What I mean is like, what do you think is unironically awesome, even if people now think its cringe or stupid?
Modern magic. We tricked crystals into thinking by drugging them and zapping them with electricity. Then we used those crystals to trick matricies into hallucinating by forcing them to guess the answer to math questions and smacking them when they get it wrong and kept doing that until they get it right. Ethics and hype aside, it’s pretty fucking wild.
At first I thought you would talk about Magic the Gathering. My confusion increased with every sentence.
What?
Computer silicon and transformer models
transformer models
Surely, more than meets the eye!
They’re talking about computer chips. We dug up rocks, melted them down, and extracted the parts we wanted. Then we engraved arcane and imperceptible runes on and inside of them, using an extremely expensive and delicate process. Then we trapped lightning inside of them, and told them to show us videos of cats.
Okay, when you put it like that lol
Steven Universe. The online fandom was insane. The actual show was incredible.
I tried so hard but it just didn’t click with me.
That’s OK. No piece of art or media is gonna be everyone’s Thing.
My daughter introduced me to that show. I enjoyed watching it with her.
Greg fucking rules.
Yeah, the fandom is… Not great. It’s basically just an American anime, but the online fans are rabid.
It honestly reminds me of the fandom for Undertale. If you only ever play the game, you’ll have a wonderful time. But if you ever do some online searches to try to dig into it further or find people to discuss it with, you’ll quickly discover that the online fandom is extremely toxic.
I think the fandom is so crappy about it because the show had to cut out most of the redemption arc of the big bads because it was prematurely cancelled. If so that’s pretty silly because it came about after the creator stuck up for a lesbian wedding being included.
I was an early adopter of No Man’s Sky (long before the shift in public perception), and I fucking loved it back then, and love it now as well. But admitting that in public a few years back was tantamount to saying that stapling your child to a rabid badger was a great alternative to hiring a babysitter.
Dude, next time use a healthy badger and you’ll only have to deal with blowback from NMS.
What is no man’s sky
A space exploration video game. It had a famously bad launch, because the director had over-promised on basically every single feature. It was massively anticipated because the director had hyped it up so much. And when it launched, players quickly discovered that many of the promised features were only half finished, or were missing entirely. The backlash was swift, but the company said they planned to keep working on the game.
And now many years later, the game is actually fairly solid, and basically meets the original promises. But at launch, it definitely didn’t.
I actually preferred the early days, I don’t like most of the recent updates and I haven’t played in probably a year. I can’t really explain why except now it feels too busy.
Superman
A lot of people dismiss Superman as being “too powerful” or “unrelatable.” They’ll say Batman is more relatable because he doesn’t have superpowers. But seriously, how many of us can actually relate to being a billionaire playboy with unlimited resources? In contrast, Superman grew up in small-town, working-class America. He is as much Clark Kent as he is Superman.
People call him a “boy scout,” as if that’s a flaw. But that misses the point. The fact that he has the power to rule the world and chooses not to, is what makes him extraordinary. He sets an ideal for people to strive for.
Yes, in the hands of a bad writer he can become a walking deus ex machina. But in the hands of a good writer, Superman becomes the core of some of the most powerful and iconic stories in comics. His greatness doesn’t come from what he can do, it comes from the choices he makes.
Overly Sarcastic Productions has done a number of videos they call detail diatribes that have focused on Superman. The summary of many of them is that Superman is his most interesting when saving people and not when punching villains. Even in larger team fights, he could save everyone or hold off the threat, but he can’t do both so he needs the help of others.
They’ll say Batman is more relatable because he doesn’t have superpowers.
Okay, but he’s a billionaire super-scientist who occasionally uses occult magicks. How does none of this qualify?
Superman grew up in small-town, working-class America
Sure, but how many modern day Americans could relate to growing up on a farm? Or getting a job in journalism?
The fact that he has the power to rule the world and chooses not to, is what makes him extraordinary.
I think superheroes are largely defined by their villains. And Lex Luthor - as an individual who regularly does struggle to dominate the world (and periodically succeeds with mixed results) - makes an excellent foil for this exact reason. Superman is, at his heart, just a guy trying to do the right thing. Luthor is an ego-maniacal fascist who cannot conceive of having less than total control.
The best Superman stories are ones that illustrate the practical limits of a seemingly omnipotent individual. It’s Superman’s struggles - his poor choices, his desire for human affection, his naive optimism, his inability to be everywhere at once - that make him relatable. The idea of Superman as a maximal human who still can’t do everything has a way of taking the load of us, comparably weak and vulnerable people, who strive for just as much as a fictional demigod.
