monktastic1 (u/monktastic1)

monktastic1 commented on 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal tribuneindia.com/news/wor... · Posted by u/whatsupdog

uncircle · 3 months ago

Yes, because all rules have been created for your own good, so you must follow without ever questioning them. The world is more nuanced than your silly black-and-white duality, unless it's a Twitter argument and it's all about dividing the world in convenient us-vs-them boxes.

monktastic1 · 3 months ago

Your account seems relatively new, so you might be unfamiliar with the rule to be charitable here. If you'd like to be snarky and lower the bar for discourse, Reddit is a much better place to do that (though ideally it would be kept out of public spaces altogether).

monktastic1 commented on Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/atte... · Posted by u/jger15

triceratops · 4 months ago

I wonder if this explains the popularity of It's a Wonderful Life. The story is well-known at this point. It was a box-office flop when first released, and fell out of copyright because the studio couldn't be bothered to renew it. As a result it played repeatedly on TV around Christmastime every year. The repeated exposure to this film, presumably also associating it with other pleasant holiday memories for audiences, transformed its reputation. To the point that it's now considered one of the best films of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life#Recept...

monktastic1 · 4 months ago

Huh, I would guess there's a different mechanism at work. In my experience, movies playing on TV during the holidays tend not to get people's deep, persistent, undivided attention.

monktastic1 commented on We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/defo10

gchamonlive · 5 months ago

Even if you knew every FAANG in existence that would account for a very small fraction of the population. It might be true for this class, but you can't expect everyone to be a able to retire by 40.

Even if everybody could, they wouldn't because they are immersed in a culture that celebrated consumerism at every instance. You can't just turn a switch and now you live self-sustainably.

monktastic1 · 5 months ago

My assumption here is that FAANG employees are not fundamentally different from the rest of the populace along that particular dimension (desire to inflate lifestyle). I chose them in particular to demonstrate that even when we have the choice, we can easily opt not to take it. Of course many do not have that choice.

And yes, I agree with your second paragraph. "The culture" celebrates it — but that culture is not violently enforced top-down by a handful of people twirling mustaches. We all participate in our own little ways — and the more of us that step off the treadmill, the less those messages find footing, in a virtuous cycle. Again, it's not about blame. But for those of us who have the capacity and desire to decondition ourselves, it's very much worth doing. It can affect the feedback loop more powerfully than we think.

monktastic1 commented on We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/defo10

yunwal · 5 months ago

What are you going to do when you retire by 40 and all your friends (and s/o) are still working? I don’t really understand the appeal.

monktastic1 · 5 months ago

Perhaps "retire" is the wrong word. One can still work (whether for pay or not) and improve the lives of the people around them without staying on the consumption treadmill. Very few actually do. Again, this isn't meant as a judgement — it's just highlighting that we each have a role to play in slowing down this insane freight train.

monktastic1 commented on We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/defo10

gchamonlive · 5 months ago

I second that.

Everybody is quick to jump the gun and blame the victim, while all this can be easily explained by the insane lifestyle we are forced to subscribe in order to survive in this crazy cut-throat productivist job market.

monktastic1 · 5 months ago

I wouldn't be so quick to divide the world so neatly into victims and perpetrators. Every FAANG engineer I know, for example, could easily retire by mid-40s by keeping consumption in check. Instead, nearly every single one chose instead to "improve their lifestyles." Not blaming them, either, because it's cultural programming -- but until we all learn to slow down a bit and reflect, the madness isn't going to stop.

monktastic1 commented on Perfume reviews gwern.net/blog/2025/perfu... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

minhaz23 · 5 months ago

Except NYC which encompasses multiple counties.

monktastic1 · 5 months ago

Right, each county is coextensive with one borough: Kings (Brooklyn), Queens, Bronx, New York (Manhattan), and Richmond (Staten Island).

monktastic1 commented on NIST ion clock sets new record for most accurate clock nist.gov/news-events/news... · Posted by u/voxadam

theultdev · 5 months ago

I'm fully aware, but you seem to have misinterpreted what I was saying.

If "all the clocks are wrong" it doesn't matter as long as they are consistent. (in the case of atomic clocks, frequency of energy transitions within atoms)

All ntp servers get the average of atomic clocks, which is then distributed to all phones and computers.

If the constants from these atomic clocks "are a little bit wrong" it does not matter (for most human activities)

That's why we average them and distribute the average.

For physics related research, this new clock being more precise does have use, but for pretty much everything else, whatever constant we have is good enough as long as it's consistently used.

Back in the day it was someone just running around with a pocket watch giving everyone the time from the clock tower which was calibrated from a sundial and that was good enough.

Replace the sun's shadow with electron transitions and the timekeepers with ntp servers and that's what you have today.

monktastic1 · 5 months ago

I see. Thanks for the added context; that's much clearer.

monktastic1 commented on NIST ion clock sets new record for most accurate clock nist.gov/news-events/news... · Posted by u/voxadam

theultdev · 5 months ago

it doesn't matter? it's the average of multiple atomic clocks and that's the time we distribute.

it's a human construct so whatever is agreed upon is correct.

monktastic1 · 5 months ago

If this were true, then why even bother to make atomic clocks? Why would an article about the "most accurate clock" be interesting to smart people like HN readers if there's no objective measure of accuracy (or if it didn't matter)? The correct answer is in a sibling comment to yours: we base it on other things we know (or believe, anyway) to be constant.

monktastic1 commented on YouTube's new anti-adblock measures iter.ca/post/yt-adblock/... · Posted by u/smitop

wiseowise · 6 months ago

YouTube music is nice, though.

monktastic1 · 6 months ago

It being "nice" does not negate the fact that there's no way to pay for _only_ ad removal.

monktastic1 commented on US Army Appoints Palantir, Meta, OpenAI Execs as Lt. Colonels thegrayzone.com/2025/06/1... · Posted by u/technologesus

ranger_danger · 6 months ago

Make them go through BUD/S.

monktastic1 · 6 months ago

BUD/S /s.