John Scalzi

For anyone interested in writing “for real” (professionally or as a hobby) I highly recommend John Scalzi’s blog [1]. He’s cynical, he’s funny, and above all he’s practical. Among his advice over the years a few things have really stuck with me: 1) Don’t get an MFA, it’s a waste of money. If you need a grammar class, take one. If you need more of a basis in x literary genre because that’s what you want to write in, take a class or just read a ton in that genre. 2) Set up the habit of writing. If you don’t write a lot of crap on a regular basis you’ll never write anything. You will throw away a TON of what you write, but it’s only by writing that 99% of crap that you’ll find the 1% that’s worth keeping. 3) Don’t quit your day job. You will never, ever, ever write for 8 hours a day straight. Rather than sitting around depressed all day because you haven’t written anything worth a damn, you may as well have a basic 8 to 5 office job that pays the bills, health insurance, etc. Not only does it remove money as a concern, but it gets your mind off of the fact that you haven’t written anything good and frees up your creative juices for that next scheduled writing period. 4) Don’t be pretentious and refuse to write anything that isn’t “pure” or “worthy”. All the advertisements you see and brochures you read are written by someone. Being persuasive with your writing can pay really well and give you the security to pound out that next great American novel. 1:…

Excellent episode in an excellent series, but just to note, the author is John Scalzi. (All of the episodes are adapted from short stories.) https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/10/02/when-the-yogurt-took-over-a-sho…

Between your comment and your username I immediately thought of this: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ It's worth a read. And a re-read, come to think of it - I'll go do that now.

Also for the investigative journalism behind this recent bunch of reports in the news (linked from the article on CBS as well): https://file770.com/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on-censorship-and-ex… I can recommend that report to anyone interested in digging a little deeper, and reading about the possible solutions entertained to prevent this in the future. And a view from one well-known sci-fi author: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/02/15/the-2023-hugo-fraud-and-where-w…

> It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country (especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. They may be too exhausted from their second job - or from the one job they have to be on their feet the whole work day - and may not have the mental energy to comb through financial statements. You have the luxury of time and energy, so real reasons sound like excuses to you. I would recommend you (re)read John Scalzi's essay on Being Poor[1]. Except: >> Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor. The link between stress and poor decision-making is well studied, and unfortunately poor financial health is self-reinforcing: being poor is very expensive! 1. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

If you like this, it might be worth reading the posts that lead to him writing it: First, the only slightly related Tax Frenzies and How to Hose Them Down [0], in which he uses the term Objectivist Jerky, which led to someone requesting that he write What I Think About Atlas Shrugged [1], which he summed up with "Indeed, if John Galt were portrayed as an intelligent cup of yogurt ... this would be obvious. Oh my god, that cup of yogurt wants to kill most of humanity to make a philosophical point! Somebody eat him quick! And that would be that." then the brief My New Problem [2] [0] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/09/26/tax-frenzies-and-how-to-hose-th… [1] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/10/01/what-i-think-about-atlas-shrugg… [2] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/10/01/my-new-problem/

Follow-up to: "(Not) getting a new computer"[1]. [1] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2022/08/22/not-getting-a-new-computer/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32553017 (58pts, 2d ago, 90comments)

For anyone unfamiliar with Scalzi, he’s an accomplished science fiction author. My favorite of his is Redshirts, an odd take on a Star Trek-esque world. https://whatever.scalzi.com/about/books-by-john-scalzi/

I love the video game metaphor. Just because you're playing at the "easy" level in a video game doesn't mean it is easy to finish the game. You have to put in the time and effort, and the last boss can still be difficult. This might be the origin of the metaphor: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-…

Right? For instance, you have this scale of value: $800 car < "a damn" << $800 cash An $800 car isn't worth a damn, and a damn is worth a lot less than a wad of cash totaling $800. Yet, being poor is expensive, so the poor person forks out $800 for a car that isn't worth a damn. (Reference to "Being Poor": https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/)

Also, yes. But not only. I recommend this wonderful essay into the trials of being poor, which isn't necessarily because you're bad at financial planning: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ Also this recent HN posting and discussion, about the "Vimes [from Discworld] Boot Theory": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18793259

I second the Wendy and Lucy rec. I saw it not long after first reading Scalzi's Being Poor [1] and it really made everything concrete. It's a tough sell in some ways - "girl loses dog, girl finds dog, the end" - but oh-so-worth-it. [1] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Yes, thank you. You pretty much echoed something John Scalzi said on his blog: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2017/11/12/a-qa-for-the-post-weinstein-era… It's a bit long but worth reading. At the end: "Dudes, don’t be a harassing piece of shit, don’t accept other dudes being harassing pieces of shit, and when women (and others) tell you that someone has harassed or assaulted them, believe them."

