I am rich and have no idea what to do
I am rich and have no idea what to do
This is a twofer:
- The article itself
- HN's take on it
Just the opening alone, doesn't know what to do with his life, but mentions 'NPC coworkers' (that is also so fucking weird, I don't think I have worked with much people who gave off an NPC vibe off at all, like people always seemed like people with lives and hobbies, social lives, families interests, stuff they cared about, etc.
It started to dawn on me that what I actually wanted was to look like Elon, and that is incredibly cringe. It hurts to even type this out.
My reactions to this 'ow come on, you call others NPCs?!' and 'at least he knows it is cringe'
When I got back home and regaled my friends with my mountain stories, one of my friends joked that I should work for Elon and Vivek at DOGE and help America get off its current crash to defaulting on its own debt. So I reached out to some people and got in.
This has got to be a parody.
So now I’m in Hawaii. I’m learning physics.
Ha, I recently watched, this video billionaires want you to know they could have done physics by actual Theoretical Physicist, Angela Collier. I'm quite sure he will not be getting an actual degree in physics.
I don't have the energy to read the orange site comments.
The orange site comments aren't all worthless:
His attention span won't be enough to stick with physics for longer than 4 weeks.
Physics was actually a dangerous sinkhole for my young undiagnosed adhd brain. There's always something else to learn, some new rabbit hole to dive into, some cool research testing the limits of yet another poorly understood frontier. It's like tvtropes but with the mysteries of the universe.
I was fascinated to learn everything, but could never hold a single subject long enough to comprehend it fully. I realized I would never hope to make a meaningful expansion or contribution to the science. You start out with ball bearing cannons and air hockey tables, and next thing you know you're reading about string theory and supersymmetry, dark matter mathematics, the effect of gravity on time, bosons and gluons and photons, Oh my! Then you get an advisor who's been studying the same formula on the same whiteboard for 60 years, trying to trisect an angle with naught but a compass, and if they are kind they tell you to run. If you're smart, you listen.
I love that video because until I watched it, I didn't realise how much of a thing it was. Physics seems to be a magnet for the "iamverysmart" types; I feel sorry for actual physicists
Remember that actual physicists can fall into the same trap, and believe themselves to be very smart too. Plenty suffer an irresistible urge to fix every other field that’s doing it wrong.
As an alternative to the various xkcds on the subject, have an smbc instead.
One time I tried explaining to a colleague that a particular paper using an ML model to determine sexual orientation based on selfies was stupid as shit. Sexual orientation is not something you can confirm (gender is a social construct and sexual orientation is self-reported), nor it it encoded in a person's face, so hello ontological error[1].
This colleague's response was "that's how science works." Assuming that he knew that computer science isn't really a science[2], I told him it suggested a fundamental misunderstanding of science, which resulted in the following exchange:
Colleague: Well, I have a PhD in Computer Science
Me: I basically do too[3] and Computer Science is not a science. You could argue that it's a branch of math
Colleague: OK, but my undergrad was in PhysicsIt's like these dorks saw this one amusing xckd comic, missed the point entirely, and then decided they wanted to be the physicist in the panel?
[1]: The model is also less accurate than
def sexual_orientation(person): return "straight"ignoring the ontological error.
[2]: I have never once heard a single part of the scientific method brought up since I started computer science. When I was hanging out with the pure mathematicians, they seemed to generally get this: A formal system alone is not fucking science, even if you're using it to model the real world.
[3]: I was at the "all but dissertation" stage of my PhD. Now I'm at the "starting from scratch" phase.
Funnily enough, Angela Collier also made some pretty good videos for "actually" studying physics. Spoiler: no need to go to Hawaii, or anywhere further than your own couch/desk!
sheesh i guess life sciences are too much of a dirty job [1] for billionaire megaminds. unless they want to pull a theranos, of course
[1] unlike with physics to some degree, or maths generally or CS specifically you won't get too far on blackboard only without lab work. like selected subfields of physics, biotech has that aura of place where all these old scifi tropes that sv wankers misunderstand and fawn over come to life, and also there's some crossover with startup/vc crowd
Within 5 minutes of my first hike, the trees smiled at me and whispered their simple wisdom.
