Q: What do you do when a kid has a temper tantrum because he or she wants something in a store?
A: You never, ever let them get what they want for acting like that. Never. Not once.
It also helps to remember they're not giving you a hard time, they're having a hard time. They're overcome by emotions.
You pick him or her up and throw them over your shoulder like a screaming sack and you walk right out of the store. After they've calmed down a little, you help them by naming the emotion and explaining what happened: "You're feeling angry and disappointed because you didn't get what you want. But that isn't how you get things."
Fundamentally, what you're after is two things:
1. Teaching them that this behavior never results in success
2. Trying to teach them how to recognize and handle powerful emotions
Kids test you. Give them clear test results.
It's insanely frustrating and I completely understand the impulse to punish or hit your kids. But that's not how you solve problems. Everything you do is teaching kids how to be an adult. Do you want to teach them that the way bigger people get what they want from smaller people is to hurt or scare them?
The most important thing is: never ever let this behavior deliver a reward.
Anyone who's studied psychology knows that an intermittent reward schedule creates operant behavior that is by far the hardest to extinguish.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Fake News versus Slanted News
Again, consider the fundamental difference between slanted news and fake news. Slanted news presents things that actually happened. If you read enough news with different slants, you will end up with a pretty good picture of what happened as you will have all the facts.
Consider a sound bite where Trump says, "You know, a lot of people say I hate black people, but that's not true."
Extremely slanted news could grab just the "I hate black people" part and wildly change the meaning of his words. But it doesn't change.the fact that he said those words. That means if you read news of a different slant, you will get the full context and understand what actually happened.
But consider fake news. They could make up something completely, like say, "Trump displays Nazi Flag next to American Flag at recent rally." This simply isn't true. But you won't find any context about it anywhere else because, since it didn't happen, nobody is reporting anything about it. So you either believe the story in it's entirety, or you reject it completely.
Now here's where the problem comes in: if you call slanted news "fake news", you are asking people to categorically reject that news source, thus taking a valuable source of context off the table. That leaves only the news that is slanted the way he wants, which denies people the ability to gain full context into his actions.
Even worse, people get in the habit of rejecting news they don't like as "fake", which means that they are essentially choosing the reality they want to live in rather than attempting to understand the world as it actually is.
This is how we find ourselves in a world where we have an "emergency at the southern border" when illegal border crossings are at near record lows. Then, when you show people the statistics, they simply decide not to believe it. Productive debate and problem solving is impossible if you can't even agree about what is actually happening.
So slanted news is bad. If it is so slanted that it intentionally alters the meaning of quotes and events, it is not a reliable news source. But perfectly objective news is impossible to make. Even a good faith effort to produce a balanced and complete accounting of events will omit some details some people will find important. This is why you must get your news from at least three news sources, one of which is slanted in a way you don't like.
But no matter how bad slanted news is, it will never do the damage of fake news. That is why we must recognize the difference and keep it in our minds when form opinions based on what we read.
The consequences are real. The damage is real. Fake news is dangerous, and so is Trump's desire to label any news he doesn't like as "fake". CNN is not the paragon of journalistic virtue, but you can watch it and gain context into things that actually happened. Nothing they report is fake, even if it is often slanted.
SOURCE
Consider a sound bite where Trump says, "You know, a lot of people say I hate black people, but that's not true."
Extremely slanted news could grab just the "I hate black people" part and wildly change the meaning of his words. But it doesn't change.the fact that he said those words. That means if you read news of a different slant, you will get the full context and understand what actually happened.
But consider fake news. They could make up something completely, like say, "Trump displays Nazi Flag next to American Flag at recent rally." This simply isn't true. But you won't find any context about it anywhere else because, since it didn't happen, nobody is reporting anything about it. So you either believe the story in it's entirety, or you reject it completely.
Now here's where the problem comes in: if you call slanted news "fake news", you are asking people to categorically reject that news source, thus taking a valuable source of context off the table. That leaves only the news that is slanted the way he wants, which denies people the ability to gain full context into his actions.
Even worse, people get in the habit of rejecting news they don't like as "fake", which means that they are essentially choosing the reality they want to live in rather than attempting to understand the world as it actually is.
This is how we find ourselves in a world where we have an "emergency at the southern border" when illegal border crossings are at near record lows. Then, when you show people the statistics, they simply decide not to believe it. Productive debate and problem solving is impossible if you can't even agree about what is actually happening.
So slanted news is bad. If it is so slanted that it intentionally alters the meaning of quotes and events, it is not a reliable news source. But perfectly objective news is impossible to make. Even a good faith effort to produce a balanced and complete accounting of events will omit some details some people will find important. This is why you must get your news from at least three news sources, one of which is slanted in a way you don't like.
But no matter how bad slanted news is, it will never do the damage of fake news. That is why we must recognize the difference and keep it in our minds when form opinions based on what we read.
The consequences are real. The damage is real. Fake news is dangerous, and so is Trump's desire to label any news he doesn't like as "fake". CNN is not the paragon of journalistic virtue, but you can watch it and gain context into things that actually happened. Nothing they report is fake, even if it is often slanted.
SOURCE
Trump's Russian Connections
Trump was over a billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out. This is how he made a come back
► Trump was first compromised by the Russians back in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for, in effect, the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance. The whole Trump/Russian connection started out as laundering money for the Russian mob through Trump's real estate, but evolved into something far bigger.
► In 1984, David Bogatin — a Russian mobster, convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)
► Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of NY real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a govt cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen--Trump's former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.
► Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock (mentioned above). Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.
► Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. That means Russian Mafia operatives have been part of his fortune for years, that many of them have owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties, that they were running operations out of Trump's crown jewel. (Mogilevich's role today is unclear).
► One of the most important things that is often overlooked is that the Russia Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. that is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they have been operating out of the home of the president of the United States is deeply disturbing.
► From Craig Unger's AMA: "Early on, a source told me that all this was tied to Semion Mogilevich, the powerful Russian mobster. I had never even heard of him, but I immediately went to a database that listed the owners of all properties in NY state and looked up all the Trump properties. Every time I found a Russian sounding name, I would Google, and add Mogilevich. When you do investigative reporting, you anticipate drilling a number of dry holes, but almost everyone I googled turned out to be a Russian mobster. Again and again. If you know New York you don't expect Trump Tower to be a high crime neighborhood, but there were far too many Russian mobsters in Trump properties for it to be a coincidence."
► So many Russians bought Trump apartments at his developments in Florida that the area became known as Little Moscow. The developers of two of his hotels were Russians with significant links to the Russian mob. The late leader of that mob in the United States, Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, was living at Trump Tower.
► According to a Bloomberg investigation (March 16, 2017) into Trump World Tower, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.”
► In July 2008, the height of the recession, Donald Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch. Trump had purchased it four years earlier for $41.35 million. The sale price was nearly $54 million more than Trump had paid for the property. Again, this was the height of the recession when all other property had plummeted in value.
► In 2013, Federal agents busted an “ultraexclusive, high-stakes, illegal poker ring” run by Russian gangsters out of Trump Tower. In addition to card games, they operated illegal gambling websites, ran a global sports book and laundered more than $100 million. A condo directly below one owned by Trump reportedly served as HQ for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” connected to Semion Mogilevich.
► Rudy Giuliani famously prosecuted the Italian mob while he was a federal prosecutor, yet the Russian mob was allowed to thrive under his tenure in the Southern District and Mayor. And now he's deeply entwined in the business of Trump and Russian oligarchs. Giuiani appointed Semyon Kislin to the NYC Economic Development Council in 1990, and the FBI described Kislin as having ties tot he Russian mob. Of course, it made good political sense for Giuliani to get headlines for smashing the Italian mob.
