#ineffective and inefficient

[nice-bright-colors]

Fucking Friday Five.

I’ve got a 30 minute call at noon. Plus the small amount of work I need to get done means I might only work 1.5 - 2 hours today. If I can focus.

I’m starting to have to deal with people that are all “hurry up I need an answer”…or this one “any updates yet”. I’m all like “listen here fuck face”, and the other standard response of “it’s been two days, fuck off and check this box next week”. Corporate twats are a pain in my balls.

I really need to be more busy than I am. I end up getting lost in this monotony, and the circling indecision. Not to mention having to reschedule this call today 3 times this week, because schedules.

The fact this call doesn’t even need to happen is also pissing me way the fuck off. But no, we must pacify everyone and listen to everyone so we can circle the fucking drain on this for another fucking month.

I’m starting to get really tired of having to plot the course, steer the ship, clean up all the messes, and manage all the expectations, when I can’t tell people to fuck off and get out of my way. I was never really good at playing the role and corporate bullshit.

[vivipokedex]

You’re gonna want to glaze and/or nightshade your posts.

https://www.tumblr.com/salora-rainriver/743031690655596545/what-is-this-about-the-tumblr-staff-wanting-to

This is only rumors but

thanks for looking out for me!

thing is, a deal between midjourney and tumblr is unlikely and would be bad for midjourney. images on tumblr are already indexable, and likely already in datasets. going back to glaze/nightshade art youve already posted would be highly ineffective, as un-glazed versions already exist in reblogs and cant be edited or removed from the servers without doing a dmca takedown.

heres a good post about other issues with glaze and nightshade, that i think is a worthwhile read:

not as important but i (personally; its a contentious topic and i understand others feel differently) am not particularly invested in preventing generative models from learning from my art. if it was gonna ever happen, then its already happening, and im not bothered by it.

i was instead briefly worried about the future of this site, given the recent outbursts from the ceo and the likelihood of a "pissed off forum mod just shutting down the whole thing after a spat with the users" type outcome, but looks like we're in the clear :3 if anything were to change though: you know my patreon, i would be giving any relevant update over there

[voxiiferous]

**| Continuing from this post, Vox’s core motivation is always that self interest, and specifically, pride. He wants the eyes of the adoring public on him, and for his name to be on everyone’s tongue— and, most importantly, in a positive way. Valentino and Velvette may be more likely to subscribe to the idea that there’s no such thing as bad press, but for Vox, ‘bad press’ would have meant losing more than just some reputation, because those sort of allegations would have been more along the lines of ‘sodomite and communist’ (one of which was true).

And in many ways, as a result, he’s taking “absolute power corrupts absolutely” as a challenge. In life, when he was human, and had very little actual power, he got ahead through natural talent, lies, flattery, blackmail— advancing himself was the core goal. In comparison, in Hell where he does have quite a lot of actual power and influence, he doesn’t need to worry about charming corporate executives for a raise or a promotion or a chance to appear on screen in a position he wants, he gets to decide that.

Consequently, it’s also easier to toss money at things causing problems, and those problems tend to be larger and affect more people, the scale gets larger. Therefore to eliminate personal inconveniences he actually ends up doing more good as he’s given more power.

This serves the secondary benefit of making people like him and talk about him.

Relics of his previous behaviour remain however, and this can be seen most in his approach to royalty or the other Overlord with whom he tries to keep cordial relationships in case they ever come in use. He does still retain charm as a manipulation tactic, and lies easy as anything, but that tends to be more in his interpersonal relationships rather than large scale acts.

[jrd-jnn]

Activism is not terrorism, why are you afraid to face our voices? Or because only the dead are silent

And we are still alive to criticise your deficiencies.

