0:06 - Tech Hiring Trends
2:17 - Tim Poole's Life Changes
4:20 - Gender and Historical Roles
8:25 - Bono and Dark Humor
10:49 - Gym Stereotypes
17:00 - Elon Musk at Twitter
18:02 - Dating and Age Perspectives
19:12 - Science and Accountability
21:19 - Personal Reflections on Life
26:48 - Building Relationships
28:19 - Political Tolerance Trends
In this episode, I delve into the current state of the tech industry, discussing the paradox of rising demands for tech hires despite pervasive advancements in AI. I begin by addressing a common concern: If AI is making coding and problem-solving more efficient, why are companies still recruiting new talent? I highlight the challenges posed by legacy code and the ongoing need for skilled programmers to maintain and upgrade such systems. My personal experiences with code transitioning, particularly a project upgrading COBOL versions, inform my perspective on the potential role of AI in future software development.
Transitioning to broader themes, I reflect on recent social media trends that illustrate personal growth and life choices, particularly in relation to family and career ambitions. I commend Tim Poole’s decision to step back from his demanding schedule to focus on family life, emphasizing the importance of creating value within one’s immediate circle rather than solely chasing external validation. I share insights on how parenting offers profound fulfillment, drawing on my own observations of family dynamics.
The conversation takes a more philosophical turn as I explore the sociocultural narratives surrounding gender and specialization in STEM fields. I provoke thoughts on whether historical gender disparities in technical fields are rooted in systemic oppression or if they stem from evolved societal roles designed to maximize productivity during scarce resource periods. We analyze the historical context of notable female mathematicians and scientists, questioning whether their contributions were suppressed or simply overlooked due to societal evolution.
As I navigate through various references, I touch upon a poignant aspect of modern life: declining interpersonal relationships amidst technological advancements. I highlight how quick access to information can lead to superficial connections, subsequently impacting deeper, meaningful relationships. Sharing the stark reality that many elderly individuals receive little to no visitors in their care homes, I stress the importance of cultivating long-term relationships and community engagement to address social isolation.
Throughout the episode, I juxtapose light-hearted anecdotes against heavier themes, often using humor to disarm serious discussions. For instance, I recount an amusing story about Bono at a charity concert, contrasting it with a reflection on mental health challenges faced by public figures like Liam Payne.
In a closing segment, I remind listeners about the ongoing battle around political tolerance among generations, pointing out the significant differences in how various age groups handle friendships in the context of political disagreement. This leads to a contemplation of the power dynamics of ostracism and its implications on societal discourse.
Ultimately, this episode serves as a multi-faceted exploration of technology, personal choices, gender roles, and the nuances of relationships in an ever-evolving digital landscape. I invite listeners to reflect on these themes and consider their implications for their own lives and communities.
[0:00] Yo, good morning, everybody. Hope you're doing well. Stefan Molyneux from Freedomain.
[0:07] And we'll start with a couple of, well, do a couple of social media stuff. I think this is interesting. So the question is out there, which is, if AI is so powerful and it's helping everybody code so much better, why are there still tech hirings? Well, of course, there's always legacy code, although it would be interesting to see how well AI could clear up legacy code. It probably is a little bit away from that because so much testing would be necessary. But I'm sure AI will be able to clean up legacy code. And then at some point, AI will be able to upgrade legacy code. So as I mentioned, that I was once involved in a major project on Tandem to upgrade millions of lines of code from COBOL 74 to COBOL 85. And that was quite... I actually, I had to write code to manipulate the code to upgrade it to the new compilation metrics. So it was really quite something. So there's still a lot of legacy code out there. And there's, of course, a lot of code that existing that needs to be, legacy code needs to be maintained. But sometimes, you know, programmers are always quitting. And then you've got to bring programmers in to figure out the code base. So where it's going to be a problem, though, is new hires, right? And so you can see job postings relative to first quarter of 2021.
[1:29] And they went up and now they're going down. Now, again, it's not catastrophic, right? Although this is, yeah, this is 100%. So they're down to, yeah, 91, 75, 66, 65%. So it is in some places between nine-tenths and two-thirds of what it used to be. So, uh, I was somewhat of a pioneer in the tech world in writing code to change code and writing code to change programs. And so I'm a little bit aware, actually probably quite aware of how much AI can do since I did it by hand. I know how much AI can do with this kind of stuff. So it looks like tech is not going to do particularly well.
