Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst)

Lead geek at marmite to leftpondians; worst freenode oper of old; troutifier of decency; shouter of well volunteered; sometimes writes perl

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@hradzka Am 42 ... and yes grey static.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@hradzka California is a fractal of bad governance in the same sense that PHP is a fractal of bad design.

I may be left of centre but WTAF.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

I disagree with this man on ... basically everything ... but this is, even so, a pretty solid piece of analysis, and ignoring it just because of the rest of my opinions would be Incorrect.

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

These guys don't understand each other.

Elon Musk is too guileless. He says exactly what he thinks is true with little regard for how others will react. He alienates allies by airing disputes in public instead of settling them behind closed doors.

Because he is a sperg engineer who leads companies of sperg engineers, and to do this, you must be 100% truthful and transparent.

Donald Trump is too guileful. He says exactly what will advance his plans with little regard for telling people what he actually thinks. He alienates allies by expecting their unconditional support without sharing any aspect of his strategic plans with them.

Because he is a New York real estate developer, who thrives on winning negotiations and gaining advantage from unshared knowledge, and to do this, you must be 100% calculating and opaque.

Here's what happened.

Musk worked super hard, and took great personal risks, to get a head start on balancing the federal budget. He correctly believes that federal spending is an existential risk to the nation.

Trump regards those savings as a political asset.

And, since he lacks leverage in congress, he took them and traded them for other things he wanted, apparently dealing with border control, the courts, etc... problems which he correctly believes are an existential threat to the nation.

He may have concrete plans for balancing the federal budget in the future, but, frustratingly, he won't tell his own team what they are.

Trump could have squared this in advance with Musk, in private, but he appears to either have assumed his loyalty (treating an ally like a subordinate), or been unable to persuade him.

Likewise, Musk could have raised his complaints in private, but either he was too upset to try, or was not able to reach an agreement when he did.

Trump doesn't understand how to deal with spergs. You have to tell them the truth, not expect them to read subtext. They refuse to read subtext. They want to be spoken to honestly.

Musk doesn't understand how to deal with Machiavellians. They think of language as a power tool, and think of those who insist on truth as naive.

Both men are used to being in charge, and are used to dealing with subordinates, who must cater to their preferred style of communicating.

They are both therefore uniquely unsuited to having both the patience and the capability to speak the other's language.

The truth is that both the federal budget and the federal bureaucracy are existential threats to America. Maximum priority.

Trump's concerns about the "art of the possible" are probably valid, but Musk's sense of urgency should not be dismissed lightly.

It is churlish to leverage the superior strengths and talents of people on the autism spectrum while making zero allowances for their unique needs.

That said, spergs can be frustratingly dogmatic, even when they aren't the richest and most successful man in the world.

A few other things to notice:

The democrats have said nothing. That's because there are no democrats. They have no independent intellectuals, only paid schills.

A response will not be forthcoming until the wholly organic grassroots PR committees have met, and the wholly grassroots talking heads have been cut a wholly organic grassroots check.

There's also a strong case to be made for Team Nothing Ever Happens. Remember that Musk will sometimes shut up when he calms down, and Trump has no problem calling someone the Antichrist one day and working with him the next.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@TypoDynamofo Reminded of the time my girl's car was failing to start ... a hispanic family driving past saw us arguing with the recalcitrant vehicle, stopped, and while his wife rode herd on their kids the dude hopped out and helped me push until it bump started. Same energy as 4 IMO :D

[typo @TypoDynamofo]

4 could farm the midwest by himself
8 could lay 24 sq of shingles in a day
5 will push a Mack Truck out of a ditch on a muddy day
11 and 12 will crush their skulls headbutting each other in disagreement over the pharaceutical bag

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@ericowensdc @TheRickWilson I very much appreciate the "Ivan" schtick in your replies here.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@CathyYoung63 @wanyeburkett I was vastly pleased when I asked Claude an obscure keyboard related question and it replied "I'm not sure about that, and I think if I tried to answer I'd probably hallucinate, so here's some ideas on how to research it yourself instead."

