CuriousCat Archive Page 133 of 202

  1. Assets actually generate profits/money. Machinery, vehicles, office space, even human resources are assets in a sense. The issue is debt, you need more money to grow faster, taking on too much debt makes it a tight business/cash flow. A good amount debt helps it to grow healthily...

    Some of the biggest and strongest companies have net cash. Meaning cash in reserve after deducting debt. These are good and healthy companies with sensible balance sheet https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/sectors/sp500-companies-stockpile-325-billion-cash-financial-mayhem-cornavirus-stock-market-crash/

    Most businesses just takes on debt, like people living on paycheck to paycheck. So if the company doesn't have any business/income, they won't be able to pay their debt or employee. Same as employee/people, needing the income to pay rent/food. It's about savings, being smart with $

    And i get that people are pissed. Rightfully so as some companies use those supposed cash reserve for stocks buyback, artificially inflating the stock price which benefits shareholder/executives and when shit hits the fan, they have no cash reserve to weather the storm

    in response to Why are people getting pissed off when companies furlough employees? Most companies are cash poor, so are "millionaires" as all their networth is tied in assets, not cash.

    are you saying wealthy companies aren't furloughing employees?

  2. Oh dang, my library also has Kanopy. Any recommendations? I watched the Wiseman documentary about the NYPL the other weekend, and next I'm probably going to watch 'Incendies.'

    in response to Having fun / Is hard / When you've got a library card that's useless because the library was closed for public health reasons (I say this with love, the library is also what I miss the most).

    The Missing Person, a mid-2000's neo-noir starring Michael Shannon, was surprisingly good.

  3. Does being "13th most pretentious person on YouTube" not mean you're a hipster who avoids mainstream pop?

    in response to Honestly really surprised that you quoted renown philosopher T Swizzle (or "Taylor Shizzle", as you said it) in your new video Do you listen (or even like) any of her songs? You don't seem like the type to listen to mainstream pop at all

    I think looking at pop media through the lens of critical theory is waaaaaay pretentious

  4. Were you at one point?

    in response to Are you a member of the DSA?

    no, but I might be in the future

  5. Do you think bernie's runs could have simmilar effect to Barry goldwater's?

    You mean paving the way for someone savvier at campaigning to build on what he tapped into? That is the hope.

  6. A list of beautifully depressing movies that you watched?

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Grave of the Fireflies come to mind.

  7. Did you also think it had a weird throughline? ‘The biggest protection we have from white terrorism is white incompetence’

    in response to Thoughts on Blackkklansman? I know the film does get some flak for it's relatively possible portrayal of police, but as a reluctant bootlicker, I feel that that can be easily overseen in favor of the genuinely timely things the film has to say about the legitimacy of white supremacy.

    Pointing out that the white terrorists are also incompetent is not quite saying the incompetence is the real problem. Hate is the problem, incompetence is just a multiplier.

  8. What are your thoughts on libertarianism?

    you mean shitty anarchism?

  10. Are you a member of the DSA?

    not presently

  11. It would harm Berrie as well, the way folks talk when he's mentioned (repeatedly) that he plans to endorse Joe when the primary is over it's like he kicked a dog.

    in response to Do you think Biden has a better shot at winning if he picks Sanders or Warren to be his VP?

    To some folks, Bernie can do no wrong, so I feel like there'd be a bigger contingent of "hey he's working within the system" stans, but I still don't predict the future.

  12. Do you think the Soviet Union could have worker?

    it had many worker

  13. When is it time to give up on a Gabe? Not in a "big picture" sense, as in The Left giving up on all Gabes everywhere forever, but like on a person-to-person basis.

    There isn't a blanket answer for that. It depends on the person, the circumstances, and the Gabe. When you determine the effort you've spent working on him is starting to exceed the benefits of converting him, let him go. Hopefully you planted some seeds that will grow later in his life.

  14. I guess my point is capitalism is fine, it has flaws but so far the best system we have comparing to feudalism, communism, and what not.

    But companies being irresponsible and not having sensible finance management is the problem here, and the gov policies are making it worse

    in response to Why are people getting pissed off when companies furlough employees? Most companies are cash poor, so are "millionaires" as all their networth is tied in assets, not cash.

    if the overwhelming majority of businesses don't have "sensible finance management," then it's not "being irresponsible," it's what they are incentivized to do.

    businesses are in competition with each other. every month that they keep money on deck in case of an emergency is a month they are outspent by competitors who don't. we can say, hey, in the long run they'll be in a better position to survive a crisis, but there may not *be* a long run if they get muscled out of the field before a crisis happens. under capitalism, you are *never* incentivized to provide for your workers more than is absolutely necessary. if they *will* work without that safety net - if there aren't enough viable alternatives - then that safety net will not exist. capitalism is driven by profit, and that's money that could be making profit.

    the crisis of capitalism is not "the system works fine but all the most powerful people just happen to be unethical bastards." this is capitalism working exactly the way it's meant to.

