Esme Povirk @madewokherd@computerfairi.es
Joined Aug 2018
hypnosis
I think of hypnosis not as something human brains are intrinsically capable of, nor as a roleplay/social construct, but a sort of cargo cult. The hypnotist is like an instructor who, rather than understanding the mechanics of the skill he tries to teach and explaining them clearly, simply repeats phrases and actions that have often worked in the past.
Esme Povirk
boosted
Behind every highly visible positive political change has been years of grassroots projects, small organized protests, parents who want their children to grow up in a more equitable world, a TV show that normalizes women working outside the home or a queer relationship, the person who takes in an lgbtq+ teen that got kicked out, and person who is just kind every day to someone most people ignore. The tipping point will come, we don't always get to understand how or when. When you feel like nothing you are doing matters or makes a difference, remember that is just a trick to try and get you to stop. If you can do nothing else right now, keep being kind to the people who need it, kindness has changed my trajectory many times.
fantasy concept, death (2/2)
It's as though people see the years stretching on forever and the spark of life leaves them. Or as though Death said in her apparent defeat "If you won't follow my rules, then I will follow no rules," and started taking people whenever it pleased her.
fantasy concept, death (1/2)
Medicine and engineering eventually solve all common causes of death, including finally old age, but paradoxically this decreases life expectancy. The leading cause of death is something people call "completion". This often happens after a major life event, sometimes completing a life's work but more often simply a transition.
Got the next 24 hours or so blocked out for feeling sick due to vaccine side-effects, and then immediately feeling better after that.
Esme Povirk
boosted
This is why I believe we're going to need better tools for reading and exploring codebases
"Writing code is easy. Once you have a solution in mind, and have mastered the syntax of your favorite programming language, writing code is easy. Having an LLM write entire functions for you? Even easier. But the hard part isn’t the writing. It’s the reading. It’s the time it takes to load the mental model of the system into your head. That’s where all the cost really is."
https://idiallo.com/blog/writing-code-is-easy-reading-is-hard
actionable threat to gender-affirming care in US
If you have the time and energy, the FTC is launching a clearly political "investigation" into gender-affirming care, for which public comments are open. There's a portal you can use to submit them without giving identifying information: https://transequality.org/ftc-hands-off-gac
I left a comment this morning. I know it won't dissuade them, but it makes it harder to use the comments against us.
I generally avoid commenting on shitty "famous" people I've never heard of whom everyone is suddenly talking about.
Esme Povirk
boosted
"Pay Your Respects" by Mattie Lubchansky
https://thenib.com/pay-your-respects/
Esme Povirk
boosted
(asking the important questions here, boost for science)
Consider the following:
- made in Japan: check
- appears in manga or anime: check
- transformation sequence: check
- female: check
So, w that in mind… Does Samus Aran (from the Metroid franchise) qualify as a magical girl?
Esme Povirk
boosted
hate crimes are for losers do love crimes
Esme Povirk
boosted
For those of us with ADHD, if you are thinking about a task every second you’re not doing it and desperately want to do the task more than anything else and are devastated that you can’t do it so much that you use all your energy just on trying to make yourself do the thing that you want to do but can’t, that is NOT procrastination. That is executive dysfunction. It only seems like procrastination to people who have never experienced executive dysfunction and those who have only ever experienced executive dysfunction.
Procrastination is when you fully have the ability to do something and choose not to do it but to do the thing you prefer doing instead. I hadn’t experienced this until very recently, after a lot of therapy and medication.
lewd, silly
Tracking major game releases by the uptick in furry porn on e621.
"So what made you decide to start speedrunning this game?"
"I was debugging a random crash, so I'd have to play for a few minutes at a time to make the crash happen. I couldn't save, so I'd try to go fast to see as much of it as possible."
re: cognitohazard? cognitoopportunity?
There's this feeling of mental "fog" that I haven't been experiencing lately, and I attribute that to working on this and keeping up with it.
Esme Povirk
boosted
Processing the "titles without name" section (the "sir/ma'am" question) and it always makes me question my past survey choices, because it's always:
USA: I wish we had a good gender-neutral alternative to sir/ma'am!!!!!
Everywhere else: NO ONE says sir/ma'am, why is this question even on the survey
I am wondering how long I can do this before just making a formal statement that I'm removing the question and the USA need to just get over sir/ma'am on their own??
Esme Povirk
boosted
I hope the Next Big Thing in technology is naps, so that we just start shoving naps into everything, absolutely everything.
Esme Povirk
boosted
We wrote about Magical Literacy and Ai Psychosis last week. We've been thinking a lot more about the subject recently for no particular reason, decided to do a followup.
cognitohazard? cognitoopportunity?
Addendum: for me it can also be different forms of tiredness. Or the "brain residue" that making decisions seems to leave. And those require rest of a sort, but the rest can be made more efficient by directing it to the specific condition. Which isn't always equally easy and may take more time.
cognitohazard? cognitoopportunity?
This implies that executive dysfunction is a trance, and it is possible to find it and adjust it. At least for me. I don't know if the cause is the same for everyone, and it took a lot of work to learn how to do that.
Joined Aug 2018
