Maybe they should instead build technology that people want and that solves their needs.

I read an article once about how people change their minds. It cited a long term study that found people who changed their stance on big issues (eg: abortion) often didn’t remember they had ever held the opposite opinion. Not only do people not like to admit changing their minds, sometimes they can’t even consciously realize.

The only time I wont willingly admit it is if the other guy is a prick and it won’t do to give them an inch.

At the risk of being seen as a prick myself, I feel like I hear the siren song of that behavior, but man is it unhealthy.

It’s more common if people arguing against me are inflammatory: “LOL, you absolute moron! Take a look at this: (well-researched study)”

I try to remember that “The worst person you know just made an excellent point” onion post for times like that.

I really don’t want to be like my mother at all

I think this is a big motivator for me. I’ve seen how aggravating it is when someone refuses to admit fault, continuously reaches for excuses and justifications and lies, rather than just shrug and say “Oh. Seems like you were right.” Hell, you don’t even have to explicitly say “I was wrong” most of the time.

I would recommend the invite tracking. Keep track of who invites bad actors, even higher order. If your friend’s friends suck, that should reflect a little on you. If no one has vouched for you, then you’re less trusted.

Unfortunately, no. I think it was a semi-obscure but not terribly so word like “esoteric”. We were all native speakers from the same region. From what else I remember from the conversation, her general practice was to avoid looking things up. If she couldn’t figure it out from context, it wasn’t worth doing more.

Unfortunately most people use very flawed arguments like trying to appeal to emotions or strawmaning my point (or one of the many fallacious things we all have to deal online). And that will not convince me, in fact it only proves you have absolutely no argument

One thing I struggle to remember sometimes is someone can make a bad argument, but what they’re arguing for can still be true.

I used to work with a guy that would argue with me, and sometimes at the end he’d be like “I actually agree with your point, but I wanted you to be right for solid reasons”

Of course, it’s also very common for people to be making bad arguments because they’re just feeling stuff, and they’re pulling together whatever words come close to capturing that right now.

This reminded me of a person I used to know. She adamantly refused to look things up. We were having some casual conversation about work, and I was like “I think that’s not what that word means.” She just refused to look at the dictionary or engage with trying to find out the answer. I don’t know if it was pride, or an insane commitment to a bit, but it was frustrating to deal with.

Incidentally, she was the worst D&D player I ever had, and was deeply dysfunctional in her romantic relationships. I can only imagine what madness she’s up to now.

I remember once when I was a kid, my uncle asked me something or other. I dithered for a bit, and then admitted I didn’t actually know. He said something really nice about how it’s much better to just say you don’t know than to dig deeper into bullshit. Really stuck with me, for some reason.

I was talking about this with someone a while ago and they suggested that some people’s lived experiences have been more… abusive. Like as a child if they made a mistake their parents treated them like shit. Now they have that untreated trauma deep in their personality. When they make a mistake like making a reservation at the wrong time, they subconsciously think it’s going to be like when their dad screamed at them, smacked them, and sent them to bed without dinner. So they lie and prevaricate to avoid that.

I don’t know how often that kind of early childhood trauma is the root of the behavior, but if that is happening that’s really sad.

Also it’s one of the things destroying politics.

That’s often the previous stop on this train of thought. There are maga people that in their secret heart know they’ve made a mistake, but they struggle to come to terms with that. Though that also carries the fear of losing all their social bonds and being rejected by the group.

Market the company and, for smaller companies that want funding, beg and network.

Leadership is often removed from how work actually gets done. This is part of why they often make bonkers decisions.

They don’t understand that most of the time isn’t going into typing code into the computer. It’s figuring out what the product guy and CEO actually want. It’s pulling answers out of them (eg: what do you want to do if the user’s name is null?) or dealing with it when they don’t like your decision (eg: you didn’t say what to do when I don’t have their name, so the email just says “hey”. I really don’t think this is a crisis)

When the “woke” mania swept the country in 2020,

Eyeroll. Can already tell this person is an idiot.

I’ve met two of my neighbors, but don’t know them well. One might even have moved away- haven’t seen her in months.

I have two friends that live nearby. Three if you stretch what’s considered the neighborhood. All walking distance.

It’s the usual “there must be in groups for the law to protect but not bind, and out groups for the law to bind but not protect” thing as always.

They wanted small government when it suited their desires. Their desires, as conservatives, are usually bad. Pollution, exploration, segregation, etc.

“request desktop site” usually gets rid of the app nag.

I never post there anymore but there’s a lot of useful stuff from the old days.

Many executives are also board members.

Paywall, but going by the headline: good

The world is burning and these assholes are making it worse.

Imagine a context where the reader is looking at the news for the first time that day. They think they missed news in the morning, perhaps the US starting aggressions, and now China has dropped another bomb.

I’m sure you can imagine such a scenario