► A lot of Republicans in Washington are implicated. Boatloads of Russian money went to the GOP--often in legal ways. The NRA got as much as $70M from Russia, then funneled it to the GOP. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee lead by McConnel got millions from Leonard Blavatnik. In the 90s, the Russians began sending money to top GOP leaders, like Speaker of the House Tom Delay. Unger's book alleges that most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by RU money.
► At the Cityscape USA’s Bridging US and the Emerging Real Estate Markets Conference held in Manhattan, on September 9, 10, and 11, 2008, Trump Jr. was frank about the tide of Russian money supporting the family business, saying "...And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."
► Eric Trump told James Dodson, a golf reporter, in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
Outcomes that show Trump is taking orders from Putin:
► At the end of 2018, Putin and his allies started making a strong push for a resolution that would justify their country’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and reverse an 1989 vote backed by Mikhail Gorbachev that condemned it. The Putinists’ goal was to pass the resolution by Feb. There is no one on this side of the Atlantic who thinks the USSR was justified in invading Afghanistan. And out of nowhere, on January 2nd, Trump came out strongly supporting Russia's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
► Trump went against American intelligence on North Korean missiles. He told the FBI he didn't believe their intelligence because Putin told him otherwise. "I don't care, I believe Putin"
► Trump met in secret with Putin the G20 summit in November 2018, without note takers. 19 days later, he announced a withdrawal from Syria. As a note, Trump conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed.
► Trump refused to enforce sanctions legally codified into law - and in some cases reversed standing sanctions on Russian companies.
► He has denounced his own intelligence agencies in a press conference with Putin on election meddling - and publicly endorsed Putin's version of events. .
► Trump pulled out of the INF treaty with no explanation, which allows Putin to create long-range hypersonic missiles that threaten Europe with impunity. The US already has all the weaponry that the INF would ban the development of, so this offers us literally nothing, while allowing Russia to develop powerful new weapons to challenge our allies.
► And of course, Trump continues to threaten to pull out of NATO, a move so catastrophically stupid, so inconceivably cosmically myopic, I truly can't express the profundity of the idiocy. Suffice to say, pulling out of NATO would be like the only guy in a prison yard with a shotgun just throwing it over the fence for absolutely no reason, suddenly giving the people with crude homemade shivs complete power.
► In summation: Trump was $4 billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out.
I've reached my 10k limit and URLs are the first thing to go.
► Trump was first compromised by the Russians back in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for, in effect, the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance. The whole Trump/Russian connection started out as laundering money for the Russian mob through Trump's real estate, but evolved into something far bigger.
► In 1984, David Bogatin — a Russian mobster, convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)
► Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of NY real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a govt cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen--Trump's former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.
► Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock (mentioned above). Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.
► Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. That means Russian Mafia operatives have been part of his fortune for years, that many of them have owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties, that they were running operations out of Trump's crown jewel. (Mogilevich's role today is unclear).
► One of the most important things that is often overlooked is that the Russia Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. that is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they have been operating out of the home of the president of the United States is deeply disturbing.
► From Craig Unger's AMA: "Early on, a source told me that all this was tied to Semion Mogilevich, the powerful Russian mobster. I had never even heard of him, but I immediately went to a database that listed the owners of all properties in NY state and looked up all the Trump properties. Every time I found a Russian sounding name, I would Google, and add Mogilevich. When you do investigative reporting, you anticipate drilling a number of dry holes, but almost everyone I googled turned out to be a Russian mobster. Again and again. If you know New York you don't expect Trump Tower to be a high crime neighborhood, but there were far too many Russian mobsters in Trump properties for it to be a coincidence."
► So many Russians bought Trump apartments at his developments in Florida that the area became known as Little Moscow. The developers of two of his hotels were Russians with significant links to the Russian mob. The late leader of that mob in the United States, Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, was living at Trump Tower.
► According to a Bloomberg investigation (March 16, 2017) into Trump World Tower, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.”
► In July 2008, the height of the recession, Donald Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch. Trump had purchased it four years earlier for $41.35 million. The sale price was nearly $54 million more than Trump had paid for the property. Again, this was the height of the recession when all other property had plummeted in value.
► In 2013, Federal agents busted an “ultraexclusive, high-stakes, illegal poker ring” run by Russian gangsters out of Trump Tower. In addition to card games, they operated illegal gambling websites, ran a global sports book and laundered more than $100 million. A condo directly below one owned by Trump reportedly served as HQ for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” connected to Semion Mogilevich.
► Rudy Giuliani famously prosecuted the Italian mob while he was a federal prosecutor, yet the Russian mob was allowed to thrive under his tenure in the Southern District and Mayor. And now he's deeply entwined in the business of Trump and Russian oligarchs. Giuiani appointed Semyon Kislin to the NYC Economic Development Council in 1990, and the FBI described Kislin as having ties tot he Russian mob. Of course, it made good political sense for Giuliani to get headlines for smashing the Italian mob.
► A lot of Republicans in Washington are implicated. Boatloads of Russian money went to the GOP--often in legal ways. The NRA got as much as $70M from Russia, then funneled it to the GOP. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee lead by McConnel got millions from Leonard Blavatnik. In the 90s, the Russians began sending money to top GOP leaders, like Speaker of the House Tom Delay. Unger's book alleges that most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by RU money.
► At the Cityscape USA’s Bridging US and the Emerging Real Estate Markets Conference held in Manhattan, on September 9, 10, and 11, 2008, Trump Jr. was frank about the tide of Russian money supporting the family business, saying "...And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."
► Eric Trump told James Dodson, a golf reporter, in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
Outcomes that show Trump is taking orders from Putin:
► At the end of 2018, Putin and his allies started making a strong push for a resolution that would justify their country’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and reverse an 1989 vote backed by Mikhail Gorbachev that condemned it. The Putinists’ goal was to pass the resolution by Feb. There is no one on this side of the Atlantic who thinks the USSR was justified in invading Afghanistan. And out of nowhere, on January 2nd, Trump came out strongly supporting Russia's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
► Trump went against American intelligence on North Korean missiles. He told the FBI he didn't believe their intelligence because Putin told him otherwise. "I don't care, I believe Putin"
► Trump met in secret with Putin the G20 summit in November 2018, without note takers. 19 days later, he announced a withdrawal from Syria. As a note, Trump conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed.
► Trump refused to enforce sanctions legally codified into law - and in some cases reversed standing sanctions on Russian companies.
► He has denounced his own intelligence agencies in a press conference with Putin on election meddling - and publicly endorsed Putin's version of events. .
► Trump pulled out of the INF treaty with no explanation, which allows Putin to create long-range hypersonic missiles that threaten Europe with impunity. The US already has all the weaponry that the INF would ban the development of, so this offers us literally nothing, while allowing Russia to develop powerful new weapons to challenge our allies.
► And of course, Trump continues to threaten to pull out of NATO, a move so catastrophically stupid, so inconceivably cosmically myopic, I truly can't express the profundity of the idiocy. Suffice to say, pulling out of NATO would be like the only guy in a prison yard with a shotgun just throwing it over the fence for absolutely no reason, suddenly giving the people with crude homemade shivs complete power.
► In summation: Trump was $4 billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out.
I've reached my 10k limit and URLs are the first thing to go.
Friday, April 5, 2019
How to Succeed as a Software Engineer
Dude, I'm going to lay it out to you for real. I'm sure that no one else here has laid THE TRUTH out for you.
This is a shitty, terrible industry.
