Finch

Building Open Source Tools Across AI, Psychology & Whatever Da Data Says. SAR ⛑️ Pipe Smoker. Don't take anything too seriously, me especially.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

It has gotten so much worse too

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Trump's war is affecting my wallet poorly 🫠

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@abowenwk Keep it up!

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Rainy day on the water yesterday. My favorite type of weather!

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@DoctorPerin @albertus3M @ChrisPalmerMD I have not heard of him but I just followed. He sounds right up my alley.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to protect freed slaves.

Within 20 years it was being used more often to protect railroads than Black citizens.

Between 1890 and 1910, of 14th Amendment cases the Supreme Court heard, 288 involved corporations and only 19 involved African Americans.

The courts assembled it piece by piece over 150 years, and it was never voted on by Congress or the public.

The timeline:
1819 — Dartmouth College v. Woodward. Marshall ruled corporations are "artificial persons" with contract rights. Narrow, but the foot in the door.

1886 — Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. This is the famous one, and here's the kicker... the actual ruling didn't decide corporate personhood. A court reporter's headnote, basically a summary written by a clerk named J.C. Bancroft Davis & former railroad president, claimed the court agreed corporations were persons under the 14th Amendment. That headnote got cited as precedent for the next century. The doctrine was launched by a footnote.

1976 — Buckley v. Valeo. Money = speech.

1978 — First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti. Corporations have First Amendment political speech rights.

2010 — Citizens United v. FEC. Unlimited corporate political spending. This is what most people mean when they ask your question.

2014 — Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Corporations now have religious beliefs.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Why did we the people decide corporations are people too?

We didn't... the judiciary decided, on our behalf, without asking.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@mofumomufomin @PregoneroL @elonmusk I work to live, I don't live to work.

In a post scarcity world, if you are passionate about whatever your job was, you dont need money to keep doing it. You can just do it cause that is what ya really wanna do.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@PregoneroL @elonmusk Jobs are not a humans purpose. Y'all gotta stop perpetuating this lie.

[Edward A. Perin - Psychologist @DoctorPerin]

“Do it weird”

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@DoctorPerin Yes! I am still working on this. I am so weird but terrified of what others think of me. I too often take the coward's way out by conforming instead of embracing who I am.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Hey @elonmusk, X needs an inverse recommendation toggle.

The "For You" algorithm already knows exactly what I like. I want a button that flips it so I am served the orthogonal stuff, the communities & voices outside my engagement graph, the shit my click pattern says I'd never touch.

Escaping my own echo chamber shouldn't be a manual excavation... that's a pain in the dick dude.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Am I good at fishing?.. No.

Do I look like I am good at fishing?

If you don't watch too long ☺🫠

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Trump's war is affecting my wallet poorly 🫠

[Michael Frank Martin @riemannzeta]

Strong agree. Learning how to code and especially debug code is still the best cheat code for learning critical thinking.

Practicing law can teach you how to think too, but the feedback comes slower and from humans who are prone to making mistakes.

(Although you can still learn lessons from human feedback that you can't from computers. At least not yet.)

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Raúl Bunyan & Babe the Red Ox

[Emmanuel Rincón @EmmaRincon]

El Ejercito cubano se prepara para "combatir a los gringos" usando una batería antiaérea montada en una carreta tirada por bueyes:

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@SidTheArgent I will take a look!

[Finch @MooseFinch]

Our nervous system processes a perspective the same way regardless of source. Criticism from a boss, political ads, your own inner monologue, even an AI output is the EXACT same stress chemicals & regions firing. Aaron & Anish are spot on!

Because the wiring doesn't care about the source, deliberate positive input works the same way deliberate negative input does. The problem isn't that we think negatively, it's that negative pattern recognition requires zero effort. Our threat detection system runs for free & positive reframing costs energy. so we default to the cheap option.

Work on catching the loop before the second repetition. The first negative thought is automatic & the second one is practice. Interrupt there.

Replace narration with observation. "I failed" is a story where "that didn't work" is data.

Our nervous system responds differently to each so make the positive channel cheaper to access.

Write things down & say them out loud. Question your assumptions & focus on solutions. The reason affirmations feel stupid is because you're forcing a high-cost channel to compete with a free one. We are lowering the cost of positivity by desentizing ourselves to it.

Repetition lowers the cost.
The brain isn't broken, it's just running the default firmware. You can flash it, it just takes practice like anything else we wish to accomplish.

[Finch @MooseFinch]

TL;DR: Your brain doesn't distinguish internal from external negativity & by that same wiring... you can retrain the default channel.

TS;RM: Practical applications in comments.

[Aaron Bowen @abowenwk]

A perspective is a perspective. Whether it's internal, external, or even artificial intelligence, negativity is mentally and physically unhealthy.

https://t.co/7fb8WNkZsh

[Finch @MooseFinch]

@SidTheArgent I have not. I haven't been on much lately myself. With the nice weather I have been getting S.A.R.A. (my search & rescue drones) & Lucifer (my SAR dog) out on the trails to practice & work on bugs. Plus a lil fishing cause it would be blasphemous not to 🤣