost always be on the same page. If I say I need garden gnomes parading around a Bavarian village, the amount of variation between my internal idea and what a visual artist returns will mainly come from the lack of terms I use regarding aesthetic sensibility. Will they return something abstract or neoclassical? I would then be more specific etc...

For music we could present such an image but it would then suggest I'd argue much more possibilities. We could narrow down by genre you would suppose but even then there are too many possibilities: genre's are not as strong categories as are the stylized "era's" of visual art, I would also claim. Moreover, we can "port" a fundamental structure like a melody over all sorts of strains of music. In visual art, any motif is bound to be changed depending on the era and the style we'd put it in, that is, I think that in music, there are elements that are stronger in visual arts and elements that are weaker in music, and vice-versa, with regard to a description we could give in English. It's probably more natural and more possible to ask about what a sort visual representation should be than what a piece of sound should be.

It's interesting how we can generate images I'd argue in stunning faithfulness to some prompts but we don't seem to be very close to the same standard, for some prompts, at generating music.

crabkin commented on 90% of Apple's value was created under Tim Cook twitter.com/marekgibney/s... · Posted by u/sctgrhm

JumpCrisscross · 3 years ago

> A LOT of the „value“ increase comes from the monetary policies in the zero interest rate economy

We’re at higher rates than when Cook took over.

crabkin · 3 years ago

been at higher rates for like what a year, year and a half? We had low rates the whole time he was in charge before that.

crabkin commented on Mormon whistleblower says his church is a “clandestine hedge fund” cbsnews.com/news/mormon-w... · Posted by u/nabla9

lo_zamoyski · 3 years ago

> I will tell you one interesting contradiction about Mormons is the extent to which they disown their past and at the same time still have many ideas from that time circulating around in a particular way. I would think it's similar to say how some Catholics may be down with the whole thing right now and yet still aren't "up-to-date" with the Catholic church's official position on things, for instance post Vatican II.

As I don't know what you mean about the LDS in your first sentence, I don't know what you mean here. Where the Catholic Church is concerned, no change in doctrine can occur; it would invalidate the Church's claim of religious and moral authority. Doctrine can develop, of course. Analogically, I like to characterize this as something like an increase in clarity and depth of prior teachings, or deductions that follows from them, but never anything that innovates or contradicts prior comprehension. We could say that development is monotonic. However, doctrine is one thing, but things like liturgical practice and canon law are another (and still another are the private opinions of prelates, which less educated people may confuse with magisterial Church teaching). These can be adapted in changing circumstances, though obviously not with infinite flexibility.

In the case of Vatican II, it was a valid council and nothing taught in that council contracted what came before the council. Rather, historical circumstances, the cultural turmoil of that period, the resulting confusion, disorientation, corruption, etc. led to all sorts of secondary effects that seized on the fact of the Second Vatican Council. This left many people thinking the Church had changed in some essential way when it had not. Opportunists both inside and outside the Church happily used the appearance of change to promote fashionable nonsense and notions among the ignorant that were never taught by Vatican II. But from a historical perspective, one of many crises in Church history. No historically aware Catholic is freaking out, as dismayed as he may be.

crabkin · 3 years ago

I don't disagree. It's not a perfect analogy. The Mormon's I describe are a lot like Sedevacantists except that they aren't openly out "against" the official church.

crabkin commented on Mormon whistleblower says his church is a “clandestine hedge fund” cbsnews.com/news/mormon-w... · Posted by u/nabla9

gregw2 · 3 years ago

I am not Mormon, but I am mystified why a Mormon would not understand why their church hoards money rather than giving it away. It makes complete sense to anyone who understands their peculiar doctrine.

One of those peculiarities as a religion born in America is the prophecy that when the US Constitution is hanging by a thread, the Mormon Elders will be asked to step in and save it. Saving up a ton of money for that day is in complete alignment of what they (quietly) preach. There is a prepper mindset fairly deeply attached to Mormonism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Horse_Prophecy

crabkin · 3 years ago

Having been a seminary class president, scout, priesthood holder, just not a missionary or really active member, born and raised in Utah, I will tell you one interesting contradiction about Mormons is the extent to which they disown their past and at the same time still have many ideas from that time circulating around in a particular way. I would think it's similar to say how some Catholics may be down with the whole thing right now and yet still aren't "up-to-date" with the Catholic church's official position on things, for instance post Vatican II. Some not all.

I would doubt that this sort of prophesy is a genuine front-of-mind-concern today by the people running this operation at the church. Preparing for the second coming could be a more sincere answer coming from them, but if such an event were to occur I think it would make money worthless, so that doesn't make sense to me.