[2:12] You know, I just saw...
[2:18] So, Men's Dream, This is important, right? I mean, I just saw that Tim Poole is stepping back from his 16-hour days, and he is now going to have a kid. I don't know if he's married or not, if he's getting married, he's having a kid. And, you know, for what it's worth, Tim, like, good for you. Like, great decision, great call. You can't sacrifice your entire life for the sake of an external cause. That is not ideal. You want to be able to raise your kids, pass along your line, raise your kids, and transfer your values that way, as opposed to being a flash in the pan that changes a few people's minds, and then often they'll change their minds whenever it comes along, who's slightly more persuasive. It's a good call. It's a good job. Just look at this. This is what you want in life. This is what you want in life. Look at this.
[3:10] My dad kind of sits down, they're watching something, and his son gravitate to him. Right and this age in particular where the kids are cuddly and uh it's just it's so it's such a beautiful time and you want to have that kind of comfort with your kids and you want to just enjoy, them enjoying your company uh so that's the stuff i'm playing this a little fast i didn't even notice okay i probably want to change that for videos coming up so yeah remember that, But Byron's daughter, Ayla Lovelace, was a great mathematician, world's first computer programmer, and so on. And it doesn't seem to be the case, right? It doesn't seem to be the case. So you can read this. You can pause and read this if you want.
[4:05] But there is, and it's the same thing with, I can't remember the name of the woman who was supposedly programming the Apollo missions and so on. So it's a huge battle. It's a huge ideological battle. It's really, really interesting.
[4:20] And the ideological battle is something like this. Were there all of these great female mathematical and scientific geniuses throughout human history who were just suppressed and cast aside? Or did society organize itself around evolved specialization between men and women. And while there, of course, are always exceptions to these specializations, was it in general the case that.
[4:49] Society evolved to maximize resource production, security, and protection around the different sexes, particular specialties. So in other words, if you have an all-male scientific college, is that because it is much more efficient for society, especially when resources are scarce, to have an all-male college? Because if you have then females, then you then, of course, are taking the most intelligent women often out of the dating, marriage, and reproduction pool. But also then you have to create separate dorms. You have to create separate bathrooms. You have to have accommodations. There's going to be the inevitable problems of students having affairs and getting pregnant. And so then you need to get married. But if they get married, they're going to drop out of the program. So if you just have an all-male scientific college, is it because, well, you know, society just hates all of these female scientists and mathematical geniuses and so on. They just hate them.
[5:49] Or is it, well, that in particularly in a time of scarce resources, is that the most effective and intelligent way to maximize your scarce resources? So whether all of these say wonderful, let's say doctors, right? So if the town can only afford one doctor, right? If the town can only afford one doctor, should it be a male or a female? Well, if it's a female doctor, either the female gives up on having children completely, and particularly in a time when birth control was not common or effective, she's most likely going to have an affair, have sex, get pregnant, what people do.
[6:24] And so if you can only afford one doctor in the town, do you want to make that doctor a male or a female? What are the odds that people are going to get healthcare more or less if it's a doctor is a male or a female? Same thing with an architect. People need architecture. People, they want stained glass. Is it that society said, well, because women are going to get pregnant a lot, we can't have them in these essential roles.
[6:52] So this is the, was society rationally organized against differently evolved skills of males and females, or are males and females interchangeable and all differences in opportunities and outcomes with a result of rank misogyny and so on, right? This is the big question. Now, we know the answer. I mean, and we know the answer based on evolution, which is that society organized itself. Was there oppression? Yeah, absolutely, for sure. But society organized itself around the evolved skills of males and females as a whole. And there are, of course, there are endless exceptions. I wrote an entire novel about a brilliant woman in a 18th century village in the middle of nowhere. So I'm totally down with those exceptions, but this is a political power system. And.
[7:43] So, yeah, it's really, really important. I don't think that society, because if there was lots of untapped skills among women, societies that tapped into those skills would do far better. So let's say that half of the female population are as great at science as the male population. Let's just say that. Well, then if you didn't harness and tap into that brilliance, you would be way behind on the invention of gunpowder and crop rotation and muskets and bows and arrows and all other kinds of technology. And then you would outstrip the other societies. So, yeah, it's just it's really and it's just it's just there to set men and women against each other. So this one is interesting.
