clearedtoland

You’re right. A lot of parents leave it all up to the schools. Education can build the foundation, sure but the real work, the real conversations, should happen at home. Teaching kids how to think, not just filling their heads with facts.

The problem is, you’re lucky if there are even two parents around anymore. And if there are, most come home drained from work, staring down bills they still can’t pay. Conversations that matter just get lost in the exhaustion. Maybe I’m just grumpy in my older age, but it’s hard not to get cynical about it.

Especially smart TVs. They’re especially chatty, accounting for something like 85% of network calls (all blocked). Edit: I meant 85% of calls on my network. And they bypass upstream DNS trying to be sneaky. It’s insane.

I appreciate the effort behind your comment. Unfortunately, it will likely fall on deaf ears among those who most need to understand our government — no different from the MAGA crowd. I don’t mean this condescending. It’s just unfortunate how poorly our education system prepares Americans, across the political spectrum, for their civic responsibilities.

Agreed. There was a time when it worked impressively well, but it’s become increasingly lazy, forgetful, and confidently wrong, even missing obvious explicit prompts. If you’re using it thoughtfully as an augment, fine. But if you’re relying on it blindly, it’s risky.

That said, in my experience, Anthropic and OpenAI are still miles ahead. Perplexity had me hooked for a while, but its results have nosedived lately. I know they tune their own model while drawing from OpenAI and DeepSeek vs their own true model but still, whatever they’re doing could use some undoing.

Thank you, both! Already deeply engrossed in it.

I’m oblivious. What novel is this?

The kicker is that my brother worked as a repairman for the washer/dryer company at the time. I’m still kicking myself.

When I bought my house in ‘21, I thought my dad was just being an old kook when he told me not to get rid of the fully functional Speed Queen washer and dryer. I wish I’d listened… some of the fancy mid/high-end appliances we bought broke irreparably just days after their warranties expired.

Without delving deeper into these numbers, the politics, mechanics, or absurd cost of education in the US - $2.2B is an absolutely staggering amount of funding for a single institution. To say that it is privileged is an understatement.

Please don't be mean to me. I'm just trying to get by…

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Some of us out there are hanging on by a thread.

Tired as Orwellian comparisons are, it’s hard to ignore how much this reeks of a Ministry of Truth.

How about if he threw in the Tesla’s with poor quality and no craftsmanship? Y’know to boost all those American manufacturing jobs, and the mechanics, and Elon’s tax subsidized billions.