codexarcanum

I've been replaying cruelty squad, and the second mission has you take out a CEO addicted to FunkoPops. Anyway, this image reminded me of that. Be nice if someone brought a real "CEO mindset" to a meeting with him.

Rich people always threaten this and never do it, because it's a John Galt problem. Rich people need poor people to trickle money to for services and goods. If they all move to "Rich Asshole Island" where there's no laws or taxes, they quickly discover there's also no workers.

Fuck all of them, I dare every millionaire to leave NYC. They almost certainly cannot. All their wealth is actually tied up in business and assets. In NYC. They could sell them, but to whom? All the rich are fleeing right? If the city or collectives of workers buy them, thats more socialism and proof the rich aren't necessary.

So no, they won't leave. They'll whine and cry and then fund police and paramilitaries and lobbiest to try and force their view. They'll spend millions propping up friendly candidates like Coumo and running smear campaigns.

In other words, they'll do what they've historically always done when threatened.

I agree with the analysis of the east coast, and will add that the South ("Silicon Bayou" is such a sad joke) is in basically the same place.

But I don't think the West coast actually has all those advantages either, not anymore. What passes for "innovation" is all some variation on crypto, ai, or "being the Uber of $NICHE." Throw in some buzzwords like IoT, quantum, blockchain, or "smart" and you're all set to race with the other founders to get a piece of that sweet sweet VC dollar.

The financiers have taken over everything and are going to drive the economy off a cliff so they can scavenge and sell the parts. They've taken over film, gaming, tech, all traditional media, journalism, and they're using the banner of "privatization" to finish off healthcare, education, postal services, and anything else they can convince idiots to sell them. The bankers are winning.

SE/SO has been on the decline for a long time now. They pivoted to find more ways to monetize the answers and started enshittifying, trying to appeal to business clients and money-people instead of the users and developers who built the knowledgebase. It was good when it felt like a community helping each other, it fell off when it felt like a company milking you to build out their monetized wiki.

At this point, from their perspective, the biggest fuck up was not locking down SE from scrapers and building their own AI. It is in every way the same situation that Reddit is in, just with a more focused and higher quality data set (and fewer, arguably "higher quality," users).

This is a good idea, but also working remote frees up time to meet new affinity groups.

Not to dump on people's relaxation strategies, but even the most introverted person can't survive on video games and gooning alone.

If you don't want or like hanging with coworkers, find a local bar to hang out at and meet some folks, go to a community board game night, join a choir, attend an anime viewing night, just do something to take initiative and meet some folks that like what you like.