Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 11/10/2026A better example would be an LLM designs a bridge. The trusses are 30% lighter and cheaper than a conventional bridge but too complex to verify by structural engineers using their standard methods. Do you trust the LLM enough to drive across the bridge? 100
Reposted by Matt HiattWord_Geek @word-geek.bsky.social · 09/10/2026We go through other languages' pockets and steal words, then traumatize people who speak the original language by pronouncing them all wrong 6936
Reposted by Matt HiattMaterialist Gnostic @walmsley.bsky.social · 09/10/2026I really hate this sort of take. someone saying "we're better than this" is speaking aspirationally! you are not clever for insisting we aren't, you are giving people an excuse not to try to be. 1970485
Reposted by Matt HiattWilliam B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 09/10/2026they think the need for said legitimation is just woke gay shit that some female phd came up with, and they can just be TUFF. having never lived in a place or time where the state did not have a monopoly on violence they don't know that they're the weak men that good times produce. 112913
Reposted by Matt HiattMatt Darling @besttrousers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I think the thing that's hard to convey is: 1.) The Trump 1 economy was pretty good. 2.) Mostly because it was just continued (good) trends from the Obama admin. 3.) So people thought he was good at Economy 4.) But he actually doesn't know how to do stuff that isn't "continue Obama trends" 1483
Reposted by Matt Hiatt(Un)Dead Carl 🎃 @deadcarl.bsky.social · 05/10/2026We cannot punish them all, and we therefore should not attempt to do so. Our goal should be to scapegoat a handful and force the rest to pretend they were always against it, until they almost believe they really were. 6577
Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 03/10/2026The really fun part was when super soaker started making the nerf equivalent. Vastly more accurate than Nerf guns at the time. We ran room to room clearing operations in my basement with them and they really drilled into you that if they could see you, they could kill you. 020
Reposted by Matt HiattStephen Judkins @stephenjudkins.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Anthropogenic carbon emissions are likely to drop precipitously in our lifetimes, and I think we'll try various forms of cheap geoengineering to make up for the carbon we've emitted so far and we'll probably succeed at blunting the worst effects of climate change 612810
Reposted by Matt HiattReconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 01/10/2026This administration, I guess 1020824
Reposted by Matt HiattDr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026i also just have to say that pointing at a falling down barn while bragging about how fewer people are coming to america is about the perfect encapsulation of how MAGA believes in making america smaller and weaker 351957400
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I, uh, I can't help but notice you left out the slaver's rebellion or the Nazis on the list of people to go fight. Funny, that. 652289372
Reposted by Matt HiattMike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 30/09/2026anyway yes there's work to be done, but it's on the level of "robust Congressional oversight and immediately asserting a democratic admin civilian control to scare the hoes," not "we have to denazify the entire DoD over the course of a decade" 814913
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Man, you have to be just...really racist...not to come away from spending basically any time at all at an American university with a nearly boundless faith in the power of American assimilation. All sorts of students whose ancestors came from all over, utterly and completely American, all the way. 1050968
Reposted by Matt HiattQuantian @quantian.bsky.social · 30/09/2026LMFAO the official America.gov AI website uses a Chinese open source model 27670152
Reposted by Matt HiattI Nied braaaaiiiiins 🧟 @nied.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Biden literally did the mythical One Phone Call that would stop Israel in it's tracks, &... it didn't stop Israel in it's tracks. 24641131
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/09/2026In practice though, it really seems like we're moving towards, "AI is a productivity tool that enhances the employee you have, but often doesn't really let you replace them, so much as get more out of them, in some fields. In others, it's mostly useless so far." 836421
Reposted by Matt Hiattponder @ponder.ooo · 24/09/2026plenty of people run llm based agents with powerful models and do not end up hacking anyone. this is not an ai alignment problem, it is an openai being routinely criminally negligent as a company problem 1038082
Reposted by Matt HiattSharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Case in point: Lee Jae Myung polling in the negatives after the previous guy did a coup 413014
Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026People don’t realize renewables growth is a logistics curve. It looks exponential because we’re in the easy middle of the electrification curve but it will taper off when it hits some of the use cases below. You will need nuclear to finish decarbonizing. 000
Reposted by Matt HiattWilliam B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026I think ‘rote memorization’ is underrated. Having a ton of shit laying around in your head leads to connections and being able to more precisely describe things. 2963352
Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026There’s a fun risk here where people are ignoring that NYC mayor is structurally one of the strongest executive positions in the country. So he really can just get stuff done. But do we really want the president to have that same power federally? “Only good can happen” right? 010
Reposted by Matt HiattRiver_Tam @rivertam.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Yes, part of being an "engaged parent" is seeking out this information on your own. I don't disagree that schools (even good schools) are bad at communicating this information. Passively receiving information is the opposite of engagement. bsky.app/profile/whst... 7781
Reposted by Matt HiattBeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It is a practical and moral headache, because the worst kids are *very often* also the kids with shitty home lives and circumstances, and they also have a right to an education. 91381
Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I think revealing in this is that NHJ confuses some of the "symptoms" of a school with highly engaged parents with what highly engaged parenting actually means. Yes a well-funded and volunteered PTA is present at schools with high parental engagement but that's not why the students do better. 041
Reposted by Matt Hiatttmbhmltn.bsky.social @tmbhmltn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The perverse thing about anti-war people calling all civilian deaths during a war “war crimes” is that it inadvertently accepts the the premise that war can fought without killing innocent civilians and diminishes the inherent costs of war 1339
Reposted by Matt HiattMax Dubler 🏳️🌈 @maxdubler.com · 17/09/2026Members of Congress should be paid $600,000 a year so they will be less tempted to leave office and become highly-paid lobbyists. 2433226