[doctorwhoisadhd]

things i need to do by monday night:

run speech before my meeting tmrw

bibliography + add a mention of the army of ghosts soundtrack being the origin of the torchwood theme + maybe make a table of leitmotifs for the murray gold paper

ENTIRE ai paper (ugh) that i havent even started LOOKING at yet

1pg paper on the hs jazz band i saw yesterday (not technically due this weekend so that can be pushed back a bit maybe)

final conducting reflection (due 12:30 pm mon)

clean the rest of my aptmt (kitchen + table + papers all over my floor etc) before tuesday bc thats when snow gets here :)

[bolshevik-rpf]

i'm slowly reinventing the spinning wheel

[applespider]

Strong independent woman? More like pathetic dependent woman who’s flaws counter out any good qualities she has twice over. I’m still talking about Aqua. I love her so much. That’s something I really like about the Konosuba cast in general. Found family without the wholesome. They never leave the first town, they’re constantly in debt, everyone knows them as those weirdos who cause problems, but they kind of love each other anyway. They’re found family because they all suck so much they can’t survive without each other. They aren’tin a position to reject each other because of their weird or unlikeable qualities. They’re the same. You just kind of accept it. And isn’t that what family is?

I’m not wording this right, but they’re just such normal people. They like cool stuff even if it’s seen as cringe, they can’t help but blow their earnings on nice alcohol, they work a regular job because adventuring doesn’t really pay. They adjust to each other. Kazuma taking Megumin out to do her explosions, Aqua and Kazuma being the same fucking person, both irritating each other and understanding each other because of it. Kazuma not wanting to fight the demon king because it sounds like a lot of work. They accept each others weirdness out of necessity. That’smy type of found family.

[ace-of-drakes]

i absolutely despise the fact that humans aren’t telepathic like bitch what the fuck do you mean i can’t project this very specific feeling directly into your soul and i have to use words to communicate

[readitback]

I will admit that the back portion of the yard does not get mowed as often as it should. It's furthest away and a low priority in the summer heat when you and the mower are both out of fuel before the yard is done. Naturally this is the only portion that can be seen by the neighbors, who would probably appreciate not looking at our foot tall grass as a backdrop to their lovely yards.

The problem is that among these neighbors are several box turtles that love the long grass, which makes us too nervous to mow, which leads to the grass getting longer and longer as we ineffectively try alternatives like weed wacking and hand tools.

Today I finally attempted to tackle the grasslands (which our 140lb newfoundland can lie down in and disappear) with a method that involved pulling the mower backwards with one hand and digging through the grass with a stick with the other. It was physically difficult, slow, inefficient, and didn't leave the grass looking particularly good.

However, I became set in my ways when I saw 2 separate turtles scooting out of the way. They had the sense to move toward the short grass where I could see them, but I still stopped with about half the yard done just to give everyone's nerves a break (mine included).

Based on his demeanor he did not appreciate the care I was taking to look out for him, though I'd be mad too if someone stole my roof.

[lets-try-some-writing]

i love it when people apply the whole “humans are space orcs” idea to transformer humans.

jack, miko and raf just doing regular, average day things that make the bots both extremely worried and unsettled gives me so much brainrot.

I got you here. I love this kind of lore/reaction ask.

Each of the children have a particular habit that bothers the team more than anything else. Can it be explained? Not really. All humans do the things they do. But for the bots, it is strange and out of sorts all the same.

Miko always carries around a bottle of sparkling water. She adores the stuff. The team, despite knowing it is not what the name implies, are still horrified with her drinking habits. Not to mention, they can't help but wonder where all the liquid goes. She drinks up to three whole bottles of water a day. In her own words "Hydrate or die." That in it of itself is concerning since the team, while well aware that humans need water, do not know how much they need exactly. The team are down right terrified of her ability to down water like a dry sponge. How can such a small fleshy even consume that much? They aren't entirely sure. Not only that, but if she drinks that much, then are Jack and Rafael getting enough? They can't be.

Not only does Miko down water like a bone dry houseplant, she also drinks just about anything else too. The team have seen her chug sodas which contain Primus knows how many strange chemicals and compounds. They've observed her willingly drink things that no other would on bets, including food that has been blended and watered down just because Jack wanted to see if it was possible for her to down hotdog cafeteria milk cheeto apple slurry.

