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  3. Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 1st February 2026

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 1st February 2026

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  • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

    Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

    Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

    Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

    If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

    The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

    Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

    (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

    v0ldek@awful.systemsV This user is from outside of this forum
    v0ldek@awful.systemsV This user is from outside of this forum
    v0ldek@awful.systems
    wrote last edited by
    #65

    Excellent BSky sneer about the preposterous “free AI training” the Brits came up with. 10/10, quality sneer.

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

      The Wikipedia article is cursed

      L This user is from outside of this forum
      L This user is from outside of this forum
      lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systems
      wrote last edited by
      #66

      I’d say even the part where the article tries to formally state the theorem is not written well. Even then, it’s very clear how narrow the formal statement is. You can say that two agents agree on any statement that is common knowledge, but you have to be careful on exactly how you’re defining “agent”, “statement”, and “common knowledge”. If I actually wanted to prove a point with Aumann’s agreement theorem, I’d have to make sure my scenario fits in the mathematical framework. What is my state space? What are the events partitioning the state space that form an agent? Etc.

      The rats never seem to do the legwork that’s necessary to apply a mathematical theorem. I doubt most of them even understand the formal statement of Aumann’s theorem. Yud is all about “shut up and multiply,” but has anyone ever see him apply Bayes’s theorem and multiply two actual probabilities? All they seem to do is pull numbers out of their ass and fit superexponential curves to 6 data points because the superintelligent AI is definitely coming in 2027.

      fullsquare@awful.systemsF 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • C corbin@awful.systems

        I know what it says and it’s commonly misused. Aumann’s Agreement says that if two people disagree on a conclusion then either they disagree on the reasoning or the premises. It’s trivial in formal logic, but hard to prove in Bayesian game theory, so of course the Bayesians treat it as some grand insight rather than a basic fact. That said, I don’t know what that LW post is talking about and I don’t want to think about it, which means that I might disagree with people about the conclusion of that post~

        L This user is from outside of this forum
        L This user is from outside of this forum
        lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systems
        wrote last edited by
        #67

        I think Aumann’s theorem is even narrower than that, after reading the Wikipedia article. The theorem doesn’t even reference “reasoning”, unless you count observing that a certain event happened as reasoning.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

          The Wikipedia article is cursed

          sc_griffith@awful.systemsS This user is from outside of this forum
          sc_griffith@awful.systemsS This user is from outside of this forum
          sc_griffith@awful.systems
          wrote last edited by
          #68

          “you should watch [Steven Pinker’s] podcast with Richard Hanania” cool suggestion scott

          L 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • sc_griffith@awful.systemsS sc_griffith@awful.systems

            “you should watch [Steven Pinker’s] podcast with Richard Hanania” cool suggestion scott

            L This user is from outside of this forum
            L This user is from outside of this forum
            lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systems
            wrote last edited by
            #69

            Surely this is a suitable reference for a math article!

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • S soyweiser@awful.systems

              Tbh, this is pretty convincing, I agree a lot more with parts of the LW space now. (Just look at the title, the content isn’t that interesting).

              sc_griffith@awful.systemsS This user is from outside of this forum
              sc_griffith@awful.systemsS This user is from outside of this forum
              sc_griffith@awful.systems
              wrote last edited by
              #70

              i actually find the content pretty amusing, since it amounts to “have you guys tried using words correctly every once in a while?”

              Jack Riddle[Any/All]J S 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • E evinceo@awful.systems

                people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for

                I swear that this is a form of AI psychosis or something because the attitude is suddenly ubiquitous among the AI obsessed.

                fullsquare@awful.systemsF This user is from outside of this forum
                fullsquare@awful.systemsF This user is from outside of this forum
                fullsquare@awful.systems
                wrote last edited by
                #71

                they prompted so hard and that’s all they get, so obviously there’s nothing better and they stop st that

                they’ll do anything except actually learn shit or put in effort

                M 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • L lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systems

                  I’d say even the part where the article tries to formally state the theorem is not written well. Even then, it’s very clear how narrow the formal statement is. You can say that two agents agree on any statement that is common knowledge, but you have to be careful on exactly how you’re defining “agent”, “statement”, and “common knowledge”. If I actually wanted to prove a point with Aumann’s agreement theorem, I’d have to make sure my scenario fits in the mathematical framework. What is my state space? What are the events partitioning the state space that form an agent? Etc.