I actually love superman being a normal dude who saves people with a smile. He should be a good person in stories, because his strength isnt the point, his willpower to help everyone is.
Have you ever read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman%3A_Red_Son ?
I’m not a big fan of Superman stuff, but I found that one to be pretty interesting.
It’s a good one. That one and All-Star Superman are the two I always recommend to people.
I’ve not read All-Star yet, but I keep getting it recommended to me. Thanks!
Superman probably pays more in taxes than Batman.
AMD > Nvidia
Interstellar
Tenet
I don’t care if it has plot holes. It’s still an awesome movie.
I wish it had better a final act than two almost identical armies fighting in a desert. Reminded me of FPS games the late 2000s.
Yeah but that building going kaboom in both directions of time is super cool.
Not sure what tactical purpose it had.
I haven’t seen it yet, what are the plot holes?
The movie is about things going backwards in time. For example, there is a scene where there are bullet holes in a glass window. In a later action scene, these bullet holes are reverted by a gun going backwards in time. Turns out, these bullet holes were also going backwards in time.
This doesn’t make any sense, because the implication is that this glass window was installed with these bullet holes from the beginning.
There are more examples of similar paradoxes, so the recommendation is to not think about it too hard.
But it’s cool either way.
Honestly I don’t consider them plot holes. ‘Don’t try to understand it’ was not only directed at the protagonist. The premise is pretty much what if we simply accepted this impossible mechanic.
C’mon Tars!
Someone said interstellar was bad? Who said that?!!! Hold my beer.
https://feddit.org/post/18578350
I also like Never Gonna Give You Up, even though that’s generally not my style of music at all.
Hard no on the food, but I’m with you on Never Gonna Give You Up. I sometimes klick obvious rickrolling links just to listen to it.
I also unironically like Wonderwall.
The food looks a little odd, but reasonable. The chocolate is… Someone replied saying chocolate tastes good with savory food, which is true, but IDK about that combo!!
i dunno that meat looks kinda raw
You normally cook salami?
literally just noticed its salami lol
looked just like minced meat to my sleep deprived self.
There was actually someone else in the replies with the same confusion lol You’re not alone
Salami is basically minced meat sausage.
Nooo…I would’ve sworn that was a burger.
That was the most appalling part, for me: I thought they’d just slapped a whole raw patty on top everything.
Salami + chocolate is probably a dud, but fries and chocolate? Give it to me! Or maybe not, I’m trying to lose weight.
Even fries… Well, fries sounds alright, I guess it also depends on the fries.
Good luck on your weight loss!! I lost about 25 kg myself, relatively recently. You can do it!!!
Man, it’s not even that bad, but I’ve been trying to watch my calourie intake for months without success. Losing weight without any outside assistance is fucking hard …
A trick I used was to eat only a certain volume. I had this very reasonably-sized bowl and I’d fill it to the brim (exactly) with food and that would be my lunch for the day. I also always had the same breakfast: a mug of chocolate milk and an apple.
I cut out all snacks and such, and just tried to eat reasonably healthy foods like rice and tuna, and mashed potatoes with veggies, just random stuff that wasn’t chips and gummies.
Yeah, it’s hard, but you can definitely do it! If you need help and don’t have anybody close willing and able to guide you, maybe you could look at getting a nutritionist? Not sure how available that is…
The Force AwakensThe Last Jedi was the freshest and most creative star wars movie since Empire and Rian Johnson is a hero for trying to take the franchise in a new directionMy main gripe with TLJ is that the editing is a total mess. Multiple scenes lose continuity between shots. The most egregious example is the milk scene, which in addition to being gross and unnecessary, was clearly jammed in between two shots meant to be continuous. Rey and Luke start walking down a skinny peninsula, no space cow in sight, then hard cut to space cow and Luke milking it, then hard cut back to the end of the peninsula and Luke setting down his stuff.
You know we drink milk from COWS right?
Yeah but not raw milk straight from the udder (unless you enjoy salmonella), letting it dribble down your chin and get in your beard (unless that’s what does it for you I guess, you do you)
LOL. RFK.
Ooh that is one I vehemently disagree with lol. It was a ok movie if it was its own thing, but it wasn’t a good star wars movie, it was worse for being in the sequel trilogy as opposed to a stand alone star wars movie, and it was even worse for being the middle of that trilogy. The more context you add the worse it is imo
I’ve read that it could have been something if the third sequel didn’t change direction again. I tend to agree with that, the lack of consistency hurt the sequels a lot - why make a trilogy of narratively connected movies if you can’t even manage to get all the directors on the same page? Other than “I like money”, of course.
