#generalization vs specialization

[old-bird-yaoi]

CW: analysis of war (no imagery)

The date is June 6th, 2025, and recently a wave of discussion has been sparked by Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb on June 1st pre-empting (according to Igor Sushko on bluesky) an intended record-breaking missile strike on Ukraine that same night, meant to intimidate ahead of negotiations the following day.

This comes at a time when general onlookers have been doubting sustainability of Ukraine's resistance efforts due to supply reduction from the States, and undisputably cements in the public's minds that it is indeed possible to inflict extremely disproportionate damage to military equipment in terms of dollar-per-dollar commitment needed, by making use of small but precise and most importantly cheap FPV drones to take out entire bombers, escorting fighters, and helicopters, some of which Russia literally cannot produce replacements for at this time. There's various other warblogs you can go to for analyzing the precise operational details and intricacies of planning and operational secrecy, but for me the highlight is the asymmetry. The US has seen drones used in various conflicts in the 21st century, to publicly controversial and politically bipartisan ends, but those were still comparatively expensive and used on definitely not disproportionately expensive military equipment. It's also seen asymmetrical warfare tactics in Vietnam, where creative underdog locals made taking over literally hell, but that was due to technique rather than technology. The things these are most comparable to, I think, is how cost-effective it is to make good use of anti-tank missiles, but even then these can be literally hundreds of times cheaper than that, and definitely cheaper than blowing up an area by brute force. Rather than shelling out in high explosives and artillery, going in the direction of being more effective by hitting a greater area, using technology that only hits the small target areas in those typical blasts you actually care about, Ukraine has shown a significant force multiplier for the resources it does have to minimize its own rate of attrition, as well as call into question the efficacy of reliance on only high-expenditure equipment and the rough comparisons of defense strength by military spending.

I'm not here today to call for everybody to shuffle their militaries or start drone operator training programs or whatever, obviously the situation varies country to country, force to force, and I'm not a military expert.

What I am here for, is to point out that the principle of cost reduction compared to brute force via increased specificity can be seen in more peaceful domains like the Event Horizon Telescope, which combined telescopes from all over the planet to form a tiny subset of an effectively Earth-sized telescope, in order to create the first black hole picture in 2019 as well as our own Milky Way's black hole's picture in 2022. It's seen when downgrading stellar-scale megaprojects like Dyson spheres to tiny practical versions like a partial Dyson swam of satellites reflecting more sun at solar generators on Earth, or away from equatorial Global South countries asymmetrically impacted by climate change, and when that is combined with meteorological models to smoothen impacts on the planet. It's seen when instead of obliterating an entire region of your body that hopefully contains every fibre of a metastasized tumour of cancerous cells we try to target just the malignant cells specifically, via nanobots or specific chemical candidates. There is power in specificity, efficiency, and increased understanding. In war, astronomy, infrastructure, medicine, and society, where addressing specific community needs if accurately done can be so much more sustainable than throwing catch-all solutions at an entire province or even nation. It is for this reason I advocate for more granular study of specifics, and autonomous teams of assessment/input closer to on-the-ground situations, and I hope people learn to appreciate power in local governance more if nothing else from this today.

This is part of a series on overarching themes of how understanding spectrums, specialization, nuance, and being open to hidden options broadly help us all in the end, even those who consider themselves mostly in the majorities! Feel free to ask me anything in the notes, and l’ll catch you on the next flight.

yours,

borb

[crow-caller]

I really do think looking at bad writing is one of the best ways to learn about writing in general, especially for beginners.

the thing is, writing in general is highly subjective- a good sentence will be good in different ways to different people, or not impress someone at all.

a bad sentence? most people can spot bad sentences easy, especially if it is presented to them as 'here's an example of a bad sentence, let's unpack why.'

bad writing can also be very funny, which I think is again often more engaging than 'here's a work of literary genius go analyze it'. Like here's some bad writing from lightlark3:

The moment it was out of Horus’s grip, his body became bones. The flesh turned to ash. He became a corpse.

it's dumb as hell, but I think could foster a solid discussion when you ask 'why? what is the author intending to say? what about it makes it feel 'clunky'? How would you write the same idea?'