No one can properly estimate projects, its impossible. Businesses need the projects finished anyway though, so the entire fucking industry is built on abusive practices to bridge the gap between impossible fairy-tale schedules and the reality of building something immensely complicated where the time to completion was estimated by people that didn't really understand it in the first place.
Scrum and the "sprint" is a recipe for burnout. Employers demand far more than they should, the default attitude in the industry with regard to failure is blame and judgement, overtime is damn near mandatory, no one can effectively rate the work of any other individual unless there are obvious shortcomings, so bullshit impressions are used in place of any sound rating system. If you doubt this is true, look up example implementations for elevator models. We don't even have a sound consensus for how to properly write simple shit.
I've personally worked somewhere where my first week-long sprint included 5 things and one of the 5 things wound up taking at least 2 man years of development time split among a team of around 10 people. I wound up getting laid off from that position because no one had any idea of how difficult what was being asked for actually was.
There is no good advice other than do whatever little bullshit you can to make yourself look good and others look bad.
- Superficially refactor recently written code that doesn't need it whenever you have spare time and have a reason to work with it. This creates a ton of changes in your git repo, makes you look really good for doing minimal work, and your co-workers have to figure out how the new code works. which slows them down. The fact that you re-wrote it at all is a micro-aggression that says they're incompetent to anyone supervising. When you do this, there's a good chance your co-workers will just grumble about it quietly and not bother raising the issue. You'd be amazed how much a good refactor can throw someone off even on code they originally wrote. If they do raise the issue, just stick to your guns. Their code was harder to read, you had to re-write it to make it easier to understand. That kind of narrative will serve you well as you build the perception that you're superior to those around you. Hostile refactorings are an extremely common aggressive action in programming circles.
- Inflate the time for tasks you're likely to wind up with while undercutting time for tasks your co-workers will want to work with at scrum meetings. Scrum is a battle, and if you're not treating it as a battle, its because you're losing. If you think your co-worker has a vague understanding of the task, that's when you can really go for the throat.
- Do zero future prep for any work item unless its explicitly mandated that you do it in your current task. If called out on it "You knew we were going to have to add this eventually" stick to your guns and explain that its not how scrum works. Preparing for things in the future might be sane and reasonable engineering, but its not going to help you at all in today's cut-throat software industry. If you had some future task figured out in your head, and you add all the hooks needed to do it to your code and document it nicely, you will get exactly zero credit for having done that and the person who eventually implements it will look good. Perceptions are all relative to your peers, when they look good, you must necessarily look bad.
- Use the shortest variable names you can get away with. First, it artificially makes your code look "clean" (seriously, test this out. Greatly shortening identifier names instantly gives your code superficial cleanliness), which is impressive to the vast majority of even experienced programmers. More importantly it makes your code harder to actually understand, so your co-workers will be less likely to be able to easily work with it (it can prevent hostile refactors). This will make you look really good whenever someone else is assigned to work on something with you. Use cnt instead of num-selected-positions or total-upgraded-widgets. If someone calls you out on it, say that what the variable does is "obvious" due to the context. This is *always* true in code, you can always figure out what something is from the context no matter how badly named. If they didn't get it from the context its because they just aren't as smart as you are. If they continue to press you on it, they'll look like they're struggling at best, and trouble-makers at worst.
- Always code at the lowest level of abstraction you can without making your code seem out of place. If you're in a team that doesn't use polymorphism, you shouldn't use it either. If your team uses for statements rather than higher order functions, use for statements as well. Using those higher level abstractions will make your code easier to modify, read, and re-use and all of those things will make it easier for your co-workers to work with your code - reducing your perceived value. The only reason to use a higher level abstraction is if you know you can get away with it and if you're sure that your team will struggle with understanding it - like if you introduce a logic programming library to people that have never had any experience with logic programming.
- Avoid any kind of solo project. Software is always perceived to have taken too long to complete. The bigger the group you can work with the more you can "game" the process.
- Master any techniques you can that involve optimizing your code for performance, and use them liberally. It gives you an excuse to write bad code, but since its fast code, you are completely covered for having written it.
- If you're in OO land and you have the luxury of just creating crazy abstractions to do simple things for Christ sake do it. Be the guy that writes 15 classes to model an elevator. Every noun is an object, every verb can be an object too. Seek out and find those "tutorials" that show you how to write your code to be "modular". OO is a god damn fairy tale come true for anyone that wants to get ahead at their company.
- Use non-standard documentation if you can to keep yourself from getting confused. Don't write what you're doing down in comments in the code, comments should always just say shit that is easily apparent from reading the code, instead keep a word document or something separate from the code itself where you document everything, store it in some document repo maintained by your business intelligence people. No one will ever find it there, and it will be your own private cheat-sheet for working through the hell you've created.
So, I'm writing all that mostly tongue in cheek right? Right? Except that I've seen this shit done over and over again, especially hostile refactorings and shortened identifier names. I'm sure most everyone in the industry for more than a year or two has seen that.
I think some people shit all over their co-workers on accident, like they started learning from someone that used identifiers like "cnt" and started to see that kind of shit as "normal". Maybe those people aren't particularly driven as well, so they keep using low level abstractions everywhere, and maybe because of these inadvertent hostile actions, they thrive. They create home field advantages in the areas in which they work unintentionally, and that keeps others from appearing to do well there because others have to shift through the muck that's been written.
But I think that some people literally do that kind of shit as a form of hostile action. Some people really are psychopaths. Some people will cozy up to the boss and talk shit in complete confidence while doing a lot of what's on that list above... and you will never beat those people. Never in a million years. Those guys will be executives one day, you know the type, you meet them as middle managers hear that they used to be programmers and ask them about programming and they tell you that its been a long time and they don't really do it any more, they're doing something else now... as if they don't really have the skills, never developed the skills, instead developed other skills...
And of course if you're the boss and the guy kisses your ass constantly and you're not too impressed with his work (but you don't think he's really being hostile, no... people don't do that) but you have a minor management position that someone has to fill, hey why not? You like the guy after all. Will help the team too since they won't have to read his code anymore. Everybody wins.
I originally decided to respond to this to talk about how software engineers should really think about unionizing, but I guess I'm far afield from that. Everyone's convinced they're a 1 in 100 developer, so I'd be wasting my time advocating that anyway.
Never forget that stimulant abuse is common in our industry. Always remember that you might not have the whole story. I would never encourage someone to use drugs, but if you have trouble focusing... and we all do... talking to your doctor is always an option. Just don't mention it at work because people will use it against you.
I've worked at places where I was absolutely convinced that management and half the dev staff was all high on cocaine all the time. The older I get the more convinced I am that not only is this the case, but that its happening pretty much everywhere. People aren't averaging 60+ hour work weeks in times of crisis with a family and marriage and other responsibilities without help. I've worked at shops where we had people pulling upwards of 80 hours for two weeks. I've had at least one person above me tell me that they're on high doses of amphetamines with a wink-wink nudge-nudge.
This is a shitty, terrible industry.
No one can properly estimate projects, its impossible. Businesses need the projects finished anyway though, so the entire fucking industry is built on abusive practices to bridge the gap between impossible fairy-tale schedules and the reality of building something immensely complicated where the time to completion was estimated by people that didn't really understand it in the first place.
Scrum and the "sprint" is a recipe for burnout. Employers demand far more than they should, the default attitude in the industry with regard to failure is blame and judgement, overtime is damn near mandatory, no one can effectively rate the work of any other individual unless there are obvious shortcomings, so bullshit impressions are used in place of any sound rating system. If you doubt this is true, look up example implementations for elevator models. We don't even have a sound consensus for how to properly write simple shit.
