2 Things to Vent About

Here are two behaviors I need to vent about. The world hardly needs more negativity so I will at least make it quick. This is all IMO, disclaimer disclaimer, etc.

1. Criticism by proxy. I've touched on this before, but it was from a don't-yuck-my-yum angle. Now, the true intent is more clear: Sometimes a person resents you but they want to keep up the appearance of being magnanimous (or simply "not a jerk"). So instead of belittling you directly, they criticize the things around you. "Your house is shabby, your car is gay, that picture (you picked out) is ugly." It's usually sneakier than that, but that's the gist of it. All of it so that if you blow up and ask them "what is your problem with me?" then they can look shocked and retort, honestly (technically), "I never said a word against you!" Right, you just slagged off every choice I made, they way I live, etc. etc. Eventually it's obvious what their real target has always been.
   
   
2. Setting daemons. A daemon is a background process in computing and it's how I think of certain (non-computing) tasks with specific triggers. I am assigned tasks all the time and they broadly fall into three categories: Do it when able, do it at a certain time, and do it when a condition is met. That last category has the potential to incur terrible costs beyond the cost of the task itself. "Tell me this account balance" and "tell me this account balance on the first of every month" are easy. The latter just needs a recurring calendar entry. But "tell me this account balance when it becomes negative" is a huge pain in the neck. (Because what am I going to do, check that account every day to see if the balance has turned negative? It might not turn negative for three years, and if it takes me one minute to check it each day, that's more than 18 hours of work you're asking for.)
   
   My real gripe with this one is that the people asking almost never think about the processes involved. They assume things can be automated when they can't. I explain this, but it rarely sinks in. Many times, the best I can do is turn it into a category-II task ("Okay, I'll check it on the first of every month and tell you if it's negative."), but even then, using the previous example, we're looking at 36 minutes of work. And the real problem here is that the asker, being ignorant of the process (and often unwilling to learn), gives the request as much weight as if it only needed to be done once ("It only takes you a minute!").

Alright, it's off my chest. Thanks.

thank you for the feedback

There's this implicit contract: If a person makes stuff and puts it in a more-or-less public space they should not be surprised when criticism is offered. The "public space" part of that is pretty important. I guess it's a blurry line. If someone emails something to five people it's clearly more private than if they had emailed it to fifty people. But at what number of recipients does it cross the threshold into "public space"? It's hard to tell. This right here, this is public. Because it's on the open web, no passwords, no disclaimers. If you hate it my feelings won't be hurt. But other stuff, where you can't be certain of how public it is, maybe it's worth playing it safe. You know what phrase doesn't get used as much as it should? "May I offer some constructive criticism?"

Tubes, in my belly

I think this is the closest
I'll ever get to stripping.
It's healing really well BTW.

Here's a thing I was telling Chords a couple days ago and now I'm gonna tell you:

Hipster is a horrible word. People use that label to invalidate the interests of others. When you call someone a hipster what you're really saying is, "That stuff you like? You only like it because it's fashionable to like it. You're a phony and you're easily swayed by trends." I think there's also an implicit "Not like me, I'm an individual with unique likes and dislikes formed through a complex web of thoughts and experiences." And whenever you find yourself asserting superiority over someone else you should really stop and figure out why you're doing that. Are you so desperate for ways to feel good about yourself that you're going to start inventing them even if at's someone else's expense?

Q: Why can't the hipster have a legitimate interest in tapered billiard pipes from the 1960s?

A: He wasn't even alive in the 1960s! It's a phony, pretentious hobby.

Q: So it's okay for someone who was alive in the 60s?

A: Yes.

Q: So what's the rule then? If you like anything that existed before you were born then you're a hipster?

A: Of course not. You can like, say, history of the American revolution. Or Citizen Kane.

Q: Ah, so it's when their interests drift away from the mainstream that they become hipsters?

A: Yep.

Q: So conformity is a good thing?

A: Yep.

I guess my point is that the A person is kind of a close-minded jerk. Time for bed!

Edit: The A person isn't Chords, I just like arguing with myself.

Phrases I dislike

1. I'm boring.
2. It's beyond our understanding.
3. Because the bible says so.

Illustration by me! CC BY-SA 4.0

Reasons:

1. NO, YOU'RE NOT. You might be disengaged, but you're not boring. Some people use this phrase as shorthand for "I don't do things that are worth talking about." We're sentient and sentience endows you with, among other things, the ability to assign value to activities (even if it's subjective). By saying you're boring in this way, you're assigning low value to your actions. Don't do that. If you think you have low value you should talk to people about it until you find someone who can help you fix that.
2. We might not understand a thing right now, but it's not beyond our understanding. If a thing is describable, it's understandable. With enough time, effort, patience, etc. we can figure it out.
3. If a human being has gotten their hands on something you can be sure it's not infallible. And even if you think the bible is the literal word of God, some dude had to write it down or translate it. "Because the bible says so" is a terrible reason for anything.

THE FASCINATING WORLD OF INSURANCE

My insurance broker was explaining the hierarchy of insurance entities to me. You might think insurance is pretty simple, like there's just this company you pay in exchange for them promising to come save you if something bad happens. But it's soooo much more complicated than that.

There's a general master agent, a health trust (and the association sponsoring the trust), the insurance carrier, probably a third-party administrator (for enrollments, COBRA, billing to groups, etc.), then a broker and a producer.

This was my reply to his email:

Man, that's a lot of people with their fingers in the pie. Thank you for the explanation. Every time I learn more about insurance I'm surprised to see how complex it is. For something that's fundamentally just a wager on whether or not something bad will happen, so many people have put so much effort into it. It's like uncertainty and ignorance are these infinitely deep cracks that people squeeze into with force proportional to their ambition.

Preachy Ivory Tower Assertions

Here's a thing I wrote a while ago and just stumbled across while reorganizing Evernote:

Having empathy for someone who has done an unethical thing is not the same as adopting an aberrant view. Empathy doesn't change unethical acts. But it helps end cycles of distrust and doubt. When we embrace the knowledge that true evil doesn't exist, we empower others to widen their perspectives. If you see someone as a villain, that perception is likely to manifest in a negative way. And, unfortunately, it's easy to slip into that black-and-white way of thinking. It's a great shortcut. Who's bad? Who's good? Alright, disregard the bad people, trust the good people, and--whew! That's enough thinking for today! 

Having empathy and being open-minded takes effort. Humans are naturally inclined to conserve their effort. Nature rewards it. Nature says, "Prepare for the worst! Don't waste energy! Be vigilant!" It's an effective strategy for maximizing survival. But survival isn't everything. It's possible to excel at self-preservation while being completely miserable.

Also, have you seen this thing? The Hedonistic Imperative.