  15. Honestly really surprised that you quoted renown philosopher T Swizzle (or "Taylor Shizzle", as you said it) in your new video Do you listen (or even like) any of her songs? You don't seem like the type to listen to mainstream pop at all

    The thing about pop music is it's inescapable; you don't need to pay attention to it to be aware of it. But Tay Tay's had some bops in her time.

    Not sure what it means that I don't give off a "mainstream pop" vibe; I listen to anything if it's good, and some chart-topping songs are great.

  16. Thoughts on Blackkklansman? I know the film does get some flak for it's relatively possible portrayal of police, but as a reluctant bootlicker, I feel that that can be easily overseen in favor of the genuinely timely things the film has to say about the legitimacy of white supremacy.

    Hard to gauge, because it was saying stuff I already knew. I think it said a fair chunk of it well, but it didn't enlighten me personally. In pure moviemaking terms, the climax builds a lot of tension that never really releases, it just... dissipates, which is a bummer. And the ending is very powerful, but also kind of masochistic? It seems like a movie designed for people who already agree with its statements but feel obligated to stay woke by re-exposing themselves to pain. Probably valuable for people who haven't really reckoned with the weight of what's going on, but, for the rest of us, it's salt in the wound.

  17. Do you think Biden has a better shot at winning if he picks Sanders or Warren to be his VP?

    It's really hard imagining Biden doing that. If he picked Warren it would probably do more harm to her than it does good for him.

  18. Should magic belltowers beam the time directly into the skulls of citizens?

    these questions get weirder and weirder

  19. Why are people getting pissed off when companies furlough employees?

    Most companies are cash poor, so are "millionaires" as all their networth is tied in assets, not cash.

    the problem with capitalism is precisely what you're describing. all that money is in assets on the hopes that it will compound, create more profit, which will be owned solely by the owners of the business. this shunts the risk onto the workers, where, should anything go wrong (like, say, a pandemic), there won't be money to pay them. the bosses COULD keep the money liquid as a safety net for their employees, but that would be going against every incentive capitalism places on them. profit that is not being maximized is profit wasted; if the company is publicly traded it may literally be illegal to have money sitting around when it could be invested.

    businesses are "cash poor" because of decisions those businesses make to bring in money the workers will never see, and they have every fucking right to be pissed about it.

  20. Do you care about the programs you use being open source?

    I like open source programs generally, and if two apps are in the same ballpark in terms of quality I'll take the open source one any day. But I don't use obtuse or unwieldy programs because they're open.

    Most of my work is done in closed platforms because they're industry-standard. I think Audacity, Firefox, and Seashore are the only open programs in my standard workflow.

  21. If a person were interested in writing a video essay but felt their faculties of art critique and analysis were lacking what would be good reading for improving those skills?

    Um... hmm. I would say the most important thing is to just... make stuff and learn through experience? But reading is always good.

    It's hard to suggest things when I don't know what you're writing about. Go-to texts like Understanding Media or The Culture Industry or Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction are good and can apply to many topics. But I might recommend just throwing the subject you want to talk about into JSTOR or Google Scholar and see what comes up! You'll probably find some interesting shit. One of the funnest things about making the Fury Road video was reading a ton of essays about action movies and feminist film theory while also watching just a crapload of pulpy movies. Pick something you love learning about and use the video as an excuse to dive into it, and just have fun.

  22. Do you want to keep playing till you have all five? The game is indeed fun, but I'm not impressed with its randomness (which supposedly is a staple of roguelike games?). I personally wouldn't rank this higher than other traditional metroidvania games like Iconoclast.

    in response to Did you ever manage to beat Dead Cells?

    I kind of hated 1 BSC. I could get to the point where I didn't use a single health flask until the final boss and still barely make a dent in him. 2 BSC at least has a fairly even difficulty curve, so I feel like I'm actually getting better. But I'm not hyped about how you have to play the game on the higher difficulty levels, or how your unlocks make you so powerful that playing on Normal isn't fun anymore. It's one thing to have to play completely differently with each stem cell, but not really being able to go back is crap. The slow, tactical, defensive game you play at higher difficulties is fine, but I miss how hack 'n' slashy it was earlier on.