                  The rats never seem to do the legwork that’s necessary to apply a mathematical theorem. I doubt most of them even understand the formal statement of Aumann’s theorem. Yud is all about “shut up and multiply,” but has anyone ever see him apply Bayes’s theorem and multiply two actual probabilities? All they seem to do is pull numbers out of their ass and fit superexponential curves to 6 data points because the superintelligent AI is definitely coming in 2027.

                  fullsquare@awful.systemsF This user is from outside of this forum
                  fullsquare@awful.systemsF This user is from outside of this forum
                  fullsquare@awful.systems
                  wrote last edited by
                  #72

                  the get smart quick scheme in its full glory

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • C corbin@awful.systems

                    I know what it says and it’s commonly misused. Aumann’s Agreement says that if two people disagree on a conclusion then either they disagree on the reasoning or the premises. It’s trivial in formal logic, but hard to prove in Bayesian game theory, so of course the Bayesians treat it as some grand insight rather than a basic fact. That said, I don’t know what that LW post is talking about and I don’t want to think about it, which means that I might disagree with people about the conclusion of that post~

                    A This user is from outside of this forum
                    A This user is from outside of this forum
                    aio@awful.systems
                    wrote last edited by
                    #73

                    if two people disagree on a conclusion then either they disagree on the reasoning or the premises.

                    I don’t think that’s an accurate summary. In Aumann’s agreement theorem, the different agents share a common prior distribution but are given access to different sources of information about the random quantity under examination. The surprising part is that they agree on the posterior probability provided that their conclusions (not their sources) are common knowledge.

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

                      Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

                      Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

                      Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

                      If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

                      The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

                      Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

                      (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

                      gerikson@awful.systemsG This user is from outside of this forum
                      gerikson@awful.systemsG This user is from outside of this forum
                      gerikson@awful.systems
                      wrote last edited by
                      #74

                      LWer: Heritage Foundation has some good ideas but they’re not enough into eugenics for my taste

                      This is completely opposed to the Nietzschean worldview, which looks toward the next stage in human evolution, the Overman. The conservative demands the freezing of evolution and progress, the sacralization of the peasant in his state of nature, pregnancy, nursing, throwing up. “Perfection” the conservative puts in scare quotes, he wants the whole concept to disappear, replaced by a universal equality that won’t deem anyone inferior. Perhaps it’s because he fears a society looking toward the future will leave him behind. Or perhaps it’s because he had been taught his Christian morality requires him to identify with the weak, for, as Jesus said, “blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” In his glorification of the “natural ecology of the family,” the conservative fails even by his own logic, as in the state of nature, parents allow sick offspring to die to save resources for the healthy. This was the case in the animal kingdom and among our peasant ancestors.

                      Some young, BASED Rightists like eugenics, and think the only reason conservatives don’t is that liberals brainwashed them that it’s evil. As more and more taboos erode, yet the one against eugenics remains, it becomes clear that dysgenics is not incidental to conservatism, but driven by the ideology itself, its neuroticism about the human body and hatred of the superior.

                      Jack Riddle[Any/All]J rook@awful.systemsR S M 4 Replies Last reply
                      0
                      • fullsquare@awful.systemsF fullsquare@awful.systems

                        they prompted so hard and that’s all they get, so obviously there’s nothing better and they stop st that

                        they’ll do anything except actually learn shit or put in effort

                        M This user is from outside of this forum
                        M This user is from outside of this forum
                        mlen@awful.systems
                        wrote last edited by
                        #75

                        All roads lead down from the local maximum

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • sc_griffith@awful.systemsS sc_griffith@awful.systems

                          i actually find the content pretty amusing, since it amounts to “have you guys tried using words correctly every once in a while?”

