Huh. I didn't expect that to cross-post to here. I must have mistakenly checked a box. Yay, computers!
Finished reading: Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison 📚
One of those books I started reading when I went to bed and then stayed awake way too late for. Tremendously good fun. https://micro.blog/books/9781803363929
I turn my back for ONE min and ya'll start doing literal phrenology.
Listen if your head has ANY diameter at all there ought to be enough brain in there to understand that's not how anything even works.
🎵 Bruce Cockburn, “Wondering Where the Lions Are”.
He is one of the best.
It's funny: Both Bandcamp and Patreon had the easiest and most straightforwardly long-term profitable business models imaginable: Sit between indie creatives and their fans, provide some basic services for mediation (comment sections, media posts, semi-global payment) and take enough of a cut of any payments to cover the costs and then some.
But because that business model wouldn't scale forever, they are instead being gutted, because ever _increasing_ growth is the only model capital accepts
If “tech ethics” are the enemy, then I’m the enemy.
If “sustainability” is the enemy, then I’m the enemy.
If “trust and safety” is the enemy, then I’m the enemy.
If “social responsibility” is the enemy, then I’m the enemy.
Go fuck yourself and take your childish sociopathic accelerationist Silicon Valley mates with you.
Apparently LLMs are great at taking standardised tests, and to me that tells us a lot more about the design and usefulness of the tests than about the LLMs.
🎵 Today is Pat Martino on repeat.
On: the problem with a neoliberal bureaucracy
Everything that is delivered by a public authority is part of a bureaucracy. Public transport, the health service, libraries, welfare, bin collections, parks, so on and so forth.
Neoliberalism has ruined the bureaucracy because now public authorities, like the Government, local councils, etc, are trying to run themselves like enterprises. Why? The nature of public services is that they cannot be corporatised, because they cannot turn a profit. The “profit”, if you will, is a better and mobile society.
Every welfare payment is never going to be directly paid back with interest — but it will mean that someone will spend money on goods and services they need until they find a job and they will stay safe and alive.
Every bus may not have a good farebox recovery ratio — but each of those passengers is given an opportunity to do something that will benefit them and therfore society.
Whenever we talk about “reorganising” public service, it always usually means trying to let private contractors move in — who then overcharge public authorities for the privilege — or forcing public services to hit KPIs, goals, etc, which is absolutely bullshit because a public service still needs to be provided no matter how many people use it.
The profit mindset has been so ingrained in society now, that the bureaucracies that we so rely on to make our settlements function are being choked and strangled because the working conditions are dire, the pay is dire, and any government that hates public service can make your job disappear overnight.
Public authorities do so much, that a bureaucracy is neeeded to handle the volume and scope of everything that happens. But if the Government dismisses bureaucracy instead of helping it then we end up with a system where public workers are powerless against protocol and where everything feels broken, as every individual portion is defanged, defunded, and the workers end up demoralised.
Put simply: a well-funded, well-staffed, and flexible bureaucracy leads to better outcomes for everyone.
Cancer (not me 😌)
What an astonishingly beautiful and empowering and generous piece by Mark Steel. Goodness. https://marksteelinfo.com/cancer/
Programmer. Reads books. Plays guitar. Belfast-born, living in Leeds. he/him.