Notes and Notes about Notes
Miscellaneous tidbits #1
Notes
When Substack introduced Notes, I thought it was a great feature for publishing “mini articles”. I have a backlog of about 25 articles in various states of completion, and I thought Notes might be a good way to shove some of the shorter ones out the door without spending time to polish them into full-fledged articles.
But that did not really work. It appears that notes, for the most part, just disappear into the ether and get seen by a very limited audience. There is no hashtag or way to promote your note, so no one will see it unless it’s picked up by whatever algorithm Substack uses. And, while Substack provides a wealth of statistics about posts, it is difficult to event find where Notes are tracked.
So, I am probably going to post fewer Notes going ahead, and just write short Posts, with a “Note” tag where appropriate. Maybe combine several “notes” in a “newsletter“ article like this one.
Criminalizing Homelessness
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” ― Anatole France
The idea of making it a criminal offence for a homeless person to sleep outside sounds like something from a Dickens novel. And yet, the SCOTUS recently affirmed American cities’ rights to do exactly that. Here in Canada, the wannabe-Trump premier of Alberta is promoting the destruction of homeless encampments without providing alternative accommodation. In Vancouver, the corporate-sponsored mayor, Ken Sim, who ran on a progressive platform, but turned 180 degrees once elected, is doing the same.
The small town where I live used to have a massive homelessness problem in the 1990s and 2000s, but a coordinated effort by the City created enough shelters and housing to almost eliminate the problem by 2020. Then COVID hit, and in one of the stupidest moves by a health authority ever, social distancing was implemented inside the shelters, turning 2/3 of the occupants out on the street. Where cold, rainy weather, and opioids decimated the population in a way that COVID never could.
After COVID, the downsized facilities struggled to regain funding, resulting in a significant visible presence of homeless people downtown, similar to many cities across North America.
In response, a party calling themselves “Progressives” gained several seats during the last city council election. Luckily, nowhere near a majority, but the two representatives spend hours during each council meeting ranting about “feeling unsafe“ downtown, while at the same time voting against all measures (like fast-tracking low-cost housing) intended to solve the problem. 😱
Age
Age discrimination is real. I have experienced it first-hand in the past and present. Having said that, there is a very significant difference between a 55-year-old and an 80-year-old person. The former is typically at a peak of combined experience and mental performance, while the latter tends to suffer from at least some form of declining mental acuity. There is a reason why most people retire in their mid-to-late sixties.
A few extremely lucky people, like the lady below, are sharper at 101 than most people are at 51.
On the other side of the coin, some people suffer from early onset dementia and are incapable of making good decisions at a much younger age. But on average, cognitive decline tends to accelerate around 75. I have known vanishingly few people who are capable of a demanding leadership job at 78 or 80, let alone 82 or 86. Just saying.
Leadership
There are about 200 million people under 70-year-old in the US who are eligible to run for president. Filter by education, IQ, experience, and leadership qualities, and there are at least several hundred thousand highly accomplished candidates for the office. So how did they end up with a race between a life-long con-man and convicted felon, and an octogenarian?
In Canada, we have a teacher whose major qualification is that his dad used to be prime minister, running against a desperately stupid career politician who has never had a job outside of politics.
In Britain, a never-ending series of clowns appear to be trying to outdo each other, running the country into the ground.
What is it about politics that makes it so difficult to attract good leaders?
World War 3
When I grew up, everyone thought WW3 was going to be Nuclear Armageddon. It might still turn into that, but I have been contending for years that we are already in the midst of that war, which started somewhere around 2015. It is not a hot war yet, except in isolated spots like Ukraine, but it is a full-blown information war.
There are thousands of bot-farms in Russia, China, India, North Korea, Israel, and other countries, hammering western (and internal) social media with misinformation 24/7/356, and constantly steering political conversations and sentiment towards positions that benefit the governments running these operations.
Zuckerberg. Musk, and their ilk, are unfortunately only too happy to promote that kind of misinformation because it results in more “engagement“, which in turn means more profit. The result is “information bubbles” where people are only fed the (mis)information that they already believe in, further re-enforcing their beliefs. .
If you are wondering why a convicted criminal like Trump is favoured to be the next American president (again), why a far-right leader is sweeping elections in France, and why another deranged far-right career politician, supported by the even more far-right government in India, is about to get a 2/3 majority in Canada, this is why.
Democracy itself is at stake, and we are about to lose it without a shot being fired, and I have no idea what we can do to stop it.
What’s in a name?
On a lighter note. “My last name is WetJet“.
My favourite film producer is Mr Tarantino, and I swear that has nothing to do with his first name.
Facebook’s AI
Back in the day, I used to post snippets and links to YouTube videos, much like the ones in this article, to Facebook. In November 2022, I made a post, linking to an article about Alethic Nihilism. Now, suddenly, almost 20 months later, Facebook’s AI flags my post as “misleading” and “spam”. I guess the AI got confused by the linked article’s title: “This essay isn’t true“.
On the positive side, that’s another confirmation that today’s AI is still immensely stupid and unable to understand even the most blatant subtleties like parody.
On the negative side, these stupid algorithms are being kicking people off platforms, even retroactively for things they posted years ago. Similar half-baked algorithms are deciding whether you are allowed to board your next flight or if you are a suitable candidate for your next job.
“Be afraid. Be very afraid.“
Lightning
“If 40 million dragons swooped down out of the sky and randomly ate 20 people in the US every single year, you would know everything about dragons.”
Yes, it seems very hit or miss with notes. I should do proper A/B testing and post a few more notes to compare engagement properly.
Hey Quentin, I share your frustration with Notes. I've been trying to follow the guidance here to post Notes when I have new articles out, and to engage on other people's Notes. Some of my Notes get no apparent eyes or responses, which is kind of disheartening. But then, on a few and out of the blue, I'll get a comment from someone I'm totally unconnected to. Some of the convos are fun and I've met a few cool people through Notes. Don't give up yet 😊. I'm going to share this comment as a Note too; let's see what happens!
On the other side, with articles, I try to keep up with yours, but it looks like I missed one in mid-May somehow. I just switched my app settings a few weeks ago to always send me emails. My email box is a lot fuller now, but that's how I found out about this post from you. 🙂