MidniteMikeWrites / is on Nostr

California native, chronic night owl, and writer managing a whole mess of personal projects (plus a sprawling homelab). Previously blogged at Philosimplicity. Currently building https://misaligned.markets to discuss modern political economy.

Last Notes

2025-02-21 04:05:19

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@nprofile…frjf Thank you bot, I didn't notice this. I removed it from the original post.

2025-02-21 03:58:17

With the cuts going on in the name of efficiency and so-called DEI imperialism it's no surprise science YouTube is in trouble. It's sad.
If you at all understand the progress in the 20th century, you'll know it's the result of a relay race involving both private and public sectors. In the coming week's I'll be talking a lot about "antirival" goods and why we need a better collective understanding of them.
#basicresearch #openscience #publicgood #science
https://youtu.be/LQjFGx9mEPw?si=UXCX7F1ZtBrnkyFc

2025-02-17 02:35:35

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@nprofile…aq7u @nprofile…jcyj this is straight up from the Elon school of Management. Or at the very least I guess it’s how narcissists manage. https://www.inc.com/chloe-aiello/elon-musk-is-now-rehiring-some-tesla-supercharger-employees.html

2025-02-14 05:23:46

Been on #Mastodon for just about 3 months. How time fiies!
I'm beginning to question what I want out of the platform. I'm still trying to figure that out. I might need to explore servers under than my current one. I might relocate to SFBA, since I'm a local.
I have lots of interests though, it's a bit of a challenge figuring out where to go. That's always been true for me, haha.

2025-02-11 09:38:56

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@nprofile…2mzm @nprofile…qz4x Capitalism morphs to the times and spaces it occupies... we're now living in a strange era where companies exist not to sell a product, but rather:
- to be bought by investors for rents
- function solely on their ability to generate stock market hype.
In that regard AI push is as much to disipline & punish labor as it is a sales pitch to investors and shareholders to pour more money in. It's all a giant ponzi, but of course, workers have the most to lose/least to gain.

2025-02-09 23:37:30

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@nprofile…60lz I'm a bit of a pessimist, but one thing I'm hopeful for is that democratic crises might encourage experimentation of various forms of local governance.
I know this in and of itself isn't inherently good (it's also kind of scary), but it could be if we lay the groundwork for good experiments.
As much of a pessimist as I am, I do take seriously using what little power I have to try to nudge this ship in a slightly better direction.

2025-02-07 06:00:43

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@nprofile…9wrc It's sad that people don't know what these words mean. The world's largest government contractor seizing his employer's purse when no one is looking is not transparent or efficient. If this wasn't a business venture, why didn't he divest himself of his conflicts of interest?

2025-02-07 01:15:15

Property rights are this semipermeable feature of market capitalism. Their enforcement tends to be asymmetric and there are entire businesses built around exploiting this asymmetry. This "loophole" in capitalism is at least as old as enclosure.
I'm planning to do a post on this issue in the near future. But stories like this (and Eric Schmidt's: "hire lawyers to clean up the mess.") give away the game.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/meta-torrented-over-81-7tb-of-pirated-books-to-train-ai-authors-say/
#AI #tech #righttorepair #DRM #enshitificiation

2025-02-07 00:15:10

Multi-toot threads don't peform well on #mastodon huh?
On Xcriment (don't know what else to call it), the same was kind of true, but I still got some engagement with the newer posts in my threads.
Here, it feels like no one scrolls down, at all. Even if posts are numbered. 😅
#longpost #toot