Don't Take the Black Pill (Text Adaptation)

74 points by dominicm

I really like this reminder at the end:

Next time you're feeling alone, count your allies: VideoLAN Organization, Blender Foundation, Software Freedom Conservancy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Linux Foundation, Signal Foundation, KDE e.V., the PostgreSQL Community, the Debian Community, and so, so many more.

strugee

Me too. I found I needed it (and have been needing it for a while).

berserk

I'm always very glad to be reading Andrew's writing and that he thinks the way he does. I couldn't agree more, I love computer! It's easy to forget how much modern computing has provided to the world and how amazing it is that we have all this. I'm very optimistic for the future.

I think it's on us (speaking very broadly) to make technology as accessible to everyone as we can in a way that empowers them to defend themselves from the threats laid out.

The linked music video Ninajirachi - Infohazard is fantastic and worth watching.

jbauer

Here's the thread for the video version: https://lobste.rs/s/td8rne/don_t_take_black_pill

academician

The "duck" example is funny to me. I had a boss 25 years ago at a young web/ad agency that practiced this, and called it the "big hairy arm" - so that client would have an opportunity to give feedback and say, "This design looks great, except can you get rid of the big hairy arm?" I didn't know there was another term for it or that Jeff Atwood wrote about it.

ashikun

Honestly a really refreshingly positive approach to the situation with computer science at the moment. I needed to hear this.

The one thing I struggle to find a way out of the ‘black pill’ approach toward is avoiding the use of AI (at work) where I don’t want to use it. Were I in a position in my career where I could find or make an opening that didn’t mandate AI, I would. But my job expects AI, is accelerating on its AI story, and all obvious career moves do (and are) too.

It really is difficult to feel anything other than pinned down by the weight of the current zeitgeist, even if one can cling to the hope that things will open back up again in future.

travisgriggs

I was raised by conservative Christian parents

I always wonder about statements like this. What do Andrew's parents feel when they're out seeing what their son's up to and see this kind of wound being aired. If only I'd been raised differently, I wouldn't have experienced the trials I did. I'm an older person who gets the chance to interact with quite a few young adults in their 20s, and I'm pretty confident that "conservative" upbringing is just one variant of "I wasn't prepared for the stage of adult mating/courtship".

Everything else about the talk was fine with me. Somewhat Stallman-esque. Definitely agree with this sentiment:

We are learning that software quality was maintained only through the will of software engineers combined with their accidentally strong negotiation position in the job market.

(disclaimer, I see myself as a progressive Christian, but who knows what labels others would attach to me, that's the thing about reductionist labels, you don't really get to choose them)

dlisboa

I'm an older person who gets the chance to interact with quite a few young adults in their 20s, and I'm pretty confident that "conservative" upbringing is just one variant of "I wasn't prepared for the stage of adult mating/courtship".

Based on the way he frames it my take on it is he probably means his parents didn't really talk about sex, relationships or romantic feelings with him, thus making him feel unprepared for dating world.
hoistbypetard

We all have our strengths and weaknesses when we're raising our children. I hope they don't find it unduly hurtful; in some ways it's kinder than pointing out personal deficiencies that lead to various weaknesses. To me, it holds about the same explanatory power as "I was a first generation child of Greek immigrant parents" which is something I hear from my friends quite a bit. Which is to say, it's handy shorthand for explaining a set of things that your parents emphasized (and did not emphasize).

I do wonder how my kids will label me. I hope that, in the end, my biases will give them a slightly better set of tools for dealing with relationships than my parents' biases gave me, and I'm sure I'm under-equipping them in some other area that I don't know about yet. I am certain they'll have an easier time talking to me as young adults than I had talking to my parents. I can already see that in the teenager. I'm also certain they're less obedient than I was :-)