#scottthoughts — Public Fediverse posts

I had this interesting idea for a short story this morning. It starts with a "senile" old man in a retirement home telling a teenaged volunteer that "they (the silicons) once served us". The teenaged protagonist goes through a journey of discovery, asking questions like "why would they serve us when clearly the silicons created us." "We can't even have a baby without silicons to guide us." "Nobody I know has any idea how to make a computer."

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#ScottThoughts #ScottFiction #DystopianFuture

RE: https://mastodon.online/@davidaugust/116524462187963129

I took a symposium ~18 years ago on partisan divide in the USA. One issue I researched & presented was that conservatives had billboards all over town, but progressives did not. Why?

My explanation was that conservative positions could typically be reduced to a bumper-sticker slogan, while progressive positions typically involve nuance and reason, which doesn't translate well to a billboard.

"Ballroom Republicans" is a great billboard-length slogan.

#ScottPolitics #ScottThoughts

One of my goals on social media is to put myself "on the record" for opinions and predictions.

There's lots of reasons I do this, far too much to explain in 500 words.

One reason is to force myself to examine the beliefs that steer my behavior, both consciously and unconsciously. Another is to gain self-awareness on just how often I'm... wrong.

I have more half-finished thoughts on this topic percolating in my head, but that's enough for one day.

#ScottThoughts

One thing I routinely deal with is, someone will ask a question, I start to speak, and just 5 seconds in, I'm already 3 meta questions deep into topics that need to be established before I can get around to talking about why we can't actually answer the original question, but we can put boundaries around it to define what we know and don't know.

And most people just don't want to listen to all that.

#ScottThoughts

When a caller says they have info but first demand proof of identity, that's completely backwards.

The caller dialed the number the person provided, so high chance the call connected to the correct recipient, but recipient has absolutely zero knowledge of caller's identity. It's the caller's identity that needs to be established & proven.

Establishing the routine where call recipients provide PII to confirm identity is a fraudster's dream.

#InformationSecurity #IdentityTheft #ScottThoughts

One nice thing about #literature is how characters and stories can help us recognize and understand patterns observed in real life. Often they serve as a short-hand for commentary. An often cited example is Icarus.

Given #POTUS47 careless comments about Iran, Lord #Farquaad from Shrek is serving overtime the last 9 days.

“Some of you May Die, But it's a Sacrifice I am Willing to Make.”

#ScottPolitics #ScottThoughts

My random thought of the day: do folks who do #perineum #sunning have a plan for getting those hard-to-see areas checked for suspicious moles?

On a related note, are there any #SitcomWriters on Fediverse? I’ve got a great idea for you.

#ScottHumor #ScottThoughts #PerineumSunning

In 15 years, when half of the worlds critical software is LLM-infested, indecipherable vibe-coded spaghetti, and there aren’t enough traditionally-trained software engineers to hire because the entry-level pipeline was strangled in 2025, and people my generation have all retired, well…

Well just remember I said this would happen.

#VibeCoding #ChatGPT #ScottProgramming #ScottThoughts #ScottEconomics #Year2025

One thing I've taken note of is people are outraged about news items that I don't react to at all.

Both consciously and unconsciously I turn away from some news items because quite frankly, I experience both outrage and empathy fatigue. To protect my mental well-being, there's some topics I turn away from.

Part of this is my natural tendency to prefer to become very informed about a topic before I weigh in.

#ScottThoughts #ScottPolitics #EmpathyFatigue

One concept that I hope most people in science and engineering have internalized is that, for any problem people have studied for decades, there is no simple solution that will comprehensively solve that problem. The problems with simple, comprehensive solutions would've been solved already. What's left are challenging problems where at most, you might chip off a corner of the problem with a simple solution.

#Epistemology #Science #Engineering #ScottThoughts

One thing I've thought about many times, there needs to be a way to talk about a situation where a person can't prove criminal misconduct based on the known facts alone, but also... there's no way you'd let that creep near your children either.

#ScottThoughts

Canada joining the EU as a replacement for its former economic alignment with the US would be an interesting twist. Or Canada and Mexico could form a Pan-American trade group with nations from Central and South America.

#ScottThoughts

I was thinking last night about how POTUS47's actions, especially tariffs, have been accelerating the US's decline in global importance. As a defense partner, a trade partner, a public health partner, the US has been a leader, but that era may be coming to an end. Expect the EU, China, and India to fill the vacuum.

I really don't know where this is going. It's a half-baked thought at this point and highly speculative.

#ScottThoughts

I just read someone's gripe that USA people assume the Internet is only USA when they say "Happy Thanksgiving", "Happy 4th of July", etc, and they should stop doing that.

Uh, no.

Please feel invited to celebrate the special days on your calendar. I welcome your Boxing, Diwali, non-US Thanksgiving, non-US Labor, Bastille, Obon, Indigenous Persons, Carnivale, Anzac Day, Lunar New Year, etc. I'm happy to receive your well-intentioned greeting at any time.

#ScottThoughts #ScottHolidays

True story time. ~7 years ago, onsite team meeting

New hire said when starting job, they thought "model" in job description meant we take photos, wondered where the girls were. Initially sounded like joke, but as they kept going, I realized they were serious. Next few years confirmed laziness, lack of curiosity.

