!bookworms

To discuss the second chapter of our book club pick, "Petersburg" by Andrei Bely. I'll finish the chapter tomorrow and give my takes then but the threads get published on tuesday so here it is.

This blog has been making the rounds and it's depressing AF. Men will use a dating app regardless of how poor their experience is. Men are obedient dogs who will pay for apps even if it doesn't reward them. Men will use these apps for a long period of time even if they never get a single interaction.

More than 50% of men just never receive a like, and never means maybe 2 or 3 likes in the lifespan of several weeks

1% of guys received 10% of the likes, 3% of the guys received 20% of the likes, 10% of the guys received 40% of the likes, and 20% of the guys received 55% of the likes.

There are more girls that don't want children than men: 20% of girls didn't want children and 16% of guys.

Only 50% of girls sent 10 likes in their account lifespan.

10% of girls that finish the onboarding never send any pass or like, after an onboarding of an average of 13 minutes.

Just a lot of insane metrics in the blog post. Grim AF.

I had a small role in recruiting this man. He'd spent the last ten years leading engineering teams on a consumer product you've probably used, and he's just arrived in DC to work with the federal government. He started on Monday, and it's now Thursday night. I run into him at an event. He arrives late, and looks shellshocked.

How's it going? He's struggling to put words together. I'm worried. "I just left the office. I think everything's going to be okay." What is he talking about? "For the first day and a half, nothing. Then it was 'go to this agency and help them with this thing. It needs to go live on Thursday and there's a problem.' Yes, there was a problem. The data the service relied on….I've never seen a database like that. Ever." What do you mean? "1993. The guy couldn't find any other way to make it work. The vendors would have taken too long even if someone could justify the budget. So he just hacked it at nights and over weekends. Used whatever he could find and taught himself how to use it. The machine is ancient. The software has just been running since then. I'm amazed he managed to keep it running this long. It's a miracle. Either no one knew, or no one cared — my guess is that they were just happy to have something that worked at all. The guy's been keeping this going like this…I mean…I had no idea…I've never seen…." He's shaking his head and looking past me.

What happened? "First we just had to make sure we could get the data out somehow, make sure we had a copy. I mean, these records…they're the only copy. The whole system relies on this. People rely on this. To help real people. People who need help. If it had failed…" He really is in shock.

"I'd just never seen anything like this. I was afraid if I even touched it, it would all go poof. We got it out. It's okay…. It's okay now…But this guy…He's been keeping this together for 23 years…"

For a minute, I worry that he's angry. And that he might be angry at me for encouraging him to take this job. But I look in his eyes and it's not anger, it's awe. Respect. Admiration and gratitude for a public servant who has achieved the impossible. Made things work in spite of the rules, not because of them. "He made it work. He's the only guy who can run it. He knows it wouldn't work without him so he's deferred his retirement. I mean…he's extraordinary."

Extraordinary. A Silicon Valley technologist, the kind of person we champion as a savior of government, thinks that a career civil servant beyond retirement age with sorely outdated technical skills is extraordinary.

That career civil servant's name is Jed. The system he started building in the 1980s and maintained for decades before my friend came along was called VACOLS, the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System. It started out serving just 400 users, and expanded to 17,000 across multiple parts of the VA system. Logic Magazine later interviewed him, and the backstory is well worth a read.

We spent over $1M *each* on the first two @jeremysrazors commercials.

On this latest one, we spent like forty-seven. Dollars.

AI is here. It presents many new challenges. It presents many new opportunities, too.

This commercial couldn’t have been made without AI. Or, at least,… pic.twitter.com/n88JXwZ3IQ

— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) February 6, 2025

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel gifted Donald Trump a golden pager in reference to the Hezbollah attack, per the Telegraph.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) February 5, 2025

I think this is french for

No one cares about it, no one even talks about it. Who actually wants to see these r-slurred events

BREAKING.🚨

Impeachment articles have already been filed against President Donald Trump.

"The movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring Articles of Impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done."… pic.twitter.com/NTPeDMmlOf

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) February 5, 2025

The Social Security Administration has terminated its contract for the “Gender X initiative marker” and removed all references to gender ideology from public facing applications.

This saves > $1M and is in accordance with the President’s Executive Order: https://t.co/rN29vUHJsH pic.twitter.com/K1gMKnRExN

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 5, 2025

Can someone explain to me what gramps was on about? It feels important to know.

And when I searched "amazing digital circus sucks" on reddit to see if anyone else complained about it, I instead got a lot of pornography.

Fascinating in light of the fact most of the fanbase is under 18. The zoomer/gen alpha mind is so destroyed they're cooming to hentai of really badly written Fischer Price looking slop. I have no idea how this show got so much praise for its "characters" and "plot". Any fans of this show please defend yourself, because the only way I see people liking this is terrible taste.

!hazbinhoteliers The absolute state of indie animation.