[8:26] Now, I'm almost certain this is not true. you know so i mean there's lots of ways that you can figure out if things are true or not which is uh it's just a picture of bono looking like geddie lee's wasted aunt but uh it's probably not true because there's no link to anything here right but bono fails to drive his car off a cliff if donald trump wins the 2024 election so i don't come here for the truth but i come here for the lols so is he going to drive over the edge that's good oh he should live stream it the tapes of that bad bono what did you do oh yeah this is the uh idea that everyone's blackmailed promise.
[9:02] A favorite bono story he was at a charity concert for african aids and got up on the stage slowly clapping his hands together while saying every time i clap my hands a child in africa dies of aids guy in the front row yells well stop fucking doing it in uh dark humor dark humor i didn't know he was still alive one man drove in the name of trump one man without a vote one man suffering tds one man over the edge in the name of trump take your music catalog with you it's been a while since they've had a hit right don't people already have enough reasons to vote for him great news we accept the offer dear bono your terms are acceptable oh that's great.
[9:41] Finally the philanthropist or something philanthropic oh it's hard when we did all these celebrities are now campaigning for for trump now again it's probably not true i get that but it's pretty i just thought the um um no he's not british he's pretty he's looking more like susan surrounded every year i don't know it's kind of funny all right so probably not true but but the comments are funny uh and this is this is this one i find kind of true in in life right so this woman writes uh me making fun of your crop rotation idea and thereby holding our people back another 5,000 years. Jeff thinks the beans have to take turns, LMAO. Right. You see this a lot. People coming in with their sort of, I know she's marking this, right? Their midwit takes and just making fun and rolling their eyes and all that kind of stuff. That is very funny stuff. That is very funny stuff. So, a pregnancy announcement video. It took me a moment because I didn't have the sound on it.
[10:49] Uh it's a little lame uh okay this i thought was pretty funny uh i've spent a lot of time at the gym over the years gym this is good gym gym times by personnel group 5 a.m psychopaths, i'm not saying they're wrong uh 6 to 7 a.m normal people 8 a.m people who were late for work, 9 to 10 a.m you don't have a job stay at home others 11 a.m bottle girls bartenders nurses okay so i guess they're working late right 1 p.m weird post-lunch workout guy 3 p.m you work in tech sales oh that's so true 5 to 6 p.m normal people but no kids 7 p.m weirdly dead 8 p.m two a day people for round two 9 p.m dudes who got dumped recently or people with multiple kids oh yeah get back to the gym right oh that is funny that is funny weird post-lunch workout a guy checking in that's great yes i just like 5 a.m psychopath okay from the serious to the not so serious sorry from the not so serious to serious.
[11:55] The Indian government killed more Indians between independence and 1970 than the British killed throughout the entire period of the rush, which was like 150 years, right? So, but as long as it's, you know, your government killing you, I guess it's better, right? Liam Payne, a singer, rose to prominence through some Simon Cowell singing show.
[12:21] And it's really tragic. I mean, this guy had severe mental health issues, I think had suicidality in the past. And, you know, great looking guy, very wealthy, famous, talented, and all of that, a lot of charisma. And according to this, right, I assume this is true. You know, obviously, I've not seen the report. So take all of this with a grain of salt. But he also had a seven-year-old son, which is terrible. So he had all of these drugs in his system. And it just goes to show you, you know, looks, talent, fame, wealth, whatever, accolades, everyone loves you, you can do anything you want in life, does not solve the demons, right? There is no external solution to the problem of insecurity.
[13:09] This is really, really good. The description of Elon's very first hands-on meeting, all hands meeting with Twitter staff is insane. They thought he was a moron after, right? Leslie Berlin, Twitter's chief marketing officer, eased Musk into the Q&A with a softball. Why do you love Twitter? Well, let's see. I find it like I learn a lot from what I read on Twitter and what I see in the pictures, video texts, and memes that people create. I also find it's a great way to get a message out over the phone. When I want to say something and make an announcement, I think Twitter is the best way to do that. He continued to ramble, joking that some people use their hair to express themselves. I use Twitter. Employees were growing concerned. I actually turned to a stranger in the comments and said, what is happening right now? One employee recalls, wasn't this guy supposed to be a genius?
