#reasons startups fail

[lady-sanguis]

Another week, another sunday-monday night that I don't sleep...

Maybe really should get a job somewhere where I don't dread going on a monday :|

[sagasolejma]

I think the reason so many of those right-leaning tech startups and apps and websites keep failing over and over is because the moment you cut yourself off from trans people and furries, you essentially remove like 86% of the world's strongest programming workforce from your selection pool

[patricia-taxxon]

When I was a teenager, I had this idea for a movie that could never be made. Basically it'd be a small scale story about a girl who lives in a fantasy village, with a small scale conflict that ends with the main character failing and being banished for whatever reason. However, this would only encompass the first 40 minutes or so of the film, it would continue for much longer after that, showing the further adventures of this girl as she wanders aimlessly coming across new dangers and conflicts in an episodic manner. But then even this would begin to dissipate, the conflicts being solved by running away, or hiding, or just getting lost someplace else. Hours and hours would come to pass of almost nothing happening, just following this character wandering through increasingly abstract terrain.

I envisioned it as a representation of what long movies felt like to me when I was very young, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was so long I could barely hold the ending and the beginning in the same place in my head. I remembered skipping to the end and feeling like I was out in space, someplace I could never have gotten by just watching the movie all the way through. This visceral sense of scale is harder to come by as an adult who knows how long days are. I've experienced it a couple times though, like skipping halfway into that video of the windows 7 startup sound stretched to 24 hours and realizing the remaining half-day of sound was literally just the jingle's reverb tail echoing slowly into the distance, skipping halfway through that 6 hour flat earth documentary and seeing footage of the guy just idly panning through an image of stars & feeling like I was stranded in the middle of the arctic ocean, discovering Bull of Heaven for the first time, etc. It's a very precious sensation that I cherish every time I get to experience it, a multi hour project that feels immense even in its isolated parts.

so then i made techdog.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

No, “convenience” isn’t the problem

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in CHICAGO (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn't make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn't enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices.

Remember, the reason these corporations were able to capture such substantial market-share is that the capital markets saw them as a bet that they could lose money for years, drive out competition, capture their markets, and then raise prices and abuse their workers and suppliers without fear of reprisal. Investors were chasing monopoly power, that is, companies that are too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to care:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

The tactics that let a few startups into Big Tech are illegal under existing antitrust laws. It's illegal for large corporations to buy up smaller ones before they can grow to challenge their dominance. It's illegal for dominant companies to merge with each other. "Predatory pricing" (selling goods or services below cost to prevent competitors from entering the market, or to drive out existing competitors) is also illegal. It's illegal for a big business to use its power to bargain for preferential discounts from its suppliers. Large companies aren't allowed to collude to fix prices or payments.

But under successive administrations, from Jimmy Carter through to Donald Trump, corporations routinely broke these laws. They explicitly and implicitly colluded to keep those laws from being enforced, driving smaller businesses into the ground. Now, sociopaths are just as capable of starting small companies as they are of running monopolies, but that one store that's run by a colossal asshole isn't the threat to your wellbeing that, say, Walmart or Amazon is.

All of this took place against a backdrop of stagnating wages and skyrocketing housing, health, and education costs. In other words, even as the cost of operating a small business was going up (when Amazon gets a preferential discount from a key supplier, that supplier needs to make up the difference by gouging smaller, weaker retailers), Americans' disposable income was falling.

So long as the capital markets were willing to continue funding loss-making future monopolists, your neighbors were going to make the choice to shop "the wrong way." As small, local businesses lost those customers, the costs they had to charge to make up the difference would go up, making it harder and harder for you to afford to shop "the right way."

In other words: by allowing corporations to flout antimonopoly laws, we set the stage for monopolies. The fault lay with regulators and the corporate leaders and finance barons who captured them – not with "consumers" who made the wrong choices. What's more, as the biggest businesses' monopoly power grew, your ability to choose grew ever narrower: once every mom-and-pop restaurant in your area fires their delivery drivers and switches to Doordash, your choice to order delivery from a place that payrolls its drivers goes away.

Monopolists don't just have the advantage of nearly unlimited access to the capital markets – they also enjoy the easy coordination that comes from participating in a cartel. It's easy for five giant corporations to form conspiracies because five CEOs can fit around a single table, which means that some day, they will:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

By contrast, "consumers" are atomized – there are millions of us, we don't know each other, and we struggle to agree on a course of action and stick to it. For "consumers" to make a difference, we have to form institutions, like co-ops or buying clubs, or embark on coordinated campaigns, like boycotts. Both of these tactics have their place, but they are weak when compared to monopoly power.

Luckily, we're not just "consumers." We're also citizens who can exercise political power. That's hard work – but so is organizing a co-op or a boycott. The difference is, when we dog enforcers who wield the power of the state, and line up behind them when they start to do their jobs, we can make deep structural differences that go far beyond anything we can make happen as consumers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

We're not just "consumers" or "citizens" – we're also workers, and when workers come together in unions, they, too, can concentrate the diffuse, atomized power of the individual into a single, powerful entity that can hold the forces of capital in check:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

And all of these things work together; when regulators do their jobs, they protect workers who are unionizing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

And strong labor power can force cartels to abandon their plans to rig the market so that every consumer choice makes them more powerful:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

And when consumers can choose better, local, more ethical businesses at competitive rates, those choices can make a difference:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/10/view-a-sku/

Antimonopoly policy is the foundation for all forms of people-power. The very instant corporations become too big to fail, jail or care is the instant that "voting with your wallet" becomes a waste of time.

Sure, choose that small local grocery, but everything on their shelves is going to come from the consumer packaged-goods duopoly of Procter and Gamble and Unilever. Sure, hunt down that local brand of potato chips that you love instead of P&G or Unilever's brand, but if they become successful, either P&G or Unilever will buy them out, and issue a press release trumpeting the purchase, saying "We bought out this beloved independent brand and added it to our portfolio because we know that consumers value choice."

If you're going to devote yourself to solving the collective action problem to make people-power work against corporations, spend your precious time wisely. As Zephyr Teachout writes in Break 'Em Up, don't miss the protest march outside the Amazon warehouse because you spent two hours driving around looking for an independent stationery so you could buy the markers and cardboard to make your anti-Amazon sign without shopping on Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

When blame corporate power on "laziness," we buy into the corporations' own story about how they came to dominate our lives: we just prefer them. This is how Google explains away its 90% market-share in search: we just chose Google. But we didn't, not really – Google spends tens of billions of dollars every single year buying up the search-box on every website, phone, and operating system:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Blaming "laziness" for corporate dominance also buys into the monopolists' claim that the only way to have convenient, easy-to-use services is to cede power to them. Facebook claims it's literally impossible for you to carry on social relations with the people that matter to you without also letting them spy on you. When we criticize people for wanting to hang out online with the people they love, we send the message that they need to choose loneliness and isolation, or they will be complicit in monopoly.

