graesopper

Baldur's Gate 3 is a great game but I think of this image whenever someone praises its writing in particular

This girl is cruising down the highway in her stick shift, windows down, wind in her hair, belting out songs while she shifts gears without missing a beat. She looks genuinely happy and in control. Most people these days never learn how to drive manual. It takes real timing and coordination to get the clutch and gas right, especially when you’re just trying to have fun and sing along. Seeing her do it so naturally makes you realize how much of that skill is disappearing. Do you think driving stick is becoming a lost art, or do you still think it’s worth teaching people even if almost every new car is automatic?

update: storm coming. this guy wanted my help but was too scared. i put some food in a box with a long string and trapped him looney tunes style. cat: you got outflanked. outmaneuvered. now you’re on clean sheets getting pet. fed. we took down mammoths. you didnt stand a chance.

neurodiversity guy who wants to strip back regulations on almost everything and pursue GDP growth at all costs in order to have the resources necessary for neurodivergence accommodations

Haven't done a "sex and relationships" take in a while, so here's one: Social conservatism holds back men more than it holds back women in the dating market. Basically, in the romantic realm, social conservatism boils down to the belief that "sex is a bad thing that men do to women". If you're a woman who believes this, you'll respond by having sex with fewer men, and feeling guiltier about it when you do. The latter will make your life worse, because you'll feel guilty and bad about being a normal human being. But the former is a mixed bag -- being more selective can inhibit your search for the ideal guy, but it can also help filter out bad guys. (A lot of men would also be happier if they were more selective, but that's a story for a different post.) But for men, believing that having sex with a woman is harming her, or robbing her of something, doesn't make you more selective -- it makes you avoid dating people entirely, and it especially makes you avoid dating people you like. "Nice guys" come up with all kinds of reasons why they can't get laid, but at the end of the day a lot of the reason is that they're afraid of hurting someone -- because they're socially conservative, they think they're being "nice" by refusing to inflict themselves on women. And then when these guys finally do start having sex, they often have toxic relationships, because they see themselves as a villain. Sometimes this manifests as "OK, I have sex, so I'm evil, I might as well just treat women like crap." The solution to this problem isn't that everyone should just abandon conservative values and be a free-love hippie. That comes with its own problems (again, a story for another tweet), and also it's just not something that most people are capable of doing, because values are inculcated from a young age. The solution, I think, is that people with conservative values should reinterpret those values in a more constructive way. Instead of "sex is a bad thing that men do to women", they should think "marriage is a good thing, and sex is a good thing if it leads toward marriage". If you see sex as A) trying people out to see who you fit with, or B) building a bond with someone you care about, then you can become sex-positive without becoming a libertine. Reinterpreting conservative values is easier said than done, of course, but I see plenty of people do this. And as far as I can tell, they tend to have both good dating lives before marriage, and successful marriages. Not always, of course, but more often.

mattjay

NEW: 17-year-old student builds AI system that can reportedly screen for autism & ADHD with 89% accuracy using a single retinal image.

Started writing on ao3 and its literally all this

Autism on TV: I bluntly insult someone, they get upset, and I double down arguing why their feelings are “illogical” instead of just saying sorry. Autism in real life: A friend hasn’t replied in 3 days so I’m replaying every single conversation we’ve ever had like a detective, convinced I said something rude and they secretly hate me forever. 😭

whats up with this epic elder millenial trend of $400 board games that have one trillion game pieces and rulebooks thicker than infinite jest

Paglia would call this false projection of the female experience onto the male. "Woman simply is, but a man must become." Every man has to continually work to be a chad. It's not something you discover about yourself.