George Chen

Designer by trade. Posting here as a public notebook for my thoughts rather than trying to go viral.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@avant_online @SidPhoenix2211 @A24 Dutch only wins when he drops his guns and relies on primitive traps and gone full native. Sometimes it's less about the training but how clever one can be.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@Kingcannibal12 @A24 Connor surviving a cybernetic super-soldier with zero training *was* the point. She won w/ wits and luck, not muscle. That's an underdog story. Making the MC a trained SF sniper is kinda lazy and boring. And no, I'd care even less if the MC were a dude.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@WillNotBill2 @SidPhoenix2211 @A24 Bro, you’re missing my point. I’m not saying copy Ripley or Sarah Connor. I’m saying those worked because they had to earn it. Automatic “military badass” in the trailer just feels like lazy action hero writing to me, male or female.

[George Chen @georgechen]

Giving a slasher MC a military background isn't a "different take." To me, it's just instant plot armor, and it makes me care way less if she survives or gets hurt.

A24 built its reputation on smart writing and subverting expectations, so a generic super-soldier setup feels lazy. They can do better.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@BeyondGraves @A24 One more pure nerd take: when the MC starts out already "military trained," I care way less if they survive. Ripley is the same way - she's just a cargo ship warrant officer who survives the first film through intelligence, situational awareness, and sheer will to live.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@BeyondGraves @A24 Reese dies right before the final act. Connor drags herself away and leads the robot to the hydraulic press and crushed it without any weapon but with sheer will to survive. That makes a great movie and great character.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@BeyondGraves @A24 That’s T-2. You’ve just proved my point.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@panipani1976 Zeta came out in Showa 60 (1985). Panoramic monitors existed even back then.

[George Chen @georgechen]

r/technology sub should be renamed to r/anti-tech 🤷🏻‍♂️

[George Chen @georgechen]

Nvidia’s quarterly earnings remind me of Apple’s iPhone earnings throughout the 2010s. The growth, margins, and trajectory are almost boringly strong, yet investors and the buy-side keep trying to guess when the growth will finally decelerate, or when the whole thing will pop.

Episode 166 of The Circuit podcast pretty much echoed what I’ve been thinking for years...

[George Chen @georgechen]

I see some real similarities between Marco Rubio and Shinjiro Koizumi. Both were ridiculed early in their political careers by party elders and the old establishment. Now both seem to be rising again, with pretty clear-eyed and reasonable agendas.

Worth keeping an eye on.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

There is a restaurant in Texas where they bring you food until you tell them to stop.

They do not tell you to stop. You tell them.

I did not know a man could be trusted with such power. I confess I wept.

In my country, when a host feeds you, you finish what is served. To leave food on the plate is to insult the hands that made it. This is not my opinion. This is the law of the table.

So when the man said "all you can eat," I did not hear an offer. I heard a challenge of honor.

The house was offering me everything it had. To stop before the house stopped would be to call the house stingy. I would not insult the house.

Plate one, fried chicken. I bowed. I finished it.

Plate two, ribs. I bowed. I finished it.

Plate three. Four. Five.

The house did not stop. So neither did I.

A waiter came and said, kindly, that I could stop whenever I wished.

I told him I did not come here to wish. I came here to settle a debt of honor.

He brought a manager. The manager brought water. I do not drink water during battle.

By the second hour, the kitchen had slowed. I took this as weakness in the enemy and pressed forward.

By the third hour I could no longer feel my face. But a samurai does not retreat simply because his face has left him.

They turned off the lights and closed the restaurant around me. I remained seated. Still chewing. The last man at the table.

I won.

I have not eaten since. That was eleven days ago.

So tell me honestly. When the sign says all you can eat, who is supposed to surrender first?

Because it will not be me.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@LillianneMoo I’ve noticed that most British rock and roll singers tend to sing with an American accent. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[George Chen @georgechen]

MW4: South Korean Marine.

MW5: Taiwan Airborne Special Service Company (ASSC).😏

[George Chen @georgechen]

AI, and SasS Web design trend detected: (fix-width) monospaced pro is IN right now.

Probably because CLI *is* the product now.

[George Chen @georgechen]

Opus 4.8 Max feels more lecture-y than before. Opinionated, not in a good way (hard to describe), where I can easily push back with facts and data support. Actual inference, don’t get me wrong, is good. I just wish it’s less “Anthropic-pilled”. Codex + 5.5 will still be my Prime.

[George Chen @georgechen]

@DEADLINE You are getting ratioed hard by Spencer Pratt. Good luck Deadline.

[George Chen @georgechen]

Guys and gals at @Google, Gemini Daily Brief is pretty good, but I never use Gemini Web. A native Mac app is the way to go. Please make platform parity a priority. Otherwise, goodwill won’t turn into usage from early adopters like me.

[Cybertruck @cybertruck]

Hey Luce