ContrarianTrail

joined 2 months ago
[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

10 year old me didn't have much expectations about the future but I'd say 15 year old me would be most surprised about the fact that I have a girlfriend. If you were to then tell me that not only do I have a girlfriend but I also have a house and the truck I've always wanted it would literally blow his mind.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 10 points 10 hours ago

Of course, it’s okay. Being able to say “I don’t know” is a sign of intelligence in itself.

A huge number of people form opinions based on very limited knowledge, but these opinions then become part of their identity, and they feel compelled to defend them tooth and nail. I think the middle ground here is the idea of “strong opinions, loosely held,” meaning you have an opinion, but you understand it’s based on the best knowledge available at the time. You leave room for new information and allow your opinion to evolve. In fact, most opinions probably should be like that. There are very few views I hold that I feel are almost guaranteed not to change.

The Dunning-Kruger effect plays a big role here. When someone gains a moderate amount of knowledge on a subject, they often feel like they have a good understanding of it. But as they keep learning, they realize just how little they actually know. Uninformed people, by contrast, don’t know what they don’t know. These are the ones who write comments on social media pretending they’ve solved complex issues with simplistic solutions like “just do X,” while completely ignoring all the nuance. When you then try to introduce that nuance, they dig their heels in, taking it as a personal attack rather than a critique of their idea. This happens because they didn’t leave room for new information - they locked in their opinion, made it part of their identity, and threw away the key.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

On Linux, you can either install it in one command in the terminal

If you know what to type into terminal which for the 99% of users means googling for instructions and in the end you've spent as much time and effort on it than you would on Windows. Assuming it works out without a hickup. If you put the right string of text in there but it returns an error, missing repository for example, you're then stuck there with no clue what to do next.

I think that long time Linux users to who this is second nature underestimate how daunting this is for a novice.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah I'm willing to go thru all this since I don't use this computer for much other than playing 2 - 3 games so once its set up I don't need to mess with it anymore. Overall I love the software. I just hate installing stuff and troubleshooting things.

It just seems obviously flawed idea that I'm supposed to just blindly trust some random website and copy&paste code from there and instert it into terminal despite having zero clue what it does and just take their word for it.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Last time I asked help on the Linux community about an issue I was having I was shunned for using the ubuntu store so I tried doing it the "proper way" this time.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I understoon 30% of the terms used in this comment. May explain why your experience with Linux differs from mine.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

I don't necessarily disagree but that is why it will never become more widespread.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee -1 points 1 day ago

Yeah the OS itself was easy to install. No issues with that.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Using the terminal and avoiding snap-software, or what ever it's called.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee -2 points 1 day ago (6 children)

With Windows I can just download an app and follow the instructions on the installer and more often than not it works without an issue. Even my grandmom can do that. With Mac it's even easier.

 

I'm a life-long Windows user who nowdays has a MacBook as a daily driver and a gaming PC running Linux. I consider myself somewhat tech savvy but holy fuck Linux just makes me want to tear my head off. I just spent 45 minutes trying to install Standard Notes "the right way" and in the end I just gave up and downloaded it from the Ubuntu store instead. Error, you need to add this repository. Error, you need to enable this feature. Error, you need to install this tool first which you can use to install another tool and that tool helps you fix the issue preventing you to solve the first issue etc. I honestly can't even imagine how you could make this any more difficult.

I guess Linux is like welding; it's great when someone sets the welder up for you and you just press the trigger and start welding but you're up for some absolute misery trying to figure that out on your own.

Also, a huge credit to chatGPT. I can just take picture of my terminal window and it gives me step-by-step instructions on how to troubleshoot most issues I've had. I'd be at complete loss without it.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

I have never used the app anyway. I used Flamingo and when they killed 3rd party apps I've just been using browser instead. Lets me block ads that way too.

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

LLMs are AI. There’s a common misconception about what ‘AI’ actually means. Many people equate AI with the advanced, human-like intelligence depicted in sci-fi - like HAL 9000, JARVIS, Ava, Mother, Samantha, Skynet, and GERTY. These systems represent a type of AI called AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), designed to perform a wide range of tasks and demonstrate a form of general intelligence similar to humans.

However, AI itself doesn't imply general intelligence. Even something as simple as a chess-playing robot qualifies as AI. Although it’s a narrow AI, excelling in just one task, it still fits within the AI category. So, AI is a very broad term that covers everything from highly specialized systems to the type of advanced, adaptable intelligence that we often imagine. Think of it like the term ‘plants,’ which includes everything from grass to towering redwoods - each different, but all fitting within the same category.

 

Every day, I see absolutely moronic comments getting upvoted while perfectly reasonable takes are downvoted. This would be a great opportunity to curate your feed by blocking these users en masse. Active curation like this is the only way to make social media even half-tolerable.

Whether you use it to filter out toxic users or to build an echo chamber, I think everyone should be free to do so. No one should be forced to share space with people they feel bring no value to the discussion - or, worse, make it more toxic.

 

This is especially true with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada. People are either trying to impress others with fakes, or they’ve actually paid full price to become walking billboards.

Similar thing with iPhone cases that have a cutout for the Apple logo. That's just hilarious.

 
 

I often get the sense that I'm in the only one here doing manual labor but I'm sure there are others.

Identify yourselves.

 
 

Because I don’t, and pretending to feels dishonest. I’ll listen if they want to talk about it, but I’m not going to act interested, and I certainly won’t ask about it on my own. What I’m trying to figure out is whether people actually care, or if they’re just playing a social game that I’m simply not interested in.

I’m probably on the autistic spectrum, which likely explains this to some extent. But that’s not an excuse - being an asshole is perfectly compatible with autism, so before dunking on me, please realise I probably agree with your criticism.

 

I read that half of Americans couldn’t cover an unexpected $1,000 expense. This sounds crazy to me. I understand that poverty exists, but the idea that an adult with a job doesn’t even have that amount saved up seems really strange.

What’s your relationship or philosophy with money? What do you credit for your financial success, or alternatively, what do you blame for your failures?

For the extra brave ones: how much savings do you have, and what are you planning to do with them?

 

Personally I'd say cave diving. I was contemplating between that and free ~~climbing~~ soloing but I honestly rather fall to my death than drown in a claustrophobic, dark, cold, silted up cave.

 

Browsing social media, it’s apparent that people are quick to point out problems in the world, but what I see less often are suggestions for how to solve them. At best, I see vague ideas that might solve one issue but introduce new ones, which are rarely addressed.

Simply stopping the bad behaviour rarely is a solution in itself. The world is not that simple. Take something like drug addiction. Telling someone to just stop taking drugs is not a solution.

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