Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[silverspawn]

now I have to make new exams for all the people who were either sick during the exam, or quarantined during the exam, or decided it was in their interest to skip it.

I will say that I'm gradually becoming more anti restrictions. You're not going to prevent people from getting Omicron, at least it doesn't seem likely, so the reason for restrictions is to flatten the curve, but does this really matter with so many cases being mild? Does it matter enough to justify the effort?

[silverspawn]

Like I'm not allowed to mix classes for redoing the exams because of covid. I have to do all (three) classes individually.

[silverspawn]

Let's query GPT-2 for more silly stories I guess

[silverspawn]

 You are a wizard surrounded by brain-eating zombies.
No one understands you.
No one sees you.
You have two options
You can run around screaming like a little girl (Chapter 2-2).
or....
You can try to start a fight. (Chapter 2-1).

If you know me, you should be able to predict where this is going.

[silverspawn]

You put the car in first and pull it into the crowd of zombies. The zombies claw at the sides of the car, but the car's underpowered and is able to push through. The zombies are stunned as you drive away and they are left in your dust.
You see a sign that says, "Chapter 3_1", and you look at your map.

Not bad but I have a different take.

Chapter 3_1: You have decided to start a fight.

The zombies beat you and eat your brains.

The End.

[silverspawn]

You are:
Chapter 3_1: You have decided to start a fight.
The zombies beat you and eat your brains.
The End.
Chapter 3_2: You run around screaming like a little girl.
Lets try this again, shall we?
You are:
Chapter 3_1: You try to start a fight.
The zombies kick you to death.
The End.
Chapter 3_1: You take a fighting stance.
A hand reaches out of the zombie hoard and slaps you right across the face.
This is 'Chance'. The character will not be used in this path.
You decide to...
Chapter 3_2: You try to start a fight.
The zombies eat your brains, and you die.
Maybe it would be best to leave this story alone.

I did miss GPT-2

[silverspawn]

You can press F TO LEAVE the 'Fight' mode and return to 'Walk around' mode.
You decide that the fight mode was stupid and you are a Wizard who doesn't start fights.
The world is divided into five acts

[silverspawn]

Chapter 3_2:
You decide that the fight mode was stupid and you are a Wizard who doesn't start fights.
Instead, you run around screaming like a little girl. Immediately, all of the zombies turn back into their human forms. They thank you for saving them and giving them brains again. Then, you teleport home. No one finds out about your secret.
The End.

[faust]

Now I know that this is literally what I asked for since it's a dumb president, but I don't actually think it's in the spirit of what I asked for. There is no political prediction here, it's just a comedy.

Also, like, this movie doesn't approximate how politics works. The woman has the 'president' label and is in charge, and there are a bunch of jokes about how america lies and negotiates with terrorists, but that's about where the similarity stops. There is no political process

Well, I suppose. There is a reason beyond implausibility that no serious political drama predicted Trump I think. It just doesn't make for a good plot. It's good to have some House of Cards villain that you can love/hate and appreciate their ingenuity. You want something fundamentally character-driven, and it's not like Trump overcomes obtacles and perseveres or anything like that. There is no character development to be had here.

[faust]

I will say that I'm gradually becoming more anti restrictions. You're not going to prevent people from getting Omicron, at least it doesn't seem likely, so the reason for restrictions is to flatten the curve, but does this really matter with so many cases being mild? Does it matter enough to justify the effort?

I think we're still collecting data. It seems now like many cases are mild, and it might be fine to let it run its course without overwhelming the hospitals, but that wasn't nearly as clear when the decision on restrictions had to be made.

Most of the restrictions are targeting the unvaccinated anyways, and also serve as an incentive to get vaccinated. That is of course a bit iffy - is it justified to restrict people's rights if it's more of a bullying tactic than to actually save lives? Maybe a vaccination mandate would be the cleaner way to go about that.

And then there's the issue that lifting restrictions now would send lots of people home sick and cause problems for the functioning of society, especially in countries like Germany where the case load so far has been comparatively low. Overall, I feel that it's reasonable to keep up restriction a month or so longer, just to be on the safe side, and see where we are then.

[faust]

Now I know that this is literally what I asked for since it's a dumb president, but I don't actually think it's in the spirit of what I asked for. There is no political prediction here, it's just a comedy.

Also, like, this movie doesn't approximate how politics works. The woman has the 'president' label and is in charge, and there are a bunch of jokes about how america lies and negotiates with terrorists, but that's about where the similarity stops. There is no political process

Well, I suppose. There is a reason beyond implausibility that no serious political drama predicted Trump I think. It just doesn't make for a good plot. It's good to have some House of Cards villain that you can love/hate and appreciate their ingenuity. You want something fundamentally character-driven, and it's not like Trump overcomes obtacles and perseveres or anything like that. There is no character development to be had here.