Yes the team are terrified of humans and their ability to put anything inside themselves and walk it off. But more than any other, they fear Miko. Who knows what she's consumed.

All the kids do it, but Jack is the most notable since when he needs to go to the restroom, he makes it loud and clear mainly so that someone knows to keep an eye on Miko. The team are aware that organics have a need to manually handle removing waste since their systems are rather inefficient, however there is a certain level of mysteriousness surrounding the restrooms. The bots don't want to watch or even know HOW the humans get rid of waste, but they do know that THINGS happen in the restroom that seem to either be painful, emotional, refreshing, or aggravating. No one can really be sure what reaction will follow those who enter the space. Sometimes Jack or one of the other kids will go in there seemingly to just be alone.

It is a strange and almost sacred location where strange happenings occur. Miko went in once with bloody clothes and emerged with a fresh set before Ratchet could figure out what was wrong in the first place. Jack went in once and came out an hour later looking like he'd gone to war after he convinced Arcee to let him stop and get takeout the night before. Rafael took his charger and computer in there and hogged the space for a while to get away from the others once. The team does not know what happens in there, but it is mildly concerning since it either repairs or breaks a person.

Bulkhead theorizes that its a pocket dimension like the shadow zone. Ratchet refuses to think about it. Optimus will say nothing about whatever he knows. Arcee and Bee assume its a safe haven or sorts and Wheeljack is almost certain they keep weapons in there. Ultra Magnus and Smokescreen both agree that the restroom is simply a quiet space where a human can deal with personal issues in peace.

No bot is willing to try and confirm anything since humans flip out at any attempts to view the supposedly sacred ground.

Rafael is generally pretty good about flying under the radar most of the time, but he has a habit that has caught the team's attention. Humans have been noted doing what they can to clean themselves on their own. Its rather ineffective to clean one's own venting openings with digits considering the sheer amount of germs involved, but it is not out of the question to do so when a cleaning cloth is not available. Rafael occasionally and quietly trying to clean his nose is not what bothers the team.

No what horrifies them is the goop that he pulls out after his attempt at cleaning. What Ratchet has studied states that the goop is referred to by a number names, but is commonly called snot. Its the natural germ catcher humans have, but it still unsettles the team whenever Rafael quietly blows a few or when one of the others grabs a tissue and makes a rather disgusting sound as they try to clear their airways.

The goop reminds the team of any number of horrible things. But the sheer amount of GROSS within a small amount of the stuff has left the team all gagging whenever they find the stuff around base. Rafael is usually good about being clean, but sometimes he gets lazy and will use his chair to hide his cleaning attempts. Bumblebee has almost purged a few times seeing the marks on the chair from where Rafael may or may not have wiped his fingers.

Is he twelve? Yes. Is he fully mature? No. That much is evident just by looking at his chair.

[whumpitisthen]

Whumpee waking up in a hospital or at home, restrained for their own safety.

Maybe they're sick, maybe they are tired and delirious, maybe just horribly thoroughly conditioned. They don't even sit up, just pull a little on the light restraints and look around wildly. They whimper with anxiety at their new surroundings. Maybe they are scared of unfamiliar places, or think they are still back with whumper.

Caretaker is quick to the rescue, yet ineffective and inefficient. No matter what they say, it's like whumpee doesn't even hear them. They just keep making themself smaller, freezing up, watching for threats, babbling and stuttering out words that make no sense.

They are so confused they start crying, and caretaker's heart breaks apart at the sight.