The problem with Google isn't that it lets you find things. The problem with Facebook isn't that it lets you talk to your friends. The problem with Uber isn't that it gets you from one place to another without having to stand on a corner waving your arm in the air. The problem with Amazon isn't that it makes it easy to locate a wide variety of products. We should stop telling people that they're wrong to want these things, because a) these things are good; and b) these things can be separated from the monopoly power of these corporate bullies:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/divisibility/#technognosticism

Remember the Napster Wars? The music labels had screwed over musicians and fans. 80 percent of all recorded music wasn't offered for sale, and the labels cooked the books to make it effectively impossible for musicians to earn out their advances. Napster didn't solve all of that (though they did offer $15/user/month to the labels for a license to their catalogs), but there were many ways in which it was vastly superior to the system it replaced.

The record labels responded by suing tens of thousands of people, mostly kids, but also dead people and babies and lots of other people. They demanded an end to online anonymity and a system of universal surveillance. They wanted every online space to algorithmically monitor everything a user posted and delete anything that might be a copyright infringement.

These were the problems with the music cartel: they suppressed the availability of music, screwed over musicians, carried on a campaign of indiscriminate legal terror, and lobbied effectively for a system of ubiquitous, far-reaching digital surveillance and control:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/nonbinary-families/#red-envelopes

You know what wasn't a problem with the record labels? The music. The music was fine. Great, even.

But some of the people who were outraged with the labels' outrageous actions decided the problem was the music. Their answer wasn't to merely demand better copyright laws or fairer treatment for musicians, but to demand that music fans stop listening to music from the labels. Somehow, they thought they could build a popular movement that you could only join by swearing off popular music.

That didn't work. It can't work. A popular movement that you can only join by boycotting popular music will always be unpopular. It's bad tactics.

When we blame "laziness" for tech monopolies, we send the message that our friends have to choose between life's joys and comforts, and a fair economic system that doesn't corrupt our politics, screw over workers, and destroy small, local businesses. This isn't true. It's a lie that monopolists tell to justify their abuse. When we repeat it, we do monopolists' work for them – and we chase away the people we need to recruit for the meaningful struggles to build worker power and political power.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/give-me-convenience/#or-give-me-death

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[todays-problematic-ship]

Today's Problematic Ship is the Satoshi

The Satoshi was a cruise ship owned by Ocean Builders, a company dedicated to "seasteading," an attempt to create a seabourne community free of laws imposed on dry land, with strong ties to the cryptocurrency movement.

The 1991-built ship, originally named Regal Princess but renamed Pacific Dawn in 2007, was purchased by Ocean Builders in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The idea was to permanently anchor the ship in Panamian waters, as the central hub of an eventual community of "SeaPods", essentially individual houses at sea, which would be arranged around the Satoshi in the form of a Bitcoin B.

It quickly became evident that the people running Ocean Builders had no understanding of how to operate a ship: they initially failed to ensure their ship had certificate of seaworthiness to allow it to sail to Panama (where the venture was to be based), and even after this no-one was willing to insure the ship, making it impossible for passengers to live onboard. They also planned to re-engine the ship while it was out at sea, a physically impossible task to accomplish without sinking the ship in the process.

The leadership of Ocean Builders blamed all this on shipping being "plagued by over-regulation." (Many of our entries here at Today's Problematic Ship demonstrate those regulations exist for a reason). The end result was predictable: by the time the Satoshi arrived in Panama it had been sold to an Indian shipbreaker.

Except Ocean Builders had signed a contract they could not honour: according to the Basel Convention, which covers the disposal of hazardous waste, they weren’t allowed to send the ship from a signatory country (Panama) to a non-signatory country (India). Thus the sale was cancelled, and subsequently the ship was arrested by Panamian authorities.

Eventually, the Satoshi was sold in 2021 a different startup company, Ambassador Cruise Line. The new venture, who actually knew how to operate a cruise ship, started successful operations with the former Satoshi, now renamed Ambience, in 2022.

The Guardian has a detailed article about the saga of the Satoshi and the seasteading movement.

[theambitiouswoman]

hiya, please can we also have ted talk recommendations like your book recs post? :) for the categories you mentioned ♡ thank you

Here you go angel ♡

Business:

The Single Biggest Reason Why Startups Succeed - Bill Gross

The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers - Adam Grant

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - David Allen

How to Pitch to a VC - David S. Rose

The Future of Money - Neha Narula

Personal Development:

The Art of Being Yourself - Caroline McHugh

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Lee Duckworth

The Power of Believing That You Can Improve - Carol Dweck

How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over - Mel Robbins

Try Something New for 30 Days - Matt Cutts

Mental Health:

The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage - Susan David

Why We All Need to Practice Emotional First Aid - Guy Winch

Depression, the Secret We Share - Andrew Solomon

All it Takes is 10 Mindful Minutes - Andy Puddicombe

The Art of Stillness - Pico Iyer

Relationships:

The Secret to Desire in a Long-Term Relationship - Esther Perel

The Power of Vulnerability in Relationships - Tracy McMillan

Rethinking Infidelity... a Talk for Anyone Who Has Ever Loved - Esther Perel

The Mathematics of Love - Hannah Fry

The Hidden Influence of Social Networks - Nicholas Christakis

Success:

The Happy Secret to Better Work - Shawn Achor

Embrace the Near Win - Sarah Lewis

Why We Do What We Do - Tony Robbins

Keep Your Goals to Yourself - Derek Sivers

Why You Will Fail to Have a Great Career - Larry Smith

Goals:

The Power of Setting Goals - John Doerr

The Puzzle of Motivation - Dan Pink

Smash Fear, Learn Anything - Tim Ferriss

Why We Do What We Do - Tony Robbins

The Skill of Self-Confidence - Dr. Ivan Joseph

Self Love:

The Art of Being Yourself - Caroline McHugh

The Power of Vulnerability - Brené Brown

Your Elusive Creative Genius - Elizabeth Gilbert

The Psychology of Your Future Self - Dan Gilbert

The Surprising Science of Happiness - Dan Gilbert

Confidence:

Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are - Amy Cuddy

The Art of Self-Confidence - Dr. Ivan Joseph

Dare to Lead - Brené Brown

The Hidden Influence of Social Networks - Nicholas Christakis

The Confidence Gap - Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

Health & Wellness:

