Ariana, 31, Corpus Christi TX
Personal Life/Career:
Personal Shopper at "Major Texas Grocery Store" (HEB)
basically just handling curbside pickup stuff
Last year made $25'386
Brought in $1'400 dollars last month?
Probably closer to $15'000
34 hours a week - usually less than that
3 years
Was an English teacher in China prior to this
- Tried to substitute but did not like the culture in usa
Got a raise to $18 an hour recently
Bachelor's in Poli Sci
Leeching off her mother
- Mother is 58
Went back to school, stenography "to become a court reporter" timestamp
Pushback on this because Caleb thinks it will be vaporized by ChatGPT
Apparently this pays 6 figures starting?
Caleb fact checks this as around 61'000 starting
She was basing it off a job posting she saw
School details timestamp
2 years (she thinks)
Paid in cash, 1 class a semester $500 each ("per speed level")
She tries to explain what she does with her day timestamp
- Caleb brings up the Uhaul lesbian meme
Financials:
Financial score timestamp
- Tries to give story, gets cut off and then says 3/10
How'd she get into debt? timestamp
Claims majority of it is "taking a lot of flights to Britain"
"Trying to save [her] relationship"
Wifed an Englishwoman she met in China, separated during pandemic because they went back to their countries
Only 3 flights?
First time she stayed there 6 months
Others were 2 weeks apiece
Last went May of last year
Divorcing now (just filed)
Brit developed "chronic illness" and decided leeching off the NHS was smarter than moving to USA
Got married in Corpus last year, she traveled to the USA
Credit Card 1 (Sam's) ($5'859/$14'900) timestamp
Went and bought a pizza at Sam's before coming to the show
- Gets pressed on blowing money on the pizza
$100 interest
- 20%
$158 payments (old minimum)
$130 new purchases
159 minimum monthly payment
Lots of eating out
Tries to justify it because it's convenience
- usually grabs it when she's on the way out of Sam's
Pulls out her stenography machine and she tries to transcribe what he's saying timestamp
- She's barely 30 wpm. Unfricking real.
Credit Card 2 (Discover It) ($1'235) timestamp
$625 paid
$424 in new purchases
$35 minimum payment
Interest free until November - 30% after that
She claims balances are because of relationship? He pushes back because it's obviously not
Constant super market spending
Every shift at HEB she gets Sushi (actually spring rolls)
Has tried making spring rolls at home but fails ever time
Roughly $300 a month spring roll habit. She claims she stopped and gets pressed on that because it's obviously not true
$75 therapist payment - put on this card instead of debit but this is interest free
Credit Card 3 ($0) timestamp
Authorized user on this one, it's her mother's
Mother is responsible, pays it off
"Mother wanted to help her build credit"
690 or so credit score, she thinks this is "really good"
- Gets pressed for being constantly being confidently incorrect
Student Loans ($9'244) timestamp - timestamp 2
On a payment plan - all consolidated
Not paused because she's under the requisite credit hours
Mother paid for most of her degree, these student loans are making up the difference
$98 minimum payment, she thought it was $198
6.5% intrest rates
Addressing the mother situation timestamp
Thinks she's been given $3'000 over the last three years
Some for dental she "broke her teeth" while eating at Wingstop
Then had to get root canal?
Informal on the payment plan, mother is keeping an notebook and writing down all numbers
Living with mother right now, free rent
- Sister also lives there, also going through divorce
Car 2014 Chevy Spark
- 96'000 miles
Checking Account ($25) timestamp
She takes out "mostly everything in cash"
All that spending is untracked
Caleb presses her hard on where the cash goes and she struggles to come up with answers
$80 on getting her hair done once a week
She wants to be "platinum blonde" instead of black hair
She wants this to be in her budget
Started the month with $600
Tries to get her to draw a bar chart comparing her spring roll spending vs her income timestamp
No retirement account
Budget Pie Chart timestamp
Attempt to design her a budget timestamp
- At least $57 underwater based on what she's done
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Caleb's take on court reporters getting replaced by AI is quite a take if you work with courts. They are slow to change technologically, and they do a lot more than just record notes. I can't imagine chatgpt allowing it's voice to repeat some of the things I've made a court reporter read back into the record.
Still that WPM is far too low, and frankly she seems like too much of a to cut it in how catty the courts can be.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Many state courts already phased out the use of court reporters for audio and video recordings. With speech to text being better than ever, can you be so sure this job will exist in your state for the next 20 years? It's r-slurred to bet your entire livelihood on the idea that courts are slow to change.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Yeah I really don't get the argument of "well the transcription can be wrong sometimes". Stenographers aren't perfect, either. It's pretty cheap to have a full audio (even video) recording for internal recordkeeping, even if you don't allow outside video reporters. If someone claims the transcription is wrong, you can always go back and listen/watch to the original recording. It's not like they need to get rid of it.
I'm not sure if ChatGPT really has much to do with it but presumably decades from now we'll have more court recordings and the value of a stenographer will be diminished since they won't be as necessary.
There's people in the YT comments complaining about the same thing and how "every word must be accurate" in the official proceedings, but that's clearly not the case today, stenographers are not infallible.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
things youtube commenters interact with (youtube auto subtitles etc) are designed for "don't suggest someone said a racial slur" as a slightly higher priority than accuracy after some very funny incidents
presumably a courtroom standard speech-to-text system would be able to retain audio recording + be tuned for actual accuracy
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The USPS has some of the best hand writing recognition and now they don't need mail sorters anymore, well they need a few to handle the cases where it fails (very rare). Could be the same thing for stenos, they'll only need a few of them to correct mistakes from the VTT system.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
I don't know of any state that has fully phased out court reporters. Maybe it's my 9/10th circuit brain, but the only time I see only recordings is at justice and city court levels.
In a federal civil case, you can bet your butt a reporter will be there until you have 100% accuracy.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
..and then I walked over and got a burger
ChatGPT, please read that back for the courts
...and I balked over and did murder
Hang him!
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
There's mfs that learn stenography for fun
It took me a lot of effort just to learn a new keyboard layout
I wonder if her typing WPM is all tht much higher
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The hardcore court reporters put some of our greatest programming neurodivergents to shame in terms of niche skills
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context