Zompist Bboard Again

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 28, 2025 5:26 am And as I mentioned months ago, I lost my 17yo cousin to suicide. It seems this year is a cruel year of death and sadness.

I have never had pets, but I know from personal experience that suicide can be hard to deal with.

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 28, 2025 5:26 am And as I mentioned months ago, I lost my 17yo cousin to suicide. It seems this year is a cruel year of death and sadness.

I'm really sorry to hear that.

We lost a cat to cancer a couple years ago, I know how bad it feels.

From the current stage of the word evolution game in the Word evolution game thread over in the Conlangery forum:

/ˌnɐ.ˈɾɛn.dɚ.ˌduːd/ wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 3:25 pm [ˈçeʙe]
'a type of domestic marsupial resembling a fox'

Nothing to contribute, but now I want a domestic marsupial resembling a fox.

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 4:07 pm From the current stage of the word evolution game in the Word evolution game thread over in the Conlangery forum:

/ˌnɐ.ˈɾɛn.dɚ.ˌduːd/ wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 3:25 pm [ˈçeʙe]
'a type of domestic marsupial resembling a fox'

Nothing to contribute, but now I want a domestic marsupial resembling a fox.

A numbat, perchance?

I don't know how much more greatness I can take. Does anyone else miss good old mediocrity?

bradrn: going by their Wikipedia page, sure, why not?

rotting bones wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 2:33 am I don't know how much more greatness I can take. Does anyone else miss good old mediocrity?

I myself really don't like the words "mediocrity" and "mediocre". They're basically slur forms of "average", and I don't think there should be a slur form of "average". Being average shouldn't be seen as anything to be ashamed of. We can't all be outstanding superhumans. And the idea that we should be is arguably doing a lot more harm than good.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 6:30 am bradrn: going by their Wikipedia page, sure, why not?

rotting bones wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 2:33 am I don't know how much more greatness I can take. Does anyone else miss good old mediocrity?

I myself really don't like the words "mediocrity" and "mediocre". They're basically slur forms of "average", and I don't think there should be a slur form of "average". Being average shouldn't be seen as anything to be ashamed of. We can't all be outstanding superhumans. And the idea that we should be is arguably doing a lot more harm than good.

Immortan Joe, on the other hand…

Silly trivial stuff: the subject line for my latest spam email from Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) starts with "Ab 19,99 Euro nach Europa", that is, something like "To Europe for as little as 19.99 Euros". Err, people writing Deutsche Bahn spam emails - I live in Europe. I don't have to take a train anywhere to be in Europe.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 7:47 am Silly trivial stuff: the subject line for my latest spam email from Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) starts with "Ab 19,99 Euro nach Europa", that is, something like "To Europe for as little as 19.99 Euros". Err, people writing Deutsche Bahn spam emails - I live in Europe. I don't have to take a train anywhere to be in Europe.

Why is Deutsche Bahn writing spam emails? Surely the eagle-eyed criticism of any government spending we could class as waste brigade¹ would complain vociferously about this until it stopped. It's about the one thing they should be good for.

¹ I took a while to double check if DB was subsidised by the government or not, and found that it helped run one of the most notoriously bad train franchises in the UK before it got nationised. Huh.

Lērisama wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 9:47 am
Why is Deutsche Bahn writing spam emails?

I'd have to look it up, but I think that DB is one of those "legally a private corporation but still wholly owned by the government, with the plan being that the shares will be sold to interested buyers as soon as they've started to make a profit, which has been scheduled to happen any day now for about 30 years"-entities that we have in Germany.

In any case, the mail in question is one of those "technically it's not spam since I signed up to be 'informed about special offers' back when I created my user account"-things.

In other words, they'd probably respond to the kind of criticism you envision by saying that they'll never become profitable if they aren't allowed to advertise their products.

You would have had to have had ‘had to have had “had had”’ here, had you have had ‘had to have had “have had”’.

---

I got bored.

I noticed something a bit weird about my own attitude towards wealth and standards of living. It's probably a sign of a fairly self-centered attitude, but I kind of can't help it.

You see, I'm really used to thinking of my own material standard of living as the "default". So much that I kind of think that people whose material standard of living is significantly lower than my own are suffering from serious oppression, deprivation, and misery, while people whose material standard of living is significantly higher than my own are living lives of pointless and unneeded luxury and decadence. I probably need to get out more.

(I've chosen the phrase "material standard of living" carefully. I know that you can't just compare how much money people get to spend, because it might buy different things in different places.)

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 6:32 pm I noticed something a bit weird about my own attitude towards wealth and standards of living. It's probably a sign of a fairly self-centered attitude, but I kind of can't help it.

You see, I'm really used to thinking of my own material standard of living as the "default". So much that I kind of think that people whose material standard of living is significantly lower than my own are suffering from serious oppression, deprivation, and misery, while people whose material standard of living is significantly higher than my own are living lives of pointless and unneeded luxury and decadence. I probably need to get out more.

I suspect this is a somewhat universal affliction.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 6:32 pm (I've chosen the phrase "material standard of living" carefully. I know that you can't just compare how much money people get to spend, because it might buy different things in different places.)

Does a workaholic who spends large amounts for work and saves everything he earns have a higher "material standard of living"?

rotting bones wrote: ↑Fri Oct 31, 2025 5:33 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 6:32 pm (I've chosen the phrase "material standard of living" carefully. I know that you can't just compare how much money people get to spend, because it might buy different things in different places.)

Does a workaholic who spends large amounts for work and saves everything he earns have a higher "material standard of living"?

I'd say that depends on things like what kind of food he eats and how his house or apartment looks like. I assume that, even if he's too much of a workaholic to have any spare-time pleasantries in his life, he'll still eat food and have some kind of residence somewhere.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Oct 31, 2025 6:26 am I'd say that depends on things like what kind of food he eats and how his house or apartment looks like. I assume that, even if he's too much of a workaholic to have any spare-time pleasantries in his life, he'll still eat food and have some kind of residence somewhere.

Full disclosure: I didn't eat or sleep yesterday. I may not be rich, but I can afford food. After a friend texted me to eat, I ordered one bowl of potato leek soup.

Malnutrition is how I get the courage to post halfassed nooblang grammars.

What you guys have to understand about capitalism is that the market is not a moral force. If people spend enough money on something because it's in their short term interest, it's going to happen even if it kills us all. It has been like this since the market takeover centuries ago. Those who couldn't deal with it have simply died, and no one mourns their loss.

rotting bones wrote: ↑Fri Oct 31, 2025 4:03 pm What you guys have to understand about capitalism is that the market is not a moral force.

I don't think there are all that many people here in this little corner of the internet who have trouble understanding that.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Oct 31, 2025 4:05 pm I don't think there are all that many people here in this little corner of the internet who have trouble understanding that.

Are you sure? bradrn says I'm a worse Eddy, though maybe that's for nationalistic reasons.

I feel like there's a lot of wishful thinking going on around the AI bubble, especially on the left and the center. There are also people who don't quite understand the predicament the market puts us in. E.g. Travis B. is a market socialist.

If spenders demand language models, society as it is currently structured is going to churn things into language models until demand plateaus.

This is not to say there's no AI bubble. The market just crashes sometimes when people lose confidence, or for technical reasons. If the demand remains, the industries will be built back up again, like what happened with the dot-com bubble. There have already been at least 3 AI winters.