robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026we certainly agree that data centers are not an obviously good investment. the financial analysis is a little glib. the size of amortization rug needed to sweep the revenue deficit is…unrealistic. 010
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026increase by (multiple!) orders of magnitude to make any of it worth it. otherwise we’re recycling the same old models for cheap like a dystopian future. 010
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026i’m not sure if you’re being obtuse here. yes, technically the inference itself is low cost. but the money is already spent on infrastructure. even you can’t possibly predict a future without more capable models that need to be trained on the expensive infrastructure. so, yes, revenue has to… 210
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026who’s shifting goalposts? you’re an anecdote. the data shows expenditures for the infrastructure needed to meet inference demand far outstrips any reasonable revenue projections. when we can’t afford to train models we don’t have models. revenue has to increase by orders of magnitude to get there. 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026you’re a smart guy. it’s why i follow you. the tech is useful, but utility isn’t value. at the cost big tech is investing in AI, we’ve run past vague sketches of the future. how much money does apple have to pay google to balance their AI expenditures? how many others can google access like that? 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026lay out the bet financially. businesses are going to pay trillions of dollars for AI. what is the efficiency gain? the cost savings? how many jobs eliminated? how much more output? what is the financial justification in numbers, not vibes? 010
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026openAI’s revenue is growing at 200% per year. their expenditures are growing at nearly 300% per year. consumer subscriptions already dominate their revenue at 85%. when do they start making money? how many millions more subscribers do they need just to break even? 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026i specifically invoked a consumer use case to show that for the money to make sense it needs to be something mass amounts of people willingly pay for. it’s not about staffing, it’s about value. in the end, there isn’t enough revenue in saving money using AI for something they want and don’t need. 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026cool. $650B at 4-year ROI — not PROFIT, just ROI — they’d need 112,8471,223 customers paying $120/mo. 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/08/2026$650B committed to AI infrastructure. so far AI is mostly a trifling amusement. it’s fun when it’s free. no one wants to pay for it, and there’s no avoiding that. people didn’t want to pay skilled graphic artists to remove people from photos, why would they pay for a machine to do it? 200
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 23/07/2026satire (noun) — wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly (as of a person, government, or society) broadly : humor that criticizes weakness or wrongdoing 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 28/05/2026i used this knowledge in the california primary. at least one SPI candidate called for safer schools and better cooperation with public safety resource officers. HARD. PASS. 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 28/05/2026another trans person murdered. if there’s one thing i want in this life for lord’s sake is for trans people to live long, normal lives of obscurity, completely immersed in the normal worries and joys of life. 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 09/03/2026in country that hates them, at least in terms of policy, and whose interests may only be minimally heard by most political candidates. 3. it’s interesting to hear black voices saying this may be the breaking point. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 09/03/20261. there’s lots of reasons to believe they’re looking to tamper with the 2026 elections. 2. folks in the trans community have been looking at leaving the US since inauguration last year. i have tempered my enthusiasm for it by observing how the black community has survived… 120
Reposted by robb zimmerman🇺🇲💥🧨‼️🦅Diana🦅‼️🧨💥🇺🇲 @citiesbydiana.bsky.social · 22/02/2026#alysaliu WOKE IS BACK BABY MAKE OAKLAND CALIFORNIA THE US CAPITOL NOW! 623554867
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 06/02/2026considering we’re probably a year or do away from the AI investment collapse, they’re going to look super smart. 010
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 22/01/2026i can scarcely believe that big of a ballwasher exists and remembers to breathe every few seconds. 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 13/01/2026it’s a good day to get strong to fight the fascists. #vegan 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 12/01/2026entrusted with the safety of hundreds of thousands of people is at the least troubling, and at worst deeply corrupt. AND, he was a pretty decent guy who loved his son. but i’m thinking about him because one of my kids asked me about police and whether they’re good. how do i answer other than no? 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 12/01/2026an innocuous question suddenly felt defensive and evasive. it revealed one of two most likely explanations: he’s deeply paranoid, or he’s aware that public sentiment towards cops isn’t necessarily positive. either way, he was not public about his vocation, which, as a public servant… 110
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 12/01/2026i met a baseball once, and in the getting to know you conversation i asked him what he did for work. he answered, “i work for the city.” i didn’t press further because i’m used to people in this area being tight lipped about work. i later learned that he’s a cop. and his answer to… 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 11/01/2026the problem is that the majority of my cohort — white people — absolutely LOVE cops. we like to tell ourselves there are different kinds of cops, that some are good, or whatever, to duck accountability for the bad that’s inherently baked into policing that we don’t want to believe is true. 011
