manishader (u/manishader)

manishader commented on Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024) cbc.ca/sports/olympics/su... · Posted by u/TMWNN

manishader · a year ago

Late stage capitalism is just economics and philosophy for unlearned people who haven't read much or had much education in economics or philosophy.

Imagine believing in historicism in 2024. It is even dumber than believing in witchcraft or horoscopes.

manishader commented on Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles theguardian.com/technolog... · Posted by u/n1b0m

noirbot · a year ago

Religion?

Isn't the weirdness here that someone at Meta seems to have decided that they should make an AI bot that proudly announced its identity, despite literally not being proud, queer, black, or a mother?

Who does this serve? Why?

I could see a bot that's into fitness or some other hobby having a niche as a wrapper around an AI meant for advice on the hobby, but there's a certain crazy hubris to going "this LLM can really speak as a member of an identity group".

manishader · a year ago

Our language really needs a new word for what is meant here by "religion".

The word "religion" brings so much baggage with it that it just causes a cascade of communication errors in this context.

Pareto when translated from Italian to English called this "non-logical conduct" and "sentiments" but after a 100 years no one seems to care much about this aspect of Pareto's thoughts.

Sentiments would be a great word for it though instead of "religion".

Woke sentiments instead of "woke religion".

The concept of identity sentiments might even be a little bit of progress.

manishader commented on My takeaways from 12 months of therapy cauldron.life/blog/my-tak... · Posted by u/whitefang

pizza234 · a year ago

The concept of "good therapist" can be misleading, as it suggests the idea that there good therapist necessarily work well with any patient (and as a consequence, patients may give up too early in their search for a therapist). I think it's more appropriate to talk about "suitable" therapist.

In a way, it's like talking about friendships. Some people certainly have better "friendship skills" than others, but because a given person has such skills, it doesn't automatically make them a good friend to everybody.

manishader · a year ago

I don't know, about 15 years ago I tried therapy for anxiety/depression.

The 1st one asked me the most basic nonsense and then told me she thinks I just drink too much coffee so I didn't go back.

The second one told me they don't believe in medication so I never went back.

The 3rd one diagnosed me with seasonal affective disorder in about 5 minutes, gave me a little prozac and changed my life.

I suspect there is an overwhelming amount of terrible therapist.

I don't think the challenge is finding a good therapist but in not getting stuck with a terrible therapist or letting a terrible therapist ruin the whole idea of therapy.

manishader commented on China is the manufacturing superpower cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ch... · Posted by u/luu

pm90 · a year ago

Certainly. The reality of the political situation though is that China is an authoritarian country ruled by the PRC, increasingly acting more like a dictatorship. While China’s economy, society and people have 100% the right to grow as much as they would like, those of us living in (sonewhat) liberal democracies would still want to contain the power of the PRC (and the cult of Xi Jinping).

manishader · a year ago

If 1989 had gone in a different direction and China today is just a giant version of Taiwan, how would that possibly be better as an American? We would all be trying to figure out how to get paid in digital Yuan.

Instead they have huge manufacturing capacity sitting on top of a completely busted financial system. Look at the returns of Chinese equities vs GDP growth the last 20 years. It is completely absurd.

The financial system is imploding right now, trying to find a place to hide https://tradingeconomics.com/china/government-bond-yield

manishader commented on China is the manufacturing superpower cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ch... · Posted by u/luu

Hilift · a year ago

Some manufacturing is down. Look at the state of sophisticated shipbuilding.

The US Navy has stated numerous times that the US essentially has minimal capacity. Maintenance and construction are years behind schedule. It isn't about funding. 40% of attack submarines aren't fit for service or deployable. The new Columbia class submarine will use a new steam turbine. Northrup Grumman was selected for the manufacture of the steam turbine in 2014. It isn't ready yet.

Sophisticated manufacturing is in crisis in the US. It's the reason that the US bigfooted France in the AUKUS submarine deal. To revive a failing industry.

These are interesting tests due to there are restrictions on sourcing of parts and personnel for a project.

https://news.usni.org/2024/04/10/late-turbines-have-major-im...

manishader · a year ago

There is also the USS Zumwalt type problem.

We spent $22.5 billion to get two active.

Imagine what $22.5 billion USD buys in Chinese manufacturing capacity.

manishader commented on China is the manufacturing superpower cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ch... · Posted by u/luu

ted_bunny · a year ago

It's been argued that if you observe actions and not words, default has always been the point of IMF loans. Have you read Confessions of an Economic Hitman?

manishader · a year ago

If you can't tell Confessions of an Economic Hitman is a work of fiction I don't know what to tell you.

manishader commented on Can LLMs write better code if you keep asking them to “write better code”? minimaxir.com/2025/01/wri... · Posted by u/rcarmo

ThrowawayR2 · a year ago

We've entered the voodoo witch doctor phase of LLM usage: "Enter thee this arcane incantation along with thy question into the idol and, lo, the ineffable machine spirits wilt be appeased and deign to grant thee the information thou hast asked for."

manishader · a year ago

It is because the chance of the right answer goes down exponentially as the complexity of what is being asked goes up.

Asking a simpler question is not voodoo.

On the other hand, I think many people are trying various rain dances and believing it was a specific dance that was the cause when it happened to rain.