Daniel

Parenting thought: Just over a month in and I can say with certainty my son's existence is already worthwhile. The cake is made, everything else is frosting. He's already brought so much joy to so many. The world could end tomorrow and it would have been worth it.

@Noahpinion When we were there it felt like Harajuku was full of the youths and the fashion capital moved...somewhere else, idk.

Yes, this is true. Shibuya is mostly just tourists and tech business now. The South by Southwest of Japanese neighborhoods.

@Duderichy I'm convinced 2-3 days a week in a good daycare is in fact optimal, and 5 is fine

there's an incredibly dumb idea that you shouldn't have kids unless you can spend 24/7 with them lots of kids don't actually want their parents around 24/7. Also lots of kids love going to daycare and hanging out with other kids, and then when they're older they go to school

@livgorton I've noticed this too, and seems partially a result of too much emphasis in EA circles on process over outcomes. And also maybe too much risk aversion--strong desire to avoid mistakes often leads to different more subtle (but sometimes worse) mistakes.

There's this pattern where orgs/people with pretty strong evidence of being net-negative get embraced. Boundaries get treated as an epistemic failure rather than a reasonable response to bad actors.

I donate ~20% of my income to effective causes and yet I mass-avoid the "EA" label. I think a lot about why and it mostly comes down to the movement having a social naivety problem that I find genuinely embarrassing.

@alyssaleann Hmmm I voted "generally think you're cool" and for me that means you have a good mix of stuff I find interesting--relationship content, design, home stuff, gardening, culture thoughts, other things. I think even if I was completely uninterested in 1-2 or those I'd like the mix.

@ShreddedMoney I’m curious about what other people think “my thing” is!

why do you follow me?

@Duderichy That's exactly why I haven't tried it. Who am I supposed to trust???

@JamesMMiller2 @RachelZader I mean that article talks about how he used to be (still is?) very people pleasing and wants everyone to like him--fits very well.

@ShreddedMoney @RachelZader Does he have the insecurity required for classic narcissism? I can't tell.

Sociopaths are good at flying under the radar bc they are constantly observing and mirroring people since they can't co-regulate naturally. Signs of sociopathy include: - lack of shame/guilt - inability to feel embarrassed - lack of ambition career-wise (but a drive to become rich or comfortable) - poor work ethic/no sacrifice for others when there is no payoff - lack of ability to become depressed - anger at losing access to pleasure - risk-taking for stimulation - little concern with "belonging" - early history of antisocial behavior that may have disappeared with age/awareness - breaking social rules esp when there will not be consequences - reduced ability to learn from consequences - irresponsible - manipulative behaviors - history of childhood trauma: sociopathy is "made", where genes load the gun and environment pulls the trigger - associating w people who provide them what they want or are easy to manipulate Socios are often confused with people w Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but while both share traits such as ability to be destructive and lack of empathy, the NPD patient has a strong desire for admiration and a fragile ego, whereas sociopaths do not care what others think unless that is a path to getting something they want. There are other differences as well.

@JerusalemDemsas Tbh I froze more before marriage because in my mind that was the bigger decision point around life path--having kids was just next on that path. Feels insane not to basically have the baby question decided before getting married.

I wrote about why millennials freeze at the baby question. The decisions life asks you to make used to be able to ruin you. For college-educated Americans, they mostly can't anymore. Progress has eliminated almost every irreversible decision from modern life. Marriage? Career? Moving? All of these--to a large extent--can be reversed or mitigated. Having a kid is the last high-variance decision left. And we have basically zero practice making decisions like that. New from me at @TheArgumentMag: theargumentmag.com/p/theres-no-su…

@trevoracorn @bobbyfijan @jongeeting The goal is better cities, LVT or even better valuations are not end in itself. LVT cannot solve the problem of great development patterns not being allowed and can choke out or force people into suboptimal uses in the meantime. Most US cities primarily need regulatory reform.

people walking away from properties means that the price to buy a property will plummet. This will open up a lot of opportunities for developers. also, land valuations will change very quickly under a LVT regime for this reason. so regular assessments and starting out small is super important. We don't want to go from 0 to 85% LVT over night.