    But, whatever, when I need a break from editing and want to do something with my hands while listening to a podcast, it gets the job done.

  24. Wait, can't or just don't you predict the future?

    I don't try, as I believe the future is what we make it

  25. Why do you think the "dead mom" trope is so common is Disney movies and children's entertainment in general?

    you've got the Grimm's Faerie Tales that so many are based on having this weird, judgy streak re: stepmothers, you've got stories starring young folks that don't work if there's a lot of parental supervision so it's best to kill off at least one parent, you've got the instant pathos of having a character lose a parent, and you've got cinema's general attitude that women are more disposable than men

    oh also women are too hard to animate so just have 'em die offscreen

  27. Favorite leafy green to eat raw vs to cook with

    baby spinach raw, lacinato kale cooked

    might bump the kale for rainbow chard if prepared correcty

  28. Any other Covilles, or just that one?

    in response to Any cool books, like ever

    The original three Magic Shop books are all great. Also the Nina Tanleven ghost stories. Some of his shorts in the "Book of..." series were solid. I don't remember much about Into the Land of the Unicorns except that it left me with a good feeling. Loved Aliens ate my Homework and the AI Gang trilogy but probably wouldn't be too hot on them now. Goblins in the Castle was a bit young for me even at the time, but it's still a hoot.

    I, uh... I read a lot of Bruce Coville.

  29. Having fun / Is hard / When you've got a library card that's useless because the library was closed for public health reasons

    (I say this with love, the library is also what I miss the most).

    in response to What are you missing most during the lockdown? 😄

    It's not useless! It still gets me into Kanopy and JSTOR!

  31. Did you ever manage to beat Dead Cells?

    define "beat"

    I have two BSC so far

  32. What's your feeling about Fight Club? How much of the toxic masculinity is meant to portrayed as ridiculous, and how much is genuinely argued for? In your reading of it, of course.

    an entertaining and well-made movie that made me fall in love with filmmaking when I was a teenager, obviously in thrall of what it purports to critique, if, indeed, the critique of toxic masculinity is intentional (having listened to three different audio commentaries in which no such thing is discussed I am unconvinced)

  33. Is it ok to be racist towards white folks?

    there's no such thing as racism against white folks

  34. What are you missing most during the lockdown? 😄

    (god I'm such a nerd)

    the library

  35. Thoughts on Salad Fingers?

    David Firth is subbed to my YouTube

  36. I am one of the people asking you and Campster the same questions.

    Does this bother you? I can stop if so.

    discovering that a question was not for me, but was instead copy-pasted to a bunch of different creators, is always kind of weird

  37. How has Dave Rubin "misused" his platform exactly?

    you must be new here

  38. Do you think it's weird how often fantasy games will be like "everything was peaceful UNTIL" when history indicates that more often things are like "Everyone in power just wanted to fuck things up." What makes this trope so common

    because real history is extremely complex

    like, there's a reason George RR Martin's attempt to do fantasy in ways that resemble historical dynasties is gonna take over 4,000 pages to do

  40. Any cool books, like ever

    Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

  41. What's a game you think you could actually speedrun right now

    Myst

  42. Are you wearing PJs right now

    You caught me during one of the rare hours where the answer is no.

  43. What's an underrated meme from way back that you want to see make a comeback?

    the answer is always luigi death stare

  44. Thoughts on The Social Network?

    There is a reason Aaron Sorkin's screenplay about Steve Jobs is called Steve Jobs: it's a movie about Steve Jobs. And there's a reason his movie about Mark Zuckerberg isn't named after Mark Zuckerberg or even Facebook itself, it's called The Social Network: because it's really about the *idea* of social networks.

    When Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker calls Facebook a "once in a generation holy shit idea," the movie *needs* you to be thinking about social networking as a concept, which Facebook is serving as a proxy for, rather than what actually made Facebook the leading social network: it gentrified MySpace. The big touted hook, the thing the movie claims sets Facebook apart, "exclusivity," is just a hook to get people to join. It's marketing. Your experience of Facebook is cleaner, slicker than MySpace, and geared more around interacting with people you know, but it's not fundamentally different. The only way Facebook could fully replace MySpace was by dropping exclusivity over time. The movie can't have the impact it's going for if that's what JT is referring to, so it glosses over the details; it doesn't *say* that Mark Zuckerberg was the first to fully realize social networking, it just lets you feel that way.

    That's as much of a *take* as I have on it.

