Unanticipated consequences
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Weird disconnect
Tesla is not doing well at its core business of selling new cars. as [Indranil Ghosh](notes), in 2025 their deliveries fell “8.6% to 1.6 million vehicles.” That’s the second year in a row that sales dropped. However, “The sales decline hasn’t affected Tesla’s stock price.” What’s going on? Ghosh suggests that Wall Street investors are… Continue reading
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Is it simpler than it seems?
It seems like there are so many reasons for the decline and fall of the United States. But I keep wondering if it mostly comes down to one thing: the decades-long dismantling of public education, and of education in general. The people in the current cadre are not deep thinkers, with only (maybe) a couple… Continue reading
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Needs, wants, and habituated illusions
I need a car. Well, no, I don’t need a car. What I need is a way to travel locally, farther and faster than I can walk, while carrying passengers and goods. I can unpack that even more: I need goods (like groceries) that I choose, stockpiled in small quantities in my home, with the… Continue reading
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Sometimes it speaks the truth
“…a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is.” –the orange baby Continue reading
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Think about this
The orange baby’s administration is zeroing out the ability of the US government to compete with the rest of the world — including actual enemies — in cybersecurity. To the extent this is explained at all, it’s attributed to commercial vendors wanting no oversight, and “MAGA loyalists don’t care because they aren’t interested in leadership… Continue reading
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Speaking of facts…
There is a style of mental activity (I hesitate to call it “thought”) that seems obviously to be in the ascendance lately. It features espousing a position, opinion, or belief that’s easily demonstrated to be false — that is, in opposition to what anyone can perceive — and yet “doubling down” on that nonsense even… Continue reading
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Navigation versus implementation
Years ago I designed mobile phone software. At the time, phones were just beginning to be able to connect to the internet, so we had a web browser. Since the platform was a phone, it made sense to us to provide a way to automatically dial a phone number you found on a web page.… Continue reading
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Tattoos?
I need to first establish that I do not have any tattoos, and I do not anticipate ever wanting to get one. I entirely lack whatever it is that motivates people to get tattoos. Nevertheless I respect it quite a lot. It strikes me as a very human thing, and in a way a sort… Continue reading
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They lie for a living
Years ago I had to go through a metal detector to enter a courthouse. I was reporting for jury duty (I was never empaneled, which was a bit disappointing). I emptied my pockets and the guards confiscated one of those little nail clippers I had in my pocket. I asked why and they claimed that… Continue reading
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The vulnerability of enormity
I cancelled my Disney + subscription. Partly because of the company’s capitulation to the fascist occupying regime, but also partly because it just wasn’t being used very much. Cancelled NetFlix at the same time. In that case, only because it wasn’t being used very much. It made me think about the changes to Disney, the… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer (among other things) located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. No surprise, she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my newsletter, Artisanal Scribbles, where I’m grappling with writing, authentic human authorship, integrity, and the craft of beauty in the AI age. You can also find some of my old software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly wrote tiny utilities in Python and shell scripts. I’m mostly retired from coding nowadays.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
Recent Posts
- I’d rather have a taco
- 20-something Hubris
- You can’t be a leader without followers
- Candy Trees and Handkerchiefs
- Reliability: just a movie plot now?
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Chocolatiana
Essays
History, sort of
Immorality
Incompetence
Quotations
Resistance
Stories
Tales from the Forest
Technicalities
Tragedy
Unanticipated Consequences