For the most part, Bowlero doesn’t build its own centers. Instead, it purchases existing ones and makes them over in the Bowlero style: dim lights, loud music, expensive cocktails. At Bowleros, bowling isn’t bowling. It’s “upscale entertainment.”

But for serious bowlers, the lived experience of Bowlero’s rise has come with a marked deterioration in conditions. Someone in Big Mike’s crew warns that lane 26 tonight is sticky right where you step up to bowl: “The approach! The actual approach!” Someone else says it’s no surprise: “They spend a couple million dollars putting in screens but can’t clean the place.”

In its initial acquisition wave, Bowlero bought up prominent centers in large population areas from New York to Los Angeles. As it continues to expand, it has promised to hoover up centers everywhere else in the country. There are roughly 3,500 independent bowling centers left in America. For Bowlero, that’s 3,500 potential acquisition targets. “This industry,” Bowlero executive Brett Parker has said, “is fragmented and ripe for roll-ups.”

“A lot of guys are worried that in five years, seven years, you’re only gonna have a Bowlero,” Big Mike says. “And when that happens, what happens?”

i love how everything is getting shittier in the same awful belittling way

Companies are training LLMs on all the data that they can find, but this data is not the world, but discourse about the world. The rank-and-file developers at these companies, in their naivete, do not see that distinction....So, as these LLMs become increasingly but asymptotically fluent, tantalizingly close to accuracy but ultimately incomplete, developers complain that they are short on data. They have their general purpose computer program, and if they only had the entire world in data form to shove into it, then it would be complete.

full disclosure i was accidentally logged out today and scrolled for 5 minutes and it was pure pure absolute uncut dogshit i mean god awful bad. so i don't blame people. but on my account it knows what i want

The way people online constantly say 'talk to your doctor' like it's a panacea is a lot like how medieval peasants weren't able to read scripture and they just had to trust their clergy's interpretations

Sick of it. Usually it's not even like if I'm trying to find out if I have fucking cancer, I'm saying oh i feel sad in the evenings. why in the NAME of GOD would i want to then, for that, find the guy's number, call, leave a message cause it's midnight, wait for them to call back, schedule something 2 weeks later, worry the whole time, and try to remember and rephrase in formal clinical terminology exactly what's happening and get formal cold clinical advice for it from a guy I see twice a year. Just tell me! Give me colloquial advice and home remedies! good god!

There could be so many miracle tips or tricks online that really work but nooo people constantly shout 'talk to your doctor! call your doctor!' i don't want to fucking call the doctor, medical environments give me anxiety and all the bureaucracy and insurance and bills don't help matters either.

some zoomers on tiktok seem to get this and happily share 'oh this worked for me!' and usually it's somewhat helpful and a very nice, casual interaction that doesn't involve interaction with an authority figure and potential bills. it's that easy.

'ooh what about liability' don't care. liability has destroyed modern america, gatekeeping knowledge behind a culture of fear. if you're so scared about liability over a reddit comment, simply don't say anything! rather than leaving a pointless piece of advice that every single person on the planet knows is the default 'ideal' answer, that isn't necessarily actionable for many who don't have easy or trivial access to healthcare.

aired from 1936-1937. if anyone has a copy pls lemme know

is anyone meaningfully following this hush money thing? ooh he fell asleep in the 1000th trial he's been to ok. obviously his side is lying that's the strategy.

the second story is both new information and extremely insane

hey there fellow posters

i've recently posted the "Not only is this not how anyone writes, I do not understand why anyone would want to read anything that sounds anything like this" post to my lemmy, reddit, or twitter, and let me tell you, it's been a total game-changer

i know this isn't particularly novel but it's just so depressing we have to read this dogshit everywhere now

even the name is too much imo, when i delivered pizza some places had their system like this, i don't like strangers knowing that. it's too personal.

the picture is really, really too far. only the most utter HOA boomer could even potentially spin needing to know that. and you can of course imagine the issues with it.

i don't eat meat cause it's a thing i do since birth but it's also a thing i have to be kind of annoying about at restaurants etc to ensure that they hear me and interpret what i'm saying right (social anxiety is fun) cause then i'd have to eat the thing i don't want or have another more awkward interaction w the guy. and it's very bad in loud places cause it's even harder to make yourself understood (and i should i say i literally have a vocal condition where one of my vocal cords doesn't work so it's fun all around) and it just sucks.

so i tried to order this fucking impossible burger, but they don't like list separate burgers, they make you list out out loud every bit of what you want, and the fucking thing has a stupid fucking name so you sound like a dumbass saying the stupid fucking name so you're just blabbering at this poor guy who probably already wrote it down but it's loud and you're pissed off cause it's loud and you have to utter this stupid cutsey little brand name over and over instead of just beef mid-rare please like gordon ramsay. and they had it and it was fine but mid but like, i had to try to yell this out across a table of very cool people i'm trying to be normal and chill with. word has like 4 fucking syllables.

and this dude who's sitting at the end, very playful and cool and kind and everything, dave-grohl-esque, says jokingly to the guy at the end, in that sort of casual slightly sardonic jim halpert way, 'oh make sure about the impossible patty' which yes funny, i respect it is a good joke, i like the joke, but i hate being memed on when i'm put in a situation basically against my will that draws on years of trauma