OwenEverbinde @ OwenEverbinde @lemmy.myserv.one

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195

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2 yr. ago

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I use this Android benchmark website whenever a sibling asks me, "what phone should I get?"

It's not a precise comparison. (In fact, it rates different carrier software running the same LG G710 phone hardware as anything from 7,000 to 8,000.) And it reminds you of its imprecision several times.

But some phones made today benchmark like they're seven years old. And the site helps you avoid those egregious cases.

https://www.androidbenchmark.net/

AlternativeTo.net

The name is pretty self-explanatory, but even if you don't know the exact program you're looking for, the search tool can find you programs based on a description like, "photo editor" or "markdown editor."

It's one of the first places I go when looking for software. Especially open source software.

https://alternativeto.net/

Honestly, alternativeto.net on its own is probably worthy of being an answer to this question. That is an extremely useful website.

"What's that make us?"

I tend to tutor people randomly. Siblings mostly, sometimes friends, occasionally strangers. It makes me feel good. I get a pretty strong shot of vicarious triumph when I help them achieve a goal.

And I would always hear the same things from people who struggled.

"I'm just not good at this" I would hear.

"I suck at math" would be pretty common too.

This was never spoken by people whose minds were actually incapable of comprehension. Each and every one of them proved smart enough to perform what they deemed an impossible task. But in order to instill the confidence necessary to make it through the problems, I always had to set them straight, open their minds to the possibility that they were wrong about themselves.

At first it seemed kind of inspirational: "no one is too stupid to accomplish their goals," you know? But after it happened enough times, I started to feel like I was some brain surgeon pulling the same damn tumor out of patient after patient, skull after skull. It was a fucking epidemic of self-doubt so strong it literally affected people's entire life trajectory.

At some point, unrelated to tutoring, I wound up chatting with a stranger who had just walked out of some, "Donald Trump's key to success" kind of conference that had taken place on my campus. (It was like, 2013. I didn't know who Donald Trump was back then.) He asked me a few questions. My answers impressed him, and he called me "smart."

And I hated him instantly.

The second that word came out of his mouth, a wave of distrust and enmity washed over me, and I felt like he was trying to scam me. Mind you, I am a 5'11" 180lb man. It's not like he was practicing pickup on me. It was almost-certainly an attempt at practicing the "networking" skills he picked up from the conference he just attended. And the only reason it didn't play well to his audience was because I hated the word "smart" and hated anyone who believed in the concept.

And then, some years later, I was able to finally articulate it after someone chastised me online for calling my own actions stupid -- for using, as a commenter described it, "an ableist slur." Boy did the pieces click together after that.

This is going to seem crazy, but ladies, gentlemen, esteemed in-betweens: there is so such thing as "stupid." There never was.

The human brain is a miraculous thing. It can literally rewire itself if it needs to. With the right techniques, a brain can even be induced to repair itself after certain kinds of strokes. Meaning if, hypothetically, one were "stupid" then the proper application of societal resources could actually turn that same person smart. Just like how I was able to tutor "bad at math" students into "good at math" students.

Which is probably why Rockefeller and Carnegie were so keen on making everyone believe in the concept. Because what I just described is expensive, and if there's a ceiling on a person's potential (like "stupid"), then that gives society a really good excuse to give up on that person before spending a dime.

"We're already doing all we can for these people." the well-intentioned steel monopolist tells you, "They get every opportunity they need. The reason they struggle so much in this society? They just... aren't that bright. They were just never capable of that much to begin with."

"Stupid" is, in other words, a social Darwinist myth created by billionaires to abdicate responsibility for the poverty they were creating. And if someone expresses a belief in, "stupid" I know I cannot count on them. I hope to someday surround myself with people who despise the word and everything it stands for. Because those are the people I can trust to actually improve the world.

Okay, good. That's a much more useful term than if liberal was used to describe all pro-capitalists.

Well, first of all, I'd throw half of it into that project trying to create open source insulin.

After that: co-ops, co-ops, co-ops, and more co-ops! And some random open source / decentralized projects as well.

I think leftists currently refer to all pro-capitalists as "liberals."

Wonderful. Thank you South Samurai. I'll do just that.

This is one hell of a write up, stranger. Thank you!

Mastodon and calckey have the most active writing communities imo.

It is very difficult to search for something when you don't know it exists. Now that I know Mastodon and calckey have a vibrant writing community that you recommend, I know there's some value to finding it and learning how to immerse my account in that community. Much appreciated.

I think the best route is a lemmy or kbin author account combined with mastodon. Instances rarely matter in terms of where you join, so long as it’s a fairly stable and not heavily defederated/defederating one.

You even gave a recommended route!? Seriously, you have my gratitude. This is awesome.

By "combined with mastodon" do you mean to create one new account at lemmy or kbin and one at mastodon? Or do you mean to create one new account at lemmy or kbin and use it to connect with the writing communities at mastodon?

Thank you kindly. I feel like this answer supplements Samurai's answer really well and gives a solid illustration of their point when they said,

I’ve looked over the other options, and they’re pretty meh tbh, for a writer in specific.

Now I know what's so "meh" about at least one of them.

Except there's no need to hypothesize about what the "the other side" wants. They have been perfectly vocal about what they think are issues that need to be "solved":

• Accurate history lessons
• Transgender people
• Women's ability to have deadly ectopic pregnancies removed
• "Urban" people
• The right to protest against the flag
• Gay people

If you have enough knowledge of history to know what a "final solution" looks like, you are justified in seeing "the other side" as the main problem.

Is this meme pretending Lemmy isn't infested with leftist [transphobic slur]?

Behold: the centrist!

Use it on myself? No.

Use it to start a combination movers / electric / tunneling / waste management / highly-illegal-hardware-pirating company?

Yes.

47 percent?! What? I thought that movie was a classic!

Ah, a Strom Thurmond Democrat.