Do you mean The Last Jedi? Force awakens was the first of the new trilogy and was directed by JJ Abrams. If so, agreed.
Ooops, fixed!
I like scenes, many scenes in the movie; the whole movie? Nah, it’s not as horrendous as people make it out to be, but still…
I love the whole scene in the throne room. Nice supversion of expectation, great execution.
This right here is the way. Yeah they had some singular scenes that were very nice. They also had a Casino heist in the middle of a Chase sequence. It was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. That’s that movie in a nutshell some really cool scenes right next to some of the stupidest shit you’ve ever seen.
I didn’t hate the movie, but it shouldn’t have been the middle part of a trilogy that he didn’t have control over.
I agree that TLJ was the best in the sequel trilogy. I still have very mixed feelings about it, but I do like a lot of it. And at least it was something different and unique, and I appreciate that.
Sonic The Hedgehog
YES 100% Sonic was always cool.
Specifically, Tamers’ “Sonic The Hedgehog Gets Stuck In A Hole Because He’s Fat”
Sonic gets stuck in a washer machine.
Speed Racer (2008)
Uniquely colorful, silly, wholesome, every single one of its frames oozes style and creativity. It’s exactly what an animated adaption should aim to be and will forever stand out against the blue and orange, brown and bloom palettes that plagued that era of media.
It’s simply so visually exciting and fun.
This was the video essay that won me over to that film.
Also this video (much shorter) is just funny: https://youtu.be/WC0YAJR6xQQ
Ohh people are aren’t going to like this
AI coding, “vibe coding”
Vibe coding has a niche, which is people who can read, understand, and debug code, but can’t remember the syntax or can’t be arsed to write everything manually. It’s good for blocking in right now, basically, and that’s an entirely valid use of the technology
Yeah, vibe coding is fantastic for “I want to give this input {a}, have it do {function}, and return result {z}” types of code.
The issue is that being able to articulate that to an AI already basically requires you to think like a programmer. And many of the people getting into vibe coding don’t have that kind of mindset. They want to just go “give me a program that does {z}” and expect it to work.
Yes please.
- I’ve found ai useful as a tool especially when switching context to a different language or framework, as a quicker way to get the syntax and features, to generate a first approximation. It works and saves time
- vibe coding is a horrendous waste of my time doing code reviews. Don’t people look at the slop their tool generates and try to refine it? Why is it ok to waste my time like this?
Edit: just did yet another code review generated with “vibe coding” and there is so much slop that will create maintainability issues in the future - did everyone forget the truism that code is much more expensive to maintain than to create? So much duplicated code, misleading names, useless and excessive tests, hard-coded strings duplicated, etc. …… and I found an entire generated function very close to identical to one the same guy already created
AI coding, “vibe coding”
We call it ‘slopping’
No we don’t
Nice an actual controversial take. Im glad more people are getting into coding because of AI honestly. Anyone can code (not just a saying).
Me im impressed sometimes, but its only good for scripting languages. Start getting into compiled or anything beyond templates and it falls on its face.
Anyone can code (not just a saying).
Anyone who is willing to invest the effort in understanding program flow can code.
That was my experience a few months ago as well, but recently I’ve actually been using it almost exclusively with rust, the extra type safety and language safety features have helped a lot with the end code quality.
Claude in particular has been really impressive with compiled languages, it does take a bit more hand holding to get something workable out than with javascript or python though.
Yeah, take the enshittification out and +1.
How many corporate man hours are wasted re-inventing the wheel a bajillion times? Wouldn’t it be awesome if people could do less of that, and do more personal stuff like “make this niche program to cuz I want to, and share it,” or “make a game as a passion project” because the bar to entry isn’t an expensive CS education?
How many corporate man hours are wasted re-inventing the wheel a bajillion times? Wouldn’t
Honestly, very little. Unless you’re in a “not designed here” environment. There’s a lot of open source applications/libraries out there that can be added to your project to get what you need.
But I do agree, vibe coding can be great as long as it’s just for one off small projects. Need to do a quick computation or a quick POC and don’t want to spend the time setting everything up? Great!
But if you want to build an application that’s used by 1000 or even millions and receives regular updates? Please follow best practices / design patterns, etc… otherwise you’ll be rewiring the entire codebase every time you want to add a new feature.
I dunno, my experience is teams of people grinding away designing systems that are likely 95% the same as what several other companies already constructed, if not hundreds. It’s great if they use (much less contribute to) some open library for the functionality, so the wheel doesn’t get re-invented, but how often is that the case?
Of course one doesn’t want to distribute slop. I’m talking more theoretical, especially if more formal code verification becomes standard.
