Did you set up any alternatives?

I have a todo to take a day and hook my external SSDs filled with movies/shows up to a plex server, then shutdown all my streaming services.

[Jellyfin](https://jellyfin.org/) is a great alternative to Plex if you haven't taken a look!

This is what the government should really look into. Are prices being held at inflated levels to sustain profits? And if so why is capitalism not working? Why are competing companies not undercutting each other to bring them back down?

Can we have small watchdog programs that deeply study market conditions for critical resources (like peanut butter/eggs/milk/bread/etc.) and produce detailed data on why prices are what they are and what they estimate prices should be? It would be fascinating to see like detailed breakdowns and raw profit margins on different goods instantly.

Stardew Valley is a great example of this, and that more is not always better.

Specifically he rolled out a "cave" system with procedural dungeon generation where players could mine through walls and other advanced systems, then undid all of it and ended with ~30 static layouts and very simplistic interactions. The entire game feels like a demonstration that simple, predictable and repeatable interactions with software have more longevity than cutting edge dynamic systems.

Stardew is an example of the opposite though? The dev has been loading more and more content via updates for 10 years now. There's so much late game content that would take a very long time to play all of. People are waiting for the devs new game to come out but he is still working on Stardew.

Both sides are rife with contradiction. Yeah this is one case where the anti-vax party will celebrate how important preventing measles is, but then act like it is not a big deal when it comes time for vaccinations.

Anyway sorry you will get obliterated with downvotes.

Generating text & audio is relatively cheap. If users paid a $5/month subscription you could generate a couple hours of dynamic npc audio per month and still make a tidy profit.

I have to imagine someone is looking into that, sandbox style games with hundreds of characters who have unique personalities and respond to any input and remember all your interactions... that would be amazing.

Did people only talk about themselves? It is probably a rare trait when someone legitimately cares about other peoples inane daily lives.

It would be interesting to actually talk to hundreds of people a week for years, you would probably get really good at categorizing people and predicting where they are in life and what their current concerns are.

About themselves or about their political/world views, which are incredibly repetitive

> Did people only talk about themselves? It is probably a rare trait when someone legitimately cares about other peoples inane daily lives.

I love this honestly. I talked to people that insurance that talks about their customer, retired prostitute that have reached financial freedom, NEETs, right wingers, and many other curious people. The reality is that most people are sane, and with a little bit of compassion and empathy, it is possible to "see how they get there".

I suppose these extremes are only available online because people won't open these up in physical meetings.

That is a great reminder.

I have a note at the beginning of my journal that says: 'Stand up straight, eye contact, smile', because I constantly need to remember that or I will look down, slouch and move through the world barely interacting with anyone.

Talking to strangers is actually kind of nice as an introvert, there is very low pressure as you have no obligation to the person and you can end the conversation at any time.

I find it much nicer than talking to friends of friends or the absolute worst for me... the boyfriends of my girlfriends friends. You are getting shoved together into a forced interaction that you know will be asked about in the near future.

This is why I love IT conferences. I can chat up random strangers about topics that we're clearly both interested in. The vendors also send the most extroverted folks who are skilled in engaging introverted nerds. It's a great way for introverts to level up their social skills.

And the best part is that I never talk to those folks again ;) I found out that I actually really like making fast friends, I just hate the obligation of long-term close-knit friendships.

I end up with a lot of business cards and LinkedIn connections that usually never go anywhere. Which is fine with me!

But I got some good consulting gigs from the ones that did go somewhere.

I am not worried, he is behaving the same way he did in 2020 when he fucked up his reelection by ranting like a dictator.

He is gonna get slaughtered in midterms, be hamstrung his last two years and then go away.

Agree, LLMs are just another tool. Treating them as chatbots is a very basic way of using them. The future is intelligent engineers embedding them in traditional systems and having them perform specific roles.