I didn't realize he wrote this after Hurricane Katrina. He posted a follow-up in 2015: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/09/03/being-poor-ten-years-on/

Is it not live yet? The article uses the present progressive "is activating", but e.g., https://whatever.scalzi.com serves a certificate whose CN is *.wordpress.com (i.e., one that is invalid for the intended domain).

I think you've created a false contradiction here. The study is about differences in brain shape and brain capability that come from poverty. You're worried about differences in character that come from how you raise kids. It's true that some rich parents spoil their kids. But I know plenty of people from affluent backgrounds that are just as scrappy under pressure because they've been raised well. So as you raise kids, you could try to generate the experiences of being poor. E.g., you could make a checklist out of this article and its excellent comments: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ Or you could instead try to teach them your values through experience.

John Scalzi's essay "Being Poor" is a really good read along these same lines. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Really happy to see y'all doing this! Great work. To my fellow straight, white males who have rushed here to complain, I find the following particularly relevant: "I think it’s delightful that these straight white males are now engaged on issues of racism and sexism. It would be additionally delightful if they were engaged on issues of racism and sexism even when they did not feel it was being applied to them — say, for example,when it’s regarding people who historically have most often had to deal with racism and sexism (i.e., not white males). Keep at it, straight white males! You’re on the path now!" from http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/17/lowest-difficulty-setting-follow…

I recommend http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/07/30/amazons-latest-volley/ (from John Scalzi), which engages directly with the math. Many relevant points.

John Scalzi's response to this piece of self-serving agitprop is worth reading in full: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/07/30/amazons-latest-volley/ (Shorter Scalzi: Amazon are presenting as "good for authors" policies which, in fact, are only indisputably "good for Amazon"; the only authors they might be good for are those who cleave unto Amazon like limpets and don't do business with the other 70% of the book distribution business, and even then, it's somewhat questionable: Amazon's T&C's for authors publishing directly are invidious and include binding arbitration clauses and boilerplate giving AMZN the right to vary their terms unilaterally -- meaning AMZN basically have those authors by the short and curlies, in a manner that no real publishing company even attempts in their author contracts.)

Scalzi's thoughts on the matter [1] are a classic entry into this genre and make for an enjoyable read. [1] http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/12/09/a-note-to-you-should-you-be-thin…

"This move makes me very reluctant to work at google." If removing barriers to getting good people interested in what you supposedly love makes you "reluctant," I think that says far more about you than about Google. "Would my future career be limited, because women are favored in promotions and internal recruitment?" No, but you might not be as favored over women as you are now. Men in CS, we're playing the game on easy mode (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-d…

From the [FAQ]: 4.I’m a straight white male and my life isn’t easy! My life sucks! Your “lowest difficulty setting” doesn’t account for that! That’s actually fully accounted for in the entry. Go back and read it again. This one’s a stand-in for all the complaints about the entry that come primarily either from not reading the entry, or not reading what was actually written in the entry in preference to a version of the entry that exists solely in that one person’s head, and which is not the entry I wrote. Please, gentlemen, read what is there, not what you think is there, or what you believe must be there because you know you already disagree with what I have to say, no matter what it is I am saying. [FAQ]: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/17/lowest-difficulty-setting-follow…

I sincerely wish you the best, in both your personal life and your career, but "when you have a large skill set and are willing to do anything" you DO find work. And when you are damn good at what you do and productive - more productive than the "average" mediocre default - you DO get rewarded. That being said, however being in a weak position is a self reinforcing spiral where you get fewer and fewer opportunities and become less productive. And small hits take a tremendous toll - one who has not experienced what you have should at least read Scalzi's "On being poor" - http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ Yet for some reason you found the strength to get back on your feet. Once again, I sincerely wish you the best, and hope you can give a hand to other people. We all need help at one time or the other, and it's better when you are on the giving end :-)