Reposted by Matt HiattKen Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I’m on a quiz show that only tapes 46 days a year and even I think this schedule is a little light. 412167293
Reposted by Matt HiattAstreia @redoubters.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Yeah sorry this exact choice was made countless times by southern black voters because "not racist" wasn't an option yet and they actually cared about improving things instead of indulging their vanity If those are the options, choose the less bad one, so you can do better next cycle 2803
Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 15/09/2026I can’t reply directly but it should be noted that the poll referenced did not give transgender issues as a choice. Where it would actually rank can’t be determined from this. Also it’s quite clear that Republicans think the issue is salient because that’s how they’re spending their ad money. 100
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 11/09/2026...that is some cult of personality 'Dear Leader' garbage. 324228
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 10/09/2026One need not agree with them or respect their opinions, but it is simply a true fact that you can identify the 'better men' of 2016's National Review by the fact that they are now at the Dispatch, the New York Times or the Bulwark. 2282
Reposted by Matt HiattMike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 10/09/2026a whole bunch of you do not understand this place is like 27 standard deviations beyond the US electorate and poast accordingly 1533934
Reposted by Matt Hiattae @aelkus.bsky.social · 09/09/2026its like the recurring joke I make about why Toyota can't use the most arguably impressive user story about their products in advertising 630856
Reposted by Matt HiattMatthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I do think MAHA comes out of frustration with interaction with evidence based medicine but that’s often because the nature of evidence based medicine is that it can’t answer questions as simply and definitively as people want, whereas an alternative doc can speak as authoritatively as their pastor 1620124
Reposted by Matt HiattQuantian @quantian.bsky.social · 06/09/2026You don’t actually need some kind of deep root cause analysis of the AfD’s popularity, Germans are just not capable of self governance, which is why we spent 50 years assembling a structure to ensure they couldn’t and would happily ratify whatever CIA approved Atlanticist squish we wanted in charge. 710211
Reposted by Matt HiattWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 05/09/2026This “game” on the White House website, a version of Snake where you play as a white man in a suit and you run around picking up identifiably black, Asian, and Latino men and putting them in orange jumpsuits, might be the most openly white supremacist thing I’ve ever seen the US government produce 12934971232
Reposted by Matt HiattWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 03/09/2026You literally do live in the land of plenty. I just refuse to engage in this "America is a poor country" nonsense. It's absurd. We have some POOR PEOPLE, but by and large, this is an exceptionally wealthy place. Why do you think so many immigrants want to come here? Are they wrong? 1640522
Reposted by Matt HiattNick Felker @felker.dev · 03/09/2026The idea that America is a poor country leads to the conservative idea that immigrants are taking slices of the fixed pie. 0334
Reposted by Matt HiattJohn Brown’s Body @berndtpetersen.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I’ve really come around to your arguments about lying to voters…there is a cost to it, a bill that will always come due…and you only get to see the price once it’s due. Maybe less than you though, but won’t know until you get the bill. 011
Reposted by Matt HiattThe Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 30/08/2026I’m really sorry to say this but institutions are people, my friend, and if you elect people of poor virtue and limited emotional regulation then you get a government of vice that operates rashly 527550
Matt Hiatt @mthiatt.bsky.social · 30/08/2026I mean there’s no possible chance a left wing dictator could be worse for the country than what we have now, right? (Cries in Mao, Stalin, etc) 000
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 30/08/2026The thing is, the voter - even the conservative voter - has been presented with the choice of people with proven character...and they did not pick them. They preferred the charlatan huckster who they knew was such. And there is nothing you can do to protect the People from their own lack of virtue. 4679
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 29/08/2026This week on the blog: why the United States Navy is a load-bearing component of the global economy, why there is no available replacement for it and thus why it is pretty bad that the American voter has decided in a fit of abject folly to vote to abandon that role. acoup.blog/2026/08/28/c...acoup.blogCollections: Global Trade and United States NavyThis week we’re doing another one of our series of military theory primers, this time focusing on a fairly simple contention: that the United States Navy is a load-bearing component of the gl… 19581136
Reposted by Matt HiattJeremy Salkeld @enclavedmicrostate.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I find it interesting how in casual usage this site, 'imperial Japan' is often treated purely as contemporary to Nazi Germany+fascist Italy, when Japan as a colonial empire lasted more than both combined. Nazi Germany: 1933-45 Fascist Italy: 1922-43 Imperial Japan: 1868-45 (British Raj: 1858-1947) 317629
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 26/08/2026This position - that fascism is somehow super-liberalism rather than anti-liberalism - has always struck me as silly to the point of childishness. Which liberal principle do fascists take to an extreme? Do they believe in private property? No, they're aggressively statist and corporatist. 4552482
Reposted by Matt HiattWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 26/08/2026If an adult buys a baby doll and gleefully acts out violence against it, I think it’s reasonable to ask if something untoward is going on even though no one would argue the doll is a person. Again this is about what is happening in the head of the person doing it, not about the effect on the target. 1818520
Reposted by Matt HiattTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Algorithms killed the spectrum of emotional valences. Everything now is set to 10. Bring back the eyeroll, the exasperated sigh, the hand wave, the shoulder shrug. Some stuff is just mildly annoying or blandly dumb. You don’t need to blow every emotional outburst on the mundane. 251891270
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I find the continued angry reactions to this - that I am 'normalizing' or 'naturalizing' fascism - unsurprising but also very silly. What is gained by pretending a (bad, evil) political movement that bubbles foully up, unbidden, in almost every democracy doesn't actually appeal to people? 4187687
Reposted by Matt Hiatt"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 25/08/2026In short, things can be natural and yet also be bad, worth holding in contempt and fighting against at every turn. 1646334
