Shitposts Weekly
Medium articles neither rare nor well-done for the week ending 8th December 2018.
Apologies for the delay; the end of the semester is right around the corner and I needed to decompress.
How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization: A writer emits an excessively long, wet fart about a shitty Netflix sitcom. One sitcom on a media silo is hardly the end of the world, and it’s not even remotely the only instance of anti-intellectualism in television this year. You want to talk about anti-intellectualism? Look at antivaxxers. Look at denuclearization campaigners who don’t want any use of nuclear energy, not even non-weaponizable reactor designs which can’t be repurposed for producing nuclear weapons. Look at anti-GMO folks (we’ve been modifying genetics of our food sources for thousands of years; the only change in recent decades is that now we have far more precise tools for achieving our goals than putting mama and papa in the same pen and crossing our fingers). A shitty TV series in a silo ain’t shit.
The 3 Keys to Becoming Irresistible: An ROI site writer tries to cash in on Medium and ends up just letting rip an excessively long, wet fart instead. There is literally nothing of value here.
How I went from newbie to Software Engineer in 9 months while working full time: A webshit demonstrates that software engineering has a ridiculously low barrier to entry due to an excruciatingly high tolerance for poor quality control and lack of ability expectations that would be unacceptable in most other industries.
How to Lead Your Family Like an Entrepreneur: A parent who spends far too much time thinking about business tries to explore parenting from a business perspective. Spend more time thinking about improving your work/life balance; family is not business, and you can’t put an ROI on time you spend with your family.
Social Media Runs on Rage: A professor of con artistry marketing takes a look at the polarization endemic in social media. I really have to disagree with the good professor here, though; the polarization is driven by controversy, rather than by algorithms. Social media is too focused on driving engagement up, and the expression of outrageous ideas creates engagement in the worst way. The algorithms pick up on that, and reinforce it…but they have no concept of negativity or how reinforcing negative engagement actively harms discourse.
A Decade After the iPhone, There’s Still No Good Smartphone for Kids: A professional shitposter makes the mistake of assuming smartphones are a thing kids actually need. As tempting as it is to give kids unfettered access to a personal data assistant disguised as a communications platform, the reality is that kids don’t need smartphones. Give them a feature phone, and give them a Nintendo Switch or 2DS. Utilize parental controls to disable any browsers they might offer. Give them a few hours of time a day on a real computer, supervised.
Naked, Drunk, and Very Tired: A writer tries some ‘extreme’ creativity ‘hacks’. They work about as well as you’d expect. (Creativity is fostered by reading a lot of things and then synthesizing from them, not by doing stupid shit famous people of yesteryear did.)
Rare articles which are well-done.
How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind — from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist: An engineer formerly of the advertising behemoth named after a behemoth of a number conflates gross abuse of applied psychology and technology.
For Transgender People in the Caribbean, Stigma and Discrimination Can Be Lethal: A writer looks at how stochastic terrorism affects trans men & women in the Caribbean.
Google Employees: Our Executives Engaged in Abuse. Don’t Let Kink and Polyamory Be Their Scapegoats.: An engineer discusses sexual assault & harassment committed by Google executives, and how Puritanical asswipes are trying to tie such abuse to alternative lifestyles in order to discredit others who follow those lifestyles.
Bad Sex, Consent, and Other Reasons Behind the ‘Sex Recession’: A writer takes a look at potential causes for what The Atlantic called a ‘sex recession’. The writer points out that regressive social attitudes are probably more to blame, e.g. the rise of MRAs(Men’s Rights ‘Activists’), incels(‘involuntarily celibate’), redpillers, and other women-adverse groups. This is also the Age of Trump, and apparently part of that is that GOP interns in DC are having trouble finding a date. I wonder why…
Sex Is Sex. But Money Is Money.: A former escort pens an autobiography.
7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science: A marketer reminds us that, among other things, the five-day, 40-hour work week exists because it optimizes productivity, as discovered by Henry Ford and reinforced by scientists over and over since.