I dunno. Pirating it is still giving them attention. Talking about it, bringing them up, giving them relevance. You’re paying for it with mental space. But when you straight up shun them, they wither away.

Like the great Terry Pratchett (rip), I see them like Small Gods: you give them power when you believe they exist.

Today I learned!

I never read this and I really appreciate the share.

Some parts that spoke to me:

This, I think, is what happens to so many of us when we consider the work of the monster geniuses—we tell ourselves we’re having ethical thoughts when really what we’re having is moral feelings.

Yeah. Guilty.

“The heart wants what it wants.” (Steve Allen when discussing Soon-Yi)

It was one of those phrases that never leaves your head once you’ve heard it: we all immediately memorized it whether we wanted to our not. Its monstrous disregard for anything but the self. Its proud irrationality. Woody goes on: “There’s no logic to those things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that’s that.”

I moved on her like a bitch.

I found this fascinating. While I was confused by Allen’s statement and why women found it so disgusting, the Trump parallel made it click.

A great work of art brings us a feeling. And yet when I say Manhattan makes me feel urpy, a man says, No, not that feeling. You’re having the wrong feeling. He speaks with authority: Manhattan is a work of genius. But who gets to say?

Going back to Gaiman, his work is held to a very high standard. But to say you dislike it, you will be met with confusion or even anger. And this is where this piece really spoke to me.

She mentioned a short story she’d just written and published. “Oh, you mean the most recent occasion for your abandoning me and the kids?” asked the very smart, very charming husband. The wife had been a monster, monster enough to finish the work. The husband had not.

A tangent in the essay about women writers. I found it fascinating that when a fuckface like Elon Musk abandoning his more than dozen kids can still rise the ranks. but God forbid a woman does the same.

There really is no answer to this that the author provides.

The tangent I shared is her last thought: does great art only come from monsters? I think a lot about other creative works, painters, comedians film makers… Who does some wild shit but not nearly to the level of Gaiman’s accusations.

Also, like all summaries, read it yourself and find your own takeaways. It’s the nuance, not the summary, that has value.

I worked for a professor like that.

Apparently the guy had complaints like this for years, forcing students to buy HIS BOOKS. ALL OF THEM.

They don’t give a fuck.

Your technology has a high chance of having child labor in it. The roof over your head, the vegetables that you eat, the vehicles that you drive…

Why don’t you see it?

Salad. Burger. Pie.

Yeah I said it.

Rough.

I wonder how easy it is to spin up your own instance. Or course, that’s out of reach for most non-technical folks.

I wonder if they were thinking like how before Reddit had image galleries, people would use imgur

The incredible disconnect with the expat community that they are literally immigrants in a foreign country. Don’t visit the expat social groups if you don’t want to be pissed off.

Truth.

More and more supermarkets are opening up pharmacies to compete. And in my town, private practices are now starting to also have a pharmacy.

I’m not supporting Walmart though.

Thank you! It wasn’t paywalled on my end and I wonder if it activates on traffic.

I went to a Walgreens to buy nail clippers since I was nearby and had a bad hangnail.

Had to push a red button to wait for an employee to unlock the cabinet. After 10 minutes, I ran to find a random employee who was stocking and they got me what I needed.

That was the first and last time I ever went to Walgreens.

“Go big or go home!” The CEO says as they fire 70% of their staff and now have to take a vacation to recharge at their summer beach house. His major concern? His severance package is only $3 million when his last place gave him $12 million. But this next coke-fueled idea will absolutely get them back to the top!

Thank you! Felt like I was I playing a different game than everyone else.

Everyone mocked Starfield’s Neon for being Discount Cyberpunk. But at least they played it as straight as they could. Like, I could believe people live there and had a life.

It felt like Outer Worlds kept trying to make jokes about how cruel capitalism is versus tell a real story. Like, “Oh boy time to go increase shareholder value!” Or “I love Space nuts. I have to say that or I die.” Like wtf, where’s the subtlety?

It’s not Borderlands 3 bad, no where near it. But it’s pretty bad.

I laughed way too hard at this.

Bro I know people like this. The JD Vances who are so obnoxious but only in the room because of some political BS. And we absolutely leave them out of the real discussion.

I wish I could be such a PoS where I join a company, propose a massive investment into something, see it’s failure and firing a bunch of staff, then bounce with a nice severance package to join a new company to repeat that over and over again.

My first taste of pure evil capitalism was when my fast food job in college was forcing everyone to switch to getting a “cash card” rather than a check. That card had a $0.25 fee every time you used it.

I don’t know if it still exists or if sane politicians told companies that shit was illegal.