Duncan

I think there's an odd effect of the AI bubble--I personally have felt way more inspired and creative recently. It's strange--you'd think that the fact that a computer could create music and art would somehow be discouraging. Instead, I feel an almost spiteful drive to create as much as possible.

because it seems to me that if you accept the basic premise that people can have real psychological ailments that we should treat with medical seriousness, these states could also have a real effect on our physiological well-being and should be treated with that same seriousness. (2/?)

Thinking about the concept of psychosomatic ailments this morning. I've had conversations with people in the past where they called people's real expressed sensations and distress 'psychosomatic' with the same dismissiveness as though they were calling it 'fake'. This confused me at the time, (1/?)

i will never be as beautiful as the slow movement of any haydn string quartet and i've come to terms with that

The answer to this rhetorical question was yes, but like four times

without even entering my credit card information. I see this as something of a victory, although I'm sure I've been suckered in other ways I'm not aware of. (3/3)

decided that it would be profitable in the long run. It makes me notice how many services are artificially deflated in price just to get you in the metaphorical door. The free-to-play model for video games also comes to mind. I played Fortnite for months, fully enjoying the meat of the game (2/?)

Thinking today about how strangely common loss-leading is as a strategy--my girlfriend and I just got three-month bowling passes (including shoes!) for the cost of two games. As long as we don't buy beers, we are now bowling for free. But I'm sure some marketing nerd ran the numbers and (1/?)

No mom, i wasn't "hiding in the bathroom" i was aura farming

something almost religious about the way the film uses the scientists that feels like it would appeal to a very conspiratorial mind: "My vague and unsubstantiated fears about vaccines and 5G will no doubt bear fruit, just as the vague and unsubstantiated fears of these scientists did." (3/3)

as though this is what the scientists were warning about. However, all I can think when watching the movie is like "well I would ACTUALLY spare no expense--I would pay Nedry enough to insure against corporate espionage--I would build more fail-safes, I would prototype for longer...". There's (2/?)

What's frustrating about the movie version of Jurassic Park (1993) is that the arguments made by the scientists are just terrible, fallacious appeals to nature. The fact that the film validates them by having a Chernobyl-level confluence of system failures makes the movie feel aesthetically (1/?)

saying that generative AI makes you better at your job is a remarkable admission of incompetence, and should be treated as the reveal of an embarrassing secret

I generally adore puzzles, but my gut instinct is to reject the sort of "right answer" interpretation that such symbols tend to accompany. I prefer symbols that could plausibly be interpreted in multiple ways. 4/4

components that behave for all the world like symbols, but reveal no deeper meaning when examined (or perhaps reveal so many deeper meanings that no ONE meaning can be attributed)? My personal emotional response is that I usually find pat, one-to-one symbolic associations to be uninteresting. 3/?

Without getting into discussions of authorial intent (and whether it matters), are the curtains ever really just blue? Does it make for a better, more focused work when the curtains are blue BECAUSE they refer back to the emotional state of the author? How should a reader interact with 2/?

This morning, I'm thinking about the function of ambiguity in semiotics and storytelling. What does it mean for a movie like The Babadook to have a monster that canonically "represents" grief? What can we make of movies with wild, often undirected symbolism like Mulholland Drive? 1/?

Stupid dumb pre-Lamarckism giraffe--how tf did you live to adulthood when all the tastiest leaves are at the top of the tree

if the koreans ever figure out that girls and boys can be in bands together they're going to be unstoppable

now it is free
on my floor gee
makin me real distressed tho
tryin to clean
but i'm like woah
spilled that old espresso

My drag honors God

me when looking for work: ooh a dynamic fast-paced environment, sounds like a perfect fit

me in my free time: did you see the new trailer for repetitive strain simulator 2025? i can't wait

feeling much better about my lack of a 401k at the moment

What if I cancel them on X, the everything app

According to my research, profits for the company have risen 12% per annum--

IN ENGLISH, PLEASE!

They've made more money every year.

imagine me in my therapist's office after he references a bill maher segment

just fully hollowed out

let me tell you, they're not happy

when i drink two monsters in a row i can see the face of god

I mean sure, but why did you say it so many times

wow i didn't have you pegged for a glorphead