[13:52] So, um, I don't know whether this is people, I mean, I doubt this was recorded, right? So this is people just reactions, right? And when somebody is as unbelievably brilliant as Elon Musk, and by the by, Elon Musk is a guy who made the right decision with hair transplants. I mean, he made the right decision with hair transplants. He, I don't think he would look as good or maybe be as, as popular without here. But so what is he saying? What do you love about Twitter? Well, I learned a lot from what I read on Twitter. And so he's saying it's a source of news. And it has turned out that Twitter is the number one source of news. Get a message out of the phone, make an announcement. That's the Twitter is the best way to do that, right? So you receive news and you provide news and announcements. So it's a news and information exchange medium. And that's important. He doesn't say, well, I like seeing my family's vacation pictures. He doesn't say it's a great way to eat women. He's saying that it's used to exchange important information, which tells you that he's not going to be into censorship, right? So people are like, I don't understand this guy. And therefore he's an idiot, right? That's the midwit phenomenon, right? Berlin asked Musk how Twitter employers could earn his trust and how he planned to earn theirs in return. Musk demurred. See, that's a girl question, right? How do we share trust?
[15:14] Musk demurred. It's like, if somebody's getting useful things done, then that's great. But if they're not getting useful things done, then I'm like, okay, why are they at the company?
[15:23] So the guy might have hoped this meeting would comfort Twitter workers, but must seem to have no interest in doing that. Well, of course not. He's an engineer. He's a productivity guy. It's just important to give us trust and comfort it's like the only trust and comfort that you have at a job is producing significantly more than you consume that's all it is if you are paid $100,000 and you produce $200,000 you're probably okay so that's it right uh.
[15:55] So his unifying philosophy, we should take the set of actions most likely to extend the scope, scale, and lifespan of consciousness as we know it. What sort of actions improve things at a civilizational level and improve the probable lifespan of civilization? Civilization will come to an end at some point, but let's try to make it last as long as possible, right? And it would be great to understand more about the nature of the universe, why we're here, meaning of life, where are things going, where we come from. Can we travel to other star systems and see if there are alien civilizations? There might be a whole bunch of long-dead, one-planet civilizations out there that existed 500 million years ago. Think about the span of human civilization with the advent of the first writing. It's only about 5,000 years. Many employees were stunned. This is someone who is either quite stupid or hasn't given this much thought. A former engineer said, a former, but either way, he is not taking this seriously and holds the company and the product on us, the employees, in contempt. Another employee manager left the meeting and told his team that if they ever ran a meeting like that, they'd be fired. He did not land the plane. Yeah, so, you know, you're smart, Elon is an idiot, and, right?
[17:01] We should take the set of actions most likely to extend the scope, scale, and lifespan of consciousness as we know it. Right, so that's free speech. So it means that he's really, really into free speech, as white males tend to be. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Oh, yeah. Dua Lipa. Why is it that you have to be a stripper to be a singer these days? I guess it's just, I don't know, end day civilizational stuff and all that.
[17:29] Now, Pearl Davis said, I went through the same challenge Tim Cost is going through right now. I really do feel for him. I had to cut 80% of my staff because I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm not sure exactly what she's referring to. I think Tim Poole, I think he said he has like 30 employees and 10 contractors, and they were just having technical issues. Didn't he get like swatted 13 or 15 times? And it's really brutal. And I think he's involved in a lawsuit now against Kamala Harris's campaign and so on. So it's a lot. It's a lot. So Godspeed.
[18:03] Why would a woman in her 20s want to date a man who says women in their 30s are old and ugly? you do know that the woman in her 20s is going to be 30s one day. Yes, that is right.