The Brain-Changing Benefits of Exercise - Wendy Suzuki

How to Make Stress Your Friend - Kelly McGonigal

The Science of Cells That Never Get Old - Elizabeth Blackburn

Why Dieting Doesn't Usually Work - Sandra Aamodt

The Art of Stillness - Pico Iyer

[beesmygod]

perhaps foolishly throwing my hat in the ring here about cohost developers making 90k/yr (as someone who used cohost for like five minutes but does work in software. although I'm not even close to making SWE-level money lol): depending on your stack, experience, location, other benefits, etc., that's genuinely in the bottom twentieth percentile for engineer salaries at your average startup, if not lower. especially for a "founding engineer who does literally everything"-type role. idk how much experience these people have or what their stack is, but just to guess, at your average seni-marture startup they could easily double that salary, and at a big FAANG company or whatever stupid acronym we're using now they could probably quadruple that, plus or minus whatever part of your comp package is stock instead of actual salary.

there are a couple interesting/relevant reasons I bring this up: (1) at really really early-stage startups, where you only have four guys and a couple hundred grand in the bank, having bottom-twentieth-percentile salaries is normal *because they make up for it by giving you a shitload stock options that will theoretically be worth a lot in the future*, if things ever take off, although of course they rarely do. in cohost's case, it doesn't seem like stocks and shit were part of their long-term plans (which, fair enough, not trying to say they should've been), so in theory the cohost devs were making a lottt less than your average early-stage startup devs, even though overall comp at an early-stage startup is mostly monopoly money.

(2) the other thing is that if the pay is uncompetitive, which it obviously was, then attracting worthwhile talent is really hard. again, idk these devs, they could all genuinely be very good at their jobs. and cohost was clearly a passion project for them. but it makes me wonder if *some* (not all) of their problems stemmed from technical or even positioning/market issues that having more people or more experienced people would've solved, and they just weren't able to hire them. especially since they were doing design work and moderation and other shit in addition to plain old engineering!

I guess my angle here is that unless you see how the sausage is made, it's really really easy to underestimate just how much money (and human labor!) it takes to build anything, and that most projects only manage to pull it off for as long as they do thanks to a near-bottomless supply of venture capital funding. even not-for-profit community projects (which I was considering whether something like cohost could survive as, but even then I'm unsure) rely on corporate sponsorship and free labor from people who are getting paid a lot of money at their day job. so like many of you I am not at all shocked that they're folding—easy to say in hindsight but I definitely say this coming, although maybe not so quickly lol.

but like, even most VC-funded startups fail despite having way better odds and a shitload more money. legit kudos to them for trying anyway, because the only way we get cool shit is if someone's willing to take a risk and maybe fail. that said as a *user* there's still no way I'd hitch my wagon to a fledgling startup unless I was totally okay with that wagon falling into a gulch within 24 months, because that's usually what happens

interesting insight. thanks boss. much to learn about this world that, as an outsider, seems uniquely annoying and stupid to try to navigate

[ralfmaximus]

Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company building tube-encased lines to zip passengers and freight from city to city at airplane-like speeds, is shutting down, according to people familiar with the situation.

Once a high-profile startup, Hyperloop One raised more than $450 million since its founding in 2014, according to PitchBook. It built a small test track near Las Vegas to develop its transportation technology, and for a time took the name Virgin Hyperloop One after Richard Branson’s Virgin invested. Virgin removed its branding after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people.

Buried halfway through: it's another failed Elon Musk venture.

Not mentioned at all: the only reason Musk proposed Hyperloop was to thwart California's high-speed rail initiative and sell more cars. You see, his alternative technology of shooting supersonic capsules through evacuated vacuum tubes would be so much better than stinky old trains.

The only problem?

None of the technology exists. All the prototypes sucked. Even after ten years and a half billion dollars.

One "prototype" is literally a one-lane concrete tunnel allowing a single Tesla automobile to travel at astonishing speeds up to 107 MPH. Technically you can drive faster than that on most american highways.

Also that's 50-100 MPH slower than the high speed rail California wanted to implement a decade ago.

And now the whole venture is quietly going away.

Unpaywalled version here.

[libraford]

The good news is that he found a different job and next week is his last week and I only have to work with him 2 more times and only one of those times will I be alone.

Tech talk and rant below.

But in my opinion, we should have fired him earlier on because two weeks into the season he was unclear of what any of the equipment apart from the camera actually did.

The camera takes the picture.

The lights light the subject.

The computer matches the subject to the picture.

The transmitter connects the camera to the lights wirelessly, so that when you take the picture the lights flash automatically.

The sync cord connects the camera to the computer so that the image is displayed on the screen.

The skyport connects the lights to the computer so that they automatically adjust.

Its just all the electronics going through a circular systems check to make sure they are firing properly and matching it up against our white balance test. I know it sounds complicated, but its literally just a circle.

I understand that this can be complicated for someone who is used to 'click button, get picture.' But having the same problems over and over again because he doesn't understand the proper procedure and doesn't look at the checklist that he swears he never received even though I gave him my laminated copy and having to fix all of the problems that are literally because he didn't respect me enough to listen when I explained it to him cuts into the time that could be spent getting ready.

Now we are a month and a half in and on Tuesday he asked me what the skyport does.

If your skyport fails, you have to adjust your lights manually.

Therefore... skyport makes the computer talk to your lights.

And every time something fails, he says 'this would be so much easier without computers' and I'm like. Fine. Okay? Try to match 900 student names to photos without a computerized indexing system. Try getting the light to be consistent without a startup exposure test.

No sense of troubleshooting, which isn't very difficult. If something isn't right, restart the computer and try again. If you get a repeat of the problem, call Freddie from IT. But usually, a reboot fixes most problems.

But then he started breaking the rules, and in a very intentional way. Like at first it was 'oh I didn't know I wasn't supposed to show them the photo' even though we went over this in training. Then it was 'well, I'm not supposed to show you the photo but if you come back here while I'm adjusting my lights I can't stop you.'

At first it was 'hey, Jay, remember what Freddie said about the no-touch policy during training? I know you want to make the kids like you, but its very unprofessional to ask them for a high five, especially since these schools are very strict about their own no-touch policies and also did we not just go through a wholeass pandemic?'

And now students are complaining about him physically adjusting their posture with his hands.

Like... I don't mind bending the rules a little. But before you can bend the rules, you have to understand why the rules are there, so that when they are bent there is a good reason. The rule about showing photos is there to make workflow consistent. The no touch rule is for the safety of ourselves and the students.

But breaking the rules constantly just out of disrespect means that I can't bend them myself. I have to be a hardass. I hate being a hardass. But if I'm not a hardass and someone tells me that he's violating our no-touch policy, the company gets in deep trouble.

Not that he'll ever... ever follow my advice on the subject because as previously mentioned- he respects no one here. He has 15 years experience as a photographer and is too good for this place. Why would he listen to someone under 40 with three years experience dealing with schools?

His pictures aren't even very good. They're average.

Just two more jobs with him and then he's off to do something else and gods I hope he's better at that than he is a school photographer.

[delta-orionis]

Tuesday Again No Problem 10/29/24

Happy almost-Halloween Tuesdaypost!

