Drinker of Sweet Tea

the most dogshit useless decimated search engine in the entire world:

The kid was picked up by an ambulance 30 minutes later.

Now as an adult working in security I get SO MANY folks- upper-middle aged mostly- coming to me to 'rat out' people they think are faking it.

I was once sent into a bathroom because a client demanded that the "fucker won't get out, so go drag them out"- I was NEVER going to do that, so I did a wellness check instead. You know who it was? A person recently released from the hospital after a car accident. They had a hole in their skull and major hearing loss. They couldn't answer the owner because they couldn't HEAR the owner.

Another time about a homeless man who got around town by kicking the ground from his wheelchair. "You know he doesn't actually need that thing, his legs work fine, it's just for pity points"- Oh, so he's not paralyzed, his wheelchair is performative? Funny story Dale, I actually know that guy, he was backed over by a truck and has chronic pain from his shattered pelvis. But sure, let's make him stand up and walk everywhere so nobody feels too bad for him and tries to help him or something.

"She doesn't need that scooter, I've seen her get out of it."

"Look how fat he is, because he just rides around and refuses to get up."

"She doesn't really need that cane- she comes here without it all the time"

This reminds me of a story...

In the social media boom of the 2010s, I was a social media professional (a new career thanks to this very tumblr account and a short-lived career because I like my mental health).

Back then, it was obvious what platforms companies needed to be on: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. Becase that’s where their customers and potential customers were.

Then, there came a rumbling through the profession. Our colleagues were told we had to be on Google+, it was going to be the new king social platform.

A lot of social media pros got their companies or clients to jump in with both feet. Some of us, however, took a beat and asked a simple question: “Who told you Google+ was necessary?"

We asked this because it felt like the reverse process of what had come before. Previous platforms grew into something first. No one could have predicted what a cultural juggernaut Tumblr became, the result of a sense of community among the users that formed organically and was fostered by the staff. Twitter started as a place where people dropped clever one-line jokes and became the largest and most critical breaking news outlet in the world (RIP Twitter).

But, in the case of Google+, no one seemed to be rushing to the platform. The user base was nearly non-existent. Yet, the buzz that it would be the next big thing was loud and, for that reason, many comapnies started official accounts and shifted a part of their social strategy to the platform. But still, if the numbers weren’t there, who was saying this?

The source of this new push to join Google+, it turned out, inevitably led back to Google. Yes, upper level Google staff had been telling tech bros, investors, and tastemakers Google+ was the future of social media. That trickled down to us plebes, the ones who would dutifully fulfill the prophecy.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the future of social media. It was a trainwreck that saw its few actual users spend 3-5 seconds per day on the platform compared to the hours per day people spent on Facebook.

Now, the “buyer’s remorse” over AI we’re seeing from all of these corporations feels very similar. It’s not users saying we need AI in every goddamn fucking thing, it’s AI companies. They're pushing a product tech overlords claim is the solution to a host of non-existent problems. And the companies got in line.

The difference this time is two-fold: Us plebes and commoners are fighting back and the companies that bought in are losing money. (At least a Google+ account was free.)

But, the truly shocking revelation is how fucking gullible these big CEOs are. They were told by AI salesmen that their already successful product will only continue to succeed if they bake in AI.

And what happened? One super fun example is how Google touted themselves as the best search engine in the world. Now, the first result on any search is an AI summary, followed with this warning in very small print:

That seems like a pretty clear admission that Google is not a reliable search engine any more.

So, I guess the moral of this story is: If you want to sell something for millions of dollars that no one needs, talk to a CEO.

the number above is 1.00e81 (1 with 81 zeros).

i'm 178cm tall, and in order to fall repeatedly, you have to get back up again (isnt there a song about this?) so one complete fall cycle is 356 cm, or 0.00356 km.

i traveled 0.00356km 1e81 times so thats 3.56e78 km/day, so 86400 seconds in a day thats 4.12037037037e73 km/sec.

but I get up again