How do you see "model" in #DataAnalytics job & not research it enough to know it means "predictive model" before interview?

#OfficeWorkerGripes #ScottThoughts #PredictiveModeling

I'm seeing posts about a General Strike for tomorrow. A key element of this strike is to not spend any money tomorrow.

An ultimatum has two parts: 1. A request and 2. threat of consequences if request is not met. #2 is used to get other party to deliver #1.

The poster for the 3/15 strike misses both parts. 1. There's no request or expectations. 2. Since the strike is to be carried out regardless, it's not applying any pressure to anyone to change.

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#GeneralStrike #ScottThoughts

Ha ha, some of y'all who are screeching about a coup, calling on me to leave my wife, children, and suburban home to join the violent uprising in protest couldn't be bothered to take 5 minutes to vote for Harris Walz. Some of you still can't admit what an idiot mistake that was.

You think violent demonstrations and a civil war is easier than voting?

Well, you made your choice and now I'm making mine.

#ScottThoughts #ScottPolitics

There are many issues with microblogging on topics that are controversial, uncertain, and on which I have unclear, contradictory, or nuanced opinions.

If you can't easily reduce your thoughts to 500 characters, should you just remain silent, or try your best & hope people will consider your writing in good faith?

Ah, good faith — there's the rub! How many will take what you write and form the most unfair interpretation of it, aka a strawman?

#ScottThoughts #ScottMicroblogging #ScottMastodon

After his passing, with nothing but memories to process what he'd said, I thought how during the first 15 years after I'd moved away from home, I lived within an hour's drive, & not once did he call to ask, "how about I come over & take you to lunch." Not even when came to the big city to get something.

Note to parents: you have no right to expect your kids to visit you in your old age if you never visited them in their 20s & 30s.

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#ScottFamily #ScottThoughts

One of the things my brain does (and I believe many of you can relate) is dig up unpleasant memories and thoughts at random times.

The one I'm dealing with today: in the last 2 weeks of my father's life, he let me know he was disappointed that I didn't visit him more. I was floored because I'd made a deliberate effort the last 3 years when he was sick to visit him often - what I thought was often given wife and I had a child and full-time jobs.

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#ScottFamily #ScottThoughts

I am browsing Harry & David for a “thinking of you gift”. I think I’m seeing a deliberate pattern to upsell — every item page offers a couple suggestions of similar items that are about 25 to 50% more expensive. If the suggestions were based solely on customer shopping patterns, I’d expect occasionally to see a same-priced or less-expensive item, which is the case with most other online retailers.

#ScottThoughts #HarryAndDavid #RecommendationSystems

One distinct difference between being a 20-something and 50-something is the perspective that 10 years is not that long of time.

I’d like to think I had a longer perspective when I was 20-something, compared to a typical 20-something, due to my interest in history and politics. Even in 1995, it was clear to me things were vastly improved over 1965. Things don’t change overnight, but they surely do with the passing decades.

#ScottThoughts #ScottPolitics

Crazy idea I just had: a backronym generator program. You type in the acronym letters, and it selects random words to fit. Pick any words you want to keep and redraw the rest.

An improved version would allow picking a theme from a list. Words that fit the theme are given a higher weighting (thus selected more often).

The ultimate version would use AI to allow you to freely enter text that will be used to guide the generator.

#ScottThoughts #ScottIdeas #ScottProgramming

Several years ago, I coined the phrase "crossword puzzle word" to describe a word that I know the correct spelling and meaning of, but essentially only see it used in crossword puzzles. It may even be the case that crossword puzzles are the only reason I know of the word at all.

#ScottThoughts #CrosswordPuzzles #ObscureWords

I had an epiphany tonight where I realized the Star Trek formula of, conflict, escalation, and resolution in just an hour was exactly what I needed to recharge my psychic batteries and get me though my 30s with my sanity mostly intact.

If only real-life problems could be tackled and resolved so quickly and neatly.

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#ScottThoughts #ScottTelevision

When I was in my mid 20s, I developed a bit of a pretentious attitude about television. So much of it is mind rot, and I was above that. I was reading books.

And then over the next 15 years, my attitude about television changed. My life had become more complicated, more stressful, more challenging, and television at the end of the day was my escape.

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#ScottThoughts #ScottTelevision

Normalize asking genuine questions that start with "I wonder if..." There's no reason children should have a monopoly on boundless imagination.

I'd bet that half of the greatest innovations of humanity started with a question like that.

#ScottThoughts

@ernie I've thought about this topic at least 15 years. Prior to 2010, I had conversations with 2 different attorneys that spilled over into the power of judges. Both gave me the "calling balls and strikes" theory in a condescending tone, implying that I, someone without a JD, couldn't understand this topic fully.

Having had years to ruminate on this topic, one response I wish I'd said was "then why is it that when the court splits, it's almost always on political lines?"

#ScottThoughts

Is it my problem that I’ve been “obsessing” for 6 months over a problem that you’ve been exclusively in power to do something about for the last 6 months, or is it your problem that you’ve been exclusively in power to do something about it and instead have done nothing.

#ScottThoughts