Mind you, a lot of this reimplementation is because those 1000 other implementations that came before all haven’t had their source code released to the public. No amount of vibecoding is going to help there because those LLMs were never trained on code that was never publicly released.
They’re trained on plenty that’s similar enough, as long as its Python or something in the dataset.
It’s also been shown that LLMs are good at ‘abstracting’ languages to another, like training on (as an example) Chinese martial arts storytelling and translating that ability to english, despite having not seen a single english character in the finetune. That specific example I’m thinking of is:
https://huggingface.co/TriadParty/Deepsword-34B-Base
Same with code. If you’re, say, working with a language it doesn’t know well, you can finetune it on a relatively small subset, combine with with a framework to verify it, and get good results, like with this:
https://huggingface.co/cognition-ai/Kevin-32B
Someone did this with GDScript too (the Godot Game Engine scripting language, fairly obscure), but I can’t find it atm.
Not that they can be trusted for whole implementations or anything, but for banging out tedious blocks? Oh yeah. Especially if its something local/open one can tailor, and not a corporate API.
Auto-writing boilerplate code doesn’t change the fact that you still have to reimplement the business logic, which is what we’re talking about. If you want to address the “reinventing the wheel” problem, LLMs would have to be able to spit out complete architectures for concrete problems.
Nobody complains about reinventing the wheel on problems like “how do I test a method”, they’re complaining about reinventing the wheel on problems like “how can I refinance loans across multiple countries in the SEPA area while being in accord with all relevant laws”.
Alien, zombie, monster, catastrophe, etc movies and shows. Obviously not all of them, but the genre in general.
Many people complain these shows only work because the characters act stupid, and it’s true.
BUT: a) what’s the alternative? Not having these shows at all? b) People are stupid even without a catastrophe. What makes you think we suddenly all develop a brain when there’s an alien invasion, or zombie outbreak? If Covid showed us anything, than that there’s a very large part of the population who’d go out of their way to act against everyone’s best interest.
The argument that these people act too stupid has become irrelevant since we had a pandemic.
I used to be one of those people, that good and bad movies were black and white. I was stupid for thinking so.
Movies can be good for different moods and audiences. Sometimes I want to watch a heart wrenching drama, Oscar style, and I can get up after it and think wow that moved me. That is a good movie.
Sometimes I’m feeling in a funk and I don’t know what to watch, o I want to watch giant robots punch aliens with minimal plot. That movie is also good, just for a different mood.
I worked in science, pre-clinical pharma, for 11 years before switching careers. I can fucking assure you that scientists and people really are THAT stupid about shit. Complacency from routines or experience is real as fuck.
Yes, once we saw how people behaved during the height of the pandemic I knew these people would be throwing themselves at the zombies.
Have the characters act smart, and come up with better plot points so that there is still drama?
Yeah, Im actually a big fan of Michael Bay’s Transformers. Are they good? Ehhhh. But man i have so much fun with them, and Im glad they exist.
I like listening to some of the shittiest songs ever made mixed in with some of the best songs ever made, on shuffle. About 6400 songs now, extremely different genres. Digbar was my 3rd biggest artist last year lol
You should add MC Hellshit and DJ Carhouse’s “Live” (1996) to your list.
A little ketamine just as the lsd or shrooms kick in.
Just a little ket as a treat
what does it feel like
While there were some truly awful moments in the last season of game of thrones, danaerys’ arc was not one of them. Her going nuts was hinted at from the beginning and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
The problem isn’t the heel turn, the problem was that it happened on like 4 episodes. Rushed and lacked the time to show motive.
Of course a Targaryen would go insane in their lust for power. The game of thrones consumes everyone.
It just sucks that the show runners were like “and then she goes nuts and loses it all ok? The end. We’re gonna fuck off and make Stsr Wars now.” and it was so bad they even lost from Star Wars lol
But she didn’t suddenly lose it.
She wiped out cities full of people before. But it took her doing it in Westeros for people to see that it was because she was insane.
See here’s the controversial take. I don’t agree with you at all. It was literally built up for the entire series and was the only natural conclusion. She was literally saying “I plan to break the wheel” from the start. That is not language a peaceful person uses. Her goals to begin with were those of a conqueror, and what we got was the natural end of that ambition when it crashes into reality.
I think it was done beautifully, and the fact so many people bought into her side of things and felt betrayed is evidence of how well done it was.
Everytime a Targaryen is born, the gods throw a dice
If she didn’t like a system that existed, she wanted to burn it to the ground, a person, burn them alive.
Surely putting that person in charge couldn’t go wrong.