An LLM that can do that at all is nice.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@hradzka I would not have understood this except for @kendrictonn explaining a Rothko painting to me until I (think I) got it.

Also: "Damn, son." (positive valence ;)

[Rob Wiblin @robertwiblin]

What in the actual fuck:

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@MorlockP (I'll be skipping said stories because I know you wouldn't enjoy them, but *I* did ;)

Also because Canal Street when I went out for a smoke I yet again won a free zero personality subby twink trying to hit on me. I really wish I wasn't catnip to those boys.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@MorlockP So many sorts of meetup are ... unfortunate.

I went to a rope kink meetup once and OMG THOSE PEOPLE WERE *BORING*

I spent the evening stood on the sidelines chatting to a transgirl pro-domme who held the same opinion because at least she had fun stories to tell.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

I wonder how different people's view of the FBI would be today if it had been led by somebody who could write[0] marketing copy to this level earlier.

(please don't think I *like* the man, but that's not the point of the thought experiment)

[0] or delegate to somebody who could

[FBI Director Kash Patel @FBIDirectorKash]

New from the FBI… I can confirm that this morning at JFK Airport, FBI Agents arrested an individual, Daniel Jongyon Park, on charges related to the bombing of the Palm Springs, CA fertility clinic in May.

Park is alleged to have provided material support to the fertility clinic bomber by shipping and paying for significant quantities of an explosive precursor.

Park had fled to Poland days after the bombing, where @TheJusticeDept @AGPamBondi led extradition efforts after our partners in Poland had detained him.

This morning, the suspect was flown back to New York, where our agents arrested him. He will now face justice.

Excellent work from @FBILosAngeles @NewYorkFBI @FBIPortland @FBISeattle in the investigation, as well as our local and federal law enforcement partners around the country. Thank you to our partners in Poland for your coordination.

Let this be a reminder: If you harm the American people, or aid and abet those who do, you cannot hide. This FBI will work with our partners to pursue you, find you, and bring you to justice — in any corner of the planet.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

This is ... honestly fair, I think.

[just matt @questionableway]

eric adams is legitimately insane and literally committed treason in exchange for airline miles. he’s also the only nyc mayor in ~50 years to make progress on two of the biggest issues the city has: trash & housing

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@_anooshehnouri_ @HPluckrose @QueerMajority The 'affiliated with' is arguably unfortunate, but I don't see that it makes much difference to the question of "will the readers of said site, most of whom likely have no idea about that, learn something from reading this piece."

Perhaps I'm more consequentialist than you are.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@ded_ruckus @Rafa_Schwinger timberwolf=; uname -a
FreeBSD timberwolf 13.1-RELEASE-p6 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 GENERIC amd64
timberwolf=;

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@MorlockP One of my arguments for free school meals is that poor childhood nutrition is an IQ shredder.

You can have moral/etc. disagreements with doing it, but the societal human capital improvements of doing so seem well worthwhile to me on net.

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@travis4nh I (as Travis knows, even if any other reader doesn't) am firmly in the centre-left category.

Designing maximally effective policy for *any* set of goals, including mine, including his, requires actually paying attention to reality FFS.

(which no politicians manage IME, lolsigh)

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

You can disagree with this man's politics (and I do! our entire friendship is based on it!) but ...

An amazon review said (paraphrased) "this convinced me to hate libertarianism because of all the problems" and, true, he didn't write libertopia, THAT WAS THE POINT.

Recommended.

[ⓘ Dogs don't have thumbs @MorlockP]

1/

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Better than 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress' " -Amazon

I wrote 2 novels about AI, uplifted dogs, markets, guns, lunar colonization

#1 won the Prometheus "best novel" award in 2018

#2 won the same award in 2019

https://t.co/yBYTKe2S9c

https://t.co/E2bprquka4

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@sp6runderrated In my personal opinion, the Correct centre-left position here is "fuck rent control, BUILD MORE FUCKING HOUSING."

Of course I mostly get yelled at for (a) being left of centre (b) thinking rent control is stupid ... but I still think I'm right :D

[Matt S "unpredictably hypergolic" Trout (mst) @shadowcat_mst]

@MorlockP "The street finds its own use for things."