markets arereallyus

and where does the newborn go from here?

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

inspo: earthly visions of freedom

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

i build econometric models for trading hong kong horse races. i measure subtle variations in horse penis length+girth & ball droopiness as an input into my firm's multifactor testosterone estimation model. every vein & hair follicle is imprinted into my mind. i make $5m/yr.

[TINASHE @Tinashe]

Playing a video game with a hot boy. #yes

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

slutcon male attendee son or slutcon female attendee daughter. or thiel-altman new zealand doomsday compound slave bloodboy twink son.

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

i had to check but "Haikyuu" here is actually in fact referring to the volleyball anime

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

me and my (chinese) friend looked at each other like "zipperhead? huh?", flipped him off, and just walked away. all this is apropos of me learning that americans used to call italian immigrants "grapestompers" and "garlic eaters" as slurs.

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

i was 19, squaring up against some middle aged white guy after he backed his car into me out of a sidewalk lot (i slapped the car). he got out & called a "zipperhead" which confused me out of being angry (i didnt know what that word meant) & completely de-escalated the situation.

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

the modern-day American Dream is just gambling your way into having enough money to permanently move to japan

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

In the 40th calendar week of 2026, the dominant online cluster of the high IQ Western elite intellectual class collectively concerned themselves with transparently humblebragging their score for an online vocab-based IQ-proxy test that, ironically, misused the word "synonym".

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

peter thiel: "there's, ummm, an old book, obscure, ummm... written long ago, called 'Why Following is for Retards'. it's heterodox, uhhh... obscure... nonconsensus."

1000 independent thinkers simultaneously: "so there's this new obscure book im reading"

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

need this tweet on a foam trucker hat

[TINASHE @Tinashe]

Last night I was having so much fun at the club, dancing, getting lit.. and my girl turns to me and says “I can see in your eyes you’re sad” and I wonder how many other people notice

[Daniel Rosiak @DanRosiak]

No, but listen, you know this "put the fries in the bag, Terence Tao"'--*sniff, sniff*--already the usual replies concede too much. "If Tao is serving fries, YOU will be in the lithium mines." My God! This is our defense of human dignity? Don’t worry, the correct people will get the terrible jobs!

*Pulls at shirt* You see, everything is up for radical transformation, human intelligence, consciousness, and so on and so on--except that somebody must still have a shitty afternoon so I can enjoy my lunch.

But to say "these people are envious", this is too easy. It allows us, "the educated ones," our own little fantasy: we are disliked only because we are so wonderful.

You know, the more interesting thing is this *sniff* peculiar identification with the machine. When the mathematician discovers something, apparently this was HIS achievement, his privilege, his little secret. When the machine discovers something, suddenly it's "Look what WE can do!" The achievement has become collective precisely at the moment when no human being can claim credit.

See how this "we" functions. For the achievement, I identify with the machine. For the consequences, I identify YOU with the human. "We have surpassed you." Who are we? Well, myself and the thing that has also surpassed me.

There is something almost touching here, really. To escape the humiliation of somebody absorbed in something opaque to you, you appeal to something which knows incomparably more than either of you. And this is supposed to settle the matter in YOUR favor.

You know the old example of canned laughter. Here we have a similar arrangement. The machine achieves something on my behalf. The mathematician suffers the loss of human significance on my behalf. Somebody to be brilliant for me and somebody to be obsolete for me, without me having to be either, so I can remain as I was.

But *pulls on shirt* there is this little difficulty that hides the essential thing: you still need a response from Tao! A correct proof, this Lean slop and so on, is not enough. You need him to certify his own defeat. You need him to say "By god, this is extraordinary! Yes, this is correct, but also this is interesting." Which means--and here comes Hegel--the person you are reducing to an obedient instrument must remain more than an obedient instrument. You need recognition from someone whose authority you are abolishing.

"Your so-called expertise is worthless. Now tell me, in your expert opinion, that I, qua machine representative, was right."

*Touches nose* But I would go a step further. What does this math person actually do to provoke you? In the fantasy, I mean. He need not insult you. He can be generous, mild-mannered, whatever. Something remains irritating: there is something over there which occupies him, which matters to him, and your opinion does not settle what it is worth. Perhaps he is not even looking down on you. This is the really intolerable possibility.

This, you see, is closer to the Lacanian problem of the Other's desire. Not simply "What does he have that I don't?" but "What the hell is going on with him?" Perhaps the answer is: he is thinking about something else.

The fries solve this beautifully. Now you know what you are for him. He needs the money. Your presence creates an obligation.

And this, at last, also explains why the machine can be less threatening than the mathematician. The machine's intelligence may exceed yours unimaginably, but you imagine it arrives in response to your prompt. You can complain about the tone. You have the privileges of an angry customer and so on and so on. The human has this irritating possibility of being interested in something you did not request and cannot order. And please, this includes the person already serving the fries!

*Pulls at shirt* I am almost tempted to say: the dream of unlimited intelligence conceals just this: a the wish that nobody should be doing anything you cannot immediately understand as a service.

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

often ill listen to music because i enjoy the way it sounds. i cant explain it

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

in my experience its normal and even expected for a girl to ask a guy about his horoscope to flirt, and even asking about "moon sign" is permissible. but a red flag when she starts asking about "venus sign" and shit like that

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

"Many painters in Dafen are doing originals now. The market now allows us to do our own paintings -- before there was no way." (note: this documentary is from 2016)

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

i bought a painting at an HK nightmarket when i was 12 that, upon my learning about the true nature of its origins as an pseudo-industrially produced commodity, gained another layer of beauty. nowadays i think, "the artist has probably produced the same tree hundreds of times"

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

(Zhao, upon visiting his client buyer in Amsterdam) "I've been working with him for so many years. I thought his gallery would be very high class. I didn't think it was only a souvenir shop."

[Vivian @suchnerve]

Y’all ever think about how the phenomenon of morning wood means humanity has been doing a nonstop global boner wave

[markets arereallyus @tao_te_chaching]

"primordial future forest", sou fujimoto's ongoing solo exhibition in taipei, is an uncommonly earnest display of humanistic optimism. i'm a big fan. and while our future civilization of technologically enslaved cattle will never inhabit his designs, they're beautiful nonetheless

[Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent @SecScottBessent]

Great to welcome @jakepaul to the Treasury Department today.

Jake’s path from content creator to entrepreneur and professional boxer is a distinctly American story. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