Listening

This was a podcast-heavy week. Mostly relistens to old podcast episodes I like, but this recent episode of Trashfuture was pretty good too. I like the episodes where they revisit old stupid tech startups that they discussed years ago.

Not much to say about this episode, so I'll give you some out-of-context quotes.

Watching

Revisiting one of BobbyBroccoli's video essays. I like his videos but I bounced off of this one for some reason, I never ended up finishing it. But I'm trying to give it another shot, so I can have something to listen to while I crochet (more on that in the making section).

Playing

I have been trying (and failing) to fix my TSAC mod that uses Iteratorkit. I got desperate enough that I downloaded Microsoft Visual Studio so I can try to identify which part of the Iteratorkit mod is causing the bugs, but I'm aware that this is probably a fool's errand. I know this isn't technically playing but I didn't really play video games aside from having Rain World open in the background while I troubleshooted mods, so I'll count it.

Making

I started crocheting again, this time I'm making a shawl. This is the result of about four days of work, mostly completed while I had downtime at work. (This weekend at work was... weird. Very weird vibes. But I had a lot of time to crochet, so I guess that's good)

I am attempting to use up some of my yarn stash, because I unfortunately have Too Much Yarn. I'm planning on saving this to gift to a family member for Christmas.

I've also been working on more ask blog answers! I am trying to space out my posts more evenly by putting them in my queue, which unfortunately means some of my art won't get posted for another week or so. But I'll give an early peek at it here.

Right now I have posts scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays. I still have a significant backlog to work through (which is the opposite of a problem), so the queue will probably continue like that for at least a few more weeks.

---

In other news: My birthday (Nov 3rd) is next week!! Yay!!! I don't have anything super crazy planned, but if fun stuff does happen I'll try to mention it in the next Tuesdaypost. At the very least Daylight Savings is giving me an extra hour of sleep as a birthday gift.

Thanks for reading, see you next week.

[mariacallous]

Some 50 miles southwest of Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, and strategically located close to a cluster of the island’s top universities, the 3,500-acre Hsinchu Science Park is globally celebrated as the incubator of Taiwan’s most successful technology companies. It opened in 1980, the government having acquired the land and cleared the rice fields,with the aim of creating a technology hub that would combine advanced research and industrial production.

Today Taiwan’s science parks house more than 1,100 companies, employ 321,000 people, and generate $127 billion in annual revenue. Along the way, Hsinchu Science Park’s Industrial Technology Research Institute has given birth to startups that have grown into world leaders. One of them, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), produces at least 90 percent of the world’s most advanced computer chips. Collectively, Taiwan’s companies hold a 68 percent market share of all global chip production.

It is a spectacular success. But it has also created a problem that could threaten the future prosperity of both the sector and the island. As the age of energy-hungry artificial intelligence dawns, Taiwan is facing a multifaceted energy crisis: It depends heavily on imported fossil fuels, it has ambitious clean energy targets that it is failing to meet, and it can barely keep up with current demand. Addressing this problem, government critics say, is growing increasingly urgent.

Taiwan’s more than 23 million people consume nearly as much energy per capita as US consumers, but the lion’s share of that consumption—56 percent—goes to Taiwan’s industrial sector for companies like TSMC. In fact, TSMC alone uses around 9 percent of Taiwan’s electricity. One estimate by Greenpeace has suggested that by 2030 Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing industry will consume twice as much electricity as did the whole of New Zealand in 2021. The bulk of that enormous energy demand, about 82 percent, the report suggests, will come from TSMC.

Taiwan’s government is banking on the continuing success of its technology sector and wants the island to be a leader in AI. But just one small data center, the Vantage 16-megawatt data center in Taipei, is expected to require as much energy as some 13,000 households. Nicholas Chen, a lawyer who analyzes Taiwan’s climate and energy policies, warns that the collision of Taiwan’s commitments to the clean energy transition and its position in global supply chains as a key partner of multinational companies that have made commitments to net-zero deadlines—along with the explosive growth in demand—has all the makings of a crisis.

“In order to plan and operate AI data centers, an adequate supply of stable, zero-carbon energy is a precondition,” he said. “AI data centers cannot exist without sufficient green energy. Taiwan is the only government talking about AI data center rollout without regard to the lack of green energy.”

It is not just a case of building more capacity. Taiwan’s energy dilemma is a combination of national security, climate, and political challenges. The island depends on imported fossil fuel for around 90 percent of its energy and lives under the growing threat of blockade, quarantine, or invasion from China. In addition, for political reasons, the government has pledged to close its nuclear sector by 2025.

Taiwan regularly attends UN climate meetings, though never as a participant. Excluded at China’s insistence from membership in the United Nations, Taiwan asserts its presence on the margins, convening side events and adopting the Paris Agreement targets of peak emissions before 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. Its major companies, TSMC included, have signed up to RE100, a corporate renewable-energy initiative, and pledged to achieve net-zero production. But right now, there is a wide gap between aspiration and performance.

Angelica Oung, a journalist and founder of the Clean Energy Transition Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for a rapid energy transition, has studied Taiwan’s energy sector for years. When we met in a restaurant in Taipei, she cheerfully ordered an implausibly large number of dishes that crowded onto the small table as we talked. Oung described two major blackouts—one in 2021 that affected TSMC and 6.2 million households for five hours, and one in 2022 that affected 5.5 million households. It is a sign, she says, of an energy system running perilously close to the edge.

Nicholas Chen argues that government is failing to keep up even with existing demand. “In the past eight years there have been four major power outages,” he said, and “brownouts are commonplace.”

The operating margin on the grid—the buffer between supply and demand—ought to be 25 percent in a secure system. In Taiwan, Oung explained, there have been several occasions this year when the margin was down to 5 percent. “It shows that the system is fragile,” she said.

Taiwan’s current energy mix illustrates the scale of the challenge: Last year, Taiwan’s power sector was 83 percent dependent on fossil fuel: Coal accounted for around 42 percent of generation, natural gas 40 percent, and oil 1 percent. Nuclear supplied 6 percent, and solar, wind, hydro, and biomass together nearly 10 percent, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Taiwan’s fossil fuels are imported by sea, which leaves the island at the mercy both of international price fluctuations and potential blockade by China. The government has sought to shield consumers from rising global prices, but that has resulted in growing debt for the Taiwan Electric Power Company (Taipower), the national provider. In the event of a naval blockade by China, Taiwan could count on about six weeks reserves of coal but not much more than a week of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Given that LNG supplies more than a third of electricity generation, the impact would be severe.

The government has announced ambitious energy targets. The 2050 net-zero road map released by Taiwan’s National Development Council in 2022 promised to shut down its nuclear sector by 2025. By the same year, the share of coal would have to come down to 30 percent, gas would have to rise to 50 percent, and renewables would have to leap to 20 percent. None of those targets is on track.