[fatehbaz]

"Industry" as a frame of meaning is [...] relevant from the beginning of [modern-era labor advocacy and the general practice of intentionally "taking it easy" or "slowing down" while at work in order to advocate for and take care of oneself] [...], a form of "working badly" [...]. This close link is understandable given the absolute focus on efficiency that marks management thinking - Taylorism [Frederick Taylor's time studies and his support for using stopwatches to micro-manage in the workplace], the Gilbreths' time and motion studies [...]. [W]e can feel that trace of disgust, a certain sneering affect [...]. The sneer gathers around the word "motionless," [...]. The promise of the “upstanding citizen” is posed against the figure of the cripple, etymologically bound to the one who creeps, who stays low, to the one who is not proud and erect and in public view. In this way, that figure - along with the hobbled, the mute, the blind, the mad, the deaf, the chronic, and, of course, the paralyzed - becomes the exemplary negative definition. [...] [T]he only culturally sanctioned options are to be hidden from public life or recuperated [...]. That [...] fantasy of [a] return to previous levels of mobility that aligns easily with ableist conceptions of normal function and health [...] is also grounded in the specific idea of a return to ["productivity"] [...].

We can find this dynamic in especially dramatic form in the influential work of early twentieth-century “scientific management” theorists Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, known both for their time and motion studies of labor processes [...]. [T]he Gilbreths are relentlessly devoted to the reduction of inefficiency in labor to save energy, reduce unnecessary fatigue, and, above all, neutralize the fundamental “waste” of effort and time hidden within every human movement, particularly when at work. According to Frank and Lillian, “there is no waste of any kind in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed, and ineffective motions, and their resulting unnecessary fatigue.” The battle against this “waste” gets posed as a civilizational battle stretching back across human history, only now conquerable with modern means, yet theirs is also a project with explicitly nationalist overtones that can be strategically couched to suit a war economy and a desire for American imperial hegemony.

---

The solution they propose is a total analytical dissection of labor processes, breaking single tasks into discrete parts to detect the little gaps in time that could be closed. Such minute lags and “micromotions” will necessarily get missed without the tools the Gilbreths turn to, like moving picture cameras - turned to face workers with chronometers in front of the lens and reticular grids on the wall behind for scale - and a “chronocyclegraph,” which allowed them to zoom in on a single gesture to see its tiny deviations and wasted movements frame by frame. In their methodology, delays and breakdowns take a form almost directly counter to simple malingering or the kind of willful self-stasis that Spargo denounced. Rather, what causes the inefficiency that the Gilbreths target is too much movement, an excess of animacy and motions that need not be done to complete a task, resulting in unnecessary fatigue and wasted opportunities for profit.

Yet at the heart of this, there is one figure seen to most embody this “wasted” energy and time in full - not in a specific action, badly choreographed task, or laziness, but in their entire being. This is what they designated as the “cripple,” [...].

---

“What,” the Gilbreths ask, “is to be done with these millions of cripples, when their injuries have been remedied as far as possible, and when they are obliged to become again a part of the working community?” [...] The “cripple” therefore emblematizes the waste of America’s “human resources” for the Gilbreths. It manifests a physical limit - the body that is conventionally seen to be unable to do productive work - but also a political one that they cannot even fathom, or at least allow publicly: the idea that anyone might challenge either the supposed utility of this frenzy of streamlined work or the very category of what constitutes “waste” itself. For the Gilbreths, the “elimination of waste” is not merely a project of capital. It is a civilization-scale undertaking that benefits all involved in the process: “All workers are sharing in the savings made possible by the elimination of waste.” [...]

It is not mere surveillance, increased policing, or something that openly oppresses and invites a revolt. Instead, it is a mode of management and control that seeks to saturate every step of the process, all the while insisting that what’s good for profit is good for those whose stolen time generates that profit.

---

All text above by: Evan Calder Williams. "On Paralysis, Part 3". e-flux Journal Issue #147. September 2024. Published online at: e-flux dot com slash journal/147/624989/on-paralysis-part-3/. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Text within brackets added by me for clarity/context. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[biceratops7]

Some nice and accurate things my phone has autocorrected “ineffable husbands” to:

Inefficient husbands

Ineffective husbands

Inevitable husbands

[arizonaconservativegal]

Do you hate the left because of wokeness and/or government ineffieciency? What can you say against the Biden Administration? Why should anyone listen to you?

I don't hate the left. I disagree with the left on most things. There's a very big difference.

