A Pot Prophecy

This lecture did not age well. In fact the “bad guy” here was quite right!

Later in the episode the young man (23 and a home owner!) neglects his child (who of course dies, cause cannabis bad) for a cannabis party. Which is what happens when you use pot. Every time. /s

I read this comment when this clip was recently posted on Reddit.

Here’s a hypothetical rebuttal the 23 year old could have said if the conversation continued
“You know what your problem is? What’s the problem with all you types? You only see people at their worst. You say you’ve seen it happen before, seen people crash and burn from this or that, and I don’t doubt it, because it’s your job to go after the people who are crashing and burning. But you don’t see all the people keeping it together, because they don’t make any fuss to be seen. I guarantee you there’s countless people out there doing “this and that” which you subjectively think is immoral, and they’re fine. I guarantee you there’s old men who smoked weed every week of their life and died happy men with big loving families. I even guarantee you there some other officers in your precinct who you respect and maybe even admire who are doing marijuana or something more, and you can’t tell. Your perspective is warped because it’s your job to fixate on the 1% worst of society, but there’s nothing obligating you to balance that out by spending the rest of your time with people who have it together. You’re never called to the scene of a family having a nice picnic, so do you assume nice picnics never happen? And anyone who’s had decades of a good life with family and friends, yet they’ve also smoked marjiuana, aren’t going to tell you about it to let you in on the more tame reality of things, because the moment you knew, you would try to destroy their lives, make them crash and burn so your prophecies would become self fulfilling.”

Bezbozny on Reddit

Delayed thoughts from Wikimania 2023

I had this bit saved in my drafts for a while now. Getting it out there even if unfinished.

I’m currently sitting in a gigantic convention center. It’s part of a larger multi-block series of interconnected hotels and shopping malls. It’s in Singapore, which is 9,545 miles from my home. The furthest distance I’ve ever been from home, my family.

It isn’t the first time I’ve traveled since Covid. But it is the first time being around this many people and having to be “on” for long periods of time.

Im surrounded by happy people who are excited to be with one another.

It’s overwhelming, in what is quickly becoming “in a good way”.

Charlie Warzel on Dude Bro “Leadership”

These leaders seem to want two things: to at least appear as if they have ultimate control or authority over the direction of their company, down to the nooks and crannies of its culture, and to constantly make news with their management decisions. The control part is straightforward—they’re the visionaries, after all! They ought to be in charge! But the publicity bit is key. Staking out controversial positions on zeitgeisty issues is a good way to keep one’s name relevant and to further craft a cult of personality. In the case of someone like Musk, the constant news-making creates a kind of fandom among supporters, many of whom marvel at Great Business Visionaries and/or think workers these days are too coddled or too woke, or that organized-labor movements are misguided, or that there’s no place for politics in the workplace. If you hurl hot takes and piss people off, the intuition seems to go, you’ll deepen the bond between you and your true believers (many of whom are also your industry peers), and they will praise your bad management as radical candor.

I don’t know if I’d say I enjoy reading Charlie’s “Galaxy Brain” as it’s often frustrating and disheartening to read about how much influence these men have over an entire industry and the general public, but the newsletter is often well-written and illuminating. The most recent edition is very much a good example, with the above quote being just :chefs-kiss:.

Addendum: It’s not just “visionary leaders” in Silicon Valley that make the tech industry less-good. It’s a specific kind of man.

We live in an era that has been profoundly warped by the headstrong impulses of men who are technically sophisticated but emotionally immature.

That’s from The New Yorker piece by Patrick Radden Keefe about the accused CIA leaker Joshua Schulte.