we would like it very much if GNU less would stop adding features. it seems to have added some sort of interactive JSON formatting at some point? which makes it possible to get into a mode where it's streaming the output from a subprocess it created, and is unwilling to quit until that finishes?
the highest incentive of any power structure is to protect its own existence
when universities deploy cops against their own people, think of it as the immune system attacking an irritant. the idea that anyone is in charge of these decisions at all may or may not turn out to be the case, but it barely matters because even if the people with nominal authority are thinking about the big picture, it's only on the way to choosing to let the system do the thing it's already primed to do.
@irenes@BoydStephenSmithJr I like to go with Stafford Beers' aphorism: "the purpose of a system is what it does". It's foolish to ascribe intentionality to the behavior of an organization. They're homeostatic, but not conscious. Riot cops beat up protestors because that's what riot police are for, and the protestors are in front of them. (Also because people who choose to become riotcops are predisposed to violence.)
the challenge that command-line interfaces have always had that is mostly solved with GUIs is that it's the tyranny of the blank page: you could do anything, so you are the one responsible for figuring out what you want
voice assistants are like command lines in this respect... but it's even worse because there's not any sort of manual or anything to learn about it from
a friend: do you recognize this piece of music?
us: well, it's piano. if you go spend ten years becoming proficient with piano, it would probably come up at some point.
this has been Friday Afternoon Ineffective Search Strategies with Irenes. thank you for listening.
@irenes reminds me of a clip of Ray Manzarek telling how he came up with the intro to Light My Fire on the spot, from having played Bach for so long, and at the time I thought that was just absurdly insane. But now that I have more practice with an instrument (the bass) I realize that, yeah, okay, if you play a certain style of music a lot, there's a certain amount of structure that becomes second nature to you. Manzarek is still a genius though.
everyone has to navigate that for themselves. pay attention to whoever you find interesting, that's never wrong. you shouldn't let anyone else tell you who to listen to, not even us.
but like, do think about the things people say, about whether it's stuff anyone could have said or if it shows evidence of original thought? it's a useful heuristic, one input among many to steer by
so honestly, no surface characteristic - theme or tone or whatever - is ever going to be useful for anything but the most clear-cut cases
if somebody is welcoming to beginners and makes sure to find a way to bring everyone's voice into the conversation and let everyone feel heard, we definitely do pay a lot more attention to them than people who do nothing but brag. that's not really about originality, but it's a surface thing that we do find useful
you know, we think this is the first time we've seen an eclipse get weeks of news coverage leading up to it. like in our childhood it was just a one-line mention at the end of a radio program or whatever, not all this.
like. we have all manner of memory stuff going on. we may simply be forgetting. but it kinda feels like humanity decided to actually care about astronomy, for a single day. neat, right? :)
@irenes the last total solar eclipse to span the US from coast to coast was 2017, and I feel like that got a reasonable amount of coverage. Before that was 1994, but that was annular, not actually total. Before that was 1918; I don't wanna guess your age, but I think radio programs weren't that widespread in 1918 :p