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The press is partially there to disagree with or at least critique such subjective judgments.


Speaking as a one-time 'high speed internet tech support customer relations specialist' working at a call-center contracted out to Comcast, I was told that it was close to 90%. That seems exaggerated since I would say it was closer to 70% (ballpark) success for my calls, but it was high enough that the place eventually implement an entire first-line crew that did no more than ask about whether power cycling had been complete or explain power-cycling before handing the 'sub(scriber)' off.

If someone called in with the GP's depth of troubleshooting completed, the standard policy was say something like 'this is outside of my allowable offered support'(but if you really know how, help, but not officially!).


I think OP's point still stands. If the job is done to the same standards (assuming same time frame as well), what other issues does this bring up?

An apt comparison might be Jimmy Hendrix playing a right-handed guitar left-handed (i.e. upside-down) and still producing master pieces.


Hendrix knew his tools intimately. The comparison proves a point other than that which you make.


> Someone has to be last

That makes it possible, not likely.

For any population N > 2, it's less likely that you'll be last than that you will not be last.


Actually someone has to be latest, and rather each civilization for some time t will have its turn at being the latest.


looking at the data, it’s like we’re trying our damndest to be last. Defunding education, limiting what can be taught (ex: Texas removing critical thinking), etc all seem like we just enjoy tripping on our own shoe laces


You're focusing on the wrong scale. Intelligence has skyrocketed in the past thousand years. Policy decisions in our lifetime, do not matter or they end all human matters at once.


Certain policy decisions matter on a larger scale. Killing off millions of people has to have some meaning on future abilities, right?

I think that generally I agree with you, but I would tend to say you have a small (but >0) number of things that would have huge long term ripples.


> Defunding education, limiting what can be taught

Many people became educated and even advanced science before the government got involved in education.


Indeed who's to say if the current worldview we share is a knowledge maximizing one.


I recommend activity-watch[0] if anyone wants a good, open-source, at-a-glance system of tracking for their own computer usage. It's definitely helped me rebuild a memory of my activities on days that got away from me.

[0] https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch


> How can the same people be worried about human extinction as a result of environmental collapse, also think we might be able to develop a sustainable colony on Mars.

We would control the size and direction of growth on a colony. As it stands the tradoffs we make with regard to earth's climate affect 7.5+Bn people. A colony can be planned/optimized before we get there. We don't need to terraform the entirety of mars to get a small colony. If you want to have mars rival earth, then we can start talking about the scales of comparison you're making.


May I suggest that you alter or drop the "who cares" part? That kind of dismissive rhetorical question will make anyone listening more willing to dismiss what follows out-of-hand as well. I very much agree with the core idea of what you said, but I felt my hackles rise as soon as I read the first sentence and I imagine anyone who actually disagrees won't even bother considering your side after seeing that you seem to not even care to consider their side.


I think the point is that China is exploiting the same system that other countries created and started exploiting prior, but it is doing so on a larger scale and to a more obvious degree than the others. That is to say, yes, it's a problem, but let's take a look at all the other instances of this type of behavior, so we can work toward a general solution, rather than just saying 'fuck china!'.


Can you explain how the op is suggesting that?

From my reading, it seems OP is saying that these types of articles need to include the broader context if they're to do any good in educating their readers on the issue at hand.

No context interpretation: 'China is the devil we need to stop!'

With context: 'China is one of the devils we need to stop!' (natural follow up: What is the common source of these devils?)


Common theme: Preventing future crime.

I think that is wrong. Personally. People should be judged for their past, not their future.


I, a relative 'nix noob, have been wanting to play around with different distros without losing too much of my configurations in any particuar jump. It seems like this might work for my use.


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