I've personally worked somewhere where my first week-long sprint included 5 things and one of the 5 things wound up taking at least 2 man years of development time split among a team of around 10 people. I wound up getting laid off from that position because no one had any idea of how difficult what was being asked for actually was.
There is no good advice other than do whatever little bullshit you can to make yourself look good and others look bad.
- Superficially refactor recently written code that doesn't need it whenever you have spare time and have a reason to work with it. This creates a ton of changes in your git repo, makes you look really good for doing minimal work, and your co-workers have to figure out how the new code works. which slows them down. The fact that you re-wrote it at all is a micro-aggression that says they're incompetent to anyone supervising. When you do this, there's a good chance your co-workers will just grumble about it quietly and not bother raising the issue. You'd be amazed how much a good refactor can throw someone off even on code they originally wrote. If they do raise the issue, just stick to your guns. Their code was harder to read, you had to re-write it to make it easier to understand. That kind of narrative will serve you well as you build the perception that you're superior to those around you. Hostile refactorings are an extremely common aggressive action in programming circles.
- Inflate the time for tasks you're likely to wind up with while undercutting time for tasks your co-workers will want to work with at scrum meetings. Scrum is a battle, and if you're not treating it as a battle, its because you're losing. If you think your co-worker has a vague understanding of the task, that's when you can really go for the throat.
- Do zero future prep for any work item unless its explicitly mandated that you do it in your current task. If called out on it "You knew we were going to have to add this eventually" stick to your guns and explain that its not how scrum works. Preparing for things in the future might be sane and reasonable engineering, but its not going to help you at all in today's cut-throat software industry. If you had some future task figured out in your head, and you add all the hooks needed to do it to your code and document it nicely, you will get exactly zero credit for having done that and the person who eventually implements it will look good. Perceptions are all relative to your peers, when they look good, you must necessarily look bad.
- Use the shortest variable names you can get away with. First, it artificially makes your code look "clean" (seriously, test this out. Greatly shortening identifier names instantly gives your code superficial cleanliness), which is impressive to the vast majority of even experienced programmers. More importantly it makes your code harder to actually understand, so your co-workers will be less likely to be able to easily work with it (it can prevent hostile refactors). This will make you look really good whenever someone else is assigned to work on something with you. Use cnt instead of num-selected-positions or total-upgraded-widgets. If someone calls you out on it, say that what the variable does is "obvious" due to the context. This is *always* true in code, you can always figure out what something is from the context no matter how badly named. If they didn't get it from the context its because they just aren't as smart as you are. If they continue to press you on it, they'll look like they're struggling at best, and trouble-makers at worst.
- Always code at the lowest level of abstraction you can without making your code seem out of place. If you're in a team that doesn't use polymorphism, you shouldn't use it either. If your team uses for statements rather than higher order functions, use for statements as well. Using those higher level abstractions will make your code easier to modify, read, and re-use and all of those things will make it easier for your co-workers to work with your code - reducing your perceived value. The only reason to use a higher level abstraction is if you know you can get away with it and if you're sure that your team will struggle with understanding it - like if you introduce a logic programming library to people that have never had any experience with logic programming.
- Avoid any kind of solo project. Software is always perceived to have taken too long to complete. The bigger the group you can work with the more you can "game" the process.
- Master any techniques you can that involve optimizing your code for performance, and use them liberally. It gives you an excuse to write bad code, but since its fast code, you are completely covered for having written it.
- If you're in OO land and you have the luxury of just creating crazy abstractions to do simple things for Christ sake do it. Be the guy that writes 15 classes to model an elevator. Every noun is an object, every verb can be an object too. Seek out and find those "tutorials" that show you how to write your code to be "modular". OO is a god damn fairy tale come true for anyone that wants to get ahead at their company.
- Use non-standard documentation if you can to keep yourself from getting confused. Don't write what you're doing down in comments in the code, comments should always just say shit that is easily apparent from reading the code, instead keep a word document or something separate from the code itself where you document everything, store it in some document repo maintained by your business intelligence people. No one will ever find it there, and it will be your own private cheat-sheet for working through the hell you've created.
So, I'm writing all that mostly tongue in cheek right? Right? Except that I've seen this shit done over and over again, especially hostile refactorings and shortened identifier names. I'm sure most everyone in the industry for more than a year or two has seen that.
I think some people shit all over their co-workers on accident, like they started learning from someone that used identifiers like "cnt" and started to see that kind of shit as "normal". Maybe those people aren't particularly driven as well, so they keep using low level abstractions everywhere, and maybe because of these inadvertent hostile actions, they thrive. They create home field advantages in the areas in which they work unintentionally, and that keeps others from appearing to do well there because others have to shift through the muck that's been written.
But I think that some people literally do that kind of shit as a form of hostile action. Some people really are psychopaths. Some people will cozy up to the boss and talk shit in complete confidence while doing a lot of what's on that list above... and you will never beat those people. Never in a million years. Those guys will be executives one day, you know the type, you meet them as middle managers hear that they used to be programmers and ask them about programming and they tell you that its been a long time and they don't really do it any more, they're doing something else now... as if they don't really have the skills, never developed the skills, instead developed other skills...
And of course if you're the boss and the guy kisses your ass constantly and you're not too impressed with his work (but you don't think he's really being hostile, no... people don't do that) but you have a minor management position that someone has to fill, hey why not? You like the guy after all. Will help the team too since they won't have to read his code anymore. Everybody wins.
I originally decided to respond to this to talk about how software engineers should really think about unionizing, but I guess I'm far afield from that. Everyone's convinced they're a 1 in 100 developer, so I'd be wasting my time advocating that anyway.
Never forget that stimulant abuse is common in our industry. Always remember that you might not have the whole story. I would never encourage someone to use drugs, but if you have trouble focusing... and we all do... talking to your doctor is always an option. Just don't mention it at work because people will use it against you.
I've worked at places where I was absolutely convinced that management and half the dev staff was all high on cocaine all the time. The older I get the more convinced I am that not only is this the case, but that its happening pretty much everywhere. People aren't averaging 60+ hour work weeks in times of crisis with a family and marriage and other responsibilities without help. I've worked at shops where we had people pulling upwards of 80 hours for two weeks. I've had at least one person above me tell me that they're on high doses of amphetamines with a wink-wink nudge-nudge.
Friday, February 22, 2019
Friday, February 1, 2019
Stupid Things Trump has Said: Why Trump is an Idiot
“I'm much more humble than you would understand.”
“I have the best temperament or certainly one of the best temperaments of anybody that’s ever run for the office of president. Ever.”
“I’m the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody’s ever been more successful than me.”
“I'm the least racist person you will ever interview.”
"Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism. The least racist person"
“I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to the Secret Service.”
"I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country."
“No one has done more for people with disabilities than me.”
"Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump."
"There's nobody who understands the horror of nuclear more than me."
"There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am."
"There's nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump,"
"There’s nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have"
"There's nobody that has more respect for women than I do,"
"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me"
"I am going to save Social Security without any cuts. I know where to get the money from. Nobody else does ."
"Nobody respects women more than I do"
"And I was so furious at that story, because there's nobody that respects women more than I do,"
"Nobody respects women more than Donald Trump"
"She can't talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump,"
"Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump!"
"Nobody has more respect for women than I do."
"Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody."
“Nobody reads the Bible more than me.”
"Nobody loves the Bible more than I do"
"Nobody does self-deprecating humor better than I do. It’s not even close"
“Nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world.”
"Nobody knows more about trade than me"
"Nobody knows the (visa) system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me."
"Nobody knows debt better than me."
