Mike Judge: So finally they both hold their fists up, with an inch of air between them, and we wrap the scene with the Indian Prime Minister solemnly saying "Thank you, tech
leaders!" to polite applause.
Say that again real slow and listen to your words.
The fact that social conventions are arbitrary is wholly irrelevant. Everyone knows, and you are not smart or insightful for pointing it out. Social norms and conventions are arbitrary, evolved constructs. Individually we follow social norms as this is how you get accepted by and participate in society.
Breaking the social norms is generally punished either directly or indirectly. Because human society evolved to favor group cohesion, and acting counter to the rules means you no longer wish to be part of the group.
I'd also add that it's not about the relevance of the conventions, but one's (in)ability to "read the room" and follow the conventions signals to others how well-adapted (or "aligned") of a human they are.
Not following conventions may be a result of inability to recognize them or outright disrespect and/or unwilling to cooperate, play by rules, honor the social contract, etc.
In this case its about showing good judgement. Good judgement is putting the unity of the group above your own petty rivalries, when all the group is asking you to do is hold hands for a photo.
If he holds hands for the photo, it is not going to materially change whether OpenAI outperforms Anthropic or vice versa, but what it shows is a certain level of maturity - Im mature enough to understand the situation here is the projection of ultimate unity, of a greater mission that humanity is all here together, even though our system puts us in competition with each other, and for a moment, I will show that (just like everyone else standing here) I can rise above it, and hold hands for a photo.
It's not a big ask in a physical sense, but its an appeal to the wisdom that ultimately we are all on the same team together on this little floating rock, and maybe, just maybe, for a tiny second, it would be good to acknowledge that.
"You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in five years and he'd be the king" was originally written by Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, in a 2008 blog post on startup fundraising
Still totally shameful that they can't hold hands for 10 seconds in a symbolic show of unity. Like divorced parents who can't get along for the good of their children, it reflects extremely poorly on both of them.
You seem to think I will be unhappy because I don't have unhealthy obsession about tech celebs - and yes they are ephemeral, because in said 10 years these personas will be substituted in terms of celebrities by other personas, all of them with pretty much zero impact on my real life.
So, the reality is precisely the opposite: I will be more happy by not having described obsession, thus, I don't see how I should have hard time. The repetition of your false claims in more languages doesn't make them more true.
What makes you think their fame will be ephemeral? All of the tech billionaires from the 90s, 00s, and 10s are still constantly in the news for better or worse.
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