Very much not a fan of government ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Spent four years working inside the system and saw firsthand how much it screws over the people it's supposed to help. I have a very hard time seeing how I'm supposed to support a system like that. 'Wokeness' is just annoying for the most part, except where it contributes to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency.

Biden's admin has been largely ineffective or downright damaging on pretty much everything I care about and has made us a joke on the world stage and they think they can distract us with shiny meaningless things like flying the lgbt flag outside the White House. Not sure what that accomplished but I wasn't distracted.

Listen to me for the same reason you'd listen to anyone with an opinion that isn't yours - to understand what the other side is thinking, to spot and fix the pitfalls in your own ideas before they become a downfall, and to understand yourself better. I read and listen to things I disagree with all the time. I've completely changed my mind a few times because of it and I've shifted my thinking a lot of times. Even if I eventually reach the same conclusion I had at the start, it's good to come at the problem from a different angle and consider new information and work it through my core beliefs to see if my conclusion holds up. It's like one of those math problems you can solve multiple ways to check yourself - if I get a different answer, I probably need to check again.

And if you do agree with me, well, I guess listen for the occasional bit of insider knowledge or just pure entertainment. Or don't. I don't really care that much. I just would like it if you stopped saying stupid shit that makes the rest of look like fools.

[unaffiliatedpangolin]

The idea that everyone should pay their fair share in taxes for the common benefit of everyone would be a much more compelling argument if the government actually used tax dollars for things that helped US citizens right now.

Maybe when the government stops wasting money on foreign aid, wars that mean nothing, corporate welfare, subsidizing things nobody wants, ineffective and inefficient government programs, straight up corruption, government agencies that exist to curtail civil liberties, making the homeless crisis worse, and welfare for illegals, we can have a conversation about how taxes can be used to help people.

Obviously they don’t spend money effectively as it is and you think they should take more of our money?

If you gave a homeless guy $50 and told him to buy food, but instead he bought $25 of food and $25 of drugs is the solution to give him $100 in the hopes he buys $50 of food? That’s what people demanding tax increases are asking for.

[probablyasocialecologist]

In 2012, Dutch teenager Boyan Slat presented a TED Talk on his concept for cleaning up the ocean with simple mechanisms to sweep up all the trash. While scientists and plastics experts cautioned that his ideas were ineffective, Slat’s non-profit the Ocean Cleanup, founded the year after his talk went viral, has gained millions of followers and big-name backers, including Salesforce, Maersk, KIA, and PayPal’s Peter Thiel. But the venture had one major problem: its first two designs didn’t work, despite the group burning through tens of millions of dollars over the course of a decade. The Ocean Cleanup has since pivoted to work with upstream river “interceptors” that are much more efficient at capturing garbage, but its website still prominently features its latest ocean debris “solution”—essentially a trawl fishing net dragged between two boats that has, to date, collected a comparatively miniscule amount of trash. Tech projects like these are more of a curse than a blessing. Even if the Ocean Cleanup one day somehow beats the insurmountable odds and removes all surface-level traces of plastic marine pollution, it’d still be missing the vast majority of waste that sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor, or breaks up into tiny microplastics. While companies like these bring increased attention to the plastics crisis, they’re ultimately flashy gimmicks that lull our public consciousness into thinking a clever gadget can solve a collective-action problem. These projects also allow consumer brands—like Coca-Cola, an official “Global Implementation Partner” of Slat’s group—to greenwash their continued massive plastic production, while lobbying behind-the-scenes against regulations that would actually help the world break its plastic addiction.  “We now know that we can’t start to reduce plastic pollution without a reduction of production,” environmental scientists Imari Walker-Franklin and Jenna Jambeck write in the introduction to their forthcoming study, Plastics. To meaningfully address this crisis and others like it, we need to look upstream, invest in reuse infrastructure, and mandate biodegradable packaging and high material recyclability. At a minimum, we need to start making producers bear the cost for the collection and disposal of their poorly designed goods.