                          Jack Riddle[Any/All]J This user is from outside of this forum
                          Jack Riddle[Any/All]J This user is from outside of this forum
                          Jack Riddle[Any/All]
                          wrote last edited by
                          #76

                          the comments also do not get it at all. The guy going “don’t say you have 99% percent credence in something¹, for most people saying that it’s a virtual certainty is the same thing” these people cannot speak as a non-cultmember for even a second

                          ¹yeah don’t, nobody says that

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

                            LWer: Heritage Foundation has some good ideas but they’re not enough into eugenics for my taste

                            This is completely opposed to the Nietzschean worldview, which looks toward the next stage in human evolution, the Overman. The conservative demands the freezing of evolution and progress, the sacralization of the peasant in his state of nature, pregnancy, nursing, throwing up. “Perfection” the conservative puts in scare quotes, he wants the whole concept to disappear, replaced by a universal equality that won’t deem anyone inferior. Perhaps it’s because he fears a society looking toward the future will leave him behind. Or perhaps it’s because he had been taught his Christian morality requires him to identify with the weak, for, as Jesus said, “blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” In his glorification of the “natural ecology of the family,” the conservative fails even by his own logic, as in the state of nature, parents allow sick offspring to die to save resources for the healthy. This was the case in the animal kingdom and among our peasant ancestors.

                            Some young, BASED Rightists like eugenics, and think the only reason conservatives don’t is that liberals brainwashed them that it’s evil. As more and more taboos erode, yet the one against eugenics remains, it becomes clear that dysgenics is not incidental to conservatism, but driven by the ideology itself, its neuroticism about the human body and hatred of the superior.

                            Jack Riddle[Any/All]J This user is from outside of this forum
                            Jack Riddle[Any/All]J This user is from outside of this forum
                            Jack Riddle[Any/All]
                            wrote last edited by
                            #77

                            the overman¹

                            ¹better known by it’s german name

                            M 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

                              LWer: Heritage Foundation has some good ideas but they’re not enough into eugenics for my taste

                              This is completely opposed to the Nietzschean worldview, which looks toward the next stage in human evolution, the Overman. The conservative demands the freezing of evolution and progress, the sacralization of the peasant in his state of nature, pregnancy, nursing, throwing up. “Perfection” the conservative puts in scare quotes, he wants the whole concept to disappear, replaced by a universal equality that won’t deem anyone inferior. Perhaps it’s because he fears a society looking toward the future will leave him behind. Or perhaps it’s because he had been taught his Christian morality requires him to identify with the weak, for, as Jesus said, “blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” In his glorification of the “natural ecology of the family,” the conservative fails even by his own logic, as in the state of nature, parents allow sick offspring to die to save resources for the healthy. This was the case in the animal kingdom and among our peasant ancestors.

                              Some young, BASED Rightists like eugenics, and think the only reason conservatives don’t is that liberals brainwashed them that it’s evil. As more and more taboos erode, yet the one against eugenics remains, it becomes clear that dysgenics is not incidental to conservatism, but driven by the ideology itself, its neuroticism about the human body and hatred of the superior.

                              rook@awful.systemsR This user is from outside of this forum
                              rook@awful.systemsR This user is from outside of this forum
                              rook@awful.systems
                              wrote last edited by
                              #78

                              the conservative… wants… a universal equality that won’t deem anyone inferior.

                              perhaps it’s because he had been taught his Christian morality requires him to identify with the weak

                              Which conservatives are these. This is just a libertarian fantasy, isn’t it.

