Lots of reasons to dislike Google. That is not one of them.

It’s amazing how if you ask the Boomers I know, they’ll tell you that cities are terrifying and riddled with crime every few feet. But when you actually go a city, it’s pretty normal. Maybe a bit less foot traffic and a few more unhoused people than pre-COVID, but still pretty much the same. Definitely not the war zone they describe!

Well, I’ve read a lot of theory, and I’m pretty sure our best bet is posting memes online, crossing our fingers, and hoping for the best. We definitely shouldn’t go outside and talk to people, that’ll never work

Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s the algorithms, but I do notice a difference in how I feel after spending time on the Lemmy or Mastodon vs Instagram or LinkedIn

One thing that I’ve found helpful is from Naomi Klein in her most recent book. To paraphrase - conspiracy theories often get the feelings right, but the facts wrong. For example, we are all being screwed over by banks and hedge funds, but it’s because of the structures of capitalism, not the Jews. But it’s much easier, mentally, to pin the blame on one specific person or group than to grapple with the flaws inherent in the social systems we’ve created.

Yeah, that seems reasonable to me

What do people mean when they say “the internet” in this context? The social internet of the 2000s?

I say this it feels unimaginative to me to say that the internet is dead. Social media? For the major platforms, sure. But the Fediverse feels alive and novel, and the Internet itself is certainly not going anywhere - could you imagine if email went away?

I don’t know, I am in large agreement that the internet has gotten worse, with that accelerating with generative AI. But I also feel like being driven away from Big Tech platforms has led me to learn more about how the Internet actually works and to discover topics and communities that I hadn’t before. Maybe the internet isn’t wholesale dead, just changing

What exactly is an “AI PC”? What makes it better than a non-AI PC? Is this a product that consumers are asking for?

In my experience, predominantly male environments are fairly disdainful of anything non-technical and include a lot of unexamined biased views toward women. Workplaces with more women, or a balance of both, don’t have the same issue, in my experience.

I’ve worked predominantly in two fields - engineering and environmental policy. I find the culture of engineering to be pretty toxic - too many conservative men. Environmental policy suffers from too much being demanded of workers, I think mostly because of the expectation that you’re motivated by your passion, rather than being paid for your time. I don’t know if that is directly tied to the gender balance in the workplace, but certainly women historically and presently are not compensated fairly for their work.

It’s a shame that I’m better at doing engineering, because I vastly prefer to not work in a place where I can hear my boss listen to Hannity every day through the wall.