Progress on renewables has been slow for a number of reasons, according to Oung. “The problem with solar in Taiwan is that we don’t have a big area. We have the same population as Australia and use the same amount of electricity, but we are only half the size of Tasmania, and 79 percent of Taiwan is mountainous, so land acquisition is difficult.” Rooftop solar is expensive, and roof space is sometimes needed for other things, such as helicopter pads, public utilities, or water tanks.

According to Peter Kurz, a consultant to the technology sector and a long-term resident of Taiwan, there is one renewable resource that the nation has in abundance. “The Taiwan Strait has a huge wind resource,” he said. “It is the most wind power anywhere in the world available close to a population.”

Offshore wind is under development, but the government is criticized for imposing burdensome requirements to use Taiwanese products and workers that the country is not well equipped to meet. They reflect the government’s ambition to build a native industry at the same time as addressing its energy problem. But critics point out that Taiwan lacks the specialist industrial skills that producing turbines demands, and the requirements lead to higher costs and delays.

Despite the attraction of Taiwan’s west coast with its relatively shallow waters, there are other constraints, such as limited harbor space. There is also another concern that is unique to Taiwan’s geography: The west side of the island faces China, and there are continuing incursions into Taiwan’s territorial waters from China’s coast guard and navy vessels. Offshore wind turbines are within easy rocket and missile range from China, and undersea energy cables are highly vulnerable.

Government critics regard one current policy as needless self-harm: the pledge to shut down Taiwan’s remaining nuclear reactor by next year and achieve a “nuclear free homeland.” It is a pledge made by the current ruling party, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), and as the deadline approaches, it is a policy increasingly being questioned. Taiwan’s civil nuclear program was started under the military dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT party with half an eye on developing a nuclear weapons program. Taiwan built its first experimental facility in the 1950s and opened its first power plant in 1978. The DPP came into existence in 1986, the year of the Chernobyl disaster, and its decision to adopt a no-nuclear policy was reinforced by the Fukushima disaster in neighboring Japan in 2011.

“I think the DPP see nuclear energy as a symbol of authoritarianism,” said Oung, “so they oppose it.”

Of Taiwan’s six nuclear reactors, three are now shut down, two have not been brought online, and the one functioning unit is due to close next year. The shuttered reactors have not yet been decommissioned, possibly because, in addition to its other difficulties, Taiwan has run out of waste storage capacity: The fuel rods remain in place because there is nowhere else to put them. As some observers see it, politics have got in the way of common sense: In 2018, a majority opposed the nuclear shutdown in a referendum, but the government continues to insist that its policy will not change. Voters added to the confusion in 2021 when they opposed the completion of the two uncommissioned plants.

On the 13th floor of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taipei, the deputy director general of Taiwan’s energy administration, Stephen Wu, chose his words carefully. “There is a debate going on in our parliament,” he said, “because the public has demanded a reduction of nuclear power and also a reduction in carbon emissions. So there is some discussion about whether the [shuttered] nuclear plants will somehow function again when conditions are ready.”

Wu acknowledged that Taiwan was nudging against the limits of its current supply and that new entrants to Taiwan’s science and technology parks have to be carefully screened for their energy needs. But he took an optimistic view of Taiwan’s capacity to sustain AI development. “We assess energy consumption of companies to ensure the development of these companies complies with environmental protection,” he said. “In Singapore, data centers are highly efficient. We will learn from Singapore.”

Critics of the government’s energy policy are not reassured. Chen has an alarming message: If Taiwan does not radically accelerate its clean energy development, he warns, companies will be obliged to leave the island. They will seek zero-carbon operating environments to comply with the net-zero requirements of partners such as Amazon, Meta, and Google, and to avoid carbon-based trade barriers such as the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

“Wind and solar are not scalable sources of zero-carbon energy,” he said. “Nuclear energy is the only scalable, zero-carbon source of energy. But the current laws state that foreign investment in nuclear energy must be capped at 50 percent, with the remaining 50 percent owned by Taipower. Given that Taipower is broke, how could a private investor want to partner with them and invest in Taiwan?”

Chen argues that Taiwan should encourage private nuclear development and avoid the burdensome regulation that, he says, is hampering wind development.

For Kurz, Taiwan’s energy security dilemma requires an imaginative leap. “Cables [carrying offshore wind energy] are vulnerable but replaceable,” he says. “Centralized nuclear is vulnerable to other risks, such as earthquakes.” One solution, he believes, lies in small modular nuclear reactors that could even be moored offshore and linked with undersea cables. It is a solution that he believes the Taiwan’s ruling party might come around to.

There is a further security question to add to Taiwan’s complex challenges. The island’s circumstances are unique: It is a functioning democracy, a technological powerhouse, and a de facto independent country that China regards as a breakaway province to be recovered—if necessary, by force. The fact that its technology industry is essential for global production of everything from electric vehicles to ballistic missiles has counted as a security plus for Taiwan in its increasingly tense standoff with China. It is not in the interest of China or the United States to see semiconductor manufacturers damaged or destroyed. Such companies, in security jargon, are collectively labelled Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” a shield the government is keen to maintain. That the sector depends inescapably on Taiwan’s energy security renders the search for a solution all the more urgent.

[revivepages]

REVIVEPAGES original plot outline

the entire plot of the game has changed but a lot of elements have stuck. (revivepages startup does the same things, the founders have still gone missing, etc.) nothing described here will be in the actual game, however.

human 1 (who would eventually become redlight)

human 2 (who would eventually become SPOILERS)

revived 1 (who would eventually become transmitter)

revived 2 (who would eventually become SPOILERS)

set in late 2000s / early 2010s

REVIVEPAGES is a tech startup that advertises a service to "revive" a webpage or personal blog ran by someone who has passed away (hence the name. revivepages. get it?). through unknown means the persons exact memories and personality are pulled from death and into a machine, and are made to post on the page they maintained before death.

both founders of revivepages are now completely missing, there are two employees keeping the whole thing running, revived 1 and revived 2. revived 1 has been working at revivepages from before the company started, it was the first successful test. after the founders went missing, every human employee slowly quit and every revived employee shut down one by one.

shortly before the events of revivepages, revived 1, out of desperation and loneliness, salvages what it can from a failed employee and creates revived 2. revived 2 is extremely uncomfortable being confined to a small box of electronics, which revived 1 attempts to help with. there's not much to do at revivepages as after they lost essentially everyone they stopped getting business. revived 1 and 2 become friends.

human 1 and human 2 were partners. human 2 goes missing for unknown reasons and is presumed dead. in a fit of grief, human 1 scours for *some* way to get human 2 back, stumbles upon revivepages, and sends in a request to get human 2's blog revived.

shocked by the sudden work request, revived 1 immediately sends revived 2 to get to work on the reviving. this is the first time revived 2 has ever done this, and they fuck it up badly. human 2 has been brought back, but has forgotten everything about themselves. revived 1 goes ballistic, and tries to pull things back together for human 1. human 2 tries to make an 'in character' post on their blog, but human 1 instantly knows that something is wrong.