"I think nobody knows the system better than I do"
"I hope all workers demand that their @Teamsters reps endorse Donald J. Trump. Nobody knows jobs like I do! Don’t let them sell you out!"
“I know more about renewables than any human being on earth.”
“I know more about ISIS than the generals do.”
"I know more about contributions than anybody"
"I know more about offense and defense than they will ever understand, believe me. Believe me. Than they will ever understand. Than they will ever understand."
"I know more about wedges than any human being that's ever lived"
"I know more about drones than anybody,"
"I know more about Cory than he knows about himself."
"I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president"
"It’s like the wheel, there is nothing better. I know tech better than anyone"
“I’m very highly educated. I know words; I have the best words.”
"I know some of you may think l'm tough and harsh but actually I'm a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense"
"I watch these pundits on television and, you know, they call them intellectuals. They're not intellectuals," Trump told thousands of supporters in the swing state. "I'm much smarter than them. I think I have a much higher IQ. I think I went to a better college — better everything,"
"@ajodom60: @FoxNews and as far as that low-info voter base goes, I have an IQ of 132. So much for that theory. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"
Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure,it's not your fault
“He’s been quite critical of you as you know. He’s attacked you for being ignorant,” Piers Morgan said to Trump. “Let’s do an IQ test,” Trump interrupted
"We can’t let these people, these so called egg-heads--and by the way, I guarantee you my IQ is much higher than theirs, alright. Somebody said the other day, ‘Yes, well the intellectuals–‘ I said, ‘What intellectuals? I’m smarter than they are, many of people in this audience are smarter than they are."
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years,” Trump told Fox News last December.
Trump says he has "one of the great memories of all time"
Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."
" ... I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!"
Remember: con men tell you who they are, genuine men show you.
“I have the best temperament or certainly one of the best temperaments of anybody that’s ever run for the office of president. Ever.”
“I’m the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody’s ever been more successful than me.”
“I'm the least racist person you will ever interview.”
"Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism. The least racist person"
“I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to the Secret Service.”
"I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country."
“No one has done more for people with disabilities than me.”
"Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump."
"There's nobody who understands the horror of nuclear more than me."
"There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am."
"There's nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump,"
"There’s nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have"
"There's nobody that has more respect for women than I do,"
"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me"
"I am going to save Social Security without any cuts. I know where to get the money from. Nobody else does ."
"Nobody respects women more than I do"
"And I was so furious at that story, because there's nobody that respects women more than I do,"
"Nobody respects women more than Donald Trump"
"She can't talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump,"
"Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump!"
"Nobody has more respect for women than I do."
"Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody."
“Nobody reads the Bible more than me.”
"Nobody loves the Bible more than I do"
"Nobody does self-deprecating humor better than I do. It’s not even close"
“Nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world.”
"Nobody knows more about trade than me"
"Nobody knows the (visa) system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me."
"Nobody knows debt better than me."
"I think nobody knows the system better than I do"
"I hope all workers demand that their @Teamsters reps endorse Donald J. Trump. Nobody knows jobs like I do! Don’t let them sell you out!"
“I know more about renewables than any human being on earth.”
“I know more about ISIS than the generals do.”
"I know more about contributions than anybody"
"I know more about offense and defense than they will ever understand, believe me. Believe me. Than they will ever understand. Than they will ever understand."
"I know more about wedges than any human being that's ever lived"
"I know more about drones than anybody,"
"I know more about Cory than he knows about himself."
"I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president"
"It’s like the wheel, there is nothing better. I know tech better than anyone"
“I’m very highly educated. I know words; I have the best words.”
"I know some of you may think l'm tough and harsh but actually I'm a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense"
"I watch these pundits on television and, you know, they call them intellectuals. They're not intellectuals," Trump told thousands of supporters in the swing state. "I'm much smarter than them. I think I have a much higher IQ. I think I went to a better college — better everything,"
"@ajodom60: @FoxNews and as far as that low-info voter base goes, I have an IQ of 132. So much for that theory. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"
Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure,it's not your fault
“He’s been quite critical of you as you know. He’s attacked you for being ignorant,” Piers Morgan said to Trump. “Let’s do an IQ test,” Trump interrupted
"We can’t let these people, these so called egg-heads--and by the way, I guarantee you my IQ is much higher than theirs, alright. Somebody said the other day, ‘Yes, well the intellectuals–‘ I said, ‘What intellectuals? I’m smarter than they are, many of people in this audience are smarter than they are."
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years,” Trump told Fox News last December.
Trump says he has "one of the great memories of all time"
Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."
" ... I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!"
Remember: con men tell you who they are, genuine men show you.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Republicans are Traitors and Russian Puppets
Links to Russian money by Republicans traitors
McConnell, Kasich, Rubio, McCain, Graham, Scott Walker all got money from one single Russian.
More info here
Michael Cohen was the Deputy Finance Chairman of the RNC
A confirmed Russian spy was moving money through the NRA to politicians - full affidavit for the details on Butina
All Republicans in the senate, a large amount of Republicans in the house and a 4 Dems in the house took money from the NRA
The NRA and the Trump campaign were illegally coordinating ad buys.
NRA May Have Illegally Coordinated With GOP Senate Campaigns
The thing is, with all this information out there. All that the Russians needed to get by hacking the GOP was that they knew that the money was coming from Russia (illegally) to the NRA and they have everyone on the hook for knowingly taking that money. What are your odds that the people who can't figure out how to format a PDF were talking about it in emails or other tech?
EXAMPLE:
Graham before December 2016
[Trump] He is a jackass... and he shouldn't be Commander in Chief
Graham after December 2016
I am like the happiest dude in America right now,” a beaming Graham said on “Fox & Friends.” “We have got a president and a national security team that I've been dreaming of for eight years.
What happened between? - Graham: Russians hacked my campaign email account
And somewhere in there he took Russian money.
For those of you thinking about Pence
Pence is the guy who vouched for Flynn in the transition team (that Pence lead) - even publicly stated that Flynn had no contacts with Russia.
The same transition team that is listed in Flynn's sentencing memo
Mueller says Flynn helped his investigation “on a range of issues, including interactions between individuals in the Presidential Transition Team and Russia.” Then he mentions something else that is redacted. So there appear to be two main areas here where Flynn is helping.
He also claims he didn't know Flynn was under investigation
Vice President Pence is standing by his claims that he did not know former national security adviser Michael Flynn had been secretly lobbying for the Turkish government until March, despite a new report claiming Flynn had actually disclosed to the Trump transition team back in January that he was under a federal investigation
Pence was hand picked by Manafort after he took over.
Paul Manafort, who was hit with 12 counts tied to alleged financial schemes, pushed for Pence to become Trump's running mate and even managed to talk Trump out of his doubts.
The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform told then Vice President-elect Mike Pence in a November letter that the man Donald Trump had tapped to be his national security adviser was lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
So we know for a fact that he was informed by the oversight committee and then he rapidly went in public and stated that Flynn had no contacts with Russia.
Given that piece of information, and the fact that we know that the erratic behavior around explaining to Trump that people were dirty and his response was to ignore them and then lie about it - is what caused him to have a counterintelligence investigation into him, what do you think the chances are that the scope of that counterintelligence included anyone in Trump's circle that would be considered part of a RICO case.
Say.... perhaps.... the Vice President who was actively lying about intelligence information he was given.
This article gives some interesting insight
McConnell, Kasich, Rubio, McCain, Graham, Scott Walker all got money from one single Russian.
