Thanks for highlighting this.

I deal mostly with people I’d class as “weak engineers” but there is at least one person at my work who falls into that predator category. This helps me to reframe those interactions and perhaps respond more appropriately.

Editing to add: in case you missed it, another blogger posted this excellent (related) concept a few years ago - Executive Function Theft

Oh yeah, well I created a universal phone case with masking tape and flex seal!
-sent from my laptop

Yeah, that checks out.

I bought an ebike online recently and it was 4 days late being delivered. Every day FedEx said it was on the truck for delivery, then every day, the delivery window shifted, before finally getting pushed back to the next day (after their call center was closed).
I finally went outside while the truck was stopped at my house and the driver was rummaging around looking for my package. He poked his head out after I caught his attention and after am explanation, he asked what the package was. When I told him it was an ebike, he gave me a look of understanding and told me they probably couldn’t fit it on his over packed truck, so they left it at the depot but didn’t mark it in the app.
I wound up just going to the depot and getting it myself.

I say that to commiserate - it seems companies are squeezing their workers to (and beyond) the limit where they can successfully carry out their work.

Ah. This is a simulation.

We must have done something heinous in “the real.”

Got an MMR booster recently. Doctor told me it was a live vaccine and that I’d feel a bit off while my body fought it.
First thing I did when someone asked how the doctors visit went was to respond with “Well, I have measles…”

They’re used to my bullshit, so they didn’t believe me!

I wonder if the next generation will know if you’re watching the advertisements. They’ll probably call it something innocuous, like “auto pause.”

It’s literally just an algorithm applied to the WiFi antenna.

We’re fucked without comprehensive and effective privacy laws.
But they won’t do that. Someone will (dishonestly) argue that TV’s and monitors that can count how many viewers are watching and force everyone in the room to verify their identity when the ACR detects a curse word or breasts is “for the children.”

If you ask a colleague to do their fucking job and they hit you with the ol’ executive function theft, you have every right to respond with “Seems about right. Let me know when you’ve had a chance to think about it/test it out.” Then give them a deadline (reiterate when you need their input, when the next status update is, set a meeting to discuss, or something) that makes it clear you regard the question as unanswered.

We could try to whoop him, but he’s got a truncheon, a handgun, and a small Christmas ham hidden in his hat and he knows how to use them. They make him happy, you see.

Don’t be intentionally obtuse about the TV. People buy what’s available. Yes, there are edge cases, and no it’s not the argument you think it is to assume everyone has the foreknowledge, means, and wherewithal to employ one of those edge cases.
The U.S. government does not offer its citizens a right to privacy against corporate surveillance, and that is not something you can blame on the average person.

Why would I want to scoop ice cream into cubes? That’s the same shape as wallaby poop.

Let’s test that.

You all have never met my cat.

Look - I’m married, and I’ve tended to regard myself as a dog person my entire life. We got this cat like two years ago because my wife kept talking about a chihuahua, and that is a line I will not cross.

So anyway, we get this cat for her, and he has clearly chosen me as his human. He spends most of his days in my home office. He’s constantly jumping into my lap. If no one else is around, he will loudly beg for my attention. He sleeps next to me. He lets me pick him up and hold him upside down at the furthest extent of my reach. He is my baby cat and I love him.
(It’s okay, we got a very sweet kitten a year ago, and she has clearly chosen my wife as her human. She literally climbs onto her chest and falls asleep with her head on my wife’s shoulder every day.)

You’re right. I fucked up and have edited my comment.

Oh, shoot, you’re right. I had just woken up. I was thinking of Jefferson.

Damnit. Thank you for pointing that out.

Their CEO, Garrett Langley, went on Fox News recently and argued that […] we all just need to accept a “compromise” between privacy and safety.

I’m struck by what a giant load of bullshit this is and how Flock (and copycat companies like Axion) are just facilitating the sort of police state that would be required to make something like Project 2025 possible.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
— The U.S.’s own kite-flyin’, not slave fuckin’ (wrong guy, sorry!), $100 dollar bill havin’ Bennie F.

They are, technically.

Do you have confidence the government would actually give them to the public?

It never hurts unless you try, but I suspect filling a FOIA for them will land you on the list.

Part of me is glad they didn’t decide to try to call it Lake Ohio.

It doesn’t touch the state of Ohio, but I sort of expected them to fuck that up.

Oh, no, not overnight, just that one rare Saturday morning that nobody wakes you up, the pets and or kids are lazing and you’re getting that excellent stolen morning sleep that just restores your body and heals your soul, allowing you to feel like you can keep going.
But then there’s the clatter of tools and construction equipment.

Just boring harassment.

I’m going to go dig a hole next to your property. It’ll have all the correct permits, but I’m going to start construction while you’re sleeping in and I’m going to put a fence around it that prevents you from looking into the hole to see why I’m digging.