Sam Stern

PhD student at UMass Amherst // likes developer tools more than actual software // he/him

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@johnny_fixer @olive8022 Yeah, why not? Direct action shouldn't require sympathy. The OP was totally right, there are many locals who are discussing what they lost and I think they deserve some time to grieve without being reminded of the outsiders forced upon them by travel companies and marketing

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@johnny_fixer @olive8022 I agree that we should honor their home, but we should do it as the locals and in particular indigenous locals ask us to. From what I've heard, donating is the best way, and the other best way is to not go to Hawai'i. We have a lifetime to hear about it later.

[Hard Drive @HardDriveMag]

Twitter Heavily Considering Removing ‘Tweet’ Button

https://t.co/RTiM3QUdjU

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@Skatunenetwork That's Fred

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@qntm Genres do not exist, and because of this no music has a genre

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

I'd like to note to the 2 people reading this that @Skatunenetwork is a huge part of the reason that I love ska because that Fallout Music video ENTIRELY got me into ska. Thanks Jer! (And BDG and the folks at polygon I guess)

[third-party evaluation partner @mycoliza]

why does every every web framework describe itself as, like, "a simple, lightweight, and easy to use web framework" and then you scroll to the bottom of the README and it's like "(powered by the blood of forsaken children)"

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@max1446738 @AmeliaTheUwU @bringmeissues18 @IvanBreytenbach @danjinbnb @DrakeGatsby I reject your essentialism. Participating in an exploitative system is bad, regardless of the fundamental nature of the participants. Enforcing unjust laws is unjust and enriching oneself by hoarding necessities for life is stealing, regardless of who does it.

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@max1446738 @AmeliaTheUwU @bringmeissues18 @IvanBreytenbach @danjinbnb @DrakeGatsby I of course mean "steal" in the "steal candy from a baby" sense rather than the "steal from walmart" sense, the former of which is never ethical and the latter of which is conditionally ethical

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@max1446738 @AmeliaTheUwU @bringmeissues18 @IvanBreytenbach @danjinbnb @DrakeGatsby I don't think it's a bad thing to tell someone not to steal, even though it would involve them remaining poor. Some things are simply bad.

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@TwoTonguesPod @mathemactivist @Leftwatch2 @DenkenAnalysis There's also no "underlying mathematics" that unifies both of them-- Euclidian geometry requires the 5th postulate to be true, most noneuclidian geometries (there are many! All are useful!) require the 5th postulate to be false.

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@TwoTonguesPod @mathemactivist @Leftwatch2 @DenkenAnalysis We use Euclidian geometry and noneuclidian geometry in different circumstances in the same physical space because neither represents a profound reality-- what they are instead is tools for manipulating structures that can be more or less useful

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@TwoTonguesPod @mathemactivist @Leftwatch2 @DenkenAnalysis Ordinals

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@TwoTonguesPod @mathemactivist @Leftwatch2 @DenkenAnalysis If math was as simple as you seem to think, then we wouldn't have so many unsolved (or unsolvable) problems or make so many discoveries. It's not that there's something we haven't seen yet, we have so many unsolved problems that require us to create entirely new tools

[Sam Stern @samst3rn]

@TwoTonguesPod @mathemactivist @Leftwatch2 @DenkenAnalysis @mathemactivist brought up philosophy of math too, which is an entire field! but to put something into perspective: the concepts you're discussing are hundreds or thousands of years old, and colossal discoveries are still made literally every day