At a house party for A.I. people, and saved from having to do a go-around introduction by the timely arrival of a hang of thieves stealing catalytic converters from the cars outside
Ultimate San Francisco tweet
Friends asked a thief "What are you doing?" He replied "I'm robbing."
The police walked over and chatted with him, but didn't arrest him, and he left.
The policeman explained that the guy didn't have the right tools and would not have been successfully able to steal car parts.
I need to start telling these folks that instead of thievery they can just do crypto
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If you want more trains in America, you won't do it by making driving less attractive. People will revolt and you'll lose to pro-car people at the ballot box. Instead, figure out how to make Americans more enthusiastic about riding trains.
Some of this is psychological. Since Americans aren't used to riding trains, you have to figure out smart ways of getting them to think about changing their lifestyle. This is basically a form of marketing. (For me, this was living in Japan, but obviously that doesn't scale up.)
Some of it is about development. You have to allow dense development near train stations, so more people A) live near train stations, and B) can take the train to shop and eat out.
Protip for pundits: If someone with a smaller following than you calls you out with a bad-faith reading of something you wrote, don't respond. They're doing it for attention, trying to get you to give them free eyeballs by arguing with them.
Corollary: If someone with a much *bigger* following than you calls you out with a bad-faith reading, don't be afraid. They've just given you a freebie. Explain repeatedly why their bad-faith reading is incorrect, and you'll get free eyeballs. Remember to save screenshots.
Note that the first tip works whether or not you want more attention at all, and the second tip works even if you only want positive, healthy attention for saying good and reasonable things.