I login for the groups. Some private groups have a ton of useful info that's well organized, plus helpful folks that are eager to answer questions.

And that's almost as sad as Discord "forums". It's useful information that's completely siloed out from the public web.

On a positive note, posts from groups I was interested in have been targeted at my feed by the algorithm. Still not public, but least there is some sort of exposure to "passers-by"

(I know, frying pans and fires) I started a Google Group as an alternative to a Meta group that I don't want to need Mata to participate in.

local town offices mostly use facebook for news and events.

I signed up in 2023 after not using it since 2008. I can't believe how bad the marketplace feature is compared to craigslist. It's trying to get me to keep coming back and serve me different ads. I just want to see all the local ads that match my search!

Groups and Marketplace seem to be the main genuine uses in many non-US countries.

A point that the article doesn't touch on directly, but it's part of the bottlenecks mentioned: a lot of jobs already are bullsh*t. They are there because a scapegoat is needed or because the nephew of the CEO needs a job, etc. In theory these jobs could have been removed long ago but they were not, and AI won't change that.

Why would driverless cars mill around? They would just wait around in underground garages. They can even block each other, so they don't need that much space to park.

Short article worth reading. Quite interesting find regarding our brains.

I second the Kore-eda rec although it's an acquired taste, not so easy as Shawshank. Shoplifters was a revelation.

It's not a high number when compared to other first-world countries: https://statranker.org/population/top-10-countries-with-high...

But it is one of the largest drivers for increased housing demand.

> https://statranker.org/population/top-10-countries-with-high...

It's not (just) about the absolute number, but the trend as well; see "Chart 2. Rise of single-person households, 1990–2025".

Interesting that UK is not in the top 10 list. Because of more ethnic diversity, or because they cannot afford single households?

Rare to live alone in London, even amongst single thirtysomething professionals earning well above median income.

Incidentally, that newsletter has a lot of interesting charts.

https://www.apolloacademy.com/the-daily-spark/

I was reminded of "software is eating the world", which was basically the idea that everything needs software. It's still true. In that light, programming is not cooked. We can do things much faster, yes, but there are so many things to do that it will still take a ton of (let's call them) qualified people to build them all.

A lot of the software produced in big corps is mission-critical. Self-driving cars are an extreme example but I think the same principle applies to banking, infrastructure, even things like maps, since they are used by billions.

Agree, but I wanted more. What is the intuition behind the optimality proof? I realize you cannot summarize a 119-page paper in two paragraphs, but still.

Edit: This article from September has a bit more: https://www.popsci.com/science/gervers-sofa-problem-solved/