I in general agree with his point.
Many people have this min-maxing attitude which is very useful for society when correctly directed.
But often we just use it for tasks which aren't truly productive.
Usefulness to society is only meaningful if a society is going somewhere. Modern societies don't have any collective goals, they are just drifting agglomerations of individuals, most of them intent on their own enrichment or pleasure. So there is nothing for talented individuals to contribute to, and they may as well channel their energies into following their own curiosity.
While it might be true I think it's worth pointing out that Khrushchev and Beria were in rivalry for power.
And I would be surprised if in his memoirs he wouldn't have painted Beria as the bad guy.
So I think we should take all those memories with a grain of salt at best and understand that all those stories might be twisted or even completely false.
From the Beria wikipedia article:
In 1993, construction workers installing streetlights unearthed human bones near Beria's Moscow villa (now the Tunisian embassy). Skulls, pelvises and leg bones were found.[90] In 1998, the skeletal remains of five young women were discovered during work carried out on the water pipes in the garden of the same villa.[91] In 2011, building workers digging a ditch in Moscow city centre unearthed a common grave near the same residence containing a pile of human bones, including two children's skulls covered with lime or chlorine. The lack of articles of clothing and the condition of the remains indicate that these bodies were buried naked.
It does have a big QAnon "baby-eating" feel about it yes. Especially considering that even Soviet state leaders lived in pretty small houses by Western standards, it's pretty unlikely that they had the space to bury hundreds of corpses.
The Soviets were really big on rewriting history and they spent a lot of time editing photos of stalin with people that later fell out of grace.
But I'm sure he was a bad person indeed. I don't think you could rise to such a position without being one until the lighter age appeared that led to Gorbachev.
Yes but I'm talking more about the creepiness of the stalking of women, mass rape, personally torturing and killing for pleasure etc. It sounds a bit far-fetched. It may well be true but there was just so much history rewriting going on.
I know all the soviet leaders of that era were mass murderers but usually by delegation only.
Edit: I read up on it and it does indeed seem true. Wow..
Some people correct the opposite direction from ‘the office’ (say, spending time in nature after working at a computer all day). Some go whole hog - spending all their extra time working on hobby projects, for instance.
I guess the same thing applies if your job is being a manipulator, murderer, and genocidal maniac?
Indeed. It's always frustrating to encounter these "Well if your arguments are right then how come they sound false to me?" discussion of Soviet history, even on what are supposed to be more measured and thoughtful platforms like HN. Doubly so when the argument is just that the Stalin-era secret police committed an atrocity.
> It does have a big QAnon "baby-eating" feel about it yes. Especially considering that even Soviet state leaders lived in pretty small houses by Western standards, it's pretty unlikely that they had the space to bury hundreds of corpses.
You don't know what you're talking about, is probably the nicest thing I can say about your comment.
Khrushchev memoirs were not official Soviet history, they were recorded by him after he had fallen from grace and was living in house arrest as a retiree, later smuggled out to the West by his friends. You can read them and judge for yourself how candid they are. Of course he might paint himself in a more favourable light than somebody else would, that's expected. But your comment comes off as both rude and ignorant – unless I'm mistaken and you are of such a superior intellect that you can pass quick judgement on any historical happening without having to bother yourself with the sources.
I was just saying how it came across to me. It really sounds like something made-up in the times for political gain like the secret baby-eating clubs of Qanon :)
But I do see some corpses have actually been found and it was corroborated by multiple sources. I wouldn't consider Kruchchev a reliable source either though for the reasons mentioned. But some other one syes.
Like I said it was just my personal feelings on the subject and this is not an encyclopedia but a discussion forum. We don't always have the ability to do a full study on each subject. And I never said I was an authority on it.
In addition to the other couple of replies that mention Japan, I would suggest, just start paying attention to this in the sense of deliberative practice, and you may find that your brain has been doing more editing on your social interactions than you may have realized. Sometimes the hardest things to see are the things we deal with all the time because our brains just read them as baseline. There's only a handful of cultures that are so blunt as to just say "no", bare and unadorned. Almost all cultures wrap a "no" in something to soften it. And I take a broad definition of "culture" here, including not just national, but company, family, other organizations, all sorts of cultures. You'll find it's quite a spectrum, and there's all sorts of inputs too, like positions in various hierarchies (perceived, formal, cultural, etc.).
You may also start doing this and realize that you personally have a mismatch with one of the cultures you participate in, which may even help resolve some small social problems you didn't even realize you were causing by bucking the particular culture's practices.
A similar effect: the imperative (giving orders). It is nearly as taboo in English, to just use the imperative, as it is in Japan. For example, if you have a dinner guest, you will ask "Would you like some more? Could you pass the salt?" It's always very indirect, put as a request that may be refused, or a suggestion. In other cultures, it may just be the bare imperative - "Eat more! Give me the salt." - and this is perfectly polite, contextually.
One time in Japan I met with the local bike repairman. He was an ojiisan and I had a friend to translate.
Instead of him saying something like "fixing your bent spokes on a $120 bike isn't worth my time or your money" he just said "there is no problem" over and over again
If this is a fun question for you, the book The Culture Map covers a lot of differences in how different cultures communicate, set expectations, express disagreement and displeasure, etc.
Sam Altman at the APEC conference, taking part in a panel, along with Google and Meta AI people. Actually, it's quite amusing hearing Google exec define AI as Google translate, and Sam's response to that. https://youtu.be/ZFFvqRemDv8?t=770
Thanks for the link. I found a few interesting topics in there.
One other, was by one of the other execs on stage on categorization of the types of risks people discuss with AI vs lumping everything together under "safety". https://youtu.be/ZFFvqRemDv8?t=1430
1. GPT outputs - Toxic, bias or non-factual
2. System Usage - misinformation, disinformation, impersonation (ex voice)
3. Society/Work - Impacts on workforce, education, replacing jobs, decision making
4. Safety - The more sci-fi style safety discussion.
It's a very insightful point to call out, and something I never see discussed with the same rigor / granularity here on HN. People often pick their strawman from the list and argue for or against all 4 using that one.
The HD Edition from Ubisoft looks definitely better, I think it's not even subjective. Just look at that clock tower on the upper-left quarter, the hd mod is not even in the same league. Same with details like the main character, trees, and mummies.
I wonder how big is the impact of the pandemic on the industry.
CP is not the only game that had many issues after covid virus spread all over the world.
Personally I see that the productivity(and especially products quality) had decreased in the company I am working for.
Halo got delayed because of the pandemic. Well worth the wait. It’s not perfect but the campaign is the best it’s been in years and the multiplayer is amazing
It's not competing with Macbook pros which are the top line for laptop power users.