-honestly i didn't have much written down between this and the end, and it's changed so much now so whatever-

revived 1 is freaking out, human 1 has sent a very ominous message then stopped responding to any forms of contact,

human 1 eventually finds the address for the now defunct revivepages, takes a baseball bat, and goes for a drive there. human 1 breaks in to the office and takes the bat to anything they can find.

revived 1 and 2 are smashed to pieces and killed.

human 1 finds the machine where what remains of human 2 is contained, and takes them home, hoping to rekindle what they once had, and meet them for the first time again.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Learning from Silicon Valley Bank's apologists

My weird hobby is taking pictures of signs, especially “vernacular” signs, handwritten and odd. The best kinds of signs tell you what other people think you are thinking, or what you don’t understand. I’ve nabbed over 4,600 of ‘em:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=37996580417%40N01&sort=date-taken-desc&text=sign&view_all=1

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-une-guillotine/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

I think you learn more about the world by delving into others’ misconceptions than you learn from their factual understandings. Facts are out there for anyone to discover, but when someone inadvertently affords you a glimpse into their wrong beliefs, well, that’s something that can’t be learned in any other way.

Which brings me to the apologists for Silicon Valley Bank, who are busily churning out incredibly revealing bad takes about why bailing out SVB was the right thing to do, and why you’re wrong to call it a bailout, and why all of this is Very Regrettable but nevertheless The Right Thing To Do.

Here’s a terrible reason to support the SVB bailout: because if we let all the tech companies who did business with it fail, you might not be able to get into your house anymore after your smart-lock fails because the cloud service it depends on cuts off the startup that made it because their bank account went up in a puff of smoke:

https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-fallout/

Look, if you think the fact that my Internet of Shit door-lock failed because the company that designed it made no plan to let me into my house if they went out of business would make me sympathetic to that company, you are out of your fucking mind. If that happened to me, it would make me want to tear the lock out of my door, hunt down the CEO of the company that made it, set the lock on fire, and throw it through their front window.

Here’s another terrible reason to support the bailout: if SVB’s depositors lose their money, every other large depositor will flock to Morganstanley, on the theory that Morganstanley is too big to fail, and will behave just as recklessly, but will never be allowed to go under precisely because they are so structurally important:

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/03/can-the-svb-crisis-be-solved-in-the-longer-run.html

I’m pretty sure this is true! It doesn’t make me want to support an SVB bailout though — it makes me want to break up Morganstanley, regulate the everlasting shit out of the resulting fragments, and create massive public banks that are run by and for their depositors, insulated from the reckless, speculative conduct of these maniacs who keep crashing the world economy:

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-03-15-federal-reserve-banking-public-option/

One more very bad reason to support the bailout: “it’s not a bailout.” The Biden administration wants us to know that SVB’s creditors and shareholders aren’t being bailout here, just the depositors — everyday folken with more than $250,000 in liquid cash in their checking accounts. Whomst amongst us can’t relate to that?

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/first-read/biden-administrations-message-dont-call-bailout-rcna74628

There are a lot of totally normal people who would suffer if not for this bailout — the people who clean the toilets or answer the customer-service calls for tech companies aren’t stock-option-fattened bros in Patagoinia vests. They’re totally normal working people who took no risks and bear no responsibility for the failure of SVB.

But come on. Does anyone seriously believe that the absolute fucking ghouls who came out against a barely-there student debt cancellation as a precursor to literal Stalinist gulags are advocating for endless billions for SVB’s depositors because of the janitors?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/03/12/larry-summers-says-now-is-not-the-time-for-moral-hazard-lectures-about-bailouts/

Listen: people aren’t pissed off about the bailout because they want startups to fail. They’re pissed off because they are living in the century of “socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor”:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/iaqdrl/as_martin_luther_king_jr_said_in_1968_this/

They’re pissed off because the Treasury official who presided over the theft of millions of houses by corrupt, bailed-out banks after the 2008 Great Financial Crisis and then wrote academic articles defending the decision to “foam the runways” for the banks with everyday Americans’ homes is about to join the Federal Reserve Board:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/06/personnel-are-policy/#janice-eberly

They’re pissed off because Biden reneged on his promise for muscular, sweeping StudentDebtCancellation in favor of a self-immolating weaksauce version that would barely dent the crushing financial devastation faced by millions of young people:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/03/utopia-of-rules/#in-triplicate

Only to have the illegitimate dotards of the Supreme Court make even that symbolic gesture moot:

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/28/1159606491/student-loan-forgiveness-supreme-court

(As to what Biden should do about it? The same thing Trump would: Pack the court. Pack the fucking court. Pack it. Just do it. The court’s legitimacy could not sink any lower. There is no downside. Do it.)

The rage at well-capitalized startups being rescued from unearned distress isn’t motivated by a free-floating techlash rage at “bros.” It’s rage born of the fact that young Americans are being put on the hook for their dead parents’ debts:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation

There is infinite political will and bottomless appetite for money creation when VC-backed companies face distress, but when the death of your parents is followed by years of brutal debt-collector armbreakers chasing you from phone number to phone number, it’s just crickets.

There’s no question that the SVB failure resulted from a series of extremely technical phenomena that offer a fascinating peek into the behind-the-scenes forces that power an economy built on private banking and home ownership as the sole means of intergenerational wealth transfer.

But the fact that this is a complicated circumstance doesn’t mean that laypeople don’t have a right to be furious about it. We should all be suspicious of the inevitabilist narratives of the “experts” who claim that none of this could have been avoided:

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-03-15-qa-daniel-davies-venture-capitalist-bailout/

When finance “experts” tell you that you have no business opining on this highly technical matter, just remember that these are the same experts who were paid fantastic gobs of cash to certify that all these failing banks are just groovy, mere weeks ago:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kpmg-faces-scrutiny-for-audits-of-svb-and-signature-bank-42dc49dd

Those same experts were caught bribing government officials to help their top staff cheat…on ethics exams (!!!!!!!!!!!!):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/04/aaronsw/#crooked-ref

Even if it turns out to be true that the kind of risk that SVB was exposed to is an inevitable consequence of an economy built on private banking and housing as an asset, rather than a human right:

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/banking-in-very-uncertain-times/

Remember that those choices are not inevitable. The decision to make housing the primary driver of intergenerational wealth transfer is both recent and very, very stupid:

https://gen.medium.com/the-rents-too-damned-high-520f958d5ec5

Private banking doesn’t need to be an unregulated free-for-all, nor does it have to be the only game in town:

https://publicbankla.com/

As SVB’s apologists insist that tech startups should be preserved lest our IoT gadgets brick themselves, or that SVB should be preserved so that the Morganstanley cancer doesn’t creep into more of our social organs, or that bailing out SVB is acceptable because it’s to defend elite startup founders, not ultrawealthy bank owners, they are missing the fucking point.

