I described a shift over time and your rebuttal was arguing over a single point in time.

I feel more like we’re in a golden age where people can express their stupidity with a larger microphone they were ever given before.

And as much as people complain about the stupidity of people, the population is probably the most literate and productive in human history. We’re just seeing people use a new tool poorly when that use would not have been recorded previously.

Windows 10 reset a lot of UI from 8 to 7 that a lot of users wanted. Some changes were added, but the muscle memory learned since 95 could be used with little modification. Windows 11 broke a lot of those workflows without providing anything better on the higher end of usability.

I agree that 10 started adding things that people don’t like about 11, but 11 actively broke things that people liked about 10.

Part of the reason why MetLife Stadium in New Jersey won the finals game is because of the superior transit to the stadium and nearby cities over AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Taylor Swift is also one of the top pop artists of all time.

It is also important to note that Taylor Swift has a very different relationship to her marketing department compared with other artists.

Most artists have agreements with existing agencies and may not have full control over their work. Taylor Swift, in contrast, built a marketing group with the some focus on marketing her. Taylor controls her marketing team entirely, and with that control comes responsibility.

Except the economics for it are trash. Google uses Android as a loss leader to make money on Google’s services.

Which of their product lines could turn dev time into money?

Which makes it work really well for stealth layoffs. If you don’t have a manager willing to bend the rules for you, you either have to show up or the company has a reason for firing you.

And if you do have a manager willing to bend the rules for you, they now have the ability to recind that offer if performance drops.

It is easier to hire a billing specialist instead of a nurse.

There are a lot of positions out there that, due to education and experience requirements, the industry can’t fill.

For some like Gates, they probably want to keep the list private since they are on it; I feel like this was a big reason for his divorce.

For others, it is likely centered around the idea that Trump will let them do whatever they want as monopolies. It will shoot themselves in the foot as other countries dump US tech, but they will be able to keep their domains within the USA.

China put a planning halt on building new subways in 2020 and its construction industry is in freefall. It built a lot of impressive infrastructure, but the nation overbuilt a lot and is still processing dealing with it.

The problem is the economics of what you want.

It is going to cost money to buy phones, unpack them, upload the OS, test the product, then repack them and ship them. I would expect that to cost at least $20, probably more.

Then, after that, you have to maintain the phone software for several years. That includes testing the builds, which will likely be at least tens of thousands of dollars for each update.

So, you’re adding all this cost to a phone and for what? A phone that will be less capable than what is currently sold? And, likely, those who would be more likely to purchase this service can do it themselves.

Legally, it wouldn’t be a problem.

The problem is that whatever company sells custom ROM cell phones is going to need to eat the support costs for these phones. You’re also going to need to deal with customers who are going to lose access to a mainstream app store.

I wish they would build a 7" Pixel tablet.

But it’s it going to run Google Play Services? I feel like not running that would effectively make Amazon’s tablet its own fork.

Of course they had it good. Studios didn’t understand streaming and so sold long term rights to Netflix for pennies. Now, everyone is cutting out cable, making it impossible for those studios to fund new production on cable and broadcast alone.

New production is going to hit a cliff as streaming isn’t going to be able to fund golden era of television any more.

It turns out people don’t want to pay cable prices for streaming.

For longer lines with more than 100m passengers a year and travel times of five hours or less—such as the one between Beijing and Shanghai—the more expensive type may be justifiable.

It is less so for journeys between commuter towns, during which trains only briefly accelerate to top speeds. For longer journeys serving sparse populations—a description that fits many of the lines in western and northern China—high-speed rail is prohibitively expensive.

…

But the network expansion now under way is even bolder than Mr Liu had envisaged. China has a four-by-four grid at present: four big north-south and east-west lines. Its new plan is to construct an eight-by-eight grid by 2035. The ultimate goal is to have 45,000km of high-speed track. Zhao Jian of Beijing Jiaotong University, who has long criticised the high-speed push, reckons that only 5,000km of this will be in areas with enough people to justify the cost. “With each new line, the losses will get bigger,” he says.

It appears to be the argument that the Economist is making. High Speed rail is a good technology that should be implemented, just not at the scale China implemented it at.

Why do we have to consider public transport “a waste of money” when they are not being run as a business.

Because, even if it isn’t being run as a business, it is still being run as a government service. Since no country has infinite money, there is still a cost benefit ratio that should be looked into. There are a lot of government projects or there which are bad investments and should be deprioritozed over other better investments.

This ties into use. A lot of Chinese still use low speed rail because they can’t afford the high speed rail tickets. There may be some lines where it is better to fund and and expand low speed rail because the demand isn’t there for high speed.