There's probably stories around Trump's rise to power that would be compelling. Like, it would be more interesting to give an account of how the Democratic party failed to propose a candidate that could beat Trump than to describe Trump's campaign itself.

[silverspawn]

Well, I suppose. There is a reason beyond implausibility that no serious political drama predicted Trump I think. It just doesn't make for a good plot. It's good to have some House of Cards villain that you can love/hate and appreciate their ingenuity. You want something fundamentally character-driven, and it's not like Trump overcomes obtacles and perseveres or anything like that. There is no character development to be had here.

This sounds like a good point.

[silverspawn]

After getting to <0.001 in the probability distribution of first plays I counted, I actually played a lottery for the first time in my life. Seemed worth it on the off chance that the simulation is all about me

[silverspawn]

This thread is good: https://twitter.com/G_S_Bhogal/status/1481766595911430156

[silverspawn]

So I call the cheaters in for detention with the task of writing an arbitrary 2 page essay each

Someone else is supervising, so I just get the result

It's two essays about McDonalds and Burger King, respectively. And presumably the remaining two didn't show up.

[faust]

This thread is good: https://twitter.com/G_S_Bhogal/status/1481766595911430156

There may be good stuff here but

Ironically happiness comes easiest to those who don’t actively seek it.

is such a fucking slap in the face to anyone with mental health issues.

[faust]

Like, of course people who do not seek happiness will be the happiest - those are the ones who don't have to seek happiness because they already have it!

Causation vs correlation seems like something that would appear elsewhere in that thread.

[silverspawn]

I also had issues with a few of them, but I liked the majority.

[silverspawn]

The happiness one is tricky. Depends on what "seek" means. I think it's totally rational and justified to do things that you expect will make you more happy, and yeah it comes off as insulting toward unhappy people. I think the steelman is something like, on a moment to moment basis, worrying about your happiness is counter-productive.

[silverspawn]

E.g., if you gave the best advice you could to someone with depression, it would probably not be to try very hard to be happy

[faust]

E.g., if you gave the best advice you could to someone with depression, it would probably not be to try very hard to be happy

The best advice is to seek professional help, and that is a way of "trying hard" to be happy, because as it turns out it is frustratingly difficult to get that professional help, and it will take a lot of effort from someone who is already struggling to get out o bed in the morning. Then therapy itself is working to combat dysfunctional behaviour, which also takes a lot of conscious effort towards "trying to be happy".

Obviously you wouldn't say "just be happy" to a depressed person, but suggesting the opposite -  not to try - seems pretty harmful and likely to strengthen suicidal tendencies.

[silverspawn]

E.g., if you gave the best advice you could to someone with depression, it would probably not be to try very hard to be happy

The best advice is to seek professional help, and that is a way of "trying hard" to be happy, because as it turns out it is frustratingly difficult to get that professional help, and it will take a lot of effort from someone who is already struggling to get out o bed in the morning. Then therapy itself is working to combat dysfunctional behaviour, which also takes a lot of conscious effort towards "trying to be happy".

Obviously you wouldn't say "just be happy" to a depressed person, but suggesting the opposite -  not to try - seems pretty harmful and likely to strengthen suicidal tendencies.

My point is that, on a moment to moment basis, trying to be happy isn't helpful. "Try to be happy by not trying to be happy", to have a pretentious wise sounding phrase. Have the goal as a strategy, not as a tactic.

Of course, I'm saying this as someone who thinks the Buddha was onto something, so you may simply disagree. But this is probably the idea which the twitter person had as well.

[silverspawn]

The main thing Trump had going for him was that he was entertaining. I mean, not even his political opponents really debate that. You seem to imply that he's not eloquent, and certainly he isn't eloquent the way someone like Obama is, but he certainly knows how to keep a crowd's, and the media's, attention.

I wasn't saying "not eloquent", I was saying "low g factor", "genuinely doesn't understand a lot of things", and "not a skill set or personality that was predicted".

While I think he eventually got elected out of pure luck (the email scandal and Hillary being generally weak), clearly the fact that  it was close at all wasn't luck and neither was winning the primary. Trump is extremely good at something, and plausibly "being entertaining" hits it quite well. But again I don't understand why this works so well, and still don't even know a good explanation after the fact. Will check out some of the others on your list.

What's way more strange to me than Trump becoming president is the way he keeps the entire Republican party in his thrall now that he's no longer president.

Also something people didn't predict, which fuels my suspicion that no-one really gets it.

[silverspawn]

Very impressed with how well he is speaking. Not in absolute terms, but because I watched an earlier talk from Nate on Google and he said "um" super often.

The content isn't anything new to me, but the presentation is interesting

[silverspawn]

(Same guy who wrote "My ex is a shit eating whore")