This probably only sounds profound to people who haven't been outside in 7 years. Don't get me wrong hiking is good for the soul. But if it hits you that hard after five minutes you're probably terminally online.
Also why can't trees have complex wisdom gosh darn it?To be fair, he could just be a really, really shitty writer.
at least for once it isn't the kind of post where a bayfucker went "I took acid in a park and you wouldn't believe what <completely obvious thing> I discovered"
Drugs
When I got back home and regaled my friends with my mountain stories, one of my friends joked that I should work for Elon and Vivek at DOGE and help America get off its current crash to defaulting on its own debt. So I reached out to some people and got in.
What a fucking idiot. Also a fascist collaborator, but importantly, a fucking idiot.
The combination of 'I realized wanting to be elon is cringe' to -> 'im gonna join doge' -> 'no im gonna do physics' (like elon).
Yo dude you were so close at first, you almost had it! You fool!
Really hope that friend was also just joking because he knew there would be no crash as the default can be extended. (But, considering rich peoples friends are usually all in the same mindspace as the rich person (see for example the text messages revealed in the Musk vs Twitter lawsuit) I doubt this).
‘no im gonna do physics’ (like elon).
At first I was like "wait, didn't Elon have a B.Sc. in Economics" so I searched him and apparently he also has a... B.A. in Physics?
How do you get a liberal arts degree in Physics, what is this even
EDIT: Apparently there are allegations he didn't even finish that and he's lying about it, I don't care enough to actually look into it
it was really hard to read the article when my hands wouldn’t stop making the wanker motion every time this fuckhead decided to whinge about yet another not-problem they’re having. money poisoning’s a fuck of a thing, isn’t it?
anyway I don’t think this is a parody or if it is they’re incredibly dedicated to the bit
Within 2 minutes of talking to the final interviewer for DOGE, he asked me if I wanted to join. I said “yes”. Then he said “cool” and I was in multiple Signal groups.
I’m kinda amazed it’s not multiple Telegram groups, but not at all surprised DOGE is ramshackle enough that this is what passes for organization. it goes to show why they’d hire someone who’d just come hot off of losing interest in robotics after 2 weeks of barely trying and also almost killed themselves doing rich kid vanity hiking, who would then quit their surely extremely important position at DOGE after about a month
If this means I’ll never do something as spectacular as Loom, so be it.
wait, I know that name. loom is just a video and screen recorder with unnecessary social networking and AI features that I’m pretty sure charges a lot for a subscription. loom is fucking Unregistered Hypercam 2 for Workgroups. that’s the product this kid is wanking about? that’s the fucking height of human achievement? fuck you
I know that name. loom is just a video and screen recorder with unnecessary social networking
same. I was like "hold on, don't I know this name?", did a quick search and got to "oh right it's twitch clips enterprise edition" and then
and AI feature
"....but the fuck is AI-based loop clips?"
seriously, they have "AI-based" on their frontpage
i hear they're also a y2k compliant online 3d multimedia solution
I’m kinda amazed it’s not multiple Telegram groups
vulnerabilities for thee but not for me! but kinda same, esp given how much both orange man and felon are willing to ride putin's tumescent instructions to feel some faint warm glow at how much destruction they can wreak
This is so fucking cringe. Give the money away and do it all over again if that's what makes you happy.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I'm glad I don't see other people as NPCs, otherwise I couldn't delight in these vapid grifters' perpetual insatisfaction.
Tech bro ennui, the societal problem.
In this essay I will explore solutions to this problems.
Solution 1. Really high marginal tax rates. Oh, this solves the problem, guess my work here is done.
Ah man. 30K could turn my life around, and for some people it's a night out. Well, may everyone get what they deserve, in this life or the next.
The only justice in this world is that which we forge in the fires of chaos with our own bare hands, wrought of empathy and imagination and the blood of a thousand violent ancestors.
To wish for divine intervention to balance the scales is to abdicate your responsibility to your forebears and progeny.
why are none of these people working on 3d printing guillotines. reading this blog post, there's clearly a use case
I think we need to add the words AI and robotics for it get funding. I'm thinking it could be fully automated and make margaritas.
To really do physics from first principles first you must do maths.
I had a lot to say, but honestly y'all got it covered very well.