[18:16] But he says that women in her 30s are older. And I mean, nobody really says that women in their 30s are ugly. But the reason that you want to date a woman in her 20s is so that you're not rushed when it comes to having children. I mean, it's really that simple, right? You're just not rushed for having children. And I mean, I felt this. I dated an older woman when I was in my early 30s and that clock was just tick, tick. That metronome was just going on in my brain. It was just going on in my brain, which is you just don't have time. Everything's got to be a rush. So it's not that. This is quite funny. This is, as the woman says, when I start panicking because I created a sequel schedule in my head and people are being too laid back and straying from the timeline, the face is perfect and the, you know, the perfect makeup and the perfect, it's really, really good. This happens and how much do we create our own stress with these secret timelines?
[19:13] Oh, fraud just continues like wildfire through the scientific community. It's brutal. The punishment for science misconduct is, according to Elizabeth Bick, nothing. All these men are still running labs slash paid professors. So, and to me, if it is true that Alzheimer's researchers committed fraud, then they condemned untold numbers of people to potential mental decline. Absolutely appalling. Absolutely appalling. College women admit they only vote for Gamala because of abortion I won't go through all of this but look at that 49 million views, that really is something that really is something the dehumanization of the unborn is really astounding they're just completely not classified as human beings why even go to college anymore, well so this is what happens when, you give people useless busy work, right? When you teach people memorization and not how to think, how to research, how to reason, how to argue, how to debate, then if you teach people skills that can be easily replaced by computers, then they will use those, right? I mean, it's like the slide rule. Everybody used to know how to do a slide rule and all of that, and now that's all gone because everybody has a calculator in their pocket, right? So philosophy cannot be replaced by computers. All right.
[20:42] Sad story. This was big, six and a half million views. Somebody says, I turned 41 in 30 minutes. I have no wife, no kids. My father is gone. I haven't talked to my mother in nearly 20 years. My relationship with my sister isn't great. I'm not going to pretend I'm happy about any of it. And I'm not sure why I'm telling you guys this. Maybe it's because I think about these things a lot. I'm not looking for advice or sympathy. I guess I'm just getting it off my chest, trying to be transparent with you. I'm just another guy on the internet whose life hasn't turned out the way I thought it would. Thank you all for being here, especially those of you I interact with regularly. So, it's very tough, right?
[21:19] So then Andrew Tate chimes in, whose fault is all of this? There's only one correct answer for rectification. And he says, I'm not blaming anyone, dipshit. This is why your brother is cooler than you. So this could be why he's having trouble finding a wife. Because if he reacts to criticism with aggression, then, you know, my sympathy dries up a little bit as a whole. right?
[21:47] Life hasn't turned out the way I thought it would. So that's kind of passivity. Now, one of the things that you'll notice when people are passive and you point out their responsibility, they get aggressive. That to me is the real definition of passive aggressive is that if you're kind of passive in life and then people point out that you're responsible for your life, you get aggressive as this guy did with, I'm not blaming anyone, dipshit.
[22:10] And uh so and and andrew tate i assume is saying whose fault is all of this there's only one correct answer for rectification yours so i'm not blaming anyone he's like he's asking you to take responsibility for your life and you say i'm not blaming anyone dipshit and uh so that you when somebody is doing the self-pity thing and then say that well my life just didn't turn out this way and people say well you're responsible for your life well so and also why have you not talked to your mother in nearly 20 years. Obviously, I'm the last guy to say that with any degree of criticism, but why have you not talked to your mother in nearly 20 years? What happened and so on, right? So probably he grew up with a controlling mother, made him from perilous, he's drifted through life, and he's panicking, as you should at that age if you don't have it right. Have you ever wished to view the world from a completely new perspective? This thread on cool maps is here to blow your mind. Population density in China. So this is, I mean, it's even bigger in Canada, but that's a north-south thing on the 48th. Population density in China, 6% live in half and 94% live in the other half. The world according to fish, I mean, I'm feeling my ratio. Topography of the USA. I mean, if you haven't noticed this, like, that's kind of crazy, right? I mean, it's kind of flat and then, you know, Minecraft, Vesuvius eruptions over on the left side, right?
[23:27] Which counts yourself? Capybara isn't all of that. The most western point in China is closer to Germany than it is the most eastern point in China. So that is like Vancouver to, what was it, Vancouver to Toronto or something like that? Somebody was flying from England to Toronto and they asked the relatives of Vancouver to meet them there and they said, well, you should meet them there. You're closer. Kind of strange, right? So the size of the Roman Empire at its height compared to the United States, just kind of neat. So anyway, it's just neat maps, neat maps. All right one or two more we care for 1 250 elderly people average age 84.5 roughly 30 of them have not received a single visitor this year, Isn't that sad? And that's the single visitor this year. How many people are getting maybe one visit a year, right?