[roipecheur]

Slade: You kids are making it too complicated. Back in my day, we didn't even talk about that sort of thing. Dick, half asleep: Yeah, because 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was soooo much better. Slade: All I'm saying is, a warm body is a warm body, and a nice ass is a nice ass. But kids these days have to go and call it something ridiculous. Dick: Well, based on what you said, 'kids these days' would probably call you pansexual. Slade: Pan--what? Dick: It means you're equally attracted to all genders. Slade, laying naked in bed with him after they just spent two hours having sex: What kind of faggot shit is that?

[day-mark]

god i fucking love competitive play, i love watching high level, skilled gameplay from passionate players, i love learning the statistics for each player and the game as a whole, i love hearing everyone and especially the casters glaze the fuck out of my favorite players. mc summit/mojang and mc.c you will be fucking dealt with .

[lurkiestvoid]

I still think Mass Effect's differentiating approach between "Artificial Intelligence" (true sentient sapient learning growing digital Intelligence) and "Virtual Intelligence" ('fake' intelligence, an Advanced Software, a glorified interactive database interface-slash-personal assistant, limited functionality) would be very useful in current AI discourse because it's correct that we do not have AI. We have VI. The problems come from pretending VI is the same as AI, insisting it's the same as AI, expecting it to perform like AI, and expecting it to understand like AI. but I'm just hollerin at walls

[navree]

i need pepe larraz to draw for doctor strange more because this is the hottest clea has looked, on god

[cyanberry08-3]

Nuggets I drew 4 school assignments!!!

I'm gonna miss my free photoshop sigh...

The lyrics 4 Dana's are from Jessica Law's This Is Not a Place of Honour

I was gonna use some lyrics from the Nice vs Kind but I wasn't sure if it fit the mood of the drawing specifically

[neenack]

In light of the new Scott Pilgrim trailer, I wanna share my favorite scene from the comic. Idk the buildup is funny, but it's the last panel that always gets me.

[love-songs-for-emma]

say what u will about taylor swift, but "you kept me like a secret, i kept you like an oath" is a couplet that hits me like a brick to the skull every time i hear it

[wainswright]

If I was trying to convey a sense of media literacy to a child, I'd ask them about the games they were playing (especially if there was some kinda chat) and books they were reading and cross reference real facts with the details they found interesting until they were 12 or so. (I think I could be seen as overbearing here or at least they'd have the skill for it by this point to not require active attention.) I'd see how many misconceptions or contradictions they could catch.

[random-xpressions]

How to view human interactions? Wise enough to be close to the fire and feel its warmth but never foolish enough to jump into it and get burnt. Well like for every general rule where there's an exception. There will always be one exception and that's the domain of love. In this arena, when time demands, you hold back not a thought nor would you hesitate even for a second - you simply jump, you simply dive, you simply give your all - you offer your head at the altar. There's a reason why the moth jumps into the fire. It isn't irrational. It is the highest symbolic expression of one's own annihilation in the essence of the beloved...

Random Xpressions

[orpheusilver]

rewatching dirks again. truly insane how much bart + ken are silverflint

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

i haven't forgotten abt that poll i made at the start of summer, i've just been thinking how to properly introduce things

[madtomedgar]

It's weird that ime, by and large, disabled people get that whatever the new inoffensive language of yesterday was is the derogatory language of today, and sometimes that language is SO derogatory that it's gotta go, and sometimes you have to insist on a word's neutrality despite others using it as a pejorative, and sometimes you use what is understood to be offensive on purpose to make a point, but that doesn't make that offensive word suddenly neutral, and it's a matter of tone and degree, not something to make neat if then rules for. But ime by and large millennial and younger lgbtq people don't get this at all.

[sassyhazelowl]

When picking up an escaped quail yesterday, I realized how much larger my g3 and g4 quail are compared to the ogs. This has actually created an unanticipated problem where the ogs are inadvertently getting bullied solely because their offspring are almost twice their size and push them off places. Either need to make them a retirement pen or find them homes that don't mind a lack of eggs. On the flipside, I introduced some 3 week old babies into the colony to get more color variety in there and only 1 gen3 hen took a chance to pull rank (guessing she's low on the totem pole) vs 2 of the og hens. So they're getting bigger but they're also getting better mannered and nicer.

[kahuna-burger]

If we define Generic Ornaments as ones bought in bulk and easily replaceable if broken/lost/left behind on a move, and Special Ornaments as ones made, gifted or bought individually (or in small sets) and kept for years/decades...

Please reblog so folks see it before the trees come down!