More info here
Michael Cohen was the Deputy Finance Chairman of the RNC
A confirmed Russian spy was moving money through the NRA to politicians - full affidavit for the details on Butina
All Republicans in the senate, a large amount of Republicans in the house and a 4 Dems in the house took money from the NRA
The NRA and the Trump campaign were illegally coordinating ad buys.
NRA May Have Illegally Coordinated With GOP Senate Campaigns
The thing is, with all this information out there. All that the Russians needed to get by hacking the GOP was that they knew that the money was coming from Russia (illegally) to the NRA and they have everyone on the hook for knowingly taking that money. What are your odds that the people who can't figure out how to format a PDF were talking about it in emails or other tech?
EXAMPLE:
Graham before December 2016
[Trump] He is a jackass... and he shouldn't be Commander in Chief
Graham after December 2016
I am like the happiest dude in America right now,” a beaming Graham said on “Fox & Friends.” “We have got a president and a national security team that I've been dreaming of for eight years.
What happened between? - Graham: Russians hacked my campaign email account
And somewhere in there he took Russian money.
For those of you thinking about Pence
Pence is the guy who vouched for Flynn in the transition team (that Pence lead) - even publicly stated that Flynn had no contacts with Russia.
The same transition team that is listed in Flynn's sentencing memo
Mueller says Flynn helped his investigation “on a range of issues, including interactions between individuals in the Presidential Transition Team and Russia.” Then he mentions something else that is redacted. So there appear to be two main areas here where Flynn is helping.
He also claims he didn't know Flynn was under investigation
Vice President Pence is standing by his claims that he did not know former national security adviser Michael Flynn had been secretly lobbying for the Turkish government until March, despite a new report claiming Flynn had actually disclosed to the Trump transition team back in January that he was under a federal investigation
Pence was hand picked by Manafort after he took over.
Paul Manafort, who was hit with 12 counts tied to alleged financial schemes, pushed for Pence to become Trump's running mate and even managed to talk Trump out of his doubts.
The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform told then Vice President-elect Mike Pence in a November letter that the man Donald Trump had tapped to be his national security adviser was lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
So we know for a fact that he was informed by the oversight committee and then he rapidly went in public and stated that Flynn had no contacts with Russia.
Given that piece of information, and the fact that we know that the erratic behavior around explaining to Trump that people were dirty and his response was to ignore them and then lie about it - is what caused him to have a counterintelligence investigation into him, what do you think the chances are that the scope of that counterintelligence included anyone in Trump's circle that would be considered part of a RICO case.
Say.... perhaps.... the Vice President who was actively lying about intelligence information he was given.
This article gives some interesting insight
Oct. 14, 2016: Pence says on Fox News that the national media is chasing after unsubstantiated allegations that the Trump campaign is in cahoots with WikiLeaks, a website that publishes documents from anonymous sources. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Pence says.
Dec. 28, 2016: Obama signs an executive order announcing sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2016 election. Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak contacts Flynn, according to Flynn’s plea agreement. Pence is in Indiana for his son's wedding.
Dec. 29, 2016: Flynn calls “a senior official of the Presidential Transition Team," according to the plea agreement, at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. for guidance on talking to Kislyak. (Other senior members of the transition were also at the resort.) Flynn then calls Kislyak and asks him not to “escalate the situation," and reports the conversation back to a transition official.
Dec. 30, 2016: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces Russia will not retaliate.
Jan. 12, 2016: The Washington Post reports Flynn and Kislyak spoke several times as the sanctions announcement was unfolding.
Jan. 15, 2017: Pence discusses the calls between Flynn and Kislyak on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” saying “they did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Republicans and Democrats are not the Same: or Why Republicans Suck
Fuck Republicans.
Exhibit 2: Opinion of the NFL after large amounts of players began kneeling during the anthem to protest racism. Article for Context (viewing source data requires purchasing Morning Consult package)
Exhibit 3: Opinion of ESPN after they fired a conservative broadcast analyst. Article for Context (viewing source data requires purchasing YouGov’s “BrandIndex” package)
Exhibit 4: Opinion of Vladimir Putin after Trump began praising Russia during the election. Source Dataand Article for Context
Exhibit 5: Opinion of "Obamacare" vs. "Kynect" (Kentucky's implementation of Obamacare). Kentuckians feel differently about the policy depending on the name. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 6: Christians (particularly evangelicals) became monumentally more tolerant of private immoral conduct among politicians once Trump became the GOP nominee. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 7: White Evangelicals cared less about how religious a candidate was once Trump became the GOP nominee. (Same source and article as previous exhibit.)
Exhibit 8: Republicans were far more likely to embrace a certain policy if they knew Trump was for it—whether the policy was liberal or conservative. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 9: Republicans became far more opposed to gun control when Obama took office. Democrats have remained consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 10: Republicans started to think universities had a negative impact on the country after Trump entered the primary. Democrats remain consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 11: Wisconsin Republicans felt the economy improve by 85 approval points the day Trump was sworn in. Graph also shows some Democratic bias, but not nearly as bad. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 12: Republicans became deeply negative about trade agreements when Trump became the GOP frontrunner. Democrats remain consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 13: 10% fewer Republicans believed the wealthy weren't paying enough in taxes once a billionaire became their president. Democrats remain fairly consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 14: Republicans suddenly feel very comfortable making major purchases now that Trump is president. Democrats don't feel more or less comfortable than before. Article for Context (viewing source data requires purchasing Gallup's Advanced Analytics package)
Exhibit 15: Democrats have had a consistently improving outlook on the economy, including after Trump's victory. Republicans? A 30-point spike once Trump won. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 16: Shift in opinion of the media's utility for keeping politicians in check. Democrats reacted a bit after Trump took office (+15 points), but Republicans had a 35-point nose dive. Source Data and Article for Context
Exhibit 17: Republicans had an evenly split opinion in April regarding whether James Comey should be fired. After he was fired, they became overwhelmingly in favor. Source Data 1, Source Data 2 and Article for Context
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Why does being in a bad mood decrease motivation to do things to feel good?
It's about dopamine and serotonin (and many others) but that's only the mechanism.
The deeper reason is that depression is an evolved physiological reflex for self-protection, and it is seen in organisms as primitive as lizards and lobsters. If an animal existing in a social hierarchy (like humans) suffers some kind of defeat, rejection or humiliation, or finds themselves stuck or trapped, further activity often makes things worse.
An example is a defeated lion - he can retreat and literally lick his wounds, but continuing to fight could be fatal. Better to come back a few days or a week later and try again - in the meantime, everything shuts down: motivation, interest, libido - they are all switched off.
Problem is with humans is that our problems are more abstract and enduring which means the depression reflex can stay switched on long past its usefulness, and it even becomes the problem itself - exacerbating the original defeat. So humans need to develop tricks to break out of it - like forcing oneself out of the house through will power, exercising, or taking medication if it's severe, which essentially tricks the body that the depression reflex has been turned off again.
SOURCE
The deeper reason is that depression is an evolved physiological reflex for self-protection, and it is seen in organisms as primitive as lizards and lobsters. If an animal existing in a social hierarchy (like humans) suffers some kind of defeat, rejection or humiliation, or finds themselves stuck or trapped, further activity often makes things worse.
An example is a defeated lion - he can retreat and literally lick his wounds, but continuing to fight could be fatal. Better to come back a few days or a week later and try again - in the meantime, everything shuts down: motivation, interest, libido - they are all switched off.
Problem is with humans is that our problems are more abstract and enduring which means the depression reflex can stay switched on long past its usefulness, and it even becomes the problem itself - exacerbating the original defeat. So humans need to develop tricks to break out of it - like forcing oneself out of the house through will power, exercising, or taking medication if it's severe, which essentially tricks the body that the depression reflex has been turned off again.