[24:24] So, I work in home healthcare. The number has to be even higher at their personal places as well. I'm sometimes one of the only people they talk to that day.
[24:33] Yeah, so you get, see, this is the thing. Like, you go from automatic relationships to earned relationships over the course of your life, right? So, I mean, for me, when I was a kid, I was just at the tail end of the baby boom. And I think it ended in 64. I was born in 66. But I obviously had a family when I was growing up. I had extended family. So those were automatic relationships. And then I would be able to go out of the little apartment building that we lived in on a council estate. Estate sounds highfalutin, but it certainly was not. I would be able to go out and there would always be, you know, 10 to 20 kids to play with. Kids roamed the neighborhood. It was virtually traffic-free because it was kind of tucked away from the main road. And kids roamed the neighborhood and you could always find something to do. You could always find people to hang with, right? And then, of course, you're in school, you meet people, you're in university, you meet people. And so you just have this constant, like the first quarter century of your life is about automatic relationships. And then after that, people don't care. People you meet, they have their own automatic relationships. I mean, I remember this when I got out of high school. I did summer school so I could get out of high school early. And then to make money for my family, of course, as you know, I went to go on Gold Pan and Prospect for 18 months in the wilderness. And sometimes we were based in small towns and I spent a couple of months in Thunder Bay.
[25:59] And I lived with the woman that I worked with, and we would go and do our days, gold-panning prospecting. We would come back, have dinner, and all of that. And how do you meet people? I mean, how do you meet people? I got a gym membership at the University of Thunderbite Lakehead, I think it's called. I got a gym membership there, and I would chat with the guys. You know, we'd be in the sauna. I'd be like, hey, I'm new to town. I want to go see a movie. And of course, everyone was like, keep your tail wrapped tightly, bro. And it's tough to meet people. It's tough to break into friend groups. It's tough to meet people when you're new in town. And so people have their own lives. And you can, I'm telling you, man, you can despawn like that. You can, you can despawn like that and be careful of that, man.
[26:48] Build your relationships, make your sacrifices, be there for people, help people, build a community, add value, ask for value, because most of your automatic relationships will fade away. I mean, your parents will die, people move away, friends move away, they get married. And so you have to constantly renew your relationships or all of the automatic crops planted when you're young will fade out.
[27:13] And the last one here, 45% of Gen Z liberals and 39% of millennial liberals would end a friendship with someone who expressed an inappropriate political view. Only 12% of Boomer conservatives and 40% of Gen X conservatives would. Moderates are the most politically tolerant in this survey.
[27:30] So, you know, this is the against me argument, right?
[27:34] So they'll cut you off for the sake of politics, so they take it seriously. They'll cut you off for the sake of politics. You know, like, so when I said, you know, politics are kind of serious and people who want to use violence against you for peaceful activities on your behalf are not your friends. Of course, I was called intolerant, culty, and blah, blah, blah. And that's just because they wanted to reserve that weapon of ostracism for themselves. Like, when I talked about ostracism as a force for virtue, the bad guys attacked me as being a terrible guy because they want to reserve the power of ostracism for themselves, right? They don't want people who are interested in political freedom and free speech, they don't want us to have the power of ostracism. So they'll call us intolerant and culty and all of that. And so it's just obvious, right? I mean, they'll do it. Obviously, they're not against it.
[28:20] They know the power of ostracism. They just don't want the power of ostracism to be in the hands of virtuous people. So everybody who attacked me and called me bad and intolerant and culty, well, you all got played and handed the world over to the bad guys. And well, we all know how that's going to play out. So yeah, men with older wives, relative to their own age, are more likely to die young. Men with wives who are younger than them are less likely to die young. So, you know, cause effect, it could be that guys are more healthy and can get younger wives. It's, you know, correlation. It's not causation, but it's interesting. All right. I have to go do a call. So freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show greatly and deeply and humbly appreciate it. Lots of love. Talk to you soon, guys.
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