Yes. Most people don’t have the awareness of a lot of what’s been said in the comments or they suspend it in their daily lives. They do what they feel is right and since most were socialised in a similar way the signal-response expectations match. Then a certain rapport can be formed by the empty interactions borne out of the semi-conscious feeling that it’s “right” or “nice” to initiate a small talk and respond to it in kind. In this way indeed most of us are like 15 yo girls, just somewhat more serious and self-controlled.

If I were in a condescensing mood I’d say humans generally are bots following Pavlov’s reaction patterns imprinted during upbringing. But this would be a severe oversimplification and a little a-hole talking through me.

Oh I know, but I wanted to make sure no one has any grounds to accuse me of prophecies or something worse. Also the precise date doesn’t matter.

Eh, 2022-3 wars are just as horrifying, they just happen on a smaller scale. Look up what was going on in the Bucha town, what are living conditions in Gaza, how many people were forced to leave homes in African and Asian civil wars… The scale of minefields in Ukraine, etc.

The technology of loan risk assessment? Yes, it exists worldwide, all banks are doing it. But there is a wide chasm between

“when I show up asking for a loan bank will xray all my previous financial history and craft its offer from that” in Europe (at least my country) and

“credit score is a houshold term, people employ lifehacks to improve it and you’re screwed if it’s bad because half of everything runs on credit”.

back to the comments above: the management knows not the people who do the actual work. They can’t immediately tell if the Chris who left was carrying his team or was the worst slacker in the company. They’ll learn after they audit the remaining workforce and see The Spreadsheet say the people who remained are bottom performers (pun probably intended) but it’ll be too late - the talent is gone, the trust is broken. Whether different companies learn from each others’ mistakes is a mystery to me, apparently the global conspiracy of billionaire CEOs is not as robust as I expected (/s)

mask off

I see what you did here

Oh true, the mineral salts from supplements (and broader salts of necessary metals) should count! Thanks for a long answer!

Come to think of it the USA and the British Empire before them draw their power from controlling the oceans and ensuring international trade goes smoothly and brings them coins. If a certain someone starts shooting left and right at legitimate merchant ships it’s kinda a matter of credibility to show up for “the maritime power”.

Two things: geography and popular support.

Most of Germany is a massive plain with super-dense settlement network. There is nowhere to hide for a partisan group and by 20th century it’s not possible for local chieftains to hold sovereign power as it’s easy to just move towns/regions. Nazis had no way to hide their potential guerilla operations, no way to rely on sympathetic locals in select places. Afghanistan is sparsely populated, with local communities, which sometimes can be isolated from each other due to terrain and distances. The entire country is mountains which have hardly ever been surveyed and are inhospitable to anyone not born there (and even then it’s just too easy to hide).

Yes, millions of Germans supported the Nazi party. But millions more were quietly against it or were “not interested in politics”. After WW2 the Nazi party was soundly beaten and the non-commited/antinazi Germans could build a civil society - in a land which had centuries of civic traditions. Whereas the Taliban have more commited supporters and weaponise the religion which already is very influential in any individual’s life in a land dominated by patriarchal clan social structures.

Knuth’s arrow shows up in… Magic the Gathering. There’s a challenge of “how much damage can you deal with just 3 cards and without infinitely repeating loops?”. Turns out that stacking doubler effects can get us really high. https://www.polygon.com/23589224/magic-phyrexia-all-will-be-one-best-combo-attacks-tokens-vindicator-mondrak

I like Stand-up Maths, usually starts with a real-life situation and escalates into proper math, sometimes also programming shows up.