Explain it like I'm 5. Specifically, what "power" do white people have that black people lack? Mostly it's not having to worry about certain problems, since they are out of your mind, one can forget about them. This is a great analogy to video games, "white people" is one of the lowest difficulty settings for Real Life™ ( http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-d… ) For some examples of "things that usually easier for white people" (aka privilege) for white people, look at this list ('Daily effects of white privilege'): http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

The poverty level in the us is $23 050 for a family of 4 (1). Not sure where you got your figure. Roughly 10% of americans were food-insecure at some point in a year (2) (1) http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml (2) http://webarchives.cdlib.org/sw1s17tt5t/http://ers.usda.gov/Publicatio… Yes, in India ~50% of the population doesn't have regular access to clean water or a sewage system. Yes, I'd rather be poor in the US than poor in India. But I maintain that the state of poverty in the US (and other western countries) is a far bigger failure than the state of poverty in any developing country. Also, I can't help but link to this great post whenever talking about poverty: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ the mac and cheese one makes me tear up every time I read it.

In the 2003 to 2007 period, a couple of blogs I follow (whatever.scalzi.com , Brad Delong) all had constant technical problems with MT. http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004350.html http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/03/15/ Or BradD, who has no fewer than EIGHT MT installs to try to get their shit software to work. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/10/housekeeping-mo.html Wordpress won because, reason 0, it actually worked and didn't break all the fucking time. Particularly for enduser software, people severely underrate code that isn't brittle shit that breaks if you look at it cross eyed.

Followup: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/04/the_reality_of.php Some nagging details: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/03/12/the-nagging-details-about-1000-t…

Oh that was a brilliant video clip. I hadn't seen that before, thank you!! > The important question in the OpenAI work that you haven't touched on is how to evaluate superintelligence. I guess I would frame the problem like this: > Let's say there is a very esoteric but important branch of abstract mathematics that only a few people claim to understand. Is there a way for us to determine which mathematicians are actually intelligent, and which are bluffing? How? This is a tricky one. To my dog, I am revered as a super-being of intelligence and capability. But if he watches me play grandmaster-level chess, or writing a paper on abstract mathematics -- it must look like insanity. In sci-fi, I rather like the image of super-intelligence from one of my favorite short-stories: "When the Yogurt Took Over" [1] > No one argues with the yogurt. No one tweaks its formulas. The rest of the time it rests there in its factory, thinking about whatever intelligent fermented milk thinks about. It just sits there in its vat -- and its actions seem largely incomprehensible to us -- as incomprehensible as me playing Magic: The Gathering is to my dog. It must look like lunacy. (given what I spend on the game, I'm not sure it's not) So if we're going to evaluate superintelligence, then I feel that -- for starters -- it must be on somewhat of a clear playing-field. We can clearly evaluate super-ability in Chess, in Go, and in Starcraft 2 because there are clearly defined rules. The only…

I've read a lot of Azimov, including the Foundation series, and nearly all books by the Strugatsky brothers. And I too loved Harry Harrisons's Deathworld when I was a schoolboy :) Reading Chekhov makes me genuinely sad, maybe I take the lives of his heroes too close to heart. I am not sure about top 3, but if I had to reread something I've read before, I'd start with Dostoevsky's 'Idiot', continue with "За миллиард лет до конца света" by Strugatsky brothers, and maybe I'll reread the Permutation City by Greg Egan. As for the Three Body Problem, I find it unique in that it realisticly represents the humanity's place in the galaxy (a fly on the wind shield). Lui Cixin's cosmic sociology [0] rings true to me too. The idea of laws of physics being the result of the activity of advanced civilizations, while not original (see Lem's “The New Cosmogony”), is fascinating nonetheless. The story of how 'right' moral choices in the context of that world lead to the end of humanity is another original bit. [0] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/11/11/the-big-idea-liu-cixin/