Infinite, because the median counterfactual is never getting around to this P4 “nice to have” issue that’s languished in the backlog.

Yeah, it’s wack how people want to buy the laptop with the best perf per watt ever.

A few seconds isn’t bad to boot an OS, no? ;-)

If you’re in the tech industry, FIRE is an option closer than most. You can build your own tenure to pursue what you like.

Am curious, what is FIRE?

Financially independent retire early.

It’s gotta be the mangoes!

Unfortunately the internet has a large selection bias. Anger, outrage, etc. are more viral than quiet contentment. Misery loves company and all that.

It’s hard to change opinions online (especially when people go online to vent or already in a bad mood), but I’m sure you’re inspiring those with your real life interactions. Keep on keeping on.

I have heard that mangos reduce depression. Might be correlation to the warm climates they grow in ;)

People think the virus has a strategy, like it’s playing a sport and deciding an outcome.

Tell the Black Plague its strategy of killing 30% of is suboptimal. Or to the species driven to extinction by a disease. “Inanimate object, that was suboptimal to your existence!”

Tu quoque, COVID: we foolishly ignore other fixable problems so we should ignore this too?

Strawman version of what I said, of course.

You had no idea about the preventable medical errors killing 400K people a year did you?

Why isn’t the burden of proof on the lone BSL4 lab in the country doing research on that very class of virus to prove its innocence?

What is clean air worth? What do you pay for it? In the US, you pay taxes which are distributed under the purview of a democratic republic, whose officials may decide to create an EPA, which may enforce rules, etc. Tautologically, clean air is now worth something in the US, because the system pays for it. But it wasn't the case 100 years ago. Or in another timeline where Nixon didn't create the agency. It's worth something because the conditions of the system aligned its interest with that outcome, not because of some direct preference of the populace. In many countries, clean air isn't "worth much" because you can't pay for it, even though the people want it badly.

> It's worth something because the conditions of the system aligned its interest with that outcome, not because of some direct preference of the populace.

You make it sound as though "the system" is a sentient agent that acts independently of the preference of the populace. Democracy in the US is far from perfect, but don't you think that the creation of the EPA was at least somewhat related to the preference of the populace?

Sure, the system generally may loosely correlated with the long-term preference of the populace depending on the government, such that people don't revolt. But the system is designed to keep itself in power or maximize its own goals. It doesn't decide any more than water decides to take the path of least resistance downhill.

Did the populace decide they like bread and milk in the back corner of the grocery store, or does the capital-maximizing system decide its best if you walk through the aisles to get there? Are impulse purchases of gum at the checkout aisle because people really wanted gum when they walked into the store? On and on it goes.