Weeknote 41, 2023

§1 Categorical mis-statements

Reading about the 75-year conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians can remind one of how rarely people who use the words “everybody”, “nobody”, “always”, and “never” demonstrate the credibility that would justify their use of those words.

Why would another person believe that someone is familiar enough with millions of people or things or actions to be able to characterize every last one of them? Am I learning about the world from this person, or am I just learning about the tilt of this person’s blinders?

§2 Two weeks down the YouTubes

During the last year, I have benefited from being able to exclude specific videos and channels from YouTube's recommendations, and have spent more and more time on YouTube as the recommendations have gotten better and better.

Then the exclusions stopped working for two weeks. It turns out that YouTube recommendations are garbage without them. Also? Wow, YouTube hosts a lot of low-quality content. I'd forgotten that.

The story ends well: I submitted a bug report, and about a week later the exclusions started working again, and I started getting out-of-the-blue recommendations I really liked again (Buddy Ebsen started his career as a dancer!?).

§3 Outreach to the bigoted

How does one discuss politics with someone who either will not or cannot see his political opponents as human beings, but rather sees them as caricatures either silly or grotesque?

Also? A person who asserts that a large group of people he despises are monomaniacs fixated on hate is talking about himself, not about them.

§4 Observation

Someone who starts a sentence with “Let me see if I have this straight” not only rarely does, but rarely even wants to.

§5 The New Yorker nails it

“Personally, my life revolves around the half-dozen things that comfort me, and nothing more.”