SOURCE
Monday, December 17, 2018
Remove Your Information from Online Directories and Web Sites
Is your address, phone number and family info available for anybody to see?
Here's how to remove yourself from these websites.
Most of these websites don't require any information anymore, other than the listing and an email address. The more difficult ones are notated below as well.
For those who are really wanting to speed the process along, Google has a great tool to remove old links from their search engine.
These links are mostly for US citizens (as far as I know).
Intelius - https://www.intelius.com/optout
Acxiom - https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx
Mylife - Tricky. Must find your listing and then email [privacy@mylife.com](mailto:privacy@mylife.com). Request your opt out. They emailed back with a bullshit excuse why they won't. However, this was inconsistent. I opted both myself and my husband out on 2 different email addresses. They removed my husband no questions asked but refused to remove me. I sent the request again, so as of now, this is pending.
UPDATE: After 3 emails and a phone call, my listing has finally been removed. The phone number is 1-888-704-1900.
Zabasearch - https://www.zabasearch.com/block_records/
Requires faxed documentation according to their website. However, I have removed myself from almost every single website, and as a result, do not show up with Zabasearch.com without needing to opt out.
Spokeo - https://www.spokeo.com/optout
Beenverified - https://www.beenverified.com/f/optout/search
Peekyou - https://www.peekyou.com/about/contact/optout/
USSearch - They use Intelius. https://www.intelius.com/optout
Peoplefinders - https://www.peoplefinders.com/manage
Peoplelookup - Big fucking pain in the ass. https://www.peoplelookup.com/privacy-policy#updating-or-removing-your-information
Peoplesmart - https://www.peoplesmart.com/optout-policy
PrivateEye - https://www.privateeye.com/static/view/optout/
Whitepages - Tricky and annoying. https://www.whitepages.com/data-policy #8 tells you what to do.
USA People Search - https://www.usa-people-search.com/manage/ Didn't end up needing to purge myself here, as I had already hit the big boys.
Public Records Now - https://www.publicrecordsnow.com/static/view/optout/
DOBSearch - https://www.dobsearch.com/people-finder/pf_manage_help.php
Radaris - https://radaris.com/page/how-to-remove
Here's how to remove yourself from these websites.
Most of these websites don't require any information anymore, other than the listing and an email address. The more difficult ones are notated below as well.
For those who are really wanting to speed the process along, Google has a great tool to remove old links from their search engine.
These links are mostly for US citizens (as far as I know).
Intelius - https://www.intelius.com/optout
Acxiom - https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx
Mylife - Tricky. Must find your listing and then email [privacy@mylife.com](mailto:privacy@mylife.com). Request your opt out. They emailed back with a bullshit excuse why they won't. However, this was inconsistent. I opted both myself and my husband out on 2 different email addresses. They removed my husband no questions asked but refused to remove me. I sent the request again, so as of now, this is pending.
UPDATE: After 3 emails and a phone call, my listing has finally been removed. The phone number is 1-888-704-1900.
Zabasearch - https://www.zabasearch.com/block_records/
Requires faxed documentation according to their website. However, I have removed myself from almost every single website, and as a result, do not show up with Zabasearch.com without needing to opt out.
Spokeo - https://www.spokeo.com/optout
Beenverified - https://www.beenverified.com/f/optout/search
Peekyou - https://www.peekyou.com/about/contact/optout/
USSearch - They use Intelius. https://www.intelius.com/optout
Peoplefinders - https://www.peoplefinders.com/manage
Peoplelookup - Big fucking pain in the ass. https://www.peoplelookup.com/privacy-policy#updating-or-removing-your-information
Peoplesmart - https://www.peoplesmart.com/optout-policy
PrivateEye - https://www.privateeye.com/static/view/optout/
Whitepages - Tricky and annoying. https://www.whitepages.com/data-policy #8 tells you what to do.
USA People Search - https://www.usa-people-search.com/manage/ Didn't end up needing to purge myself here, as I had already hit the big boys.
Public Records Now - https://www.publicrecordsnow.com/static/view/optout/
DOBSearch - https://www.dobsearch.com/people-finder/pf_manage_help.php
Radaris - https://radaris.com/page/how-to-remove
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Concise Guide to Self Improvement
If you are reading the op's post and wondering how you can get the same results and why it is such a struggle, you have to realize that these changes are the result of literally re-wiring your brain. Your neurons/connections are wired throughout life based on your environment, experience and habits. Over time you develop triggers and coping mechanisms that may or may not be helpful. You have a powerful subconscious mind that steers and directs you into patterns of thinking and judgment. With a lot of effort and work you can change the wiring as op has done. The easiest way to kick start changing is to focus on healthy habits. It may seem dumb to you in the moment but even just committing to something like regular meditation can kick start massive changes. Things that focus on the inner you like meditation and journaling can help reveal false self-doubts and other issues and lead you to a path of recovery. You have to identify on what is holding you back and then "program" your brain to not think this way through repetition.
Meditation/yoga/journaling/therapy/CBT/becoming a monk all target this and over time create positive lasting change. Though the key is: over time. It takes time and is not instant so don't give up too soon. The severity differ from person to person so reading the results of one person does not mean you will see the same thing, it is very individualistic.
The other side to this is how your genes/endocannbinoid system/chemicals/enzymes/receptors are functioning. If you have a genetic mutation of certain kinds it will be near impossible to treat the resulting chemical imbalance by force of mind alone. This is why medication should not be ruled out. If you are deficient/surplus in certain chemicals and get this treated medically you will have a much higher quality of life.
The problem with mental health is that practitioners just pound the heck out of whatever their background is. Therapists are all about therapy, self changers think anyone can do it, it worked for them, doctors like the medications and yoga retreatists think yoga is the cure to all.
So this means that you need to figure it out for yourself unfortunately. The only way to go about it is to try lots of stuff and track what is happening. Try stuff and keep a journal, even if it is just setting time aside each day to just sit and think about you and if you are feeling better or worse and what side effects might be there as well.
Start with this reflection and exercise, meditation, mindfulness, yoga, journaling and work your way up to therapists/psychiatrists/doctors/medication. If you find a solution without medication great, but if not you will have developed a lot of insight into your self to better understand what is going on with you if you get medicated. Of course if you have suicidal or other strong thoughts go straight to a medical professional for evaluation/treatment.
Figuring this out is not something simple and takes effort and time. The key is consistency to effecting change each day. This is why tracking results/feelings and journaling is important. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day or a week or even a month, just be able to look back on the year and see on your calendar that you gave effort all year long. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Consistent effort and learning is the key to long lasting change, the path may not end up where you expect but if you keep searching and trying you will find it.
Some people find their drug to be exercise, others meditation, others writing and others yet find an actual drug. You need to find what works for you and has the least amount of side effects possible.
The other side to this is how your genes/endocannbinoid system/chemicals/enzymes/receptors are functioning. If you have a genetic mutation of certain kinds it will be near impossible to treat the resulting chemical imbalance by force of mind alone. This is why medication should not be ruled out. If you are deficient/surplus in certain chemicals and get this treated medically you will have a much higher quality of life.
The problem with mental health is that practitioners just pound the heck out of whatever their background is. Therapists are all about therapy, self changers think anyone can do it, it worked for them, doctors like the medications and yoga retreatists think yoga is the cure to all.
So this means that you need to figure it out for yourself unfortunately. The only way to go about it is to try lots of stuff and track what is happening. Try stuff and keep a journal, even if it is just setting time aside each day to just sit and think about you and if you are feeling better or worse and what side effects might be there as well.