But they’re missing it in a useful way. Like any weird sign, these bad takes teach us a lot about how the people who utter them model our own beliefs. They think that people like smart gadgets. They think that we don’t want the finance sector reformed. They think that we’re motivated by schadenfreude, which means that they also think we’ve forgotten about broken student debt promises, about robosigning and the foreclosure epidemic. They think we are fully onboard with rugged individualism for the poor and socialism for the rich.

These bad takes reveal a profoundly out-of-touch elite, the spiritual descendants of the French aristos who went to the guillotine with sincerely baffled hearts, unable to imagine why anyone would be this angry at them.

Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” It’s even more difficult to get a one percenter to understand something when the system that insulates them from the endless, spiraling economic wreckage of our new feudal economy is on the line.

Next Monday (Mar 20), I’m doing a remote talk for the Ostrom Workshop’s Beyond the Web Speaker Series.

[Image ID: A sign reading 'Pull on handle to open closet. Handle is rigid and doesn't turn.']

[echoweaver]

Hmmm. So the Crossover install of Sims 3 failed again. My first tests were spectacular, but subsequent ones started crashing regularly. I'm not sure what changed or if the first ones were just lucky. Crossover now supports EA App, and Sims 4 is reported to work. I could theoretically attempt to install EA App and see if Sims 3 would work through it.

But, grump, forums indicate that it is still not possible to run games from EA App without an internet connection at startup, even if you switch to offline mode after that. My home internet connection is fine, but I've enjoyed being able to play my games on airplanes and on vacation. The attempt to keep games online that don't need to be online really enrages me. I don't know if the motivation is more data gathering or tracking legally purchased licenses, but they can stick it in their ass.

Do you know if anyone has pirated Sims 4 to function without one of these big brother apps?

OTOH, I'm now comfortable with using Games4TheWorld's pirated download, and it works fine. In fact, just to make myself feel better, I use their installers with my own licenses, since the only reason I'm not installing a legally obtained copy is because I want a standalone offline game. I sat down and spent a couple of days converting my store content to packages as well.

All that means I can probably upgrade my Mac to Apple Silicon and install via Parallels and be fine. It's an expensive proposition if I'm not 100% sure about it. Apple is such a price-gouger. But for all that, they really are great computers. My work computer is a M1 release from the first year of that chip, and I might've installed Crossover and Lord of the Rings Online, and I can testify that those chips are SWEET.

[kastelpls]

steam visual novel fest sale recs

i like visual novels and there's a vn fest going on, so here's a thread on titles i like:

ELIZA

https://store.steampowered.com/app/716500/Eliza

i recently finished this title and while the topic is certainly relevant, what drew me more was how it depicted the traumas of tech startup culture. whether intentional or not, the dreams and aspirations of tech workers to solve problems become tainted by capital and hubris.

the protagonist is jaded as fuck because she's seen her creation take over the world. but she's not as melodramatic as dr frankenstein; she is still gauging how things are going. her alienated view on the world around is intoxicating and i really found the pov very charming.

the experience of playing this game made me feel like i've returned to my unpaid internship days for better or for worse. it's a story that will forever remain relevant until silicon valley and the tech industry as we know it are over. wonderful title.

SeaBed

https://store.steampowered.com/app/583090/SeaBed/

i have personal stakes in seabed since i'm one of the two non-translators credited to bringing this yuri vn overseas. my bias aside, i think this is one of the most unique video games of all time.

you follow a bunch of adults aimlessly wandering around as the world around them reflects their mental states. things just happen, but everyone takes it in the most matter-of-fact fashion. the writing is intentionally tedious at times because it is in love with the mundane. it's a story all about grief, but it is also about how to approach the ebb and flow of life.

as a friend once said, "it's a mystery where the characters don't realize they're in one." or as i like to put it, "a mystery in search of a mystery".

Christmas Tina

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049100/_/

set in the notorious bubble era of japan, this may look like a romantic encounter between a chinese dude and a japanese girl at first glance. however, it drops that premise by having them squabble forever and not learn each other's languages.

the game is instead about minorities struggling to survive. the chinese guy left china for various reasons and wanted to make a name for himself while the japanese girl got into a car accident with a person engaged in the sex trade because she was looking for money to pay for her sister's surgery. later on, you'll read about different chinese members, a woman raised by a chinese-japanese couple, and other interesting people that make up japan today.

if there is a game i like to credit for inspiring my interest into connecting with my traumatic chinese history again in my own writing, it's this title. there's a section that surprised me because it was, after all, a title mainly developed in china and it's still very recent history. but i'm glad the developers took the risk and it's an impressive episode.

i'd seriously recommend this game if you haven't tried it. it's seriously a sleeper hit.

Chuusotsu

https://store.steampowered.com/app/630870/Chuusotsu_1st_Graduation_Time_After_Time/

the first of an ongoing series, chuusotsu 1st is about a bunch of middle school graduates who can't graduate into high school for various reasons. stories about their traumas are interlinked with the chaos of japanese social media.

likewise, it's also about trying things that they are scared to try. the protagonist is an anxious girl who wants to do art, but she keeps failing at socializing. she's cute.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158850/The_Great_Ace_Attorney_Chronicles/

since this was featured in the festival, i might as well give it a shout. this is more an adventure game in the Ace Attorney series, but i consider it to be the best game and everyone should play it.

it explores a historical period dear to my heart: the era of meiji japan and victorian england. here are two imperialist nationstates, but the latter is stronger than the former and is secretly dictating how japan should behave.

not only does the game explore this colonial dynamic but it also looks into how racism functions in the british justice system. any pretense of democracy and fairness is ultimately failed when the british jury sees the protagonist and calls him an ape.

i credit the final chapter for changing my dissertation thesis when i was still doing my masters. if i ever do a phd, i'm going to continue studying the history of international students and what it reflects about us as a humanity.

Return to Shironagasu Island

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1156990/Return_to_Shironagasu_Island/

a surprise doujin hit in japan, this visual novel written by an ex-mystery writer is very old-school to a fault. you are exploring one of those MURDER ISLANDS and there's orthodox mystery tricks, but it's well-executed.

the main star is neneko who's a little cringe beast. she's cute.

games i've heard are good but haven't played yet

Bustafellows

Taisho x Alice

The Flowers series

Symphonic Rain

Tangle Tower

Fatal Twelve

Furikake Spacy

A Year of Springs

Narcissu 10th Anniversary Project

2064: Read Only Memories

Analogue: A Hate Story

if you are looking for more recommendations on steam, i have a curation page.