                              v0ldek@awful.systemsV 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • Jack Riddle[Any/All]J Jack Riddle[Any/All]

                                the overman¹

                                ¹better known by it’s german name

                                M This user is from outside of this forum
                                M This user is from outside of this forum
                                mlen@awful.systems
                                wrote last edited by
                                #79

                                Technically superman is a more correct translation for that word (similarly to how superscript is the thing beyond the script)

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

                                  Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

                                  Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

                                  Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

                                  If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

                                  The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

                                  Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

                                  (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

                                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                                  nfultz@awful.systems
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #80

                                  Signaling in the Age of AI: Evidence from Cover Letters

                                  Abstract We study the impact of generative AI on labor market signaling using the introduction of an AI-powered cover letter writing tool on a large online labor platform. Our data track both access to the tool and usage at the application level. Difference-in-differences estimates show that access to the tool increased textual alignment between cover letters and job posts and raised callback rates. Time spent editing AI-generated cover letter drafts is positively correlated with hiring success. After the tool’s introduction, the correlation between cover letters’ textual alignment and callbacks fell by 51%, consistent with what theory predicts if the AI technology reduces the signal content of cover letters. In response, employers shifted toward alternative signals, including workers’ prior work histories.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

                                    Is Pee Stored in the Balls? Vibe Coding Science with OpenAI’s Prism

                                    Link Preview Image
                                    Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com)

                                    So initial experiments with Open AI's vibe-coding science tool Prism are going about as well as expected.

                                    favicon

                                    Bluesky Social (bsky.app)

                                    T This user is from outside of this forum
                                    T This user is from outside of this forum
                                    trashgoblin@awful.systems
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #81

                                    “Pee-er review” :kelly:

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • F fiat_lux@lemmy.world

                                      Amazon’s latest round of 16k layoffs for AWS was called “Project Dawn” internally, and the public line is that the layoffs are because of increased AI use. AI has become useful, but as a way to conceal business failure. They’re not cutting jobs because their financials are in the shitter, oh no, it’s because they’re just too amazing at being efficient. So efficient they sent the corporate fake condolences email before informing the people they’re firing, referencing a blog post they hadn’t yet published.

                                      It’s Schrodinger’s Success. You can neither prove nor disprove the effects of AI on the decision, or if the layoffs are an indication of good management or fundamental mismanagement. And the media buys into it with headlines like “Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency” that are distinctly ambivalent on how 16k people could possibly have been redundant in a tech company that’s supposed to be a beacon of automation.

                                      S This user is from outside of this forum
                                      S This user is from outside of this forum
                                      sansruse@awful.systems
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #82

                                      They’re not cutting jobs because their financials are in the shitter

                                      Their financials are not even in the shitter! except insofar as their increased AI capex isn’t delivering returns, so they need to massage the balance sheet by doing rolling layoffs to stop the feral hogs from clamoring and stampeding on the next quarterly earnings call.

                                      F 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • rook@awful.systemsR rook@awful.systems

                                        the conservative… wants… a universal equality that won’t deem anyone inferior.

                                        perhaps it’s because he had been taught his Christian morality requires him to identify with the weak

                                        Which conservatives are these. This is just a libertarian fantasy, isn’t it.

                                        v0ldek@awful.systemsV This user is from outside of this forum
                                        v0ldek@awful.systemsV This user is from outside of this forum
                                        v0ldek@awful.systems
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #83

                                        I had to do a triple take on that “won’t deem anyone inferior” like what the fuck are you talking about. The core of conservatism is the belief in rigid hierarchies! Hierarchies have superiors and inferiors by definition!

                                        F 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • S sansruse@awful.systems

                                          They’re not cutting jobs because their financials are in the shitter

                                          Their financials are not even in the shitter! except insofar as their increased AI capex isn’t delivering returns, so they need to massage the balance sheet by doing rolling layoffs to stop the feral hogs from clamoring and stampeding on the next quarterly earnings call.

                                          F This user is from outside of this forum
                                          F This user is from outside of this forum
                                          fiat_lux@lemmy.world
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #84

                                          In retrospect the word quarterlies is what I should have chosen for accuracy, but I’m glad I didn’t purely because I wouldn’t have then had your vivid hog simile.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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