stranomavero-o

[stranomavero-o]

My 6 moods

[stranomavero-o]

[stranomavero-o]

[stranomavero-o]

Da me erano bianchi per tutti. E comunque mi pare che gli unici per cui queste questioni siano la priorità siano questi di destra fissati col gender cattivo…

Susanna Ceccardi, la signora leghista che ambiva alla presidenza della Toscan, non perde occasione per dimostrare di vivere in un mondo tutto suo. La sua ultima uscita è stata dedicata ai grembiuli dei bambini delle scuole materne che, in alcuni comuni, non sono più rigorosamente rosa per le femmine e azzurri per i maschi. Secondo "l'illuminata" Ceccardi : "queste sono le priorità della sinistra: cancellare tradizioni e buon senso per piegarsi all’ideologia gender, anche nelle scuole materne." Peccato che i grembiuli multicolori o di un unico colore per maschi e femmine siano in uso da una quindicina d'anni in molti comuni, anche governati dalla destra. "La verz la bocca e la dà fiè" diceva mia nonna quando voleva commentare le sciocchezze che uscivano dalla bocca di una persona.

[stranomavero-o]

lou reed in the velvet underground's tour van (probably somewhere in michigan), shot by nat finkelstein, 1966

[stranomavero-o]

Bragging about replacing coders with AI is a sales-pitch

Hey, German-speakers! Through a very weird set of circumstances, I ended up owning the rights to the German audiobook of my bestselling 2022 cryptocurrency heist technothriller Red Team Blues and now I'm selling DRM-free audio and ebooks, along with the paperback (all in German and English) on a Kickstarter that runs until August 11.

We spend a lot of time talking about AI's technical capabilities: what it can do now, what it might do tomorrow, what it will never do. But AI is only secondarily a technological phenomenon; it is primarily a financial phenomenon, hundreds of billions of dollars in investment capital in search of a return.

The return on that capital only comes from one place: workers' wages. AI – as a financial phenomenon – represents that AI will a) replace, and/or; b) frighten workers to the point where more of the revenues generated by firms that buy AI tools will be returned to executives and shareholders, at the expense of their workforce.

This is why AI bosses are so eager to cite statistics – conjured out of thin air, without any backing – about how AI is about to replace the majority of workers:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/07/will-your-job-survive-ai/

And it's why tech companies that are peddling AI tools boast so brazenly about how many programmers' work can be replaced by AI:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andy-jassy-8b1615_one-of-the-most-tedious-but-critical-tasks-activity-7232374162185461760-AdSz/

After all, tech workers were – until recently – the princes of labor. Despite infinitesimal union density in the tech sector, tech workers were in such high demand that they could tell their bosses to go fuck themselves – and keep their jobs. Those bosses knew that a worker who quit during the morning scrum could have a better job with a rival firm before evening cocktails.

While tech bosses cultivated a chuminess with these workers, treating them as peers (temporarily embarrassed founders, not employees) and sitting down for "town halls," they clearly hated this and wanted nothing more than to put these arrogant pismires in their place. The instant tech labor's supply caught up with demand, these bosses mass-fired their precious tech workers, canceled town halls ("Not a good use of my time" -M. Zuckerberg), and told workers that the "sweet spot" was a 60-hour work-week:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/27/some-animals/#are-more-equal-than-others

Facebook announced a 5% across-the-board layoff and doubled its executives' bonuses – on the same day. They fired thousands of workers and then hired a single AI researcher for $200m:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/07/10/meta-lured-ai-exec-away-from-apple-with-blockbuster-200m-pay-package

Whatever else all this is, it's a performance. It's a way of demonstrating the efficacy of the product they're hoping your boss will buy and replace you with: Remember when techies were prized beyond all measure, pampered and flattered? AI is SO GOOD at replacing workers that we are dragging these arrogant little shits out by their hoodies and firing them over Interstate 280 with a special, AI-powered trebuchet. Imagine how many of the ungrateful useless eaters who clog up your payroll *you will be able to vaporize when you buy our product!*

Which is why you should always dig closely into announcements about AI-driven tech layoffs. It's true that tech job listings are down 36% since ChatGPT's debut – but that's pretty much true of all job listings:

https://apnews.com/article/ai-layoffs-tech-industry-jobs-ece82b0babb84bf11497dca2dae952b5

And the major decline in tech hiring isn't the result of hiring far fewer programmers – the tech companies have mostly cut back on hiring marketers, administrative assistants, and HR staff.

The whole fucking economy is in freefall. It's so bad that Trump just fired the country's head labor statistician and pledged to replace her with a flunky who wouldn't produce numbers "that made him look bad":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twNjon4tp84

The tech industry has changed. During the lockdowns, tech companies trumpeted their hiring sprees a performance of growth, staged for pandemic-panicked investors. Now, tech companies trumped their layoffs as a performance of AI's technical excellence, aimed at potential AI customers and credulous investors stampeded by FOMO.

Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI, a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/05/ex-princes-of-labor/#hyper-criti-hype

[stranomavero-o]

[stranomavero-o]

[stranomavero-o]

Complimenti ai colleghi indiani che nel mio calendario libero come il vento hanno messo un meeting nell'unica mezz'ora in cui ho un altro meeting ricorrente. Perché non importa quanti tool AI e non tu metta a disposizione, l'intelligenza artificiale non può sopperire alla stupidità naturale.

[stranomavero-o]

Annecy, France (by Jean Vivin)

[stranomavero-o]

While some people strive for an eclectic look, it simply happens to others. No matter how hard some people work at a definite style, their homes can't help but reflect their own tastes and interests. This comfortable eclectic Santa Fe living room has traditional furniture covered with Native American rugs. Collected art ranges from a modern abstract painting to primitive pottery.

Interior Design On Your Own, 1986

[stranomavero-o]

Netflix che si inventa di rifare Pride and Prejudice (come se fosse possibile superare il film del 2005), mentre l'unica cosa che si chiedeva era una versione che non facesse pesantemente schifo di Persuasion. Non intendo commentare il film del 2022 con Dakota Johnson.

Meno male che ho smesso di dargli soldi da un po'.

[stranomavero-o]

Bhe è molto difficile stare a galla quando devi pagare 27 fantastilioni di dollari per sposarti a Venezia e altri 35 per mandare la tua futura moglie e altre 5 tizie a fare un giro nello spazio… poi il jet privato lo yatch e il resto mica si pagano da soli!

Al corso di logistica, il relatore: Amazon fatica a stare a galla, per questo è costretta a certe scelte e pratiche.

...

...

Certo, 638 miliardi di vendite e 60 miliardi di utile netto equivale a fare fatica.

Il mio animo socialista scientifico si ribella a certe affermazioni.

[stranomavero-o]

"Life is fucking good. I look at a map and decide where I want to go. I don't know what my job is, but I like it."

-Anthony Bourdain.

[stranomavero-o]

DONALD GLOVER KAYTRANADA - Witchy (feat. Childish Gambino) Official Video

[stranomavero-o]

being a teenage girl between 2010 and 2015 must have been the shit. lana del rey dropped born to tie and ultraviolence. the arctic monkeys dropped am. justin bieber. one direction. u had tumblr and weheartit. u post a black and white pic of a cigarette and u get like 20k notes. pretty little liars, vampire diaries and glee were all on tv. twilight was still really popular. all around it must have been fun