    All in all, I'm a sucker for the Sorkin/Mamet/Whedon/Black school of ping-ponging dialogue. Not so into the way they brownfaced Andrew Garfield into a Brazilian and Max Minghella into an Indian. Sorkin's fixation with "geniuses" tells us pretty clearly what he thinks of himself, and also doesn't jive with my own view of history in which Great Men mostly take credit for the work of others. But it's probably the most compulsively watchable of his recent screenplays, and, even where I disagree with him, there's just more to think about in it.

  45. What if humans evolve to survive climate change?

    Evolution on that order takes tens if not hundreds of thousands of years. We've seen animals evolve on the behavioral level to adapt to humanity, but not a lot on the genetic level. Even intentionally bred animals like dogs are still genetically the same species as wolves.

    Climate change is moving too fast.

  46. When leftists say land back to the indigenous, what does that entail? I understand the historical justification for such a proposal, however is the private land owned by oil companies or other companies enough for this proposal, or will the proposal also involve moving non indigenous people? What happens to those non indigenous people then?

    I'm sure there are several proposals out there but there's no consensus that I'm aware of because we can't even get to the "meaningful discussion" stage.

  48. What is your best piece of advice?

    work with the brain you have, not the brain you wish you had

  49. What animal would be cutest if scaled down to the size of a cat?

    if you scale a guinea pig UP to the size of a cat you get a capybara and it's the perfect animal

  50. I feel like everyone is overreacting to the Biden ad, likely because the man's a trash boy made of garbage. Do you think it's xenophobic or racist? I personally don't see what they're talking about. To it seemed like even when it mentioned the "40,000 travelers" from China, many of whom were Americans returning home, it explicitly targeted Trump, and the Chinese government, not the Chinese people.

    I'm not sure how to explain to you how obviously racist that ad is

  52. Are you a competitive person? If so, do you trust people who don’t act competitively? If not, do you trust people who do?

    I usually only get competitive in environments where competitiveness is expected, like a video game or bake-off. If someone were super-competitive in other contexts, I might be wary of them, but I don't think "distrust" would be the right word.

  53. still not disputing the original questioners points.
    as for your video predictions, "elephant in the the room meaningful change will require reform on the part of platform holders" is a prediction and it is one of your most recent videos.
    I am beginning to think you just don't care.

    in response to not trying to be a jerk or anything, but, in your videos, you predict the future all the time. you also interpret the past without having experienced it and dictate the motives of entire movements and political parties. which is fine. it's your opinion. but your response to this seems a bit, "how dare you tell me how to think" ish, when, even if you cloak the discussion of not voting for Biden is about voting vs not voting and the ethics involved, you seem to be leaning heavily in that it is more ethical to vote for him. also, you didn't offer any counter argument to his deductions, which I think is what this questioner was looking for.

    that's not a prediction of what *will* happen, it's a statement of what would *need* to happen

  54. Why do you think Dave Rubin doesn't deserve a platform?

    "deserve" is a weird way to phrase it

    I think Dave Rubin has grievously misused his platform and should have it taken away

  55. Do you prefer dogs or cats?

    both are great, I prefer rodents

  56. For real, what's it like being on the giving end of a parasocial relationship and having a lot of talkative people who you don't know but who think they know you?

    I'm not sure how to describe it except "it's weird." When I get messages from people talking about suicidal ideation like a YouTuber you've never met is the right person to confide that in, I seriously don't know what to do. I'm in legitimately no position to help, and that expectation should never have been put on me, but the person wrote me in a very vulnerable place and not responding is going to make it worse. I feel like there's no correct way to grapple with it and I wish people would seek out people who can actually help them.

  57. Do you still watch competitive melee? Have any of your opinions changed since your 2015 video?

    I mostly stopped watching about a year ago, I'm afraid. Caught a couple of tournaments in 2019, but that was it. No changes in opinion, except I called Lord an up-and-comer which has proved extremely untrue. Biggest change to the meta was Hungrybox becoming the top player in the world and then Armada retiring from singles.

  58. What emoji do you use the most?

    😏

  59. Do you prefer coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

    hot chockies

  60. What word do you always misspell?

    I almost always time "every" when I mean to type "ever"

  61. IMO, the "leftists romanticizing having less" seem to be less of a thing leftists do to themselves (though I admit there is a kind of tendency for it), and more of a stereotype the right likes to project on the left with. Hence all the "if you support socialism then why are you using a phone/eating fast food/not living in the woods?" thought-terminating cliches that conservatives love to break out

    I mean, yeah, but I was speaking from personal experience and it's weird for you to dispute it?