Land value tax would solve this

@buccocapital Would reaally love to hear an an honest off the record assessment of Altman as a person by PG and JL. I suspect they'd have a lot of "terrible but great" sentiment.

Paul Graham, 18 years ago: "You could parachute Sam Altman into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king" At this point I think you should stop being surprised he'll do whatever it takes to try to win.

My biggest problem with parenting-as-aesthetic is it has no humility. When we pretend we can curate our family journey and kids’ childhoods into vignettes, we forget that the most meaningful parts of raising kids can’t be chosen or styled. We don’t get to pick who our kids are or what they struggle with or if they get really, really sick or when they have a hard time. We can’t guard them from heartbreaks or accidents. We can curate their toys until the ugly loud plastic one makes them giggle incessantly. We can pick their outfits until they decide that one horrendous team jersey is the only thing they’ll wear for months (ask me how I know.) Sometimes you bake banana bread, barefoot in the kitchen, but then someone drops something and someone else hasn’t slept and there’s yelling and tears but the bread turns out ok. As a parent you’ll realize you don’t wish for your life to be beautiful or whimsical or luxe, you’ll be grateful your kids are healthy, pray they make friends, be glad you can feed and house them and they’ll never know how lucky they are that it all seems effortless. You’ll cry that you can’t take away their unique struggles. It will go too fast, and you’ll be glad you have a million ugly photos of yourself holding because they were so so little. You’ll realize your aspirations are simple: happy, healthy, yours.

@bobbyfijan @jongeeting Yeah this has always been my gripe with people who only talk about LVT--until you reform zoning and allow for better uses you're going to end up with either a bunch of garbage or people walking away from their properties. LVT in Tokyo? Fantastic idea. Most US cities? Ugh.

@jongeeting You wouldn't like all the results. Highest and best land value TODAY would be some pretty unattractive things ... that would in turn be even more difficult to get rid of

@Pronatalism Near-universal attention to detail is an incredible experience

In Japan, everything, down to each shrub and tree, feels quintessentially Japanese. I’ve never been anywhere with a more totalizing sense of place.

@aarmlovi Wow, shocking to me that retail vacancy has dropped so low--there was amazing foot traffic when I lived there a decade ago. It could and should become a secondary consumer focused downtown, sad to see that there's so much resistance to that.

Huge bummer that this traditionally-inspired architecture isn't mollifying Kansas City NIMBYs who support a 45ft (!) height limit instead Retail vacancy in the neighborhood is 30%, this rescue plan brings back foot traffic...and the NIMBYs are still mad about 7 stories 🤷‍♂️

@simonsarris I'm always annoyed they only make those giant loose bags of cereal for the sugary stuff, not anything remotely healthy

"family size" cereal box and its 2 servings instead of 1

I'd wager that aesthetics explain nearly 0% of British NIMBYism. I'm sure this take will be dismissed, but what if many people actually like contemporary style? Tons of it is built in US contexts without design review.

No sorry you can’t invest in OpenAI, you’re not an accredited investor. But you can bet all your money on what the OPENAI valuation will be on @Polymarket. It’s safer this way for you.

@nikitabier @NateSilver538 Wait what's the problem with quote tweeting? It's not like he's screenshotting. Don't see how having to click through and read the thread is meaningfully different than needing to scroll and read a long thread.

@NateSilver538 Can you stop quote tweeting without the context? It’s intellectually dishonest.

@__drewface Seems like a Universalist Unitarian church would be very up your alley. Not my denomination but I've enjoyed my visits and I think would fit well with the views you're describing.

i attended my first sunday service ever today. kind of a spontaneous decision -- we saw our friends outside the church and didn't have any real plans, so we just went in. It was very nice! I am a little bit confused about the content of christian church, though.