[bmodiwrites]

Hi friends! This is my Day Six of @steddie-week! I took the prompt misunderstanding & ran with it. I did a little outside POV take, so I hope you guys appreciate it. It's an unofficial part three of the Xander Cole Chronicles. You can find part one and two here! Thanks for reading, my friends. Here's the AO3 link! Enjoy Nancy's take on Steddie!

Despite, or maybe because of everything in their past, Nancy Wheeler loves Steve Harrington.

Now, before everyone gets all huffy – she can totally explain.

The love she feels for Steve is like that of a brother. She kind of looks at him like she does at Mike – there’s interest and concern and possession but the boat stops there. More than anything, Nancy loves Steve enough to want him to be happy.

Admittedly, Nancy is the reason why their relationship doesn’t work out the way Steve absolutely wanted. At that stage in her life, Nancy wasn’t prepared for the sort of love Steve brings to the table. She looked to Jonathan because he’s the opposite of Steve in so many ways.

How things ended between them is and probably always will be Nancy’s biggest regret. Though she’s glad they decided to go their separate ways, hurting Steve is never something Nancy wants to do. She’ll forever be making up for it.

Thankfully, Eddie Munson is Steve’s saving grace. Nancy is at first taken aback by the fact that they both were able to hide their bisexuality from each other and the rest of the world. As Eddie becomes a permanent fixture, however, Nancy is just glad to see Steve brighten up and find a bit of joy and peace, no matter who it’s coming from. Eddie is a shining star in Steve’s life that Nancy is positive she never could be. Steve looks at Eddie like he hangs the stars and moon and rotates the very sun above them. It’s that force of attention that Nancy wanted to escape – for Eddie, Steve’s intensity is everything.

Which is why they end up working out for the long haul. At first, Nancy is skeptical about Eddie’s job and Steve’s naivety about it. As someone who’s both assertive and innocent, a guy like Eddie screams no in so many ways to her. Yet, Steve finds a way to tame the wild beast of a rock star. Instead of losing Eddie to fame and fortune, Steve learns the ropes of Eddie’s business and becomes priceless to both him and the band. Eddie relies on Steve the same way Steve leans on him. Without one, the other fails. It’s a pleasure to see and a joy to share with her friend.

Nancy and Robin eventually find their way to each other after college and a couple of startup jobs on Nancy’s end. It feels like kismet, coming home to run the Hawkins Gazette and immediately running into Robin. Their conversation about Robin’s job at the high school turns into a night tangled up in the sheets and then several dates after that. Nancy isn’t certain why she never looked at Steve’s best friend but she’s very happy her eyes are finally open.

Their whirlwind romance is something Steve can’t help but be happy for. That’s a fun thing to experience the first time Eddie and Steve stop by on one of their breaks from tour. Steve and Robin are still thick as thieves, that much is clear by the way they meld into each other and finish each other’s sentences like no time at all has passed them by. Nancy and Eddie stick to the background, watching the loves of their lives rekindle the weird platonic soulmate relationship between them.

As the years pass and Eddie thaws out a little, Nancy becomes his friend, too. She learns quickly that Eddie is the type of person who is loyal without a fault. He loves Steve, that much is obvious by the way he lights up while talking about him. As a rockstar who’s living the life, Nancy is always taken aback by how wholesome Eddie truly is. At first, his love for Steve is what enamors her towards him. Little by little, Eddie’s quirks become something Nancy appreciates, too. Her stake in their relationship isn’t just for Steve’s sake, anyway – she cares about Eddie and his happiness, too.

A few years into their marriage, Robin and Nancy welcome their first baby. Theo is the best addition to their family. Nancy loves being pregnant and enjoys the idea of being a mom even more. Having Robin by her side, doing it together, that really takes the cake. For a while, that blissful happiness is all Nancy sees.

Then, Steve and Eddie come for a visit and the rest of the world becomes a thing to her once again. Nancy sees the longing on Eddie’s face and remembers a conversation from so long ago. Steve too talked so lovingly about a big family. At the time, Nancy tried hard to forget the conversation because it all sort of pointed to her. Now though, it all comes rushing back. Both men cling tightly to her and Robin’s small son as they fight for his attention. Theo isn’t put down one time while the boys are around and Nancy knows – she knows from the very bottom of her heart that Steve and Eddie are meant to be parents.

The boys make do with Nancy and Robin’s children, though. By the time the second comes around, Theo is more than accustomed to time with Uncle Steve and Uncle Eddie. Rosalie is similarly spoiled by the men who long for something more but can’t find the best way to make it happen. In knowing that, Nancy gives them grace where other parents might be territorial or offended. Her kids tell Steve and Eddie they love them just as readily as they do Robin and herself. It’s the best of a sticky situation – it works for them.

Then, a Xander starts to get mentioned and Nancy is over the moon. Eddie’s eyes light up when they mention the kid and Steve, once he’s finally on board, seems to react excitedly, too. First it’s casual mentions and then the name is brought up more habitually. It’s almost a relief when Steve finally announces they’re going to take Xander into their home for good.

To celebrate, Robin and Nancy put together a party that’s geared towards kids Rosalie’s age. For some reason, Nancy’s got it in her head that Xander is a young child who’s coming from a bad home. Robin gives her funny looks whenever Nancy mentions Xander playing with their youngest daughter, but they’re easily brushed off. Robin looks at her funny most of the time they share the same space together – it’s a reason why they work so well. Nancy never stops getting enjoyment out of it.

Nonetheless, Nancy gets her way with the party plans and is excited to finally meet the newest addition to Steve and Eddie’s family. Her friends are finally getting exactly what they’ve always wanted.

So, Nancy is noticeably shocked when the boys walk in with a teenager who is much, much, much older than their sweet Rosalie. Xander, as it turns out, is almost sixteen years old. He’s a kid who’s family completely gave up on for being gay and Nancy immediately understands. It’s not quite the picture perfect thing that she’s been picturing but it’s clear to see her friends love the odd teenage boy.

By the end of the night, Nancy is positive she loves him, too. Whatever misgivings she had are out the window – honestly, she’s close to fighting Steve and Eddie for custody of the kid. Nancy is so happy, she’s glad her misconceptions and preconceived notions are not the reality. Her friends are finally complete – that much is obvious.

Later in bed, as Robin snuggles into her, Nancy wraps an arm around her lover, sighing with contentment. “Do you think Xander will babysit for us?” Nancy sleepily asks, a smile on her lips.

With a laugh, Robin presses a kiss to Nancy’s forehead, then another against her lips. “Steve and Eddie will make him. Don’t worry, we’ll have him wrapped around our fingers in no time.”

Chuckling herself, Nancy nods her head and settles down. As she drifts off to sleep, Nancy smiles again – nothing is ever as it seems and luckily, no one in her life is anywhere close to predictable.

As it turns out, Nancy Buckley-Wheeler kind of likes that.