Start with this reflection and exercise, meditation, mindfulness, yoga, journaling and work your way up to therapists/psychiatrists/doctors/medication. If you find a solution without medication great, but if not you will have developed a lot of insight into your self to better understand what is going on with you if you get medicated. Of course if you have suicidal or other strong thoughts go straight to a medical professional for evaluation/treatment.
Figuring this out is not something simple and takes effort and time. The key is consistency to effecting change each day. This is why tracking results/feelings and journaling is important. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day or a week or even a month, just be able to look back on the year and see on your calendar that you gave effort all year long. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Consistent effort and learning is the key to long lasting change, the path may not end up where you expect but if you keep searching and trying you will find it.
Some people find their drug to be exercise, others meditation, others writing and others yet find an actual drug. You need to find what works for you and has the least amount of side effects possible.
Monday, December 3, 2018
Avoiding Censorship, Big Brother, and Keeping Your Privacy In General
Privacy through browser extensions (Chrome, Chromium derivatives)
There are a few things you can do in your browser to help with privacy, mainly from spying corporations. I only use Chrome (yes, I know, ironic, but I like the UI!), but most, if not all, of these extensions will have Firefox variations.
Reminder: Chrome extensions work in Vivaldi, Opera, and other Chromium-based browsers too.
- uBlock Origin - Currently the best adblocker. Fully open source. Seriously, use this over Adblock or Adblock Plus. Adblock Plus sold out to advertisers years ago.
- HTTPS Everywhere - This should be self-explanatory. It forces HTTPS where it's supported. Also it can protect against the dumbest types of censorship.
- Privacy Badger - This handy extension goes along well with uBlock Origin, as it also blocks trackers. Lots of em.
- uMatrix - Matrix-based firewall for your browser. For advanced users only.
Privacy through browser extensions (Firefox -- recommended!)
- uBlock Origin
- HTTPS Everywhere
- Privacy Badger
- uMatrix
- Decentraleyes - Local CDN emulation, to avoid large CDNs.
- Facebook Container - As suggested, this keeps all Facebook stuff in it's own Firefox container.
- Google Container - The above, but for Google.
Privacy through websites
I WILL NOT ADD DUCKDUCKGO. IT IS US BASED, AND HAS NO WARRANT CANARY!
- Searx - An open source metasearch engine, aggregating the results of other search engines while not storing information about its users.
- Startpage - Google search results, without the tracking. Or ads. Also, they promise to keep your privacy. They are a Dutch company, and they have a no-logging policy. Plus, they have an option to allow your search to avoid U.S servers entirely!
- Panopticlick - A neat little tool by the EFF that allows you to see how unique your browser's fingerprint is. Aim for minimal uniqueness.
- PGP Suite - Client-side PGP implementation
Privacy through software
Self-explanatory here. Software that helps you keep privacy.
- Tor Browser - Ah yes, the good ol' Tor Browser. The best way to hide from prying eyes. Works on Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux. Basically it encrypts your packets and bounces them through like 10 other servers, and only the enterance (1st) node knows who you are, and only the last one knows the data.
- Bitwarden - A fully open source password manager. 100% self hostable, no need for Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive. Good for keeping all your passwords unique 20-character gibberish.
- CCleaner - Before commenters cry "WHY CCLEANER?", i'll go ahead and give you the reason: it's an easy way to clean up every last cookie, cached image, saved password, and session info from your web browser. If you want something more open source, go with Bleachbit.
- Malwarebytes - Nothing takes away your privacy faster than a nasty RAT or keylogger. MBAM is a good anti-malware solution that doesn't conflict with other anti-viruses... Also I like to read their blog because i'm a huge nerd.
- Unchecky -
This simple little program tries to auto-uncheck dumb offers in program installers. That's it.Apparently this tracks your data. Still good for young children or old people, though. - GPG - Win, Mac, Linux - An open source implementation of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). This is usually used for encrypting messages/files and/or signing them to verify integrity. No, it's not insecure, EFAIL was a vulnerability with email clients leaking decrypted info, not with the encryption itself!
- VeraCrypt - The now actively maintained successor to TrueCrypt. Full drive encryption. Support for plausible deniability and hidden volumes/OSes. Has a warrant canary.
- SimpleEncryption - Simple AES-256 encryption program.
Private Communication
- Matrix - Decentralized, open source communication network. Has end-to-end encryption. You can even host your own homeserver (be aware it's a pain in the toe to do so, just use matrix.org or disroot.org right now!)
- Signal - You probably know what this is. End-to-end encrypted chat. Text and voice. Disappearing messages. Got an A+ on it's security audit.
- Protonmail - Encrypted email. Based in Switzerland due to their strict pro-privacy laws. Supports both normal and encrypted emails.
Other guides
(Windows-only, if you're stuck with windows) Privacy through settings
- Use Win10-Initial-Setup-Script to disable Telemetry and stuff.
- DON'T USE A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT.
- Yes, I know you all hate it, but those updates are forced for a reason (said reason being people being too stupid/impatient to update and then getting hit by a worm)
- DID I MENTION NOT TO USE A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT
- Disable SMBv1. Just do it. Even if you're fully patched. DISABLE. SMBv1.
- Windows Defender is a surprisingly good antivirus. If you're super concerned, you can disable automatic sample submission (or the whole thing) in Virus & Threat Protection > Virus & threat protection settings
- Turn off ALL the location services if you haven't already.
Good VPNs
Avoid any US or UK based VPNs!
Trustworthy VPN providers include AirVPN, Mullvad, NordVPN, ProtonVPN and probably some more.
Trustworthy VPN providers include AirVPN, Mullvad, NordVPN, ProtonVPN and probably some more.
DNS Security
Don't forget about DNS! You're probably using Google's DNS (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4) or your ISP's default right now. Don't. Instead, use a privacy-focused DNS or an encrypted one.
DNS-over-TLS
DNSCrypt
Privacy focused, but not encrypted
Avoiding being hacked.
If you're a high-value target, cough like a journalist or protestor, cough Big Brother may resort to slightly more illegal (for you, not for them) methods to get your data. While there is no shield against every single hack (except for perhaps being disconnected from any sort of network, in a soundproof, airgapped room), it is possible to reduce your risk of being hacked
- Update your software! Seriously, don't ignore the update prompt, JUST UPDATE IT! It might save you from a new exploit!
- Disable UPnP on your router. Basically, UPnP makes it easy for backdoors to open ports. I have it disabled, and have zero problems with programs.
- Reboot your router weekly. Most router malware (whether it be state-sponsored or made by a grumpy college kid) can't survive a reboot, due to it being stored in RAM, not in storage.
- Disable TKIP encryption on your router. Even if you use WPA2, TKIP can be cracked easily. Use WPA2 and AES encryption. You never know if that van on the road is actually some FBI agents, or the resident nerd running Kali Linux on a Raspberry Pi, ready to make your printer print out "UPDATE YOUR SHIT, DUMBFUCK"
- Disable WPS. The WPS pin can easily be brute forced.
- Gonna shill out Malwarebytes again, because their Anti-Malware suite has an anti-exploit built in.
- If you use Microsoft Office, DISABLE MACROS!
- Use the "Restricted" PowerShell policy. If you absolutely need to run a .ps1 file, do
powershell.exe -executionpolicy unrestricted -command .\test.ps1.
Ditching Windows for Linux
- Don't use Ubuntu. It's gone down the drain the last few years, plus they want to collect data now. If you want something similar, use Debian 9 instead.
- If there's some Windows-exclusive games keeping you back, try out Lutris It's an open source wrapper for easily loading Windows-only games in Wine.
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