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 09/01/2026ole miss is the old money school in one of the most deeply segregated states in the country. i used to live in mississippi and i can say with reasonable familiarity that your assessment is near 100% accurate. 1140
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 05/01/2026wapo’s on a tear. it’s bananas how far they’ll go to normalize what this administration is doing. it’s not rampant corruption, illegal war, illegal kidnapping, and general rule by whim. it’s, “an old vision of american power.” 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 05/01/2026JFC. just stop. stop trying to make this sound ok. 021
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 04/01/2026i feel like i need to get out the spray bottle and shout, “no!” at the washington post. it was an illegal abduction, not an audacious raid. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 28/12/2025someone is looking to build one in southwest michigan. i told my dad with how nestle has stolen water for decades from the state, it’s an absolute failure of public trust to allow a data center to be built there. 010
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 27/12/2025white house press loves nothing more than to accept whatever the administration says about military action. their job is definitively stenography. that’s not a good thing. we have to rely on other journalists to do the adversarial reporting. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 13/12/2025what’s funny is that i DO actually carry my passport most of the time. that said, if i wanted to live under an authoritarian regime where citizenship determines mobility, i’d move to china. at least shit works there. cities are clean and have functional mass transit. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 10/12/2025i think i’d enjoy being a tile guy. it checks all the boxes of truly good engineering: you get to be creative, you have to be precise, and you need the ability solve problems quickly by drawing on a broad set of diverse skills. 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 09/12/2025play public enemy, and it’ll think you’re 51. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/12/2025you may also be able to buy or pull an ECU from the higher model, but that could also introduce other issues. there are often other ECUs in the car, and they may provide version information to the main WCU in the case it’s replaced OR, it could work swimmingly just by installing the new ECU. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 02/12/2025shortest answer is no. the more complicated andwer is *maybe*. IF the hardware is also there (cooled seats is a good example) you’d also have to reflash the ECU, which is not trivial if it’s possible. 120
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 23/11/2025i’ve been making the same (or similar) point: the whole purpose of learning is to understand, ponder, and consider. EVEN WHEN i’m explicitly looking for “the answer.” the only way an LLM works that way is by being so unreliable you have to check the answer by doing the learning, anyway. 020
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025[sarcasm] we don’t hate welfare in america. we hate poor people and black people. rich white guys deserve all that money. duh. [/sarcasm] 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 13/11/202545% of republicans believe the president, that his involvement with epstein is a manufactured story for political purposes. SAD! 010
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025as the white parent of a trans kid i’ve had to learn a lot from the black community about the politics of a system that is openly hostile to whole classes of people. you don’t have to explain it to me. newsom will throw you, me, trans people in the garbage to further his ambition. 110
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025right? where’s big gretch on this list? she’s term limited. what about crockett? still too early to run? i heard harris is eyeing another run. why just these four dudes? side note, as a california resident, hard no on newsom. he will tack right early and often. 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 12/11/2025i agree 100%, and all i can think about is this: youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?...youtu.bePapyrus - SNLYouTube video by Saturday Night Live 030
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 12/11/2025a read a biography of jesse owens the summer before 4th grade, and sobbed and sobbed. 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 11/11/2025it’s shocking, and paradoxically completely unsurprising, how quickly the US is becoming a pariah state. 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 08/11/2025unsurprisingly they hold nearly all of the wealth and political clout, including a segregation academy. it's simply laughable to assert that racism isn't present in a place like that, even if the good folks of lauderdale county live without explicit racial animus in their hearts. 000
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 08/11/2025 you can’t, because it doesn’t exist. at the same time, there are numerous communities, including oakland, where white people do have significantly better outcomes despite not being the majority. meridian, MS is a great example of a place where white people are a distinct numerical minority, but... 100
robb zimmerman @robbzimmerman.bsky.social · 08/11/2025but here’s the irony: point to any community anywhere in the US where there is a white majority but minorities generally have better outcomes than the white people. point to a community where there is a minority majority where white people generally have it worse than minorities. 110