  62. I was rewatching your video about Gabe and I'm finding it hard to agree that the Left offers hope when 99% of Leftist discourse is some variation of "haha I'm so depressed we're all gonna die also everything is terrible."

    kind of missing the point of that sentence...

  63. Does it feel like we're repeating a lot of 20th century history to you because there's a lot of fun coincidences

    "fun"

  64. Sucks that Eating and Breathing are the Same Hole though

    in response to Isn't it kind of weird how humans have two eyes?

    hey at least pooping and boinking aren't the same hole like with whales

  65. What do you think the ideal political system/government policies look like?

    dunno

  66. "when have I predicted the future?"

    https://twitter.com/InnuendoStudios/status/1247912543261274112

    in response to not trying to be a jerk or anything, but, in your videos, you predict the future all the time. you also interpret the past without having experienced it and dictate the motives of entire movements and political parties. which is fine. it's your opinion. but your response to this seems a bit, "how dare you tell me how to think" ish, when, even if you cloak the discussion of not voting for Biden is about voting vs not voting and the ethics involved, you seem to be leaning heavily in that it is more ethical to vote for him. also, you didn't offer any counter argument to his deductions, which I think is what this questioner was looking for.

    ignoring the "in my videos" which was the original statement and ignoring that the literal next tweet was that I could be wrong

    I'll take Bad Faith Answers for 400, Alex

  67. What's the correct number of monies

    one

  68. test

    did i pass

  70. not trying to be a jerk or anything, but, in your videos, you predict the future all the time. you also interpret the past without having experienced it and dictate the motives of entire movements and political parties. which is fine. it's your opinion. but your response to this seems a bit, "how dare you tell me how to think" ish, when, even if you cloak the discussion of not voting for Biden is about voting vs not voting and the ethics involved, you seem to be leaning heavily in that it is more ethical to vote for him.
    also, you didn't offer any counter argument to his deductions, which I think is what this questioner was looking for.

    in response to You say to vote for Biden because it will be worse with Trump. Which is true but that assumes Trump will step down if he loses. He won't. If there was a massive majority for the democratic nominee, maybe he would step down from intimidation but that would require a massive coalition of non democrats to vote, and with Bernie out that chance is gone. This will be along party lines which means the vote will be close and, if say Fox says Trump won while everyone else says he lost, Trump will dispute it. His followers will follow him and this will go badly. Which means the only chance for this to go correctly, even if Biden wins, is for Trump to step down gracefully, Fox news to show integrity, or Trump supporters to be as respectful of democracy as we were when we didn't dispute/overturn Trump or Bush's elections. And those should be obvious pipe dreams at this point. So, in regards to the Biden votes, I really think you are focusing on a battle when, now that Bernie is gone, we have lost the war. Please tell me if my logic is flawed......seriously. i am legitimately terrified of November now that we have just Biden.

    Tell me when I've predicted the future in my videos.

  72. I'm getting a little uncomfortable with the anti-media sentiment I continue to see growing on the left. On the one hand, it is undeniable that there is a anti-left bias in many outlets and the role they play with Sanders or Labour in Britain is pretty disastrous, I realize that. At the same time, a general trust in at least certain media sources seems absolutely vital to me, and the villanification of "the mainstream media" was a key point of Trump's ascent. Seeing very, very similar sentiments expressed on the left worries me, eventhough the criticisms individually are valid. What do?

    I don't know what to do, and it is, in part, the media's fault that we don't trust it, but, yes, a critical step towards authoritarianism is a blanket distrust in information sources. If you start broadly dismissing most news sources as "liberal" or "corporate," you tend to start only trusting stories that suit the narrative you believe in. It's probably better to do the hard work of fact-checking and correcting inaccuracies in media narratives, finding the proportions of truth and ideology in different sources, and sharing the accurate stories amongst each other.

  73. Isn't it kind of weird how humans have two eyes?

    stereopsis is quite useful

  74. But if you were a property owner, wouldn't your material interests cause you to become more conservative?

    I'm pretty sure having a million dollars in the first place would do that to me, inasmuch as it would happen at all.

    I'm wary of the mentality of "the only way to be progressive is to be broke." There's a fetishization of *lack* in some corners of the Left, where they accuse anyone who's had a modicum of financial success making lefty content of functionally being wealthy and chalk all disagreement up to them "selling out the working class."

    Part of leftism, to me, is stressing that *everyone* should have all they need, which seems incompatible with leftists romanticizing having less.

  75. What would your dream home look like?

    big ass treehouse

Anon commented:
Ian replied: