tinashe

Somewhere between cynicism and cautious optimism.... aspiring flaneur

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

ultimate = last in a series

penultimate = second-to-last in a series

antepenultimate = third-to-last in a series

preantepenultimate = fourth-to-last in a series

propreantepenultimate = fifth-to-last in a series

[François Chollet @fchollet]

Some considerations that many folks seem not to get:

1. It can be a bubble even if the tech works. (For instance, if the tech doesn't have a high-demand use case.)

2. It can be a bubble even if the tech works and has strong product-market fit. (For instance, if the tech cannot be economically viable.)

3. It can be a bubble even if the tech works, has strong product-market fit, and has a path to eventual economic viability. (For instance, if profitability takes too long to achieve or makes margin/competition assumptions that fail to materialize.)

4. It can be a bubble even if the tech works, has strong product-market fit, and is currently highly profitable. (For instance, if demand has a hard ceiling and growth stops once the ceiling is reached.)

5. It can be a bubble even if the tech works, has strong product-market fit, is currently highly profitable, and has unlimited future demand.

Literally all it takes for something to be a bubble is for lots of people to over-enthusiastically bet their money on it, and subsequently get panicky.

Importantly, bubbles can be attached both to things that are completely hogwash, like the Metaverse, and to world-changing developments like the Internet or railways. Bubbles don't care. They're brought into existence by the thoughts and feelings of investors, not by actual tech or products.

"The bubble has burst" doesn't mean "the tech didn't work" or "people stopped using the tech." It only means that people got panicky, investor money dried up, and valuations collapsed. Internet adoption didn't stop in 2000.

[Jack Cocchiarella @JDCocchiarella]

This is what people say about me

[DepressedBergman @DannyDrinksWine]

After reading the script of "Robocop 2" (1990), Peter Weller didn't like it and he criticised it. He told the producers, Irvin Kirshner and Frank Miller up front that the movie needed a better third act. The producers felt that "the monster is going to be enough.” Weller felt it needed a moral angle. Weller thought the script of "Robocop 2" did not have the code, the spine, or the soul of 'Robocop" (1987).

Here is what Peter Weller said:

"Interviewer: Does 'RoboCop 2' have anything to do with your general feelings on sequels being inferior?

Weller: Yeah. 'RoboCop 2' didn’t have a third act. I told the producers and Irv Kirshner up front, and Frank Miller. I told them all. I said, “Where’s the third act here, man? So I beat up a big monster. In the third act, you have to have your Dan O’Herlihy. Somebody’s got to be the third act.” “No, no, the monster’s going to be enough.” “Look, it’s not enough!” When you have a movie like the first 'RoboCop', where the bad guys are never the bad guys and it’s always the morality of the thing. You know, like the idea that progress in the name of progress can steal a man’s identity.

Look, the first RoboCop’s got deregulated trickle-down social economic politics in it, way before Bush and Romney and the debates with Obama and Senator Clinton. It’s got a morality to it. If you don’t have that, man, you’ve got no flick, and I said that so much. But, look, I don’t need to be right about 'RoboCop 2'. I had a good time making 'Robocop 2'. I was breaking up with a girlfriend at the time, so I can’t say I really had a great time, but I had a good time with Irv Kirshner, God bless him, and being in Houston, running around with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who’s an old friend. But the script did not have the code, the spine, or the soul of the first one."

("Peter Weller on feminism, sequels, and more", Will Harris, The AV Club, 2013)

[Patrick McKenzie @patio11]

I respond in the thread but since this is common, here’s the math: one year to get you past next tax filing deadline, six years for retention requirement after filing for most taxpayers in absence of fraud. After that bank wants to shred it because ancient records are timebombs.

[Spectre @spectre0799]

Shabang but the beat is Hickory Dickory Dock

[1926 Live @100YearsAgoLive]

At the University of Göttingen, Germany, one of physicist Max Born’s young students, an American named Robert Oppenheimer, is making quite a ruckus.

He completely takes over discussions and will not quiet down. One of his classmates, Maria Goeppert, is circulating a petition wherein signatories are threatening not to come to class unless Oppenheimer shuts up.

[tinashe @Chingozha_T]

Explains why there’s 4 coffee shops within a 2km radius from my home 2 of them are Motherland

[FinancialMail @FinancialMail]

The coffee market should be saturated — there are shops on almost every corner in some neighbourhoods — but long-standing operators and plucky upstarts keep expanding, competing for a place in the daily routine of consumers.

Read more in our cover story: Inside #SouthAfrica’s coffee race, here: https://t.co/fWmNwZgd3E

[𝓫𝓮𝓻 𝓵𝓲𝓷✨ @realmfberlin]

Every person with ADHD has a favorite playlist. It's called "Liked Songs".

[Mr Dlamini @Ant_089]

Gents were busy having a lekker Sunday braai while their citizens fight each other, mainly because of the lack of competent leadership from both of them.

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

complement-something that completes, or makes better or perfect

compliment- an expression of esteem, respect, affection, or admiration

'Complement' with an 'e' completes something.

'I' like receiving ‘compliments.’

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

fun socks with black tie. what's even the point of having a country anymore?

[tinashe @Chingozha_T]

@grandtheftnoise We see you Richard Gilmore

[Tracy Alloway @tracyalloway]

Allbirds, the shoe brand, now says it's an AI compute company.

[🐝 Bee 🐝 @SavinTheBees]

She’s lost the light in her eyes…

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: Iran shot down a U.S. fighter jet over the country, U.S. officials and Iranian media said. The fate of the crew was unclear. https://t.co/lFyRA6sis0

[Taylor Lorenz @TaylorLorenz]

Weakening speech protections via mass surveillance and censorship laws is the stated goal of the groups and parents involved in this effort

[Martin Bauer @martinmbauer]

Like social media, LLMs are built to maximise engagement. If that involves convincing you you’ve discovered the theory of everything, they’ll do it. Attention is everything

[Lusibalukhulu 🖍 @feziledhlamini_]

So the IDC just ran a paid News24 piece telling South Africa how great they are. Allow me to do something the IDC apparently cannot: basic maths.

They say they approved R26.6 billion in “transformation funding” last year and “created or preserved” 15,000 jobs.
That is R1,773,333 per job.
One million, seven hundred and seventy-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three rand. Per job.

You could pay someone the average South African salary for nearly seven years with that money. Or you could give it to the IDC and they will “create or preserve” one job. Maybe. If the company does not end up in their R30 billion distress portfolio.

Oh, did I not mention that? The IDC’s distress portfolio, that is the money they invested that is now in trouble, is R30 billion. That is bigger than the R26.6 billion they approved this year. They are underwater. They are losing money faster than they are deploying it.

And of that R30 billion in distress? R9 billion is in black-empowered entities. So roughly a third of the “transformation” money they are bragging about in paid newspaper articles is currently circling the drain.

But wait, there is more.

Since 2017, the IDC has given R8.5 billion to 128 black industrialists. Sounds impressive until you learn that a single manganese company got R6.1 billion. One company. That is 72% of the total. Three companies consumed virtually the entire allocation.

The average per industrialist? R66.4 million.

Here is my favourite part: the IDC says 88% of its funding goes to black-owned businesses. Beautiful number. Very clean. Very round. Very paid-media-friendly.

But when NAFCOC went to Parliament and said the IDC is undermining black industrialists through “aggressive recovery actions, premature legal enforcement, and liquidation processes,” the Portfolio Committee Chair responded: “It appears that the IDC has not effectively embedded issues of transformation in its business processes.”

That is Parliament. Not me. Parliament.
So here is what R26.6 billion in “transformation funding” actually looks like:
1. R1.77 million per job (if you believe the job numbers).
2. R30 billion in distress (which they do not mention in the paid article).
3. R9 billion in black business distress (which they definitely do not mention).
72% of black industrialist funding going to three companies (which they will never mention).

But sure. Run the paid article. The maths will still be here in the morning.