Jane Huang

like the joy luck club, but without the redemption.

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@krstck @wispem_wantex i have come to really dislike the people who claim to like computers bc they so often do this. using k8s when ECS would do, making 20 microservices then ignoring how complex it now is to deploy, etc., fanboys who read the react source code and then reimplement from scratch

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@loomdoop @BigMeanInternet I dislike pgs takes as much as anyone but that’s a little unfair. He’s conversant in western art history and can paint at the level of a competent amateur. Plus he’s speaking out for Gaza

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@captgouda24 How would you feel about a UBI or universal jobs guarantee to disincentivize such behavior? I'm pro-unionizing always, but I can think of a lot of devs in tech who I would want to lay off

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@ali23739984 @nnnnnnxox Wtf lol my friends and I talk about job interviews even though those also may not pan out because we just like chatting. What are you supposed to talk about instead, stuff on tv instead of your actual lives?

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@rssbotd @ChombaBupe Working full time on it and making only 20k a year because devs are usually parasites

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@rssbotd @ChombaBupe Being an open source dev is a PITA because you get way more people badgering you with tickets than you get useful contributions. You should read about the life the main OpenSSL dev was leading before the heartbleed bug came it

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

What he's really saying is "wahhh I didn't do any reading on the tariffs so I can justify my rep as a contrarian genius"

[Yishan @yishan]

Ok, so I am not an administration apologist but I have not heard any intellectually rigorous discussion of the current tariff policy. I'm not sure what I'm about to say is either, but here is a perspective I have not yet seen advanced:

Before we begin, a shift in perspective. To understand where I'm going, you have to first accept that China is succeeding, that they are not backwards, and that in many areas they are already far beyond the US. If you're still in the "China's advantage is low-cost labor" mindset, you're ngmi and might as well leave now.

All right, for everyone still around:

A few years ago, Xi and the CCP made a series of what appeared to be extremely damaging moves for China.

These included:
- popping the real estate bubble, crushing investors and bankrupting more than one investment firm
- wiping out all for-profit student tutoring companies, an entire industry gone overnight
- severely tamping down the entire Chinese social media and e-commerce startup ecosystem

These were widely portrayed as damaging to the Chinese economy and part of an authoritarian reassertion of power and retreat from free markets and capitalism.

Maybe they were.

But, there was rationale behind all of those - and some people even believed them to be true for the US, namely:

- "housing is for living in, not investment" so prices should be low, not high
- for-profit tutoring advantages rich families, corrupting the meritocratic exam system
- social media and e-commerce make money but aren't tech that benefits national security, the way aerospace, robotics, and semiconductors do

A few years later, we see many of the intended results:

- working-class people have been able refinance their homes for less, even while investors took a bath
- the exam system is no longer as corrupted
- China speeds ahead in many hardtech areas

This isn't a post about China supremacy.

(The investment climate in China is still tepid, and China has many other issues)

This is a post about the fact that large-scale decisions that benefit the national interest often look bad according to conventional metrics and will certainly be decried as bad by the people who have been most successful under the current system!

That is likely to be as true in China as in the US, or anywhere.

After all, if they made things look good under the current metrics, we'd already be doing them quite uncontroversially! So anything non-obvious that needs to be done which isn't already being done is probably going to look really bad by those metrics.

I use China to illustrate this because it has leaders who are willing to take such actions, whereas the US generally does not.

Now... I don't personally know if the tariffs are that thing for the US.

But I do know that if they aren't, pointing out that the stock market is tanking is not a useful way to prove it.

US supply chains are global, and I suspect the tariffs are not focused on punishing other countries, but to force US-owned companies to move their supply chains (and thus physical production) into the United States. But it's easier for a President to yell and demonize other countries than to do that about your own country's major industry leaders.

I don't know if there's a better sequence for doing this combined with selected deregulation, but certainly any plan will end up making typical metrics look really bad. I am a fan of detail and finesse myself, and we can't just cold-start new factories in the US tomorrow.

If you just want to know how bad things will be bad, you can probably find a best-case scenario by looking at how long it took for the Chinese economy to recover after they took the drastic actions I listed above.

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@BigMeanInternet Idk how this can be solved but the American public at large is still unable to grapple with the conditions required for successful adaptation and mitigation. Eg Cambridge Small businesses came out HARD against bike lanes on Massachusetts avenue

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@BigMeanInternet Can't say the public is either. Saw a quote from an altadena public official that they were going to rebuild in that exact spot

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

asdf asdf

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@BigMeanInternet Boston?

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@JacobAShell I agree the ideological conformity is bad, let's hire more anarchist professors

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@timgill924 A scholar of your stature is entitled to some leisure

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@timgill924 Anyone who can't get out of a pin should definitely be cut

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@BigMeanInternet Wait sorry idgi, wouldn't dearresting invite a fight at least some of the time?

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@shouxin13141 How can we buy prints of these?

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@yourpalhalsays @stuartpstevens Did u seriously think u were the first person ever to wonder if usaid needed to be audited

How big is ur ego lol

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@ettingermentum makes sense, though biden was the right guy at the moment because people craved something normal. being old fashioned was a plus then

[Avowed @AvowedtheGame]

Eora, the world of Pillars of Eternity and Avowed, whispers to those who dare to uncover its hidden truths. To guide both new and returning souls, Obsidian Entertainment presents Lore of Eora—a five-part series exploring its ancient mysteries, vibrant histories, and captivating metaphysical properties.

Watch "Species" here:
https://t.co/Lw6nLskqXc

[Jane Huang @janedotx]

@hecubian_devil Agree hard, especially since a lot of the actions we need to take require sacrificing luxuries, and nerdy wonkish policies